The climb was painstaking. Careful hours passed as each agent searched for footholds in the crumbling cliffs. The better choices proved to be the glowing crystals, for they threaded themselves deep in the body of the Scar, and held fast for any agent or senshi using them for upward mobility. Some jutting crags broke away wholesale; an agent had already plummeted back down, only to be crushed under the rock that they trusted.
Finally, the last of their team was helped up atop the strange, spidering pathways lining the space between the Scar's two halves. The cliffs stood ever taller, still at least a hundred feet above them, but they'd cleared just as much to reach this space. It was brighter than below, and covered in a misty, diffuse violet light that limned every pathway and etched rock. Clustered crystals glowed like beacons in little alcoves along the thicker roads. Many of the interlacing paths crossed from one cliffside to the adjacent one, then back again in a stalactite-lined, ruddy arch. Bat-like youma hung inert from these darker, protected places.
Far below, the Combat team trudged through the deep dark. The Tracking team knew they were first on standby if anything should happen to the Combat team.
Much nearer, and still above, the Interrogation team had slipped beyond line of sight and into the youma aeries. They were the first point of contact if anything befell the Tracking team.
The latticed paths went on far beyond their limited depth of field. As they pressed on, the mist thickened, though they were still able to see themselves and each other. The team had their orders — they were to use their unique vantage point to look for the clues that Revenant and Salthiss provided, and find this elusive youma.
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Welcome to the Tracking thread!
Please refer to this post for information on HP and attacking! Your characters won't be seeing many fights through these parts, but failed prompts may result in a youma or two getting snippy with them! This team's section includes AR prompts (augmented reality). The prompts will involve taking photos of things around your house or out in your immediate area. If you are unable to or are uncomfortable doing so, there will be alternatives posted! There may also be puzzles of different sorts to solve with each prompt. Solved puzzles yield clues!
Please feel free to have your characters investigate their surroundings and improvise. This will influence the prompts you get. The more effort and creativity you put into it, the more you'll be rewarded.
For now, the team has just climbed up to get their bearings. The next prompt will occur approximately 24 hours from now.
Please remember to quote Strickenized if any corrupted senshi takes their starseed out, or if anyone has energy orbs or starseeds on their person.
Big thank you to Guine for the banners! Good luck, and happy hunting!
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LEADER ABILITY: Aquamarine -- All for one. Aquamarine only. Once per prompt, Aquamarine can command a youma to work for him. Roll 1d6.
You don't have enough badges to tell this youma what to do. It attacks, dealing 25 damage before running off. The youma looks confused, then goes back to hibernating. Reluctantly the youma obeys. It will help investigate for 1 prompt. (Quote Strickenized) This youma's eager. Very eager. So eager, in fact, that it attacks one of your allies for 25 damage before accidentally falling off the precipice. (Quote Strickenized) Ah, you found a good one. Finally. This youma brought you a clue. (Quote Strickenized) Another youma to serve. This one brings back a molted scale. (Aqua can keep it or give it to someone else. Whoever gets it, please keep track of this item.)
LEADER ABILITY: Jet -- Scout ahead. Using Arles, Jet's personal youma, the group can expand their search and their point of view. This ability can be invoked up to three times in this thread to reroll the prompt.
Jet gritted his teeth. They’d already lost two agents to the Rift. One in just the Hall of Shadows, and another under his command. He looked around at those who were left, frowning to himself at how new most of them looked. Had they ever been in the Rift? Being in the mission with Axinite barely counted. They had a General Sovereign to look after them for most of the time. Now? Not so much.
“Everyone take a moment to catch your breath. We can’t stay too long and lose sight of the team below,” he told them. He’d already removed his cape and sash. The backpack and supplies had been carefully crammed into his subspace pocket once he was done with the climbing equipment.
At least some of them fared better than the others. Some of his team looked like they did rock climbing on the regular. Himself and Aquamarine? Not so much.
“Let me know if you need longer. I don’t want anyone separated.”
Aquamarine mumbled curses under his breath the entire climb. Sometimes, he spat one out loud, snarling in frustration. He said some very colorful, very not nice things about Faustite, Axinite, and shapeshifting youma, all of which were hopefully lost beneath the mutters, curses, and shouts of his team members.
At the end of their climb, Aquamarine took a few moments to get his bearings. His cape was gone, shoved into his backpack for use as a blanket or bandaging later. His hair, usually loose and framing his face, had been pulled half back to keep it out of his eyes before they began their accent. He almost released it, feeling oddly exposed like that, but ultimately decided against it. He was sweaty and smudged with dirt. There was no time for vanity now.
A leader for this mission but not a leader by nature, Aquamarine let Jet do the commanding. Jet was better at it anyway; Aquamarine was there for Jet and no one else. Breathing deep, he waited for his nerves to settle a fraction, before turning to look over the rest of their forces.
One loss wasn’t bad, considering what they’d had to do to get here.
The other loss, from before? Aquamarine refused to feel sympathy for an idiot who couldn’t follow simple directions. Better that he expire in the Hall of Shadows than get in the way out here.
His heart was beating much too fast. His stomach was twisted into knots so severe they likely wouldn’t unravel until they left this place. He was tired and sore, and longed for the safety of Captain Bloodstone’s office. Most embarrassingly, his eyes were damp; Roselite blinked several times to clear them, and hoped no one noticed. With any luck, he remained as unobtrusive as always, easy to overlook, unlikely to stand out.
One of their own died. (Two, technically, but Roselite hadn’t witnessed the first one.) Roselite knew it was a possibility when he joined the Negaverse, that war brought death, and he should expect it to come for him the same as it came for everyone else. But this wasn’t war here. (Not yet. The fighting would come, he was sure.)
Roselite thought watching someone fall to their death simply because they lacked a proper handhold was worse, somehow, than losing someone in the heat of battle.
But what did he know about such things? He hadn’t fought enough battles to experience losing someone to one, and he was becoming increasingly aware that his books were a poor substitute for experience.
Rockclimbing? It was like a walk in the park for Reidite. It was one of his favorite hobbies! It was unfortunate that so many others didn’t have the upper body strength to fully appreciate it, but luckily for most of these Negaverse agents, they had magical strength to help them up the dangerous rock and crystal walls.
“You should be proud of yourself, you did well!” Reidite said, giving the sickly looking blond a hearty clap on his shoulder. Yes, it was unfortunate that one of them didn’t make it, but so many others had. It was not an easy climb. He was actually very surprised so many of them had made it to the top with their fancy uniforms and all that.
Thorite wanted to vomit by the time they reached the top. He'd been close enough to instinctively reach out to help, but the agent was too far for him to even try.
It wasn't like he'd known the person or anything, but it still hurt to be able to do nothing to help.
Up until that moment, he'd been having a good time climbing. He didn't rock climb, but he figured his time with parkour gave him a lot of similar skills in balance, upper body strength, and so on.
He dragged himself over the top of the cliff and forced himself to sip slowly and carefully at his bottled water. He couldn't afford to waste any. With a soft sigh, he undid his tie and turned it into a makeshift headband to help combat the sweat and took the hat off to fan himself for a minute.
Right, he was wearing a jacket. He grimaced and took it off to shove in the pack. He wasn't sure how much time they had, but time in the streets meant he was used to not having a lot of time to rest just about anywhere.
Lionel was pretty certain that was some sort of bad omen. Worse, he and Arsenolite had been assigned to different teams, and that made him antsy; he would have liked to be able to keep an eye on the Lieutenant. Especially since it was well and provable that this was a risky mission, into a dangerous place, and not some walk in the park.
Ugh. He swallowed, unhappily, and hauled himself up to the top of the crag, swallowing down his desire to ********, he hated the Negaverse sometimes. It was better than anything else he had going for him, and it wasn't like there was an exit opportunity, but that didn't mean he liked it.
By the time she pulled herself up and over the top, Lilith was very gray. She had started out slightly petty, resisting the advice to cut her hair--it was already well and tamed in its thick braid, if you asked her--but now she was feeling very much like the seriousness of the mission had crashed down on her. More than that, she was very glad she'd traded her cute little magical heels for functional combat boots, because climbing in those frilly things sounded like a nightmare. She swallowed, and took a moment to make sure that her braid was very securely tucked under her hood and overcoat, where it was mostly out of the way.
She didn't want to be the next one to fall, be it to a monster or her own stupidity.
A moment before the agent fell, Ilse had been huffy and annoyed. She'd cut her hair, and tied up her skirts, but there was only so much she could do about her cute little ribbon-tied heels, which did fantastic things for her legs but were no good for climbing. If she'd been smart, she would have traded them for something more practical, but she was not smart. Alas.
All of the irritation, though, was swept away when she watched, in open, aghast horror, as an agent lost his grip.
And fell.
And there was no denying that he was dead. No one could survive a fall from that height, never mind the rocks that fell to finish the job.
She was a thousand percent more careful the rest of the way up, and when she hauled herself to the top, she took a moment to catch her breath on her knees, face gray and a hand over her mouth like that would stop the nausea.
Thorite was putting his water away when he noticed her—the senshi who was, for some reason, still in her... cha-cha heels or whatever. Internally, he groaned. He could understand it. It was something you didn't think of when you powered up. But man, it was kind of ridiculous to walk in here wearing heels. And then climb a rock face like that without asking for help.
"Hey," he greeted as he sauntered over, gesturing to her shoes, "Not the smartest idea, y'know?"
He smiled softly, pulling a spare pair of tennis shoes from his bag. "Not sure what your size is, sweetheart, and these aren't great for hiking, but hopefully they'll fit and give you a little more comfort as we go along, yeah? Thorite, by the way, and you?"
Roselite jolted under the hand clapping his shoulder, jerking out of his dark thoughts to look up at the tall Lieutenant, who — and Roselite flushed when he thought it — was actually very beautiful.
With a shaky smile, Roselite said, “Th-Thank you.”
The Lieutenant had an accent. Russian? Was he an overseas agent, perhaps? Or simply another one of Destiny City’s hapless citizens before he found a higher calling in the Negaverse, like Roselite?
“I… I’m Roselite, s—… um…”
The polite “sir” and “ma’am” were instinctive, but this was another Lieutenant like him, and Roselite could not decide if it would be appropriate to continue with that level of politeness, or if he would merely be making himself seem lesser by doing so.
But, along with their main mission, he was supposed to be observing everyone, learning as much as he could about each individual agent and Senshi. He should introduce himself when he had the opportunity, learn their names, among other things.
“You were… I mean, you seemed to have an easier time… With the climb.”
Maikoh's sharp claws for grappling and cloven hooves for solid purchase made the climb a simple task. She could shift between her humanish body and her wolf form on a dime, so whichever was most suited for any particular jump could be used at will. Her tail swayed in a careful balancing rhythm. Her own home here was a cavern along a rocky precipice. She was accustomed to arduous climbs.
But perhaps most importantly, she was not slowed by fear. A fall might be uncomfortable. It might put her off the mission. But she would regenerate in time. There was no reason to be afraid. Nothing here could kill her.
The hardest part was waiting for their scraggly group to ascend the cliffs.
The only thing Maikoh thought as one of the agents plummeted away was that it was a waste of a good starseed. Maybe one of her brethren below would seize it before it successfully vacated the body. The thought gave her pause. She wanted it, she had seen it first, it belonged to her, her, her, and no one else should be able to claim it just by virtue of her being stuck up here. A snarl built in her throat, and she thought to bound down after it-
But she was where she was supposed to be, with the agents on their search, protecting her pup. It would be a waste of her energy to scramble back down. But she wanted to. Maikoh paced in agitation, long claws scraping the ground and tail lashing as she glowered over the edge.
He wasn't a rock climber, and he wasn't thrilled about being here, and he didn't appreciate the insinuation that he should be "at home" in a dreadful and uninhabitable place like this. Janggunite hadn't taken to many assignments in the months since the accident. He'd been beyond too depressed to complete routine chores, and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with any other human soul.
But that wasn't "good for him," apparently, and any conditions he'd been afflicted with weren't excuses to do nothing.
He'd been sent on this assignment by his general, and he just wanted to do it and get it over with and leave, and if he died, he died. Janggunite had long since decided he couldn't be arsed to care what happened to this body that was barely his. The thought of those who had already perished in the hours since their trek began skated at the top of his consciousness, but it had been a long while since anything had sunk in enough to effect him personally, when it felt like the worst had already befallen him. He couldn't be bothered to care about anything else.
Janggunite was a delicate, yet purposeful climber. He'd been training in martial arts since he was a young boy, decades ago, at this point, so he was far from weak, but it was still a strain his body was unaccustomed to. This body in particular had been stagnant for weeks and weeks. So even though he felt capable and undaunted, he was still panting softly as Maikoh's clawed grip helped him the rest of the way over the crag's lip.
His fins flicked up, alert to the sounds of anything that may be lingering in the mist, and his tail coiled in lazy loops behind him.
Nobleite didn't know what he was even doing here. He was weak in pretty much every sense of the word: bottom of the barrel, lowest on the food chain, nothing to offer. Sending him to the Rift on more than one occasion was starting to feel like someone was just waiting for him to not make it back.
He just had trouble believing that was his general's actual goal. It would've been so much easier to just off Micah, himself, instead of going to all the trouble of corrupting him and letting a youma kill him.
So it was probably more about his general trying to prove that he could pick "worthy" corruption candidates who could pull their own weight and successfully carry out assignments. Little did he know that this was not a scenario in which Nobleite had much to offer, and by the time they made it to the top of the cliff, he was trembling for more reasons than one. He shook in exertion from the climb, but those who hadn't made it stuck clearly to his conscious.
Death was all around him and not taking prisoners.
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All of mine could use some friends. TwT And Maikoh is ever eager to take newbies under her claws.
Indigo_Plateau Crew
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a-disgruntled-dragon
Offline
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:09 pm
Haymitch - HP 50 - 1d6
Haymitch did not like the Hall of Shadows. He vaguely remembered passing through here before, but good gods it was even worse than he remembered. Haymitch kept to the middle of the pack, breaking off with the tracker team and kept his eyes down.
A senshi vanished from view, their power expunged from the space. Haymitch hadn't known them, but mourned their loss all the same.
The climb was only lightly nicer due to the lack of creepy soulless creatures behind them. An agent fell to to the craigs below and did not return.
Once atop the cliff side, Haymitch shook and kept close to the three corrupts that were with this team. "Do you mind if I take up some space on your shoulder?" he asked Lionel, the one of hte three who didn't have exposed shoulders. Wouldn't be good to harm the senshi because he got scared.
Besides, it would be saver to be up instead of under foot.
And after loosing that senshi to the Hall... he wanted to keep them close.
Noir Songbird
One smol kitty for your shoulder
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Lt Leifite - 50 PM - 1d6+2
Two agents down. A senshi and an unfortunate agent. Leif echoed Jet's thoughts and teeth gritting. The Hall of Shadows had been maddening for Leifite to walk down, and not just because you couldn't look at the being beyond the glass. The groans and haunting whispers stoked the madness in her mind, trying to curl her mouth into a degranged grin and lure her into a bloodbath. She clenched her nails into her palms, focusing on the pain to center herself.
The madness died down once they left the Hall. Then came the struggle of the cliffs. Climbing was not the same as roller skating. She made a note, as she heaved herself over the top of the cliff, to take rock climbing on the regular too. Probably would help with climbing buildings in Destiny City as well.
She wiped the blood from her hands - where her nails and the craigy walls had cut her - on her pants and looked up at the youma that had followed them. What a particular creature. Probably a good amount of protection she could give, honestly.
"Would I had your claws, I think I wouldn't be so winded," she said, addressing Maikoh with a neutral, if pleasant expression. She did think those claws were particularly useful, to be honest...
It was times like this where she really wished her uniform had gloves. But alas, they had decided to go without and she could only hope that she would get them at her Captain level.
If she got there. Considering that an Agent had already been killed on the mission, she could only hope that she got out of her alive and with her upper limbs in tact.
She needed those for hacking. The legs she could go without. Still, it's not as though she wanted any of it to happen, but they really needed to recruit more people who could actually climb instead of insisting on gathering random people who may have had no climbing experience whatsoever to do it.
Was it a way to weed out Agents? Disgusting, but it would be efficient she supposed. Eventually they made their way to the top and she took a moment to get as far away from the cliff edge that she could while not going too far forward, before letting her fingers rest. They were already starting to hurt, and she wondered if she would even be able to use them for the tracking that they were doing. Eventually they moved on and unfortunately the line of sight became worse. How they were supposed to see anything if they were all clumped together and unable to see beyond their group was concerning. Still, they pressed forward.
But she had no doubt they could very easily be attacked by this Youma if it was hiding in the mist. She tried to look around to see anything, but let out a sigh when she couldn't.
Ilse looked up at the agent, and at the sneakers he offered, and she was not ashamed to admit, her eyes might have watered a little.
"Thank you, so much," she said, and she stood up, undoing her shoes and taking the sneakers. "These will be much better. I love these shoes normally, they're fantastic, but they are not good for climbing or anything else physical." She gave him a sheepish grin. "Should've changed them before."
She slipped on the sneakers, and wiggled her toes as she tied them. "A little big, but that's fine. I'm Ilse, by the way. Senshi of the Unattainable."
Lionel wasn't exactly expecting the arrival of the cat, but Haymitch made him smile nonetheless.
"Hello there, friend," he greeted. "I'm quite happy to be your perch, if you'd like. Safer for all of us if you're with someone." Especially since a small cat like this might get lost, running off into the dark on his own, or might make a tempting snack for a youma. That sounded awful--the Negaverse didn't exactly have Mauvians to spare, as far as he understood, and such a friendly fellow didn't deserve to be left alone.
"I'm Sailor Lionel. And you?"
a-disgruntled-dragon
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 10:44 am
It was a solemn place, lacking the foreboding presence of youma compared with the other areas of the Scar. The mist was ever thick, however; some may think it was hiding the brunt of their monstrous companions, and others may think the area was truly empty. Whatever the case, neither school of thought was proven just yet.
Where Janggungite listened for sounds of terror fiends, he heard only a distant breath. Someone fogging a window, or cleaning their glasses.
Eveite might find the mist nigh impenetrable, but as she stared, and if she stared longer, she would notice the mist wasn't quite constant. It ebbed and flowed, like the subtlest sea. And in that sea of mist, once it retracted from some of the walkways, she would notice a shimmer on the eastern path.
The rest of the agents, once collected from the sudden departure of one of their own, were presented with three branching paths to choose from: an eastern path, a central path. and a western path.
The eastern path banked closer to the jagged cliffs they'd recently climbed, and was thinnest with mist. The eastern wall of the Scar towered over the area, extending far into the mist, where its top was no longer visible to them. The eastern path also offered the clearest view of the team below.
The central path was thinnest, demanding that agents and senshi pay careful attention to their footing. The mist was thickest here, and seeing ahead would be difficult. There was a pattern unique to the central path that wasn't present on the other branches, however; a thick mucous covered the latticed rock in splatters, and sometimes, it held what was left behind.
The western path steered out into the empty space between the two cliff sides. While otherwise unremarkable, the western path began to bank upward, as if promising to cross over the top of other paths. Perhaps this area could be used to reach higher, and possibly emerge above the mist.
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AR Opportunity: SSBrosB What to do: Your prompt is slim and brown. Useful thing, like a highway. Carries other things higher. Take a picture of something slim and brown that you think matches the flavor text and quote me in your next post. Spoiler the picture of something slim and brown. You can consult with other players to try to determine what your prompt refers to. If you do not have a camera or cannot participate, think of something slim and brown and type that thing into Google. Click I'm Feeling Lucky and link the image you receive in your next post.
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Branch Opportunity What to do: Team members can choose to all go down one path, or split up to take separate paths. Separate paths will cover more ground, but might open characters up to danger! Whichever your characters decide to do, please post the branch they chose to pursue next to the character's name. Please color code it if you can! This just makes it easier for me to identify.
As your characters search for clues, they may uncover more AR opportunities. They may uncover more puzzles as well!
The next prompt will occur in 24 hours, and will reveal your finds.
As their venture into the Rift already proved, it was dangerous and deadly. The mist was concerning, but unlike the team below, they had yet to encounter any hostile youma during their climb and discovery of the three paths. Of course there would be a split. It would never be so easy. Fortunately they had three Generals.
“We should split up. We need to track this thing. I don’t want any more casualties but I also don’t want to miss anything. General Chalcanthite, how do you feel about taking that path in the center?” he asked. He might not have met the General before, but he knew he was the only one other than Aquamarine. “Aqua, take that path. See if you can get above this damned mist,” he gestured to the western path. “I’ll take this path,” he said of the eastern path. It would give him the best view of if the team below was getting too overwhelmed.
“Sorry if I mess up your names. Lionel, Ilse and… Lilith? I want you to each take a separate path, so figure it out between yourselves if you want. But Lionel, don’t go with Aqua. I want Captain Lavendulan - did I pronounce that right? Sorry, I just have how the names are written. We don’t know what’s above that mist. I want someone with experience up there with Aquamarine,” he said, looking up where the mist might dissipate up the western path.
“Maikoh. Can you stay with me? If the team below gets overwhelmed, we need someone who can scale these walls quickly to reach them,” he said of the eastern path.
“Where’s Haymitch…?” he asked, looking around for the guardian cat on their team. “You’re probably going to be the best to go through those thin paths,” he said of the central path. “I want you to go with General Chalcanthite. And please be careful.”
He looked at the others, all Lieutenants. “The rest of you split up however you want. At least two on each path.”
Hopefully they would find what they needed as quickly as possible, because Jet had a feeling they would need to assist the team below them sooner than later.
