Player Plot: Let's Explore Mad'ni Shrine!

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Who: Everyone who signed up!
When: Around November 3-6ish
Where: The Mad'ni Shrine
What: Searching for the lost ruins beneath the Shrine!
Warnings/Notes: It's another dreaded water level.

Although the flight provided by Curti Center takes them as close as they possibly can, the Heroes still have to take a brief walk through the woods to reach their destination. It remains to be seen whether the trip will be worth it. After all, their hope of finding a Legendary Eidolon, or even just clues pointing to one, is based on little more than guesswork.

But, with the time ticking down towards the end of the world, they don't have the luxury of ignoring a lead, no matter how vague. A shot in the dark might be what saves them all in the long run.

OOC info and sign-ups are here!

Comments

[righthandstand]

Okuyasu stands up, pulls out a wrapped-up twenty-foot length of rope from his satchel, and tosses it in Finn's direction.

"Catch."

He steps away and watches Finn work. After his shitty excuse of a knot while retrieving his motorcycle from the Dream Width, Okuyasu doesn't trust himself to make something that will keep Finn alive.

[neverbeamemory]

Between Finn and Okuyasu's eagerness and Kuja's flamboyant attitude, Sephiroth might have scowled, or at least he felt an internal eye-roll welling up inside of him as he approached closer to the group around the edge of the wide hole; he'd had to move closer to see exactly what Nozomi light bolt spell had revealed to them.

Not a fat lot, in truth. Plus there was no way of knowing if it were just surface water on a floor or if it might be a deep pool of water; the risk that it could be hiding pretty much anything down there was clearly obvious to him.

Sephiroth looked towards some of the rubble present in the room; it seemed there was a broken pillar of sorts that might be plausible as an anchor to hold the rope up here. Whether it was sturdy enough though? The black and silver clad man strode over to it to investigate before eventually making a contribution.

"Over here-"

[hatejakku]

"Thanks," he says, meaning it for both of them.

Armed with the rope, he kicks at the pillar and deems it safe enough to attempt anchoring himself. One quick knot later, Finn drops the rope over the steep wall.

He sees the obvious flaws in this plan but there isn't really much else they can do. He grimaces at the darkness below, knowing he won't be able to be armed while doing this. "I'll need to be pulled up if things go south." But he's really hoping it won't. Without much more ceremony for the occasion, Finn gets his feet against the top of the wall and starts slowly moving down.

He's less than five steps of the way by the time he realizes how dumb this was. Too late, though. He's here now.

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja wades in after Finn. He's by no means an experienced swimmer, but in a calm pool surely competent will do. "Eugh. The water's absolutely frigid." Still, at least the presence of the orb in his hand provides plenty of light, even as he submerges.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Right beneath the hole, the water is only about waist deep. In the light of Kuja's orb, they can just about see the walls on their right and left, but the far end of the space remains unseen, shrouded in pitch black darkness.

Should they wade in further, they'll notice the floor is ever so slightly angled downward. They should still be able to walk a decent distance without needing to swim, but the shorter Heroes may find themselves struggling somewhat.

[cureofmanyworlds]

"What's down there? Is it safe?" Nozomi called down. She'd really like to find a way to drop down there, but now with how she is at the moment...

[acapriciousreaper]

"Checking," Kuja replies, inhales... and dives, swimming towards the other end of the tunnel, holding the orb out to light the way.

[hatejakku]

Finn stays above the water's surface, grimacing about being totally drenched now. Fantastic. "It looks like nothing," he calls up as his light source goes underwater. He's able to carefully walk forward, but he's hesitant to get his guns wet, too. "Looks like there's a hall or tunnel down here. The floor's stable, though...

"Wait, where did this water come from?"

[neverbeamemory]

Curious as Sephiroth was as to what exactly was down there, that particular desire wasn't profound enough to see him descending the rope after them just yet. Partially concerned as to what might come about in the upper room itself, should it be abandoned like that.

Still, he hung a little closer to the edge, just in case.

Why should he go down there, just to get soaking wet and no doubt filthy if there was nothing to be had of it. That said; he wasn't going to find anything hanging about up here either.

Decisions, Decisions.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

A short distance into the tunnel, they'll be able to see something inscribed on the left-side wall. A closer inspection will reveal small movable panels with patterns on them. It appears to be a picture-based puzzle that requires sliding the panels around to form matching patterns.

It's a little complicated, but anyone with a good head on their shoulders should be able to solve it within a few minutes. Though, that means several minutes of standing still in the cold water, painfully aware of the dark abyss looming up ahead...

[righthandstand]

"Hey! I'm comin' in!" Okuyasu sat on the edge of the hole, twisted around gripping the edge, and lowered himself so that he hung from the floor above. With a flash, he disappeared and reappeared a foot above the water surface.

He fell in, enveloping himself in cold water up to his chest.

"It's freezing!" He bit his lip to stop himself from cursing in front of Nozomi, but he had to be strong for her. "J-j-jump! I'll catch you!"

[cureofmanyworlds]

If she could transform, jumping down wouldn’t be a problem. However, Nozomi doesn’t have that leisure and nodded at Okuyasu’s reassurance.

“Okay! I’m coming down!” Nozomi called back down. Taking a deep breath, she took the jump, hoping she ended up landing in his arms and not, say, butt first on the ground.

[hatejakku]

Wading through the water, Finn followed Kuja's light source, trying to spy anything out of the ordinary. After a moment, his eyes landed on the strange panels. He leaned forward, squinting at them in the harsh light and noticing the odd designs. As his finger touched one, it dropped to the empty space below and startled him. He moved another side to side a few times before realizing- "It's a puzzle..."

He leaned away to look back towards the entrance. "Hey, guys! I think I... found..." But his attention was taken by whatever show Okuyazu and Nozomi were about to put on.

[righthandstand]

Catching a falling person is different from using a Stand to throw them onto a roof. There was only 1 second available for sudden regret. Okuyasu widened his stance, held out his arms, and the instant Nozomi touches his fingers, he pulled her closer and dug in his heels. Some water splashed onto the back of her outfit.

"Gotcha!"

[cureofmanyworlds]

Thankfully, Nozomi wasn't that heavy - save for some of that gear of her Red Mage job - so she wouldn't be too hard to hold. However, feeling the cold water against her back caused her to yelp, pressing herself against Okuyasu involuntarily.

"COLD!"

[neverbeamemory]

Well, there didn't seem to be anything else going on up in the main room now that the rest of the group had effectively plunged into the abyss. Sephiroth spends about a minute stood by the collapsed pillar to which the rope was anchored, arms folded and with a near-enough scowl on his face before deciding - hell, he wasn't going to find out anything just standing around waiting for it to happen. So what if it means he was just tagging along with everyone else; ultimately it doesn't matter. He shouldn't care.

Taking out his iMog Slate, Sephiroth quickly switches to Illusionist before putting the device back snugly into an inside pocket of his coat, tightly held against the harness-belt of his standard outfit. Though his equipped katana would be useless with this Job swapped in, he had swapped specifically for another benefit.

He carefully descended the rope down to the pool of water below, activating Levitation as he stepped away from it at the end. A touch of beginners apprehension promptly vanished as Sephiroth not only found himself floating easily above the surface of the water, but he could just as easily progress along the tunnel without having to go swimming, perhaps only getting the very bottoms of his soles wet. Perhaps this Job wasn't all that ill-suited to him, after all.

Soon enough he's caught up with Finn and Kuja(?) at the paneled wall; squinting at a distance as the others come to the obvious conclusion that it's some kind of picture puzzle. One of those sliding tiles type of games that were often given to children. Sephiroth hangs back at a distance, inspecting it from afar in case he might be able to gather the wider picture easier than from being as close as the others were.

[acapriciousreaper]

Kuja narrows his eyes, examining the puzzle. "Oh, a sliding tile puzzle, how very droll. You'd think they could come up with something at least mildly less time-wasting." He leans in, fiddling with tiles. "Incredibly simple, just obnoxious and time-consuming."

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Seconds tick away as the Heroes start solving the puzzle. Everything around them is still and silent, save for a gentle ripple on the surface of the water that doesn't seem to be coming from any of them...

Then something wraps around Finn's leg and pulls him under.

A second later, a tentacle the size of a tree trunk rises out of the water, dangling its captive upside down in the air. Another tentacle, just as massive as the first one, emerges from the darkness and reaches towards Kuja, while a third starts making its way towards the entrance, to Okuyasu and Nozomi.

Curiously, Sephiroth is going completely ignored. Or, perhaps, unnoticed.

[acapriciousreaper]

Of course, when something pulls Finn under, he's turning to look, and has enough presence of mind to frantically backpedal, perhaps narrowly avoiding being grabbed. "Kraken!" Whether it is technically a kraken or not is irrelevant; the intent is to shout a warning. He's switching to [Black Mage], fearing the worst- but he's not exactly the most agile swimmer. There's only so much maneuvering he can do.

[cureofmanyworlds]

Nozomi blinked as she watched as the tentacle went after Finn and held him up in the air. "There's a monster! Watch out!"

Captain Obvious, she is.

Of course, best she can do is try to push Okuyasu as hard as she can to get them away.

[hatejakku]

Finn's shrill yelp when something grabbed his leg and pulled did not help him hold his breath in the least. Despite the fact he inhaled what felt like a gallon of water, the dangling upside down helps him breathe again. And scream.

"Help! Get this thing off of me! Kuja!" Kuja's closest, he thinks, which is why he's the one called for. Actually, Finn's very disoriented right now, but not enough to start pawing for his gun. When he shoots (because of course, he's going to shoot at the tentacle monster thing), he misses completely but the bullet ricochets to the target.

Didn't really seem to help, though. "Get off!"

[neverbeamemory]

He could have called it; there was bound to be something that accounted for the otherwise pointless pool of water down here. Half of the reason why he'd procrastinated so damn hard before making the effort to descend. Of course it's a trap, this whole damn place is a series of them.

Sephiroth slowly levitates backwards, near enough out of sight in the gloom, as the other two tentacles reach for other members of this group. It's obvious then that he's not considered a target. If the creature inhabiting the pool has even noticed him at all; he's not even causing the barest ripple on the surface of the water.

Sure he could switch his Active asterisk again and plunge into the water with his sword and play rescue, making himself a target and trying to sword fight while swimming, but he's pretty much convinced now that isn't how this needs to be dealt with. Besides, why put himself in unnecessary peril?

Instead, Sephiroth levitates himself around a sort-of perimeter where he might guess the monster might be directly under the water and turns to the tile puzzle on the wall. Shouldn't take too much time at all for someone of his prodigious intelligence.

[righthandstand]

Okuyasu takes the cue to scoop up Nozomi in his arms, thankfully stronger due to the Monk Asterisk. Finn is in danger, his friend is in danger, but the most pressing matter is taking Nozomi to safety. He struggles to run through the water, and Nozomi's added weight does not improve his speed.

The tentacle swipes towards them, but the two disappear before it can connect with them. Okuyasu and Nozomi reappear as far as his Asterisk allows.

"Stay here. You got something that can help us from the back, yeah?" He gently lowers her onto a fallen portion of the temple wall. It wasn't the driest of safe places, but she wouldn't being submerged in the water.

[whirluendo_of_puns]

The tentacle holding Finn flinches when the bullet hits, but isn't hurt badly enough to loosen its grip. The second one makes a grab for Kuja. The third one falters and draws back; its owner seems to have lost track of Okuyasu and Nozomi for the moment.

Callous though it may be, Sephiroth's decision is an efficient one. Nothing is coming after him, leaving him wholly free to concentrate on solving the puzzle without interruption. The tiles slide into place one by one, until at last the solution comes clear. A series of lights run along the wall from the tile puzzle to the hole they came through, all the way to the central area.

The right-hand doors on Floors 8, 9, and 10 have been unlocked.

And now for the tricky part: getting out alive. If the Heroes were paying attention, they may have noticed the brief presence of light on the wall made the tentacles suddenly jerk back. Something about the way they move suggests nervousness.

[acapriciousreaper]

"No no no-" Kuja, unfortunately, is not nearly good enough a swimmer to evade a second time. He winds up grabbed in short order, and he doesn't even have access to Ultima to take care of the problem. "Thrice-damned- get off, you overgrown side-dish-" He discharges a [Blizzaga] at the tentacle's base.