cancry | Avaritia Underside Log

AVARITIA DUNGEON LOG
Once the Executors have steeled themselves for the confrontation with Greta (or whatever Greta might have become now her Authority has been reclaimed) it's time to descend into the Avaritia Underside. For those Executors new to the team, this is going to seem like a terrible trecharous climb down, but don't worry! The real danger waits down on the Underside below. And going by the lights and noise drifting up to meet you, it's not going to be any more welcoming than the Layer that came before...
THE UNDERSIDE
♪♫ MagiCatz – Sakuzyo Descending into the Avaritia Underside is like willingly throwing yourself into the deepest, darkest pits of sensory hell. The Greed Layer has never been a particularly friendly looking place but with it distorted into a labyrinth of flashing neon signs, oversized casino machines and Revenants swarming the streets, it's as though everything that makes Avaritia unbearable has been turned all the way up to eleven. It's... not a fun place to be! To make matters worse, things are loud here – as well as all the noise from the casino machines, music blares from an unseen source and the Revenants laugh and chatter and babble between themselves even as they fight and kill for the grubby Nova coins that can be found scattered around. It's a deeply unpleasant place to be, but this is where Greta has ended up and if you want to proceed then you have no choice but to plunge into this neon-drenched hellscape. AREAS OF INTEREST ⚝ Main Street: There are many other clusters of activity around the Underside, but the main street that makes up the center of the Underside is certainly the biggest and the busiest. Whatever buildings might have made up this street before are long gone, some crushed and destroyed by the regular outpourings of coins from the giant slot machines and some having been ravaged and destroyed in some fight or other between Revenants. The street is lined with grubby, battered novas that have changed hands so often that the metal has worn smooth. Even so, the Revenants here fight over the money viciously, biting and scratching and killing over even a single coin. The more novas any individual Revenant is able to keep its hands (or, uh... claws?) on, the stronger it appears to be. And lurking at the mouth of main street is an absolutely enormous Revenant, lording over a horde of coins bigger than any you've ever seen before – and it doesn't seem inclined to share them with you. ⚝ Fort Nyx: The already labyrinthine layout of Fort Nyx's underground vaults has somehow managed to get even more confusing with the transition to the underside. The upper layer that once housed the bank has vanished entirely, leaving wibbly wobbly corridors that snake down deep into the depths of the vaults. You'll want to move fast as you travel through here, as the vault doors will occasionally burst open and a particularly aggressive Revenant will burst out, intent on protecting whatever meager treasures it's managed to collect and keep in the safe. Press further in and you'll eventually find yourself at the Underside's equivalent of Vault #0. Greta isn't here to greet you, unfortunately, but you do at least have another Revenant to occupy your time with! ⚝ Et Voila Casino: See for yourself. HAZARDS ⚝ Sensory Overload: Avaritia's Underside is, unbelievably, even worse than Avaritia itself in terms of apparently doing everything it can to send you running with a migraine. Lights flash, neon signs blare and the noise is almost unbearable. With all this on top of the natural distortion to the Underside's geography, this makes trying to navigate extremely difficult and can be dangerously disorienting when it comes time to fight. ⚝ Structural Damage: Many of the buildings around the city have fallen into disrepair due to the presence of the Revenants here. Most concerningly, many of the signs have some degree of damage to their wiring or electrical supply and may spark or flicker or even shock Executors who get too close. Be on your guard! ⚝ Avalanche!: Occasionally, the oversized slot machines that line the streets will hit on a prize and immediately pour an wave of novas into the streets. On top of the danger posed by the rush of Revenants that will come hurrying in to claim the coins, there's a very real chance of an unlucky Executor being crushed under the tidal wave of metal, causing horrible injury if not outright death. ⚝ Revenant Types Present: Ficino, Rigaud

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That is a smart thing to do Sword, you are a smart guy!

Which is why he'll see someone being less smart in the distance, a bellow so loud he might even hear it over here, and Lion chucking his lance at the thing from outside its swinging range. He's having a bad day too and is also taking it out on the monster... just less carefully]

What the--fuck.

[Welp. Time for Sword to run over and try to stop the idiot from getting himself killed!]

Lion! What the fuck are doing?!

[Lion is fine! His weapon just kinda skids off the thing due to, well, Lion having one eye- but he holds up his hand and it flings itself back to him]

Killing it!

[Oh that's a familiar tone]

[And Sword flinches when Lion speaks in that tone. He's not even aware he's doing it until he's done it and is looking at Lion like he's just seen a ghost. Or worse.]

Not yet you're not, you idiot! The only thing you're going to do is get yourself killed, you stupid [b--r] dog!

[Sorry Achilles.]

[Lion turns and snarls at him- so completely different from the bumbling kind-hearted man from the upper layer that they may as well be different people- it's enough of a distraction that the Revenant starts lumbering closer on its tiny legs]

Do not speak to me as if this is my first battle against these beasts.

Then why the fuck are you throwing your lance at it?! It's two of us against a giant fucking monster we know nothing about! Do you want to die?

[He raises his hand, and the lance lurches from where it is sticking up in the ground behind the beast, flying back to his hand. It knicks the monster on the way, but doesn't do much real damage]

I am already dead, in case you have forgotten.

Because that's an excuse to--ugh. Whatever, if you want to die again I'm not taking your corpse back to Ruin.

[And Sword will summon his own weapon, watching for an opening.]

[That actually makes him pause for a moment... but that bloodthirsty glint is too strong, and the pause is much too short. Soon he's charging back into the fray. Even with his lacking speed, Lion can dodge the swinging fists on prediction alone, trying to slash at its tiny feet to put it off balance.

At least an opening should be easy enough to find?]

[It should be, but even as Sword is watching for a moment, it's like his vision is fading in and out and he's seeing things that aren't there.]

It's Lion--no, it's someone else, the boy from the memory but taller and stronger and older--and he's fighting these rebels, these people who are angry and took to the sword, shouting about their king--but he's not, he's fighting a fucking Revenant and trying to get himself killed--he's killing wave after wave of rebels, grinning and blood-spattered and tearing them apart like he's some wild animal, a boar--

[Sword shakes his head, looking for an opening and racing forward when he finds one on the creature's underside.]

Damn boar--

[And Lion really does look a boar- splattered with pnenuma and grinning like a death mask as he tears the thing's legs apart. But when Sword darts in and strikes it's vitals more directly he hears the mumbled insult and pauses, head tilted like a confused beast.

it's familiar. it's-

-and gets himself swatted by one of the giant arms, flying meters away with a bellow of pain]

Edited 2021-06-09 13:52 (UTC)

Lion!

[Sword gives the bastard a few more slashes before disengaging and making a break for where Lion landed. He doesn't even check to see that Lion is okay before he grabs his arm and starts trying to pull him around a nearby building and out of sight.]

[Lion groans, and thankfully not long after Sword starts dragging him he manages to fumble to his feet and allows Sword to lead him away. He's bleeding pneuma from his head, but otherwise looks mostly okay]

I warned you, you stupid boar. And Medic's who-knows-where...how fast do we heal?

[He growls and shakes Sword off. His eye patch went flying off when he was struck, showing one caved in milky scarred eye that tries to turn to Sword along with his good eye]

We kill the beast first. I will not allow it to slink away from me.

[That's disturbing, but also not the point.]

It'll do more than slink away from you, with that head injury. You're done.

No.

[He snarls, almost roaring]

Fight with me or flee with your tail tucked, but regardless I will continue.

[And he's just yanking himself away and heading back out]

[Fine, whatever. If Lion is going to be That Idiot, Sword obviously can't stop him.

So he'll just go back to fighting this thing and not worry about the damned boar.]

[Thankfully it seems, somehow, Lion can fight just fine with his injury. It's not that it's less of a blow than it looked and more like he doesn't feel it at all. He goes back at the thing's feet, and it starts to wobble, it's arms too long to reach him now that he's in so close]

Avaritia Underside Log

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