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

2pm loop 3

[parfaitgirl]

[ Meanwhile, Natsuki has had the same thought. That class is boring as hell, and after the first couple times the novelty of attending class at a wizard school has worn off.

Luckily for her, the teacher in the hallway seems to be distracted by some other student, so it's the perfect time for her to sneak out! She seems to be doing a good job of it, if Ogata's watching, until she trips over the spear attached to a decorative suit of armor, sending it and the attached arm loudly clanging to the ground.

She looks up from the disaster she's created, seeing if the teacher will react. ]

[snyaiper]

[Yeah, no, that’s not going unnoticed. The teacher turns his head towards the noise and spots.... is this ANOTHER student trying to play hooky?! The nerve. He takes a step towards Natsuki, to apprehend her, “ hey, you, where is your hall pass?”

Now, Ogata could just take this distraction as a chance to bolt. And his instinct is to do just that. However, this girl is vaguely familiar. He’s seen her with Sayori. And maybe that’s all it took for him to make the split second decision for him to stick his leg out and trip up the teacher as he makes a move to run over to Natsuki.

The man falls flat on his face and Ogata bolts down the hallway, past Natsuki, though she’s free to follow if she’d like.]

this fucking icon caitie i'm dying

[parfaitgirl]

[ Oh shit.

She starts to back up when the teacher makes their way towards her, but -- lucky break! When Ogata trips the teacher, she's taking that cue too and bolts along with him. And damn, for someone with even smaller legs than Ogata, she is fast, thanks to her increased speed as a Barbarian. In fact, even though he had a head start on her, she overtakes him pretty quick.

Once she feels like they're a significant enough distance away where the teacher can't catch up/find them, she's going to slow down to more of a jog, though. ]

nyello

[snyaiper]

[Well, that’s sort of annoying, being outrun by a teenage girl. But hey, she isn’t carrying a bunch of equipment like he is. He has to tell himself that. Otherwise it would be different, surely!!!

Anyway, when she slows, so does Ogata. He’s slightly winded. It’s fine. He takes a moment to simply observe her properly before he deigns to speak;]

You’re welcome.
[Wow. The nerve.]

[parfaitgirl]

[ She was about to say some Natsuki version of thank you to him, but when he says "You're welcome" ...

Her hands clench at her sides. ]

What?! I'm the one who drew their attention away in the first place!

[snyaiper]

[These two are going to be a chaotic combo, it's already clear. Ogata practically laughs in her face.]

You want credit for tripping over your own feet and knocking something over?
[Accidentally being helpful doesn't count, apparently.]

[parfaitgirl]

How do you know I didn't do it on purpose?

[ She very much did not. ]

[snyaiper]

[He could just explain that he saw her trip. Really, he could just stop being rude and concede but that's out of the question. Still, he does neither. He finally stops jogging so that he can fix Natsuki with the flattest possible look;]

Because I have eyes.
[Punch him, Natsuki.]

[parfaitgirl]

[ She huffs angrily. ]

Got anything else rude you want to say, jerk?

[snyaiper]

[Well, since she asked... Ogata gives her a once over and responds;]

If you want anyone to take you seriously you should find a better hairstyle... or at least grow a few inches.
[Bold words given that he's barely any taller than Natsuki.]

1/2

[parfaitgirl]

[ EXTREMELY bold. She grits her teeth. ]

Nngh ... !

[parfaitgirl]

Maybe YOU --

[ And she goes to kick him in the shin, hoping he'll fall down and therefore be shorter than her -- ]

-- should lose a few instead!

[snyaiper]

[Eternally paranoid and on edge as Ogata always is, he reacts fast enough to step out of the range of Natsuki's kick. However, catlike as he is, he doesn't actually have anything in the way of a cat's grace or balance, only reflexes. So the sudden movement may move him out of direct injury, it causes him to lose his balance. He stumbles and bangs into the nearby wall.

He may not have gotten any shorter but at least now he's in pain. The pained noise he makes as he holds his head almost sounds like a hiss.]


I should have left you back there to get caught.
[SPITEFULLY]

[parfaitgirl]

[ She looks a little smug about the fact that he hit his head, at least. ]

You could have just said thank you like a normal person and gone on with your day.

[snyaiper]

[He lets out a huff. Foolish girl. He's far from a normal person. Why would he ever behave like one?]

Tell me, are all of Sayori's friends this irritating or is it just you?

[parfaitgirl]

[ That probably would have creeped her out more had she not been approached by, like, ten different people from day one who already seemed to know exactly who she was because of Sayori.

The difference is, the rest of them were nice. ]

How do you know Sayori?

[ She looks him over in disbelief, as if she can't imagine how in the world he'd ever have met Sayori. ]

[snyaiper]

[In another situation he might be cagey about the answer. Friends is a strange new experience for him and he’s not sure how he feels about it!!! And the solitary wildcat sniper can’t have friends. He can’t be scary with friends. However he’s sure it’s going to irritate Natsuki, so;]

Isn’t it obvious from the fact that I helped you? I’m her friend.
[Hm! Yeah! That feels weird to say!!]

[parfaitgirl]

[ Oh, it does. Still, she knows enough about Sayori to know that she probably wouldn't like to hear that he only helped Natsuki because he's friends with her. ]

Do you only help people if they're friends of your friends or something?

[snyaiper]

... No. Normally I only do if I have a business incentive. Or I'm being paid to help them.

[Somehow it's worse???]