Field Mission 6: A Day in Thay, Part 1

[balancemod]

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

[oculusriffs]

[BIRD.]




[Ryuji most likely gets some strange looks from anybody else who happens to be passing by — at least, until they figure out that he's using magic. that's not weird in itself. using magic to squawk at a random bird is kind of weird, though.]

[in any case, Davebirdsprite, probably sending out all the hells of anxiety signals via oath, caws right back:]

Thanks. Oh — dude, I found something.

[ryuji]

Oh, worm?

[He's still kind of reeling at the fact that this fucking bird is wearing sunglasses. Did the shades get smaller or are they impossibly big for that tiny head? Inquiring minds needs to know this. It's highly goddamn important.

He manages to rummage through his barbarian fanny pack, looking for something, but can't quite--- ah, there it is. A chunkus of bread from lunch this afternoon. Time looped bread. Ryuji always has food on him. Here, he'll share.]

Whatcha get?

[oculusriffs]

[they're uncannily familiar looking feathers! they definitely look just like shades, and they make him look about as cool as he always does — and which probably raises its own set of questions, to be honest.]

[hang on a sec, though, Dave's gonna fly over to perch on Ryuji's shoulder and have a go at that bread, probably unintentionally rounding out the pirate cosplay thing. sorry if Ryuji happens to get nipped in the process. he's still learning how to Bird.]

Broken shrine. Well, unpopular god's shrine, I guess.

[ryuji]

[Good god, Ryuji never thought he'd enjoy a single bird's presence as much as he ever has, until his boyfriend decided to up and be a bird for... an unknown reason that he's not entirely too sure of to begin with. Was he spying?

Shit, he was totally spying. Ryuji's ruining his espionage attempts. Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious. Don't-- don't... whatever, it's already ruined.

He'll try not to wince when Dave inevitably almost takes off a far more useful finger than just his pinky, though.

He should know better, considering Dave's affinity towards his missing limbs.]

Huh? Which one's that?

[oculusriffs]

[he misses having a pickled finger in his collection sometimes, not gonna lie. well — at least he’s always preferred the original owner.]

[Dave has one more jab of bread and probably Ryuji’s hand before he flies off and perches on what appears to be an overgrown, unkempt shrine. it looks like literally every other day it’s seen before today was a better one.]

I dunno if it means anything — aside from probably bein’ blasphemous to whoever it belongs to.

[ryuji]

[This has sacrilege written all over it?

So naturally, Ryuji wants to take a better look at it. Here he was, thinking maybe he'd find the voice of god(s) down here, but of course, it always comes down to vandalism with this kid.

He takes a few steps forward and notices that, yeah, this place looks pretty busted and highly de-sanctified.]

Uhh...

[Also having no idea what this shrine is or how to tell hide nor hair of what it's supposed to look like, he does the only thing he thinks feels right and... picks up a stone? And places it on top of another stone.]

Sorry, god. Or goddess? Or... flying sentient ramen dude in the sky.

Man, I'm so shit at this.

[oculusriffs]

I mean, that's already miles above what anybody else has done for the place lately.

[he's the little bird who sits on Ryuji's shoulder and squawks compliments at him.]

[anyway, Dave suggesting they worship a false idol in 3 ... 2 ... 1.]

Maybe it's for like. The god of ramen and AJ. Or, we could make it that.

[ryuji]

[Never one to get into the mode of the philosopher, Ryuji thinks about that for one, single, solitary moment.]

You think that's how gods come to exist?

[He's contemplating on the nature of reality.

While also being with Dave long enough that he forgets his boyfriend at one point, or maybe still is, whatever- is a time god himself. Despite the fact that he drools on him pretty much nightly.]

You believe in somethin' so much and then a bunch of other people believe in it, and then. Bam. You've got yourself a throne up in heaven.

[There's some merit to it; his experiences in Tokyo taught him about thoughts and reality and what happens when they converge into one.]

[oculusriffs]

That sounds way more plausible than blowing up on a god slab.

[..... hm. Dave less-than-expertly bird maneuvers himself up to the top of Ryuji's hair, so he can nest in all that nice, fluffy, bleach blond hair.]

[perfect. just call him Remy.]

I dunno, dude, I never put much stock in religion. Does chatting with the Raven Queen or whoever else people are chatting with even count as having a religion?

[ryuji]

I mean, yeah.

[You'd think he'd be a little less casual about the self-sacrifice it required in his world to become a god to begin with, but he doesn't know how deeply he wants to think about a dead Dave when they're theoretically in time skips, where those sort of things originate from, right?

It kind of blows his mind to think about- at least, after he's gotten a cycle of sleep in there. Nothing like any of this feels really close to all the times they've spoken about time travel and all the bullshit it entails. It feels like there's something fundamentally being done incorrectly about it, considering-- from at least, what he's heard from Dave before.]

You think you can kinda just, like. Find god in a year?

[Which is a pretty weird question.]

I mean, before we came here, and all. I apparently met god and everything, and he turned out to be a major douche. S'it really that easy to believe in some all powerful being that just... sits on a cloud and throws lightning bolts down when shit goes haywire?

[oculusriffs]

[that's fine, Dave is doing plenty of thinking on it for the both of them. like, there's that very nagging thought about what's happening every time they reset, and something changes. he only has his own experiences to go off of, and his own experiences tell him that they are creating an absolutely stupid number of doomed timelines right now.]

[so, the possibility of infinite piles of dead Daves and dead Ryujis.]

[he keeps that thought to himself.]

Not to get too philosophical, but maybe all gods are insufferable pricks. [present party included.]

I dunno, though. I've got way more proof that they exist out here than I ever did growing up. But these gods just strike me as some assholes who happen to call you back every once in a while. Nothin' really religious about that.

[ryuji]

[If anxiety is what Dave's feeling at the moment, especially over the idea of time resetting, Ryuji's doing his best to keep some of those feelings at bay. The harsh reality of the situation is that they don't really have much of a choice in the matter; they're here to fix something that's going terribly wrong, and even if realities are getting spun and thrown to their death, the only one Ryuji is conscious of is the one right here, with a little bird nesting his way through the brush of his hair.

With everything that's going on, at least these shrines feel like they're giving a good aura to them, even if his dumb mouth is shooting of blasphemies left and right. There's a certain sense of calmness to these religious cornerstones of faith all around them.

At least Dave shares in his own feelings towards them. Ryuji might've been agnostic at some point, but after knowing what good old Yaldy was capable of, he's certain that they've got some messed up priorities.]

Dude, the most insufferable.

[he says it with too much affection for it to come off as an insult instead of the inside joke they're setting up.]

You sorta get to thinkin' about it, though. The ones here just seem kinda like normal people with weird ass day jobs. I don't pity 'em, though. All that cosmic power and they've gotta deal with weirdos like us trampling through everything they set up for people.

I dunno.

I kinda wish I could believe in 'em, but they seem almost as faulted as... uh, us? Me. Whatever, you get what I mean, right?

[oculusriffs]

[pffft.]

Glad we're in agreement. [he puffs out his feathers just slightly, nice and cozy in Ryuji's nest of hair. he might doze off at this rate — or, at least, Ryuji would be dealing with a passed out bird if he weren't steering the conversation somewhere awfully philosophical.]

I get what you're saying though. And now that you're saying it, I'm just. It kinda makes me wonder about some shit, too.

If they're just a bunch of weirdos like we are, you think ... back however many zillions of years ago ... you think they might have all been playing Sburb?

[is this what the alpha timeline Dave is up to on his universe? off being the alpha timeline Dave in the godsphere while whatever universe they made is full of shrines to him?]

[christ, that thought weirds the bird Dave sitting right here right the hell out.]