CYOA week 3: sheila, zuko, sebastian, bradley

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START

[perceivedrevalry]

Everybody here has experienced this at least once: all of a sudden you're in a new place. You don't know how you got here. And in the end, what matters is what you'll have to do when you return. Perhaps a thought along those lines will cross your mind when you realize you're suddenly in a bizarre location that doesn't look familiar in the slightest.

The chamber you're in is very large. Green moss, as well as rust, covers the floor. Curved structures cover the wall, forming interesting shapes that give each part of the chamber a mystical, ancient appearance. The air feels strange -- black wisps and red lights appear in your vision, and they never leave. There's a constant current of air, like a gale. The temperature is cold -- not freezing, but there's enough coldness hanging in the air it can make any normal human being's skin go numb. Blue lights are set on the ceiling, illuminating the area, and large curved windowpanes at the sides showcase the surroundings outside. From where you are standing right now, you can't see very well how it's like.

Speaking of you and the others you're with...Sebastian, Zuko and Bradley have been outfitted with what's clearly some kind of cheap leather armor, focused more on mobility than on heavy protection -- although Sebastian also has a red cape, which provides nothing other than a dash of color and no benefit, while Zuko's is leather is red and Bradley's has been tinted green. Fortunately, when it's about weaponry they seem to have been favored more. Bradley finds his rifle, Zuko finds a steel sword in his hands, Sebastian and Sheila have staff-like rods, long and filled with fire and lightning magic respectively to attack enemies with by launching balls of those elements.

May as well take a moment to see who you're with. It's bound to be an adventure, isn't it?

[cuedoves]

[ zuko's only experienced this once and it was a willing decision on his part -- he freezes up, squinting at the ceiling and the the lights, then at himself. ]

.... Why are we all dressed like this?

[ despite the complaining, he is on guard. ]

[battling]

[Bradley holds onto his rifle. At least it managed to come along with him, he can work with it. The people he's with... He's incredibly doubtful about how effective Sebastian would be in a fight. But if those are staves then maybe they'll at least have range to work with.

The cool temperature might not settle most, but he looks at ease. It's certainly a better deal to him than the high temperatures of Ahnkeen last week. He takes a glance around before addressing his fellow kidnapped.]

Dressed for the adventure ahead? Who knows. Or somebody thought it was funny.

[The leather is a surprise.]

[unbested]

[ frankly the main thought going through sebastian's mind as soon as he finds himself here is "oh god am i going to be bleeding everywhere when I get back" but. it's... probably fine... maybe.

he's intrigued by this fire rod that's apparently replaced his baton, though, and turns it around in his hands to look at from every angle. ]

This is supposed to be magic, right? Does it actually—

[ whoosh there goes a tiny fireball right at his own shoe ]

Yikes!! W-well, I guess it works.

[toesies]

[Sheila looks at the boys' light armor. Looks at her own outfit.

Slowly blinks.]

Well, this seems... a little sexist, but okay. [Sometimes... you get no armor.] Round two, here we go? We should probably start moving before something makes that choice for us.

FIRST

[perceivedrevalry]

The passageway past the initial chamber is long, and the longer you go, the more wind there is. It's still dark, even the lights that used to dot the walls have extinguished, leaving only the glow of Sheila and Sebastian's magic rods as the only light. At first everything is peaceful, and the only sound is the sound of the wind and the gigantic motors of this mechanical beast, sounding somewhere not too far from you.

Until you hear the rippling of something very dense and viscous near you. Something definitely is following along...observing you. From time to time, you may catch a glimpse of an eye, yellow and bulbous, extending down from the ceiling and towards you. Attack if you wish, it's easily squashable.

At the distance, after a corner, everyone can see a change -- looks like you have reached what the map told you was next.

It's a wide walkway, held by pillars and with a mesh extending five feet up the ground so nobody falls down, located on the inferior side of the airship-like bird. Wind howls in the area, very strongly and cold, but not unbearably so. Upon reaching this walkway they see a large steel gate at the other end, closed.

Looks like there are three objects in the middle of the walkway, a ramp to the right, and something hanging up in the air. It's hard to see from the entrance of this walkway, but it seems everything is connected together.

Careful, though -- once everyone steps into the walkway, the viscous sounds from before increase in intensity. Whatever has been paying attention to you is following closely!

[cuedoves]

[ zuko goes along first despite the fact that he's got a robot appendage clamped around his leg. he's got his sword brandished and is definitely aware of the presence stalking them. ]

[ also smashes the eye first chance he gets. ]

We're in for a fight again. Stay behind me.

[ he puts himself between the noises and everyone else....... can't wait for another 1 ]

[battling]

[He can hear the thing that's been following them, but there's not too much they can when they can't even see the thing.

Bradley is just behind him on the walkway. He'd usually be veering off in his own, but with this set up it seems like they should stick together.

Now that they're on the walk way, can they see what' s hanging up in the air easier?]

[unbested]

[ oh gross, the sound was bad enough already but once he starts catching glimpses of that eye... yikes!!! ]

What is that?!

[ definitely still sticking close to the others. ]

[toesies]

Oh, my god, why does it sound sticky?

[Sometimes... you are more disgusted than concerned.

She sticks close to the group, of course, positioning herself so they're as huddled together as possible. Since they're going up the walkway, can they tell what those three objects are now?]

SECOND

[perceivedrevalry]

Past the gate, the lights have come back already. The walls once again have constellations decorating the surface, intermingled with the curved designs you may have gotten used to already.

Maybe the surprising part is that there's no sign of the malice that had passed by these hallways before you did, despite having entered far sooner than you all did. The number of enemies in the halls is zero, too. That might be a welcome respite, given one of the adventurers got mauled by a skull on the neck, and another just crashed against a number of prickly screens and has a part of a robot hanging from his leg.

The safe trip leads you all to a bifurcation. A path leads upwards, another leads downwards. According to the map, the path upwards has a drawing of what seems to be spikes, the other has a...circle. No indication of what it truly represents.

Two people in each path, please.

spikes

[cuedoves]

[ zuko dusts splinters off of himself, sighing. ]

[ i forgot to be funny about his suffering. oh well, it happens. ]

Let's just get this over with.

[ he'll be heading to the spikes room to die more ]

[unbested]

W-well, I've had the best luck here today, so maybe that will counteract... whatever's been happening to you...

[ so he's following and trying very hard not to think about the spikes ]

SPIKES

[perceivedrevalry]

The inner workings of Van Medoh are...strange. It's an ancient machine, and as such, it's no surprise it has all kinds of rooms and mechanisms inside. Despite that, it's hard to imagine what purpose a place like this one can have other than to dissuade people from passing by.

It's a hallway, unpleasantly cramped. Despite that, it's not too long -- fifty meters at most before you reach the end to it. From the entry point you can see some sort of contraption at the end of the hallway. Doesn't look like an enemy. It's a mechanism that activates something inside Van Medoh. Easy enough...

...if it wasn't for the spikes.

The hallway is shaped like a hexagon, divided into rotating sections, rotating slowly so one can walk by. Some gyrate clockwise, other counterclockwise. The further into this hallway you go, the more spikes there are – in the first section there's only one side with spikes, the last section having four sections with spikes. It seems passing through is an issue of good timing. Fortunately, the spikes are small enough for any impalement to not be...immediately fatal, but it's bound to cause grievous injuries if you were to fall on them.

You also can see a couple enemies, and unlike the one from the initial chamber, they're not dilapidated and rusty, and they're active, holding onto the sections of the rotating hallway and focusing on Zuko and Sebastian as soon as they step onto the first section. Time has been far kinder to these ones...but they continue being small fries. Be careful.

[cuedoves]

Don't worry about it.

[ to sebastian. zuko just toddles ahead, taking stock of everything.... ]

So spikes and enemies. We need to get that mechanism without dying.

[ it's probably fine ]

Can you try shooting at those things?

[ it probably won't reach but a guy can dream. ]

circle

[toesies]

[Sheila glances at the boys as they proceed to head upwards, but this is. Probably fine? Surely, they'll reunite quickly enough. (No.)

Either way, the meta text is asking them to split up so she starts to head downward, towards the circle on the map.]

What do you think is down there?

[battling]

[Zuko has proven he can take a hit and Sebastian seems oddly lucky today, so this seems fine to him.]

Some button we gotta press or a teleporter? [The only teleportation device he's actually aware of is a door.] The circle's vague.

NOT SPIKES

[perceivedrevalry]

The reason why this area is represented with a circle inside a chamber is glaringly obvious as soon as you come in.

The room looks...out of place in Van Medoh, you realize immediately. The brown and metallic walls change into bluish gray tiles, the walls turn smooth, and there's a strang echo with every step you take. Looks like you entered into some some of short chamber, meant to be only for passing through. The floor extends from wall to wall and curves upwards, up to halfway up. Grooves fill the surface...

...for the boulders to roll on.

There's a number of metallic boulders rolling around, twice as large as a person, and undoubtedly pretty heavy, rolling slowly and with no purpose. They don't seem to be machines or alive, fortunately for you.

What is a machine, though, are the two guardians over there in the center, attached to the roof, and unlike the one from the initial chamber, they're not dilapidated and rusty. Time has been far kinder to these ones...but they're inactive, turned off. Strange.

On the other end of the chamber there's a contraption of some sort. Presumably the reason why you had to come down here! You can't see the details from where you're standing.

[toesies]

[...

Slowly, watching the boulders roll:]

Oh, no.

[HELP. She glances up, squinting.]

Well. It looks like circle means fucking giant death boulders and robots. How good are you at dodging?

THREE

[perceivedrevalry]

While everyone talks and catches up, the balcony begins moving, little by little coming closer to the cylinder, until it gently joins into it. The passageway is open, and right from the entrance you can see it's pretty illuminated. As soon as you go in you can see why.

It indeed is a cylinder. The walls have what seem to be some sort of pipes set onto the walls. The way in is a bridge between the entrance and the platform, high in the air. Careful, there's no handrail anywhere. Looking from the sides of the bridge, you can see below there's...there's malice. A lot of malice, pooled there. It's what you had seen passing by you far earlier, and during the time it took you to get here, it gathered, it grew. Fanged mouths and eyes can be seen among the muck. Pretty awful to see.

There's a platform in the center of the room, around five meters in diameter -- not too small, but also not too big. There are three chests in this room. In addition, right in the center there's a large round valve, the kind you need to turn with your own hands.

High above...the opening. A round opening from which light enters, the exact same size than the platform. That's the only way out of this room. The outside of Van Medoh, up there!

This is it. There's no other path. Time to tackle the last obstacle between you and the outside.

[toesies]

[Sheila glances over the bridge— and promptly proceeds to slowly back away.]

Oookay. Don't look down, but I'm pretty sure our friend from earlier just hit his— or her? Or their growth spurt. [She keeps her voice low, trying not to catch it's attention, though she might have done that already anyway.] So... that's going to be fun.

[The final boss is here? Whenever the group is ready, though, she will carefully make her way across the bridge to see if she can reach at least one of those chests.

And, actually, does the valve look like it's made out of metal?]

[unbested]

[ he promptly looks down over the edge of the bridge and then jumps back, looking to sheila and stage-whispering: ]

What if it has a grudge against me for bombing its teeth!!!

[ so, yeah, he's also going to hurry across the bridge after her and go for another chest. better get out of here before that thing gets even huger and angrier??? ]

[battling]

[Immediately looks down. Hmm.]

Lots of mouths to throw things into.

[He walks, slowly, across the bridge.]

[cuedoves]

[ he chuckles a bit at sheila but: ]

Great, it's back.

[ zuko will go for the third chest!!! he might still be bleeding. this is fine. ]

Well, we have plenty of things to throw. And this.

[ gestures to his guardian weapon ]

[perceivedrevalry]

Not to alarm you, Sebastian, but something made of literal malice probably can hold grudges.

Upon examination it turns out that yes, the valve is made of metal. That's correct!

Sheila and Sebastian open chests. The chest Sheila opens has two bows. They look pretty good! Of excellent quality, and presumably of excellent damage output -- damage output good enough for someone even without too much experience with bows to hurt enemies. Good!

But of course, any bow needs arrow. The chest Sebastian opens is full to the brim with them -- and just one glance proves it's a cache full of arrows and magic. Twenty normal arrows, twenty arrows imbued with fire, twenty with ice, twenty with lighting...there even are twenty arrows with bombs at the tip so they explode upon hitting the target. Not a lack of tools in here to fight against something, it seems! That, coupled with anything else they have picked before now, should help keep them safe.

There's one chest left -- and just from one look, one can see it's an important chest. It's bigger, decorated with golden tones, and fortunately, it's unlocked. That's the chest Zuko goes for. When he opens it...

...he finds a notebook