Retiaria's dream dungeon (23/03/18), starring Nikki as the GM!
GM:As you're falling asleep a voice whispers in your ear "You have somewhere you'd rather be?" it almost feels like you're overhearing half a conversation, but somehow you get the impression you should respond.
Red: Retiaria was just drifting into unconsciousness when she heard the voice. She wasn't even sure whoever it was was talking to her, yet... "Mmm. With Aelia..." she mumbled.
GM: a chuckle "I'll admit you aren't nearly as bad as some of the others, but if you're the only one left it will cause problems. Tell me, where is Aelia? I may be able to help you get to her."
Red: "Home in White Sands." Retiaria replied. A pause, then she asked "Bad?"
GM: "good luck. I'll help you as much as I can."
The next thing you realize you're opening your eyes, wrapped up in a sleeping bag, hidden away inside a survival tent. Inside the tent is a backpack containing rope, two ration bars, a full waterskin, a homestone necklace, some desert clothing, and a bag to put away the tent in. Your trident and two nets are also in the tent with you. There's an odd soreness in your shoulders, like you slept funny and you realize it's the first time you've been properly, annoyingly sore in a while now.
Red: Groaning, Retiaria sat up. She almost fell backl down again, hampered by the sleeping bag. Eventually she managed to crawl free. "...The fuck? Where am I?"
Groaning and rolling her shoulders, she looked over at the clothes. Not hers, but it looked like they'd fit her. Though, she hadn't been anywhere that'd require survival gear when she went to sleep. Climbing out of the sleeping bag and checking her gear, she realised what had been bugging her- she hadn't felt sore or weary like this since... since before she'd woken up in the Lady's domain! Had she been kicked out?
She hurried over to the tent's entrance, looking around outside. "Gwen? Oric? Naethra, Duran, Lou? Anyone?"
GM: as you get up a note falls from your body, written on oddly clean, white parchment.
Red: Noticing the note, Retiaria picked it up and gave it a quick glance.
GM: picking up the note she realises it's more a series of images than words, which is convenient considering her lack of literacy. They must be magic however, as upon looking over them, their meaning is rapidly conveyed:
"Dear Retiaria, I apologise for the sudden departure, but I could not miss the opportunity. I have returned all of you to as close to your homes as possible, and restored your forms. I have supplied you with things you may need for your trip home, as well as a homestone. When held in an open palm, it will turn to point in the direction of the place the holder considers home, then it will glow to show an approximate distance. You must make it back to a town before nightfall. If you are not protected by the town barrier, the ladies domain will recognize your absence and drag you back. While I did not particularly mind having you around, I doubt you would fair well on your own if the others are successful in returning home."
Red: Expecting a written message, Retiaria frowned and blinked a couple of times as she looked at the images- and somehow words formed in her head. Was this what reading was like?
The novelty of her experience was soon eclipsed by the weight of what the message was saying- she was out! Though, possibly just temporarily. She knew she'd be killed if she returned home, but after all she'd seen in the Lady's domain? She found herself not caring. She had to see Aelia again, tell her what had happened to her. Maybe if she could just stay the night with her, she could slip out again in the morning with no one the wiser...
"I don't know if you can hear me, but thank you." she said to the empty air. Slipping the necklace over her head, she gathered up her equipment and started putting on the desert clothing. Once she had everything squared away, she'd take down the tent and set off.
GM: there's no response. once you have everything packed away it's time to decide what direction to go. it seems to be relatively same-y desert in all directions.
Red: Well, Retiaria had no idea what direction to go in. Thankfully, she had this fancy new necklace. Taking the homestone in her palm, she held it in front of her and hoped it worked as advertised.
GM: holding out your palm flat the point of the crystal spins briefly as if confused, before finally settling on a direction, glowing a light blue. There's a very simple guide to the colours on the back of the note. Arranged in a rainbow, there's a smiley face beside purple, and a sad face near red. light blue seems to be close to the middle but more on the smiley face side.
Red: "Okay. Not great, but not bad either." Retiaria muttered to herself. Pointing herself in the right direction, she began jogging.
GM: jogging is quickly revealed to be a bad idea as the sand shift beneath her feet (acrobatics to keep from falling)
Niht: [Acrobatics 14+4= 18]
GM: she manages to keep her footing but it becomes clear slow and steady will serve her better than risking a tumble every several feet. However, there appears to be a couple more solid paths if she's inclined to take them. One which seems like the sand has been crushed down into a path over time, and the other a series of stones that make a crude, uneven walkway.
Red: "Gah, fuck!"
After nearly losing her footing one too many times, Retiaria slowed down, taking a pace that seemed infuriatingly slow. She only had until nightfall to get home, and her crystal was blue!
Thankfully it looked like there were some areas with more solid ground...
[Athletics 13+5= 18]
GM: You're confident you could manage across the stones without falling, and they seem like the most sturdy path, meaning you could also move fastest on them. However you would be doing a lot of diagonal movement hopping from stone to stone, where as the trodden path would be more of a straight run with the occasional risk of the sand shifting.
Red: After a few moments' consideration, Retiaria decided to take the compacted sand path- it might be slightly tougher going, but at least she'd be going in a straight line.
GM: the going is certainly easier, and the sand doesn't even shift beneath your feet. it seems incredibly well compressed. The sand on the sides rises and falls in dunes, but the path remains level. you've been going for nearly an hour when the ground begins to shake.
Red: Retiaria soon began to grin. If this path kept going, she'd be back in White Sands in no time! Why did people say the wastes were so dangerous? This was fine. She-
Her happy thoughts were rudely interrupted by... what was that? An earthquake? Some really big creature approaching? Whatever it was, it was probably bad news for her. Holding her net and trident ready for combat, she kept going as fast as she dared without risking another slip.
[Athletics 2+5=7]
GM: You stumble and fall as the rumbling grows more intense, and you suddenly realise what had enough weight to crush a path straight through the sand dunes: a giant sand worm. hundreds upon hundreds of teeth held in an open mouth that seems to just be waiting to scoop up anything in its path. It's at least twice as tall as you in the mouth alone, and who knows how long. If you stay on the path you'll be dead in no time!
Red: "Gyah!"
Falling flat on her stomach, Retiaria rolled onto her back as she saw movement, in the distance but getting closer. Sand worm! "Oh crap..."
Grabbing the weapons she'd dropped in her fall, she scrambled to her feet and ran off to the side of the path. She had to get clear of that thing, there was no way it just stuck to its path and hoped food would just wait to be eaten, if it saw her she was dinner! Spotting what she thought was a decent dune to take cover behind, she tried to hide as the worm went past.
[Stealth 4+2=6]
GM: your ability to hide is thwarted by the shifting sand, and you end up with a face full of tiny hot bits of hatred. fortunately your desert clothing keeps it out of your eyes. fortunately, sand worms aren't exactly hunters and can't really tell you're there even if only inches away from them. As it goes past you struggle to stay in place as the sands shift and blow from all the shaking and wind. you realize to late a fall will send you sliding down towards it. (roll something to try and avoid doing that)
Red: [Acromobatics 19+4= 23]
"Bleh! Pfeh!" Retiaria screwed her eyes shut and spat the sand out of her mouth. The momentary distraction was enough for her to lose her balance though, and she felt herself sliding. Quickly spreading her limbs out to slow her descent, she rolled back to her feet and tried climbing the dune again.
GM: You manage to avoid slipping down, and you can already see the end of the worm! It's at this point that you realise some rather clever gnolls have decided to make use of this living disaster by lodging javelins in its back and attaching sleds to ropes to have it drag them along. (Roll perception, or something else, but I recommend perception)
Niht: [Pieception 1+who cares]
GM: You can't make out anything specific about them, especially with all the sand flying around, but there appears to be a lot of them. Like, you don't have time to count them kind of numbers. They'll be coming up next to you soon, what do you do?
Red: "Yeah, fuck that." Retiaria muttered. Too many gnolls, not enough time. Trying to stay low, she headed off at an angle from the worm's track. Hopefully she'd find another path soon, if not she'd just have to head back towards this one after a while.
[Stealth 5+2=7. Come on...!]
GM: As you're sneaking away you hear something from behind you, the gnolls sound excited (what's your AC? Or would you like to roll acrobatics to try and blind dodge? =P)
Red: [Acrobatics 14+4=18]
Crap, she'd been seen! Sensing something coming, Retiaria dived to the side...
GM: she manages to dodge out of the way as a gruesome spear of crudely strung together bones lodges itself into the sand, far deeper then she is comfortable with considering the implications. Fortunately it's pulled back by a rope and the gnolls don't seem inclined to leave their sleds. likely because doing so would mean being left behind. If you can get out of sight you should be safe from them. There's the stones from before, which she could hide between, more sand dunes she could try and get up and then slide down, or some black slabs sticking out of the sand at various angles.
Red: "Screw you, bitches!" Retiaria yelled as she ran away. Spotting the slabs, she ran to them and ducked down behind the largest one she could find. It'd just be a case of taking cover there until the sleds were out of range...
[Athletics 14+5 to book it to the slabs before the gnolls can throw more harpoons?]
GM: You manage to make it to the slabs before more harpoons come. You vaguely make out complaints from some of the gnolls saying "why'd you attack before telling us!" so it seems one gnolls greed was your salvation. something hits the slab but doesn't even make it budge, the thing seems solid.
Red: "Heh, thanks, Greedy." Retiaria chuckled. Damn, she'd been lucky. Maybe the wastes weren't quite the cakewalk she'd thought...
GM: As soon as you try to pull away from the slab you realize a problem: you seems to be stuck to it. anything that touched it doesn't seem willing to come off. The surprisingly cool slab seemed odd in the scorching desert, but stickiness was not the expected outcome for most people.
Red: "Uh... what the fuck?"
Retiaria tugged against the slab. How was a rock this sticky? Thankfully, her desert clothes provided a layer of cloth between the rock and her actual body, so if she had to she could abandon them. At least her hair wasn't stuck to it. Still though, they were too useful to just abandon. So, she put all of her strength into pulling against the rock's grasp...
[Athletics 19+5=24]
GM: The sound of tearing fabric fills the air as you manage to pull away from the stones. large chunks of your desert clothing remain attached to the stone... or you would expect them to be, but you just barely catch sight of the last piece being absorbed into the surface. You need to be more careful now, the sand will start digging into your skin, and the heat of day and cold of night will cause some serious damage. Moving at dawn and dusk would protect from the extreme temperatures, but it's already around 10am and you don't have the luxury of waiting around. Three options for progression present themselves: walk the dunes, return to the flattened sand path, or go for the random stones.
Red: "Yowch." Retiaria winced as she watched the scraps of her desert outfit get swallowed by the rock. Not a good way to go. The desert clothes were ruined, but at least she was free. Poking her head out from behind the rock- which she was now very careful not to touch- she checked to see if the wormrider gnolls were gone.
GM: The worm moves quite quickly, so the gnolls are already heading off into the distance.
Red: Okay, what were the chances of a second worm following the first? Obviously her best choice was to keep following the worm trail, as it still went in the direction she wanted and the danger had passed. Confident in her decision, Retiaria headed back to the path and got moving.
GM: things are fairly easy going for a while, until your stomach starts growling. it seems you might need to eat something. (I'm assuming you've been taking sparing drinks of water along the way)
Red: (That would make sense, aye)
Getting hungry, Retiaria took off her backpack and removed one of the ration bars. That should keep her going. Shouldering her pack once more, she took a bite and started chewing as she walked.
GM: You notice some odd stones along the edge of the path, but they appear to just be regular stones. the oddness is imply their size and shape: they look like polished cones with a smoothed top. You'd heard the desert winds could sometimes smooth out and polish stones. it was one of the big products at the arena shop: desert polished gems
Red: The stones looked weird, but Retiaria had more pressing matters than just looking at some rocks. She paid them little heed as she hurried by, keeping an eye out for any gemstones that might be lying among them but otherwise ignoring them.
GM: There's an uncomfortable clicking sound as you pass the second stone, and a sudden realization hits you: the wind is picking up. The sand stings as it hits your exposed skin, burning with the heat of the sun. the wind's only getting worse, and you can't be sure how far in any direction the storm will extend.
Red: "Damn it!" Retiaria cursed. This wind was going to be a problem. The sand it flung at her hurt, and visibility inside the storm would be next to nothing. But going around it would waste too much time, for all she knew it could take days to bypass the storm. She'd have to go through. She had the homestone to keep her bearings, she'd just have to stop and check it every now and then. The sand was the more pressing problem. Maybe she could improvise some kind of protective gear from the tent's fabric? It wasn't like she'd need it again anyway, either she got to White Sands and she'd be safe in the town, or she'd be pulled back to the Lady's domain, which at least wasn't a blasted desert.
[Survival 6+1=7]
GM: The tent seems to work to block the sand for a moment, until a piece of small stone is launched through it, then another, and another. The size of the objects being flung by the storm is increasing and it only take several moments for the tent ot end up in shreds. The shape of the tent is made to let things blow over and around it, but when it's forced to act as a direct barrier it seems the desert wins.
[You take 5 points of damage from sand. Roll perception.]
Niht: [HP: 31.
Perception 1+1=I see nothing]
GM: A sharp pain suddenly fills your leg, and when you look down you realize some sort of creature with a tough looking shell and a large mouth has latched onto your leg. You can feel the teeth against your bone, attempting to break it and already beginning to make progress. It's the first serious, life threatening pain you've experienced recently, and it almost makes you black out ofr a moment. Fortunately your time in the arena has tought you better than to let that impulse take hold.
[You take 3d8+4 damage... 7+8+7+4= 26 damage]
Red: [HP 5]
Retiaria screamed as... whatever it was... slammed into her leg. If it wasn't for the trident which she used as a cane, she would have fallen. Gritting her teeth and breathing shallowly, she forced herself to fight through the pain, and thrust at the creature on her leg.
[Hit: 10+5=15
damage 6+5=11]
GM: The creature's hard shell is to much for the trident, the prongs snapping off as they hit it. You aren't granted any time to worry about this however, as the creature bites down once more and the world goes dark. The next think you know, you're waking up in the resting area in the coffee shop. Alive, and with your pearly trident. But on your left leg are scar marks from the razor sharp teeth, and a scar along the leg where it seems like it had been torn off by the creature.
Red: Gasping, Retiaria sat upright, reaching for her trident. Then her heart sank as she realised where she was. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
She had to fight back tears as the cold reality set in- she'd failed.
