4173/SW: Stage 3, 4 and 5

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SW: Stage 3, 4 and 5
Date of Scene: 28 May 2016
Location: Great Ocean - Southern Loop
Synopsis: Rolling Boulders! A river full of threats! Pushing on no matter what!
Cast of Characters: Deelel, 151, 165, 778, 942, 984


Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    A couple days later and we're back on the island of Kaho'olawe.

    The island isn't just suffering from being overtaken by plant growth.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1cbKFgz-9g
    Mystic Cave Zone (Remix) - Sonic the Hedgehog 2
    Sega and NicoCW - 1992 and 2014
)

     Since the Yaoguai are creatures of chaos, brief surveys of the island have noted that there has been no small degree of rearranging of the island's features, leaving it overrun with bizarre changes to the landscape such as floating platforms, really angry tiki heads that roam about of their own accord, giant stone crushers that roll back and forth, and huge pits filled with snakes.

    All of these things are set to try us!

    Having arrived on the beach next to Tangaroa's tree, Ren's going to push past the sand and begin moving straight into the jungle beyond, machete and torch at the ready. We're going to have to cross about four miles of weirdness to get to the temple.

    Welina!
    M�kaukau?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Today, Ainsley is dressed in a safari outfit! She's got a sleeveless shirt, a pair of shorts and one of those safari caps that all the old-timey hunters used! At least based on the stereotypes of those times.

    She also brought her longsword today! She's expecting she'll have to use it. Those fish from the last time were pretty nasty, but now she's pretty sure she'll be dealing with things she can't easily avoid.

    "Quite an adventure~" she says, as if the chaos that waits for them will be fun and not a horrible slog of jungle and traps and animals and monsters. This tropical weather really makes her take a positive spin on things... or, well, she's just crazy. Being a wizard and all. "Do you think we'll have to run away from a rolling boulder?"

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
"Man... This place looks weeeird." Kazuko furrows her brow as she gives herself an impromptu shoulder massage with her naginata, rolling the handle of the polearm along her back while peering out at the obstacles in the distance. "These yao... Mao... Ga's had way too much time to do this, huh?"


T She isn't making the connection yet. Not that she needs to, since she's here for one reason: Beating up the weird monsters bothering that talking tree god! "You mean like that old guy with the whip? We should be okay as long as we don't touch any tiny statues."

     If they're lucky today, there won't be any tiny statues for Kazuko to touch.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    SAFARI OUTFITS! Kyle's still in his DIX MAGNUM wear, though his trunks have been replaced with practical cargo kaki shorts, and he's sporting a rugged pair of hiking boots. His lightsaber chops and slashes at the vines and branches in the way, trying to make sure the path is clear. It's a good thing everyone's got blades today, it seems.

    "If we do, I get the feeling that'll be the least of our worries. I'm more wondering if angry locals chase us." He means more the monsters, but sure, angry poison arrow flinging tribesmen would be pretty unpleasant too!

    He's had his fill of jungles, especially with the times he's had to go find lost students on Yavin IV.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Can't say I'm not excited to see what'll come of this! There might be artifacts and treasure where these CREATURES come from." States Karal Rei Lin, who's always happy to receive payment for work she'd be happy to do anyways.

    Which includes stopping these monsters from terrifying innocent folks. Some part of her's screaming at her that this is a GREAT opportunity to do the right thing. A righteous cause - after all, who's duty is it to stand at the forefront and bring down dark creatures?

    The Dawn Caste.

    "Hand me that thing if it dulls or chips, I'll have it fixed up in no time. Better than ever." She asides to Ren from not far behind him.

    She's in her ordinary attire this time instead of the two-piece bathing suit, and understandably sweating, but she doesn't appear terribly bothered by the heat and toil. She's as raring to go as anyone could be.

    Even now she's grinning fearlessly into the jungle with a hand on her sword just in case...

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Ren Tanaka is... well, his normal outfit is perfect for this kind of thing anyway, so that's what he's wearing. He knows Tangaroa won't mind him cleaving through plants- they're corrupted ones, anyway.

    "Maybe," he says to Ainsley. "Might even have to dodge some that are rolling back and forth." Bloody non-euclidean chaos beings.

    "It must have been about a week since they took this place over?" he says to Kazuko, working his way through a bush. THWACK THWACK. "-thank you, Rei Lin. Yes, we could only move so quickly. They won't have dug in enough by now, but that's why we're trying to just cut right to the heart of things." THWACK. "If a yaoguai of any tier gets deep into Creation, they act as a control network for all the smaller ones, so if we take him out everything smaller should... well, wilt."

    "...I'm worried about the other people," Tanya says to Kyle. "The natives who live in the temple must be in hiding right now. I hope they're all okay."

    A chorus of cackles can be heard from the plants around them, and just as the group makes it into a clearing with a stream-

    http://imgur.com/a/NVRec

    These guys show up.

    "Shouldn't you be more worried about yourselves?" "Hello, humans. I'm Spore-" "I'm Shoot-" "And I'm Splinter." "We're the official guardians of Rex Exfolia's NEW temple. And once he's finished eating this puny native god, we'll go back to Creation as conquerors!"

    "No you won't!" Tanya shouts, then covers her mouth and steps behind Ren. Did she just yell at that huge guy?

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    CHOP! CHOP CHOP! Kyle shrugs at Tanya, "We'll save 'em, don't worry about that." He says, before nudging a dead tree to the side, just in time to see the quirky mini boss squad of today, it seems!

    Lightsaber in hand, Kyle begins to move in front of Tanya, hovering in front of her like a protective figure. "You're gonna have to go through me, and scarier have tried before." he says confidently, staring down Spore in particular. Plant monsters, this is a thing that's happening right now.

    Thing is, he's killed a SHITLOAD of plant monsters since this mess began, so he feels he's something of a quick study with this sort of thing. "Come and get us."

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Yaoguai?" The term's new to Lin, so she tilts her head hoping for some clarification. "... This is Creation?! That's news to--" Rustle-rustle-RUSTLE.

    Karal Rei Lin ceases traipsing through the jungle and tightens the grip on her sword, senses sharpening and focusing until she's narrowed down three distinct sources of sound.

    The redhead makes the FOULEST of faces at the three monsters. Her question is somewhat answered about where she is and isn't, but the girl worriedly flicks her gaze back and forth from creature to creature.

    Hard to gauge how threatening these three things are, but the way they carry themselves may at least give her some clue...

    "Be ye demon or fae or whatever you are, one thing you AREN'T is welcome here. You and your boss can leave peacefully..."

    The redhead dips down into a combat stance, leg sweeping around, and a thumb hovers just under the grip of her guard. With a simple flick she budges the blade a half-inch out, letting it gleam threateningly in the clearing's light.

    "... or in pieces."

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "You're kidding, right?"

    Ainsley looks at them for a while once they reach the clearing, and then to herself and then back at them, and she couldn't sound or look more skeptical if she tried. "First of all, I'm not human. Do I look human to you? Is it the hat?" She adjusts her hat. "Second of all: Shut up." She reaches out with her hand and does a shoosh motion with her fingers, casting a spell so they can't talk back.

    "Your plan is terrible. You are not the first band of warlords to do this, and probably not the last, but could you please rethink this conqueror thing? Couldn't you, like... provide a resource no one else can make, and then gain power by trading it? You could get land that way and no one would hate you. Well, no one with any sense of reason and equality."

    Ainsley puts her hand on the hilt of the longsword and floats an inch off the ground. She knows they probably don't care. She just tires of the old warlord mentality and having to stab dudes to stop problems.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
"Boulders going in two directions? But that's... How would that even work?" Good job, Ren. Now Kazuko's going to be trying to figure out physics for a while.

     Thankfully, not for long because physics in confusing, and boulder physics doesn't help her with chopping or beating things up. "So we just gotta find the head, then... Alright. I can reach real high if it's a tall one!"

     Could Kyle or Karal or Ainsley or... Literally anyone in this group do that better than her with their own powers? Probably. But Kazuko... Kazuko's got a long bladed stick! That's gotta count for something, right?

     If nothing else, it'll be handy for those creatures accosting them. She opens her mouth to say something, but stops when Tanya of all people shouts back. Kazuko smirks, then moves into a defensive position in front of her and Ren with the naginata drawn.

     "That's right! Living here with everyone else is one thing, but we won't let you bully everyone else!"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Before they arrived:

    Ren clarifies to Rei Lin, "No, this is Hawaii. But I'm going to assume that the same is true, because if not we're going to need a whole lot of weed-whackers."

    Now they've arrived:

    In terms of sizing the three of them up- well, each of them is about ten feet tall, on average. Spore is the biggest and gorilla-est of the three, with much bigger arms than legs. Of course, Shoot doesn't have legs, and seems to just have a tapering serpentlike body. And Splinter has four legs, and is probably perching on top of a half-sunken tiki statue right now.

    The three of them laugh again, but it's cut off in a jolt by Ainsley's rather angry demand. The three of them try talking for a few seconds afterwards- it initially fails, although it's hard to tell since only one of them really has a mouth- but after a brief moment of rasping and gurgling, they've pushed past it. That might be worrying.

    "Ah, how brave!" "You can talk the talk, but you've made the mistake of coming into our domain."

    "(Not yours,)" Tanya says quietly, balling her fist up. Her pendant and eyes both flicker lightly.

    "We're bull-headed bullies, alright! An invasive species that chokes out all others!" "It's like planting kudzu in the best fertilizer in the market." "Yes! Plants grow fine in ground up bones and blood!" "We're thriving here and you've walked right into the flytrap's jaws, really." "But we're not even going to fight you."

    The trees behind them crackle, shifting like two curtains being pulled apart. From here to the temple built into the top of the mountain, you can see a huge assortment of twisted terrain.

"You'll have to run three seperate gauntlets-" "And we have control of all of it." "I've made a bet you won't even get past the first set!"

The three of them laugh a little more, then shrink and disappear as they become balls of green flame that whirl around and fly off into the distance.

    Here's the first set of obtacles- let's call it the Road to Ruin.

    A gauntlet of grotesquerie straight out of a video game, here's where those aforementioned non-euclidean things were. You want floating platforms over pits? You got it. Boulders rolling around of their own accord? You got it. Idols breathing fire? You got it. Smaller plant creatures roaming around like the ones on the beach? Spikes? Conspicuous switch-like squares on the ground? Tar pits, somehow? You got it!

    Right at the end, off in the distance, you can see Shoot, standing with two open-mouthed tikis on either side of him, and with energy strings digging into the ground, controlling everything.

    Ren takes a moment scratching his chin, then picks up Tanya and takes off running. Yeah, it's gonna be one of those days.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Hoo boy...Kyle looks at the course and just flashes back briefly to a horrific amount of jumping and climbing he had to do while on Bespin...and Nar Shadda. And also the training courses Luke had him running...and other places. He seems to do an awful amount of running and climbing and jumping, after all. Clipping his lightsaber back to his belt, he takes off after Ren and Tanya in a steady jog.

    "I can't wait to shut those guys up, not going to lie." He admits, leaping towards the nearest platform on the course proper.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
It really is turning into an obstacle course. Kazuko's not quite sure how to react to that at first, looking at where those three figures had been prior to disappearing with a dumbstruck look on her face. "They want us to...? But can't we...?"

     Maybe it'll be easier if she tries not to think too hard about it. Besides, the one calling himself Shoot is still visible on the other side of their gauntlet. "Yeah... Bet I can get there first, Mister Kyle!" It doesn't take long for her to actually get pumped again, though, especially with the prospect of excessive violence! Kazuko takes off after Kyle and Ren (and Tanya), already looking ahead to get a better idea of what's in store for them. Holes, fire, tiny creatures, and...

     ... Never-stopping rocks. So much for taking her mind off that one.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
THIS display gets Lin STARING. WHY does the Multiverse insist on slamming her with ridiculous thing after ridiculous thing? She dashes after the trio but stops at the obstacle course's beginning, mouth agape and mind fizzling with half-ideas.

    Eventually though... "Oh. I get it. They're cowards and want to wear us down with deathtraps first." She leaps up onto one of the platforms, ready to tackle her way after the trio...

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley lets out a big sigh and gives a bigger and animated shrug, her feathers puffing up for a second. "Always have to be difficult..." she complains half-heartedly, and then she follows after the others. The obstacles put before them are, mostly, things she has no trouble with because she has the ability to fly. She doesn't fly, exactly, she makes it seem like she's just really good and accurate at jumping.

    Hop, hop. And ACTION ROLL to dodge rolling rocks. Careful, calm timing to leap through flames. A nice firm chop of a longsword against anything that comes at her with hostile intent. She handles it as confidently as a person can, and perhaps moreso.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Sproing!

    "Yeah, basically Rei Lin. Don't feel too bad about it, Ainsley, yaoguai are assholes," Ren says to her- and to Kazuko too, he guesses. "I guess if they're really my world's matchup of demons and fae, one thing they both have in common is stringing along and taunting people they think are weaker. I mean to be fair, they are in a pretty good position." If Ren's wrong about stabbing the leader, then they'll be stuck in the middle of an island with hundreds of angry minor monsters. So, yeah.

    "Now, don't take this the wrong way or anything," Ren says to Tanya, taking high high leaps onto and off of the floating platforms.

    "N-n-not a problem," Tanya replies, eyes wide as saucers.

    As soon as people begin jumping on platforms, that's when the chaos will really start. What's the best way to screw up your jumps? Little plant creatures flying out of the brushes to ram into you, that's what. They're not bats, they're not (really) medusa-esque, but some of them do fly and some of them are covered in wriggly bits.

    Watch out for rolling rocks! Now, I'd say 'you might want to wait and see if they're moving in a pattern', but experience has taught this narrator that Kazuko isn't one for looking before she leaps, so just hope a sudden right-angle turn or speed-up isn't going to take her too badly by surprise!

Mid-way through one leap Ren gets peppered with cactus spines (WHY is there a CACTUS in HAWAII?), and it distracts him- upon coming down he can't help but land on one of those square switches, which sets some of the open-mouthed tikis off and shooting jets of flame.

    Rocks, fire, and flying grass- and we thought this wasn't a Pokemon adventure.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    "Typical." Kyle grouses, before he makes an EPIC action dive to another platform. He gives Kazuko a wide grin, nodding before he runs across the platform. "You're on, kid! Loser buys the winner lunch after this is over!" he laughs, making his way towards the boulders. No way he could move those on short notice, so he tries something else.

    Drawing his lightsaber, he charges towards a boulder headed his way, and he slashes downwards to stop it dead and cut the stone in two. HAH! One less hazard for this team of heroes, that's for sure!

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Patterns are no match for KAzuko's speed! Or boulders, actually. The moment she sees an opening, she just goes right for it without any regard to the boulders following up behind it. Luckily for her, Kyle goes to take one of those out, and it gives her just the opening she needs to get through without getting flattened.

     "Thanks, Mister Kyle! For the rock and lunch!" She sounds quite confident about that, but at least she's not one to not return the favor. After leaping to another platform, she spies the approaching plant creatures and brandishes the naginata overhead. She waits until they fly into range, then slashes at them with well practiced swings to try and clear some of them out for her allies.

     "This is all sort of... Familiar, isn't it. I feel like a ninja doing all this...!"

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Again, WHAT are Yaoguai?! Never HEARD of these things. ... Though there's probably plenty of things I don't know about in Creation. Not exactly a shaman or a scholar... yet..." But she's a SOMETHING, as is pretty obvious by the way she, like Ren, can effortlessly leap her way into the obstacle course and start barreling along it. Lin's quite nimble, but as Solars go... she's a n00b.

    Consequently, instead of gliding along the thing effortlessly like sunlight shimmering over water she's more clumsily leaping and springing about in quick hops and suffering a few close shaves with the rocks and -- "WHAAAAH!!"

    She SOMEHOW manages to kick off a nearby rolling rock midleap and change her trajectory to dive through the lower fringes of a flame jet instead of going straight through its upper reaches.

    With a WHUMPF she tumbles over a platform, sort of singed, hem of her cloak smoldering lightly...

    And coughing.

    Breathing in BURNING AIR is just not good. She'll need a moment to recover.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "Seem kinda like demons to me!" Ainsley says to Karal, knowing even less about Creation than the Solar does. The lizard woman focuses on avoiding traps, and it becomes clear she is 'cheating' when, at one point, she soars clear over several obstacles that fly at her, and when one of the plant monsters completely fails to get gravity to affect her mid-leap, because she has to stop in the air as if her feet are brakes, and give a vicious overhead chop to the thing.

    She's not coming out unscathed, mind. She's got cuts and bruises and scorches, because she's trying to keep with the group in case she needs to help someone avoid death.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Ah, so we're racing, are we?

     "Everything flying at you is a Yaoguai!" Ren shouts exasperatedly at Rei Lin. It's hard defending himself from these flying things with Tanya in his arms! A green- oh, hey, it IS a bat- swoops out of a tree, and Tanya squeaks and flails her arm at it. In a green flash, it explodes just as easily as if one of you had hit it!

    If you can't dodge and if you can't tank it, you could go for the stylish play and cut it in half entirely, like Kyle's trying to do. Oh, it'll work alright- it just causes both of the halves to start dizzily flopping about by themselves.

    Shoot definitely seems to be concerned about how fast everyone's approaching him! So he makes with a second round of, well, shoots into the ground and starts moving his fingers like a pianist. He wanted to be a pianist, you know, but he couldn't find a piano big enough for his enormous hands, so instead he became a giant plant monster. It's kind of sad when you think about it.

    Rei Lin has to take a stop to breathe, but fortunately she's got Ainsley to guard her briefly while she does so. Problem is, she might be able to deal with nicks and scrapes, but every boulder and platform is picking up speed and begins moving even faster towards them-

    And then it takes a sharp turn to the left? If anyone takes the time to look, they're rolling over SOME of the switches, but they're leaving some untouched--

    Can you afford to risk it?

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Kyle uses the Force to shove both halves of boulder aside like parting a curtain. Then he carries on to the next corridor, taking a leap to an elevated platform. He uses the Force to propel him far across the air, allowing him to grab onto another platform with a near miss, leaving him worried for a brief moment before he climbs atop of the platform.

    "Better hurry it up, Kazu!" He calls out to Kazuko with a laugh, then goes back to leaping from platform to platform with more grace than a grizzled thirty something should have. Lousy cheating Jedi types and their fancy Force ninja leaping.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    It's kind of bad that they are boulders. Ainsley can only move so fast, and despite it swerving away from her it rolls RIGHT over her tail and nearly stuns her stupid from the pain of it while she's helping Karal out! And then she's making a loud whining noise as tingles shoot up her spine for a second, then she's moving all over again.

    And she pauses to take stock of what Shoot is doing. The switches are being activated by rolling boulders... But some are being left untouched. So Ainsley decides to experiment. She leaps for the switches. If this territory obeys different rules, like that surfboard run, then it would be worth trying to play by this guy's rules and see if he irrationally put in things that could backfire on him! Press ALL the switches!

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
"Where are these even coming from?!" Kazuko's sounding a little frazzled as she slashes apart another flying beastie, looking around to try and figure out where they and the boulders are even coming from. That distraction costs her a bit, though, when she notices Kyle making that massive jump!

     "Wha... How'd you do that, Mister Kyle? That's way too far for a normal person!" Says the girl with the monster sister. She's not willing to let herself get beaten that easily, though, and she'll just have to pick up the pace to make up for her lack of cheating Jedi jumps! She leaves the switch experimentation to Ainsley as she runs for another platform, hurling herself over another pit and coming face to face with... EVEN MORE PITS AND FLYING BASTARDS.

     Time for some creative jumping of her own. Although she can't jump as far as Kyle, she can still find her own shortcuts. She waits for the perfect moment to hurtle across another gap before planting her feet on a pair of flying minions, using them as a springboard and rolling past another wave of boulders! She doesn't come through completely safely, though, wincing as one of the boulders brushes right up against her arm after that landing.

     "Tch... We're almost there! We're coming for you, Shoe!"

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"That tells me NOTHING. Where do they come from?! The Wyld?! Underground?!" With every word Lin's sounding ever-more baffled and bewildered as plant creatures and strange things whip around the mad course. "Rrrrrah!" Ainsley's there to keep a plant off her back, but she slams both hands into the platform, grips hard... and FRONTFLIPS to the next platform to avoid another bouncing boulder and pick up the pace again.

    This time when plant creatures come flying out she dips and dives and RISE-SLASHES, chopping the irritating things in half.

    "Who BUILT this out here in the middle of nowhere?! ... AND WHY?!"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Yeah! They're not the only one who can part things like curtains, you go Kyle.

    "Is it- really- relevant- right- now?" Ren asks Rei Lin.

    Well, Shoot didn't necessarily put in traps that might backfire on him, but the three stooges DID have a bet going on... Splinter put them there, and Ainsley is right to start hitting switches.

    Now, granted, not ALL of these are going to be successful. Non-Ainsley people MAY find themselves with additional fire to dodge, it's hardly as if a little more challenge here is going to make Kyle and Kazuko upset. Well, Kazuko's kind of upset already. By now the idea of being right in the thick of the enemy forces will definitely be apparent. But hey, they're only a third of the way there- don't waste all of your energy so soon!

    Shoot is just as unhappy as Kazuko, perhaps even moreso.

    Well, the switches have activated the tikis on either side of him, and they spring to life to hose him with huge jets of flame from either side. Taken entirely by surprise, there's little he can do as he burns to a cinder along with the strings controlling all of the platforms.

    "Finally," Ren says. Tanya's still in his arms. "They're from the wyld. Environment of chaos, right? They can probably warp the entire landscape of this island to make it into their playground..."

    After making your way out of the ruin-peppered ground, you're going to make it to the large river. Here is your second set of obstacles- will you be Up The Stream (Without a Paddle)?

    This river runs about twelve feet wide and fifteen feet deep. You're going to have to take your chances- there's monsters and spikes lining each side.

     This time your floating platforms are far more numerous but at least they're floating on the water instead of mid-air- oh, no, sorry, some of them are in fact still floating in mid-air. Those scowling tangled-up balls of seaweed are floating in the water, so don't linger on the lilypads too long. On the other hand, they're more stable footing than the slippery logs. And Splinter was technically right- you really are in the flytrap's jaws. Or will need to be, in any case- some of them are floating in the water where there are no other things to stand on.

    At the far end of the river on a big stone platform there's Splinter himself. A huge pile of tiki-like objects are behind him, and he's picking them up in his jaws and spitting them downstream. Sometimes they float downriver, sometimes they fly like mortars!

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Also, they explode!

    extra words here for the scenesys to pick it up

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    WOO! EXPLOSIONS!

    Wait, that's bad! Kyle narrowly avoids getting hit dead-on by a mortar tiki, and he tries not to trip over one while he heads down the river. The water seems like a bad place to be, so he remains atop the platforms for now.

    He draws his lightsaber once more, trying to bat at incoming projectiles to cut them out of the air, or knock them off course with Force blasts along his way. The amount of fire heading their way might make this hard though, especially with the limited room to maneuver.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
EXPLOSIONS! And FIRE!Two things that... Traditionally haven't been Kazuko's friends when near her. She's running even faster to keep herself from getting set on fire, although some of those come dangerously close and even burn off part of her shirt! Thankfully, with Shoot taken out? It's time to move on to round two!

     Kazuko probably shouldn't have gone so crazy with round one. OH WELL. "Their playground...? Well, too bad for them because we're gonna stop them, no matter who they are." Kazuko still sounds fired up, at least, even if her body might not be! Splinter's obstacles draw a long stare from the martial artist, but she's not going to get cowed by the... Plant-thing. She starts traversing the lilypads, moving a little more carefully than before to conserve her energy and not get her shit wrecked!

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"What..." Lin croaks, disbelieving. "That's something Fae can only do in the WYLD I thougght..." Her eyes are WIDE now. Wide with worry. If there ARE things that can do this outside the Wyld that's just TERRIFYING.

    Oh well. Business continues as usual until they reach... THE RIVER.

    Lin takes a good ten seconds to examine the obstacle course, then... "Let me show you what eight, sopping wet hours of hard training produced, after seeing those ship spirits skating around on the water..."

    She apts to SKIP MOST OF THE OBSTACLE COURSE ENTIRELY and just starts dashing across the platforms. But where one would -expect- that she'd need to take high ground... she instead takes the low ground. FWOOOOOOSH. Off in a hyper-speed charge straight for Splinter. Against all sensibilities she's able to SKIP across the water like a ston and just keep running in brief spurts where there's no actual FOOTING.

    ... What kind of training did she DO anyways?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    As before, with the previous problematic obstacle course, Ainsley has a distinct advantage in her ability to fly. She makes it look like she's just hopping across the surface of the water. As she goes, she observes what Splinter is doing, and where he's getting his ammunition from. She makes sure to track where the tiki mortars are being fired, and to avoid where they float down the river.

    "Knock the shots back into his ammo stockpile," she suggests to the others, "He really shouldn't have it all stacked up like that."

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    I'm not saying there are piranhas in the water, because there aren't. However there may be leeches! You know how it is, you stick your arm in water for two seconds, dozen leeches on there when you pull it out. That's how water works, it's just science.

    Plant... plant leeches. This is hawaii, not the amazon.

    Be careful! When slicing objects in two with your lightsaber, you may discover that they explode. Or maybe they're just filled with gunpowder? It depends. Is it like snipping the fuse off of a bomb with scissors, or is it like trying to cut it off with a welding torch? Fucking lightsabers, how do they work.

    Division of labor might be the key here considering some people got themselves kind of torched in the first obstacle course. For example, right now Ren and Tanya are making a two-person human bridge to keep one of the flytraps pushed open so that some of you can pass! Actually, considering how much Tanya's crying, maybe they just got themselves in horrible trouble somehow. It's fine, Kazuko, step on over, he's Ren, he can take being bitten a bit.

    Splinter doesn't have a whole lot of strategy. Unlike Shoot, he can't puppetmaster the entire thing- he's just relying on the flow of the river to take a steady stream of overwhelming firepower to you.

    Firepower which is all stacked behind him.
    Hmm.

    This might mean things get a little bit awkward for him as Rei Lin opts to completely bypass the level and goes racing towards him and his munitions! The tanglekelp in the water is absolutely going to go into a frenzy trying to grab Rei Lin, tie her up and drag her down, but--?!?

    Splinter is panicked! In his haste, what with Rei Lin running towards him, he throws at least five tiki bombs into the river, each of them moving at different speeds. He's down to two thirds of his stack!

    How can you deal with this rapidly approaching problem?

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Oh boy. Kyle narrowly avoids getting singed from the tiki mortar he lightsabers out of the air, sustaining a few burns in the process as he leaps away.

    Ainsley brings up a good point. A lot of the ammo is stacked pretty closely to one another, pretty dangerous thing to do with explosive ordinance.

    Kyle grins, flicking a shell towards the ammo dump with the Force. "Package says return the sender, sorry!" He calls out with a laugh. Then, he takes after Rei Lin, leaping from platform to platform as fast as he can while making his way towards Splinter directly, grabbing another mortar and flinging it towards Splinter himself.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    "That's the ticket!" Ainsley excitedly calls over to Kyle as he catches on pretty quickly after what she said. She makes sure not to submerge her vulnerable toes into the water, merely skipping across the water as if she were weightless. She kind of is, able to float down the river and avoid the threats it presents to her, but she makes a show of staying with the others because she doesn't want to just rush ahead when everyone else is in serious danger.

    She pauses momentarily to try to help Ren and Tanya to the next platform, in fact, because they looked like they were having issues.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Oh. Oh dear. "Uhhhhhh!!" Better think fast, Lin! With bombs flowing at her she reacts in a panic, reaching up a sleeve and hurling something metallic at the bombs. A sharp eye will note they're basically throwing knives - or, more specifically, kunai, and they're flung with tremendous force and a sharp eye.

    Only to hear Kyle approaching from behind. "H-hey, wait!!"

    Too late. WHUNK!!

    Her blades embed deep into the bombs, cracking the exterior... but not far enough away. Being caught in the fringe of ONE would be bad but she's caught in the range of three, and just lucks out that the other two detonate but too far from her to affect her much. She's blown clear out of the water and up into the air, coming back down with a hard WHUNK on the edge of a floating platform. At a glance it's obvious her lower body's taken severe injury. Bloodied and ripped, her legs look much like raw meat with skin shredded and deep scorches, shrapnel embedded into them. Yelling defiantly at the agony she manages to swing her body up and onto the platform from hanging by her arms and turns to ripping the most painful chunks of debris from her flesh in pained gasps. "Dammit... went in... too fast..."

    Although now she looks at the guy's volatile pile of bombs... right behind him... "Shoot the bomb pile! Shoot the bomb pile behind him!" She calls to the others while struggling to get to her feet. Her legs are NOT cooperating very well. She wobbles and lurches and limps while working to get upright again.

    Most people would be dead from that. Dead five times over.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Explosions send plumes of water up into the air, disturbing and even outright sending tanglekelp and giant flytraps into the air, waterborne roots flailing helplessly in the air. Make sure you're not knocked into the water!

    Kyle uses the force and scoops one mortar out of the water at Ainsley's advice. It's a game of hot potato, because that fuse is pretty short, but...

    Speaking of short fuses, Karal Rei Lin has taken a severe hit! Badly wounded, let's just say it's a good thing I was kidding about the leeches and everything plant and evil is currently flying through the air, whole or in bits, and also that the sharks are as we established on YOUR side, because... wow, that definitely is a lot of blood.

    But really, you should see the other guy.

    The airborne mine sails over Rei Lin's head and makes a lazy arc towards Splinter: he has time to look up at it- appropriately enough with another bomb in his jaws- before it hits him square in the forehead.

    What happens next is very similar to National Public Radio's imfamous report on the dangerous Exploding Maple Tree, as Splinter and his remaining munitions go snap, crackle and most importantly POP. There's bark and sap everywhere, it's carnage.

    Gross.

    You may want to take a while to decide what you're going to do about those injuries, but the fact remains that you're at the foot of the mountain. Prepare yourselves for a Temple Trek.

    The entire mountain is relatively easy to climb, because of the assortment of platforms placed at regular intervals. However, the higher up you get the more likely those platforms are to slide in and out of the movie, or float above rough patches of rock. Plantbirds who make their vine-filled nests also circle the mountainside, and right at the top, near the temple entrance- itself crumbling and roughshod- Spore is rolling, yes, boulders and chunks of column down the mountain, which bounce off of platforms as they fall.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    TWO DOWN, ONE TO GO! Kyle is about to take off before he remembers Lin's been wounded, and badly so! Man down, man down!

    Screw the bet, he can't leave a fellow behind, that's dishonorable and cowardly! Also it kind of is a dick move to let Rei Lin lie there bloody and alone, so he stops beside her and lifts her up over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "I got you, don't worry. Just stay with me now..." he says, before taking off towards the MOUNTAIN. Carrying a girl over your shoulder while going on a hike, totally a good idea right?

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
WUGH! Lin wasn't expecting to be suddenly HOISTED. Her eyes go wide and some color flushes through her cheeks. "Damn stupid of me to rush in that fast... sorry..." But she gets a very good view of the conclusion she came to paying off. Someone else had the same idea it seems. Set off the guy's own pile of BOOM on him!

    She just flinches at the WEIRDLY gross sight...

    Up close, Kyle may find himself wondering just how exactly she was managing to STAND on those legs. Or at least probably would've managed it in a bit. They're so severely injured that the pain would've incapacitated most people.

    Even while being carried she proceeds to rip more debris from her flesh. It's just an amazing thing that she isn't bleeding all over Kyle. She isn't bleeding out.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Ren looks at Tanya, who he's... also still kind of carrying. Questioning.

    Tanya looks at the others, and... pats Ren, wriggling out of his grip.

    "It's okay. You guys have carried me this far already."

    She steps forward on her own, hopping onto a platform. "I'm-- gonna help you guys this time."

    Guess what! There are switches here, too! However, these ones have a more practical use- if you bash one of the square panels on the mountainside, it'll extend the amount of time the moving platforms stay in a favourable position for jumping.

    Or it'll cause the platform underneath you to shake and buck like crazy. It's a bit of a gamble again, a fairy game for Rex's entertainment.

    Tanya looks at Rei Lin briefly- she shivers as the woman pulls the wooden shrapnel (after this, getting a splinter will never seem as bad), but- it makes her bunch her fists and look up at the mountain entrance.

    "We can do this. I can see the temple from here."

    So she steels herself, and takes brave leap after leap to the next platform. She whacks a switch. Her grip tightens on the tiki pendant, and for a moment her swaying blonde hair shimmers greenstone-green.

    But diving birds with leaves for feathers and slithering snakes won't make it easy for you. Each of them are in plentiful supply and dive- the former bombing from the air, the latter hanging from higher platforms to bite you in the face when you jump!

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Kyle stops mid-run as he sees Rei Lin prying debris out of herself, trying to stop her. "Don't! You'll blee-" And then he notices a lack of bleeding out. "...huh, okay." Setting her down, Kyle does his best to patch her wounds up. He's no medic, but he does know how to at least keep people stable in these situations, bacta helps too.

    After THAT, he takes a leap towards the platforms, following Tanya when the birds attack! He draws his lightsaber once again, slashing and stabbing at the dive-bombing avians dismissively. "Flock off already!" Yeah, he went there.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has been having a time of it as she's not quite well with all the things they had to get though it's been quite the odd day for her but she's pressing on and she makes her way up the mountain as she attempts to not befall anything else aor things like piss uff the plantbirds no that would be bad.

"Let's just keep moving."

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko had been laying somewhat low during the last course, focusing mostly on chopping down flying baddies from the sidelines and keeping an eye on her friends. With the second of the three ringleaders down, however, she makes her presence a little more visible again!

    Namely, by chopping even more baddies. "This is nothing. I'll keep you covered!" She leaps next to Tanya and gets to slashing, seemingly rejuvenated by something! It would be pathetic if she couldn't manage to cover Karal after that injury, after all.

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Karal Rei Lin hisses the moment she's put down again, but gives Kyle a very appreciative "Thank you!" in sheer gratitude for the medical aid. A handful of bandages do wonders for this. Less open air on the wounds is definitely a plus. Takes some of the pain out of the equation. She manages to stand on the legs, but with a limp. Still... it's enough.

    Every movement's clearly taking all of her effort, but Lin rejoins the leaping efforts after Tanya.

    She's not going to let her get hurt just because she's in pain. Pain... pain is a state of mind, right?

    That's what she tries to tell herself, but her legs feels like it's being speared through every leap...

    But her sword's out this time, slashing with excellent timing at everything in the way... at least her ARMS are relatively uninjured!

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Menu > Items > Restore > Bacta Patch x5
    Restored 20 HP!

    That's definitely how it goes.

    Kyle and Rei linger at the bottom, which means they're going to be the first people to come under attack. There will be angry birds, but some of them decide to just wait and hover higher up... after all, there's no huge distance for these two to fall! It makes more sense to knock them around when their fall will be more fatal...

    Deelel takes point and begins moving forward. She'll find herself being the first to experience the shifting platforms along with Ren and Tanya- so together, they'll have to get a feel for their movement and the switches. Please give them covering fire!

    Or covering slashes. Kazuko is going to need to temper her nerves of steel- it's gonna be tough striking the plantbirds at the moment before their divebomb connects!

    "Tangaroa..." Tanya says, looking worriedly at Rei Lin. "We could really use a little more of your help when we get to the top..."

    But don't forget Spore is at the top! He's going to be stomping the ground and kicking up dust as he peers over the edge of the platform, rolling barrels down towards you.

    Boulders. I said boulders, not barrels.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley is still tagging along! She's just at the rear of the group, and she's having a bit of trouble with the boulders because she really doesn't want to get hit by one of them and get cartoonishly flattened like a lizard pancake. She has her tongue sticking out and she makes big leaps and well-timed ducks to avoid, and tries not to get forced to fly along the way.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Amazing timing is... Not Kazuko's middle name! Or even her original name. A favorite cousin, maybe, or even an old pet. Her nerves, however... That's what's going to have to compensate for her general impatience, but it's the best shot she has!

     As those plantbirds keep coming, she starts spinning her naginata in front of her like an industrial fan of chopping and bludgeoning death, advancing forward and upwards steadily to keep those birds from getting too close. Why try to time her slashes when she can just make it nearly impossible for those things to get to her and her friends instead?

     Well, aside from when she actually needs to jump. It's during those times that she's having the most trouble, tackling one of those birds in mid-air and nearly missing a platform in mid-jump! Thankfully, she makes it by the skin of her teeth, and...

     Then boulders. "One of... One of these days... I'm gonna learn how to fly, and you up there!" She points dramatically at Spore, then pauses to jerk herself sideways to avoid a boulder splattering her. "Gyah! Erk... Well, you won't have to wait long, because we're gonna beat your face in with or without flying!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks t teh shifting platforms for a moment she looks out ahead trying to get an idea of just what they are delaing with whelp she summons her keyblade and is going to start to make some magic happen. She starts to make use of wind and lighting trying to help Tanya and Ren not have as worse of a day and make things a bit easier.

"Move it! I can't keep this up for too long!"

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Kyle reaches out to unleash a Force Push to shove away the horde of birds, the force of a cannonball smashing into the flying felons. He catches up with the others, noting the boulders rolling after them. "Well, Ainsley, you wanted boulders!" He says with a bitter laugh, before he reaches out to derail one of the boulders from its intended path, harmlessly rolling past everyone.

    Somewhere, in Kyle's world, Han Solo suffers a second fit of the shivers for no apparent reason before awakening with a cold sweat, yelping loud enough to awaken Chewie, Leia, and the kids early in the morning. Groggy, Leia asks, "What's wrong?" only for him to shrug, rubbing his eyes. "I have no idea...dreamt about...boulders, and a jungle of some sort..."

    The rest of that morning was spent with Han downing more caff than he's ever had in his life.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Flying might have its benefits! After all, every enormous, solid boulder thrown at you is one less being rolled down the... well, no, actually maybe we should shelve that idea. Besides, we all know what happened last time one person tried to bypass all the obstacles.

    Sorry, Rei Lin.

    Truly, today We Had a Bad Feeling About This.

    Switches aren't the only way of doing this! Naturally, no Yaoguai can plan for every supernatural eventuality, so diverting boulders with telekinesis will definitely get you out of some close shaves. And speaking of close shaves-

    Don't worry, Kazuko. With Deelel giving him an electric charge and some wind at his back, Ren's there to give you a hand when you slip. That's why you always climb mountains in pairs, right? So one guy can grab the other when he slips.

    Unlike Splinter, it is worth noting, Spore does not have a large stack of boulders to roll at you. In fact, he's running low, and he's begun to start pulling rough pieces out of the temple wall. They bounce a lot more unevenly, and without even noticing it he's endangering his own foothold.

    Is Tanya really thinking about what happens when she gets to Spore, if she's going to be there first? She's pressing switches to make your lives easier, but--

    "STOP destroying the TEMPLE!" she shouts, and her voice is definitely shaking weirdly when she does...

    A piece of it crackles with energy as Spore tries to pull it out! He may be off balance!

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
With the switches helping to stem the tide of falling, flying, and/or burning bullshit being thrown their way, Kazuko's advance continues steadily! She even bounds off a flying plantbird or two on her way up, trying to get to Spore before he can do too much damage to the temple.

     "H.. Hey! Why don't you come here and fight before we get up there and... Uh. Fight you anyway? And... How long did it even take you to set up all this stuff?" It's a thought. She doubts it's going to do much, but at least she can try to make things a little easier for her allies if the distraction ploy works.

     There's a very good reason Kazuko isn't the strategist in her group of friends. Still, if she gets there before Spore can plummet on his own or anyone else can take him out? She'll try to get a big meaty slash right into the plant-whatever's arms!

Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
This is how many times something weird's happened when Tanya got angry?! Lin pauses her approach to observe her for a moment, just a tad concerned. "... God-Blooded... maybe...?" Is that even a thing in this world? She has no idea. What she IS though... is very grateful for all the cover provided by Kyle knocking the boulders away. She only has to deal with snakes and bird-things, that's straightforward enough. Even if she's slowed down by all the injuries throwing her balance off.

    Lin staggers after making her way across a few more platforms, taking a moment to gather her focus again...

    There's just no denying that really HURT earlier.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    SNAKES...why did it have to be snakes?

    Kyle shudders as he brushes a snake off his shoulder, looking quite uncomfortable while he makes his way towards Spore. He only pauses upon hearing Tanya's outburst, and he senses a strange energy from her briefly.

    That's...weird. He has no idea what this is about, but that'll have to wait until later!

    He closes the distance between him and Spore, slashing at the plant-man's leg when Kazuko goes for his arm. All that's needed now is for someone to finish the job!

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Before attemping to touch things he shouldn't, Spore may have taken the time to insist to Kazuko, "This entire island can be warped into the world we desire! Anything is possible for us!" before he was proven suddenly, shockingly wrong.

    Kazuko breaks ahead of the pack, her determination and frustration clearly giving her the extra push to make it clear through the shifting platforms. Sometimes, rather than clouding your judgement, anger lets you get into a perfect place where you see the clearest way to get to exactly what's troubling you.

    And, naturally, smash it.

    Kazuko moves almost as fast as the lightning that coursed over Spore's hand, tearing right into one of his elbows. Unable to keep his balance, the fungus titan wobbles and totters on his weak legs- only for Kyle to give him one last push that sends him crashing and rolling down the hill, hitting every branch on the way down. He isn't getting up from that one.

    Ren makes it to the top, but surprisingly after Tanya, who is breathing hard and muttering something in maori.

    She looks like she could use a hand.

"Thank you... I - I wouldn't have been able to make it this far without you..."

    Her pendant is glowing strongly.

    "...I don't know what's going on, but I want to go in there and clean that monster's clock more than anything else in the world."

    Another tiki with Tangaroa's visage stands outside the temple.

    WARNING: once you go inside the temple, you will no longer be able to back out. Do you really wish to proceed?

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Success! Kazuko lets out a confident grunt as she watches the fungus-y... Whatever guy plummet down the mountain, cringing a bit at all those intermediate impacts against branches and rocks and whathaveyou. Not enough to ask if he's okay, of course, since he deserved it for throwing all that crap at them, but...

     She definitely wouldn't want to be that guy. "Heh heh... Nice work, everyone!" She lets out an excited little cheer and pumps a fist into the air, even holding her hand out to Kyle for a hearty high-five before turning to their FINAL DESTINATION.

     It's the inside of the temple. "Think there's gonna be any more weird... Jumping over stuff in there, Tanya?" She kicks her leg out a few times as she says that, trying to shake off all the bruises, cuts, and burns she's been sustaining throughout this whole ordeal. "Still gotta find that last one... But I'm ready when everyone else is. Ren? Tanya? Mister Kyle? Miss Karal? Miss Ainsley?"

     Although the flesh is bloody, her spirit burns as brightly as ever! Also, the back of her shirt might be slightly on fire.

Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
    Kyle pants and sighs, grunting in satisfaction as Spore goes down. "Serves you right." He says, before giving Kazuko a hi-five without missing a beat.

    He looks to Karal, Ren, Tanya, and Ainsley before he decides.

"We wait for Karal's and our wounds to knit together, then we go in. Then we finish this." He says calmly.

    That might not take as long as it sounds.