Challenge Tower

The who staff?
I have no idea what's going on.
I've just been treating this as a traditional text RPG game like Zork or Thy Dungeonman.
I'm fine with "go put the stones in places."

Also,

The party leaves the Hail Staff in place and heads back to the main room. They place the Sun Rock and Moon Rock in both of the different stars and the sigil activates, glowing brightly. A dome of sand raises up from the ground and falls away to reveal a Toad cowering in fear. It's screaming out for help, but when the Toad actually looks up, he realizes he's free from the sand. It's Captain Toad! He's holding another staff in his hands. It's the Sand Staff. It will create powerful winds when used. Captain Toad seems happy you saved him. "Thank you so much for saving me! I picked up this staff and then a trap activated and I've been stuck here for so long!"

"I thought I recognized that voice." Flurrie looks at Captain Toad. "It was no problem saving you, hun." She winks at him.

"I'll have to make it up to you. What can I do to repay you?"

What will you do?

"Just come along with us then."

"Alright!" Captain Toad decides to join the party. The room is quiet and the magic symbol on the ground has disappeared along with the rocks.

The party heads over to the room containing the Hail Staff and Flurrie picks it up, triggering a trap in the ancient ruins. The entire area shakes violently and you can see the walls beginning to slowly crumble. Rocks and rubble begin to fall down from above as well.

What will you do?

Oh yeah, forgot to day that.


Use dat Sand Staff to fix things with stuff.

Uhhhhh crap really wish we had a Life scroll so we could use time magic. Captain Toad's plan of "PANIC" seems pretty spot on.

>RUN YE FOR IT
Is the door open?

Nogeko tries to place the Sand Staff back in a panic, but it does nothing. Daniel grabs Nogeko and the staff and starts to run out while Flurrie grabs Captain Toad. Seiberg follows closely behind. "I knew I should have bought that time magic when I saw it." He dodges a falling rock as the group runs through the waterless waterfall room. As they run through the room that used to contain the sigil, the area begins to shake even more violently.

Daniel shouts above the loud earthquake sounds to his allies. "WE'LL NEVER MAKE IT JUST RUNNING! GOT ANYTHING TO MAKE US GO FASTER!?"

Nogeko flails around and screams in Daniels arms while Flurrie brings up the point of the dragon tiles at the entrance. "How are we gonna get past those quickly without becoming pincushions?" Captain Toad cries out in fear as a wall nearly tumbles down on top of him and Flurrie.

What will you do?

Flurrie calls out Fletcher while Seiberg takes out the Hail Staff. Nogeko hops onto Fletcher's back and the party runs out of the sigil room and through the hall containing the no longer swinging axes. Flurrie avoids an axe dropping down off the ceiling. They come back to the dragon tile room and Daniel blocks a falling rock with his shield as Seiberg uses the Hail Staff to freeze over the floor and the dragon statues. Seiberg then switches to the Sand Staff, hopping on top of Flurrie with Daniel while Fletcher uses Agility to zip out of the room in a matter of seconds. The elevator appears and both Fletcher and Nogeko manage to land inside it. Captain Toad screams as another wall nearly tumbles on top of him, only being protected by Daniel's shield. Flurrie picks up Captain Toad as Seiberg creates a powerful wind headed toward the elevator. Sand begins to blow around as well and the ceiling is beginning to cave in. Flurrie uses a powerful gust of wind with all her might, blasting herself and everyone she holds toward the elevator while the ceiling comes tumbling down. Fletcher absolutely flips out because he can see entire sections of the ceiling collapsing around them. As a large chunk of rubble falls, Daniel knocks it away with his shield and they just barely make it into the elevator as they see the rest of the ruins collapse entirely. The doors close just in time so the falling rubble doesn't get inside. Everyone is out of breath.

After a moment of regaining everyone's breath and counting up everyone, it is discovered nobody died. Everyone made it out alright. Captain Toad is still pretty freaked out, but everyone is okay. The elevator expands a little and a strange machine appears on the wall. Waite watches those that returned and Hope seems freaked out. "Did the entire ruins seriously just collapse on you!? Are you all okay!?"

Daniel gets up and dusts himself off before giving her a thumbs up. "Yeah, we're all cool."

"DON'T JUST ACT LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED, I SAW YOU ALMOST DIE! That was terrifying..."

Seiberg stands back up and lets out a sigh of relief. "Indeed, it was." He looks over and notices the strange machine. "Hm? What could that possibly be?"

"What could what be?" Hope looks over her shoulder at the strange machine on the wall. "...I have no idea. It wasn't there before. It must have appeared when you guys showed up."

The three head over to the machine, looking at it in fascination while Flurrie hands Captain Toad the staves. "Oh boy! Treasure!" He happily waddles around while holding them and then realizes that everyone is staring at the machine. Trying to look closer at it, he's too short to see over everyone. Flurrie picks him up and sits him on her shoulders and Captain Toad points out something. "I think it's a Treasure Tracker! It helps us find treasure! Look, it has one for each floor!" He's right. The Treasure Tracker gives you an indication of which floors contain treasures or not.

"Not just that, hun, but I think it shows us where to find elevator upgrades. This should be useful~"

Daniel looks around, confused. "Hope, where did Rena go?"

"She's sleeping soundly in the bedroom. Don't wake her up. Trust me, it's a bad idea. At least Waite is entertaining and good company." Everyone looks at Waite confused. Except Nogeko. He giggles.

Which floor will you go to next?