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

[shootstyles]

i. Liar, Liar @ 12PM

[Izuku is… terrible at lying. Not out of any real moral obligations but simply because he gets so nervous that everyone can tell he’s like that… well, everyone can clearly tell that he’s lying. So trying to keep up with the charade is a little big difficult for him. He’s got everything written down into a notebook about the story of where the Reclaimers came from, as well as information he picks up around the school.

In early loops, some of the students from Boarbumps decide to steal his notebook and tease him saying things like “Come on man! What’s with all the note taking?” and “So did you have a girlfriend back at your school?” because, let’s be honest, he looks like an easy target, especially when he freaks out about them having the notebook and causes a stir by yelling at them to give it back.

Intervene?

Though in later loops, the same scenario will happen and Izuku, looking a little more worn out, will whip around and quickly sweep his leg underneath the bully’s and send him crashing to ground in a painful heap.]

Sorry.

[He sounds less sorry that he usually does.]

ii.Bathroom Ghostbusting, or What You Will @ 3PM

[There’s something going on in one of those girls bathrooms. Every afternoon, Izuku hears a scream. And how can he let someone just scream without checking to be sure they’re okay?

But… he can’t just go into a girl’s bathroom! That would be so inappropriate! Thankfully, he’s got magic and will use it to disguise himself as a female student.

So catch him (appearing as her), sneaking off to explore the girls bathroom instead of going to his next class. If he knows you, his face will turn bright red and he’ll briefly cover his face]

Oh. Um... I can explain! R-really!

iii. The Sleepy Willow @ 5 PM

[During later loops Izuku spends time trying to collect his thoughts and work with other Reclaimers to try and piece together information about the loops. He has multiple notebooks and has put together lists where he tries to capture everything that he’s done in the timelines to get some answers.

Judging by his frazzled appearance, it’s maybe not going well… If you pass by, he reaches out to grab your arm with a slightly manic look on his face.]

Look! Every time I go to the History of Boarbumps class, I sneeze in the middle of the lecture. What does it mean? A sign of something?

iv. Wildcard!

[Feel free to hit me up on plurk mythal or disco for any other prompts!]

closed+additional starters

[shootstyles]

Just in case!

ii

[parfaitgirl]

[ Natsuki has had a similar idea -- she also wants to know where the scream is coming from. She's already in the bathroom when Deku arrives, and for a moment she looks excited when she sees someone come running in with a bracer. ]

Hey, are you here to --

[ ... She stops, squinting at his face. He looks really familiar ... ]

... Izuku?!

[shootstyles]

[Oh.

Oh no. He didn't really expect to see any other Reclaimers there and was hoping to just... blend in with the regular students. For a few seconds he just stares at her before answering...]

W-who?

[Not even the dumbest person alive would believe him.]

[parfaitgirl]

You, idiot!

[ She points. ]

What are you doing in the girl's bathroom? What happened to your hair? [ And most importantly ... ] Why do you have boobs?!

[shootstyles]

[GJASKFJDAS c-covers his chest!]

Because I'm a girl!

...Right now. [To clarify.]

I'm disguised as a girl!

ii

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael tilts his head slightly. He's been around long enough to understand human genders just fine, even if they all sound a little bit fake in his opinion, and he knows about modern presentation. This is an easy weakness to dig into, something other demons would mock - but when it comes right down to it, he isn't invested. Human men had long hair just a few centuries ago, and also who cares?]

Yeah? Someone after you?

[shootstyles]

N-no?

I'm just going to, do... you know, girl stuff in there.

[He gestures weakly at the door as if there was some way that Michael could possibly buy that he's a different person.]

[eudaimonikos]

[.....]

[..........]

[.................]



What?

[shootstyles]

Y-you're not supposed to ask that!

[BRO. YOU'RE THROWING OFF HIS GAME AND LITERALLY HIS EVERYTHING.]

sleepy willow

[korekara]

Hwah–!

[ That's an unflattering noise and a half. But she's startled, so you'll have to excuse her. That's partly the reason that she splutters out the first thing that comes into her head once Deku's done talking. ]

I–I dunno, maybe you're allergic to history?! It's dusty back there!

[ NAILED IT. ]

Re: sleepy willow

[shootstyles]

[Normally, he'd have some concerns about the science behind this theory. But now isn't normally. Now is "I'm trapped in a time loop and haven't slept". He grips her shoulders tightly.]

You're right. I'm probably allergic to history. Should I try to brew a potion to try and cure them.

[korekara]

[ He's... really out of it, huh. Poor Deku. ]

Uh, that sounds like a little much! Why don't you just skip out on history for a couple loops or something? You know, take a break from it all! Maybe if you spend a little time away from it, you'll build up a resistance!

[ is this complete bullshit? absolutely. does Honoka believe it wholeheartedly? absolutely. ]

[shootstyles]

I guess... I'm just trying to figure out if there's a connection. Why is it so consistent in History? Plus, every time it happens, I scare one girl so much that she always jumps in her desk. What if that action causes so many other things to happen that we can't even expect or control!

iii

[unrecovered]

[It's about time to try to get another nap in, and Wash has headed to the inn for just such a purpose. It's not long before he gets waylaid by Izuku, and...oh, the kid does not look good.]

Yeah, you're allergic to history. [Dry as the desert, as good sarcasm should be. He gives that one a second to land before moving on, tone shifting to concern.] When was the last time you slept?

[shootstyles]

Usually I'm only allergic to pollen. But maybe all the loops have had unexpected adverse affects on my body.

[PROBABLY NOT. Then he shrugs.]

Hmm, I dunno. It's hard to say with the loops. Time doesn't make sense.

[unrecovered]

...I was joking.

[Yeah, he's a little worried about you, kiddo. He sighs and takes a seat next to Izuku.]

If you don't remember, that means it's been too long. Next loop, get a room and take a nap.

[shootstyles]

We only have so many hours in each loop to figure this out. I can't just waste a loop napping!

iii

[whippings]

( Franziska is... certainly not expecting to be intercepted by a wild-eyed boy when she is simply seeking some rest, and her response is borderline acidic as a response. )

Do you have a cold?

[shootstyles]

I don't...

[WELL, ACTUALLY. Maybe he does? That's an easier answer than being exhausted to him. He reaches up and feels his own forehead.]

I dunno, I don't think so. But maybe. With all the loops, we're bound to be exposed to something.

[whippings]

I do wonder how the spread of disease would even be affected by a time-loop. Do you feel better at the beginning, when it restarts?

( Franziska, this is not the time. )

[shootstyles]

I mostly focus on not barfing during a reset.

i (early loops)

[usamin17]

[Nana can't help but intervene in order to help the small, panicking student. Although she is... smaller and seemingly more panicked.]

H-hey! Give him back his notebook! He needs those to remember all the things that we came here to study!

[Nana of course will do nothing to physically intervene, since she doesn't want to hurt any kids. Also she's scared of them.]

[shootstyles]

[OH GOD. HER PANICKING MAKES HIM PANIC EVEN MORE.]

Y-yeah! I'm... gonna fail my classes if I don't get it back. Don't let me fail!

[The other students just laugh harder though because NERD!!]

[usamin17]

[Clearly these are the too-cool-for-school crowd. Nana attempts to appeal to their sensibilities.]

If he fails his classes, then he has to go to dumb, boring school longer! He won’t get to do cool, fun things like... um...

[Nana stops in her tracks because she usually has no idea what kids do for fun, let alone in this world, let alone in this town...]