Event || Mysterious Fathoms Below

[eternitymods]

Who: All characters who signed up
When: June 23rd-25th
Where: Ka'Pandol, the underwater city
What: While the outworlders and their guides are touring the new arena at Ka'Pandol, the city begins to flood. It is up to them to activate the ancient drainage system beneath the city before the Blitzball Association is forced to cancel the upcoming tournament.



The Zora guide, Pharce, is leading the group from the Curti Center through the center of town, waxing poetical about the legend of the First Zora, when the sirens begin to wail. At first, the residents of Ka'Pandol wave it off as a drill, but the sirens do not stop, and as they walk, the visitor shoes are beginning to get soaked through with sea water that is slowly rising.

"Come along, quickly, all of you!" the guide calls, leading the group to the Bureau of Tourism near the city center. As they walk, the group will see the aquatic residents quickly deploying bubble helmets around their 'exotic' pets -dogs, cats, parrots, squirrels- heads, just in case City Management takes their time righting whatever issue the dome is having.

"Inside, please. Safety first is our motto, so let's get you outfitted," Pharce says, waiving them inside. Each person is given one of the patented Ka'Pandol Bubble Helm, which will allow them to breath comfortably for several hours. Those that cannot swim are issued an emergency life vest as well.

The water had reached knee-level now. An emergency evacuation message broadcasts from loudspeakers.

"Well, yes, you could...but where's the fun in that?"

Pharce waves at the Hypello gift shop owner, and the two bow their heads in discussion for a moment. When they part, Pharce pats the Hypello (whose nametag declares him 'Shtan') on the back.

"My good friend will lend us some of his wares, if you will join me in saving the city. We wouldn't want this little mishap to delay the big game, after all."

Those that agree to hold off on fleeing the city will be split into groups and given instructions on where to go in order to help the sinking city of Ka'Pandol.

Comments

[suigojin]

[Like Hope, Gi is examining the algae, but more out of general fascination than scientific curiosity.]

I'm guessing these are maintenance tunnels of some kind, so they're probably relatively safe.

[He didn't even know they were down here--though it makes sense now that he thinks about it--so mostly just assuming. That said, he's going to go head towards that far wall, to see if it's glowing because of more algae or something else. Back him up?]

[promiselisting]

You know, in most RPGs, the creepy old sewer that nobody's been in for years is usually infested with montsers.

[ Futaba you're not helping. But hey, it's probably distracting everyone from her own very awkward kicks and flails as she tries to keep up. Maybe? ]

But eh, we'll probably be fine.

[piume]

[ Lean observes Hope’s efforts with a secretive smile on his lips; he recognises a dedicated Chemist when he sees one. The younger boy’s got the right idea, though as fascinating as the nature is, he forces himself to pay more attention to the surroundings. I’m a way, he does feel like there’s a certain responsibility weighing on his shoulders. ]

Well, one of you is definitely correct, if that’s of any comfort.

[ Though he’s not an excellent swimmer, he feels comfortable enough in the water to navigate freely. It’s now become so much more difficult to investigate what’s lying ahead, however.... ]

What can you see up there?

[eternitymods]

[The empty chamber has a raised platform in the center, with large square tiles. Some of the tiles have glowing circles set into them. The same square tiles form a pathway from the door to the platform, and on the other side of the platform, a second pathway that leads to a sealed door.

Beside the door, the source of the glow illuminating the room: a grouping of Tetris block shapes, formed out of the luminous algae, carefully cultivated long ago for this puzzle.

When one of the glowing circles on the tiles is touched, it will light up the tiles around it in one of the shapes. Should any party member stray from the path by swimming beyond the boundaries of the tiles, all of the lit-up tiles will go dark, resetting the puzzle.

OOC: for illustration purposes, it's this. IC, characters can explore and use trial and error to proceed.]

[chefbayardee]

Hmm... [ Hunk squints his eyes, though that's not really going to help when it's so dark underwater, even with the algae. ] I don't see any monsters, so...

[ He looks to the left and right, and then up and down again. Nothing hiding! It should be safe. So he swims ahead, taking particular notice of those tiles with the glowing circles. It doesn't seem dangerous, so maybe it isn't.

And so he pokes the tile, eyes going wide as it lights up. ] H-hey! This is pretty cool! [ And he has no idea how it works. Absolutely winging it. He is, however, looking over at the glowing algae with a look of clear hunger. Better keep his attention on the puzzle. ] I think it's safe!

[dreamsoftomorrow]

[Hope struggles a bit, but he manages his way over to Hunk shortly, touching a set of tiles next to the ones already lit up. He looks around, however, and doesn't quite follow what they are supposed to do.]

It looks like a puzzle but I'm not entirely sure what it is we're supposed to accomplish with these. Anyone else have an idea?

[Were they supposed to create a path?]

[singerofspells]

[S'reee darted to the ceiling and got a sense of the whole thing]

I wonder what the purpose of this is. We're supposed to stay on the path, but this whole thing is part of the path.

[suigojin]

[Hunk and Hope have lit up a couple of the tiles, so Gi goes to examine one of the other sets, touching the circle to light that one up as well.]

Maybe we're supposed to light all of these up at the same time?

[He also has no idea what to do, but it doesn't hurt to start throwing out suggestions.]

[piume]

[ Though it was quite a gamble his companions have just undertaken, it did help establish that at the very least they aren’t dealing with a nasty trap. That speeds up things a little.

Swimming over to join Gi in his investigation, Lean gives another circle a light tap, watching the algae light up beautifully in front of his eyes. This... seems kind of fun. ]

Let’s try that first... but these shapes don’t seem coincidental. We’re probably dealing with a pattern.

[ And to test his theory, he touches the same circle once more, to check if the same motion will cause the lights to disappear. ]

[promiselisting]

[ While everyone's focused on the floor, Futaba is interested in the display glowing on the other side of the room. Since it was right next to the door, it would make sense if those were instructions of some kind. Plus algae didn't grow in that kind of pattern normally.

So she swims forward and- actually no. No she doesn't. She flails and kicks a bit ineffectually before pointing, redfaced, at her destination. ]

Hey. Someone give me a push or something so I can take a look at that.

[rivieran]

[ Now in the open chamber, without any walls to crawl forward on, Ena finds herself in a very similar situation to Futaba's. She could let go and try to flail forward but that would be embarrassing and unbecoming, especially in front of all these strangers. What a terrible situation this was.

So luckily, she's not too far from where Futaba is, one of her hands still touching the path wall for stability. She flails a little bit to draw her feet towards the wall. ]

Apologies if I hurt you.

[ She gives a brief disclaimer before kicking herself off the wall with as much force as she can muster. Her feet swing around to her front and land squarely on Futaba's back, (hopefully) giving the young human girl enough momentum to send her forward.

And not letting go of the wall. She needs that. She'll just observe from here. Because monsters might attack from behind. Or the glowing puzzle might summon monsters if they make a mistake. No thanks. ]

[eternitymods]

[As the party members fail to swim toward the glowing algae on the far wall, if they cross the boundary created by the platform or the narrow walkway connecting the platform to the entrance and exit, the puzzle will go dark.

The group can light up all of the available tile shapes if they wish, but the door will not open until only the shapes corresponding to the glowing shapes on the wall are lit. A shape can be turned off by touching the glowing circle a second time.

...should anyone attempt to lick the glowing algae, they will risk getting water into their bubble helmet. If they're really committed to doing it, the algae has a bitter, slimy taste/mouth feel, and leaves the tongue feeling slightly tingly. It's probably not poisonous, just not great to eat.]

[promiselisting]

[ okay yeah that kinda hurt a bit. But it gets her moving and once moving, it’s actually easier to keep doing so. Her aim isn’t as great though. And she ends up missing the narrow pathway to the exit. Sorry guys.

That being said, once she’s on the correct side of the room, she’s able to grab the wall there and haul herself over to the exit, and the panel next to it. And back on the path, because y’know, important.

Now that she’s able to get a closer look at the panel and yeah, those are definitely not natural algae formations. More importantly, they look like... ]

Hey, I think these match some of those light-up tiles on the floor!

[ So maybe they need to match them up? ]

[singerofspells]

That sounds like a good place to start, then. Can you stay there?

[because less risk of moving around to disrupt the pattern]

[promiselisting]

I’m not going anywhere, trust me.

[ She’s pretty sure she couldn’t even if she wanted to. There’s a growing bruise on her back that’s a testament to that (or at least it feels like a bruise). But yeah, logically it’ll help to have someone near the directions to compare anyway. ]

[chefbayardee]

[ The annoying part about Futaba being up there, able to see the right patterns, is that Hunk isn't, so he's still just going in blind.

Rather than stay where he was, he picks another circle and activates it, waving and shouting loudly at Futaba. ]

Is this one of the right ones? ...Can you even hear me?!

[promiselisting]

Y-yeah!

[ Right. She should actually do the whole direction-giving thing. Navigation. Her job.

She takes a moment to compare the panel in front of her to the spots that Hunk's lit up. ]

Yeah, that looks good. [ from what she can tell at least. She's not at the best angle. ] We also need... One that's four squares long, and two that look like the tetris T, one L-piece that's facing the wrong way, and an S-piece that's facing the right one. They might be rotated around a bit.

[ She sure hopes that somebody else here has played Tetris or at least is able to put it together from her descriptions. ]

[suigojin]

[At least her descriptions include normal letters and thus don't require knowledge of Tetris to find them.

The one he and Lean are hanging out by has gone dark, and he doesn't remember exactly what it was, so he's going to activate it again.]

Found the long one, over here. [Or a long one.]

[piume]

Tetris T...?

[ Since Gi isn’t going to ask the question, Lean decides to do it in his stead. It’s almost irrelevant, really - for he can easily spot one of the other pieces from where he’s currently floating - but diving headfirst into this puzzle, he wants to make sure he’s understood the instructions, at least. ]

I think I’ve got the S-piece...- give me a second.

[ He pauses before reaching his hand out towards the circle and giving it a careful tap. ]

Now onto the next one.

[dreamsoftomorrow]

Um.

[Hope hesitates. He looks around but honestly, aside from the "four squares long" a Tetris T, S, and L are honestly going right over his head. He looks at the others and then back up to where Futaba is.]

Futaba? What's a Tetris T and L?

[Since it looks like Lean found the S, something that he sort of recognized, but while he knows, fundamentally what a T and L are, it's already fairly obvious that they don't look like the T and L and even the S from the Cocoonian alphabet.

He looks to the others with a helpless shrug. Help?]

[rivieran]

[ The fourth wall slowly melts as Ena's player wonders desperately if Common on Adrada looks like the roman alphabet, or what the Elven language looks like...

But it quickly solidifies and becomes a non-question when Ena quickly notices that everyone is preoccupied with the glowy tiles on the floor, i.e., no one is looking at her. Great. Eventually, when everyone figures it out, they will all have to proceed through the door on the far end. And right now, she was the farthest away from it. Considering how quickly everyone else can navigate this water, it was obvious that Ena would soon be left behind to flail in the open water. Now was the best time to make her way closer to the crowd.

So she awkwardly brings her feet back to the wall again and pushes off as hard as she can. She glides nicely for a little bit, and when she finds herself with nothing else to hold onto, she starts to clumsily push herself forward as best she can. ]

[eternitymods]

[When the group manages to overcome the barriers of movement, coordination, and unfamiliar alphabets to light the specified Tetris shapes on the tile floor, the sealed door beside the glowing algae shapes will lift, allowing the party to slowly flail forward proceed.

The door opens up to a narrow raised path stretching over a deep chasm. The path connects to a raised platform, which in turn connects to several more platforms. There are six platforms total. Five contain similar tiles with glowing circles like the ones in the previous chamber. The sixth platform, opposite the first, has another sealed door and another set of glowing algae shapes. The first chamber might well have been a tutorial for this.]

[[Here is a very rough MS paint blueprint of the layout.]]

[singerofspells]

I'll go over and check the shapes. If anyone wants to come with me, you can hang on to my dorsal fin.

[S'reee figured that since they'd been told to stay on the path, she probably should swim the long way around the chamber, rather than cut across the chasm in the center.]

[chefbayardee]

[ Hunk's glad he can swim pretty well, and doubly glad the door opened! The fact that half of the team is slower swimmers (and that monsters haven't attacked, and still aren't attacking!) means that he doesn't have be quite the active vanguard.

So instead he takes a moment to scrape some of the glowing algae into the Vaikunthan equivalent of a tupperware container. For later, obviously. And then he swims ahead, more than willing to keep being the front of the party in an empty room.

He's swimming his way to the top-right area, and will randomly pick an algae circle to hit. It shouldn't be too big a deal that he rushed ahead, right? They can catch up... right?

And if they can't, they'll let him know... right...? Hopefully? ]

[promiselisting]

I'll come! [ Futaba raises a hand at S'reee's offer, and gets ready to push herself off the wall she's clinging to, but then pauses to think better of it. ]

A-actually wait just a sec.

[ She turns to the others. She did hear their questions earlier. ]

Tetris is a puzzle video game back home. There's these blocks that fall and-

[ Hrm. She falls silent for a moment; this is gonna be tricky without visuals... Oh wait. She looks down at her outfit. Perfect! Well, no, not exactly perfect. The colored blocks don't all match, but it'll be close enough. ]

Here- [ She pulls at the edges of her tank top to straighten it out a bit. And draw everyone's attention to it. ]

'kay. T, S, and L are all letters from the Western alphabet back home. When I mention them, I'm talking about these-

[ She'll trace the appropriate shapes out on the squares of her shirt, giving the names of each as she goes. Hopefully that'll help... some.

That done, she'll... try to shove her way over towards S'reee again, if she's willing to help Futaba get over to look at the shapes again. Futaba knows she probably isn't going to be as much use elsewise. ]