Scene #8045: That's A Big Tower Let's See What's Inside

Owner	Pose
Staren	Land of Towers and Dungeons Today's expedition involves a sea voyage. Last night, a hovercraft carrying people fleeing undead nonsense going on in another zone set out in search of a place to settle down, and set out across the ocean. Initial reconnaisance of the zone indicates that the 'oceans' are usually the size of large lakes at most, you'll usually find another landmass pretty quickly. But they picked exactly the wrong direction, and found themselves crossing endless waters, broken only by the towers sticking up from the water, one-eyed golems staring at them as they pass. It was a stormy night, and then when the storm cleared, they saw a somewhat breathtaking sight, just by its sheer size: A tower much bigger than all the others, rising into the sky farther than you can see. That's unusual, right? The settlers have parked the hovercraft (Staren provided a nuclear power source, so fuel isn't so much an issue) nearby, and are currently trying to decide whether to lay some sort of claim or investigate the tower or just move on with the original plan of finding land. Getting out to where they are from the warpgate (an artificial one set up by outside Staren's outpost in the Freeholds connects to a gate conveniently near a beach) involves crossing a lot of water but everyone has one way or another to do that. As they approach, Staren stares up at the tower and... just stares up at the tower. Seriously, that's BIG. Even if, given this zone, it's quite possibly just ('just') a giant dungeon, it's still not every day you see something of that scale. As the party comes close enough to see details, it appears to be made of grey stone or metal and heavily greebled -- there's a boxy angle to it, not unlike things in the Craftplain, but on a larger scale a vague sense of spiraling structure in how bulges that might indicate some kind of compartments or rooms -- each bigger than a house, but not a mansion -- around the outside. There are also glowing red runes set in squares-in-squares-in-squares-in... how small do they go? And also darker, unglowing runes; the significance is unclear. Staren muses, "...I feel like, if this is just endless monsters and treasure, it'll almost be kind of... a let down? I don't know what could be here that would actually amaze me as much as the exterior. ...Is it made of something super strong, or are the physical laws here just weird? Maybe we can take pieces of it... hmmmm..." Getting in close there are what might be doors and ways in at water level. Or at other levels for flyers.
Captain Hook	Hook claps Staren on the shoulder with his good hand. "Nonsense, madam. Treasure is its own reward. Quite literally." He strolls up towards the door without a second thought, hand on his cutlass. Then, he leans forward and knocks. "No way to learn anything about it save to go inside, is there? Speculating's just a waste of time." He whistles that ominous tick-tock song as he observes the thing. Then, with all the aplomb of a JRPG protagonist, he simply reaches into his coat and slots a square clock into one of the non-glowing runes. It starts ticking - or rather, it starts pulsing, a pair of hands just sort of emerging as light. "I picked this up on an island sometime ago. Bit of a struggle. Had to fight an undead pirate for it. Under the full moon and that sort of thing. Very dramatic," he says cheerily, "I've no idea what it does, but since it's the same sort of shape I assume it will do something, and doing something is far better than doing nothing - especially where treasure may be."
Staren	POSE LOST. In short: Clock pulses runes, runes around doorframe glow, Star-Trek-Style doors open with Star-Trek-Style-Swoosh. Inside is dark, lights come on in sequence with spotlight SFX. This 'chamber', matching the size of one of the bulges vaguely visible in the tower's structure, is... KIND of like a piece of vaguely victorian city? Or a not-quite-mansion-courtyard aesthetic that's been applied without rhyme or reason... there are structures LIKE parts of a house or mansion that just end at the chamber's walls, and between them an overgrown courtyard with trees and bushes (in the dark? How?) and vines going up the side. There is the sound of shuffling in the distance, the occasional groan or moan--"This zone does seem to like its undead enemies..." observes Staren--but nothing is attacking immediately. "So is each of these a seperate section, or are they connected...?" Staren puts up combat spells and, unless stopped, flies over to investigate a building -- and promptly gets splashed by a thrown potion through a window followed by something cackling inside one of the buildings. "Zombie. With... potions or something? Probably poison, I think my spells got it." She keeps Hook apprised of her status as she returns fire. And the noise of battle beginning draws skeletal swordsmen from some of the other 'buildings', which will engage Hook on sight pretty much. Some of them pull out bows and arrows to take aim at Staren while she's distracted.
Captain Hook	Hook's sure not going to stop Staren. He just listens as they walk, occasionally tapping the toe of his boot on the ground. It seems sort of like he's tapping his feet to some sort of beat but if Staren is actually paying close attention she might notice he's keeping time for some reason. He does take a few seconds as they walk to examine the architecture, but not in the way Staren's examining it - Staren's examining it like a scientist, analyzing, while Hook is examining it like a pirate. He's casually scanning for hidden doors with his good eye, or trapdoors, or other sorts of things. When Staren gets splashed by the potion, Hook immediately retaliates. His flintlock spins into his hook hand; his cutlass is in his good hand before the skeletons get anywhere close. Like a proper swashbuckler who buckles swashes he grabs onto one of the vines like it's rigging. He doesn't try to swing off it - rather he just jumps off it, landing in between Staren and the bow-and-arrow skeletons. "You deal with the ones with the blades, if you please. I'll keep these from getting anywhere near you." The hook hand flicks up the flintlock and fires (in that physics-defying nonsense way where he just seems to pull his hand back to trigger the trigger) at one of the skulls.
Staren	There are absolutely hidden doors all over the place. What's that about? Staren firing A Concerning Volume Of Energy Weaponry into the building fries whatever was in there before it can come up with a new plan. She nods at Hook's plan and keeps that up. Laser beats sword (when it isn't Hook's sword, anyway) and Hook's sword beats arrows handily. Skeletons are defeated and don't get back up. The inside of the 'buildings' are set up vaguely like a living area -- there's, say, something identifiable as a bedroom, or a study (with shelves full of weird nonsense books) but there's no sign of actual use. There are chests with treasure in them, although they follow 'random dungeon logic' -- some mildly enchanted armor and swords, gems but not a horde, and random junk like fishing rods, more books, scraps of cloth and leather... Hidden doors lead to back passages, or the group can find that a higher floor of one of the buildings actually has a door that goes somewhere -- either way, the next section is a fight up a wide, spiraling stairwell that seems to go on for like a dozen twists. Monsters just keep coming out of the darkness -- Staren and Hook placing light contraptions eventually eliminates that problem, but then the real battle begins, such as it is -- a skeletal figure in a purple wizard robe with stars on it and a crown -- "I haven't seen THAT in other dungeons here, but I haven't seen that many!" notes Staren -- starts doing various Bossfight Mechanic Bullshit, like summoning more monsters, chucking fireballs, flying in and out of paintings on the walls, or splitting into three visually indistinguishable copies flying around the room making them guess which is the 'real' one.
Captain Hook	Hook doesn't really discriminate. Enchanted armor and swords, gems, they all just go directly into the magic chest. Low-level treasure is Treasure. You don't discriminate when it comes to Treasure. You just Take It and Add It To The Loot. Staren's probably never actually seen Hook's greed in action, but the grin on his face is almost primal - like he's utterly defined by being a Greedy Adult, because, well, he is. And then the purple wizard shows up. Hook whistles as Staren mentions that she's not been in many of the other dungeons. "Well, then we'll simply correct that later!" He says as he dives forward into a roll. The fireballs are, as usual, absolutely no threat to him - he just bounces them around with pinpoint flintlock shots or his sword, as always, sending them into the walls. After a bit of this - and a few very close scrapes with some of the monsters, including very nearly being blown to bits by a strange green blinking thing - Hook comes to a conclusion. "You enjoy hypotheses, my dear lady!" He says, "I've a fine one for you!" He spins into one of the skeletons' next attacks. It's a good whack, leaving a bloody scratch across his chest, but it's got him in position to point his flintlock over his arm and bend his sword for a deflection. The next fireball comes in. "What do you suppose happens if we blast all the pictures at once?!" The flintlock rings out. The fireball is bounced towards another portrait. Hook takes another swipe from a skeleton in the back, stumbling forward, but not before the payload's away. He'll just count on Staren for the last one. And lasers are pretty fast, so.
Staren	"I had plans! I cleared out a whole floor before the first surge ended and then--" A fireball explodes against Staren's forcefield, sending her skidding back to the wall before she can arrest her movement with magic. Another fireball is sent Hook's way before the lich dives into a painting. Hook proposes cheating the portrait game by choosing 'all of them'. Staren grins at being on the team so handily outsmarting the enemy, and missiles come out. "DUCK!" Everything level with the portraits is charred, furnishings removed, the railing half-melted, and the stairs covered by a thin layer of rapidly-cooling glass. It's quiet for a moment. "...Uhhh..." Staren wonders, and then the lich reappears in the center of the stairs, tinted red and vibrating for a moment before launching its next attack. Fireballs come faster. More monsters are summoned. It splits into more copies. But, frankly, the idea of 'what if we just blast ALL of them?' solves most of these problems. Dissolving into dust, the lich leaves behind a set of magic gear -- a cape of flying, a crown of monster summoning (presumably not THE crown, if so it's damn underwhelming), a robe of splitting into illusionary copies, and a rod that shoots fireballs -- and runes at the top of the stairs light up, opening a door to a treasure room. There's, like, a nice carpet, nice nonmagical paintings on the walls varying from landscapes to skeletons engaged in various day-to-day activities to someone tackling a horse, the room lit by everburning candelabras and against one wall a large treasure chest. A couple of pieces of armor and raw ingots both of material that is extremely magically conductive while being similar to steel in physical properties; a robe and cloak that allow the wearer to channel magic slightly more efficiently while crafting, wands that make temporary platforms and lights and blasts of magic force, a belt that makes the wearer run faster and jump higher while expending less energy... And a block with runes on it, of uncertain purpose. (Used outside, it seems to work like Hook's clock.) (Also, once they make it outside, the pattern of lit/unlit runes has changed, so that more nearby doors are accessible.)
Captain Hook	With that same unbelievably hungry look in his eyes, Hook advances to the treasure, crouching down to pick up the crown, the cape, and the robe. Fascinating. Hook does not offer a cut to Staren - Staren will probably have to fight him to get any of this stuff, because...well, once again, he's literally defined by greed. The treasure room, though. The greed mingles with delight at the treasure room. This. This is what the pirate lives for. This is what he craves. More than trinkets, more than baubles, more than magic items, Hook craves the moment of opening the treasure room. He craves the moment the chest opens, the moment of seeing what was under the X marked on the map. And then the treasure chest. He kneels, like a proper pirate should, and opens it with both hands to bask in the glow of a job well done. Hook takes a long, long, quiet moment to stare at it before he drops his own chest on the ground and starts dumping stuff in.
Staren	Staren happens to pick up the fireball rod first while Hook is grabbing the other things -- she blasts a wall with it, then shrugs, "I've already made one of these myself..." and passes it to Hook. She doesn't look like she's just completely oblivious to the way Hook has been Taking Everything, but... well, she doesn't seem to mind all that much. She's gotten plenty from Secundus (she's STILL sorting through some of the artifacts recovered from Wonder), Hook getting lots of treasure will encourage him to come here more which is only good for the Concord in the end! The treasure room gets a cursory glance, but she too heads right for the chest. It feels right to let Hook open it, and while he stares, she wonders what it might all be, what with enchanted items not always having obvious function -- but when he starts taking everything, she finally speaks up: "Hey, um... can I get a piece of that metal to study? It looks familiar... And that box with the runes on it must go to something elsewhere in this tower, right?"
Captain Hook	Hook looks up at Staren as if he's only suddenly realized she's there. He stares at her for a moment with his one good eye, then looks back at the metal. With great reluctance he hands it to her - but he does not hand over the box with the runes. Instead he tosses it in one hand. "I've no doubt it does. That's why I'll be holding onto it for the time being." "So you don't keep going deeper without me." He grins at her. "I trust you don't mind that arrangement. Besides, it will certainly be safe with me. Once it's been used I've no doubt it'll be worthless, so you can have it to study then."
Staren	Staren looks kind of awkwardly tense as Hook considers. She doesn't want to fight, but it would be annoying if she didn't get to check that... When he hands it over she's eagerly feeling it, looking closely, and finally a bit of electric-blue light pulses over the ingot and she smiles, glad to Know A Thing. "Yes. Properly treated, this stuff can protect people from magical radiation, where that's a problem -- and with a sample to experiment with, I might be able to find more uses for it..." Hook brings up the box. 'So you don't go deeper without me.' She laughs, the logic unexpected but sensible! "Yeah, that's fine! Good point, whatever internal mechanisms it may contain will provide just as much insight after they're used." Still smiling, she looks around, stretches, and takes a breath. "Well, that seems to be it for this section. I don't think this is actually livable. We can let the settlers know to move on, I'll come up with something to send them in thanks for the discovery. I look forward to working with you again!" She holds out a hand to shake. The correct hand, shaking the hook would be awkward. Then she looks towards the exit, but pauses. "I guess we should take the paintings too, huh? Or you should. I don't really get most art..."