Valerie opened her eyes. First thing that was wrong, she wasn't in her suit. Second... The pod around her.

She tapped the glass.

"Hey! Lemme out!"

“Okay, okay, keep your skirt on, I’m coming.”

Hellboy trudged into view, his curled tail bobbing up and down. He exhaled heavily, coming to a stop before the capsule.

“Time to wake up,” he announced, pressing a button for the capsule door to open with a hiss.

Val stood up and stretched.

"...Wasn't expecting to see you," she said, "I thought Nergal handled death here. Anyways, good to be out of that stale pod, seems like I was in there for months... So, how does this generally go?"

“Well, I’ve taken over for him for a time.” He shrugged. “Hey, even demons need vacations.”

He started down the long hallway, passing thousands upon thousands of pods just like the one Valerie had been encased in.

“Well, the procedure is pretty simple. I give you a test, and if you pass it, you come back to life.”

"Sounds easy enough," Val said, walking with him, "what sort of test?"

“I’m actually making this up as I go along. This is my first time doing this,” Hellboy admitted rather sheepishly, coming to a stop, surrounded by the sea of pods. “Now, let’s see how this works...”

He snapped his fingers, and the scenery around them shifted—from the eerie rows upon rows of pods, an empty plain rolled forth. It was like a desert plain, with cracked, dried earth beneath their feet and a dark sky that streaked with blue cracks of lightning. Beside them rose a steep, jagged cliff, a monolith in a sea of brown.

“Hmm,” the demon mused. “Quite a morbid setting. Maybe I ought to clear my thoughts before ‘poofing’ things up next time...”

"Wow," Val said, "where'd you dig this place up?"

She then focused on the matter at hand.

"And what do I have to do here? I just wanna get back as soon as possible, I have the feeling Dani needs me..."

“Beats me,” he shrugged, scratching his goatee in bemusement.

“But anyway. Things are pretty straightforward here. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get back,” Hellboy countered. “And this is your test.”

He gestured to the large cliff overshadowing them.

“I want you to climb up to the top. Simple enough, no?”

"Okay," Valerie said, "Looks simple enough... I didn't hone this body for nothing."

She found a good place to start, and began up the face of the jagged cliff.

He let her concentrate on her climbing for half a minute or so, before casually adding, “Did I mention there’s a catch to this?” as he adjusted his overcoat.

There was a rumble from above that definitely did not originate from the lightning in the sky.

A large chunk of rock broke free from somewhere near the top, raining small pebbles as it rolled slightly against the cliff-face before it plummeted down through the air straight for Valerie.

((Coin flip: if Hit, Valerie loses her grip and falls; if Miss, Valerie holds on.))

"Oh shit," Valerie said, doing her best to swing sideways into a different handhold, to avoid the falling rocks.

The member 'Valerie Gray' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Coin flip' :

Valerie was hit... hard. She lost her grip and fell, in serious pain. A couple seconds later, she struggled to her feet.

"Huh, nothing- oh, right, dead," she said, as she began to attempt to climb the cliff face a second time.

Hellboy chuckled. “Yeeep. No fatalities here since you’re a fatality regardless.”

“The objection of the first round is to maintain your grip long enough to get to the top,” he explained, smirking. “If you slip, you’ll have to start over.” He watched her climb back up, stoically, then shaded his eyes as he looked up the cliff. “And trust me—this’ll be a long climb. You don’t want that happening too often.”

He felt, rather than heard, another rumble. “And here comes another one,” he informed her amiably. “Or—no, my mistake. Here come two.”

((Two Coin Flips: If both Hit, Valerie slips and has to start over; if both Miss, Valerie stays in her spot; if one misses and one hits, Valerie slips, but regains her footing—but loses one half of the amount she’s climbed.))

Valerie steadied herself, moving her footholds to something just a bit safer, and bracing for the probable impacts.