destinystrings | [Closed] Mictlan expedition log!

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[Closed] Mictlan expedition log!

Who: Agatha Heterodyne, Soujirou Seta, Jonathan, Eikichi Mishina, Miss Martian, Ruri Hoshino
What: Exploring the ruins
Where: Mictlan
Warnings: Violence, danger, possibly language

mictlan

After climbing up to the top of the temple, the group enters Mictlan. The walls are stone and the floor looks almost polished. There is a distinct chill in the air. The only ambient light comes from torches along the wall. Agatha is already glad she outfitted a few of her dingbots with lights. After walking through a short hallway they step through an archway into a large room. The floor is a huge mosaic depicting scene from ancient myth and legend. A briny odor fills the air and the sounds of distant wailing can be heard. There doesn't appear to be anything else of interest in the room, but notably there are 7 different exits. Agatha is looking around warily.

[OOC: So here they are in the first room. Obligatory 'everybody arrives mingle thread' has been cut for time. No thread order for the same reason. As I said in the plotting post, I will be adding at least one 'move things forward tag' per day. But feel free to move things forward on your own too. That said, enjoy!]

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"What, and no mirrors for the great Michel to be able to see himself properly?"

If anything after that entrance into the building, it was nice to see that this place was just boring rock formations. After his own adventures back at home, Mictlan seemed at least...well normal.

As long as this place had no laser rooms, he would be glad. At least he'd learned his lesson there.

...Well, this is a place, isn't it? The wailing and the smell doesn't miss him. Not that he wants to find out what it is, but...

"I doubt you could see yourself in a mirror, anyway, seeing how dark it is." Hilariously missing the point aside, Jonathan turns to look at the seven different exits. What is this, a puzzle...?

"Which exit do you think we should take?"

"The darkness I can help with."

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a dingbot. Setting the tiny clank on the ground, she taps a button on it's head. The single eye in the middle lights up. Look, a mobile flashlight! Agatha nods in approval at it and then turns to the next problem.

"The exits are another matter. They all look pretty similar to me."

Welp.

Alright, then... that's a... cute little demon you got there, Agatha. "I could summon one of my demons and have them check for danger down each exit. If they're killed, I could always revive them."

Because demons are not but tools once they form contracts, right? He's actually going to do that. The fact he hasn't brought them all out yet is a bit odd, really.

AND HERE POPS UP A CREEPY LITTLE LADY. It first appears as data, as the Gauntlet from his arm emits light on the ground, before the demon (...angel?) materializes.

"...I guess it would have been too easy to hope for a map," Soujirou says as he peers about. He glances between the other members of their party, smiling in Jonathan's direction. "Having someone able to scout ahead would be useful."

ALRIGHT GO LAILAH SHOO. It flies down the exit to their left first. Exit 1, if you will.

...Now what, though? Just wait? He's not going to send all his demons out and end up mostly defenseless, thanks. Lailah should return and report back, or his Gauntlet could show her basically end up dead.

Agatha watches the demon with interest. She's seen Fumi summon them, but is still unclear on the process.

"That should save us some time, at least."

Following the path will take the demon only a few minutes. The first 2 doors to their left actually open into the same place, and Lailah will return unharmed, but a little dizzy. {OOC: There is something ahead that causes dizziness.}

Demon, summon, or whatnot, Soujirou hopes that she'd come back without being harmed. He nods at Agatha, watching as Lailah goes off. Well, he supposes in the meantime, he'll keep on his guard. Can never be too careful, after all. Dungeons are always full of surprises.

And she's back! Unfortunately, when you're a flying demon, balance is kind of important. And so she unceremoniously does a 8.0 faceplant to the floor before getting up again.

Hey, that fall was actually mildly impressive. How do you fall like that? "Those two doors both lead to the same area. However, unless you wish to subject your head to a vertiginous experience, I'd recommend checking another door."

Well... dizziness isn't that bad, compared to anything else that's possible, all things considered. "I see. Are you able to check the others, then?" Her expression isn't exactly readable, seeing Lailah wears a smiling mask on her face perpetually, but she silently goes down the hallway to the right, anyway.

Agatha watches with concern. That fall did not look pleasant.

"Is she going to be okay?"

Unfortunately, the hallway on the far right is even worse. The poor demon only gets a few feet in before the entire hallway fills with an unpleasant purple smoke. She's been poisoned. Anyone have Posmudi? {OOC: Poison trap. She is literally finding ALL of the unpleasant things on this floor. ^^;}

"She'll be fine. I think."

Look, they've been through worse. Plus, demons can always get beheaded and come back, it's not like they're people.

...When the smoke does come, though, she flies out at the speed of light and tumbles on the floor again. Uh. Well, yes, he does actually have Posmudi, as a matter of fact! On his other demons. Tapping on his Gauntlet, he returns Lailah first, then heals her with Throne's skills.

"...Well, we know not to go down that hallway." Summoning Lailah again, good as new, she might be just a bit annoyed if you're good at reading the body language of angels. A rare skill, if any possesses it. Four more hallways to go! Shoo, Lailah!

(Yeah, you might be figuring out that Jonathan basically treats Lailah as expendable, seeing how he's not using his other demons.)

Geeze that poor demon lady...thing. Eikichi almost feels as bad for her as he does the Pokemon that he's carrrying in his small ball. Not that his Fish could even move in this place...or anywhere else, really.

"You'd think there was a demon or two 'round here we could talk with..."

When in doubt, ask the locals.

"Ah..." He is no expert with such things, but Soujirou can't help but be a little concerned about Lailah as well.

The samurai looks off in the direction that she's gone off, hoping nothing happens to her. Demon or not, he doesn't like seeing a girl in trouble!

Agatha is watching the poor little demon head off down yet another unknown path with a frown. She feels kind of bad for it.

"This is starting to seem a little.... unfair."

{OOC: Happily, this hallway is clear of danger, as is the room beyond.}

Nah. It's totally fair.

"She won't suffer any lasting damage." She's his demon, after all. If it's any consolation, she returns unharmed!

Oh, good. Lailah slacks a bit, she's probably relieved too. "This hallway seems clear."

{A short walk down the hallway will take them into another large room. There are several iron cages scattered across the floor. The wailing sounds closer and is joined by the sound of wind whistling through the halls. This rooms also has many exits, but a lot of them simply connect back to the room they were in before. It won't take them long to find the stairs....}

     "That's a cruel thing to say..." the samurai murmurs. His expression brightens just a little when Lailah does return, and not looking any worse for wear this time around. And even if Jonathan seems to treat her as property, that doesn't stop Soujirou from asking if she's all right once she returns, as well as offering a bow of his head and a polite thanks for her troubles.

     When they proceed onward, he's all the more on his guard for the sounds that have increased. Resting a hand on his weapon, he looks at the following room they've come across, sighing as there are plenty more doors.

     "This place certainly doesn't want to make it easy for us..."

He's only a bit of an asshole! With the majority of that focused on non-human entities.

If only he actually acknowledged Lailah as an angel. She does titter in a manner similar to a content canary when Soujirou thanks her, though. He's a much nicer samurai boy!

...In any case, the wailing (that is hopefully the result of natural elements and not living creatures) is sounding louder. And... well, this is a puzzle, isn't it. Lailah is not going to check those hallways, haha, fuck you.

Okay, she would've if Jonathan ordered her again. Instead, he's looking at the floor. "Iron cages...? What could have they been used for?"

Edited 2014-04-02 07:14 (UTC)

Ruri finally catches up to the group struggling under a bit of a pack.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I was working on researching all the things a standard exploration team would need and procuring them. I kind of lost track of time."

She peers around and looks down at the floor since attention has been brought to it.

     "Ah, I'm glad you were able to find us before we'd gone too far!" Soujirou says as he glances back towards her. "It would have been bad if you'd taken the wrong turn..." Even from the start, that seemed like too easy a thing to do, and given what had happened to Lailah during her exploration of those paths, not a pleasant experience in general.

     Hopefully there aren't any more traps, but he doubts those at the beginning were the last of them. While the cages are being studied, Soujirou starts further into the room, looking at the other doorways. Which one..? Would there be an easier way to figure out which was the right one rather than check them all individually? He supposes even in Elder Tale, having someone scout ahead was the best way, although that had been when it was still just a game.

     "Guess there's no way around it," he sighs, although still smiling. The samurai walks over towards one of the nearest exits, pausing. Wait, the wind... He looks back, listening. Is it coming from back the way they came, or somewhere deeper within..?

"Probably the same thing cages are generally used for."

To keep someone or something inside. But what was in these cages and where did it go? They probably don't want to know. She turns to greet the latecomer with a smile.

"Ruri! Glad you could make it."

Very glad, considering that Ruri's support abilities will probably be essential. But there's still the problem of the exits. Agatha isn't keen on making Lailah check all of them.

"Maybe we can narrow it down somehow? That's the one we came in, right? And I can see the room were in through that archway there."

"There's wind moving through here from somewhere. Maybe if we can figure out which way it's coming from...?" Soujirou suggests, looking back at the others.

He's actually rather proud of the suggestion himself. This would be the first time he's gone dungeon crawling as an Adventurer after the Apocalypse, so he's finding that there's a lot more to pay attention to around here. Instead of looking at a screen, you had your other senses to rely on as well.

Ruri sets down her pack and starts looking through it with a thoughtful look.

"Well if we're looking to find the wind I know of a trick that we used in the fleet to check for hull breaches."

She pulls out a book of matches from it and lights one, letting it burn for a second and then blowing it out, then staring at the smoke.

"Oh, there's also flashlights for everyone in there. In case the lights fail. It would be helpful if everyone took one, I'm not that strong and they're the kind that clip to your belt."

"That's so cool!" the samurai pipes as he looks on. It's a simple trick, but he would have never thought of it.

The mentioning of flashlights does give him pause. "I hadn't even thought about that! I guess I'm too used to having magic users in my party," he admits with a sheepish laugh. "Ah, but if you need any help carrying anything else, I can put things in my magic bag. I can carry quite a bit with it, and it won't affect the weight at all."

{The wind blows the smoke towards the north side of the room. It seems to be coming from one of the hallways in front of them.}

At the mention of flashlights, Agatha grins and indicates the dingbot by her feet.

"I appreciate the thought, but I think I'll stick with this little guy here."

But she's more interested in the magic bag.

"Ooh, it negates the weight? That sounds handy..."

Eikichi had nothing cool on his end. Well unless you thought that he was cool.

He thought he was cool.

"Why would we need anything like that? I've explored places like this with Tachan and the others before and we never needed light. Just a good Estoma spell too keep the demons at bay!"

Which they don't have.

"Look, Michel's tired of playing it safe, it's taking too long! I'm going in!"

So he does. He just walks right forward, ignoring the cages and picks the first hallway in front of him.

Soujirou nods in Agatha's direction. "Yes. I can even store my weapons and armor in here," he explains, patting the satchel slung behind him.

"-ah..." He looks after Eikichi as he goes ahead. Blink. "Well, at least it should be one of those in that direction."

"I brought flashlights, and a comlink to Omoikane on the outside, and some survival food. Also several cans of coffee. Demons seem to like that. But its the basic things you don't think of that save power for the more advanced things."

She shrugs and situates the bag on her shoulder nodding a bit.

Agatha stares after Eikichi for a moment with a raised eyebrow. Then shrugs and follows him.

"I guess this way is as good as any."

{And in the interests of actually getting them off the first floor ever, they have found the stairs! On the next floor, a chill hangs in the air and there are even fewer lights. Good thing for all those alternative light sources they brought with them.

A short hallway leads to a room with an eclectic pattern of tiles on the floor. Looking at it, even out of the corner of your eye, is dizzying. Lingering too long will probably result in an awful headache, Luckily, there is only one door.}

Ruri rubs her head a little and points to the floor without looking at it.

"Agatha, would one of your minions be able to test to see if the floor is safe to walk on for us?"

Ha! He totally knew he was taking the right path. Victory! Now all he had to do was---eeeergh ewwww.

"This floor a brand new redefinition of ugly!"

Yes, thank you for this bright comment.

"Why should we bother? There's only one door right? Let's just get past here as soon as possible..."

"Maybe we should go with Ruri-san's suggestion. It's only a short way, but who knows if it's trapped..." he suggests as he glances at Eikichi, trying to avoid looking down at the floor for too long.

Agatha nods and pulls another dingbot out of her pocket and sets it on the ground.

"Wait for me at the other side."

It looks up at her for a few seconds, then crosses the floor. It makes it without incident and waves when it reaches the other end.

"Okay, let's go."

With a salute, Soujirou takes the vanguard, starting across the dizzying floor after the little dingbot. Hopefully the terrible design is just the worst of their problems here. Granted nothing else happens, he'll take a peek through the doorway to make sure things are clear by way of any surprise enemies.

He makes it to the other side without incident. And no enemies appear. The hallway up ahead ends in a sharp corner though, so not much more of the path is visible. But with sharp enough eyes, a strange switch can be seen on the wall just before the corner. Wonder what that could be for? Seeing his success, Agatha joins him near the door.

"This is starting to seem entirely too easy..."

"Maybe it's because we're just that good, Chica."

Yes of course. That makes complete and total sense. Just like the time Eikcihi looked at some holes in a dungeon and 'accidentally' set off the lase---wait never mind.

"Well, no use waiting for any of us to get old!" And before anyone could protest, he pressed the switch with his usual, dramatic flourish.

"Maybe there's a big boss waiting at the end," he jokes. Soujirou might have tried to push it himself out of curiosity, so he can hardly complain when Eikichi does so- although he tenses either way, not sure what might happen.

{Luckily for Eikichi, in addition to a very lucky roll which allowed him to escape the trap, he also helpfully turned it off for everyone else, so the group is able to pass by unharmed. They proceed down the hall and around several corners before coming to another fork in the path.They can either continue forward, or turn to the right.}

The general lack of anything dangerous has been making Agatha nervous. More nervous than she would have been if they'd encountered a whole army of monsters. She's sure the other shoe is just waiting to drop. When they get to the fork, she stops and puts a finger to her lips.

"Shh... Do you hear that?"

The sound of rattling chains can be heard down the hall to the right.

The sight of yet another fork is enough to make Soujirou sigh. In comparison to Agatha, he's a little more bored than nervous. Usually any wandering around ruins meant a lot of monsters to fight.

He does catch that sound, however, turning to look towards the right. Slowly his hand falls over his sword's hilt. "...should we go and see?"

"Do we have much of a choice?" Knowing how demons work, there's probably different traps waiting for them down the hallways. Rattling chains, though... "The wind could be reaching that area as well. There might not necessarily be something there."

Though, winds rattling huge chains? That's kinda reaching, isn't it? Let him just... peer into the hallway, first.

Too bad for everyone that Eikichi is on a roll.

"Step aside babes, just let Michel go in front and take care of any trouble that is coming our way!"

Which is to stay he walked ahead once more like a bit stupid idiot. So far his luck had been pretty good, at least!

Agatha shrugs and follows. If he's volunteering to take point, she won't complain.

"Just be careful. We don't know if there are traps up ahead."

{OOC: While the rattling sound can still be heard, there is no sign of any actual chains. The hallway eventually ends in a room with broken cages scattered around. In one of the broken cages sharp eyes might spy a small chest.]

     He can't help but chuckle a little to himself. Eikichi reminds him too much of people he's partied with in Elder Tale. In such cases, the best one can do is to let them go and make sure to be there to back them up if they bite off more than they can chew!

     Smiling haplessly, Soujirou follows after the others as they head on towards the direction of the noise. He might be a little disappointed to see that there isn't much of anything in the next room by way of the source of noise. Still, he has to wonder...

     "...I wonder what used to be in those cages..?"

"I'm wondering why we've seen so many cages. Someone was keeping a lot of things locked up..."

Her eyes sweep around the room.

"I don't see anything else though. We'll have to backtrack."

She turns around and heads for the door.

     "Where are they all now, though..." Soujirou can't help but ask. He begins to nod, turning as well before he pauses as something catches his eye.

     "Ah, what's that?"

     He starts towards one of the broken cages, unable to help but smile a little as he sees a chest. The MMORPG-player in him is still very much excitable for such small things, it seems.

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[Closed] Mictlan expedition log!

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Idk whose turn it is anymore so I'm gonna push this along >B]

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oh god i completely forgot about this i'm so sorry

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