While she had been attempting to see if there was anything in the floor that could show if there was an exit or not, she didn't notice the chains, which were surprisingly quiet, sneaking up behind her.
Suddenly she was grabbed, quickly yelling out a "What the f***?!" As they attempted to lift her up in the air. After struggling with them a bit and hoping that her large volume of hair would not get tangled up in them, she managed to free herself by yanking on one of the chains that were around her wrist hard enough to loosen it a bit, which she used to grab the other. And then she punched one of the ones around her ankle, which probably wasn't the best idea, and managed to make them let go. She landed back on the platform with a thud and it appeared that there was now a hole in the floor.
"Mmm, it is curious that symbols for saturn would be found down here." He didn't like it one bit but it was what he had to work with, some sort of planet based magic. Shifting he moved down the chains a bit, trying to get closer to the white mass down below - so far below. When he heard a Captain speak up he called up to them.
"That's good to know, as Rigel asked - explain more about Saturn magic. Perhaps it'll help us figure this out and we can handle the chains." Because while there were other ways to travel this would be better; faster. He would like to clear this area and see if they could learn something from this magic.
Already he was pushing and pulling at chains and trying to move them out of his way so he could clear the area. "Could this be a puzzle we need to solve? If we touch certain symbols things will move in certain ways...so we can unravel this mess?" He questioned while running his fingers over the chains. "I don't think using magic, or weapons, on these chains would be a favorable idea...not if they are marked by a planeteee. I have a feeling it might trigger a bad responce." He was almost certain of that.
Fingers roamed over a saturn symbol as he hoped to see it do something, to see the chain move. He did wonder if it was good to invest such time in this but he wanted to see why this was here and what it did. If they encountered other symbols it might be nice to know what to expect, especially if they were the same. He still couldn't help but feel like he might be spending too much time on this...but what if they needed this elevator later and couldn't get to it? "Rigel, do you think with some work we can clear this area?"
Psilomelane agreed with Kosmochlor that hitting buttons and causing people to die was probably the worst outcome they could come across. However, she wasn't sure that a team lead's clearance would necessarily make that outcome any less bad. Having permission and accidentally killing someone wasn't any better than accidentally killing someone without permission.
However, Kosmochlor got the permission she was looking for — from both team leads — and opened the hatch without anyone falling to their deaths. Yet, Psilomelane corrected internally, for it seemed to open into a free-fall. "Oh," she commented, muted. "That… Looks dangerous." But there was little time for her to investigate it; she was being called by Cymophane over to the other area.
"Here," and she paused as she removed her headband. "Take this. See if anything changes when you drop it through the hatch?" It was just a suggestion; she couldn't make the Captain follow through with it. In case Kosmochlor didn't want to accept it directly, Psilomelane set it down on the metal surface next to her.
Then she stood, and started toward the opposite end of the elevator where Cymophane and Taenite had made it to their destination. As she looked down over the edge, fear overtook her, and she crouched down before reaching out with a shaky hand to grasp the bars to the maintenance ladder. Chains had started shifting all about and she froze, holding her breath, while she waited for them to stop moving — if they would stop moving. She winced when the chains seemed to target a couple of senshi, especially when one of them was on her team, but they each seemed to make it out well enough.
When she saw Cryolite escape, she called to him. "Are you okay? If you can, let's regroup with the others." It seemed like a better idea than checking with each other in an elevator shaft that might snag them up again.
So Psilomelane forced herself to descend the ladder, her grip like death on each of the rungs as she took them one by one. Forcing herself to look straight ahead at the wall in front of her, she felt her way down until there wasn't another rung beneath her foot. Her body felt rigid for how much she desperately did not want to jump to the other side, but upon seeing Taenite and Cymophane waiting there, she knew this wasn't optional.
So she took a deep breath, leapt as far as she could, and stumbled a landing once she made it to the platform — safe.
shiningamisgirl
seeing if cryo is ok!
daekie
leaving kosmo a headband to toss down the shaft!
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:59 am
Taenite [3] was quick to start with the double doors, whose panels opened with a WELCOME, SUPER SAILOR TAENITE. The options displayed thereafter were ENTER and LOCK, then on the other panel, it offered STATUS, SHIPMENT, and RECORDS. None of the options had any obvious connection to the chains in the elevator shaft. The doors awaited his command nonetheless.
Both Cryolite and Triplite escaped the chains, unscathed for it.
When Rigel [8] looked down, he noted that there were hundreds of chains. Chasing the symbols had moved both the Saturn signs to which the chains were connected, thus leaving the chains still choking the area. Perhaps they would learn more if they were able to trap and hold their fingers on one of the symbols.
Below them, however, Rigel glimpsed what might be bones. They laid atop some kind of a hatch, as if the elevator was meant to go deeper than where they were originally going to stop.
Faustite's voice came on the tablets of everyone on Benitoite's team, sounding irritated. "Agents, General Benitoite is not responding to my attempts to reach him. Need one of you to confirm for me that he's alive. Need another to give a status update. Do so posthaste."
As Benitoite [1] continued poking at the chains, they continued migrating away from him. For each symbol that shifted, its sister symbol would shift in the opposite direction. As they moved, Benitoite and Rigel would find themselves more and more enmeshed in chains, though they hadn't yet tried to seize the pair as they had the others. Perhaps they would learn more if they were able to trap and hold their fingers on one of the symbols.
He could hear his tablet but thus far he'd been concerned about dropping it, and the likelyhood of not recovering it. He didn't figure it was a good idea to go trying to use it when hanging about with the chains, which were moving as he touched them.
But he heard, again, Faustite and he took the risk of dropping his tablet in order to pull it out and answer. "I'm fine, we've found chains under the elevator with the symbol of Saturn on them. Seeing as they move when touched we're trying to unblock the elevator incase it's further needed later on." He'd much prefer having acess to the elevator incase it was needed later on, one more escape route was nice to have after all. "Iam wondering how long dead senshi still have an impact, magically speaking, on this place. I can assume it dates back to when they lived and somehow this place as survived." Meaning it hadn't been destroyed down in the Rift as so many other things had been, the magic also hadn't gone and left this place. Perhaps the magic, from these long dead senshi, was what kept the youma away from here?
That said he stuffed his tablet away, for now, and went to grasp onto a chain, while still holding onto the one he'd been clinging to. He was planning to monkey his way further down the tangle of chains. But his hands held tight to the two chains as he set himself to doing that task. "Rigel, keep a careful eye on these chains as they move. I don't want us falling or getting hit by any of them."
Strickenized
Grabbing chains and planning to move further down.
Kaefaux
Kaefaux rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3Total: 3 (1-6)
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 12:05 pm
Super Rigel Trying to trap and touch a symbol3 +2 bonus = 5
"There's also a lot of bones down under all the chains, I think," he called out to Benitoite as he heard him responding to Faustite. Rigel squinted, leaning a bit further as he stared at the scene so far below. "...and a... hatch? It looks like this elevator shaft used to be deeper than this." He wasn't entirely sure, but if they could get the elevator down there in the first place... they might be able to see if they could get it open..?
Again, Rigel looked back to the elevator. He was still tied to it, and could pull himself back via the rope if he needed to. Benitoite's warning to watch the chains' movements got a simple, "Got it," called back before he refocused on the dread-inspiring symbol. It moved if he touched it but... hm.
Scooting closer to the wall, Rigel placed one hand against it so it formed an Laround part of the symbol without touching it, and the other he placed to sort of close the circle. He then lifted his index finger to touch the symbol and see if it might be confined by his... makeshift 'cage.'
He could only assume that if the symbol didn't like him touching it, that it wouldn't want to travel under where his hands were already touching the wall... it was worth a try at least. There had to be a reason they moved...
"Bones...interesting. Perhaps people who came before us, and after these senshi died?" The ashen blond posed the question to Rigel, considering how this might even be possible. The hatch was promising, if they could clear the area and get the elevator down to it. Tilting his head he pulled out the tablet once again, hoping it didn't slip from his fingers somehow, and decided to relay this new information.
"Rigel says he seens bones at the bottom of the elevator shaft but also a hatch, I can somewhat nmake it out as well. If we can clear the chains we can clear the way down to the hatch." It just needed some work, which he was sure they could manage. The tablet was again pocketed, he did not need that dropped because his hands were getting sweaty.
Strickenized
Kaefaux
Guine rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:31 pm
Super Taenite Checking out the Records from the display panel and attempting to pilfer the skeleton’s ring. 4 + 1 (tech? or recon?) = 5
“Neat,” was Taenite’s response to the touch screen knowing his name. That saved some time in introducing himself or entering in user data.
“Let’s check out the records first. Don’t want to end up on the pointy side of a spear in case this is booby trapped,” he announced to Cymophane, Cryolite, and Psilomelane.
And then grinned to himself, because he was clearly a mature adult.
“I have dibs on that ring,” he added, pointing at the skeleton, and then tapping the option for Records, before ducking down to check out the jewelry he was absolutely going to pry from the finger bone and check out some more.
Captain Kosmochlor, Team Pipevine Investigating the hatch (5) Kosmochlor went to shrug, before remembering, oh, right, Rigel couldn't see her -- but it carried through in her voice. "My only real experience with it was at a building-wide level! Any communication in there got scrambled for everyone who wasn't the administrator; you couldn't understand anyone else." That was an awkward way to say it, but she really didn't want to say 'the Knight'. "So... it prevents, it silences, it stops you from doing what you want to do, usually? It's like how any given Senshi's magic is the same sort of theme, but for all Saturn types of magic."I think. She was, self-admittedly, talking out of her a**, but she was pretty sure about that! Senshi had power spheres, Knights had... whatever the planet had decided its damn mood was.
Probably. Kosmochlor wasn't an expert, but she'd spent a lot of time (more time than she was willing to admit!) theorizing about it.
Sometimes - given her weapon, now, and the way it weakened magic a good chunk of the time - she had suspicions about what her magic might have been, if she'd ever become Babel Squire of Saturn. But nothing they could've given her, no Mau creation or magical gift, could've made up for her entire ******** arm.
"Hatch is open and looks deep! No obvious way to get down; doublechecking!" Maybe whoever built this had been feeling nice and had put someplace for hands and feet to go on one side, so she could climb down. Maybe. But if it was old, maybe any fabric had withered away -- damn it, she should've brought a flashlight. And as she was doing that, she tossed Psiomelane's headband down, checking if that set off anything: if it did, well, the whole hatch business was probably a wash.
Strickenized
kosmochlor what do you SEE with your special eyes and feel with your special hands? idk. probably nothing
Basic Corrupt Cryolite Taking the ladder and Jumping the Gap with Taenite and Cymo. Roll for Jump +1 = 5
Cryolite gave Psilomelane a halted look and then a cracked grin once he realized he’d squirled free enough to survive, “Alive so far! Go, in right behind you.”
Breathless thumbs up and then he was moving after his team, down the ladder because his interest in anything to do with chains was nil, none, non-existent. He wanted over that gap and made for it—-
He breathed easier once he hit the other side with heavy stride.
"Report in when you're instructed and I won't assume you died, Benitoite," Faustite responded, voice tense. "Noted on the Saturn symbols. Seems those aren't the only ones. Like your thinking with the elevator, keep on if you can."
Benitoite and Rigel [11] managed to entrap some of the symbols, and touching them yielded an acute sense of doom – as if remaining in contact with the symbol would drain them both of all their life. As they held on, it appeared to them that the room around them darkened until they could see only the Saturn symbol before them and the violet glow outlining their hands. Then came a message visible only to them:
YE WHO BEAR A TRAITOR'S SIGIL UNDER A TARNISHED LORD EXPIRE WITH THEE THINE SILENT VIGIL UNLESS YE BEAR THINE MORD
The words vanished as soon as they were read; the darkness lifted and their pervasive sense of doom had vanished with it, leaving the two further entrenched in the chains that they chased.
In the other area, Taenite's [5] request for records opened up another list of information. On the left side of the door, it declared SHIPMENTS, and on the right, SUPPLY. Under the SHIPMENTS header was: 10,489 PARCELS SHIPPED and 8,765 REQUESTS RECEIVED. On the right side, it listed 120 MACES, 120 SPEARS, 140 SWORDS, 80 GREATSWORDS, 60 HALBERDS, 20 FLAILS, 180 SHATTERERS, 200 SHADOW VATS, and 50 SILENCERS.
It seemed the information on the right may pertain to what was in the room beyond, though the information on the left was less clear. RECORDS did not yield much information pertinent to those in the elevator shaft, but perhaps some of the other options would yield more fruitful finds.
When Kosmochlor tossed Psilomelane's headband into the hatch, she would find that it fell normally until it reached the area that the hatch should occupy – from there, it fell at a much slower rate, as if it was a light feather on a breeze. It floated down to the bottom of the hatch, where the bones laid, and landed without making a sound. It seemed like the escape hatch needed no rungs because it somehow modified gravity to provide an easier, more controlled descent.
The chains spun about in a fury once more, whipping up and around Rigel and Benitoite, as if to try and strangle them for their findings. The pitched screech of the hundreds of chains filled the shaft while they chased their prey, intent to prevent them from any further progress. As they churned, they busted some of the lights and dimmed the area, rendering it more dangerous to continue their investigation. They knocked loose panels, too, yet only the panel nearest the bottom of the shaft had anything to offer; the rest simply joined the pile of skeletons at the bottom of the shaft.
Where Team Leopard stood, they were shielded from the mess in the elevator shaft. However, there was little to say that the room they faced beyond the double doors would be any safer.
Quote:
Rigel and Benitoite, roll 1d6 (+ leadership bonus) to escape the chains. The two must get a combined total of 7 or higher to remain free of the chains. If not, Rigel and Benitoite are bound and unable to investigate further until the next story post (but they're still able to communicate!).
The next story post will go up on 12/26/22 at 10PM EST or later. (( I work 28 hours over the weekend, so I won't have time to keep to the 48 hour schedule! ))
That feeling in his stomach, that feeling of dread, was something he'd never really felt. He'd felt close to it but he'd never felt like he might just die, or that something equally bad might just happen. When he finally was let free from the feeling he took several deep breaths before chacing a look to Rigel. "Thine mord?" He questioned. Most of what he'd seen written he understood but not all of it. "I mean most of that seemed obvious but that last l-" His words were cut off as the chains started to move and wrap about himself, and Rigel he noted.
"s**t!" Cursing he tried to twist free of the chains, struggling, he needed to get out of this and not as a dead body. Mason would have a fit if he came home hurt. If he was returned dead he was certain Mason would find a way to bring him back from the dead just to yell at him about risking his life so willingly. He had to get free! He also could not have one of those under him, Rigel, getting hurt or killed either.
Staring down at the bottom the ashen blond turned his gaze up slowly, to where he knew his cousin would be holding onto his line. His cousin was loyal like that, and he knew it, he knew Hudson would be up there waiting for him to return. Was it too far of a drop though? If he got free of these chains he might just find out.
Strickenized
6+2 (I think plus leadership...or not..idk) Either way Beni's roll just carried them to safety.
Kaefaux
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 12:08 pm
Witherite did as he was told when asked by Beni to stay up in the elevator and handle anything should something arise. He had to trust the pair holding the ropes two keep the two below safe so he moved over to the pair investigating the panel in the floor which the eventually open a hatch from. He wasn't overly fond of the idea of splitting up, but watched as the other team went on leaving them.
Hearing the walls had saturn symbols on them made him frown bringing along thought of the saturn knight that had no love lost for him. He definitely wanted to kill him.
"I think we should go down the hatch," he said from a few steps behind Psilomelane and Kosmochlor, "its marked emergency hatch for a reason right?" He couldn't see what happened with the headband, looking toward Cuprite and Reinerite ready to offer help if they needed it.
Captain Kosmochlor, Team Pipevine down the hatch, fellas! "Yep," Kosmochlor confirmed, answering Witherite, and then -- nothing doing, right? -- she scooted over and lowered herself into the hatch. "If I don't die, you're free to come on down after me!" Probably she was saying it with a little too much glee, but this was great! If she didn't have the rough combat ability of a sad little spindly horse, she'd think she should go to the Rift more often.
Well, maybe Kosmochlor was being a little rough on herself; she did know some self-defense, but, really, it wasn't her priority, and she didn't do her best work there! So it usually didn't matter, since she was very good at smiling until people relented, at least a slight bit.
kaori_luv
talking to witherite!
Strickenized
heading down the escape hatch! assuming i don't need to roll for that.
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