Worthy Core

Tizzy pulls up a tall stool next to the table where the others are working, and peers closely at the assembled pieces of armor. "So, what have we got?"

Before answering, Alizz raises an eyebrow and asks a question of her own. "Are you familiar with enchantments? I was under the impression you were more of a caster mage."

The imp waggles a hand. "Didn't get much official training, but our old party had trouble keeping our equipment charged up as we went from place to place. We had to come up with ways to adapt them to local forms of mana, I ended up being one of the main people in charge of that." Her expression shifts into an uneasy smirk. "Last one, now. Anyways, I've gotten a basic idea of enchantments, though those also change from place to place."

"Do they?" Sincere seems interested by the statement. "Somewhat surprising, as to my knowledge, within this realm all enchantment runes use the same lexicon. Perhaps it has something to do with the different pantheons ruling each realm?"

"Hells if I know, I'm just an amateur." Tizzy gestures again at the armor in front of her. "But that's besides the point. What are we looking at here?"

Alizz points out one set of runes first, wrapping around the edges of the interior of the plate. "So, Xenia was right about the armor being cursed. It's not as simple as 'misfortune' though, probably because it's difficult to make a curse that generic. I understand the Miserables suffer from such a curse, but it was placed on them by Slinz's family, and we driders do have some of the best hex mages on the continent. But even then, their misfortune is limited to things they do as part of their career. It doesn't cause them to, say, choke on their food when eating. After all, the goal of it was apparently just to convince them to give up on Challenging, not actually kill them."

"Hrmm." Sincere begins mumbling to himself as he turns a piece of armor left and right. "Curses are not my specialty either, but I believe this has something to do with...'you are cursed to suffer attacks'? If that was reversed, wouldn't that make us not want to attack them? But Xenia's trait is not one of general curse reversal, simply luck."

"Not quite right." Alizz taps one of the runes. "More like 'attract attacks'. Which is to say, an attack on a person wearing this armor should be more likely to hit them and cause damage. It's not a pure misfortune curse, but there is enough of it woven in there to cause it to count as one, it seems."

Tizzy considers that for a moment. "So that explains why arrows and sword swings are more likely to miss them, yeah? But...it doesn't actually give them good luck in here in general. So if we could come up with ways to hurt them that aren't direct attacks..."

Sincere finishes her thought. "Things like poisons and venom may be too subtle to count. Psychological tricks, perhaps indirect traps...illusions would be just as effective."

"Well, I'll let Xenia handle the strategy on all of that, but if anyone needs help with illusions, let me know." The arcane rogue turns towards some of the other runes on the nearest piece. "So which bit is the bit that keeps them from falling down when we bust the floor open?"

"That...is a good question." Alizz frowns as she scans another section of enchantments. "I'm going to assume it's this section here, but...I've never seen any of these runes before."

"Hrmm? Allow me." Sincere leans in and peers at the same section, but seems just as confused. "That's very odd. I'm not familiar with them either. I've traveled throughout the Domain well enough in my years, and studied with some of their masters - I cannot believe they could have hidden an entire subset of arcane runes all this time. Just to reveal it now?"

"Eh?" Tizzy's eyes grow wide as she gets a better look. "Wait, I know those - those are from my home realm!"

"What!?" Alizz sits up a little straighter at the revelation. "Where would they have learned those?"

"Well...there are a few of us who survived but didn't stick around. I thought Violetta went north into the central Rainlands, but I'm not entirely sure. She didn't exactly leave a forwarding address. Norlash stuck around for a bit but ended up going his own way to visit the Valleylands orc communities, but he didn't know magic like this to begin with. And there's...Ruckus."

The Administrator's eyes narrow. "Ruckus."

"Magic wasn't his specialty, but his training was about disarming traps, and at a decent level of skill that does include magical ones. So he'd have to know at least some of the runes. Uh, to be specific, I'm pretty sure this is a position-stabilization effect, with a modification to make it...only affect vertical movement." Tizzy perks up. "Oh! This is a modified stasis trap! It would lock you down in place entirely, but with the modifications it still allows horizontal movement, and it's weak enough that it just makes it harder to walk up stairs, not impossible. I assume they didn't activate it until they got up the mountain, though. Er...right, though. Ruckus is...still in Grassbrook, I think you said?"

"Indeed." Alizz's tone is icy. "Overseeing the local Association office in my stead. And ideally not breaking our neutrality by aiding the Domain with their armor design."

Tizzy frowns along, but for a different reason. "Not that I was ever fond of the guy, but maybe he didn't have much choice? I mean, maybe they imprisoned him and threatened torture or something? I mean, I thought he valued being on good terms with Xenia...eh? Hold on a minute..."

As Tizzy stares closely at one portion of the rune section, Sincere prods her for an explanation. "Is there more to it?"

"...Yeah. I'm not entirely sure, it's a deactivation sequence, triggered by green...sun? No, light! If there's a green light shining on the armor, the stabilization runes turn off!" Tizzy grins widely at her discovery, before slowly shifting back into confusion. "...Why the hells would you put in something like that? Where do you even get green lights? You'd never just randomly run into something like that."

As she puzzles it out, Alizz breathes a sigh of relief. "...Except in a dungeon that's experimented with various kinds of crystal-based lighting. I know most of those fancy lights Xenia has in the lounge are red, pink, or yellow, but I think I've seen a green one or two as well, yes?"

Sincere nods along. "Indeed, and if Ruckus is the only person for a few hundred miles who knows this lexicon, aside from Tizzy, then it's a form of sabotage the Domain could never have noticed, no matter what experts they had looking at it. They could only test its effectiveness through practice, and when would you ever try testing something with tinted lights? Of course, this knowledge is only useful to us after we got our hands on a set and figured it out, but..."

"Any exploit is better than none at all." Alizz chuckles as she shakes her head. "I just hope they don't trace it back to him once we use that exploit. So!" The drider brushes off her palms. "What's the plan then? Wait until the largest possible batch are inside the room above the abyss, light them up, then crack the floor open again?"

Although only visible to Sincere, Xenia's avatar had entered the room just as the revelations were getting interesting, and she turns to her core guardian now. "Eh, not worth blowing the surprise unless we could somehow herd a whole bunch of people into that room, and I'm not sure they're that stupid. Fortunately, Floor Two is a very vertical floor, and I was already planning to take advantage of that. Add in some green lights there and manually hitting them at just the right moment shouldn't be too hard..." As she says that, a thought occurs to the reincarnator and she laughs out loud. "Killing with lights! Ahaha! It's not a trap, so I can do it myself! If this works out, I'll give Ruckus a hell of a bonus whenever this is all over."

"It is an interesting little loophole. I wonder how this armor would even work on that moving platform. Wouldn't it just leave them floating in midair as the platform shifts?"

Following along with only the last bit of that, Tizzy offers a theory. "The strength of the effect is somewhat adjustable, and as I understand it, that platform's limited to a pretty slow speed, yeah? If it drops too fast, it's a trap, not a...vehicle, or whatever, and dungeons can't force someone through a trap to progress. So they'd just have to tune their armor to the speed of the platform."

"Also good to know - I had some thoughts concerning the speed there, and now I know two ways to fuck with them." Xenia chuckles again, her tone growing a little devious. "Actually, I'm going to do a complete overhaul. The current design only lets one squad go through the floor at a time, unless they cram people on there - which would be pretty dumb even under normal circumstances, considering the pop-up traps. If I do something that encourages them to send multiple squads at once...oh, this is gonna be good."

Sincere chuckles lightly in response. "I just hope a few survivors make it to Lollyp, or she'll be quite disappointed..."

---

"Welp, Temporary Provisional Assistant Administrator job, you were nice while you lasted." Ruckus salutes the Challenger's Association headquarters building from a dark alley across the street, a bag of belongings slung over one shoulder. "I bet I can probably talk myself into getting an assistant admin job at another office though, now that I've got work experience." The imp nods to himself, standing up a little straighter. "Who was that guy in charge of the next one up north? Administrator Redroot? Probably some elf. Yeah, no sweat - plus, I'll be a hero what with all my valuable intel and whatnot. Huh, bet I'll get a medal. Though for now, better skedaddle before the sun comes up..."

The imp makes his way through the alleys and side streets of the small town, easily avoiding the few Domain patrols watching the town. There aren't that many civilians left in the town limits these days, and for the most part their scouts are split up covering the fort, the mountain, and dozens of square miles of forest. All the man needs to do is sneak into the treeline outside Grassbrook, get a few miles north, and he should be -

His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of explosions coming from behind him. Not loud ones by explosion standards, but anything in the middle of a quiet night is rather obvious. More importantly, he recognizes the type of the explosions - they're from the traps he set in the Association building, little parting gifts for any Domain soldiers who might come looking for him. Eyes wide, Ruckus freezes for a moment.

"What the fuck? Who'd be coming to visit in the middle of the damn night!? Did I...fuck up the triggers? Did some rat set it off...no, it was calibrated right...shit!" Deciding that the time for caution is past, the imp begins sprinting down the last side street and beyond the town's unofficial limits. There's a bit of a gap between the treeline and his current position, but the grass is tall, and he is rather short. Right now the most important thing is to be gone before someone starts trying to track him.

Choosing the wrong moment to look behind him, Ruckus comes to a sudden halt as he slams into something. Looking up, he spots not a tree, but a man in dark clothing...a human, or no, perhaps he's an elf? Either way, the way the man is smiling at him does not serve to put Ruckus at ease. "Eh!? Ah, hey there...pleasant night for an evening stroll, am I right?"

The man continues smiling even as he leans down, towering over the prone rogue. "Darktouched thought you might try to sneak out on us. Thought you might be a problem. We'll see how long that lasts, won't we?"

As the man slaps restraints on the imp, Ruckus gulps. "Problem? Me? No problems here..."