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

Kokichi Oma | OTA, will match styles!

[slieght]

1. Mirror mirror (any loop; possibly multiple loops)

[It had taken Kokichi a little bit to get around to the mirror, but once he had, well...he couldn't help but get pulled in by it. Showing you the person you desire most? It's hard to ignore. But he doesn't just go once and get his fill. Every single loop he may be caught sneaking off to go admire the mirror for a while when he thinks no one is watching and no one is there. He never hangs around too long, preferring to avoid anyone spotting him, but he's always there at one point during the hour. Someone must be super important to him.

If he manages to spot you before you can approach him, he'll give you a teasing grin.]

Oooo, are you here to stare into the eyes of your long lost love? I won't judge you if you wanna mack on the mirror a little, don't worry, just make sure to wipe your spit off it before the next poor sap comes along to do the same!

2. Mirror...mirror? (any loop)

[Maybe you've come to look at the mirror yourself though. Just to investigate it, or just to enjoy the illusion shown to you. Either way, you may get there when Kokichi is. Except...he can't be seen, so you don't know he's there. And if you seem to be admiring the mirror or giving it a particularly scrutinizing look one of three things could happen:

A: Someone taps your shoulder! When you turn around though, weirdly, nobody is there. You turn back to what you were doing and it happens again. If you dare do it a third time? ...you just find your shoulder tapped again. Where is this coming from?? Who's doing it?? Who can say. Maybe if you look around you can find the culprit.

B: As you're watching the mirror a strange, ghostly hand seems to suddenly materialize in front of you! It's reaching towards you slowly as if it's looking to grab you and pull you into the mirror with it, because surely that's where it's from. It sure looks like it had come out of it. If you let it get close enough though, it doesn't grab you. It flicks your nose, moves to grab and pull at your sleeve, and just generally annoy you.

C: While lost in whatever you're doing, you may get the rudest interruption of all. That is, above you, a bucket descends. Where was it? Who knows, but when it's tipped over it dumps some freezing cold water on you. Which sucks, considering how cold it already is in Thay. And then the bucket is unceremoniously (but gently) put over your head.]

3. Class clown (any loop; any class (mainly history))

[Kokichi is...not a very good student. Never has been. And he's even worse at putting up with things that are boring. Which never ends well for anyone around him. If you happen to be a student attending class with him, you'll get a front row seat to all his antics. Spit balls, paper airplanes, passing notes to students he doesn't know when the teacher isn't looking, the works. History is probably hit the worst.

Alternatively, you might catch him later in the day, looking a mixture of annoyed and pleased with himself, obviously happy that classes are finally over. He may vaguely smell like animal. May or may not have just come back from three hours of detention, and this may or may not be the fourth, fifth, sixth, who knows time he's done it. Does he just never learn? No, he's just that much of a trouble maker.

Or maybe you're a fellow trouble maker like him? In which case prepare to get harassed. Nobody is safe.]

4. Chill beats to study and relax to (any loops after the 6th or so time)

[Eventually he stops going to the Red Keep dinner, opting instead to stay at the Sleepy Willow and monopolize that precious bit of down time. He can be found in his own little cozy corner, papers spread out around him and a notebook in hand. The later the loop, the more papers there are, or the further into his notebook he is. Is he...really studying the stuff taught in class? No, upon closer inspection, he's taking detailed notes about the time loops. If you try to approach him, he'll address you before you can sit down or talk to him first, not looking up from what he's doing.]

Isn't the coziness nice? It's almost like we aren't about to fall into the earth and get all mashed up and dead, right?

5. Wildcard

[If nothing here tickles your fancy, hit me with something different! After a while he can be found cutting class completely and wandering around the school/hanging in the library/just generally being a nuisance elsewhere except for during the spider escapades. At which point he's no where to be found. You can also hit me up at knittybitty or kinam#7221 on discord to plot anything specific!]

2B (insert shakespeare reference)

[noblegarnet]

[Ferran has come to the mirror for a specific purpose, as Kokichi may soon find out—almost as soon as he steps up to it, he pulls out a pen and his ornate personal tome, and opens it to a page somewhere in the middle, looking back and forth from the book to the image in the mirror. At first it might look like he's taking notes, viewed from most angles. But if he looks at the page itself, he'll see a decent sketch of three people: A taller dark-haired man with glasses, a stout woman with a smile, and a less-detailed figure between them that's presumably Ferran himself, judging by the hair.

His attention is immediately caught by the appearance of the hand, however, and he carefully shuts the tome before leaning closer. He's been wondering how to pursue his investigations on this thing, is this what he's been looking for?—hey ow.

Ferran pulls back, a hand over his nose.]

Ah. The hell?

[slieght]

[Interesting! He'll file that away for later, when Ferran either catches him or he's had his fun. But until then-

The hand pulls back, then moves to try and tug his book out of the man's hands. He'll be taking that, okay? Or trying to! If this is how to pursue his investigation, it's a very rude clue.]

[noblegarnet]

[Ugh, idiot. You should be able to recognize a Mage Hand by now, Ferran. His exasperation turns to something much more serious when it tries to reach for his spellbook-slash-journal, though, and he immediately pulls back, a solid grip on it.

If it were nearly anything else like his hair, his clothes, or most of his other belongings, he wouldn't be so direct. But he's not playing around with this. He enhances the volume of his voice with Thaumaturgy, and it echoes in the hall so as to reach whoever's controlling the hand with a stern warning.]

Don't touch my tome.

[With that, he casts Detect Magic, aiming to find the spell's caster.]

[slieght]

[It doesn't take detect magic to find him, a shocked "WAH" at the sudden echoing voice sounding from around a nearby corner probably being enough indication as to where he is. Though detect magic does still find him, of course, before the Mage Hand fades. His first experience with Thaumaturgy and it's being scolded...]

Owie...

[Kokichi glances around the corner, rubbing at his ears a little.]

Hey! Don't you know it's against school rules to yell while in the halls? What if you interrupt people who are trying to study or take tests, huh?!

[noblegarnet]

[The shocked noise does at least knock him out of quite so severe a mood, and he turns to find the culprit, free hand on his hip.]

I'm pretty sure it's against school rules to steal things from people, too.

[So it's not like this guy can talk. But honestly, Ferran does not give a single damn about interrupting anybody's studying in this one loop out of at least several dozen they've had to do so.]

—anyway, weren't you disrupting class earlier? You didn't strike me as the type who worries about rules.

[slieght]

I wasn't going to steal your book, I was just gonna borrow it!

[There is obviously a huge difference there, excuse you. He laces his fingers behind his head, walking over to stand by the mirror with a grin.]

Buuuut you got me! Rules are just made to be broken, so I don't really care who you interrupt. Anyone who's enough of a nerd to stick around in these boring classes deserve to be interrupted anyway, nishishi!

[Glancing down at Ferran's tome, he looks to the mirror with a tilt of his head.]

Trying to record what you see in this thing?

[noblegarnet]

[Exasperated:] It only counts as borrowing if you ask.

[He watches Kokichi as he approaches, raising his eyebrows just barely at the immediate turnaround. If that's what the guy wants to do, it's not like it's the worst thing the Reclaimers have done to the locals.

Going back to the asking thing, he is willing to answer the question; there's no point in hiding what he was doing. Part of the truth is a little irrelevant, so he sticks with the more mission-important part.]

Yeah. I was wondering what the differences might be between the image and the real thing, and what that might say about the mirror. Like... if it's drawn directly from our memories, or something else.

[slieght]

Non non, it also counts as borrowing if you return it later in the exact condition that you took it in!

[So at least he wasn't going to like. Burn it or something. But he hums and nods. If there's more to what Ferran was doing, Kokichi either doesn't suspect anything or is choosing not to ask. The mirror shows some pretty personal stuff, so it's not unbelievable that people would be less than willing to be totally honest about it.]

Well in the interest of sharing info, the mirror's shown me both things that have been totally, 100% accurate to my memory, but also things that def aren't.

[noblegarnet]

[As nice as it is to hear that destruction wasn't in mind, Ferran isn't the type to trust quite that easily.]

We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one.

[He drags his thumb across the edge of the pages in a practiced way, picking a certain page and pulling out a photograph from between them. He doesn't attempt to hide it, so if Kokichi looks, he can see the same couple from the drawing and a younger Ferran in front of a coastal scene. Kokichi's admission catches his interest before he can do anything with the photo, though. (So he's the kind of person who says "def" out loud, huh...)]

How were they different from your memory, if you don't mind me asking?

[slieght]

[That's fair. And he sure is, along with "whatevs"and "totes". Jury's out still on acronyms.

He does glance at the photo, head tilted a little with curiosity before he looks up at Ferran again.]

The mirror shows me a few people, and while most of them are exactly as I remember, one seems to...act different, almost. It's a really subtle difference, but especially since it's not like the mirror's a movie or anything, but...it's still definitely different.

[The boy pauses, turning to look back at the mirror now instead for a few moments, hoping maybe it's showing him instead of the others.]

It's like...the kind of expression you give someone you love deeply. But we're just friends.

[And then he turns to Ferran again.]

Does that help any?

[noblegarnet]

[Ferran listens intently, watching as the other guy looks into the mirror. He's not going to take the offer of that kind of personal information for granted, even if no names are named.]

... I think it does, yeah. Thanks.

[It doesn't take a genius to figure out those implications, and he gives Kokichi a brief sympathetic smile. ... Anyway, that kind of ruins a pointlessly optimistic theory of his, but he didn't have much hope in it. It's not like the Compact was drawing purely from memory or real life, either, so it's not a surprise that a mirror could conjure an illusion purely from their desires.

He holds the photo in front of him, a distant look in his eye as he compares it to the people he can see in the reflection. There's not much reason to anymore, but it's something to do. Why not?]

Magic can be pretty powerful, huh.

[slieght]

You're welcome!

[He doesn't make any comment on that smile, even if under normal circumstances he might. Because it looks like this guy could probably use one in return, just with how he looks at the photo and the mirror again. He doesn't offer him one, but he respectfully leaves it be.

Instead, he just nods, turning around fully to face the mirror.]

Of course it can! That's why it's called magic. Magic is all making the impossible possible and creating stuff from nothing and letting you do things you never could normally. Though I'm probably biased, we didn't have magic where I'm from.

[He pauses, then hums.]

Well, probably. Someone I knew said she could do magic but it wasn't anything like this, if she could.

[noblegarnet]

[Ferran tucks the photo away again, sticking it back between the same set of pages. That's enough moping for this loop.]

Yeah... I only learned about magic back home pretty recently, but it definitely wasn't as varied as this.

[Maybe that's part of why he keeps being a little surprised by it all. Even after being exposed to the supernatural, there was a limit. Their powers may have been taken away when they came here, but it seems like there's probably an equivalent spell for it all.]

You're right, though. Faerun does have everything there is when you think of the word "magic." I still wonder how everything doesn't fall apart when that kind of power is so freely available... [and not always reliable.]

4- a later loop, maybe like 10?

[cuttingremark]

[It's annoying that he has to sleep despite the fact that the day never progresses past a certain point. The mystery of this town irks him, he wants to solve it, and the more he has to rest the less time he has to investigate. Paying for the room makes it all the worse. One would imagine that as "visiting academics" they would have provided a rooms for himself and his fellow Reclaimers.

He's just gotten up and come into the main area and sees the younger Reclaimer. They've never spoken but the boy's many notes intrigue Loki. As he approaches he readies his introduction, chuckling when he is spoken to first.]

Yes, though I was rather thinking of avoiding all that unpleasantness this time around.

[slieght]

Ooooh, do you have a plan then?

[He marks his current page, setting his notebook aside. If Loki wants to look over the notes now that he's closer, it doesn't seem to bother Kokichi. Many, many of them are about loops, seemingly about specific people and places and how they act from one loop to another. Some are sketched out maps of the town and the academy.]

Wait, there isn't like. A group plan on how to stop everything that nobody told me about, is there? I'll be super upset with everyone if there is! It's not nice to leave people out!

[cuttingremark]

My plan was to leave the town center so when the giant hole opens up I don't plummet to my death again.

[Loki takes a seat at the table and picks up the nearest note for perusal]

If there is some larger plan beyond that I am not privy to it.

[slieght]

Oooo, I didn't think of trying that. Since the end is inevitable, I've just been hanging out here until it all goes down!

[But that'd make sense too. It's not like any of them have to die, that's just what happens before the loop resets.

Loki's allowed to read through the note as he pleases, Kokichi picking a few up to place down on the table and read over again himself.]

It'd be just like them to do that, you know. There's a secret cult amongst the Reclaimers, and they only look out for each other. When the time comes, most of us are going to be left stuck in the loop for the rest of our lives while they break out and enjoy themselves elsewhere!

A guy named Arisato Minato-chan is their leader, and the enlightened one that they worship.

[He leans across the table, lifting a hand to sort of cover what he says next, which is a whisper.]

Don't let him fool you. He's a bard, so he has a lot of seduction skills that totally has everyone else fooled!

[cuttingremark]

So you've been dying horribly every loop?

[Loki raises an eyebrow at him over the piece of paper he is currently reading]

A secret cult? What exactly is this cult's goal?

[slieght]

Yup! Well, sometimes I die horribly before the end of the loop. Did you know you get executed if you get caught stealing things? Fun fact.

[Dying horribly every loop doesn't bother him much so talking about it, naturally, doesn't either. The paper Loki is currently perusing details his observations for the fifth and sixth loop - things that seemed different from the previous loop, no matter how minor, things he did and the outcomes and how those compared to previous loops, things of that nature.

As for the cult, he hums, frowning a little.]

I'm not entirely sure yet. It's hard to do any sort of useful investigating on my own, plus I've only been observing them for a short amount of time, but so far it seems like they definitely have an ulterior motive for going along with Director-chan's request. Maybe they want to do a hostile takeover of the moon base, or maybe they want to run away and live in Faerun instead. I mean, a lot of us have never had magic before and it's pretty cool to have it now. Those are just my theories though, I don't have anything concrete yet.

[cuttingremark]

They certainly are interesting theories. I will try to keep an eye out.

[He shuffles through the papers]

What have you found about this town?

Sorry, was waiting on a roll!

[slieght]

Good idea. You'll be a lot safer that way!

[He sighs and picks up his notebook, flipping through the pages.]

Not much more than what most of us would know just yet. Security is pretty tight, so getting into places you're not supposed to go is difficult. Also there are traps that kill you on the spot in the Red Keep, so be careful if you try sneaking around in there.

It's cool!

[cuttingremark]

It is not uncommon for arcane institutes like this to have rater...extreme security measures.

It does, however, make you wonder what they're hiding.

[slieght]

Right? What's so special that you need traps like that? I get stealing magical items is a no no, but that seems a little extreme if you ask me. I figure they must have some really powerful items or something. Maybe...oh, I don't know...something like a Relic? Just my guess, but a heavily guarded keep full of wizards and magical items seems like a great place to keep one.

[cuttingremark]

Unfortunately working in a school full of mages does nothing to narrow down the potential suspects. It would make sense if it were one of the staff, but a student could have just as easily taken advantage of the keep's security for their own purposes.