Field Mission 6: A Day in Thay, Part 1

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oh man best of luck out there dudes NAVIGATION Click here for the RNG thread! Ready or not, rested or not, it's time to get moving, Reclaimers. You've got a very, very long day ahead of you. And another one. And another one. And, you get the joke. Early Friday morning, with the Director there to see them off, the Reclaimers load up into the Bureau's transportation orbs for the sixth time since this whole ordeal began, and make their way to about a mile or two outside of Thay. It's important to try to stick to the story, at least — that you're all visitors from a faraway school, here to spend some time with the students and faculty of Boarbumps. As much as Lucretia would have liked to join you, she can't. None of the other leading members of the Bureau of Balance can. Whoever enters Thay, after all, is entering a bubble, after all. A time trap. Nobody will be able to leave until the Relic, the Lamp of Undoing, is either retrieved or destroyed. Someone needs to be able to continue if you all can't. 1. SEVEN O'CLOCK ALREADY As we noted in the OOC post, prompts on this log will be a quick few sentences of specific things happening during each hour. It's expected that Reclaimers will be seeing all of these events multiple times! So feel free to play with them as you see fit. If you're not sure if something you want to do would warrant a roll, please ask us in the RNG thread. ○ The Reclaimers have arrived in Thay, much to the curiosity of the highly intelligent, occasionally highly ... suspicious ... residents. Nevertheless, they recognize you as visiting, esteemed students, and, though perhaps still suspicious, welcome you into their fold. Also, as a note: Every time the relic is used, time is reset to this moment. ○ Boarbumps Academy for the Magically Inclined opens its doors to the Reclaimers. This is your first opening to explore the school — afternoon classes begin in an hour. ○ Rainer Arunsun, The Regent of Thay and Highest of the Hermetic Order of Red Wizards, can be seen watching the new arrivals by the entrance to the Red Keep. It's difficult to discern any emotion on her face. Shortly before 1 p.m., she retreats back inside. ○ Afternoon classes at Boarbumps begin, starting with a lecture on the magical circuits of the common toad. If you happen to sit in on this one, as a visitor from another school, you may be asked to assist in the dissection. You will be heckled by the rest of the class as deemed fit. ○ Erinne and Adriel can be seen within the hallways of Boarbumps arguing in a very heated manner. Some... less than choice words are exchanged between the two before one, or both of them take their wands out and begin throwing magic missiles at each other. No one knows why the fight starts, but the two have had bad blood before, and this isn't the first quarrel to happen at Boarbumps between them. A staff member arrives on the scene and is accidentally paralyzed by a misfire. ○ The town proper, surrounding the Red Keep, is open for a farmer's market. A bountiful harvest of goods are on display, but in particular, Thay is known for its amazing quality of medicinal herbs and magical reagants, many of which are rare without travel to the area. The merchants typically shoo students off, unless they have a hall pass provided to them by the faculty to retrieve something of import for class. ○ The second afternoon class at Boarbumps begins. Are you three or four time loops in and in desperate need of a nap? This class, The History of Boarbumps, is for you. You will be treated to a long and droning lecture about how the students attending during Boarbumps' very first semester banded together to stop a particularly plucky troll. Which you'd think would be an interesting tale. It is not. ○ Someone's enchanted several books at the library to begin rattling and shaking from the shelves themselves. All over the racks, spines pop out from their homes and fall to the ground, magically lift up and return to some other, non-Dewey decimal approved locale. Other books begin dancing — yes, you've read this correctly — dancing on the tables. Leon would be going into cardiac arrest at the moment, but it looks like someone's playing a prank in here. Again. This librarian looks far less tilted by this. It must be a somewhat normal afternoon for her. ○ Over in the center of town, music, a single violin playing a mournful tune, begins to play. It's unclear where exactly it's coming from. ○ The third and final afternoon class at Boarbumps — Fighting with Fire — begins. The professor, known to be slightly more unorthodox in her teaching methods, will recruit any Reclaimer who happens to be there to defend themselves from the students' incoming fireball spells. The potency of the fireballs themselves range from the tickle of a candle, to that one time you ate a ghost pepper, to one particularly fiery spell that might actually hurt you. ○ There's a scream in the girls' bathroom on the 3rd floor of Boarbumps. Anyone who enters realizes, very quickly, that no one is actually in there. Apparently, this particular lavatory is haunted. ○ Szass Astrosz dips class to go visit the local shrines within the town of Thay. He's been known to skip class before, so his departure from the halls of Boarbumps is rather nondescript. He spends time there praying quietly to his god. ○ There's a slight catastrophe over in the Town Square. That is to say, a giant spider seems to have escaped from Boarbumps and is terrorizing the vendors, to everyone's surprise. Subdue or dispatch it, it's up to you. ○ There's a scheduled council meeting to take place within the Red Keep, a usual weekly affair where Rainer, Casariel, Onerion, Gromph, and the rest meet to discuss matters of the town. Today's is canceled, as Gromph is called out to take care of the arachnid chaos currently convening around the Town Square. ○ Someone places a standing mirror around the corner of Boarbumps. If you happen to stand in front of it, it doesn't show your reflection — rather, it shows the person that you desire most. The mirror is gone by 5 p.m. ○ Cleanup of whatever damage the spider did is underway. In the meantime, the faculty of Boarbumps and the Hermetic Order of Red Wizards invite the Reclaimers to a small dinner in one of the public meeting rooms at the Red Keep. Every member of the Red Wizards are present, aside from Onerion Wyvernspur and Brian Darling. ○ The shops around the town of Thay begin to close for the evening. People are somewhere between annoyed and blase — the spider escaping was new enough, but weird Magic Things are, as you can imagine, pretty commonplace. ○ Over at The Sleepy Willow, cozy, fluffy pillows are arranged on the floor around a large fireplace. The owners will also serve you dinner, if you decide to skip the meal at The Red Keep. This may be one of the only peaceful moments you have to study everything that you've learned thus far. ○ No matter where you are in Thay, you'll feel the ground rumble underneath your feet. The residents largely pass it off as an earthquake, but will note that they have become much more frequent lately. ○ Towards the latter half of the hour, the rumbling within the school grounds causes several of the animal cages used in Onerion's Wondrous Beasts class to come unfastened as they begin to escape. Shortly thereafter, various beasts of all shapes and sizes are set free and begin running for freedom. None of them seem intent on hurting students, but they look to make an exit out of town in the quickest way possible. ○ Droves of the skeletal undead that are used around town seem to freeze in place, no longer retaining their animation. Whatever they're holding currently falls to the floor. Whatever task they're working on comes to a halt. No one understands why that is, but even the best necromancers around town can't seem to wake them back up. ○ With a sudden loud roar, the ground of the town square suddenly begins to split. People, shops, and everything else begin to drop into the chasm, despite the Red Wizards, and everyone else's, attempts to save them. ○ In the last split second you remember, if you happen to look down in the chasm, you'll notice a pair of bright, glowing eyes. Whatever exactly is down there begins to claw its way to the surface. ○ And then, just as suddenly, your vision turns white, and you're briefly overtaken by dizziness. When the haze clears, you are standing at the entrance to Thay. The sun hangs directly overhead in the sky. You have returned to 12 p.m. 2. OOC: A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT You are welcome to keep track of how your character experiences these time loops as much or as little as you're comfortable with — we'll also be tracking what you all are doing! Our Minato player Kel came up with some extremely snazzy coding if you would like to track how each loop plays out for your character more closely. Thank you, Kel! Of course, this is completely optional. Keep up with as much as you'd like, have fun as you see fit, and we hope you enjoy this mission! blurb code by photosynthesis

Comments

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1. Thank you for keeping Ango in your heart as he's been in ours as well! DC 14 on tracking down Onerion!

2. We'll say that this investigation will be an open DC- you'll get something out of any roll, but a particularly good success might net you something additional.

[seasaltkeys]

Both of those sound good.

Angus is best boy after all.

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These two events will not happen in the same loop.

1. With a 16, you're able to track down Onerion at around 6pm. While many of the staff are still dealing with the various issues going on around town, he's currently at Boarbumps, in his office. When you use Divine sense on him, you get a feeling that there's some sort of presence in front of you that radiates Celestial presence. Roxas won't know much more than that without directly asking him.

Bahamut?

That sparks his attention.

"You're wishing to learn more about the Platinum Dragon of Mercy, Bahamut? The father of all dragonkind? Peculiar boy, you are. While he is considered by the Dragonborn to be the most powerful of dragons... he's not widely known outside of that. Which is rather unfortunate, if you ask me.

Most mortals try to stay away from dragons and the culture surrounding them. It's understandable, but still unfortunate. The Chromatic species do tend to create problems for most of mankind, either through their arrogance or their manipulation of humanity.

In order to understand Bahamut, you also need to understand Tiamat, his sister. They're two sides of the same coin- she being the embodiment of evil, and him, a pure beacon of everything good and just in the world. Of course, evil and good are labels we use to understand the wills of the Gods themselves, but their history is one fraught with extreme circumstance. That's... probably another story for another time.

Bahamut is the only known, true platinum dragon to have ever existed. His eyes are---" He pauses and looks to Roxas, examining him in a perfunctory sort of way, "Are as deeply blue as yours, actually. Everything about him stands out from other Dragons of the metallic spectrum, but those wishing to worship him or swear fealty to his cause must understand the tenants of justice. He created the Ptarian Code, an old, sort of antiquated form of chivalry that embraces the idea that prayer should be done through deed and not clasped hands.

Anyone willing to call themselves a servant of Bahamut must be of crystal clear soul, body and mind. He is a merciful God, but the travel towards his light is particularly rough and oft abandoned for how hard it actually is.

Anyway, is there anything else I can help you with today, young acolyte?"

2. Oof, you rolled a 5 here. Among the shrines that are apparent within this area, you notice there are ones to Silvanus, Sune, Chauntea, Tyr, and others- some of the way, way more prominent ones throughout Faerun. There are a few that don't seem to have holy symbols etched onto them, however, and definitely a number of them that are marked that Roxas would have no idea who they belong to.

[seasaltkeys]

That. Is a lot of information to take in. Especially the fact that his eyes are the same colour as a very powerful dragon. There's a lot of questions there but he doesn't have the words to ask them yet.

He considers for a moment, and then follows up with wondering if the library has any information about the Ptarian code and all that. He's looking into Paladins. Roxas is also very grateful for this information and expresses that.

And also, since he's new here, and still learning the ropes, are there any places he should avoid? Or things he should know?

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Easy enough to find; the Ptaric code can be located in the library in old (old) books on chivalry. No roll required.

Justice and Good above all.
Honour and Fealty to the King1.
Honour and Respect to Righteous Innocence.
Honour and Duty to the Balancer, to Her Mercy, and to the Justicemaker.
Honour and Protection to the Lesser Races.
Honour and Correction to the Enemies of Justice and Good.
Honour and Forbearance to Oneself.

His wise benefactor will suggest that Roxas take advantage of all facilities in Thay, but request that he doesn't interrupt with administrative areas of the Red Keep, for obvious reasons. He hopes that he uses this time wisely to research more about Bahamut, if that's his specific area of interest.

This is, above all else, a place of learning.

Aside from that, the market in town has some of the best street food you'll see for miles and miles on end. Don't get too into the books and forget to eat, young man.

[seasaltkeys]

Thanks a bunch, Sir! He's definitely got a lot to look into, and will absolutely take advantage of it.

Just one more question, before he goes. Onerion hasn't noticed anything weird going on at the school lately, has he? More than just a bunch of new students showing up?

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Onerion definitely doesn't have any idea of something weird going on. He asks Roxas what he means by weird, since that question is... well, it's a little leading, ain't it?

People don't usually ask if weird things are going on unless they also think weird things are going on.

[seasaltkeys]

Welp, that's why Roxas doesn't usually do recon. It's not just tavern fights.

But he's also read a lot of Caleb Cleveland over the break, and probably had more than a few conversations with Angus about it, so drawing on that...He points out that he's never really been in a magic school before (never mind an actual school in general). A lot of things are kind of weird to him, that might not be weird to Onerion. So it would have to be really big to stick out, and if not, then there's nothing and it's just him.

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Onerion smiles. Nothing menacing, just a soft sort of happiness that there's the flame of curiosity still alive in the younger population around school. It reminds him why he became a teacher himself.

"Off to slay a dragon, young paladin?"

There's a bit of a small laugh here, filled with warmth and cordial blessing.

"My best piece of advice: if you're looking for adventure, go to the library. I assure you that this school is devoid of danger or unusual things that aren't just pranks caused by other young scholars.

But if you're looking for something that calls to you, maybe all you need is a good book."

[seasaltkeys]

Thankfully the library was on his to do list, so he'll do that. Thanks again, Sir.

There's that brief moment awkward where Roxas doesn't really know what else to say, but is trying to work something out before finally giving up and taking his leave. He's got a lot to think about already.

[seasaltkeys]

So, this might be a fruitless endeavour, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

For Roxas's last roll, he's going to locate Bahamut's shrine and try to contact this god. He's done the research so might as well move on to the next step. However, he's not quite sure how to do this, having never really dealt with gods in his short life, much less prayed. So, it's a little awkward, but earnest in his approach.

As such, he's bringing Sayori and Dave with him on this endeavour. Sayori will provide some Bardic Inspiration, with a nice poem about nice dragons, and Dave giving the thumbs up of encouragement and moral support.

The request is a simple one though:

It looks like we might have to face a Black Dragon. Would it be possible to get some help with that?

Any DC is fine.

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Holy shit, that's a CRITICAL SUCCESS.

Bahamut is known as the dragon god of justice, a subservient deity to Torn, the god of law. As such, those who commit themselves to him are tested through extreme trials to judge their worth and their valor, in terms of bravery and the compassion they show to others.

Sayori, who has escaped the bounds of a cruel and unjust script written for her and brought purpose to those around her.

Dave, who has defied time itself to carve a way of life that brings light and joy to others.

Roxas, who has found a path for himself while walking in the shadows of another's light.

Bahamut deems the three of you who have sacrificed so much, worthy.

In the flash of an instant, the three of you are bathed in a silver flame, encompassing the entirety of your body. Make no mistake, it burns and singes your skin, and every moment of it is felt as if you were standing within a dragon's breath attack. But as you endure this trial, you're each brought to your knees and made to bow.

But you resist.

One by one, by perhaps your encouragement in each other, or the faith you share in the stories that you've weaved, begin to fight back through the pain, the torment, the-- trial-- and hear, in a resounding roar towards the back of your mind.

"SCHAKRI VUR BENSVELK KORNARI MABLIKI, SI VOENLLYL DOUT RELGR. WER TRIALUM WUX TEPOHA EHAISMA TEPOHA SHATH PREAH, KILITH VUR ITOV. QE SHAD PERSVEK SIA MITNE EKESS DRONILNR INGOWIL VUR KILITH EKESS NOMENO TRESKRI."

It's draconic, of course, which probably means that none of you understand what the voice is saying, but after that moment passes, the three flames are snuffed out, and the shrine in front of you crumbles to dust.

In Sayori's hands, she holds a quiver of arrows. When drawn, the tip lights ablaze in the same silver flame that had engulfed you. But when you knock it into an area, it does no damage to an enemy. Instead, the conflagration rages outward, to a circle of 5 feet in all diameter, staying stationary to where it landed.

Dave, on the other hand, gains nothing visible at first. But he's been studying up on his wild shape, and should he try to focus on the image of a platinum dragon, he'll be able to turn into one. To keep this from being gamebreaking, we'll also say that he's significantly weaker than an adult dragon- along the lines of a young silver dragon.

And Roxas, before you all, now stands clad in platinum armor. His keyblade has gained a new keychain, the effigy of a dragon's face. When looking at it, the blade itself resembles the spikes on the back of a dragon. Attached to his back is a perfectly smooth shield with Bahamut's symbol etched onto it.

You're going to have to figure out how these three things can be used to take down a legendary foe such as an adult Black dragon, but... these will certainly help you along the way.

Go forth, paladins of the Platinum Dragon. Destiny awaits.

[seasaltkeys]

Holy shit indeed. Thanks for the help!

I'm gonna need to process this