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

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

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!

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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.

Edited 2018-11-13 01:06 (UTC)

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!"

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!"

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.

Edited 2018-11-13 22:53 (UTC)

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."

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.

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

"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.

Nozomi nodded at Okayasu’s comment. She’d love to dive in there, but in her state she’d be useless. “I will, don’t worry. I got a few spells, but Red Mage is quite weak.”

At that, she noticed the light on the wall. “Hey, what’s...?” The monster’s tentacles trembled. “I think it’s scared of the light!” With that, she launched a Sacre under where the light was. Maybe there was more behind it!

Separate from the action as he was, Sephiroth quickly noticed how the tentacles were repulsed by the tiny lights that lit-up leading back through the tunnel and up into the main room they had come from. He cursed under his breath - he didn't have anything available to use that would flood the watery tunnel with light and potentially stun the monster to enable an escape.

Sephiroth wasn't even sure he could sneak past the monster in the way he's managed so far. Either way, he'd have to find out.

"Light up the cave! We're done here."

He's already floating closer to the others, atop the water's surface -as close to the monster as he dares- squinting between the tentacles to see if he can't judge whereabouts its body should be. If he timed it just right, perhaps he might be able to orchestrate a job switch and get an attack in as he plunged into the water.

So very risky though.

"This is stupid. This is stupid." As much as he's muttering beneath his breath and knows his idea is really dumb, Finn changes the setting on his gun and unleashes the Flamethrower at the tentacle holding him.

Hopefully, this doesn't backfire horribly.

Okuyasu teleports a few feet away from Nozomi, still a bit far from the tentacle. "Hey! Suckerface!" He whistles at it. "Come over here!"

He prepares for his attack with Invigorate, mustering all his strength while halving his defense.

Though the Blizzaga does little, Nozomi's Sacre spell has an immediate effect. The tentacles recoil from the light, letting go of Kuja and withdrawing into the darkness. The one still holding onto Finn's leg hesitates, but releases its victim when the flames scorch its skin.

Even when the light vanishes, the tentacles aren't immediately attacking again; they hover back to shield their unseen owner. There is no telling how long the creature is going to remain frightened, however, nor whether it will be equally startled by the same trick twice.

Kuja drops into the water with an undignified shout, and begins making his way towards the ledge up. "Right. Thank you," he mutters, to the group, before clearing his throat. "Since Sephiroth has done us the favor of solving this, perhaps we ought to rejoin the others, see what this leads to."

Oh.

That worked.

Nozomi is smart.

"So, we're going back outta here?" Okuyasu looks at the rope dangling from the floor above. "I can carry some people, I'm a Monk."

Sephiroth's vision in the gloom was temporarily dulled by Nozomi's light-spell but thankfully he's not too close so a blink or two later it's returned to normal. In enough time to see the result and immediately conclude that this was the time to move if they were ever going to.

Just as well he doesn't need to switch asterisks again, Sephiroth wills himself forwards in that direction, floating still without touching the water until he's back on the dry part. He flashed a grin at Kuja's comment but other than that, he'll begin to levitate himself upwards back into the room they came from.

Someone might have to steady the rope from above, after all.

Nozomi blinked as she saw the creature retreat from the light. Light was its weakness, then?

"I'll go last, then. If it tries to attack while we escape, then I'll keep it back." she said.

He's fine, guys. Don't worry.

Finn heaved himself out of the water, soaked to the bone, and maybe probably darts a glare at Sephiroth's back. But he held back a smart comment and glanced back into the darkness where the beast came from instead. What was that? Something like Ultros?

.... Nope. He pulled himself out of the water and followed after the others, making sure his leg's okay as he wades out. "Thanks, Nozomi." He planned to go at least second to last to make sure his latest hero got out of the hole okay.

Kuja glares daggers at the retreating creature, before following Finn and Nozomi up the rope. He leaves a [Thundaga] as a parting gift. "If I ever see another plate of calamari in my life, it'll be too soon. Right. Where to next? I'm certain that opened something."

Once back on the upper level, Sephiroth finally dispelled his Levitation and settled himself nearby to the rope that others were climbing back up. It looked as if the toppled column they secured it to was holding the weight, but he maintained at least part of his attention in case it might look like it could be straining. It wouldn't do to let the others be stuck down there after all, even if he doesn't care personally for any one of them.

In the meantime, he let his eyes follow the light-train, letting his logic work its way through the mechanics he'd already observed in other parts of the tower.

"I'd say it'd most likely be the right-hand doors we found on the way down through this section." He answered Kuja, taking care not to sound too condescending, though it did seem pretty obvious to him at this point. This whole structure they were exploring being a giant puzzle to solve, as it was turning out to be.

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whirluendo_of_puns - 2018-12-01 20:20 (UTC) - Expand

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