2024-03-17: The Great Equalizer
- Log: The Great Equalizer
- Cast: Lily Keil, Ruth Pauling, Josephine Lovelace, Luna Meitner
- Where: Plains of the Goddess
- Date: March 17, 2024
- Summary: Long have the Myrkyllinen Depths been a place of mystery and danger. Lily, with allies, decides to press on into the depths, that she might find what the Depths conceal.
DG: A party led by Lily Keil is now entering Myrkyllinen Depths. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Guevo Upas *>==========================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
There are some places in the world where one could stumble into them,
unaware of what dangers lurk within their walls. There are places, too, that
are deceptive regarding the threats that await within. This is, suffice to
say, not even the least bit the case with the Myrkyllinen Depths, a place so
toxic that the stories say even Malevolence isn't present within the caves.
The flora begins to attenuate and outright cease to exist the closer you get
to the entrance to the caverns. If anything lives within, you're not seeing
any signs of them around. The land here looks dead, a fact only made the
stronger for the plumes of greenish fumes that come hissing out the cave
entrance.
Yeah. If you're dead set on going inside, you're going to have to tough it
out enough to just get past the threshold. Can you hold your breath a while?
Maybe holding your breath might help.
(probably not, though)
BGM: Guilhem Desq - Le château magique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soP-VolZi0A
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up! and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
A goodly adventurer might hear of Myrkillinen and wish to test herself. ...But for Lily, she has something else in mind; a place so deadly, so filled with poison, might hold new secrets in the art of killing things that are hard to kill.
Poison has long been an equalizer in the worlds. Why not investigate?
...Besides; she also needs to test some spells that let her get by in the face of toxic and otherwise inhospitable environments. She has assembled a strong group; Josie's guile, Ruth's sheer force, and her own versatility should serve them well.
Even if they turn out not to be alone.
But here and now, Lily stands at the cave entrnace. "Do you feel any Malevolence?" she asks Ruth. Then, to Josie, "...Hm."
She steps forward, through the flora that starts to cease to be. There's no signs of anything living, but there are the poison clouds...
"Well, nothing for it."
She lifts a hand to focus--and a dark aura appears around the three of them. It might be enough to hold the poison back at least a little.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Guevo Upas.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth is a veteran of the Celesti Civil War. The sorts of things that both warring powers were hurling about the landscape would make it difficult for anyone to trust oxygen to not kill them - she's prepared accordingly with a gas mask from ARMS stock. Besides... she's one of the few powerful Hellions aligned with the Drifter community able to exert her influence over at least some of the ones that roam Lunar. (She was instrumental, for a while, in helping secure safer consistent routes in and out of Azado for this reason.)
"No. I don't," Ruth says as she follows Lily from not far behind. "It's like there's no one here."
In her gloved hands is a Crest Graph with both Muse and Fray, which she activates with an incantation to help create a pleasant mist to push back the gas some. She's not sure she has the strength to manage this for their entire expedition, presuming that they all go deep enough that 'entire' encompasses more than a few minutes before the poison gets them.
Other than that, she holds herself.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, Guevo Upas. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Well, here's a pretty mess," Josie remarks, a hand on her hip as she regards the roiling fumes ahead of them. "You sure you're wantin' to do this, Rose-of-Sharon?"
She's not a native of Lunar but she is well-traveled, even for those who have walked across three worlds. When she roamed this land, the rumors of a cave full of poison were something she'd certainly heard about--
And immediately discarded, as things go, because dying in a cave full of poison had absolutely not been a part of her plans at the time. And it still isn't, thank you for asking!
But Lily had asked.
And Josie has more than her share of reasons to have listened to that request and not turned it down.
She glances over at Ruth, who says that there's not even any Malevolence here. "...Makes sense, if'n you think about it, yeah? Malevolence's part of the human condition as it were..."
The fumes continue to roil.
"There sure ain't humans in here, right."
Speaking of the sources of those fumes, if this is the threshold they have to cross, then maybe there's something she can do to make that passage less troubling--
even if that amounts to just a clearer way forward for Penelope who appears to be having her own regrets about attending. Drawing out that mattock, Josie swings for one of the smaller apparent ventholes. ...Of course, given that the whole entrance itself is a venthole, this might not do a lot...
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Guevo Upas. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Luna Meitner has posed.
Lily invited Josie and Ruth along on this outing, as two stalwart allies with their own skills to offer in a trek to such a remote and dangerous location. There is seemingly little that can survive such an environment; certainly not the vegetation, which is already dying off by the time one begins to approach the cave. Josie comments that there sure aren't any humans in the cave.
But there is an elf.
Ahead of them, implausibly, is a girl who has preceded them into the cave, even if only just. She seems young, far too young to be in a place like this. Red tunic, leather leggings, dark red braided hair, and a plain, simple spear in hand. Ruth might have an inkling of who this is, having witnessed this girl before on several occasions.
But she pauses, and looks back to the others, her eyes scanning each of them quickly. She is wearing a simple cloth mask covering the lower half of her face, just her nose and mouth, inscribed with some sigils and markings of warding.
She looks oddly comfortable in a mask, for some reason.
But as soon as she takes the measure of all of those following behind her, she turns and proceeds deeper into the caves, without even a wave or a nod of acknowledgment.
DG: Luna Meitner has contributed a risky Brute Action toward her party's challenge, Guevo Upas.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Guevo Upas *>==========================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
There are some places in the world where one could stumble into them,
unaware of what dangers lurk within their walls. There are places, too, that
are deceptive regarding the threats that await within. This is, suffice to
say, not even the least bit the case with the Myrkyllinen Depths, a place so
toxic that the stories say even Malevolence isn't present within the caves.
The flora begins to attenuate and outright cease to exist the closer you get
to the entrance to the caverns. If anything lives within, you're not seeing
any signs of them around. The land here looks dead, a fact only made the
stronger for the plumes of greenish fumes that come hissing out the cave
entrance.
Yeah. If you're dead set on going inside, you're going to have to tough it
out enough to just get past the threshold. Can you hold your breath a while?
Maybe holding your breath might help.
(probably not, though)
BGM: Guilhem Desq - Le château magique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soP-VolZi0A
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===================< Results - Myrkyllinen Depths - Round 1 >===================
===========================< CHALLENGE - Guevo Upas >===========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil 0 --(10)--> 10 Good
Force Bsc Brute Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace 0 --(22)--> 22 Bad
Well-Used Mattock Min Brute Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling 0 --(22)--> 22 Bad
Mistcrest Min Brute Effects: Cleanse and
Sacrifice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luna Meitner 0 --(30)--> 30 Bad
Force Bsc Brute Effects: Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Lily Keil 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass
Conditions: Overwhelm and Weaken(2)
Effects: Cleanse and Strengthen(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Lily Keil has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Odd..." Lily says, given how Malevolence in Lunar is so common, "But I guess it makes sense." She nods to Josie's explanation. But that's the other reason Lily invited Ruth--not just for Malevolence, but...
She's probably more of an expert on chemical weaponry like this than most.
Still, they head inside. Josie's mattock makes some places for the miasma to go, and Ruth's Crest-based mist pushes the miasma in that direction, but the two of them have to exert more energy than they'd planned in the doing. Luna, too, finds that the poison is troublesome...
But Lily, the slowest, benefits from all the approaches the others have taken. She enhances Ruth's Mist, what remains of it, and that Mist clears the poison from the rest of them.
"...Huh," Lily says. "Didn't expect to see someone else in here," she admits.
She's unfriendly, but Lily isn't very friendly, either,, so that's fine with her.
DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Death Cap *>===========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Here and there through the Depths, you will find a plethora of glowing
fungus on the walls. This is largely a boon, for it provides light in a
place well-devoid of it by nature otherwise. At times, of course, the fungus
can be an obstacle.
And at times, it can be outright hazardous to your health. There is a large
glowing fungus ahead that might well have otherwise been ignorable, except
for the fact that when you near it, it moves.
Tendrils erupt from the rock below. This is a problem!
But is that a gap in the rock behind it? If you should fell the main
fruiting body, the passage will be clear (not to mention, you'll no longer
be in mortal peril).
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
"There's someone there," Ruth is able to call as her eyes finally catch the color and shape of Luna. Her eyes are still keen, but the poison itself helps obscure a lot. She takes off at a brisk pace despite the cumbersome weight of her outfit.
Greater visual clarity is bestowed upon the cavern walls through bioluminescent fungus lining it, casting its bluish-green light along the way and further accentuating the poisonous mists. It remains muggy and humid here, but there is the fringe benefit of the most concentrated of the poison staying at around waist level.
Occasionally, the fungus knots up and needs to be cut or cast aside - something that the individual among them may or may not have already done (and/or deftly just parkour'd around them, it's up to them).
Things fan out into a larger cavernous space, where a very large glowing fungus feels like it's something of an aesthetic centerpiece for the environs, as Ruth draws behind Luna.
"Luna." That's Ruth's voice, almost stern (accentuated by the breathing noises of her mask). "What are you doing here?"
The ground rumbles subtly. A weak earthquake? This would be a bad place *and* time for a seismic event.
Tendrils blast out of the ground and walls - there's at least eight of them - as the large bulbous fungal mass writhes and rises. It may be making noise, but it's difficult to say if it's a voice or if it's just the reverberating echoes of displaced stone while tendrils lash.
Malevolence wreathes up Ruth's arm as she draws her weapon, fortifying her bad shoulder with strength it no longer has - and just in time, too, as the tendrils wrap around that rifle. Were this a normal situation where physics apply, they would not be staying in her hands.
Regrettably, there does not seem to be a force all creation that can get her to let it go, a bestial hissing escaping her as she starts swinging, terminating in her trying to line up a shot and discharge it into the mass.
Her concealed form holds, if only just so.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Gae Buidhe/Dearg DC4 toward her party's challenge, Death Cap. Rally! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Luna Meitner has posed.
By the time Luna catches up to Luna she has taken a moment to stop and rest, leaning on her staff for support. She is fine, she would insist... but did not take the time to properly acclimate herself to having much less pure oxygen to breath. There is a faint turn of her head as Ruth appears behind her and speaks her name.
Luna might smile or frown under her mask, it's impossible to know. (Plus she's looking away, regardless.) But there is a short, wry chuckle, as if she finds Ruth's question amusing. "I could ask you the same question."
She leans harder on the staff as the ground trembles, frowning softly. By the time the tremors shake she is standing upright, spear held in an attack-ready position, behind her back.. She charges forward as the tendrils burst from the ground, attempting to weave through them with short flicks of her spear ahead of her, before leaping upwards (she somehow jumps higher than one might expect someone her age, or any normal person to, but yet also expertly avoids hitting the roof of the cavern), then drives her spear downwards with both hands to plunge it into the fungus.
DG: Luna Meitner has used her Tool Perfectly Ordinary Spear toward her party's challenge, Death Cap.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A small gap in the cloud of fumes is created! Penelope, perhaps sensing the air of the moment (and finding a cleaner patch of air, for that matter) sails ahead into the depths!
...The same is not the case for Josie who finds that, actually, going into the cave kind of sucks! "Tiger--"
This is punctuated by some furious coughing. At least it's not dark in here, but that's rather a bit besides the point with all the poison, huh.
"--Hope you're right 'bout your,"
But even for Josie, the sight of another person cuts short whatever remark she'd been about to say.
"Huh. We'll I'll be a monkey's auntie," she says, squinting through the haze. "What're the odds, even?"
Still, even if the lady's not the friendliest sort, neither is she outright hostile. And if that should change, well.
Well, wouldn't be the first or anything.
Besides, as they make their advance, it would seem that Ruth knows this young lady. "Well, ain't this a," Josie starts to say, glancing back over her shoulder at the two of them.
And again, something happens to cut off Josie in her entirity.
"What's this--"
Her gaze slowly tracks upwards. Her mouth twists slowly into a grimace of distaste.
"Shoulda figured, eh? All this glowing shit ain't just happenin' for our benefit--" Uncapping a particular well-used flask, she takes a quick nip of something.
She's never been fond of fungus, even when it's not hostile.
"Look lively, now!"
Overhand, she hurls lightning at it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Death Cap. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I'm usually right about my spells," Lily offers Josie. That may not be very comforting. But: There is someone there. But Ruth is fast, despite.... everything. At least they can see down here; Lily gconsiders the strange lights, and walks along despite the humidity. It's uncomfortable, but her thick clothes help keep the toxic compounnds away from her skin, at least.
Where needed, she uses a knife rather than magic to cut the fungus. But eventually, as they catch up--
Luna. "You know her," Lily says. It's not a question. "Should we trust her?"
Lily isn't that trusting, but if Ruth says she's not a danger, she'll at least focus on the dangers that are bigger dangers.
Like the tendrils that blast out of the ground. "Shit." Lily watches the fungal mass rise--
"So it isn't," Lily agrees with Josie, and considers--
Dog lets out a bone-curdling howl, apparently fine despite the poison, and a forceful aura settles about the party.
Lily attempts to disintegrate a tentacle.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Dog toward her party's challenge, Death Cap. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Death Cap *>===========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Here and there through the Depths, you will find a plethora of glowing
fungus on the walls. This is largely a boon, for it provides light in a
place well-devoid of it by nature otherwise. At times, of course, the fungus
can be an obstacle.
And at times, it can be outright hazardous to your health. There is a large
glowing fungus ahead that might well have otherwise been ignorable, except
for the fact that when you near it, it moves.
Tendrils erupt from the rock below. This is a problem!
But is that a gap in the rock behind it? If you should fell the main
fruiting body, the passage will be clear (not to mention, you'll no longer
be in mortal peril).
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===================< Results - Myrkyllinen Depths - Round 2 >===================
===========================< CHALLENGE - Death Cap >============================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil 10 --(5)--> 15 Good
Dog Min Combat Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace 22 --(5)--> 27 Good
Liquid Courage Maj Combat Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling 22 --(5)--> 27 Best
Gae Buidhe/Dearg DC4 Maj Combat Effects: Efficient,
Rally, and Liability
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luna Meitner 30 --(5)--> 35 Good
Perfectly Ordinary Spear Maj Combat Effects: Efficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Lily Keil 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass
Conditions: Secret(2), Weaken(1), and Wound(2)
Effects: Embolden(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Lily Keil has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It's a storm of frantic violence, all in all, as who could be the first handful of mortal souls (or mortal-adjacent) to challenge these depths intrudes upon these poisonous environs hold back very, very little.
Lightning explodes from the point of impact, coursing through tendrils and causing them to burst open in-- well, it's not caustic. It's not caustic and it doesn't stain. Two of those tendrils are gone just like that, and that's great.
Dog's bone-curdling howl reveals that the creature does seem to navigate by sound or seismic vibrations, as that howl has enough behind it to make some things rattle, as Lily just up and disintegrates two of the tendrils - her power is as such it can't be contained to just one.
Luna's use of her spear is skillful and the most stand-out, diving past - no, through! - two tendrils before lining it up and striking at the big mass in the center.
Ruth's share with the last two is such she doesn't cleave them off so much as wield her (in focused contexts and circumstances, rather than universally so much) unnatural, reality-defying strength that she comes shy of just uprooting the central fungal mass, allowing Luna's spear to pierce that much deeper. A sound reverberates as it pops open like a bulb, releasing bright, shining spores that follow and flit about the caverns as other passageways become more illuminated in their wake.
Ruth's eyes close as she tries to calm herself, right hand over her chest. Mourning the fell fungal creature helps drain that mounting rancor gnawing at her mind, eyes opening slowly but not looking to Luna.
"When you're young... you feel invincible. Like nothing can stop you. Nothing can take anything away from you." That's to Luna. "When you become too strong..."
She never really finishes the thought, as she rises up. Her Malevolence ambient seems to disappear - not in the sense of 'she's pulled it back in herself' but more like 'it was never there.' Something about this environment just doesn't let it be here.
"She's capable," she says of Luna, to Josie and Lily, "even if she's young."
With that, there's multiple ways ahead, and that released cloud of light-spores stands to aid their expedition.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Aconite *>============================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Passage through the corridors of the Myrkyllinen Depths may well be slow at
times for your group due to the ever present threat of poison, but it rarely
is outright stalled. This present moment may well be an exception: the path
ahead is largely blocked with fallen rubble and unless you are very small
and very flexible, you won't be making your way through.
Yet, this is no great barrier of rock: air is flowing from the other side,
and what's more, you can faintly see light through the cracks. It should be
a simple matter of moving the rock.
There's just one complication: even the walls of this place are coated with
the poison that seems to exude from deeper within. Touching the walls is
definitely going to be hazardous to your health. And you're going to have to
touch them in some regard if you're going to get through.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, |
| and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Usually," Josie agrees, her smile not only lopsided but tight at the eyes. "How're you and the kids getting on lately, like?" she asks, as if this were either the time or the place for such a question.
(it sure isn't, but that's never stopped Josie before, has it?)
"Well now," she says to Lily, on the matter of Luna. "You asked me along, yeah?"
Besides, in Josie's estimation, even if the girl tries something, she's got a literal loaded ARM on her. So she ate'nt worried, as it were.
Besides, there's enough down here to be worried about as it were. Case in point, that absolutely disgusting fungal mass that... they...
collectively annihilate. Glowing spores float in the air, all that's left of the destroyed fruiting body. From what Josie knows about mushroom lifecycles, that'll be the source of next generation, which is... great news for someone, probably.
Her gaze drifts towards Ruth. "Skilled, eh? Well, the more, the merrier." Skilled is not the same thing as trustworthy, but... "Try not to breathe too deep, eh?" she quips to the others, walking on ahead through the glowing fog towards the passageway the fungus had blocked before. Perhaps it leads somewhere useful. Certainly, it won't be a path that anyone's traveled down in some time.
And it doesn't seem to be.
Especially when it comes to a dead end.
"Don't this beat all," Josie remarks, looking hither and yon. Are they going to have to turn around? That's not a gentle suggestion in a place like this: she's already starting to feel a little unwell. A breath of fresh air wouldn't go unmissed, though the odds of them finding that down here are... not good, if she's being honest.
But speaking of 'air'... did she just feel the air move? Something is flowing down here, though it's certainly not fresh. "Wait a titch. This ain't a solid wall," she says after regarding that wall a moment longer. "C'mon. Break on through?" she offers, though she's already pulled out her mattock with her left hand.
There's something resinous congealed on the rocks, though. It stands to reason it's nothing good in a place like that. But what's a girl to do when the walls say 'break me to proceed' even if they're covered in a toxic substance?
"Last one in's a rotten egg!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Aconite. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Luna Meitner has posed.
Luna's spear strikes home, into the heart of the fungus, and she pulls it out and takes a short hop back to distance herself from the spores that are starting to flit about the room. She takes the briefest of moments to wipe her blade clean, and then slips the spear onto her back.
Ruth has some words for her, and she looks towards the Hellion with a flat, stoic stare. Those who are young... "... You do not know me." It is a simple, flat statement. But to be fair to Ruth... Luna is not very talkative.
Nor is she the type to admit, openly, of what losses she has suffered. But they do exist.
There is a look to Lily, the woman asks if Luna can be trusted. "I am not here to attack you. Merely to investigate the caves." She says investigate, but really, the reason she is here (and the answer to Ruth's earlier question) is simply that 'it is hostile and she wanted to test herself against it.'
A glance for Josie, next. "... You are in high spirits." There is not much of an explicitly disapporoving tone, but... nore is there much joviality in that flat observation.
"Luna Meitner," is all she says to introduce herself with.
She may have set out alone but she doesn't seem to protest at the thought of keeping some company as they delve deeper into the cave. The walls may be toxic, but she is actually fairly covered up between her tunic, armor, and gloves. She pauses as they reach the dead end, looking around.
Out comes the spear again, and she jams the long end into any crack she can find, searching for leverage to help shift things along. Hopefully without shifting it onto the rest of them.
"I could do with less rotten smells," she comments, in reply to Josie's assertion about rotten eggs.
DG: Luna Meitner has contributed a risky Brute Action toward her party's challenge, Aconite.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Fine," Lily says of 'getting along'. "We've been spending a lot of time on Nede. Not so much here on Lunar. I've been trying to pick up a trail, in Ignas..."
Pause. Trust, from Josie. Lily is quiet for an extra moment. "...Fair enough."
So, not necessarily to be 'trusted', but capable. That will do for now. Lily nods. "That's true," she says. "You do feel that way..." She trails off, and looks into the distance for a moment. "Until you don't."
Lily doesn't breathe that deep. Neither does Dog, as they go along. Until they reach a dead end, and...
Ah. The air is something Lily can't do much about; she can destroy poison, but she can't conjure clean air. It's beginning to be an issue...
"I think 'rotten eggs' are already the problem here," Lily comments.
Then she starts forward, and extends a hand. From her hand emits a beam of purest darkness, shadows swirling around it as she moves to simply unmake rocks in her path.
"I don't know you either," Lily agrees with Luna. "You have skills. How you choose to use them is something I don't know yet, either."
Dog barks once.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Aconite.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth trails along, occasionally looking over to Dog and up to Penelope while she steadies her breathing. Combat highs oft lead to crushing lows, for her, and managing those dips is important when one's life is set by the nature of Hellionization to sort of just keep going.
She's silent at the weight of Luna's flat, simple declaration of how she isn't known. Under the mask, a smile. It's not a gentle smile.
She might not be able to give the freshest of fresh air, but she can get out that Crest Graph - the same one seen in the beginning - to try and give the group a bit more breathing space with more pleasant air by that refreshing mist while more than one of their number may need to physically exert themselves and risk contact with something that shouldn't ever be touched.
"No egg stays fresh," she says as she channels what capability she has through the discipline of Crest Sorcery to produce as much mist as she can.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, Aconite. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Aconite *>============================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Passage through the corridors of the Myrkyllinen Depths may well be slow at
times for your group due to the ever present threat of poison, but it rarely
is outright stalled. This present moment may well be an exception: the path
ahead is largely blocked with fallen rubble and unless you are very small
and very flexible, you won't be making your way through.
Yet, this is no great barrier of rock: air is flowing from the other side,
and what's more, you can faintly see light through the cracks. It should be
a simple matter of moving the rock.
There's just one complication: even the walls of this place are coated with
the poison that seems to exude from deeper within. Touching the walls is
definitely going to be hazardous to your health. And you're going to have to
touch them in some regard if you're going to get through.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===================< Results - Myrkyllinen Depths - Round 3 >===================
============================< CHALLENGE - Aconite >=============================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil 15 --(10)--> 25 Best
Force Bsc Brute Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace 27 --(10)--> 37 Best
Well-Used Mattock Min Brute Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling 27 --(10)--> 37 Good
Mistcrest Min Brute Effects: Cleanse and
Sacrifice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Luna Meitner 35 --(10)--> 45 Good
Force Bsc Brute Effects: Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Lily Keil 40 --(30)--> 70 Pass
Conditions: Bad Luck(2), Secret(1), and Wound(1)
Effects: Cleanse and Strengthen(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Lily Keil has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"So that's the way of it, eh... Well, give 'em my best and all, yeah?"
There are reasons why she's opted to keep them at arms' length, and they may have a lot to do with the reply she tenders Lily, however she may comport herself in the meanwhile. Given her own past, perhaps the least terrible thing that Josie could do is extend a little grace towards others.
She at least has sense to look chagrined as her gaze meets Lily's own.
Considering that she's quite a ways deep into a poisonous cave (full of poison), Josie certainly is the chipper one, as Luna points out. "Better'n the reverse," she quips, flashing the younger girl a lopsided grin.
And indeed, despite her clear misgivings, she's approaching the warrens the same way she approaches everything else in her life: with vigor, even knowing that this could well be the end of her.
Could, yes. But if nothing else, Josie has faith that the lot of them can see this one through: it might be its own special sort of hell, but neither is it the worst fix she's been in.
Or the rest of them, for that matter.
"Ha! Likewise," she answers Lily and Luna in the wake of her own swing for the wall, as they comment that it's not as if this place is a bed of roses in the first place. "All the more reason not to hang 'round here, eh?" A fluttering of wings follows and Penelope -- who had dutifully made herself scarce following the mushroom encounter -- makes her own reappearance and settles on Josie's shoulder. "Ah, there you are," she tells her bird.
"...Heh. So let's get on with it 'fore we're all rotten," she tells Ruth, a well-meaning twinkle in her eyes.
That spear wedges into the crack that Josie had broken into the wall. It's followed by magic: Ether and Crest Sorcery. Darkness and mist.
Rock by rock, the remainder of the wall that had stood there is eaten away, poisonous resin and all.
What remains is the dimly lit path ahead and downwards, deeper into the Depths.
"I've got a good feelin' 'bout this," Josie says, moving onwards.
DG: Luna Meitner has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Halahala *>===========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The progression to the bottom of the Myrkyllinen Depths has proven a hard,
tiring one, but at long last you have made your way to what would appear to
be the very bottom.
Before you stretches out a lake of a still and silvery liquid. It seems...
unclean in the light. Might this be the source of the poison that pulses
through the veins of the caves above? Something in the distance, perhaps in
the middle of the lake or on its farthest shore, shines with a shimmering
white light. It looks out of place for the Depths through which you have
passed.
There is on this end a flat-bottomed boat, nearly a raft, resting on the
shore. It is riddled with holes and looks barely water-ready. But the boat's
condition is not the only hazard you face: to matters worse, the fumes of
this place don't merely sicken the body but the mind as well.
Will you be able to distinguish reality and illusion long enough to reach
that white light?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Luna Meitner has posed.
Luna is seemingly focused on her task--but she does pause a moment, to watch Lily's magic with clear interest. She watches, for a few moments, before returning to her work.
"That is an interesting invocation of Shadow," she comments quietly. Why should she care, for someone who has seemingly never used any magic herself?
For someone so young and yet so self-sufficient... it may be little wonder that Luna resists Ruth's overtures time and again...
But she's not necessarily wrong to make them.
Better than the reverse... Luna arches an eyebrow at Josie. "Hmm." But all the more reason not to linger longer than necessary. Luna nods to that and gives a simple, "Agreed."
There is a curious look given to Penelope as she reappears, and another one given to Dog, as well. She is scrutinizing the two animals. She might want to comment on it but... she chooses not to, for the moment.
Piece by piece they make swift work of the wall, and then continue down, down, down into the depths. Down, down, down, they go, until they enter a large underground chasm. Patches of glowing fungi far overhead provide an almost constellation-like illumination to the room.
One might hope that, in such a large space, that the noxious fumes would have more room to become diffuse, or that, should they prove to be less dense than air, that they would rise to the high ceiling and leave some fresh oxygen at ground level.
No such luck.
It is everywhere, here, and there is no reprieve from it. Luna looks on at the large, still, silver lake, with something glowing in the center of it. She picks up a rock and dips it into the 'water' to see it come back out coated in silver. Which immediately starts to sublimate into more of a noxious cloud.
"It is reacting with the rock," she observes quietly. "It may be the source..." She gently sets the rock down and moves to inspect the boat next. "And we are not the first to make it here," she comments as she examines the boat.
She was crouched down to examine the boat. But as she is doing so she wobbles for a moment, and then falls backwards onto the ground, clutching her head in both hands. (This might be unwise--she is wearing gloves, but her face is not completely covered.) She's in some kind of distress, her breathing labored, her eyes shut.
"... No, no you do not..." she mutters to herself. "... I will not fail you, Father..." She grits her teeth and slowly forces her eyes open, but it seems like a Herculean effort. With a soft, growling edge to her voice that might, honestly, be the most emotion she's displayed in front of Ruth yet, she scowls out, "But you are not here, and I am doing everything you wanted of me."
With more effort she gets to her feet, turns away from the boat, and staggers a safe distance away. She finds a glowing fungus and plucks it, then takes out mortar and pestle from her side pouches. She slices the fungus open and extracts the spores, dumping them into the mortar. A vial with a thick red liquid is poured in after it, along with a few flower petals. A dab of water from a canteen and she quickly works to mash everything up, leaving a thin black liquid in its place. Taking a deep breath, she lifts up her mask to down a sip of it directly from the mortar, then pulls her mask back down.
She lifts it up to offer to the others. "It may blunt the worst of the effects," she says, her voice struggling to return to its normal monotone. "... but it may not last long, with the poison this thick. We had best act quickly."
DG: Luna Meitner has used her Tool Survivalist Toolkit toward her party's challenge, Halahala. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...All right."
Lily is a little uncomfortable as go-between there, mostly because of how much is left unsaid. But she isn't going to speak up yet, either. She sees that chagrined look, but...
Today won't be the day, if there is such a day.
But Luna can see; Lily's magic is not completely dissimilar to a Gerudo's. It's not the same--but it is similar.
"For me, darkness and the manipulation of space-time are similar," Lily answrs.
Dog looks up at Luna, staring at her for a few moments. She doesn't bark at her this time.
But down, down, into the depths...
Not the first to make it here... "Not surprised. Lunar's been around a while."
'Father', she mutters. Lily's hearing is very good. She glances at her, once--but says nothing about it.
She knows something of fathers.
he knows something of compounding, too. She considers. Luna used it for herself, but....
She looks aroundd. "This liquid could be the source. But.." A pause. Dog barks once. "You're right," she says to Dog. "It's affecting our minds. What I 'see' isn't the same as what I can detect..."
She then says, "Hygd." A pause, and a feminine voie replies, "Dr. Wyatt. How can I help you today?"
"Give me the dimensions of the boat ahead of us, and the temperature of the room."
"Working..."
Lily uses her new information to coat the bottom of the raft in jagged ice. It wouldn't be comfortable to step on barefoot, but it covers holes, and its rough surfface shouldn't be... too slippery.
"Onward."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool AI Hygd toward her party's challenge, Halahala. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Luna regards Penelope with care. But much as when one gazes into the abyss, the abyss gazes back, well--
Penelope regards Luna with a particular, careful intensity. Almost, one might be mistaken for assuming real intent behind that beady black bird's eyes. And yet...
Still, they proceed as a group, deeper, deeper, into the Depths. Fungus threads the walls and lights their way. And still the fumes rise, threatening to choke out life itself. One might be forgiven for thinking that any step might be one's last: that whatever awaited at the bottom would spell the end. Still, in time, the haze parts and they find themselves on the shores of a great underground lake. But is that water...?
"Reminds me of quicksilver," Josie remarks, frowning. Not only is she a magus's daughter, but she is an accomplished ARMs Meister: she's well acquainted with the metal and its properties...
And toxicity.
"Well, here's a pretty mess," she says, squatting alongside the raft. "Seems like we'd want across that lake, but this little bastard ain't seaworthy." Pause. "Lakeworthy. Poisonworthy," she appends, and rises to her feet. "Hey, Rose-of-Sharon. You got any ideas? What 'bout you, Ruthless? Kiddo?" Her gaze falls on each in turn, as if searching for a good answer to their conundrum. But instead, Josie grimaces and raises a hand to her temple.
"Hey, now... I don't feel half pleasant, like," she says, squinting her left eye halfway shut. "Something in the air, maybe? Hold on a moment--"
Penelope, beating her wings, takes off to land on the far side of the partially repaired raft. Slowly, it begins to slide into the lake. If they want to use it to cross, they might need to climb aboard before it sets itself adrift and floats across...!
Josie, in any event, isn't wasting any time.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Penelope toward her party's challenge, Halahala.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Down, down, down, further they go. She's following Josie's good feeling about it, and if she were aware of the cavern's length, she'd agree with her - the unexpected additional light sources and this apparent shortcut through have been nothing but a boon.
They come to the silvery lake with that piercing glow that tantalizes the eye, and the noxious vapors that seem to rise from it. Her gaze lowers as Luna approaches it, makes her observances, and starts to look to the boat when...
That monstrous scent of distress that Ruth is so keenly attuned to. She runs that length with almost predatory opportunism, coming down to a kneel behind her. Even with her own face protected...
It's hard, to blot it out, when so many things around her bear a likeness to some emotional, foundational memory tugging at the gnawing impulses that empower and drive her.
"Luna," Ruth says her name softly as the youngest among them gets about to drink some sort of concoction in which to steady herself. Some of the phantoms of days past intensify. To look upon the lake and see certain figures, to have the echoes of voices be repeated words from those gone but yet have never left...
Ruth can feel the tension in her right forearm by the taut Granasian rosary that yet remains there. Her breathing shallows. For years, now, and she imagines it's the same as any other of her kind, it's always a fight to establish yourself as Yourself.
Josie calling to her might be the thing that holds her in place - the idea that someone like who she was (and still is, and always will be) has a place anywhere near... anyone.
"Your Father's not here," Ruth says to Luna, something the young woman has already acknowledged. "I couldn't live up to what my own Father wanted of me."
They can't see the awful, bitter smile on her face.
"What do you want for yourself?" She asks, as she wades forward, and she has to pick up the pace before long because not only did Lily just give a certain fix to the raft that might let it go places, Penelope is making it go places, and... well.
Ruth doesn't quite feel like giving into the urge to just go sulk somewhere by herself underneath the endless pounding rain yet.
DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Halahala.
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Halahala *>===========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The progression to the bottom of the Myrkyllinen Depths has proven a hard,
tiring one, but at long last you have made your way to what would appear to
be the very bottom.
Before you stretches out a lake of a still and silvery liquid. It seems...
unclean in the light. Might this be the source of the poison that pulses
through the veins of the caves above? Something in the distance, perhaps in
the middle of the lake or on its farthest shore, shines with a shimmering
white light. It looks out of place for the Depths through which you have
passed.
There is on this end a flat-bottomed boat, nearly a raft, resting on the
shore. It is riddled with holes and looks barely water-ready. But the boat's
condition is not the only hazard you face: to matters worse, the fumes of
this place don't merely sicken the body but the mind as well.
Will you be able to distinguish reality and illusion long enough to reach
that white light?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================ ===================< Results - Myrkyllinen Depths - Round 4 >=================== ============================< CHALLENGE - Halahala >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 25 --(5)--> 30 Good AI Hygd Min Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 37 --(5)--> 42 Best Penelope Maj Wits Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 37 --(17)--> 54 Worst Investigate Bsc Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna Meitner 45 --(5)--> 50 Best Survivalist Toolkit Min Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Lily Keil 70 --(35)--> 105 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) and Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Lily Keil has successfully explored Myrkyllinen Depths!
============================<* Myrkyllinen Depths *>============================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Alicorn *>============================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You reach it at last -- the place you had sighted from the shore. Here in
the midst of the miasma, there is a shining pool of purest water nestled
within stone as if it were wine in a goblet. Its rivulets overflow the edges
here and there and slowly drain into the still lake of poison. It glitters
more brilliantly than the finest gem, lit from within as if it were
possessed of its own sun.
But more than that, there is what stands in this pool: here, seemingly left
thrust into the basin, is what one might first take to be a proper sword.
But take another look: this is no blade wrought of metal but of a single
long horn.
This is a unicorn's horn, fashioned into the blade of a sword. It will come
away freely if taken by the hilt and pulled.
Its innate magic means that it makes for a sturdy weapon in spite of its
unorthodox composition, and that it makes an even better magical focus.
The water of the pool is cool and refreshing to the touch. If the poison of
the Depths still lingers within you, here it is cleansed.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Luna Meitner has posed.
Darkness and the manipulation of space time are similar to Lily. Luna looks like she is considering that.
For some reason.
Speaking of darkness... Luna does no something of it as Penelope stares back at her. She does not flinch away from that gaze, but nor does she immediately disregard the possibility of intent. She has seen stranger things, in her travels.
Josie solicits advice, and asks Luna for her input. Something angry flares in that cold, stoic gaze, and a bit of steel creeps into her voice as Josie addresses her as 'kiddo.' "... My name is Luna. And I will not be addressed as a child. I am a skilled warrior."
No it isn't and also you're literally 15.
But when Luna is having her moment of distress shortly after... Ruth responds, even when Lily holds back. Luna does not seem to show vulnerability often, and yet Ruth has caught her out a few times now already.
She looks up to Ruth, asking her what she wants. Something cracks in her normally cold stare, just a bit, for just a moment as she half-looks back to Ruth--but not enough to see that smile--and then back to the lake.
Her gaze drops for a moment, chin resting on her chest as she just thinks. There is certainly some answer on her mind, but she doesn't give voice to it.
Instead, she rises and makes her compound.
Lily coats the boat with just the right amount of ice, hopefully, and if anybody had any qualms about taking that raft ride, Penelope provides some excellent motivation not to dally. Luna pours the rest of her compound into a vial and stoppers it, hastily putting her supplies away as she rushes to get on the raft.
When they get there, they see a source of impossibly fresh and pure water, all due to...
A unicorn's horn.
Luna had been heading towards it, but she pauses, when she realizes just what it is. "Magic enough to purify this water source... Did whoever came to this spot come to fetch it, or did they leave it behind to try and cleanse the cave?"
Who can say?
But she seems to hold back, letting another claim it if they wish. She doesn't even partake of the purified water itself, even after the horn is removed. She, instead, simply drinks more of the draught she improvised.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Within the stone nestled in that befouled lake, Ruth freezes still only a few steps onto the stone, as if there were some great force unseen and unfelt that nonetheless causes her to seize up, as that pool of water awaits those who have braved the depths and its mortal dangers. She exhales, as if startled.
It's the same general principle to how the Lunarian Holy Bottle works - something about pure, sanctified water as a whole is unsettling to 'monstrous' creatures, of which Hellions fall under the umbrella. The feeling she shouldn't befoul it, the uncomfortable clarity of a reflection if she were to stare at it headlong. A line she can't cross, a place she can't be.
To bear witness to such a thing of hallowed nature is to confront and reckon with one's own monstrous nature. Those possessed of less of their faculties instinctually just turn away and leave, unless possessed of enough will and strength to push past it. The pool here is at a threshold that even a Hellion of Ruth's might can't quite push past.
...
She sees how Luna hesitates to approach the water, but doesn't call it out in the moment.
She is at least able to take sight of it, and the bounty of the weapon that lies within. It reminds her of Emrys Mire, and what K.K. had to say of what transpired. Of how the passage of time can change the contexts of virtue and sin. (A context that others managed to glean after the Fell Dragon sealed within the place was freed of its torment.)
Instead of the many fine blades that were planted before that source of flawless water like in the befouled swamp long since cleansed, it is just the horn. Who was it that left it there, and for what purpose?
"Maybe... it's a place we weren't meant to come," is all Ruth can muster.