melodiesofeternity | Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

Entry tags:

Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

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).]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

The Magitek Tower staff escort everyone deep down beneath the tower. Along the way, they inform the party that these lower reaches are the only floors that existed prior to the tower's construction. Thus, it's their best bet to uncover the Temple of Asura. They're allowed to roam freely, so long as they do not destroy or tamper with the machinery.

The elevator hums, then screeches to a stop. The doors slide open, depositing the group at the basement levels. Lights flicker up above. Machinery spans as far as the eye can see. Evidently, this floor exists as a server storage room, though the machinery clashes with the surrounding brick walls.

Before leaving, the staff informs the characters that there are three sub-levels. With that, it's up to the party to explore...

Fortunately, there's an elevator they can take to reach the upper or lower levels if the stairs aren't their style. However, there's not a lot to see as they venture deeper into these sub levels, until they reach the lowest floor, where a conveniently placed computer rests.

Perhaps it's worth investigating?

[ooc: Please keep replies to this toplevel in a single thread.]

[This will be broken up into several sub-threads! All threads take place after the initial entrance to the Temple of Asura is discovered. However, the threads will apply to both the Magitek Tower and the Tower of Asura due to the temple's gimmick.

With such a large turnout, we understand if people want to move forward to the individual challenges. The basic thing to keep in mind is that the Temple of Asura is an upside-down version of the Magitek Tower, with inverted colors and no actual workers- the objects, however, do carry over. It's similar to the Stone Tower temple in that the characters are on flipped gravity, but objects are not.

So objects on the floor stay on the floor, even when that floor is now the ceiling.]

[ooc: Chronologically, this takes place after they discover the entrance to the temple. ICly, this is done by having a character who has unlocked their melody activating the terminals. The second visit to floor 100 will go up once the four keys have been collected.]

Should the party take the elevator to floor 100 in the Magitek Tower, they'll find another similar terminal. How convenient! Rushing ahead of the others, Papyrus begins typing at the computer. Sure enough, the machinery hums to life! The floor rumbles. Like the storage area, a stairway appears...

Leading to a room rather unlike the place they were just in. It's not inverted, the colors are normal. There's very little in this room, barring the walls and floor, save for a very large door. Four locks bar the way, each marked with a roman numeral for the following numbers: 13, 42, 77, 90.

The question is, what next? The elevator only functions in the Magitek Tower, so it looks like it's back to the drawing board.

Edited 2019-01-07 20:59 (UTC)

A direct elevator ride to Floor 13, will reveal no terminal in sight. In fact, it seems that floors 11 and 12 also lack in terminals. But should any adventurous sorts make their way down to floor 10, they'll find a few interesting objects of note...

Several crates scattered across raised platforms, accessible by short flights of stairs. Wound up hooks dangling from the ceiling. A rank to lower said hooks. A doorway nestled beneath one of the stairways and a computer terminal at the center of the room.

Characters are certainly welcome to proceed straight to the other side, or they can explore the room if they prefer. They're even welcome to proceed to floors 11 - 13, despite the lack of terminals. Upon doing so, they'll find a similar set up- hooks, crates, large pipes along the walls to inspect and manipulate as they see fit.

But regardless, they'll eventually need to access the terminal on floor 10 if they wish to continue their journey. Which means three floors worth of upside-down traversal. What a puzzle!

Much like floor 13, there is no terminal on floor 42, thus any attempts to reach the other side will require a stop on floor 39.

This sector of the Magitek Facility contains conveyors throughout the room. Mechanical arms drop down from above, depositing various Magitek components- by the looks of it, they're various pieces of Magitek armor. Adventurous types can find a switch to the east and a switch to the left. Like before, there are also a few stray crates.

The terminal rests in the center of the room. When everyone is ready, they may proceed to the inverted tower.

Floor 74 lacks much in the way of complex machinery. Instead, tall glass tubes spread throughout the room, each containing Elementals in suspended animation. Perhaps as research specimens? Curiously, all these Elementals are red- at least for this initial floor.

There are a few crates in the corner, and two more hooks up above, but otherwise there's very little to see.

However, the moment the characters enter the inverted temple, those tubes begin to drain. Those once idle Elementals spring into action, unleashing their red hot spells.

Tech geeks will get a kick out of this sector, as it seems to be catered toward magitek weaponry. Floor 87 contains simple machinery, such as four turret-like robots stationed across the floor. Fortunately, they seem perfectly inactive. Just lifeless hunks of metal, really!

The Magitek armor components from earlier pass by once again, now assembled in a more complete state. The conveyors ramp upward- perhaps their destination is close by. Curiously, there seems to be a hatch on the floor, though it's sealed tight. As always, a terminal is available to access the inverted floor.

However, characters will want to stay on their toes, as the moment they enter the inverted floor, the machinery starts to hum and click. An alarm begins to blare, and those formerly lifeless turrets start to twitch.

That's the warning. The moment someone moves, those machines will snap into action. Tread carefully, heroes, as you make your way to the door up above.

Edited 2019-01-08 23:59 (UTC)

The computer reminds Gladio of the multitude of screens, buttons, and terminals he'd seen in Zegnautus Keep. And while he might not be the most tech-savvy among the group he's at least capable of turning on a computer and going through whatever he can find.

So that's exactly what he does.

"This'll probably have something we can use, right?"

Oho! Papyrus beams at the sight, rubbing his mittened hands together. How exciting!

"IT HAS TO! WHY ELSE WOULD THEY LEAVE A COMPUTER OUT IN THE OP-"

But before he can finish responding, the room suddenly begins to shake. There's a brilliant flash, and out of the blue, a stairway appears!

Just, uh. Pardon Papyrus' sudden googly eyes. "WOWIE!!! THAT WAS FAST. BUT A SECRET PASSAGE... NYEH HEH HEH! WHO KNOWS WHAT SECRETS LIE WITHIN?!"

He practically bounces as he makes his way toward the stairway, though he at least has the courtesy to wait for others to follow.

Richard, similarly, may not be the most tech-savvy person in the group. Although, he definitely knows his way around running a few scripts. He walks behind the gentleman who's biceps are about as big as his head and cranes his neck over his shoulder to look at what was going on.

"Try looking for maintenance logs." He mentioned under his breath, looking for the life of him that he probably needed coffee. "If we can find those, we could probably parse out what we need to be doing here."

And then the wall opened up with a terrific flash.

Oh, this bodes poorly.

Xehanort's preparedness is 100% the fact that he brought the cellphone he just happened to find during the recent holiday. It has room for pictures! So he's going to take some, just in case, for later reference.

Ignore the occasional click. He's surely not occasionally getting a person picture too. "Or a floor layout with helpful 'you are here' signs," he adds to Richards's suggestion of maintenance logs.

And then there is Door, and Stairs and .. "Does it really seem like a good idea to just trust suddenly appearing stairways? Is it even really there?"

Mind you this doubt also comes with being like two feet behind Papyrus and being thoroughly willing to see if the skeleton falls through or anything of the sort.

"Uhhhh... shit."

He used a computer at home, but it was mostly to surf for patterns and maybe read up on a few things pertaining to his hobbies. But he was the first to spot the computer terminal, and although he was not entirely sure he was the guy to figure things out, there had to be a first time for everything.

If the terminal was powered off, he'll jab a button or see for some sign of a power button. Otherwise he's just gonna jab at one or two of these suckers to see what would happen. What was it he was told before...? 'Test the parameters before seeking a solution'? That helped him solve some of Naoto's riddles.

Oh, this was interesting. She popped up with a Dimension Door to get a better aerial view, and scanned the conveyors. Where were they going...? Maybe climbing onto one and giving it a ride onward might take them somewhere new.

But for now, she wanted to see if all the parts were going to the same place...

Uendo follows Papyrus in with a little more caution. There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous around... Just a locked door. An important-looking one, at that.

"13, 42, 77, 90..." He crosses his arms in thought. It could be a math problem, but then again, it could also be something more straightforward than that. "Could the numbers refer to specific floors in the tower?"

"I fail to see how we have a choice," Ashelia interjects from near the room's entrance. She walks over to Gladio and Richard at the console, giving it only a cursory glance as she continues onto the stairs. "We came to solve the mysteries of the I.B. Tower. This magickally appearing staircase would seem mysterious enough to me." Time is running short - maybe it's short-sighted, but Ashelia can't just stand around a computer screen when there's so little time left until the end of the universe.

Tyzias was more than done with this cutesy inversion bullshit. Strong Stomach or not, flipping upside down whenever they wanted to get anything done followed by an agonizingly slow and awkward descent towards the terminal was more than annoying. She just wanted to activate these things, flip off whatever asshole entity made the dungeon this asinine, and let the lore nerds do their jobs before going home.

She wasn't one for fighting, not really. Tyzias much preferred studying, writing essays, doing paperwork... but right now, she really needed a target to vent her otherwise aimless anger on. The fire was definitely irksome, though. At least her coat wasn't all that flammable. Ducking behind one of the hooks, Tyzias whips out her pistol and narrows her gaze at one of the elementals. Aegis seems vulnerable there, flicker's slightly more noticeable there, one of the runes is off center there...

Tyzias activates Moonsetter Scales Stance and Sunslammer Gavel Stance, quartering her defense while doubling her critical and evasion chances, then uses Deduction Cutter, applying the studied status to one elemental before shooting it four times in a medium physical combo.

PHYSICAL POWER: A
MAGICAL POWER: D
ATTACK POTENCY: A
HEALING POTENCY: E
PHYSICAL DEFENSE: B (25%)
MAGICAL DEFENSE: B (25%)
SPEED: SS
MODIFIED CRIT CHANCE: 42%
EVASION DOUBLED
MOONSETTER ACTIVE
SUNSLAMMER ACTIVE

Well, whatever Kanji's doing, it seems to elicit some sort of reaction! Like the previous floors, the ground shakes. A flash follows, and a stairway appears to the side.

Those accompanying Kanji are free to proceed to the upside down floor 10, but there's no rush if they wish to snoop around first. The choice is theirs.

Once they proceed, they will find a floor that is identical to the one before, but photo negative... and upside down. They'll stand upon the ceiling, complete with its crisscrossing beams, while the floor hangs high above. The objects defy all gravity, staying safely on the floor.

They will find that any objects tampered with or moved in the I.B. Tower will reflect on this floor as well. In fact, if the group is unhappy with the placements, they're free to take the stairs they came from and return to the I.B. tower first.

Any attempts to use the elevator on this flipped floor will result in failure- seems it's inactive here, like the other inverted floors.

But regardless of what they do, the only way to go is up.

They should probably proceed with caution as it is. They'd already been through other Temples before so besides puzzles, something else was likely lingering here. But, that could be for later. Examining the doors with roman numerals, she nodded.

"It's possible... And since its each bar, maybe the way to removing them will be on those corresponding floor numbers."

Richard, however, was mildly charmed by the whole inversion thing. He remembers going on vacation once and going to see a room where everything was set up to be on the ceiling. A chandelier somehow was made to point directly upward. It was a good time.

Oh, but this wasn't.

Richard went back-to-back with Tyzias, holding his spear and bending his legs a little. "Just so we're clear, this doesn't count as the date. That's happening on the tenth. Also, and I'm sorry to bring this up, but cover me for a second." He takes a deep breath and exhales. Right. This is a bad situation. Time to bust out the big guns. [Dragon Heart], here we go.

There was a spark of blue, and Richard's chest glowed bright blue that danced around him in ribbons of power. The core of his chest glowed bright yellow. He took a deep breath, and bent his knees, ready to dodge.

PHYSICAL POWER: A -> S
MAGICAL POWER: D
ATTACK POTENCY: A
HEALING POTENCY: C
PHYSICAL DEFENSE: D
MAGICAL DEFENSE: D
SPEED: S

DRAGON HEART ACTIVE: X2 POTENCY FOR SKILLS AND ABILITIES FOR THREE TURNS.

Edited 2019-01-08 22:42 (UTC)

Naomi wasn't a bit tech user herself. Sure, she had to use it at work, but if they have to go beyond standard uses, she wouldn't be of much help. She doesn't know how tech savvy Kanji was, but she'd leave him to testing the terminal first. Ground shaking, several eyes were to the stairway to the side.

Not sure what else to take in from this floor, she would proceed to the next and-

"Hm... This is different."

Only, not entirely - just... it could be different for others. Upside down and on the ceiling with the floor above, her eyes take in the changes - and the similarities. Normally, people might not be able to get up to the 'ceiling' so it likely had to do with the other floor this one mirrored.

"Yeah? What's down there? I mean, I'm just hittin' buttons but maybe I did somethin' good..."

He would remain at the terminal. If anything, maybe he needed to shut it off in a hurry if something screwy happened. He even tried working the crank for the hooks. So did they grab those boxes and haul them somewhere? Hmm...

Blinking, she watched the hook begin to move, but she hadn't done anything. While she might not have the sharpest hearing as other monsters might either, she could hear Kanji fiddling with something.

"Are you moving the hook?"

As soon as Finn steps into the inverted room, the echoing alarm makes him freeze. Where he's from, alarms like that usually aren't indicative of anything good and this is the first time he's hearing one in this trippy tower.

The turrets positioned on the ceiling (or floor? above his head) twitch to life, and he's seen enough to know exactly what that means. After a moment of sheer panic, the turrets don't fire and almost seem uninterested.

"They're motion activated," he whispers. "Back up, back up, back up, back up-"

Anyone behind him will probably be okay. Anyone in front- Well. Finn's trying to think, all right? Either way, he can't stay here and very slowly starts trying to slide his foot back, eyes on the guns.

Watching everything move around from just ground level, Adrien turned his head when Madhuri popped herself into a Dimension Door to get another viewpoint. He felt a little unsure about traversing the room while in motion, but what could they do - Dimension Doors might be the safest way around.

"See anything interesting?"

"Yeah, I think they pick up the boxes, but I don't see a place or a button they can hold down or whatever."

Okay, so he can manipulate things in his room. Maybe the boxes had something inside, and he needed to drop them from a height to use a key within or whatever. Sounded like a plan. Except...

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 10

Player Plot: A (skele)ton of Work

The Underground Area

Temple Exploration

Floor 100 (first visit)

Floors 10 - 13

Floors 39 - 42

Floors 74 - 77

Floors 87 - 90

Re: The Underground Area

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject