Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

[einspine]

Who: [AU] Papyrus and everyone else attending the expedition
When: January 7th
Where: The I.B. Magitek Tower
What: The I.B. Magitek Tower may rest on top of the ruins of Asura's temple. Thus, it's up to our heroes to investigate the tower in hopes of finding the great Eidolon within.
Warnings/Notes: Let's just say it's gonna get... topsy turvy. ;)

Everything is pre-arranged. The flight to the tower. The appropriate waivers. Naturally, everyone who accompanies Papyrus will have to sign to gain access- the Triumvirate was rather adamant about preserving the more confidential secrets within the tower, after all.

But once the appropriate paperwork gets signed away, the tower staff escorts the group toward the elevator. Though with the sheer turnout, it may take a few trips to get everyone down below.

[ooc: Info and sign ups are here!

As a quick clarifying note, here's the gist of how the temple and tower relate.

- Characters can access terminals on specific floors, which will open up stairways to an upside down and photo negative version of the I.B. tower without any people in it. Characters enter on the ceiling, which is now the floor, but must proceed to doorways that are on the floor (now the ceiling).

- The elevator does not function on these flipped floors, but it does function on the regular floors, which is what will allow them to skip around to key areas.

- For the trials, there are only terminals within three floors of the destination (as outlined in the comments).]

Comments

[sassafrisk]

Frisk sways back and forth, weeping determination from every pore, then collapses to a knee, their fancy outfit and sword crumbling to grey dust. Well, at least it worked. It hurt like hell, but it worked. Panting like a dog, they say, "Do you... you think we could... rest for a bit? Heal up? For, like. An hour?" Hands shaking, they fumble through their bag for a bottle of water and chugs it down in less than a minute.

[timecrash]

"Seems like a pretty good idea to me," Serge says, pulling a Potion out of his pocket and offering it to Frisk. "You okay? That looked... pretty painful, actually. Cool, though."

[wind_in_my_ears]

Klonoa may have mostly avoided the first laser blast, but the second one? He's wearing it on his face. His ears are splayed back and the entire thing is black even where it should be white from ash, grimacing as he switches to White Mage.

"Yep.. That's enough hero work for today.. time.. time for something else." He says. Burnt fur is not pleasant.

[hatejakku]

Finn pats Titan on the arm, taking a breath and looking around at the... carnage. If that next floor was worse than this, they're going to need the breather.

He opens his mouth to say as much when he spies the paper amongst all the twisted metal. A wave to Titan - an I got it - and he walks forward to pick up the slip and read it. Then blinks, furrows his brow, and reads it again...

Finn stands up and turns to the group. "Three faces. Three treacherous phases. Brute strength, magical malice, invulnerability and healing to stave off the impending assault. Its faces controlled by ancient stone. Tread carefully, those who seek the final key..." He shrugs and waves it in the air at them. "What's this supposed to be? We're getting warnings now?"

[einspine]

"SOUNDS LIKE A RIDDLE TO ME!" Papyrus grins, moseying over... well, once he utilizes the Ultra Potion. Everyone will enjoy a free full-party heal as such!

But with that done, it's back to contemplating the riddle. He rubs his bony chin, humming quietly. "PERHAPS IT'S A HINT TO THE NEXT CHALLENGE? STRENGTH, MAGIC, HEALING... WOWIE, IF THAT'S ALL LITERAL, THEN IT'S PROBABLY GOT ALL SORTS OF TRICKERY UP ITS SLEEVES! ...IF IT HAS SLEEVES. IT MAY BE TRAGICALLY LACKING IN ACCESSORIES."

[timecrash]

Serge grins, shouldering his oar. "Well, whatever it is, I'll bet we're gonna nail it. Who's ready to do this?" He takes a moment to swap back to [Stave Master], taking advantage of the lull to [Meditate] for a while. "I dunno about anybody else, but I'm ready to beat up some more robots. It's pretty nice having something to wail on that you don't have to worry about the ethical stuff behind breaking it. Kinda cathartic, I mean."

[sassafrisk]

Frisk hisses through their teeth as they examine the note, wincing--and not just from the lingering pain of DT poisoning. Maybe going that hard on it wasn't such a good idea. The healing from the rest of the party helps alleviate the ache, though. "Yeah, this seems like boss territory right here. We should probably chill for a little while longer until we recover our ults--I don't want to fight whatever this thing is without Hellfrog up my sleeve. We might want to wait for everybody else to catch up, too."

[hatejakku]

"Frisk is right," Finn sighs, then looks up to Titan. "I think I better go alone this time, buddy."

The Eidolon nods before vanishing into static.

Finn uses the time to take out his slate and switch to Gunslinger.

[wind_in_my_ears]

Klonoa shakes his head. "Sorry. Puzzles are my thing, not riddles." The potion sure helped, but he's still kind of feeling a bit... scorched. He throws up a Protective barrier, giving a nod. "Rupu, everybody."

[einspine]

"IF IT HELPS, I CAN MAKE A FEW MORE ULTRA POTIONS BEFORE WE PROCEED AND... TWO MORE SCIENTIFIC SPAGHETTIS."

Sadly, the latter can't apply to the whole party, but he'll switch back to Cool Scientist just long enough to whip those up. It'd be good to have 'em as a precaution at the very least.

"DO YOU THINK IT'S WORTH ALERTING THE OTHERS? WE MAY STAND A BETTER CHANCE WITH A LARGER GROUP."

[hatejakku]

Finn was busy reading the riddle again, his eyes skimming the note a few times before speaking up. "Looks like we'll need strength, magic, invulnerability and healing to beat it."

They had some of that, but magic was a bit lacking, even with Finn's Summoner role. Again, Frisk was right. "We'll have a better chance with larger numbers, yeah, and this thing probably isn't going anywhere."

[timecrash]

"I've got... some magic. And I'm occasionally fairly invulnerable with the time magic stuff... You guys are right, though. Let's regroup with the others."