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

[snyaiper]

[That much is true. In any case, that answer pretty much tells Ogata which of his theories was correct.]

It's far too early to already be having a mental breakdown. Aren't you supposed to be a soldier?
[He assumes, since Wash is.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[That gets Church laughing. It's not a pleasant laugh, but tired and still this side of unhinged.]

Man, it is never too early to have an existential crisis based on time loops where nothing you do matters. Be glad I didn't go the type of nuts where I just fucking kill everyone this time. It felt like a good idea at the time, but I guess I went a little nuts.

[snyaiper]

[HM]

Is "going nuts" and killing everyone something you're liable to do?
[Should Ogata, the guy who's got a note tied to his rifle reminding him it's for REAL EMERGENCIES ONLY really be the one to ask this? Probably not. But here we are.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

What the fuck would it matter if none of it matters until we find the magic lamp, dude?

[snyaiper]

[On some level, Ogata understands this. Murder shouldn't matter here. That said, he's fairly certain people would find a reason to be mad, anyway, even without the death price. None of this matters, though, because he has a larger concern.]

And how, exactly, is anyone going to find the lamp if you kill them? I don't care if you're too weak willed to help, but the very least you could do is not be obsructive.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Ohhhh, you've never met me. I have not yet begun to deliberately be obstructive.

[Hm! Wait. That probably sounds bad.]

Like of course I'm not gonna deliberately try and keep us from finding the magical time lamp thingy, jesus, I wanna get out of here as much as anyone. I'm just sayin', that shit, that's like so far from obstructive.

[snyaiper]

[YEAH THAT TRULY DOES HIT OGATA AS A VERY BAD STATEMENT. On the other hand, you know, this is almost nice. Since he got here, Ogata has felt like maybe the Director made a mistake, picking him. He's certainly no hero. But now, it's clear. Either it's all bullshit and she just picks people at random, or, at the very least, she's made an even more crucial error with this fucking guy.

For a long moment, Ogata just stares. It's... maybe a bit offputting? He's got a weird, unreadable face and cold dead eyes.]

What you were doing, perhaps, wasn't obstructive. However, you have given me a frankly absurd amount of reason to believe that this will change going forward.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He had to deal with the blank helmeted stare of his girlfriend that silently told him how pissed off she was. It's probably not dissimilar.]

Aaaaand what, is that supposed to mean something? Listen, buddy, shortstuff, I don't know who you are--and before you say anything, I don't care who you are--but we're all in this merry-go-round of fuck together doing this magical hero biz, so sounds to me like you just have to deal with it.

[fingerguns]

[snyaiper]

[Honestly, being called "buddy" is more personally offensive to Ogata than "shortstuff." He is, unfortunately, shorter than most of the people here. However, he is not your buddy, pal. Ogata smiles at Church, but there's absolutely nothing friendly about it.]

Fine. I'll say it plainly since you don't seem to have anything in the way of sense. I'm threatening you. If you do anything to further complicate or draw out this mission, I will personally make you regret it.
[Really, he'd rather just remove the liability before it BECOMES a problem, but the time reset mechanics don't make that possible. Sad.]

Also, my name is Ogata. Don't ever call me "buddy" again.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay, chum. My name's Church, pal. You start making me regret things, friend? I'll make you regret making me regret it, comrade. I didn't do anything to make shit harder, amigo. But keep it up, and I'll make sure to draw things out real slow, for you, and just you, bro.

[snyaiper]

[Ah, alright. It’s gonna be like this, is it? Fine then. He really just wants to shoot this man, but that “PS: Someone making you mad isn’t a REAL emergency” addendum to the note on his rifle is stopping him. For now.]

Oh, please, go ahead. I’d love to see you trying to explain to the entire rest of the team why you did something to slow things down for everyone just to spite me. I’m sure they’ll all understand.
[Well, some of them might understand being annoyed by Ogata, but it’s not like Church would know that.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Since everyone is doing five hundred different things to try and find the magic lamp thingy, I'd have to do something super impressive and incredibly fucked to slow everyone down. Oh, like, I don't know what happened, did that one loop end early? That wasn't me, I sure as shit didn't do anything to trigger that. But I guess that's the kind of impressive-slash-fucked thing that might do it.

[snyaiper]

[Honestly, Ogata sorta fazes out of Church's rant because it's all really just angry barking to him. He doesn't care about the justifications. He just wants his point to be made clear.]

How about this. You do anything to slow me down or get in my way, I'll put a bullet right through that shiny helmet of yours? Can you understand that much?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Ugh, not the most creative way I'd have ever died, but at least it's straightforward.

[snyaiper]

[He was gonna be annoyed at the response to the threat but then there’s a more pressing matter.]

You say that like you’ve died more than once before.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I do say it like that, don't I.

[snyaiper]

[Having died before is weird, but at least it's something he's become somewhat used to here, after having met two people it applies to. But.... more than once? This guy is new, so surely he can't have already died and been revived here.

He runs a hand over his hair, clearly irritated, before pressing further.]

And how exactly is it that you've died more than once?

[motherfucking_ghost]

What, you want me to list all the ways I've died before? Sorry, broseph, you gotta be at friendship level three to unlock all that nonsense.

[snyaiper]

[Everything about the way Church chooses to express this answer is deeply annoying.]

That information is in no way worth being associated with you in any capacity.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Cool, does that mean you'll fuck off and leave me alone already instead of standing there all tiny and threatening?

[snyaiper]

[God. He’s not that small. It’s just that everyone here is entirely oversized!! That’s not his fault. He doesn’t have enough of a complex about it to protest, but it certainly doesn’t help the fast blossoming resentment he feels towards this armored man.]

As long as we’re clear on what will happen to you if you cause me problems? Yes.