Player Plot: The Mysidian Tower!

[jadethenecromancer]

Who: Everyone who signed up for the plot!
What: Jade is taking a team to explore the Mysidian Tower before it'd swallowed by the Calamity.
When: February 8th-12th
Where: The Mysidian Tower on the Continent of Ruin.
Warning: Everything that can be expected of surprise monster encounters. Beyond that, whatever people bring with them.

The Enterprise brings everyone involved to the tower on the afternoon of February 8th. Thankfully the early floors have already been cleared by previous explorers, making the initial entry easy and relatively safe. Once the Heroes start reaching the upper floors, however... Who knows?

All threads will be linked here for easy access:
OOC info post
Ground Floor - Campsite
Friendly Monster
Floors 30-39
Floors 40-49
Floors 50-59
Floors 60-69
Floors 70-79
Floors 80-89
Floors 90-99
Floors 100-101 will be open at a later date.

Comments

Ground Floor - Campsite

[jadethenecromancer]

[The area has been cleared for Heroes to prepare themselves and rest up between floors. An elevator can be taken from here to the upper floors as more of them are activated.

Feel free to post your own threads here for mingling!

Friendly Monster - Morning of the second day [Open]

[jadethenecromancer]

[There is nothing quite like waking up and finding a raptor resting its head on your knee.

Jade stares down at the feathered raptor, unimpressed. It’s obviously injured, but is that any reason for it to act like a sad puppy?]

Floors 30-39

[jadethenecromancer]

[There isn’t much on Floor 30 besides their first elevator, allowing the Heroes to return there at any time. When they manage to pry open the door to the stairs leading up to Floor 31, they’ll find what appears to have been a laboratory of some sort. The equipment around them resembles those found in Palitutu’s lab and the Heran Research Center.

Or rather, they did when they were still intact. Everything from computers to desks and containers have been torn down by someone… or something.]

Floors 40-49

[jadethenecromancer]

[Many rooms on these floors are blocked off by debris. Others are behind closed doors that have no handles, only words inscribed on them in the Ancient language. Should the Heroes attempt to find a way to open them, or simply pass them up and look for the stairs?]

Floors 50-59

[jadethenecromancer]

[Each floor is covered wall to wall by shelves. There are old texts scattered on the floor here and there, but most are still sitting on the shelves like they should. It appears the Heroes have found archives… Could there be more information on the tower here?]

Floors 60-69

[jadethenecromancer]

[If the previous floors were used for research, these ones clearly used to have another purpose entirely.

Rows of containment units fill the rooms, holding within them things that bear a resemblance to robots. They are all mechanical, some of them gripping weapons – blades, staves, guns – while others seem to have weapons built directly onto their appendages. Some are outside of their containment units, lying still on the floor. Most are roughly human-sized, but the further up the Heroes go, the larger the mechanical monstrosities get.

Thankfully, they’re all inactive, and in any case their mechanisms must be immensely old. It should be safe to proceed… shouldn’t it?]

Floors 70-79

[jadethenecromancer]

[Floor 70 shows the first signs of some normalcy. There are couches, tables, and an occasional bookshelf, arranged to leave as much space in between as possible. One wall is lined with old computers, none of which show any life. Everything is permeated with a smell of age and dust.

There appear to be three exits from the room. All the doors are ajar.]

Floors 80-89

[jadethenecromancer]

[Here the Heroes find another laboratory, though unlike the one on the lower floors, this one is mostly intact. Ancient devices clutter the tables and work benches; some are incomprehensible as to what they might have been used for, while others may look strangely familiar.

There are doors in the back of the laboratory, seemingly firmly shut.]

Floors 90-99

[jadethenecromancer]

[The first thing the Heroes will notice on Floor 90 is that the top of the tower doesn’t seem to have been completely finished. There are pieces of the walls missing, revealing pipes and wires traveling down the tower, and pieces of rusted scaffolding lying on the floor in a broken mess. Thanks to the lack of interior walls, the stairs to the next floor are easily visible from the entrance.

Though, the stairs… don’t look very sturdy. This doesn’t seem safe.]

Floors 100-101

[jadethenecromancer]

[At last, after several days of grueling climbing, the Heroes make it to the 100th floor.

The first bit of good news is, there is an inactive elevator waiting for them, allowing anyone who wasn't present for the final stretch to catch up without having to go through the precarious, half-finished upper floors. Reactivating the elevator won't be difficult either, because -- unlike the previous floors -- this floor already has the power turned on.

The floor consists of only a single large room. There is a generator in the middle, gently humming with power, surrounded by several computers. A closer look at the computers will show all of them are still very much active.

Finally, in the back of the room, there is the last set of stairs leading up to Floor 101.]

Well, well... Wasn't that fun. [Jade looks from face to face, silently doing a headcount.] Looks like nobody died on the way. Good work, everyone.

Jade Curtiss | Open

[jadethenecromancer]

[On the first day of the expedition, Jade is there to organize setting the camp and answer any questions the others might have. Following that, he visits the camp periodically to rest up like everyone else and listen to reports of what they've found so far.

He seems perfectly friendly to everyone, quite the contrast to what some of the other Heroes might have seen during their shared vision from the Sage -- even if in some cases, his smile is a little too unwavering to be completely real.]

[they_call_me_sonic]

Sonic let out a whistle as he saw the various robots as they climbed higher. "Man, look at all of this. If I didn't know better, I'd say we'd discovered one of Eggman's fortressses!"

[confidentia]

[ Logic commands him to stay away from what might be an elaborate trap, but his heart cannot suppress the desire for easing the pain of the poor creature. On the off-chance it really harbors absolutely no evil intentions towards humans, there is little reason to treat it with cruelty.

And it's not his own leg that's been trapped, so he might as well step a bit closer, shooting a puzzled glance in Jade's direction. ]

... What do you think?

[droopy_eyes]

[It's not really clear when Jaeha officially moved into the group. He just sort of shows up without any fanfare, hanging out near the fringe of camp with a couple of hand-picked tropical flowers. He knows very well that blooms gathered on his own are received far more favorably than anything purchased in a shop. He's keeping an eye out for the lady he agreed to meet on this date.]

[He's not looking for the long-haired bespectacled gentleman with the faux smile, though to his credit, Jaeha doesn't mistake his physical appearance as anything remotely feminine.]

[No one seems to be approaching him about the flowers, though. He thought that would be a surefire indicator as to his identity.]

[Finally with a sigh, he pushes away from the boulder he's favored for his waiting spot and approaches Jade.]

Begging your pardon. You wouldn't happen to know where the leader of this expedition is, would you?

[confidentia]

[ Well, there has to be a reason why the teams clearing the previous floors struggled with unlocking the others, that is assuming the explorers didn't perish within the confines of the tower. The more Ace looks around, the more the latter presents itself as a plausible possibility as the extent of the damage caused to the laboratory's interior causes him to pause in his steps.

Rather than focus on the equipment, his instinct tells him to first determine whether there are any particularly distinct marks or traces to be found, ones which could imply that monsters were somehow involved in what has ocurred. Surely, it can't have merely been a researcher's bad day at work. ]

[zodiac_brave]

[Ramza was not one to attack a wounded animal, not when it offered no threat. Besides, the Raptors of this continent were, in his eyes, like unfeathered chocobos. This feathered one was just an odd, somewhat scaly chocobo. Potentially dangerous, indeed, but also capable of becoming a valuable ally.]

Try scratching its beak...er...snout. It might like that. [He suggested. He started rifling through his pack for a healing potion. Either the not-chocobo would need it, or Jade would.]

[tacticallyminded]

I... concur with Ramza.

[...it's been awhile since Robin has seen one of these. But, still. She stares -- then she smiles, before she looks sideways at Jade.]

Being gentle is best.

[tacticallyminded]

[Robin's been dutifully helping explore this whole time. But... when she reaches this floor, she comes to a stop. She takes a good look at all of the books.]

[Softly, from the back of her throat:]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[scriptrix]

I know, I know!

[And Levy is standing right beside her, eyes sparkling and bouncing on her heels excitedly.]

[not_most_days]

[Having had a few run ins with wild animals on islands back home, Kidd's first instinct might have been to take the animal down before it could do Jade any harm. The fact that she is presently using her lower level mage jobs instead of her combat ones keeps her from acting on that instinct however.]

If you all are sure about this.

[She remains tense as the group decides to go on the nonviolent route. She keeps her time mage spells in mind, ready to hinder the raptor should things take a turn.]

Ground Floor - Campsite | Sephiroth and/or Spencer [Open]

[shinrasfinest]

[Strange to think, that on now two completely separate occasions, Sephiroth is spending his nights under canvass somewhere on the newly discovered continent. Even by the standards in Esdham, which might see a party away for a little more than a week at a time if they were scouting out in the Heran desert, it's starting to seem that he's spent more time in a sleeping bag than a real bed this past month.

Which is why, when he's not up on some floor of the Tower exploring, the majority of the time Sephiroth is between patrolling the campsite, checking in on any one number of the squads he brought with him for backup, taking some rations or -even for just five minutes- lying on his camp bed trying to get just a little shut-eye.

He just might be starting to look -just that little bit- exhausted. But at least Spencer happily takes on the responsibility of checking around the campsite when Sephiroth is resting; enthusiastic to be finally of some help.]

[shinrasfinest]

[The effort to pry open the door that leads up the stairs is real. Sephiroth's rather glad he'd brought the 'Alpha' squad up with him this time; at least it means that no one has had to try to do that all on their own.

As Sephiroth steps into the 31st Floor laboratory, two things get his attention; the destruction follows the realization that the equipment ripped from tables is vaguely familiar. Just like in the lab at Aqures...

Eyelids narrow as he spots Ace further ahead, inspecting a particular area, but the silver-haired hero doesn't say anything, for now. The squad of soldiers following him fan out from the stairwell to allow more Heroes to come onto the floor.]

[soldierofloveandbeauty]

Eggman? Sounds like a giant egg that has become human somehow.

[That was not the point of what he said at all, but as Minako looked around, she had wanted to say something.]

But ones gotta ask what is the point of all the robots? Sure probably to fight but these look like they could fight an army or something.

[Closed Doors?]

[shinrasfinest]

[It's not like he's exploring alone, after all. Given not only the infantry he's brought with him to help them, but the fact there are for sure other Heroes exploring at the same time.

He'd picked out the odd word or so, of those Ancient characters, on the way passed other doors up until this point but once he starts to see them more often the penny drops. It's been a long time since he's used Scholar after all, that forgives him for not identifying it as Ancient the first time around...right?]

...wait.

[So the next handle-less door that comes along, finds Sephiroth taking a more facing-stance towards it and focuses on the words; just shy of reaching out to trace them with a gloved finger.]

[shinrasfinest]

[Eggman, not that he knows who Sonic refers, isn't the first thing that comes to Sephiroth's mind as he works his way through the containment bays, apprehensively edging around a robot which has fallen in the hallway.

There are a couple of soldiers with him, this time, but most others are on previous floors securing ground, helping to complete more exploration or back on the ground floor keeping camp.]

Hm.

[He agrees with Minako's comment, but keeps to himself his own thoughts on what exactly a mechanized army could have been kept here, for...]