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

[eternitymods]

[All these suspicious eyes scanning the room will find...no signs of traps or hidden panels. It is a bare stone chamber with one treasure chest in the center. Frisk's sword hilt connects with the chest with a heavy thunk. It appears to be an ordinary, unlocked treasure box, made of wood with bands of metal connecting the boards.

The current outside rushes by again. If the party exits before the current cycle ends, they will be swept forward into another large chamber. They can wait out the current and continue onward. Or, they can open the innocuous treasure box. Decisions, decisions.]

[despairing_hope]

It was anyone's guess what might happen before the chest is properly open, but, Komaeda still felt optimistic.

"Perhaps were actually lucky today. Though, I hope were not too lucky before we've finished our task."

[einspine]

OH. WELL, THAT'S A RELIEF! IT SEEMS LIKE A PERFECTLY ORDINARY TREASURE. IN THAT CASE, LET'S SEE WHAT SPOILS AWAIT!!!

[He points dramatically for added effect. Oh, this is actually rather exciting.]

AFTERWARDS WE SHOULD PROBABLY CONTEMPLATE OUR NEXT MOVE. WITH LUCK, THE CURRENT WILL STOP AGAIN, AND THE PATH WILL REOPEN...

[modelcivilian]

"... Well, I guess if you guys want to open it..."

It didn't already snap open and try to bite Frisk's weapon. And it didn't explode either. But maybe that was still being too optimistic.

[songbird_slayer]

Well, I confess to not having opened a legitimate treasure chest in quite some time. Plus we've time until the water passes.

I'll keep a horn out for it, but we need to hurry. A quick pop, collect what's inside, and then we keep going for the drainage system. That rushing water is all headed somewhere and we ought follow it.

[sassafrisk]

"The less fishy this gets, the more antsy I become," Frisk says, frowning. Something about this seemed kinda... off. "But you know what? Nothing ventured, nothing gained." With this, Frisk retrieves their spear. "If there's no objections, I'll open it using the spear. If it is a really smart mimic, it'll hopefully gobble up the glorified stick and we can skedaddle while it's doing that. Sound good?"

[doodlebuginette]

To be fair, she could kind of agree with Frisk. Even though nothing crazy had happened up to this point, that didn't mean things would continue to go that way. And Marinette, for one, preferred to be prepared for the worst. Just in case. Even if it was just her being a little paranoid. "That's right. We'll never know if we don't try," she said. "And hopefully we'll get lucky and it'll just be a regular chest!"

[saint_sami]

"Mmm... go ahead."

Sasami stepped back to let Frisk open up the chest. To be quite honest, being told by everyone to not run to the chest kinda took the wind out of her sails at that point. She was more than certain that if she saw another chest, that one would have traps and would get everyone into trouble.

[eternitymods]

[Frisk opens the chest to reveal... an ordinary treasure box! Inside, the group will find a Piece of Statue. Made of metal, untarnished by the water, it appears to be the base piece of a small statue. It is small enough to carry, despite its weight, and it appears to be a serpentine section with openings at either end where other pieces can be connected.

The current finishes its cycle, and the party can progress down the hallway to a central chamber. The chamber has a door on each of the four walls. The doors each open into a hallway. The group entered from the south. Currents are rushing past the east and north doors at the time the group enters. The party may observe that the currents for each door stop and start in different intervals.

The groups can study the doors if they wish to learn the intervals in which the currents run, or go ahead and move on. If they wish to split up to cover more ground, they may do so as well.]

[einspine]

[Oh! Well that's a relief. Papyrus sighs softly at the sight.]

WELL! THAT SEEMS IMPORTANT. KEEP IT CLOSE, FRISK! GUARD IT WITH YOUR VERY SOUL! IT MAY COME IN HANDY LATER.

[Ah, but the current's concluded, and the hallway awaits. Multiple doors. Multiple possibilities. He glances from one door to the next, rubbing his bony chin.]

HRMM... DO WE TEST OUR LUCK WITH ONE, OR SHOULD WE SPLIT APART FOR THE TIME BEING? WE'D COVER MORE GROUND THAT WAY, BUT IT'D ALSO LEAVE US MORE VULNERABLE...

[despairing_hope]

"It looks like a puzzle peice," they should keep an eye out for other such pieces or a 0lace it might fit in.

As for the space with all the doors....

"We should take a look at each one but splitting up completely might be a bad idea. Why not use pairs and explore that way?"

[modelcivilian]

"Very soul..." Papyrus, maybe not that much. The puzzle piece might be significant, but would it really play that great a part? If it was a situation where it wouldn't be entirely lost to retrieval, there was no need to guard so vigorously.

Looking over at Komaeda, Adrien nodded. "Yeah. Two groups of two and then a group of three should do it..." Though, watching the other doors. "... Looks like the timing might be different on each current."

[songbird_slayer]

"Looks like it. I'll take that door there with another," she replied, gesturing to the north door.

"No doubt other pieces lie scattered and we must act quickly. The city is flooding and I'd like to pass the part where malevolent sharks swim the streets." Let's see, who to take...

Eenie, meenie, minie, Adrien. She nodded to the blond and headed for the door.

"Allons-y, Instructeur!"

Not nitpicking here, Frisk is just a smart cookie who notices things

[sassafrisk]

"Normally, I'd advocate against splitting the party because that's generally when everything goes horribly wrong, but we need to get this done fast and it doesn't really look like with have any other options." Frisk purses their lips, thinking. There were some things that were striking them as off about this situation.

"Two questions, though: one, if this was meant to be an emergency measure to help out the city when things get bad, why are they locking it behind a bunch of corridors with weird tides that make it hard to get through instead of just putting simple security detail on it? And this is only one part of the puzzle, the others probably have different security measures." Now, they could understand why this kind of thing happened in the Underground, grim as the reasoning was, but here....

"B, Madhuri, how the heck do you know French? Like, I'm pretty sure you and Adrien are from different worlds, nevermind how the Common Tongue thingymajig auto-translates so all I should be hearing from you is English. Of course," Frisk waggles their eyebrows, "perhaps there's a reason I hear your lovely voice speaking in the language of love, mademoiselle?

"I call dibs on Papyrus once we split, by the way."

[doodlebuginette]

It seemed like the combined efforts of everyone had given Sasami reason to pause, and for that she could breathe a sigh of relief. Her eyes went a little wide as the chest popped open and revealed... part of a statue? That was a little odd, but she supposed it made some kind of sense.

At least it wasn't a trap.

She couldn't quite fight the giggle that bubbled out in response to Papyrus' over-the-top exclamation. Maybe Frisk didn't need to be quite that careful with it, but she had to admire the sentiment.

When everyone started talking about splitting up, Marinette was torn. On the one hand, she really wanted to go with Adrien. But she didn't want to seem too clingy or make it seem like she was following him around. On the other hand, it didn't seem like anyone was eager to go with Komaeda, which could be a problem if they were splitting up into pairs. "Then I have dibs on Komaeda~" she announced, before scooting over to stand by him.

[despairing_hope]

"Oh? I would have thought you would want to go with someone else," he was truly surprised. He would have even taken the risk of going by himself if it made it easier for everyone.

"And I understand the misgivings in splitting up, however, this is exactly why it would be in pairs," he glanced towards Frisk unamused by their comment. "Most likely it's a protection system so people don't sabotage it. It is old as well, so there might be things that don't work the same as they used to. The tides may be due to the flooding as well. You're focusing too much on details that don't matter right now."

Through the West Door

[eternitymods]

[The water is currently still at the western-facing door. The group going this way can go right away. The current runs on a three-minute cycle, and if the party is still in the hallway when it begins again, they will be swept back to the alcove near the oubliette’s Northeast entrance and have to navigate the tunnels again.

The west path leads to a single chamber, containing two identical treasure boxes sitting side by side. If the group turns around, they will find an inscription above the door:

The path you think right, reconsider.
The other choice by far is better.

Other than the plaque with the inscription and the two chests, there is nothing of note in this room.]

[sassafrisk]

Frisk swims up towards the room with Papyrus, preoccupied with what could possibly be worth guarding with such extreme measures. Hopefully nothing they would have to fight. As soon as they come to the chest room and read the inscription, they raise a single eyebrow and turn to their companion. "My bet's on the left one. Gil for your thoughts?"

[einspine]

[Hrmmm. Riddles! Not a puzzle he encounters often, but Frisk's logic does seem sound enough. He glances from one chest to another, contemplating just a bit longer. It could be a trick, but...]

LEFT SEEMS STRAIGHTFORWARD ENOUGH TO ME! A LITTLE WORDPLAY, NYEH HEH HEH.

Through the North Door

[eternitymods]

[Water rushes past the north door. The current runs on a four-minute cycle, and if the party attempts to leave before the cycle ends, is still in the hallway when it begins again, they will be swept back to the alcove near the oubliette’s Northeast entrance and have to navigate the tunnels again.

The north path leads to a larger chamber, containing a single giant treasure box with a lock. A school of shimmering minnows circle this chamber. One minnow, a little larger than the others, has a special glint to it. When a person approaches, the school will swim in the opposite direction.

Other than the treasure box and the fish, this chamber contains a sealed door in the north wall.]

[songbird_slayer]

[Hmm... locked chest (darn it, she couldn't use Knock here) and some fish swimming around the room.]

Hmm... I suppose we left our lockpicks in our other pants?

[modelcivilian]

[Four minutes... four minutes, but he would keep his sword planted to avoid being swept away with the next churning current. He have a look around the chamber, frown at the locked treasure chest, but... but his eye caught something glint. Looking at the fish, he noticed something off.]

[Not even turning into his other self and the fish hold his interest.]

... Hey, is one of those fishes bigger than the others?

Through the East Door

[eternitymods]

[Water rushes past the east door. The current runs on a six-minute cycle, and if the party is still in the hallway when it begins again, they will be swept back to the alcove near the oubliette’s Northeast entrance and have to navigate the tunnels again.

The east path leads to a medium-sized chamber. The floor, rather than the stone of the previous rooms, is set with alternating black and white tiles (for those of Earth, reminiscent of a checker board). There is a treasure box on the very far side of the room. If the group turns around, they will find a plaque with an inscription on the wall above the door:

Forwards or backwards you cannot proceed.
Nor side to side, another direction you need.

Other than the tiles, the plaque, and the treasure box, there is nothing of note in this room.]

[doodlebuginette]

"Mmm... nope! I wanted to go with you," she told him matter-of-factly. "If I'd wanted to go with someone else, I'd have done it. Besides, it's better to not go alone~" Unless he'd rather go with someone else and he was just trying to be polite about it. But it seemed kind of silly to worry about it now.

Six minutes was easy enough to remember, and as long as they were out of the way in time it wouldn't be so bad. Getting through the hallway was easier than she'd suspected it would be, and once she was inside the room at the end of it, she turned to make sure Komaeda had made it as well.

Satisfied that they'd both made it in one piece, she turned to consider the chamber in front of them again. "Is this... checkers?" Or chess, maybe?

"So... What do you think?" she asked, turning to Komaeda.

[despairing_hope]

He thought about telling her how it was a bad idea to want to join him, nothing good would come from hanging around trash like him, but he hesitated. He could keep it to himself for a moment and focus on the puzzle. She was just trying to help after all.

"Too simple. Checkers or chess the moves can be the same," and before giving any sort of warning he stepped onto the board diagonally. It either worked out or didn't but he had confidence the e d result would be favorable.