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Monument to a Massacre

Scene details

Setting: The Star Chasers at last arrive at the crumbling ziggurat where the ancient serpent cult and their vampire allies met for one final parlay with the Ankhialeans. Our heroes know that these negotiations must have failed. But why?

Log


 The Romancing SaGa's advance is slow and cautious through the shallow and shifting rivers that trace through the deep eastern jungles. Ivo's amiable veneer at times cracks, their debonair pilot gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow as he turns the tiller with excruciating subtlety and, then, occasional violent force. Whatever he is doing, it at least is working, ensuring that our heroes are able to proceed with their crucial supplies, like everything that Madonna and Daiby require for lounging on deck, intact.
 It is beginning to seem that the SaGa can go no further, silt and mudbanks too high and treacherous, when it rounds one more bend and, all at once, a breathtaking lake comes into view, what appears to be an ancient temple emerging from its center. Ivo momentarily fails to announce its appearance, simply bringing their vessel to a halt and staring in amazement, marveling at this ziggurat.
 "Surely, this was it."
 It is actually Yacumama who breaks the silence, Reize's pendant flickering as the Mother of Waters speaks. The eidola is not exactly talkative, often pondering over her many missing memories, but she is now coherent and able to converse after their tragic encounter with the spectres of her followers.
 "My people's memories are the very mortar between the stones of this ziggurat," she continues. "Yet... I do not feel them here, as I felt them before."
 "And here I was hoping to meet more of your followers," Ivo idly says, with a friendly but deadpan delivery that makes it very difficult to tell if he is joking. He is looking at his sword's hilt. "No eidola detected yet. If there are neither eidola nor undead nor signs of life, we may be in the clear to investigate. We could try to clear the mudbanks to allow the SaGa to bear us across the lake... or try to make it by some other means."
 As he's talking, however, one of the resident vampires may notice: while Yacumama says there is no presence of her people, there is, contrary to Ivo's assumption, a strong presence of undead in the distant ziggurat.

Ruidosa La Crima is on the boat, looking over the edge in the opposite direction of the ziggurat when people start talking about it and that's when she looks over towards it and 'woahs' a little. How'd she miss that!? Well she was lost in thought. Why was Madonna out in the middle of nowhere. The loudmouth. Something was going on. Was she banished?

No surely not the favorite. Was she still the favorite? Did something happen? She was too nervous to speak to her older sister for reasons. Others would notice the two would give each other wide berths.

Madonna herself had decided to get dressed. 'dress' is a slinky red dress number, but still. She may be trying to distract Ivo with her clothing at this point. It probably works do we even need to roll to see if 'Ivo is distracted by slinky clothes'? We do? Darn.

Ruidosa La Crima says. "I sense... the undead again. Strong." she says as she shifts a bit. "This is gonna be harrowing and dangerous I bet." she says.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Testing
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 11. This is a success (by 1).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Dressing in such a way as to distract Ivo.
Roll(s): 6. Total result is 6. This is a failure (by 4).



  Reize had been managing to hold his lunch this time, thanks to the medicine that is working effectively. He holds onto the rails of the Romancing SaGa as they near. He notices the change in Ivo's posture as the intensity of the ship's maneuvering is palpable.

  Reize gazes out as they near the ziggurat, eyes widen as he starts marveling at the site. "Whoa.." They are close.

  As Yacumama breaks the silence, Reize carefully listens as he holds onto the pendant. He looks ahead to the ziggurat itself. He looks back towards Ruidosa as she mentions about the undead being around.

  "Looks like we'll try to talk to them. ...Hopefully, they won't be hostile." He looks at Ruidosa and the others.

  "I don't think we'll be able to get any further on the ship. We'll have to move on foot."


 Ivo is leaning over the railing, his curiosity about the ziggurat motivating careful scrutiny. He could imagine using elespheres or magic to clear some of the silt and so make a channel for the SaGa, but such an endeavor would be at best loud and disruptive, drawing the attention of whatever entities might dwell nearby. Clicking his tongue quietly, he then looks over towards the distant temple again. One could hypothetically hop and skip across the occasional stones left behind by what looks to have once been a bridge, so--
 "Hm?"
 Ivo looks to Rui at her observation regarding the undead, glances at Reize, then glances at Reize's pendant before looking back. He is silent for a long moment.
 "When we last stopped," he says, more quietly than before, "we encountered the site of an apparent massacre of Yacumama's people by the Ankhialeans. If here there are undead, but none of them bear the trace of Yacumama's people..."
 He does not finish the thought, instead looking to Reize and to Rui again.
 "Reize, Rui," he says. "I have some long ropes belowdecks." Ivo came prepared for these sorts of shenanigans. "If you two can fly over together and secure one end of the rope, I can hold it while making my way across the rocks. That may be our safest bet."
 He looks at the lake's surface.
 "It seems peaceful enough," he says, again sounding deadpan. Then, at last, his thoughts on the matter concluded, he looks to Madonna, and as if no substantive matters concerned them, he smiles widely, lighting up. "But no matter the travails we face, to have such a beauty in our midst buoys my spirit. What a privilege to be graced with the company of one who adventures in style."
 It seems that Ivo thinks slinky red numbers are the perfect outfit for a potentially perilous quest. Still, his gallantry is poised, without displaying a loss of composure. Maybe she has to take off more clothes for that. ...Or maybe that's what Ivo is effortfully trying to convey.

Ruidosa La Crima looks to Ivo and says. "That makes sense. If Yacumama isn't sensing her followers... but there's still undead. It means hostiles most likely. Or a different form of undead." she says bluntly as she looks back. "I'm too far away to tell you more." she says as she listens about the rope. "Reize get the rope. I'll fly over and secure it with you." she says.

Madonna crosses her arms. "Don't look at me yet." she says. "I'll help when I feel like it." she says looking at her nails.

Ruidosa La Crima says. "Of course you will. Anyways. Let's go when you're ready, Reize!" she says.



 "... Then we'll have to fight." Reize admits, finishing Ivo's sentence. However, they can't languish on things that they do not know.

 "You got it, Ivo!"

 Instead, Reize runs off to retrieve the rope from below the deck. It is only a few seconds before Reize arrives back. He looks towards Ruidosa with a bright smile and a thumbs up. He approaches his partner and nods. "Ready, Rui. Let's get to moving."

 He looks back towards Madonna, sweatbead forming at the back of his head. She won't be much help, huh? His attention draws towards Ivo, "We'll have the rope ready for you in no time!"


And with a sweep, she turns into a bat, and grabs Reize's shoulders and flaps for dear life, flap flap flap flap flap.

Madonna waves at them as they leave. She's helping!


 "May I provide you with refreshments in the meantime?" Ivo is saying to Madonna. "Perhaps a light massage to limber up? Such an exquisite vision of loveliness must never strain herself..."
 He's not listening to Reize, even though this whole plan was his idea. At least the ghoulish Monkey King is no longer such a foul distraction. Ivo attempted at one point to stuff his shambling corpse with herbs to reduce his stench, to at least some success. This makes it easier for the chattering aristocrat to lavish the preening vampiress with flattery without batting an eye or wrinkling his nose.
 From that perspective, maybe a stinkier monkey would be better.
 No movement at all will be detected from the lake, not even the barest flicker of life, as Rui takes Reize with the rope and the two begin to flap their way across the water's surface. Halfway to the eerie ziggurat and nothing has occurred.
 The only warning, then, will be a surge of magic, detectable to those with the intuition for such a thing (which will not include the resident magitechnician Ivo). The lake's surface goes from completely still to explosive moment as coils arise and lash out, seeking to strike at both Reize and Rui, potentially either knocking the former from her grasp or the latter into a tailspin. The blur of movement may make it difficult to discern at first, but this is no living creature. The water itself has taken on a serpentine form and is striking out at any who dare approach, some ancient enchantment upon this place activating as they endeavor to encroach!

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Keeping Hold of Reize?
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 8).

Flap flap flap flap flap flap flap. Uneventful. Good. Flap flap flap flap flap.

"WOAH!" squeaks Ruidosa suddenly as indeed she spins, sending Reize spinning with her most likely and it takes all her power to suddenly veer upwards and AWAY from being grabbed as she tries to keep ahold of Reize. Does she succeed?

YES.

She tries to get more altitude as best she can, flapping for dear life. "Higher...!" she demands of herself squeakily.
5RMadonna gasps. "Massage my shoulders while I watch my sister in her harrowing predicament with her human lover!" she demands.



 Reize had gotten used to being carried by Ruidosa. Both of them are partners that learned to fight together. During the shared flight, one can feel the flow of aether passing through the two. It's through this connection that they are in synch (Harmony/Link Gauge).

 The disruptive coils come to test their harmony. Sensing the flow of the coil, Reize's eyes dart towards Ruidosa, "Rise now!" Drawing his inner aether, he's working to imbue Ruidosa in it for them to link together. He holds onto the rope as tight as possible.

 "Ruidosa! Let's get ready!"

 As their bond increases, the Link Gauge starts to intensify.

 


 Ivo watches Reize and Rui's desperate struggles as one might a well-staged play, calmly massaging Madonna's shoulders, deft and steady, conveying no particular alarm. His own motivations may be different, given that he simply has seen Reize and Rui overcome many challenges thus far, but collectively, he and Madonna convey an air of shared indifference.
 "How thrilling," he remarks, "to be caught in a harrowing predicament with a human lover, don't you think? And here in the wilds, harrowing predicaments are so easy to find. All one needs is a human lover!"
 Adopting a playful tone as a strategic hedge against accusations of brazenness, Ivo pursues his own side quest as Reize and Rui fight for their lives (or unlives, as the case may be). That said, while the snake-like water tendrils are ferocious in attempting to batter them, the rope in Reize's hands is never targeted, suggesting a lack of any animating intelligence and a mere reaction to their presence. With Ruidosa able to effortfully ascend, the two rise out of reach and, as the water flails, they nearly reach the base of the ziggurat.
 It is then that, as if in a last-ditch effort, the tendrils combine their mass, turning into one giant thrashing tentacle that is able to reach them at their new height and aim one last heavy strike in their direction. Should it impact, it might send them crashing painfully against the lower stone walls of the ziggurat.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Link Art: Night Fall!
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 11. This is a success (by 1).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Link Art: Night Fall! (Lead)
Roll(s): 10. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 3).

The link gauge builds and reaches it's height as Ruidosa La Crima escapes additional lashing as she whews and gets ready for another assault. It'll figure out what to do eventually, to reach them. She's expecting it to throw something. Or spit something. That doesn't happen, instead it gets ready to lash out as one massive combined mass.

"Reize get ready!" she says a moment, giving Reize those moments to get ready as she spins in a circle and then DIVEBOMBS downwards towards the beast, getting to counter attack, swooping downwards and giving Reize a moment to hopefully get in at a weakpoint.

Madonna enjoys a massage. She gives Ivo and 'hrmmmm' and the monkey sticks it's head up from the hold, and turnnnnns creepily towards Ivo and starts staring.

No reason.

No reason at all.

Meanwhile, Ruidosa is trying to wing slash at the water on her swoop down! Woosh!



  The flow of the aether draws around Reize as the tendrils combine into a mass to give a thrashing tentacle that's reaching their way. Reize's leg winds back and he positions himself while Ruidosa dives bomb.

  The boy extends his leg out, shooting out his lead foot.

  LINK ART: NIGHT FALL!

  The duo descend towards the slamming tentacle, moving in flow with its strike. However, instead of bowling through it, the two are flowing down with the descending slam to strike at a 'core'. They pinpoint a weak point to pierce through it.

 


 "Of course," Ivo is saying even as the watery tendril swells before his and Madonna's eyes, "the jungles are no place to properly gauge a humble human's worthiness to serve. Once we return to Rosia, please, grant me the honor of escorting you on an evening of the finest entertainment and... plea... sures..."
 His words slow as the fine hairs rise on the back of his neck and, almost creakily, he slowly turns his head and regards the undead Monkey King staring at him. Ivo blanches. Somehow, despite this, he never stops massaging Madonna's shoulders.
 "...away from prying eyes," he finally concludes.
 He speaks just in time for the sound of a veritable thunderclap to call his attention back to the battle in progress. Reize and Ruidosa dive boldly towards the lashing tentacle barring their path, successfully discerning a weak point in the enchanted defenses. With an explosive impact, the water scatters into a shower of droplets, dissolving and dissipating, allowing the two adventurers to successfully alight upon the ziggurat's island.
 "What further thrills await us, I wonder? Will you join us and see, oh beauty?" Ivo says as, with a last squeeze, he releases the vampiress (with some reluctance) and strides to the railing's edge, waving cheerily to the heroes of the day. "They've outdone themselves this time," he says, not wanting to raise a hue and cry before the water is safely crossed.
 Once the rope is safely secured on the far side, Ivo will vault over the edge of the SaGa and begin to use it to steady his progress as he laboriously makes his way across the broken stone pillars that still peek up from the lake's surface where a bridge must have once stood.

Madonna merely says. "I'll consider it." she says dully. She probably won't, on both counts. Maybe. We'll see. but she's paying polite lip service.

The Monkey King just staresssss.

Ruidosa La Crima flaps flaps flaps to the island and lands and untransforms and takes a deep breath and turns towards Reize, grabs his shoulders and spinnnns.

"We did it! We made it through oh my bliss that was harrowing!" she says as she mutters.

"We're here. We need to get ready for more..." she says as Ivo begins to make it across to the other side.



 After striking through the tentacle's weakpoint, the water splashes through. There is a dramatic moment of the water passing through both Reize and Ruidosa. The two descend and settle.

 Reize is held y the shoulder and he holds onto Ruidosa with a smile. "We did it!" He pats her shoulder and then he turns around to secure the rope. The boy makes sure the rope is completely set and he pats it.

  "All good! Ivo should be able to cross and join us!"

 


 Ivo is able to cross the lake's surface without incident, if not at great speed, carefully vaulting from one broken pillar top to another, hooking his sheathed sword over the tethered rope and using this as a sort of zipline to ensure that his jumps are successful and gripping the rope to steady himself when necessary. As he makes his way across, Reize and Rui have the opportunity to examine the ziggurat up close from the base. Plant life pervades the area, clinging to the limited surface available, moss and flowering shrubs springing from cracks and fissures in the old stone blocks. While the place may be unsettling, it does not seem tainted or blighted in any way. It also appears as if it was once possible to enter its interior, but all currently visible passageways seem to have collapsed long ago, now filled with rubble and impassable. The only way to go, it seems, is up the stairs to the great exterior dais at the top.
 "A curious place indeed," Ivo remarks, somewhat short of breath but none the worse for wear as he arrives at the ziggurat's base, securing Hauteclare back on his belt as he flashes his friends a smile. "From what I could see, the dais above resembles less the ritual site where we found Yacumama and more a meeting place, akin to the ancient forum we found below Aurita Meloda, where Deathless Draaken was trapped. Some sort of negotiations must have taken place here."
 He looks up, gauging the stairs, and then back to his friends.
 "Excellently done, you two. I'm impressed, but not a bit surprised." His calm as he pampered Madonna arose from his confidence in them. Mostly. "Shall we ascend?"
 Ivo begins to make his way up the cracked and crumbling steps, again moving methodically, carefully picking his way upward. He pauses at times to peer into gaps in the stone, trying to see if there might be able viable path inside the ziggurat, but shrugs and moves on every time. Should Rui elect to fly in bat form, she will face no further enchanted resistance, and eventually, our heroes will reach the peak.
 "...Hmm."
 Ivo looks around, his murmur sounding almost disappointed. Up close, little seems revealed at first that could not already been seen from a distance about this ziggurat-top plaza. Unlike him, Ruidosa can sense a powerful negative energy, dire evidence of malingering undead. Yet this time, no ghosts manifest. Neither does Yacumama speak up. Ivo, raising an eyebrow, steps forward to brush moss and dirt from one of the stone benches, searching for some sort of evidence of what may have transpired.
 "W... wait, that's..."
 But he is looking beyond. Having moved to change his perspective, he can now see beyond an inconspicuous pile of rubble that part of the roof has collapsed, creating a dark pit into the ziggurat's interior. As Ivo peers within, his eyes widen, the Cosmopolitan blanching paler than before.
 "This is..."
 Within the depths, skeletons are piled high, their bones splintered and jumbled. Entangled with them are curving tendrils of stone, seeming carved to embrace the dead or, perhaps, split them apart. It appears at first as if the ziggurat contains some secret and strange statue of which the party is now getting a glimpse. Yet the shape is oddly familiar. The tendrils of stone look identical in shape and contour to the tendrils of water that had just attacked Reize and Rui. And as Ivo stares, reeling...
 Cracking, crumbling, with a rattling of falling skeletons, those stone tendrils within the dark pit too begin to move.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Tome Lore Check: 'Stone Tendril Monsters?'
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 5).



  Taking the opportunity to examine the ziggurat while they are close, Reize takes notice of the vegetation. He looks over towards Ivo as he covers the previous observations. "Is that so...?" He places a hand to his chin and he thinks, "I wonder if we'll find another tribe... or remnants of that." He lifts his head up. "But, we only have one direction to go."

 Reize starts ascending the cracked stone steps. As easy as it is, he finally makes his way to the top alongside of the group. Reize furrows his eyebrows and he starts to take the rope that they had before. He looks for something to attach it to. Reaching into his satchel, he starts to slam a metal anchor down and uses a small hammer to smack it in order to stablize it.

  "Only way to go is down but be prepared to fight..."

 

Ruidos La Crima stops and looks around as she blinks. "Huh." she says as she suddenly has her tome out, floating in one hand as she flips through it rapidly, using vampire like reflexes to scan pages quickly as she stops and points at words on a page, written by a yong Lady LaCrima, about exploring the jungle and encountering strange tentacles in places of high purification magics. She nods rapidly as she looks over the edges of the book and towards the tendrils as she huhs.

"Huh." she says. "So these things are weird. Like snake power?" she says trying to explain it to the others. "Like Daiby's but...not. Like. Whatever the opposite of that might be?" she says.

She taps the page as she says. "Mom encountered these things when she was younger here." she says as she looks to Reize. "Yeah don't touch or aggravate the tendrils yet." she says. as she watches as Reize gets the rope ready. She gently waits for Reize to descend before she follows, tome following next to her before resuming it's clasp at her side.

"Strong magic is here. Somewhere. With this much of the stuff around. I wonder..." she says.

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 day, 5 hours ago


"Let me see," says

   ~* DAIBY *~

WHERE WAS DAIBY ALL THIS TIME? BEHOLD THIS FLASHBACK

"I'm going into a dangerous place and I need to be able to keep a low profile," says Daiby, facing something that the camera angle does not reveal. "I know I don't ask you for this kind of help often, but I hope you'll do me a favor."

Daiby is addressing what seems to be a vantablack strip, an error in the universe, perhaps a stray cosmic string or magnetic monopole -- until its tongue flicks out. Sure, toots.

NOW

Daiby has a weird looking snake-like object wrapped around one arm, and it seems that a shifting of her 'snake magic' or 'snake power' meant that she was perfectly cloaked.

Anyway, now she's standing on the balls of her feet while looking over Ruidosa's shoulder. "Wonder what?"

"Sorry I didn't help, but I had figured I might alarm the locals if I revealed myself too soon," Daiby adds, mostly to Ivo, because she may figure Ivo is a 100% Forgiveness Chance, while Reize has a thin chance of 'where were the frickin fireballs lady???'


 Ivo was momentarily petrified at the sight of the stone tendrils stirring, seeming to coil and uncoil like venomous vipers awakening from some hibernation, but as their movements seem slow for now, he takes the opportunity to glance over his shoulder, back in the direction of where the Romancing SaGa is moored. Though the vessel is prevented by mudbanks from proceeding from the river they were traversing to the lake, at the center of which is the ziggurat they have ascended, the bodies of water are so proximate that he can easily seek the deck from here. If anything should occur that risks affecting Daiby or Madonna or the revenant Monkey King, the party should be able to see right away.
 And if any non-fliers want to join them, the rope that Reize and Rui tied remains tethered over the remnants of the bridge. Presumably, Daiby could zip-line over with a snake or something. Ivo's pretty sure that would work.
 "Whoa!"
 But he'll never know, for Daiby is already here, having been in Stealth Mode this entire time. Ivo looks delighted, then speculative, than alarmed. This means she could be hiding *anywhere*, at *any* time, right? Like, for example, when he-- never mind that now.
 "The opposite..."
 He looks back to Rui, brow furrowed.
 "There's still much to understand about how the serpent cult's Regalia is affecting Daiby's magic," he murmurs. "But it seems that she awakens serpents to elemental attunements, like fire or ice, that are otherwise latent in them or otherwise undetectable. Then this would be... taking some element, like water or earth..."
 He looks at the stirring tendrils, now rather baffled.
 "And making it... snake-like...?"
 To think there was a magic as strange as Daiby's own. But then, on that note, Ivo muses, is this really all some sort of coincidence? Or were these two magical paths diverging from a common road, deep in Oradia's forgotten history? If the branch that mastered *this* legendary magic became Oradia's royal family, then...
 "Hm?"
 Ivo's thoughts are interrupted when he glances at Reize as their fearless leader prepares for his descent. The boy's pendant is beginning to flicker faintly, as it did in their earlier adventures when Kernunnos stirred. Now it is Yacumama, her consciousness restored, who seems to be reacting to something.
 "This magic," she says, "is... so familiar, yet unfamiliar... as if I once knew it, long ago. It feels like my people... yet my people's spirits are not here. What is this presence...?"
 "Careful, Reize," Ivo says, approaching the edge but not making a move to follow the boy's descent. "There's a lot we don't know about what's going on. I'll support you with Hauteclare as best I can from up here until we're sure there's a secure way down and back up. If those tendrils start reacting as aggressively as the water did... get out of there, alright?"
 They're moving slowly now, seemingly roused by the party's presence but not as conscious of their exact location as the water was. Perhaps the water was deliberately set up as a defensive measure whereas this enchanted stone had some other purpose. One that, by the looks of all the skeletal remains visible below, may have long ago been fulfilled.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Climbing a rope down.
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 11. This is a success (by 1).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Avoiding falling off edge from Surprise Daiby + Reize luck?
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 6).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Avoiding wrath of nope ropes when catch descending rope at last second
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 4).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Get Dunked On By a Falling Reize? (Success=yes.)
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 day, 4 hours ago

Daiby rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: down down to snakequest town
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).



 After securing the rope, Reize approaches the edge. Just as he is about to prepare....

 Surprise Daiby!

 "Buh?!" Reize turns around to see the older companion, "When did you get here?!" Unfortunately, Reize's distraction also distracts his footing. It is a slip that his body leans away from the group. "....whh----?!"

 Reize descends... very quickly.

 "Gah....!"

 He is upside down upon his descent. However, he is quick to grab onto the rope. "I got it! I got it...!"

 Of course, there is going to be a head to head collision.

 A different bonding session.

 

Ruidosa decides to rope it with Reize rather than bat it down because this is fun and it's giving her time to examine the stone tendrils as she makes mental notes. "Snake elementals. Neat." she says as she considers this thought process. She manages to not lose grip of the rope and cause a comedy fall. Which would be hilarious, but alas, it doesn't happen, so you'll need to imagine it.

"I wonder if I can control these things or if they'd hurt me. I wonder if Daiby could." she says as she settles down onto her feet and then looks into her tome and considers and writes down some things on a new page at the end in her own section which details her journey up to this point and starts writing and---what's that...shadow...

Squish. She manages to catch Reize. With her entire body. Which is now under Reize. Which is slowly growing redder. and redder in the face as she makes a pouted face and wibbles. Is she about to cry!?

Maybe.

"G...get off me!" she cries. "I caught you, y.. you dummy REIZE SEATLAN!" she cries. Uh oh. She's using the full name.

  • Character: Daiby
  • 1 day, 4 hours ago


Daiby kisses the air towards Ivo for a moment, and then says, gesturing with an arm, "It's as Ivo says... it's a little bit more as if I'm bonding with the snake and borrowing their power... I think a lot of it is coming from snakes having lost their limbs in time immemorial, so it's as if I'm just serving as their hands and feet!"

Since snakes, famously, crawl on their tumtum.

Either way, Daiby approaches the route down - bending forwards - which means Reize is probably addressing her chest briefly when he whirls around. "Oh! I'm sorry, I should have let you know, I'm not used to being... oh no," Daiby says, as Reize plummets-- no, it's good! He's fine! He's...

"Look out!" Daiby calls, .61 seconds too late.

"I think they're both alright," Daiby tells Ivo. "Anyone complaining that loudly can't be that badly off. Allez-oup!" And then she slides down the rope, buffered helpfully by some cloth wraps around her hands for just this reason!

She'll even help the two up, if they don't seem to be getting comfortable with each other.


 Ivo watches these proceedings with equanimity, his features deadpan as he considers how best to contrive a scenario in which Daiby falls on him-- that is, how best to help his friends.
 "Successful by every measure," he quips, as his gaze shifts to those stone tendrils, "as the Star Chasers ever are." The stone grinds as it moves, and it has become clearer with the rest of the party's descent that dust and grit are constantly falling from the tendrils, obscuring the party's view of the ziggurat interior. "What can you see or sense down there? Any enemies? I have a clear view from above, so-- hmm?"
 Ivo's hand moves to Hauteclare's hilt as his suspicions rise, but the trio below will not detect any adversaries, not at first. They are surrounded by humanoid bones, yellowed with age but long undisturbed, only scattering when the stone tendrils heedlessly disrupt their arrangement. Ruidosa can feel the intense malingering presence of undead energies, as she could from the very beginning, despite Yacumama's insistence that the spirits of *her* people, which the party had encountered before among the mangroves, are not present here. But none of the bones seem to be stirring except when moved by the tendrils, which also are not attacking.
 "Hey! I'm losing sight of you! Are you alright!?"
 Ivo's right: the stone tendrils are, as if gradually recalling some ancient instruction, beginning to assume a coherent formation, creating a kind of dome over the pit, not able to entirely block it but likely to cause difficulty now descending or ascending again. While Ivo could aim Hauteclare through the gaps in the stone, he would have trouble perceiving where to maneuver it below.
 "I think I hear something...!"
 When the stone tendrils cease to move, so too does the obscuring dust and grit cease to fall, and eventually, through its fading curtain, twin gleams of red light. The prospect of further illumination may seem almost promising, except perhaps to Ruidosa, who will sense the undead more acutely than ever before.
 They are in a great hall in the center of the ziggurat's interior, what may have once been a living space but which was long ago made into a killing ground for the fallen here, and many of those bones have gathered and fused into a huge and terrible skeleton with incandescent blazes in the hollows of its eye sockets. It is half-formed, having assembled a great rib cage and arms out of linked bones, and begins to drag itself scrapingly across the stone, raising one vast yet spindly hand as it does. Something gleams gold upon its giant finger, some ornament or article of clothing, before it clenches its hand into a great fist with the sound of a crack and its massive jaw opens in a silent scream.

> The Buried Vengeance has appeared!

 It too seems possessed of this strange magic permeating the ziggurat, for its flaming eyes become tendrils of fire that lash out, attempting to sweep searingly at the party below.
 "Whoa!"
 Ivo, still distant and above, might sound like he is reacting to the party's travails, but it turns out that he has his own problems. For as the Buried Vengeance as rousing, so too did the air about him begin to condense and form tendrils of wind, as if some trap laid long ago were belatedly springing. It seems all four elements are in play.