[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?]
[ 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??? ]
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...
Hey, if anyone deserves to hold a grudge around here, it's us. We could have had a normal stroll through a deserted fortress, but instead we have to deal with a little bitch who lives in a basement and has probably never taken a shower.
[Sheila has two bows now! But she doesn't need two whole ass bows, so dice maiden has decreed she that she passes it on to Bradley. Guns and bows are totally the same thing, right? (No.) And then she will take a couple of each type of arrow while she's at it.]
The valve looks like it's made out of metal...
[Maybe Zuko can move it from a distance if they need to? But she glances over when he retrieves the notebook.]
[ in an ironic reversal of his name in the jp version of the game, he will pick up a few arrows despite not having a bow, just in case. and just awkwardly carry those along with his fire rod in one hand i guess.
This notebook...it's small. Like the size of a moleskin. The cover is soft and flexible, and it opens easily. When you look inside, you see...it's a lot of symbols nobody here has seen before. To put it clearly, it's the language system from Hyrule. It's unreadable, and deciphering it is bound to be impossible for you. Despite that...
...perhaps you should hold onto it until after your adventure ends. Maybe the language will be different by then.
[She nods, like she is imparting some real wisdom here.]
Exactly. It's going to try and kill us anyway, so we might as well relieve some stress where we can. And it's not like we're trying to become besties with the mouth monster, either.
[Wow! They can't read shit. And they haven't been attacked yet, either...? She glances down again, to see if the goop has moved at all.]
Are we ready to try the valve?
[They are totally going to get attacked when they try the valve, aren't they?]
[ BUT HE STILL HAS SOME HOPE THAT IT WILL JUST NOT CARE ENOUGH TO FIGHT THEM AND THEY CAN JUST LEAVE...
sigh. ]
Y-yeah... okay. But, um, just in case, let me...
[ he sets another cube bomb on the floor beneath the valve so he can be PREPARED if anything threatening jumps down from there when (if?) they open it.
but if it comes up from the bridge then they're just kind of screwed, he guesses. ]
A check shows the malice hasn't moved at all! It's as if it's biding its time. Waiting. Its eyes look right at Zuko and Sheila.
It's as if it's waiting for them to make a move...and has no hurry at all. It probably knows they arrived here from the rail outside, and knows they have no other way to move somewhere else. And even then, it stays down there, waiting.
It's not confidence in its skills. It's...like an ambush predator staring at four mice near its den, ready to spring into action at the right moment.
Ugh... It's watching us like we're rats in a maze. [Gross!! She keeps a hand on her weapons, sighing before she gives Sebastian a sympathetic look.] We're almost out of here. Just hang on a little longer, okay?
[Sheila looks like she has half a mind to attack the monster first, but... She will follow the group.]
You know, you guys don't have to protect me all the time!
[ like, he appreciates the intention, but ]
I mean, you two [ to bradley and zuko ] are hurt way worse than I am!! I know I'm not good at any of this, but I haven't been totally useless either! Stop acting like you're the only ones who have to do all this stuff!
All those weapons and murderous attention at it doesn't go unnoticed. The malice ripples before a deep, bassing sound comes from down, deep into the chamber: the sound of the malice hitting the walls. The doorway they all came through locks up, blocked by a slad of stone. The platform they're on right now trembles as well.
Perhaps you didn't notice before, but the platform everyone is on extends downwards, down into the base of the chamber, unseen by all the goop. That's how everyone can feel it vibrating, the malice attacking the base. A noise of ripping metal echoes, a piece of pipe into the pillar holding the platform being torn apart. Looks like the malice is targeting the base.
If the platform ends up within the malice's reach...they likely will die, overtaken and torn apart by it. Maybe they can defeat it? Maybe they can't?
No one's being the distraction! Now come on, we all need to get out of here.
[She takes one of the bomb arrows to aim at any of the eyes or mouths, and although she doesn't know how to use a bow, she rolled a 17? Amazing. But she doesn't stick around to see if her shot lands or not, because she's running towards the valve with another roll of 17. Will it turn if she tries it?]
[ oh god okay forget trying to protect them against whatever might come down from the open valve if THIS is how things are going to go ]
Y-yeah! Right!!
[ despite kind of fumbling around a little with his arrow collection tucked under his arm, he at least manages to aim the fire rod and shoot off a few fireballs at one of the monster's eyes — with a 12, so i guess we'll see how effective that is! ]
[ Bradley does not have as much experience in bows than he does in guns. But when you get a weapon, you have to use it, don't you? He lets loose (11) the fire arrow that he's notched, and loads the bomb next.]
[ zuko has no firebending and no ranged weapons, he's only got the glowing guardian spear. the malice is getting closer, and he can't risk that. he runs towards the valve, spear outstretched, stabbing at the malice -- ]
[ but honestly, he's a bit woozy from the blood loss and still has the robot arm clasped to his leg, so he loses balance and trips with a rolled 2. ouchies. ]
For a brief moment, very brief, the malice begins to ooze underneath the valve. The pipes it used to reach the surface of the platform were empty, after all! It was a prime way to reach it! Between Zuko stabbing at it with a spear more powerful than it has any right to be, and Sheila handling the valve, it's forced to retreat for a moment, to gather and get enough of itself to burst up the valve or destroy the base of the platform. Zuko losing his balance and tripping gives it the chance to grab him, though. Taking the ankle of the leg without the robot arm attached to it, the malice pushes it, making him slip forward, smacking his forehead against the valve. Zuko falls to the floor, dizzied. Not a concussion, thankfully, but he certainly is seeing double right now. That's going to make things harder for him for a bit!
Sheila will find that yes! She can turn it with her hands! She manages to turn it a little, and when she does...
Many things happen at once. Water begins to leak from pipes on the walls -- metallic pipes, heavy and sturdy -- leaking droplets towards the bottom of the chamber. At the same time there's a hissing in the inner workings of the platform beneath, like air rushing through. It's faint, but it's there. You hear pumps working underneath you.
Sebastian and Bradley may have seen the malice get pushed out of the pillar, the pipes full of wind. It doesn't get to try to get in there again before Bradley fires a, well, fire arrow at it, blazes appearing on the surface of the malice, enraging it! Sebastian over there aims at eyes, hitting it with balls of fire, making the malice retreat before a surge of it leaps forward attempting to reach, but it's useless, they all are too far away right now.
No, this won't do. Attack the pillar again, destroy it so the platform falls and everyone is easy pickings, sneak again into the valve if at any moment the wind and water stops, it wants to reach up there no matter what! Some of the base is ripped apart more, the malice looking for weak points to exploit, anything so it can reach and tear everyone apart!
Given the roll of [1] it doesn't attack them directly, too focused on its current plan to make a secondary attack of any sort at them all.
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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?]
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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??? ]
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Lots of mouths to throw things into.
[He walks, slowly, across the bridge.]
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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 ]
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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
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[Sheila has two bows now! But she doesn't need two whole ass bows, so dice maiden has decreed she that she passes it on to Bradley. Guns and bows are totally the same thing, right? (No.) And then she will take a couple of each type of arrow while she's at it.]
The valve looks like it's made out of metal...
[Maybe Zuko can move it from a distance if they need to? But she glances over when he retrieves the notebook.]
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[ in an ironic reversal of his name in the jp version of the game, he will pick up a few arrows despite not having a bow, just in case. and just awkwardly carry those along with his fire rod in one hand i guess.
and also looking over at the notebook!! ]
Oh, what's that?
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It doesn't have extra ears. We'll have to fight the thing no matter what, anyway.
[He will take the bow and the arrows that are left over.]
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[ he continues to laugh at sheila's jokes this is exactly his sense of humor ]
I can try to move that valve, but yeah. Who cares if we insult it, we're not walking out of here without a fight anyway.
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This notebook...it's small. Like the size of a moleskin. The cover is soft and flexible, and it opens easily. When you look inside, you see...it's a lot of symbols nobody here has seen before. To put it clearly, it's the language system from Hyrule. It's unreadable, and deciphering it is bound to be impossible for you. Despite that...
...perhaps you should hold onto it until after your adventure ends. Maybe the language will be different by then.
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Exactly. It's going to try and kill us anyway, so we might as well relieve some stress where we can. And it's not like we're trying to become besties with the mouth monster, either.
[Wow! They can't read shit. And they haven't been attacked yet, either...? She glances down again, to see if the goop has moved at all.]
Are we ready to try the valve?
[They are totally going to get attacked when they try the valve, aren't they?]
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sigh. ]
Y-yeah... okay. But, um, just in case, let me...
[ he sets another cube bomb on the floor beneath the valve so he can be PREPARED if anything threatening jumps down from there when (if?) they open it.
but if it comes up from the bridge then they're just kind of screwed, he guesses. ]
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[Unfortunately, Northerners are just like this. He's already gotten injured! What's more injury!
He is checking the book, and. Hm.]
Is this even legible for you guys?
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Just hang back, Sebastian. You don't have to fight it.
[ the rest of them will, obviously!! and by the rest of them i mean bradley and zuko. sheila is perfect. ]
I can't make any of this out. But it's probably important somehow. [ so zuko pockets it, to be read later!! and goes back to looking at the creacher ]
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It's as if it's waiting for them to make a move...and has no hurry at all. It probably knows they arrived here from the rail outside, and knows they have no other way to move somewhere else. And even then, it stays down there, waiting.
It's not confidence in its skills. It's...like an ambush predator staring at four mice near its den, ready to spring into action at the right moment.
How unpleasant.
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Ugh... It's watching us like we're rats in a maze. [Gross!! She keeps a hand on her weapons, sighing before she gives Sebastian a sympathetic look.] We're almost out of here. Just hang on a little longer, okay?
[Sheila looks like she has half a mind to attack the monster first, but... She will follow the group.]
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[ like, he appreciates the intention, but ]
I mean, you two [ to bradley and zuko ] are hurt way worse than I am!! I know I'm not good at any of this, but I haven't been totally useless either! Stop acting like you're the only ones who have to do all this stuff!
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Sebastian looks like he wants to cry, but Bradley can appreciate somebody trying their best, even when they're wildly out of their depth.]
Keep on guard. Be ready to fire at the bastard when it begins to approach. You have range, so you can attack it before it gets close to you.
[Once they've made it to the valve he trains his arrow on the monster.]
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[ but zuko gets it. ]
I wasn't saying you were. Just... if you're scared, you don't have to rush headfirst in. You're doing fine.
[ thanks zuko for this incredible peptalk ]
I'm fine being the distraction. That thing is already staring at me.
[ and sheila but he is also protecting mom. ]
[ zuko's holding out his guardian weapon!! ready to stab monstah ]
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Perhaps you didn't notice before, but the platform everyone is on extends downwards, down into the base of the chamber, unseen by all the goop. That's how everyone can feel it vibrating, the malice attacking the base. A noise of ripping metal echoes, a piece of pipe into the pillar holding the platform being torn apart. Looks like the malice is targeting the base.
If the platform ends up within the malice's reach...they likely will die, overtaken and torn apart by it. Maybe they can defeat it? Maybe they can't?
Regardless...the objective is one: Survive.
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No one's being the distraction! Now come on, we all need to get out of here.
[She takes one of the bomb arrows to aim at any of the eyes or mouths, and although she doesn't know how to use a bow, she rolled a 17? Amazing. But she doesn't stick around to see if her shot lands or not, because she's running towards the valve with another roll of 17. Will it turn if she tries it?]
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Y-yeah! Right!!
[ despite kind of fumbling around a little with his arrow collection tucked under his arm, he at least manages to aim the fire rod and shoot off a few fireballs at one of the monster's eyes — with a 12, so i guess we'll see how effective that is! ]
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[ Bradley does not have as much experience in bows than he does in guns. But when you get a weapon, you have to use it, don't you? He lets loose (11) the fire arrow that he's notched, and loads the bomb next.]
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[ but honestly, he's a bit woozy from the blood loss and still has the robot arm clasped to his leg, so he loses balance and trips with a rolled 2. ouchies. ]
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Sheila will find that yes! She can turn it with her hands! She manages to turn it a little, and when she does...
Many things happen at once. Water begins to leak from pipes on the walls -- metallic pipes, heavy and sturdy -- leaking droplets towards the bottom of the chamber. At the same time there's a hissing in the inner workings of the platform beneath, like air rushing through. It's faint, but it's there. You hear pumps working underneath you.
Sebastian and Bradley may have seen the malice get pushed out of the pillar, the pipes full of wind. It doesn't get to try to get in there again before Bradley fires a, well, fire arrow at it, blazes appearing on the surface of the malice, enraging it! Sebastian over there aims at eyes, hitting it with balls of fire, making the malice retreat before a surge of it leaps forward attempting to reach, but it's useless, they all are too far away right now.
No, this won't do. Attack the pillar again, destroy it so the platform falls and everyone is easy pickings, sneak again into the valve if at any moment the wind and water stops, it wants to reach up there no matter what! Some of the base is ripped apart more, the malice looking for weak points to exploit, anything so it can reach and tear everyone apart!
Given the roll of [1] it doesn't attack them directly, too focused on its current plan to make a secondary attack of any sort at them all.
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