Superbia Underside Log

[cancrymods]

SUPERBIA DUNGEON LOG

Third time's the charm for the Executors, it seems. Their confrontation with Miss President ended peacefully and with the Superbia loop ended, the school was finally able to enjoy its hard earned festival. But it's not quite a straightforward happy ending – the way back up to the previous layers is still sealed and regardless, if the Executors want to progress, they'll have to make their way through the Underside. Finding the entrance isn't too hard. After all, it's where all of this began. At the spot in the gymnasium the previous Student Council President was corrupted, a familiar stairway stretches down, down, down into the darkness. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally time for you to graduate Superbia.

THE UNDERSIDE

♪♫ Maze Fortress – Sakuzyo ... or so you expect, anyway. Entering the Superbia Underside is just as disorienting as always, but for totally opposite reasons to the other Undersides. While the other Undersides have been vaguely recognizable distortions of their Layers, this one is so similar to Superbia that for a second it's almost unclear whether or not you really are in the Underside or not. It almost feels like a repeat of heading down to Superbia for the first time as you descend the stairs but as you get closer, your intimate familiarity with the Layer allows you to pick out the subtle changes. It's more run down than the school itself and you can see Revenants flitting around to and fro in all directions. A few locations seem to have been switched around and warped but for the most part, Superbia stands as you've always known it, frozen in perfect stasis, just the way a certain someone would have wanted it. AREAS OF INTEREST ⚝ SUPERBIA LOCATIONS: As mentioned above, many of the locations from the Pride Layer are in place as you know them here, carved into place by the repeating loops. They're run down and overrun by Revenants but assume that any locations not mentioned below seem to be the same below as they are above. ⚝ STUDENT COUNCIL ROOM: Given how things started, it seems like the logical place to go. The Student Council Room isn't a big place, so it shouldn't take long to examine, right? Or so you might think. The instant the door opens, dazzling light pours out, blinding you for a second. It takes your eyes a moment to adjust but when you do, you'll see the reason for that is that the walls of the room have been replaced with thick, almost perfectly transparent glass with the summer sun pouring in aggressively from the outside. As you follow the curve of the glass up, you realize this isn't just a room – it's a giant glass birdcage. And... I don't have to tell you it's occupied by a bird, do I? ⚝ CLUB BUILDING: Once a monument to the delightful inanity of high school life, the club building has been completely taken over by Revenants. To call it an infestation would be an understatement – the instant you open the door, you find yourself utterly swarmed by them and in the confusion, you'll be chased away from the exit! All you can do is keep climbing and fighting your way up to the third floor, and from there the roof, which is made a litttle hard by the fact that the Revenants seem happy to weaponize the equipment of the club rooms against you. Watch out for that falling piano!! Make your way to the top roof and you'll find a particularly grouchy Revenant on top who doesn't seem eager to let you go! ⚝ GYMNASIUM: See for yourself. HAZARDS ⚝ Structural Damage: Similarly to the Avaritia layer, many of the buildings around the city have fallen into disrepair due to the presence of the Revenants here. While some of the bigger structures are fine, Revenants may burst through walls to get to you and letting them go on a rampage in an enclosed space could bring the whole building down on top of you! ⚝ Revenant Types Present: Charles, Metrodorus

Comments

[emberserker]

A Spectre got down here before we cleaned it out?

[He'll see a teenage girl in a flamenco dress, turning around holding a halberd, which she slices at the Charles with, managing to hack it a little as it springs back out of the way.]

Watch yourself! These ones are annoyingly fast.

[ourtomorrow]

So I've discovered...

[ She's - she's fighting it? She's able to fight it? Bearing a weapon and a mysterious costume, saying a combination of things he doesn't understand and things that indicate she has experience with such circumstances...Which means...]

--You're not a student.

[ As requested, he hangs back, applying more pressure to his arm. Glancing about to see if there's anything here that can assist her in her fight - he hates feeling like he can do nothing. ]

[emberserker]

Not anymore, now that we've opened our way down here.

[She jumps back when the Charles rockets between them, casts a fireball, and misses it, setting a door on fire.]

Ugh, it's impossible to fight in here!

[ourtomorrow]

[ Now she's generating fire. Big picture-wise, the soccer coach's cognizance of his lack of a mortal coil is...starting to pale in significance. ]

We need more room.

[ A glance out the window, at the ruined grounds....That'll work.

Ripping a piece of rotting wood from the wall, he thrusts it at the window. One opening, coming right...up....!! ]

[emberserker]

[She gives a frankly terrifying grin and grasps the axe. When the Revenant shoots toward them to try and provoke friendly fire again, the Executor strikes and pushes with the axe to try and wrench control of the creature and hurl it out the broken window with momentum.]

Take that, pest! You're nothing compared to me!

[ourtomorrow]

[ The coach watches the creature go flying. Blinks. ]

...Don't you need to pursue it?

[ In case there are...other people here...etc..... ]

[emberserker]

Don't tell me what to do.

[She points the end of the halberd out the window and follows up with a set of three fireballs, and then climbs up to the windowsill as it flies toward her again.]

I know the more of these dealt with, the better!

[ourtomorrow]

[ He nods - that's just about the only thing that's clear, here.

The Charles picks up speed, aiming to zoom past her and make her hit this "civilian" instead! It's heard of Revenants who play fairly, and they're all cowards. ]

[emberserker]

[She swings regardless with a scowl.]

Out of my way! I told you, they do this all the time!

[ourtomorrow]

Hhkk--!!

[ He stumbles backwards to avoid both Charles and her weapon, trips, falls. Pain lances up his wounded arm, pain he'd been trying not to focus on. His glittering not-blood spurts from where Charles had bitten him earlier. He grabs at the wound again to apply pressure, then realizes this is hardly a permanent solution. ]

Right!

[ Trusting her words and her professed experience, the dead guy formerly known as Coach scoots himself backwards towards the nearest classroom door. He doesn't want to only be an impediment - whether she thinks she needs the assistance or not, he can't do nothing - but if whatever's going on with his arm works like blood does, then he needs to staunch the bleeding and wrap the wound before he can be of any further use at all!

You can do it, he thinks strongly in the girl's direction. Hang in there! ]

[emberserker]

Die twice!

[She launches herself after Charles and swings, the coach almost forgotten. When she misses, she follows up with a shard of ice to its head, which knocks it off course.]

After all -- I was made for this!

[At that boast, it turns and raises up, spitting that goo at her. While she jumps back out of the way, the goo clumps on the floor, bubbling. Wolfsbane glances back behind her.]

You, civilian. Don't let it hit you with that, it'll stick you to your place or worse.

[ourtomorrow]

[ He's "civilian." Fair enough. The coach nods, in the process of ripping a strip of fabric off his shirt to use as a bandage/tourniquet. ]

Got it.

[ He hugs the wall by the door, where he can keep an eye on the fight but Charles hopefully won't have him as a prime target. What he can do... ]

Does it have a weak point?

[emberserker]

Not as such, but it isn't very strong. It's just fast.

[As she says that, the Charles spits more goo, attaching her foot to the floor. Wolfsbane says something that he might not recognize, but probably isn't very appropriate, and she raises her halberd. When it looks like she's open and the Revenant tries to bite her, she brings down the weapon and shoots a pillar of flame at it.]

There! Got you now!

[ourtomorrow]

Yes!

[ Tying off his bandage, the coach is so excited he pumps an awkward little fist. She did it! Didn't she?

....Didn't...she...? ]

[emberserker]

[The smoke clears and the Revenant is barely holding it together. It rears up, and when Wolfsbane prepares to attack again, it instead shoots toward the coach.]

What --

[ourtomorrow]

[ Whaugh! ]

Shoot--

[ As he only knows two things about himself - he's dead and he used to think he was a soccer coach - his reaction is, if somewhat off the cuff, derived from his limited intel.

He steps back and cups his hands, grabbing the Revenant as if he were the goalie catching a particularly toothy soccer ball. It starts making a mess of his hands, but he grits his teeth through the pain and holds the squirming creature down on the floor. ]

Now! While its movement's impeded!

[ Apparently he does not care if his hands get caught in the crossfire...? ]

[emberserker]

[She's momentarily stunned, but she points the axe at the Revenant and hits it with a fireball to the head. It fades into pneuma, and she exhales and cuts at the goo holding her to the floor.]

Good, that's dealt with. Now, you, we've got to get to a healer.

[ourtomorrow]

Ah...

[ There's first aid? Down here? Glancing down at his hands, the coach looks sheepish, almost embarrassed. He tried to help but he made trouble.

Life is like that, sometimes. Or, um. ]

It...might be all right. I can't explain this very well, but I don't think I'm alive, exactly. So I don't know that I need a nurse...

[emberserker]

[She stares at him for a second and shakes her head, beginning to walk past him.]

Of course you're not alive, but the last thing you need is to regress if you've just awoken. Come, Medic or Chiron must be about somewhere.

[ahaha about that]

[ourtomorrow]

[ He watches her go, draws what few conclusions he can from that information, holds his injured hands gingerly, and follows. His arm's still bothering him, too...

It's odd. Why is he so certain he's dead? And why can someone dead still feel pain? Maybe this isn't his body from life. He's somewhere else...Somewhere with different rules.

One of which is probably "amnesia".

She seems to know what's going on, however, which is encouraging. What to ask first, though. ]

You've been "awoken" for a while, then.

[emberserker]

The exact time is hard to tell, unfortunately. Especially with that time loop nonsense in the layer we've just come down from. I suspect you wandered in from up there?

[ourtomorrow]

[ Time...loop....?

Okay, they need to start from the beginning. He nods, his expression intent. ]

I'd been coaching soccer. But I started feeling strange....

[ Like there were things he had to do.

Like having things he has to do is very important. ]

I came here looking for answers.

[emberserker]

You've found the right people for that. The lot of us scouring the depths down here are Executors, clearing out the Revenant problem -- like the unfortunate beast you just saw -- to secure the passage of anyone going further down. This is Purgatory, and the aim of it is for everyone in it to reach reincarnation at the end of it; unfortunately, the mechanism for that, called the Cogs of Renewal, is broken, leading to an overpopulated afterlife.

[ourtomorrow]

[ Executors and Revenants.....Purgatory. Cogs of Renewal. (Purgatory looks like a school?...why not, he supposes.)

Admittedly, thinking about this with pain shooting up every finger is difficult, but he's doing his best. ]

So you'll need to fix the Cogs.

[ This seems like a logical next step, right? If the Executors are acting to ensure the safe passage of souls, there won't be a point if everyone ends up stymied at the last step. ]

[emberserker]

Precisely our goal. The layer we're on is about halfway down. We need to clear out the rest to make our way to the end first. Thankfully, there are still enough of us that we've been managing, and we haven't lost our healers.