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

[At first it's hard to say if he doesn't answer or if it's just impossible to hear over the rubble grinding and settling. Once she approaches the pile, though she'll be able to see the faint ruddy glow that Medic would recognize as the Lance Ruin wields. But where it's usually just a faint glow now it flares bright, bright enough to be visible through the gaps in the bricks.

It might take a little work but eventually she'll find an outstretched hand, bloody and broken beneath the bricks. Before she has the opportunity to try to heal, though, a thick black substance slithers out from the mound where Ruin must be, enveloping his hand and dragging a ragged groan from him. At least... that surely means he's alive, right?

The rubble begins to shift then, though, the blackness twisting thicker and thicker around what she can see, tangling and condensing into some unnatural form of muscle. Long spikes burst through the rubble, disrupting the pile and letting the bricks begin to spill out to the bottom of the mound, a hulking form pushing up from beneath and sending them falling away.

As the bricks move it's easier to see but what is visible makes no more sense. Ruin screams, something agonized and terrified and the sound seems as though it's ground out from a throat full of gravel, twisting and warping into an animal cry. For a moment there's a glimpse of somethingcaught between man and monster and then the Lance finishes doing what it feels it needs to in order to protect itself and the beastthat finally rises from the ruins of the building is absolutely not the man she knew.]

[In all honesty, the main thought that passes through her head at seeing him transform is a distant, oddly calm Huh, I didn't know he could do that-]

[And a cry of pain will always bring her running, will always take priority for a healer.]

Can you speak? Are you in pain? [She moves closer carefully but quickly, still more concerned about unsteady footing on the rubble and debris or the threat of lurking Revenants than she is about him. At least, about the possibility that he might be a threat to her. She's very concerned for him.]

I'll help you, just tell me where it hurts- tap the ground once if you can't respond.

[In all honesty he can barely understand her, the being that was once the Lance more in control than the man himself. Pain? Yes. Pain. Everything is pain, as it always has been.

The Beast hunches forward, one massive clawed hand curling around a fistful of debris. It roars at her, something raw and animalistic, full of rage and anguish. Then it's lifting the brick and metal, heedless of her position. The closest thing it has to destroy, though, is the remains of the building that had collapsed on it in the first place, whirling around to hurl the stones at the wall.

Sorry Medic if Ruin's in there he's clearly more caught up in the need for destruction than anything else. An outlet for all the fury and hate bottled up inside him. At the very least he doesn't seem to see Medic as a threat so much as just doesn't care.]

[Medic hastily dodges the thrown debris.] Okay, I'm going to take that as "everywhere"!

[She keeps moving, staying out of the line of fire and circling back around, never taking her eyes off of him. She knows that he could hurt her, even without meaning to- but when it comes down to it, she doesn't see him as a threat, either. He's a patient.]

[And he's her friend.]

But no matter how much it hurts... [She braces herself, prepares to run-] ...I can fix that! [-right towards him, not away.]

[In a move that Ruin in his right mind might have remembered from the fight with Mammon, she uses her scissors to pole vault, taking a flying leap to try and land on his back.]

[If she manages to make contact with him, any part of him at all, her next move is simple: grab on and start healing.]

[Don't let go.]

[The massive spines arcing along his back are something she needs to be careful of but... they're also a convenient location to be able to hold on. Once she's on him though she'll see the gaps between the scale plates show something not quite flesh, something that moves and writhes beneath the scales. Something that looks as though it might suck her in if she isn't careful of her footing.

Still, Medic pours her healing power into him, into the thing he's become and the Beast screams. Almost as though the healing is painful... and maybe for a thing that has been dead for so many centuries it is. Whichever scale she touches when she begins healing it falls away, the darkness beneath recoiling from the power, withdrawing into itself.

She won't have too long to try to scramble away as the plates and spines begin to collapse, power rushing back in toward some central point. Scales and claws and too many teeth that all crumble to dust like bone worn down by years as they fall away. There's a sucking sound like the rush of power is creating a vacuum and when it's done it's clear that the glowing crimson stone in Ruin's Lance was the source of it.

The man himself tumbles to the ground, unconscious, the Lance sinking blade first into the concrete beside him. The way it glows, moves behind the stone's surface with intent, seems to look at her is malicious. All that fury concentrated down into the stone with its strange gold marking, mimicking the brand that chokes Ruin now.

For better or worse, however, he seems to be... mostly alright. Still battered from the building's collapse but not broken, not anymore. He's no closer to consciousness, though.]

[Sliding and slipping, Medic fights to keep her grip and refuses to let go or give up.]

[Even when they fall she keeps hold of Ruin, shifting his unconscious body to prop him up against her, one arm around her shoulders.]

[She looks over his head at the Lance, expression... polite, yes, but stern.]

You need to stop doing that, it's clearly terrible for his health. [She's just. Talking to the Lance, like it's a person.] If you're in pain, then we can try to manage your condition and improve your quality of life, but as his doctor I refuse to endanger his wellbeing for yours.

[Listen, she's kind of wondered about these things ever since she saw Lion's spear. If that's not the fossilized remains of something with a skeleton, she'll eat the post-it note with it's fine scribbled on it that she put up on her wall in place of a legitimate medical degree.]

[And, well. Something inside that gem seems pretty awake to her. It's not like any of them have room to talk about the dead staying gone, right?]

[For a moment nothing happens, the stone remaining static maybe considering maybe just... not as alive as she thought. But then it flares brighter only to wink out, completely dull and lifeless a second later. It... very much has the energy of a petulant teenager glaring daggers at a parent and stomping off to their room.

Unfortunately, though, it looks like Ruin might be out for a fair bit. He definitely went through the ringer there.]

Avaritia Underside Log

cw: transformation sequence

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DW ate it, you reminded me, then I forgot for 2 days I'm so sorry

No worries, it happens. ^-^

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