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

[gotyourbach]

Yes please!

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Whoa! With that +3, you both slammed it out of the park with a 21 overall. The concerto you two put on is absolutely stunning and amazing! The sounds reach through the school, not just within the auditorium and cause several students to come and listen- including the likes of Szass Astrosz, and some of the faculty. Onerion is also in attendance, as he stands sternly from the back of the room, a small twist of his lips turned upward in approval. Man, music this good is hard to come by.

The performance brings bardic inspiration to everyone in attendance, pumping them up and making them feel more determined. Meanwhile, the battle that's waging between Erinne and Adriel, not far from earshot, provides a brief and unfortunate moment for Erinne in particular- as she's distracted by the violin sound in particular and she loses concentration. Adriel knocks her out with a hex.

After the show, Szass Astrosz, a quiet and rather introspected figure among the outgoing student body approaches. He asks to speak to the both of you in private.

If you don't have a preference for what loop this is, we'll say it's #9.

[gotyourbach]

This is the highest roll Kaede has ever gotten in this game, thank u, she deserves just this one thing

Loop 9 is absolutely fine; both bards are definitely willing to speak with Szass in private, wherever he'd like to go!

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Szass leads the both of you through a vomitorium and around, to a back area, eventually winding its way to being just below the proscenium and main stage. Not far from reach is a canal of trap doors, but the area is immaculate and well-maintained.

When there's no one around, and when he's pretty certain it's safe, without the sounds of students cluttering near the orchestra, he apologizes.

"Sorry for all the cloak and dagger."

He pauses and crosses his arms.

"How did you do it?"

If the air's awkward for a moment, it's intentional. Szass is rather peculiar about his entire countenance.

"The last one. It reset early."

[gotyourbach]

the duality of bards react.avi

Well, Kaede had been fully prepared to discuss the finer points of music theory, or maybe even do a private musical performance for him, if he's shy! Those are the kinds of things she was expecting. Actually succeeding in getting someone wanting to talk to her because of her music? She's not used to that! (suck it, ferran)

So after a brief moment of flustered spluttering and looking toward Minato, who says nothing and is no help at all, Kaede is going to admit that she's not totally sure about what exactly happened, but she and Minato-kun have some ideas. Before she explains further, she'd like to know how Szass even knows about the early reset! She does have Paladin's Insight.

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You probably don't need to insight him; it'd be something abysmally low of a check to pass, as Szass is incredibly incapable of being anything but blunt.

"Time's been reset in this school more times than I can count."

His eyes on both of you feel like daggers.

"I don't know why I'm different, but all of you--- you came from the outside.

Impossible.

Up until that moment, we've been living the same blasted day over and over and over again. But all of you have control over yourselves. I've seen you. I've watched you. You can do whatever you want. Using magic on the professors, stealing, butting in places you don't belong.

You don't think I've tried that? Hell, I've had entire loops where I've killed almost every member of the council and still. It's the same exact thing. Every. Time."

[gotyourbach]

Kaede mutters very quietly to herself, "I haven't stolen anything."

Anyway, Kaede chews her bottom lip for a moment, clearly taken aback by all of this, then looks to Minato uncertainly. As far as she can tell, Szass is being honest with them, and it seems only right that they return the favor. If he were lying, he probably wouldn't have admitted to murder so quickly!

"Well... that's why we're here! There's a certain, um, magical artifact that we think might be behind it..." she ventures, looking to Minato again for confirmation.

Minato nods to agree with her. The murder thing is a little less than ideal, but there's useful information in there. "Who didn't you kill?"

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Magical artifact, huh? All he hears is "TSHSCSCHSC," but that doesn't deter him. He knows this place is capital F fucked, dudes.

He's not proud that he's done awful things during the loops, but he gets the sense that you all, as a group, have done some pretty heinous things.

"I've killed Rainer and Onerion, but Gromph and Casariel overpower me every single time I try. Rainer is the weirdest of 'em all. She won't even fight back, she just lets it happen. I don't understand what the hell is going on with her, she's just awful. That fake smile, the endless optimism. It disgusts me.

But Gromph and Casariel are the worst. I've tried poisoning Gromph once at dinner, only to find out that he somehow switched our cups and I end up choking on my dinner, only to wake up fine at noon again.

I'm just.

I'm so tired of this shit. I can't die. I can't do anything. We're trapped here, and if it's going to be like this forever, I'd rather just not know anything at all!"

[gotyourbach]

"So... Rainer-san probably knows about what's going on, too. That time keeps repeating. I mean, I can't imagine she'd just let you kill her otherwise, right?"

But after a moment, she pumps a fist, gives Szass a smile. He might not like optimism, but it's all she has. "It won't be like this forever, though. I mean, just the fact that we were able to show up here at all refutes it, don't you think? Like the feeling you get when you listen to Chopin's Heroic! So... let's work together to end this!"

Minato nods. "We're all stuck here together."

It's worth noting that Kaede does have Empathic Duty, in spite of Minato being something of a downer. I'm willing to use another of Kaede's rolls for it!

But there is something Minato does want to know. "How did Casariel thwart you?"

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"What he hell is a Rainer-san."

Oops, cultural reference completely lost on this anti-social dragonborn. However, he presses on regardless.

"At this point, I dunno who's in on it. Maybe all of 'em. Maybe none of 'em. They're all sketchy as hell. W---what the hell is Chopin!? Do you hear yourself speak sometimes, lady?"

OOF. MANNERS.

It doesn't look like this is going according to plan. We'll take that roll from you, if you're down, but we won't charge it to your three.

[gotyourbach]

Kaede puffs up a little. "It's like saying Ms. Rainer, and Chopin was a really great composer, I-- aaah, jeez! That's not important! What's important is that you know about what's going on, so let's solve this mystery together, okay? After all, just acting on your own is pretty tough..."

Minato puts out a hand. "Teammates?"

But yes, that roll for Empathic Duty is good with us! crosses my fingers i love this weird mass murdering dragonboi

[balancemod]

Szass doesn't trust you as far as he can throw you.

At least, until you start reminding him that if he doesn't go through with helping you guys out, that there's a really good chance all of this is just going to keep happening (18 on that roll for emphatic duty, by the way).

And begrudgingly, it knocks some sense into him.

"Fine. Teammates."

He holds out a scaly hand for Minato to shake.

Y'all make the weirdest friends in these missions.