Scene #1474: Adventure Monday II

Owner	Pose
Oberyn Levy	Floating in void, the small island seems far too small, too unimportant, to have any value or meaning. A lost sliver of reality adrift in an endless void of space. There is no sun, but neither is there darkness: an inexplicable ambient light, apparently enough to nourish sparse grass, blankets the small place. And yet, there is a campsite. Someone has found some value in this place, in the barely hill-sized mound of earth with a cave entrance which lies in the site's center. This is what draws our intrepid adventurers today. This camp, and its owner, calls out to any who would seek treasure and terror, to uncover the secrets of this cave. The shiny, valuable secrets. Next to a campfire, he waits for his party to arrive, with a thick book in hand and satchel full of supplies on the ground next to him.
Fang	Fang needs money and though he has been taken in by a Guild, given a roof over his head, it-- still isn't the freedom of self. He was use to having things /his/ way, being an Emperor and all over his Dragon Clan and since Clunea decided to be a big freakin' harpy B**ch, he has been stuck in his, well, weaker form of existence... he also hopes that by going on this little 'adventure', he may not only get a reward out of this... ..But maybe, just maybe, he'll find something that can undo the curse the Goddess has placed on him. Cause seriously-- it sucks being a in a 'teen' like state, and that is how he views this in his own mind. So here Fang is, arriving to this place. This very-- strange place. His eyes do glance over to the man with the book, before he walks over in that direction, toward the camp fire as he calls over, "Hey you!" Yep-- this is typical Fang greeting, "You the one who put out the call for help?"
Ryu	The nearest warpgate allows the passage of a young man with lidded, tired eyes, and a messy head of blue hair. He steps up to the camp fire and stares down at it for a second or two, then directs his gaze toward Oberyn with a rattle of dog tags. He looks about to say something, but seeing Fang is here and asking what he was gonna say, the young man shrugs his shoulders, and instead turns his lazy golden eyes toward the cavern nearby. Ryu's posture is a little slumped, and his hands are stuffed into his pockets. He doesn't seem very talkative today.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone needs a break from filth infested hell holes and horrible death robots from /space/. SO here she was answering the call from as she makes for the entrace to the cave she has to wonder about things but hey it should be a change of pace for her, right? Kotone arrives just a bit after Fang and Ryu. "I take it this is the crew that was looking for help?"
Zwei	Hitting up one of Galianda's so-called 'dungeons' had been floating around somewhere on Zwei's priority list for a while now. With certain special interests involved in the place, an attempt to immerse itself a little in the local culture was long in order, and what better what to do so than to choose the most iconic form of work/entertainment on the whole planet? Of course, this actually involves making a passing effort to blend in with the locals, rather than standing out as if spotlighted on stage, and so the assets Zwei deploys are limited. It is only Weiss that arrives at the dungeon's entrance, bereft of any kind of drones, and with Asche nowhere in sight. For today, she's taken on the appearance of a tall, curly-haired blonde with a muscular figure and a few vanity points invested in appearance's sake. She's clad from the neck down in light, articulated metal platemail doing its best to look locally authentic, and carrying a small backpack and large sword attempting the same. All the materials look pretty humble, but are little more than a fine layer of mundane metal electroplated over more high performance, nanofabricated compounds, just in case. "I think he probably is, because it definitely wasn't me who asked!" She says cheerily to Fang. She holds out one gauntleted hand, offering to shake.
Oberyn Levy	The less than formal greeting doesn't seem to bother our intrepid leader - 'hey you' is probably one of the better things he's been called in his time. Oberyn Levy, high school student and part-time adventurer, is not exactly a figure to inspire the greatest confidence as he sets the book down to greet his party members. Short, scrawny, he's looks every bit the career mage he aspires to be. "Yup, that's me. Um... welcome to the cave of I haven't got a cool name for it yet. Just need to wait for the rest of the group to - ah!" With a wave, he calls out to sleepy Ryu: "Hey! Over here!" Kotone's arrival and question is met with "That's us, yeah! Um, ahoy?" And finally, with the arrival of Weiss, the party seems full: "Ah, okay, good, all accounted for then. ... man, I really need to start asking for more info when I put out invites." With everyone gathered, Oberyn offers a brief speech. "Alright, hey. I'm Oberyn, black and white mage, I was the one calling for a group, here you all are, that's great. So, okay, I think I explained that there's a dungeon here which could use exploring. Well, um. Perfectly fair, we're not going to see the end of it - last time I had a group in here we found this library, and there ended up being a travel journal or something in there and... apparently it goes on a bit. But! We can explore at least, and while there hasn't been gold or anything yet, at least the monsters are worth some coin. So. Yeah! Onward to adventure! ... oh. Oh, wait, first. Here, just in case." With that, the youth is handing out small bundles, each containing an energy drink(!?), one golden needle, and one packet of herbs. "... disaster kits. Low on magic, petrification, silence, they're the biggest things I can't cover with spells, so, um, yeah. OKAY! Let's get this crawl started then, right? It's a bit of a walk down so we can get acquainted on the way in!" With that, he's turning to lead the party on into the cave, in vaguely the direction of ADVENTURE! and possibly danger or treasure or dangerous treasure!
Fang	Fang glances over to Ryu aka Ryan with his teal blue eyes once the young man shows up. Huh. He didn't know the kid was going to be here as well. This-- could change a few things actually. Fang's brows furrow with his own thoughts, at least until Kotone speaks up. He gives them a funny look before he snorts to the side. "You can figure we are here for the same reason you are." He then shifts his weight slightly as his hand comes to rest on the hilt of the blade he has. Yep-- he still carrying around the orc blade that was given to him by the elf king. It has managed to somehow /NOT/ break yet. Though when the new woman shows up, Fang raises a brow at her when she offers her hand to him. "Huh. You don't look like the type anyways." He takes her hand firmly into his own for a solid shake, but lets go quickly afterwards. At least he does have some points in politeness-- even if low. That does leave his gaze to slowly return back to Ryu. He knows the kid has had it rough lately but... Then the man who has requested them all here speaks up, hands out 'survival kits', which Fang gives a wierd look too, before stuffing it away into a dimensional pocket of his own magic, and then crosses his arms over his chest. "So no gold found yet. Monsters everywhere-- and so far a library huh? Yep. Sounds like my towers from my own world.. though probably wont be no wishes or goddess to punch." Fang remarks as he then starts to follow along, though he does slide over closer to Ryu and keeps his voice down. That hard, jerk expression going to a slightly softer one, "..You ok kid?"
Ryu	Ryan just seems groggy, he probably didn't sleep well at all. He puffs a sigh when he turns and regards the emergency kit handed over to him. He manages a smile at Oberyn, though he doesn't say anything about it one way or another. He does nod, though! That's communication, right? The kit gets stuffed away in a satchel that he brought along with him. Fang's scrutiny eventually draws a look of scrunched brows from Ryan. When he's approached, while they're being led down to ambiguously-defined adventure, he shrugs at Fang. He answers Fang, his voice quiet. "Worried myself sick over some weird shadow monsters that were stalking me," he says, pretty honestly, "It's not a big deal."
Zwei	"Hmm?" Weiss responds vaguely to Fang. "I suppose I'll take that as a compliment." she decides after just long enough to make someone more considerate wonder if they'd perhaps said something wrong. She does however, accept the offerings from Oberyn gratefully, slotting each one into an empty pouch holster at her belt. She already knows that she won't actually need, or be able to use, two of those three things, but there's no sense in spurning someone's good generosity now is there. Besides. Zwei can study them later. "Thank you very much~ I don't have a very good idea of what it is we'll run into, so I'll take your advice first and foremost." She slings her bag over her shoulders, before picking up her sword, twirling it once in each direction in her hand before snapping it straight ahead, and finally letting it rest in hand as she walks. She strikes a dressed up, fantasy-looking glowstick at her belt to illuminate the cave around her should it be called for. Naturally, she takes point. "I'm actually not here for gold, so I'm not bothered. What are the rest of you here for?"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa ooks over everyone and gie Oberyn a smile as she moves ot join them. "Hey there glad I found the right spot." Kotone's got a light armored vest of osme sort on, and is also packing what looks like a pistola nd possibly flash bangs from the looks of it and she seem to be in a goo mood she tilts her head nodding at the mention of magic. "So your magic support." She pulls up some information on her HUD as she checks a few things over for a moment. She takes the bundles for a moment and she makes sure to keep this stuff she's been given safe. "Well onwards shall we?"
Oberyn Levy	"Yeah... honestly, it's more fun being the heavy damage guy, but we don't have a healer, so..." Oberyn shrugs. "Guess I'm a white mage today." He doesn't sound thrilled at the prospect but hey, you do what you have to, right?
Fang	Fang raises a brow, "Shadow monsters?" He says with his voice still low. "..after this-- I'd like to be filled in." The dragon emperor then pulls his gaze away and watching as Zwei takes lead. He just follows along, though he goes to step up with her, given he-- himself-- doesn't like to be in the back. Its a leader thing; Or maybe just a Fang thing. "Me? I'm here to find something for personal reasons and that is all you'll need to know." Fang says as he unlatches his sword as they continue to walk. "Though I guess," His eyes drift over to Ryu for a moment, "..also to make sure someone doesn't get in over their heads." Fang then looks over to Oberyn Levy, "What the heck is the whole colored mage thing your talking about? You mean your a cleric or something?"
Oberyn Levy	"... cleric? Nnno? Um. White mage. It's... they're healing and support role spellcasters, with limited offense capability which mostly wrecks undead and stuff. Nothing to do with the church at all, much as some would like to say." Oberyn's limited contact with the world outside his own sadly hasn't yet taught him that that's pretty much exactly a cleric's job description too.
Ryu	"I can do some of that," Ryan points out to Oberyn, in that half-sleepy tone of voice, raising one of his gloved hands. "I can't really do healing that well, but I can hit undead pretty hard, and I /can/ stabilize someone if they get hurt really bad." He smiles over at Oberyn's direction. As for Fang... He squints and frowns for a moment, expressing his disapproval for something the other dragon said.
Zwei	"I think you two are talking about basically the same thing." Weiss remarks to Fang and Oberyn. "I can't do any of that healing stuff though. It's probably obvious, but I'm a frontline warrior only. I can take care of myself though, so use the time you think you'll spend healing me to use whatever spells you like! Make some big explosions!" she grins a moment before casting an eye to Fang's sword. "Wow, that's what you use? I'm assuming there's a story behind why you keep that sort of . . . thing, around."
Fang	"So yeah. A cleric.. or a shaman." Fang says with a smug grin on his face. Then he looks over to Zwei, ignoring the fact Ryu is probably giving him a look. "This thing?" He draws it out with ease, "Its sword an Elven King gave me to use since I had no weapon." Fang then flourishes the blade in a twirl, before reshealthing it as they walk, not seeming to miss a beat. "Before I fledged, I was master with swords. Best Swordmans around in the world and among the Dragon Clan-- and given claws are not to different. You don't exactly lose the skill, only continue to get better."
Oberyn Levy	Oberyn seems to be checking things off on a list in his head as he walks and talks quietly to himself. "(Okay... white mage, paladin... fighter? Aaaand we'll say samurai, sword guys are all pretty much the same anyway. Yeah, we can do this.)"
Oberyn Levy	The entrance to the dungeon leads to a length of twisty stone corridors, all alike. There are no monsters worth noting and they lead to various dead ends and stuff so let's skip ALL THAT boring stuff and skip right to when the party arrives at... = Forbidden Cavern = on the precipice of adventure The island floating in space didn't seem nearly large enough to contain something quite like this... even with magical light, it is hard to see the far wall from the entryway. Places along the wall glitter in the distance, light caught by sparkling ores, small gemstones, or maybe just treacherous worthless shiny rocks. Openings in the walls can be vaguely made out. There's no telling where any might lead. Most look like natural passages, leading to more tunnels much like the one the party just passed through - this is just one of many rooms in a larger cave system, it seems. Part of the floor seems to ripple softly - a spring, perhaps, or something more ominous, but it is difficult to tell from a distance. The faintly echoing sound of dripping suggests that 'just water' could easily be the case, though. Dominating one corner of the large room is a massive stalagmite - reaching nearly to the ceiling and large enough that a half dozen people could form a ring and not quite surround it. Carved into the stalagmite is a series of handholds which leads nowhere - but in the floor around it is a deep spiral staircase, which leads on into the depths of the cave.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "Take note your direct healing spells will not effect me given my experiance with your world's magic." She notes and she pauses at the mention of shadow monsters and she wonders just what's up with that. "Do we wnat to know about the shadow Monsters?" She falls in however at this point with eveyrone else as they enter the caverns and she seems to be well relaxed for the most part but it's cler she's paying attention at least until the floor ripples. "Wait did the floor just..."
Fang	Fang enters into the location and looks down the stairwell, his white bangs moving easily as he does so. Then his teal blue eyes look over to toward the sound of dripping water and the rippling in the distance. Odd. "Has anyone been down that way?" He asks Oberyn, point toward the ripple. "I mean, I know there is magic lighting this place, but given the look of water and possible reflection-- it may be pretty deep." He then furrows his brows. "..or that is one heck of a heavy lit source." The dragon emperor then looks to the others and jabs his thumb that direction, "If no one /has/ looked into it. We outta go check it out."
Oberyn Levy	"I've pretty much only been the giant stalactite way so far... last group got a little mired down with spiders. Heh, they're afraid to attack now, I think. I bet that the ripply spot is just a pool or something, but we can check it out. Ooh, maybe it's one of those wishing pond things where people throw in coins and stuff!" Dungeon instinct level: MASTER. Clearly Oberyn is right and the rippling point is just a harmless innocent little pool of normal water. What else could it be? Just a quick little poke around to be sure, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.
Fang	Fang stares at Oberyn for a moment and gets a blank look on his face, "A wishing well you mean?" He continues to stare at him for a bit. "Everyone knows those things are fake, besides I learned my lesson. You don't trust anyone or anything with 'wish' abilities. They just backstab you in the end." Grrr. Clunea. Grrr.
Oberyn Levy	"Well, yeah, the wishes might be fake... but the coins are real!" Looks like Oberyn's /really/ itching to go home with some treasure this time. But really? Skimming coins from a wishing well? That's low, kid.
Fang	"You got a point there." Fang nods his head in gentle agreement, then he blinks his eyes, "Heey-- isn't there like some kind of curse for those who steal coins from a wishing well?"
Oberyn Levy	"... ooh, right. It's bad luck or something, isn't it. We'll figure something out!" The wishing well coin code must be cracked! The riches liberated! Oberyn must claim the greatest treasure of them all: probably some cave kid's lunch money or something THIS IS NOT HOW HEROES TREASURE HUNT.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa pauses for a moment and stares. "Spiders?!" Okay suddenly not being meat is very happy times for Kotone she's less likely to be seen as food by the monsters. She keep with the group now and has her weapon out and is clearly taking it slow. "Lovely spiders, I'm going to bet they are bigger than any spider has any right being..."
Fang	Fang glances over at Kotone, as Oberyn has his dreams of aspiration about swiping a poor kids money from a 'wel'. "You afraid of spiders or something?" Though he does want to check out the water-source, he isn't the first one to go that way. Only cause there are many directions to go!
Zwei	Weiss seems more interested in examining the various tunnels that lead out from the main chamber. Though it looks like she's only venturing to the mouth of each and taking a quick peek inside, in actuality she's sending a fairly thorough pulse scan bouncing down the length of each one to try and map out which leads where. She only comes back after she hears Fang and Oberyn quibbling over some wishing well nonsense. "You're really that hard up for cash?" she asks. "Now that's impressive." She moves over to the ripple in the floor, examining it more closely with the tip of her sword with necessary. "Oh I'm sure they probably are!" she says to Kotone.
Oberyn Levy	"Well. They were about normal for cave spiders, I'd say. Maybe knee-high? Bit smaller? Not like the really creepy giant ones or anything." Living in a monsters and dungeons world might have kind of skewed Oberyn's perceptions on a few things. Spiders the size of a small coin? How could anything be THAT tiny? "Well, I... um. ... I kinda... spent a bit too much on gear and stuff." He shrugs absently. "Gotta do it to stay competitive, I guess. But I'm getting tired of trying to make four meals out of one noodle packet..." "Anyway! Right! Exploring!"
Oberyn Levy	The rippling spot in the floor is, on close inspection, most definitely NOT just a pool of water... it in fact looks much like any other section of cave floor when approached, except for the slight motion. It's less noticeable the closer one gets, and could even be missed by an unobservant traveller up close. However, for someone keeping an eye on it and approaching from afar, it's not difficult to keep track of. Now, poking it with a sword... that yields some interesting results. A portion of the floor flashes, briefly forming a bright circle around the point the sword touches, and fine patterns across a wider area. The spot also resists - not so much as one would expect of stone, but definitely more than, say, a concealed pit or water surface might.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is taking a close looka t the floor and wonders is it a trap? A hidden passage she's not sure, either way she's keeping back she wtche as it's poked and she stares for a moment wondering just if it's a trap or not. "Is this a trap or a hidden passage? She looks for a stone to pick up and gently throw on the rippling area to see what happens. "Hummm."
Oberyn Levy	The stone bounces across the ripply floor once... twice... a third strike seems to land on regular stone. Each impact is met with a flash - this time, it seems, triangular spots light up on the floor, and the patterns revealed are identical in each bounce, but differ from those seen with the sword.
Fang	"So the sword gave a circle.. and the rock a triangle." Fang says softly raising a brow gently. "Runes?" He then reaches into his sub-space pocket and pulls out a few credits he did have, then tosses those at the floor to see what /those/ do. If anything at all. He also picks up a rock and focuses on it. One may see the rock starting to actually heat up at where his fingers are at. One it even becomes hard for him to keep ahold of, he then goes to drop the rock right on rippling floor to see what /that/ gives.
Oberyn Levy	"... so it reacts to contact with stuff? ... hm. I wonder if it's random, or...?" Oberyn's not a complete stranger to dungeon puzzles, but this one seems like something new to him. "Well, I've got a spell I wanted to practice anyway, so let's see what happens!" Well, what happens is the student takes out a scroll and starts reading. Looks like he hasn't got this one anywhere close to memorized, it'll be a minute.
Oberyn Levy	The coins, upon striking the surface, cause the same flashing patterns as the sword, before bouncing off to the side. The stone, on the other hand... while it briefly causes a flash of the same pattern as the previous rock, it doesn't skip off harmlessly. It just sits there, like rocks tend to do. The floor doesn't seem to like this. The same pattern of lines and markings flashes again, but instead of a circle, this time there is a single ring. Another flash, and it's two. Then three... each time, they seem to spread outward, and the light revealed grows brighter. Before long the rings will at least serve the purpose of clearly defining the size of this floor patch, by covering the entirety of it... but by then the light will be near blinding to look at, too. One final flash shows no patterns, no markings, no shapes, just an entire square of intense white light. And then the light fades away. The stone is nowhere to be seen.
Fang	Fang watches what happens with the heated rock. Then when it becomes to bright, he places up his hand to try and keep watching, before he is forced to look away. Once the light dims away, that is when his gaze returns to the spot. Only to see the rock gone. Vanished. No trace. He stares a bit complexed by this, before his brows furrow. "...did it just.. teleport the rock.. or..?"
Zwei	Weiss has to remind herself to actually flinch and look away when she winds up staring at a number of lumens that would normally be painful for a human to look at. It'd be a little silly if she just kept leaning over it like that, staring at it wide-eyed and unblinking. "It looks like it could have. I'm not really sure whether that has anything to do with superheating it though. You're always welcome to stand on top of it and see where it takes you! I'm willing to let our friend try out his spell first though."
Fang	Fang gives a dead-pan look at Weiss and then talks with an equally dead-pan sound in his voice, "You really think I'm that stupid? You don't go throwing yourself on a Teleporter for the hell of it."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa humms at the rrsponse to her own test. "Okay it doesn't seem to be a portal from the looks of it, maybe it's like some sort of pressure plate? All I know is I'm not standing on it till we know what it is. Humm could it be a teleporter if so that's beyond me. Still hummm I'm going to wait for him to finish as well."
Oberyn Levy	"Just gonna be another minute... man, who WROTE this, weirdest jumbled bunch of... okay." Oberyn's been reading from the scroll and only half watching events unfold in front of him, but his insight wouldn't be particularly helpful anyway - he only has a vague idea of what teleporting is because some old stories talked about it. But nothing that makes things disappear can be a good thing to go standing around on. Now, though... "Okay, we've tried... what was it? Sword, rock, coins, hot rock. In the interest of thoroughness and science, let's try MAGIC rock!" With a few slow and somewhat clumsy gestures, and an incantation that seems to repeat itself halfway through, the student mage calls upon all of his magical prowess and generates... A pebble. INTIMIDATING. However, it at least goes flying immediately toward the floor, so, success?
Oberyn Levy	The floor is not impressed. The pebble impacts with the same round spot and markings as before. However, there is also a very faint impression of a second pattern revealed at the instant of the strike. The pebble bounces, and its second tap against the floor reveals no such pattern.
Fang	Fang watches the small rock and blinks when nothing happens at where it lands next. He tilts his head faintly. "How many feet you say that is?" He asks the group, as he picks up another rock and then goes to throw it to where the pebble landed. Why? To see if it doesn't react at all there.
Oberyn Levy	The rock tossed after the pebble causes the now-expected rock reaction... it seems that however a rock gets there, and whatever state it's in, it causes the same circle and its corresponding patterns and marks.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa holds back and lets Oberyn work on his magic for the moment She has to wonder there. She thinks for a moment about this as a magi rock is used now what will happen next the floor seems to have something to say. "Humm it looks like a pattern of some sort I wonder..."
Oberyn Levy	"... so, magic rock is still just a rock to that thing. Looks like we're looking at maybe fifteen by fifteen for the whole area, though? A bit big for a trap, but sometimes the fancy ones go that way. ... hey, did anyone notice the pattern that flickered for a second there, though?" Oberyn takes out a journal, and starts jotting down notes. "Rocks cause pattern A." "Swords cause pattern B." "Coins also cause pattern B. That rules out damage type." "Leaving stuff on it makes things happen, but we're not sure if they're good or bad." "Casting stone caused patterns A, briefly, C. It didn't do it twice, so it wasn't because the rock was made by magic." "I could try to sketch the patterns if we left things on there, but they get bright too quickly - it'd take hours to get it all copied down..."
Fang	Fang frowns a little, "To bad we couldn't fly over the damn thing."
Oberyn Levy	"Well, we could always just go around, but... well, whatever this thing IS I'm sure that figuring it out would do something good. Maybe it's a vault door or something. ... I can just try another spell and hope that does something." When all you have is a hammer, after all... and really, if he doesn't get to cast big flashy spells soon poor Oberyn might just implode.