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

Loki

[cuttingremark]

((Loki is here under as a teacher of Runes and Advanced Arcane Theory.))

12:00 First Loop
[The castle is a welcome change of pace from the moon base. At the earlist opportunity Loki breaks away from the main group in order to explore Boarbumps. He comes upon another Reclaimer (you!) in an empty cooridor of the school. Is it during class? Does he know? More importantly does he care?]

I don't suppose you've found what we came here for?


4:00 5th Loop
[Loki is investigating the mirror in town, circling it with a curious gaze. Whenever he stands in front of it a rather regal looking woman stands in his place. No matter how you approch he speaks without looking at you.]


12 pm 9th Loop
[By this point Loki has gotten use to the resetting of the day, but the early reset caught him off guard. He seems a bit off balance, eyes wide as he comes back to himself.]

That wasn't right. What happened?

Wildcard!
Got something else you want to do with him? Hit me up! He can be found pretty much anywhere during the loops.

5th Loop

[coolranchbaby]

Find something fun? [Eleanor pokes her head out from around the back of the mirror, peering at Loki from over the tops of her cateye glasses.]

[cuttingremark]

Hm? [Loki tears his eyes away from the woman in the mirror so he can look at Eleanor]

Oh, no. Other than the obvious magical markers, I cannot determine much about it.

[It's annoying, honestly. He's use to being able to do more when it comes to magic. Back on the moon he almost thought he'd adapted to it, yet here he is again.]

[coolranchbaby]

So more weird magical bullshirt, got it. [Eleanor steps out from behind the mirror, circling around to the front to give her pin curls a quick once over but what she sees is a surprisingly buff nerd.]

...Okay, clue me in here. Are you also seeing my surprisingly jacked nerd friend or am I just having a stroke?

[cuttingremark]

[Loki comes to the front of the mirror. Rather than his own reflection a regal looking woman stands next to Eleanor's not-reflection.

He grimaces.]

No, I only see the two of us [Listen, he has to take these small pleasures when he can.]

[coolranchbaby]

[And with a nat 20 roll to detect lies, Eleanor's bullshirt detector wins out once again.]

Sounds fake but okay. [She experimentally steps to the side, checking to see if Chidi's reflection mimics her. When it doesn't she settles back on her heels in c ok contemplation.]

Seriously, oh Trickster God, you seeing anything fun?

First loop

[snyaiper]

[Ogata had literally only just started poking around the castle, more just to get a feel for things than anything else. He's still fairly unused to this world, it's strange magic and architectures. He's just examining a bust of one of the previous headmasters when Loki asks the question.

Ogata turns to look at him, frowning, as if he's sure he didn't hear that right.]

What, the Relic? We've barely been here an hour. Something with that amount of magical power that's obviously in use wouldn't just be lying around. Are you an idiot?
[Was that last part necessary? No. This guy's a new face so Ogata is sure this is his first mission. Doesn't mean he's not still gonna be dismissive for no reason.]

[cuttingremark]

[Loki is a little taken aback by the hostility, especially from someone who has never spoken to him before. After a couple of conversations, or maybe in his world, it isn't terribly surprising, but this is new.]

Call it wishful thinking. Who are you again?

[snyaiper]

[Oh, Ogata recognizes that tone. That's not a real question. That's a "who are you to talk to me that way?" if he ever heard it.]

Wishful thinking never got anyone anywhere. And it doesn't matter who I am.
[Just not gonna beat around the bush, here.]

[cuttingremark]

Oh ho, not even attempting to be civil, are we?

[Loki grins, but not in a happy way. It's a feral grin, one that no one on the moon has gotten to see yet.]

You must be very popular amongst the other Reclaimers.

[snyaiper]

Ah yes, terribly popular.
[Loki's smile is returned in kind, exactly. A wide, closed eye smile. A "fuck you" smile.]

You already think you're too good to be talking to me, so why should I waste my time with manners?

9th loop

[menarefrom]

[Even though Spike has become aware of the loops, he hasn't gotten used to them at all. He doesn't know how he's gotten back to 12pm for a moment.]

...What's not right?

[He asks, as if it's an innocent question, looking all around them as he slowly starts to recall that yeah, they've been here at this time before... but wan't it longer last time?]

[cuttingremark]

This. We shouldn't be here yet.

[He looks around the entrance of Thay, squinting as if that will help him find the answer]

We had at least an hour left before the town should reset.

[menarefrom]

Huh.

[...It's hard to tell if Spike is just disinterested or nonplussed or... stupid, perhaps. He doesn't seem too concerned.]

So you're saying we reset early?

[Weird. He was ready to write it off as him having slept through it or... died, at this point, but.]

[cuttingremark]

It would appear as such. One, maybe two hours?

[He hadn't been looking at a clock, but he has a pretty reliable sense of how the events of the town flow]

I wonder what happened.

[menarefrom]

Wonder if something went wrong.

[It's a fairly common theory by now that the time loops are being reset on purpose, so-]

Someone made a mistake, called it quits early?

5th Loop

[katopissed]

[ Piper frowns, approaching the scene. ]

... Magic mirror?

[ It's Loki, what's she going to do? Step around the idea she knows things about magic? ]

[cuttingremark]

It would appear so.

[He frowns at the woman in the frame.]

I'm having problems determining it's origin.

[katopissed]

Hm...

[ she looks over it, mostly from behind so I can think about who she would see a little longer ]

Is it just... Showing other people?

[cuttingremark]

[Yeah I had to think a lot about it quite a bit.]

People from our homes, as far as I can tell.

[katopissed]

[ she looks into the mirror itself briefly, then sees a... Blonde teenage boy? And it definitely is not what she was expecting!! ]

People we know...?

[ to confirm on his end, from the sound of her question. She seems a little rattled. ]

Wildcard

[eastofeden]

[ Aziraphale brightens when he sees Loki, hurrying over for a few steps before he hesitates, slowing. Naturally he recognizes him from when Loki had carried him - in tiny, mute doll form - to the library, but will Loki be able to say the same? ]

Ah - [ He clears his throat, leaning forward hopefully. ] Pardon me. Am I interrupting anything?

[cuttingremark]

[Loki looks up from the book he'd snuck out of the library earlier. It isn't anything he can't find in the library on the moon, but it's not like he has anything better to do right now]

No, just passing the time.

[The other man looks familiar, but Loki can't quite put his finger on why]

I'm sorry, have we met?

[eastofeden]

Oh, good.

[ He smiles, apologetically. ]

Well...that's actually why I approached you. I wanted to thank you.

You see, as it happens, we have met. In a manner of speaking. Only I was in a different form in that instance. A much smaller one.

[cuttingremark]

[Loki looks confused for a moment, but then-]

Oh!

[A smile breaks onto his face]

Sir Doll!