#035: ???

[Merc]

[18:32] <Kotono> --------
[18:33] <Kotono> In the aftermath of battle, gil and items are littered about. The malboros are defeated! Ahead are passages, two ahead adn snaking in different directions. You slowly catch your breath as...OOC: Ball's in your court, y'all.
[18:34] * Santos goes towards the left passageway, for no reason other than he can!
[18:34] * Lehko cracks his back.
[18:34] <Lehko> "Which way?"
[18:36] * Penelo sitting down to catch her breath, as she's a bit wiped out. "Either way is fine.."
[18:36] <Kotono> The left passageway descends downward rather sharply before becoming a straight plummet. The walls are covered in vines and it looks quite climbable.
[18:37] <Santos> "You guys suck, I'm already walking towards the left!" Santos calls back towards the two still discussing direction.
[18:37] * Lehko heads after Santos, letting him take the lead for once.
[18:37] * Penelo she jumps up, not having noticed Santos. "Ah! Wait for me!" She starts to run to follow.
[18:38] <Santos> "You guys can climb, right?" Santos asks Penelo and Mycol. "Cause if not, we may actually have to go back and take the other route."
[18:38] * Lehko shrugs.
[18:39] <Lehko> "I can try."
[18:40] <Morrie> "I could carry them down if you want." He says, looking over the edge. "Or go down and check first."
[18:40] <Penelo> "I can cheat, kupo." She states simply, wings flapping a bit to make her float in the air for a moment before she settles back down.
[18:41] <Kotono> OOC: Going down then, y'all?
[18:42] <Lehko> OOC: Letting Santos take lead.
[18:42] <Penelo> OOC: Yes.
[18:43] <Morrie> OOC: I'm going to float down first.
[18:43] <Santos> ooc: Have at it
[18:45] <Kotono> Morrie checks out the bottomb efore the party goes down. It's not a terribly long climb and the bottom continues on without incident. Thus checked out, the party continues on. The party goes down it and after about ten minutes of walking, you reach the end. It's a dead end, yet a single treasure chest sits here.
[18:46] <Lehko> "Want me to check for traps?"
[18:46] <Morrie> "Please do."
[18:46] <Penelo> "... This is rather undramatic, unlike the other rooms we've seen so far."
[18:46] * Lehko moves up and checks over the chest!
[18:47] <Lehko> roll 2d6+9 Awareness: Traps!
[18:47] * Hatbot --> "Lehko rolls 2d6+9 Awareness: Traps! and gets 19." [2d6=5, 5]
[18:47] <Santos> "Considering what happened with that one bikini, should the rest of us head up before we open a chest at the bottom of a pit?" Santos suggests. "Lehko's surely got six or seven lives left."
[18:48] <Kotono> The chest is not trapped.
[18:48] * Lehko attempts to open the chest!
[18:49] <Santos> "Clearly, Lehko has no respect for our lives," Santos says drily, as Lehko immediately follows up on his question to the others by opening the chest while they're all at the bottom of the pit.
[18:49] <Kotono> It opens! Within the chest is...OOC: Loot.
[18:49] <Penelo> "... Or it was safe."
[18:50] <Lehko> "You're not worried about me getting blown up, so why should I be worried about you getting blown up?"
[18:50] * Lehko grins toothily at Santos.
[18:50] <Santos> "
[18:50] <Santos> "Clearly, because we are the superior characters in this group, of course."
[18:51] <Kotono> "Oh, now that's some money," Jessica approaches and peers into the chest, "That must be where the malboros were storing all their loot."
[18:51] <Lehko> "Says the guy worried about surviving explosions to the guy who's walked multiple ones off."
[18:51] * Lehko head back the other way!
[18:51] <Morrie> "Why would malboros store loot anywhere?" He questions, turning around to go back.
[18:52] <Santos> "Why would imps carry an imp sword?" Santos says with a shrug. "Some questions aren't meant to be answered. Only taken advantage of."
[18:53] <Penelo> "Hmmmm.... Santos speaks the truth here."
[18:55] <Kotono> "Mmm-hmmm," Jessica agrees as the party returns! You reach the site of the malboro battle without incident once more. The other passage winds ahead and slowly downward, but in the opposite direction. After a few minutes of walking, it ceases abruptly. Ahead a rusted wall of iron blocks the way. There's a door set into it.
[18:56] <Santos> "Shall we knock?"
[18:56] <Lehko> "Feel free to check for traps the old fashioned way."
[18:56] * Lehko moves aside for Santos.
[18:57] <Penelo> "I am unsure if we should just.. knock, kupo."
[18:57] <Santos> roll 2d6+4 awareness
[18:57] * Hatbot --> "Santos rolls 2d6+4 awareness and gets 8." [2d6=3, 1]
[18:57] <Kotono> There doesn't seem to be a trap.
[18:57] * Santos sniffs derisively at Lehko, and goes and knocks on the door. "Anybody home?"
[18:59] * Santos waits for an answer patiently.
[19:00] * Penelo shifts from foot to foot, watching the door.
[19:00] <Kotono> As the party waits, "Anything?" Jessica asks, "There's probably more treasure in there."
[19:01] <Santos> "Doesn't seem like anybody's home. Lockpick it? Blow it up? Kick it down? Or listen to the loud voice shouting to go back?" Santos asks the others cheerfully. "I say ignore the last one, doesn't seem like anyone else is hearing it after all!"
[19:01] * Lehko inspects the door for locks...
[19:03] <Kotono> The door doesn't seem to be locked.
[19:03] <Lehko> "No locks. Kick it open for dramatic effect?"
[19:04] * Penelo will step forward and try to just open the door. Due to her small stature, that may not go well.
[19:05] <Kotono> The door opens! Within is a small room. The floor is full of narrow, foot long rectangular gaps. A pale purplish light comes from them. Four pillars support the room in a square pattern, ancient and pitted rusted iron keeping the tall ceiling in place. Floating in the center of the room is a long white crystal.
[19:06] * Lehko peeks over the edge of one of the holes, but does his best to make sure he's got good balance.
[19:06] <Morrie> "What in the world...?" He stares at the crystal, dumbfounded as to why its here.
[19:07] * Penelo looking just as dumbfounded as Morrie, all she can manage to think of is to check to see if there is any discernable magic energy here.
[19:07] <Penelo> OOC: As in a magic lore check? If that's okay.
[19:09] <Kotono> The hole looks quite deep, farther than you can see. It becomes a blur of purple light from below.
[19:09] <Kotono> OOC: Go for it, Penelo.
[19:09] <Penelo> roll 2d6+4 Magic Check!
[19:09] * Hatbot --> "Penelo rolls 2d6+4 Magic Check! and gets 13." [2d6=3, 6]
[19:09] <Lehko> "Can't see the bottom..."
[19:09] <Kotono> The air is thick with magic here. Sorcery is afoot.
[19:09] * Lehko moves away from the edge.
[19:10] * Penelo looks to see how far down this goes. "I have no idea what this is, kupo."
[19:11] <Kotono> The holes look quite deep, farther than you can see. It becomes a blur of purple light from below.
[19:12] * Lehko moves up the crystal and looks it over.
[19:12] <Lehko> "I have no idea what it is... Should we just grab it and go?"
[19:12] <Kotono> The crystal is perhaps two feet long from tip to tip and six inches wide. It's a classical crystal in shape. Getting closer, you can see that it has a few cracks.
[19:13] <Lehko> "Seems to be cracked..."
[19:14] <Morrie> "Can you tell if it's powering something? Like those barriers, perhaps?" He looks around, still curious about this.
[19:15] * Lehko looks around for any sort of power lines... OOC: Any roll for that?
[19:15] <Kotono> OOC: Like actual power cords?
[19:16] <Lehko> OOC: Anything that looks able to carry power. From cords to conduits to magical arrays.
[19:16] <Penelo> "There is too much magic in this room for me to discern."
[19:16] <Kotono> There's nothing connected to the crystal or anything like that. It floats in the air of its own accord and in open defiance of gravity.
[19:17] <Lehko> "Hmm.. I'm not seeing anything that's transfering power...
[19:17] <Lehko> "
[19:17] <Penelo> "Go ahead and touch it, kupo."
[19:18] * Lehko shrugs and reaches out with a short prayer to Shiva.
[19:18] <Kotono> OOC: No more lines, that triggered something.
[19:19] <Lehko> "Should we try putting it in the bag?"
[19:21] <Kotono> OOC: Just strike Lehko's last line. More coming.
[19:23] <Kotono> The crystal is touched! The moment it does, purple light erupts out from the gaps below! The room is bathed in pure purple as the crystal shines! It is a single mote of white amid the new saturation. Cracks spread along it as Lehko vanishes! A split second after Lehko is gone, the crystal shatters apart! Little shards explode in a wave of shrapnel, the room going dark! OOC: Iddy into #evildunes.
[19:24] * Penelo gasps, looking purely shocked.
[19:25] <Morrie> Morrie looks around, shocked at what's just happened. "Where... where did he--" He's interrupted by something, looking up slightly, but not really at the ceiling, it seems to be something he's doing himself.
[19:29] <Penelo> Worried, she kneels down to pick up one of the fragments.
[19:30] <Santos> "Would now be a terrible time to point out that he clearly jinxed himself with the snark about surviving explosions earlier?" Santos says in a serious voice, even though he's looking around, almost nonchalantly, as if to hide any concern for his companion.
[19:30] <Santos> roll 2d6+4 awareness
[19:30] * Hatbot --> "Santos rolls 2d6+4 awareness and gets 10." [2d6=2, 4]
[19:30] <Penelo> "Was that my fault, kupo?"
[19:31] <Morrie> OOC: There's no exit to the room other than the way they came, right?
[19:32] <Kotono> With only mage-light to call on, Santos doesn't see anything awry. Not that there looks to be anything unless crystal shards interest him anyway.
[19:32] <Kotono> OOC: Yes, that's correct.
[19:33] <Morrie> "Let's go back the way we came. If my theory is correct, that crystal may have been powering those barriers... If it isn't, then I don't know how we find Lehko." He frowns, turning and jogging back the other way, although he's careful to not go too far out of the light they have.
[19:34] <Morrie> OOC: Well, wait. Was the water pool thing they saw before or after? I forget.
[19:35] <Kotono> OOC: It was just before the malboro boss.
[19:35] <Kotono> OOC: After the barriers.
[19:36] <Morrie> OOC: Okay, let's go to the water first then, my bad. Sorry, it got all jumbled.
[19:37] <Kotono> OOC: Sure.
[19:37] <Santos> "If that fails to pan out, maybe Ebenezer might have some ideas after we've explained what's happened. Might even want to come in now that we've cleared out some of the malboros?"
[19:37] <Kotono> The party returns up to the water! You find no water now, just a pool of cooled iron.
[19:39] * Penelo gasps again. "What is this?!"
[19:40] <Morrie> "Hm... All right, so it was powering something." He nods, confirming this and starts back to the barrier.
[19:41] <Kotono> "A problem," Jessica says, as she rubs her chin. "This is some serious magic." As you walk out, "I hope those barriers are gone."
[19:42] <Kotono> You return to the barrier. It is gone - and ahead you can see the path that leads to the skeleton surrounded castle has been revealed.
[19:43] * Penelo pauses in the passageway to the castle. "Should we go back for Ebenezer?"
[19:47] <Kotono> Jessica hms, "Well?" she asks after a moment.
[19:49] <Morrie> Morrie shakes his head. "We don't have time." He starts jogging forward, calling out along the way for Lehko.
[19:49] <Penelo> "Ah!" Sounding out in surprise, she moves to hurry after Morrie.
[19:50] <Kotono> Going ahead, the party rushes through the field of skeletons. The castle has one great closed gate leading into it. Set into the wall besides it is a single lever.
[19:54] <Penelo> In a bit of a rush, she finds herself not thinking things through as she walks up to the lever to give it a tug.
[19:55] <Morrie> Morrie leans over to hit the lever! Well, pull it. Whatever it is.
[19:57] <Kotono> The lever is pulled! Slowly the gate opens with a great groaning of old metal. Within you see a the interior is hollow. It looks like a sea of rusted metal save for one segment of wood in the back. This part of the floor has a massive arcane circle drawn on it, and there is an unrusted slab of metal resting in the center of it.
[19:59] <Penelo> She walks into the structure, looking around to see if there is more to the place than the wood and metal slab.
[19:59] <Morrie> Morrie steps in as well!
[20:01] <Kotono> The air within is stale. Tremendously so. It's warmer in here as well. It looks like the entire thing is a hollow shell surrounding the interior.
[20:03] <Morrie> "Lehko!" He calls out again, looking around for some sort of pathway.
[20:05] <Kotono> Morrie's voice echos. There doesn't seem to be any passageways in the castle, just the circle ahead. You could go in and search the walls for secrets if you wanted to.
[20:05] <Kotono> "Lehko?" Jessica calls as well, a little more tentative. "Lehko?"
[20:05] <Penelo> She paces the room, making her way eventually to the segment of wood for a closer look.
[20:06] * Santos doesn't really see anything that would seem useful and he's not the magic type, so no solutions come to mind on how to help solve the mystery at hand.
[20:06] <Morrie> "Penelo, can you figure out the circle?" He looks at it, kneeling down.
[20:07] <Kotono> The magical circle is rather complex. It has constellations painted on within, and various points of the outer circle have zodiac signs on it. Within the center is that slab of iron. It has a small indentation within it, which is surrounded in all directions by the virgo sign of the zodiac. OOC: Feel free to make lore(magic) here.
[20:07] * Penelo walks over to the circle, to give it a close look.
[20:07] <Morrie> OOC: Doing a Lore(Anything) check just in case
[20:07] <Morrie> roll 2d6+2
[20:07] <Penelo> roll 2d6+4 magic lore
[20:07] * Hatbot --> "Morrie rolls 2d6+2 and gets 6." [2d6=1, 3]
[20:07] * Hatbot --> "Penelo rolls 2d6+4 magic lore and gets 10." [2d6=5, 1]
[20:09] <Kotono> Penelo can tell the magic circle is keyed to the signs of the zodiac, all towards powering the slab in the center. From the looks of it, a stone is meant to be put in and it sends power here and outside. Quite a range outside of here if you understand it right. Meanwhile, it doesn't take Morrie much to be distinctly reminded of the Zodiac Stones.
[20:12] * Penelo will relay that information that she's figured out.
[20:12] <Penelo> OOC: I am unsure how to personally word it in her words. :(
[20:14] <Morrie> Morrie sighs and just moves to stand on top of the slab, hoping something might happen.
[20:15] <Kotono> The slab makes Morrie's feet tingle. The tingling rises up his body before receding. As he does, Ramuh appears on Morrie's shoulder in a flash of lightning. "This is curious," he admits, "This looks it may be tied to the Zodiac Demons, but it doesn't feel otherworldly."
[20:16] <Penelo> "Did something happen, kupo?"
[20:17] <Morrie> "I can feel something... but... I don't think it's fully functional. I'm really at a loss on what to do..." He sighs.
[20:17] <Kotono> "I fear our only choice is to go to the other barrier ahead," Ramuh says, "Perhaps Lehko can be found past it, should it also be disabled."
[20:19] <Morrie> He nods to Ramuh's words. "Then let us make haste."
[20:19] <Penelo> "Yes." She agrees.
[20:19] <Kotono> OOC: Path, not barrier. But yes.
[20:22] <Kotono> The party goes out and goes up the passage that wraps around the boneyard and castle. You continue past the view of the battlefield and ahead. The floor soon becomes intersected with squares of old, rusty metal. The air grows foul and rusty. It brings the taste of blood to your tongue, a thick miasma that just won't go away. But down this passage? It leads to a massive door big enough for hundreds
[20:22] <Kotono> of men to walk through at once. An oversized gate of massive proportions. Far ahead, at the far side of it, you can see a rather large hut.
[20:26] <Morrie> "A Giant... ...what in the world...?" He looks around. OOC: Any Lore relevant here besides Anything?
[20:27] <Kotono> OOC: Anything's relevant.
[20:28] <Morrie> roll 2d6+2 ANYTHING!
[20:28] * Hatbot --> "Morrie rolls 2d6+2 ANYTHING! and gets 10." [2d6=3, 5]
[20:29] <Santos> "Well, that'd be something new, I suppose," Santos says, not having much more to add in. "Think he might have Lehko in a cage so he can become dinner later on in the day?"
[20:29] <Morrie> "I don't think anything lives here, Santos."
[20:29] * Santos shrugs. "You never know."
[20:29] <Penelo> "This place is amazing!" She chimes in for a moment, before looking downcast at the mention of Lehko again.
[20:30] <Santos> "Amazing? Really? How so?" Santos asks, looking around again. "I don't see it. Looks like a dump to me."
[20:31] <Kotono> This massive size is unreal even for giants. Whatever this is speaks to things immeasurably huge. Morrie can tell that much.
[20:32] <Penelo> "How can it not be? Who made this? How? What lived here? It's something to wonder over!"
[20:33] <Morrie> Morrie just keeps moving forward, calling out for Lehko every so often. If there is something alive here, he's sure to have alerted it...
[20:34] <Kotono> No reply. You reach the other side and the hut, which you find is a dead end. There's a door into the hut, though.
[20:35] <Penelo> Penelo walks on up to the door of the hut to see if it can be moved. She does this in disregard to obvious size difference.
[20:37] <Kotono> The door opens with a groan of old iron. Within you can see a backdrop of gears and pulleys. It all connects to one huge lever.
[20:38] <Morrie> "More levers..." He sighs. "Do you want to pull it, this time?"
[20:40] <Penelo> "Sure, kupo."
[20:41] <Penelo> Penelo moves to flying into the air and dropping down to use her weight to move the lever.
[20:42] <Kotono> The lever is pulled! Outside, the sound of grinding gears overpowers everything! Slooooowly the iron gate opens! Ahead is a massive place of iron. Slabs of steel the size of islands surrounded by canals of cooled iron dozens of feet wide. Yet almost everything is covered in skeletons. Skeletons litter the ground all over, like the battleground you saw before. The floor is pitted with great
[20:42] <Kotono> craters and decorated with the skeletons of creatures mundane and fantastical. It stretches ahead and ot the left/right farther than you can see with your light.
[20:44] <Kotono> "What in Kirin's name happened here?" Jessica stares, her staff dropping from nerveless fingers.
[20:44] <Penelo> Moving out to the gate to take a look, she stares with her mouth agape. The staff drop shakes her out of it.
[20:47] <Morrie> Morrie comes out as wlel and looks around, frowning.
[20:47] <Kotono> With a florish of fire, Ifrit appears on Santos' shoulder. "Damn," he says quietly, "We missed a hell of a battle!"
[20:47] <Santos> "Can't even tell who won or lost."
[20:48] <Kotono> With fumbling hands, Jessica gets her staff back. "Lehko?" she tries calling into the huge chamber.
[20:49] <Penelo> "Leeeeehkooooo!" She calls out as loudly as she can muster, moving further into the large area.

Lehko's mini-adventure

Spoiler: ShowHide

[19:25] <Kotono> Darkness. Lehko is lying stomach-down in absolute darkness. In his mind Shiva's voice slams into him all at once, words bunched together. Lehko?Lehko!LEHKO!LISTENDAMNIT!THECRYSTAL'SINTERFERING!GETAWAY!DON'T!
[19:26] * Lehko lurches and grinds his teeth with a groan.
[19:26] <Lehko> "Shiva? Wha?"
[19:26] * Lehko looks around..
[19:27] <Kotono> As it's completely dark, looking around doesn't accomplish much. The ground he's lying on is hard and cold. The air here is musty and stale. It makes his mouth tingle, bringing to mind the taste of blood.
[19:28] * Joins: Morrie (~rscuderi@65.33.116.127)
[19:28] * Lehko shakes his head and tries to focus on Shiva's voice, trying to gather enough energy to produce a light.
[19:28] <Kotono> "Magic. There was a presence in that crystal," Shiva's voice is downright peevish, "Some boneheaded male gambit, but it managed to interfere with our communications."
[19:28] <Kotono> OOC: Just drawing on some personal magic?
[19:28] <Lehko> OOC: Yeah.
[19:29] <Lehko> "A presence? What kind? And where the hell are we?"
[19:31] <Kotono> Light comes. You stand on a rusted metal floor, pitted with age. Great squares of metal are all around, different sizes bordered by narrow canals of once flowing iron. The iron is now cooled, frozen into place as wavy borders. The various squares range in size from just big enough to stand on to bigger than your light extends. The canals of cooled iron are no more than a foot wide. The canals
[19:31] <Kotono> connect to the walls, where it looks like molten iron once came from above and into the floor's canals. Ahead you can see a massive stairway, cloaked in shadows from your feeble light. Even from here, you can see it's gigantic. It descends down and looks big enough to have a hundred men walk abreast comfortably down it.
[19:31] <Kotono> "An evil spirit of some kind," Shiva replies, "Perhaps something bound here. It didn't feel like one of the invading groups that I've ever met, at least."
[19:33] <Lehko> "Hmm.. So this is that metal-world we saw.. Looks like it's built for giants of some kind... And some kind of evil, alien spirit. Sounds like we're in for an unplesant time of pruifying evil.."
[19:34] * Lehko takes a closer look at the canals and wall-ports.
[19:34] <Lehko> "Let's hope these don't start flowing again..."
[19:35] <Kotono> The canals have smooth sides as far as you can see. As they're filled with cooled iron, you can't see much of them. The walls are much the same in that regard. It all looks well made, just ancient.
[19:35] * Lehko grunts and takes a last look around for anything interesting before heading towards the staircase...
[19:39] <Kotono> Your footsteps echo. It seems to be the only noise around for as far as you can hear. The stairway goes down a great deal, minutes of descent becoming tens of minutes. How long do you walk? You aren't sure. Your legs begin to cramp and the taste of blood fills your mouth. But at last you see something ahead. A chamber far vaster than the stairway. Slabs of steel the size of islands surrounded
[19:39] <Kotono> by canals of cooled iron dozens of feet wide. Yet almost everything is covered in skeletons. Skeletons litter the ground all over, like the battleground you saw before. The floor is pitted with great craters and decorated with the skeletons of creatures mundane and fantastical. It stretches ahead and ot the left/right farther than you can see with your light.
[19:39] <Kotono> "What happened here?" Shiva's voice is heard in your mind. "I've never heard of a battle in such a place. Not a battle like this."
[19:40] <Lehko> "... I have no idea.. But let's hope whatever it was is *finished* and not still lurking around..."
[19:41] * Lehko heads to the left picking his way through the skeletons and keeping an eye out for any kind of equipment or items from the battle that might be useful.. Even a trinket to (hopefully) take back to Ebenezer for study..
[19:41] <Kotono> OOC: Awareness.
[19:41] <Lehko> roll 2d6+9 Awareness!
[19:42] <Lehko> OOC: There was a dice-bot!
[19:42] * Joins: Hatbot (~Hatbot@72.183.113.233)
[19:42] <Lehko> roll 2d6+9 Awareness!
[19:42] * Hatbot --> "Lehko rolls 2d6+9 Awareness! and gets 17." [2d6=5, 3]
[19:46] <Kotono> It's odd. There's -nothing- here but the skeletons. No gear, no scraps of cloth, no gil. Nothing. You wander to the left for what seems like hours. It's slow going as you have to weave a path through the skeletons. But you eventually come to a massive hall connecting to it. The center of it - a strip of raised iron big enough to allow ten men abreast to walk through - is raised up like a
[19:46] <Kotono> bridge. Everything else is one great floor of cooled iron. Here the skeletons stop at least, the way down this bridge free of them.
[19:47] * Lehko inspects the iron bridge, looking for any sort of controlling mechanisim...
[19:48] <Kotono> The bridge looks to be pure cast iron. How it is suspended in the air farther than you can see is an open question. There's no sign of any mechanism holding it in place.
[19:48] <Lehko> "So much for that... Back the other way, then.."
[19:48] * Lehko heads back, going to the right passage, this time..
[19:52] <Kotono> Shiva maintains silence through the long walk back. You walk the other way. Your feet are hurting by this point, the hard iron floor and long walk offering them no respite. But you travel on and eventually come to a wall on the far side. About fourty feet up, you can see the wall is honeycombed with hexagonal holes, in a regular pattern.
[19:52] * Lehko grunts.
[19:52] <Lehko> "What're the chances that I can get up there..."
[19:53] * Lehko looks for a place to climb up and investigate.
[19:54] <Kotono> The walls are old, rusted iron. There's enough little pitting holes where climbing up is feasible. It'll be tricky, though. "Careful," Shiva warns, "Do you know how to climb?"
[19:55] <Santos> ooc: Lady, we just did a climbing sequence with a chest at the bottom of a pit! I think he can manage!
[19:56] <Lehko> "Not really! Not since I was a kid, at least... I wonder... Magic to make better hand-holds?"
[19:56] * Lehko hmmm's and focuses some of his magic, trying to make a path of better hand-holds up.
[19:57] <Santos> ooc: you humor her way too much.
[20:00] <Kotono> This is accomplished without any difficulty. OOC: Costs 5 MP. Make an athletics check. Difficulty's modified on my end for the platforms.
[20:00] <Lehko> roll 2d6 Athletics
[20:00] * Hatbot --> "Lehko rolls 2d6 Athletics and gets 10." [2d6=4, 6]
[20:02] <Kotono> Lehko slowly climbs up and makes it to one of the holes! It's big enough to easily walk down without any difficulties. It goes on a ways, and at the very end of your light, you can see...something. There's something at the very far end, but you just can't tell from here.
[20:03] * Lehko dims the light a bit incase it's a monster of some sort, and draws both pistols before heading in *extremely* cautiously..
[20:04] <Kotono> Ahead you can see it connects to an open space. Hexagonal passages connect to it ahead, behind and upwards. Lots of passages. Most of the ones ahead have bottoms lined with cooled iron, a thin coating of it.
[20:06] <Lehko> "Hmm.. Any ideas, Shiva?"
[20:08] <Kotono> "Not a one. The design of this place makes no sense to me," Shiva admits, "I wonder these were meant to spew out molten iron like a waterfall."
[20:08] <Lehko> "That's what I'm thinking... I can't figure out *why* they would want that, though... Unless it was some kind of latch ditch kill and seal everything trap.."
[20:09] <Lehko> OOC: Is the upwards stuff mroe climbing or just passages?
[20:10] <Kotono> OOC: The upwards stuff is in the ceiling. As in straight up. Unless you can fly...The ones ahead can be gotten into like passages and walked down. There the ones with the cooled iron on the bottom.
[20:10] * Lehko heads down one of the passages ahead.
[20:12] <Kotono> The passage goes on for a good ways. Eventually it comes to an end after far too much walking. Lehko feels exhausted, but he's reached the end. Ahead is a great drop. Below you can see a vast sea of cooled iron, only hints of your light illuminating it. It streched on ahead farther than you can see. The wall you're at is full of hexagonal holes all around, above and below.
[20:13] * Lehko sighs and takes a minute to rest.
[20:13] <Lehko> "Guess it's all the way back and down that main corridor.
[20:14] * Lehko looks around at what he can see for anything interesting while he rests his feet.
[20:14] <Kotono> OOC: Awareness.
[20:14] <Lehko> roll 2d6+9 Awareness
[20:14] * Hatbot --> "Lehko rolls 2d6+9 Awareness and gets 18." [2d6=4, 5]
[20:17] <Kotono> Hm? Just at the edge of your vision, you can see a single skeleton lying on the ground of the vast lake of cooled iron.
[20:17] * Lehko weighs his options...
[20:17] <Lehko> "Ah, screw it. Nothing's ever happened without curiousity. Good or bad."
[20:18] * Lehko looks for a way down to the skeleton..
[20:18] <Kotono> He'd have to climb down the wall. There's enough hexagonal openings to make it fairly easy and safe, though.
[20:19] * Lehko starts the trek down...
[20:20] <Kotono> The climb down is fairly uneventful. You finally reach the bottom, body sore and tiredness creeping up to you. You make your way to the skeleton. It's a skeleton with old clothes half rotted! A backpack rests besides it, and in one bony hand is a small book.
[20:21] * Lehko tries to pick out anything magical about the book before picking it up...
[20:22] <Kotono> The book doesn't seem to hav eany magic.
[20:23] * Lehko picks the book up, but opens the backpack before reading the book.
[20:24] <Kotono> Within the backpack is a change of clothes, horribly rotten trail rations and a small bag with some gil inside. You can take that if you please.
[20:24] * Lehko takes the gil and clothes, maybe they can be used to identify exactly what kind of people these were, before sitting down next to the skeleton and cracking the book open to read it.
[20:28] <Kotono> OOC: Loot post for the first two.
[20:33] <Kotono> The book is opened! It looks to be a diary. A diary of a man who begins by writing, "By foul chance my adventures have lead me to this nightmare. With a broken leg and no skill in white magic, I fear that my adventures will end here." It describes going in an old cavern in search of treasure and finding, "The crystal that hovered in the air was surrounded by curious gaps in the floor. To
[20:33] <Kotono> what end they serve I do not and can not know. I hardly paid them mind, seeing the crystal as a great treasure. Woe onto me for my shortsighed foolishness." He was transported to this place on touching it and wandered. He climbed down here but slipped, breaking his leg. "With my leg broken, I cannot escape. I always knew I would die on a battlefield or alone. It's the fate of an adventurer.
[20:33] <Kotono> I have no family or friends to mourn me. I only wish I had been wiser! This place is a frozen nightmare. What hubris built it? What folly left it to be forgotten? Was it the work of the Mysta Empire or something else? The iron here is not the smooth glowing iron of the Empire, nor is it like the works of Varonn. What galls me most of all is that I will die curious and unsatisfied."
[20:34] * Lehko looks at the skeleton with a raised eyebrow.
[20:35] <Lehko> "Pretty verbose for a dying man.."
[20:36] <Kotono> "I don't think he had anything else to distract himself," Shiva retorts.
[20:36] * Lehko looks around, wondering if there was anything the poor fellow was going *towards* out here.
[20:36] <Lehko> "True..."
[20:37] <Kotono> More iron sea in all directions. Nothing that indicates any sign of a landamrk.
[20:37] * Lehko puts the book in his pack and heads back the way he came, going for that main chamber again.. Only way left, after all.
[20:43] <Kotono> You return. The trip is long and you're feeling it difficult to advance. But you do. When you return back down and climb down to the floor? Far ahead you can hear...something. It's echoing.
[20:45] * Lehko grunts and uses a bit of white magic to wash away the fatigue, wanting to be fresh incase of a fight. OOC: MP use?
[20:47] <Kotono> OOC: Say as much as a cure spell.
[20:48] <Kotono> You walk on. And on and on and on...OOC: More in #dunes. I'll pause you in here for now since it's a bit dependant on them.

[20:52] <Kotono> As you call his name, abruptly a light appears ahead. Stumbling forward is Lehko, just suddenly there. Likewise, Lehko is walking and then he sees the gate and his friends ahead out of nowhere!
[20:52] * Lehko blinks and stares at the group for a second before raising a hand in greeting.
[20:53] <Lehko> "Hi there."
[20:53] <Penelo> "Lehko! What happened, kupo?!"
[20:54] <Morrie> "Lehko!" He runs over to him, checking him over for injuries. "Are you all right!?"
[20:54] <Lehko> "I have no idea. I woke up in a corridor back that way and went exploring. All I found were skeletons and iron. Found a diary and a set of clothes with some money. That's about it."
[20:55] * Lehko hands the clothes and book over looking at Morrie a bit oddly for his fussing.
[20:55] <Lehko> "Figured the clothes might be able to help identify exactly who these people are, but the diary sounds like the person wasn't from around here, either."
[20:56] <Penelo> "The entire place is empty. We have found nothing else here, kupo.. unless I am forgetting a path."
[20:56] * Lehko nods.
[20:56] <Lehko> "That's pretty much what I've found. Shiva doesn't recognize anything here, either."
[20:57] <Penelo> "I am sorry! I will never ask you to touch anything again."
[20:57] * Lehko shrugs.
[20:58] <Lehko> "Trying to get myself killed is what I do. If I can make it happen myself before the wives catch up, it'll be less painful, I figure."
[21:00] <Kotono> OOC: So what are y'all gonna do now?
[21:00] <Lehko> OOC: what path is left unexpored?
[21:02] <Kotono> OOC: That's all of them unless you go back the way you went, Lehko. If you do, there's that iron bridge, anything you might've missed in the massive skeleton chamber and the other way in your starting point.
[21:02] <Morrie> OOC: Indeed, we need to fill up our map with the touch screen.
[21:03] <Penelo> OOC: I hate leaving fog of war.
[21:03] <Lehko> "Now, I did find this bridge.. We can try to figure it out. I couldn't see much on my own."
[21:03] <Penelo> "Let us press on, then."
[21:04] * Lehko nods and heads back to the bridge.
[21:04] * Penelo will follow Lehko.
[21:04] * Santos follows Lehko as well.
[21:04] <Kotono> You walk past. The walk is as long as before. After about twenty minutes of walking, "Where in this did you appear, Lehko?" Ramuh asks, his voice coming from Morrie's mouth.
[21:05] * Lehko points out the way to the stairwell corridor.
[21:07] <Penelo> "This place feels endless."
[21:09] <Lehko> "I think it's just because it's built to a different scale than us... From an engineering stand-point, it all looks normal from what I can tell. Just.. Big."
[21:09] <Kotono> "The distances aren't right. It's not been that long since you vanished," Ramuh poitns out, "The crystal broke and then we went back this way. How long have you been at it?"
[21:10] <Lehko> "A while? Hours, likely. Enough that I had to boost myself with white magic to get rid of the fatigue."
[21:11] <Morrie> "Hours?" He looks at Ramuh. "That... can't be right, can it...?"
[21:12] <Kotono> "It isn't right. This place is not natural," Ramuh says, "Be cautious."
[21:13] <Lehko> OOC: We at the bridge?
[21:13] <Morrie> "Could time pass more quickly...?" He looks around, trying to get any sort of sense of what might be wrong.
[21:14] <Kotono> OOC: No, not yet.
[21:14] <Kotono> OOC: Make a magic lore or magic anything check, anyone who cares to.
[21:15] <Morrie> roll 2d6+2 ANYTHING!
[21:15] * Hatbot --> "Morrie rolls 2d6+2 ANYTHING! and gets 10." [2d6=2, 6]
[21:16] <Kotono> Something's wrong. The way you sense it feels off. Muddied. Like a powerful magic stopping detection.
[21:18] <Penelo> roll 2d6+4 magic!
[21:18] * Hatbot --> "Penelo rolls 2d6+4 magic! and gets 12." [2d6=5, 3]
[21:18] <Morrie> "...Ramuh, do you think... the crystal may... have something to do with this?" He tries to find his words of something he's confused about.
[21:19] <Kotono> Penelo can detect the same as Morrie.
[21:23] * Penelo she rubs at her chin, unable to really discern anything. She keeps quiet for the time being.
[21:23] <Kotono> "It might." Ramuh admits, "There's a powerful force at work here, that much is clear."