Day 1: Monster Arrival

[wizardseason]

Afternoon: 12:00pm - Onward

[ IRL Timeframe: February 24th - March 10th, 2019 ]

Everything changes when the Wizard wishes it to. In an instant, every non-knight, non-princess person in attendance at the Craydon welcoming party disappears. She knows where they went, she teleported them, but that doesn't mean she's telling the knights. The only indication she gives that she did anything is that she walks towards the door to leave. If anyone moves to get in her way, she'll just teleport to the other side of them. If anyone tries to attack her, their weapon'll just turn to sparkles.

If this were a video game, the stressful music would be playing now. The Princess, Luka, is treated to something to add to the stress. The protector finally makes his appearance but only to him and only in his head. He's the same height as Luka with dark skin and vivid blue eyes that match the color of the sky. He has wicked winged white eyeliner to accent his eyes and curly black hair with white tips piled on top of his head, it's a wonder how it stays up there. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, he's wearing a pajama robe that looks either blue or silver depending how it's touched or how it moves. Most importantly is that he's got brass knuckles on both his hands, like he's ready to fight. But he's not here to fight, he's here to give a whisper about what comes next.

"The monster is here." Comes his voice, pointing Luka to just outside the Craydon multipurpose center. The pull towards the monster is persistent and it won't let up until it's defeated.

Outside is, to everyone's surprise (except perhaps Luka), the first monster. It looks like a yellow ball with an eye in the middle, standing four feet high and four feet wide with an eye that's almost that big too. It's standing on two feet and appears to have no arms whatsoever. It blinks curiously at the approaching princess-knight team and then blinks up at the Wizard beside it...

The Wizard is standing beside the first monster, holding her hand out as her massive hammer manifests in her hand. The hammer's handle flickers into existence and ends up beind close to seven feet long before the head of the hammer pops into existence. It's a massive beast of a weapon, easily the size of a refrigerator attached to the end of the pole with slightly bigger ends for where she hits things with it. Just below where the handle connects is a pair of flowing wings that seem to be extended out to support the head of the hammer, the end tip has a single metal feather dangling off of it. The head of the hammer curves slightly inward away from the ends but mostly it's just a giant rectangular block of bashing.

"Fore." The Wizard says with this awful amusement before she swings her hammer like a golf club down at the monster, acting like she's going to send it flying into the princess-knight team like a cannonball. When her hammer impacts the monster, it flickers slightly and pops like fireworks. Within sight but still rather far away, the first monster flickers and blips back into existence on the road, blinks, and then runs off into the woods. Catch this little buddy if you can!

Monster Kill Opportunity: Craydon: Everyone.

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The Weather

• Sunny.
• 70°F / 21°C
• Quite breezy, all the trees are rustling.

---

Prompts:

• The monster!! GET IT: Who needs a plan? You run off immediately, sprinting after the monster as it bounds off into the woods. Characters who choose this option are free to catch the monster numerous times and deal attacks to it. However they will be unable to defeat the monster in any of these prompts. The monster's priority in this is to escape and it will not attack back. But what were those sparkles? What's going on? Feel free to do team-threads together in pursuit of the monster.


• The monster!! We need a PLAN!: Since you didn't run off, you and your fellow knights, the princess, and the Wizard are now standing outside of the Craydon multipurpose center. Though the Wizard is just going to go back inside to get crackers with cheese and meat on top. What will you do with your companions? Will you confront the Wizard? What kind of plan will you come up with for what just happened?


• The gear train: Wether you saw the locals posting pictures on social media or you worked with Luka's new ability to find the monster, it's taken up sitting on top of the gear train as it makes its way up and down the mountain town of Craydon. It doesn't move very fast but it is a hazard and, perhaps, even more of one because the Monster is involved. The first monster is contentedly sitting on top of the train car, staring up towards the sky. What will you do about that? The monster can be severely injured in this thread but cannot be killed.


• The showdown: There are trails of, and pools of, yellow ?blood? trailing throughout Craydon from the injuries that the first monster has sustained. The knights have been relentless in pursuing it through the forest and on the train and now it's come to a stop in the center of the train station at the base of Craydon. This train station is home to the last stop on the gear train upstairs and the transfer point for the Harsen Island train station downstairs. The first monster clearly isn't getting on board to go to Bamborough or Far Haven, but it's absolutely standing on the platform waiting for a fight. It's the final showdown!

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Procedure::

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around.

IMPORTANT: When making an attack against the Monster, please add a short summary such as the following to the bottom of your comment in brackets. This will help show at-a-glance what's going on and will show me that I need to reply with the Monster:

• [Rory stabs the Monster in the leg]
• [Seth pours acid on the Monster's face]
• [Web throws a big rock at the Monster from behind]

Comments

[disguiseself]

Well, it's good to know that not all the Knights are weirdos. [Olivia introduces herself as the Ox Knight to Haizea as they exchange Knight phone numbers.

She then turns to Luka,] Did you get blondie's number when you met her? Hopefully she's with the rest of them...

[silentwords]

Seth is just...going to slink away into a quiet corner. Again.
Oh boy.

[zafika]

Zafika gives a pointed look to Olivia and Luka both, and a less pointed one to Haizea, this is not the time to be uncooperative amongst each other. "Well, if everyone is done being impatient assholes to each other in the middle of a monster attack, I have Garrot's number, I'll add him to the group." Which is exactly what they do even while speaking, because they're pretty capable of multitasking.

"And, if we could actually focus on handling the monster and leave arguments for later, I can contact him and get an update on where the monster is, so we can decide a location where the chase team can herd it to." They're extremely fed up with these people not having their priorities straight, they had a monster to take down, petty disagreements and arguments could fucking wait.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea is gonna just nod a bit in response to Zafika's chastising, but continue on. She'll make nice later, right now they don't have time to deal with pettiness.

"Sounds good. Anyone have any ideas for traps? It looked like the monster could teleport too, so it'll probably be a good idea to have backups."

[sustainer]

Literally what the fuck was all that. Gyre had been utterly stunned by the complete lack of clarity on display here. He doesn't understand what the hell was happening with the chat? thing? but everyone was sniping at each other like it was a big deal. He just hates having to work with these people honestly, and he can't help following Seth with his eyes when the kid finally gives up and leaves.

There is this frown steadily deepening on his face, his mouth screwing up tight even as Haizea came around introducing herself. He doesn't offer his own name or knight identification, very much in his own head about what a wreck this is.

It's not until Zafika brings them back on topic that he begins to relax very very slightly.

"I... hm." Okay, he doesn't have a choice but to work this out with them now. Focus. "I'm good with a bow. If I can get up high enough, I can hit it before it sees me. It won't have a chance to teleport." He turns his attention to Olivia, going back to her original offer.

"Could you and the princess drive it towards my position? The monster likely knows the town better then any of us, so you'll have to be able to adapt to its movement."

[zafika]

Zafika nods at Gyre, though they immediately frown a bit. "That's a good plan but... our animal companions can only give us one weapon at a time. So, unless you have a bow with you here, someone else might have to give you that, or an arrow... I can technically help with that, unless someone else wants to go with Gyre." They kind of, look around amongst the Knights that are present, in case one of them wants to hang back from fighting but still wants to help.

"We can have the chase team aid Olivia in driving the monster to Gyre's position, once we confirm with them its original location and fill them in on the plan. Once we have a visual on the monster we shouldn't endanger the Princess too much."

[scandeled]

Matilda's been having a quiet heart attack over here, don't mind her. She's got her dumb goggles pulled down over her eyes again, and her hands pressed against her cheeks, which are significantly less flushed than usual thanks to holy shit there's an actual monster there are no scripts we are all going to die here. But the mention of the monster teleporting seems to have gotten her attention, and she sheepishly raises her hand.

"The monster isn't the only one that can teleport. If we get in close proximity of it, I can help someone get right to it." Her cheeks brighten, but she still looks very unsure and deterred, nothing like the bright and energetic young woman they all met this morning. "B-but I'd also need protection in that case- I don't know if I'd have enough strength to get back out again, and I'm not... very good at anything."

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea’s face softens a bit at Matilda’s distress. She’s a good reminder that not all the knights are used to this sort of thing.

“Stick with me, then. I’m more for close range fighting, so if you can get me close that would give me an edge. I’ll make sure you stay safe ‘til you can get outta danger.”

[sustainer]

The moment Zafika starts talking about needing both a bow and an arrow, Gyre reaches inside his vest and pulls out a little metal tube.

"I have my bow. Fen will give me an arrow. I can go there alone, and you can stay together to protect each other." As he speaks, he tugs the ends of the tube, and extends it into a long, slightly curved, metal rod with a bit of wire wrapped around it. It's a weird looking bow, but it's definitely an unstrung bow.

Then his attention turns to Matilda, who... who offers to help surprisingly. He definitely had her pegged as a big, soft coward, so this is a nice surprise. While his nostrils flair a little at her saying she's bad at everything, a useless comment in a dangerous situation, he appreciates both her power and Haizea stepping in to offer a plan to use it.

"It's always okay to run if you're in trouble. Better to live until the second monster, then not. I believe we can cover you," he says, pointing towards Haizea, Zafika, Olivia. Four out of six ain't bad.

[eutychia]

"So, let's get that thing corralled so we can take it out already, yeah?" Luka says, taking a step closer to the group. "The more time we discuss possibilities the more time it has to get further away. I think taking it down will be much more intuitive when we get eyes on it."

He turns to Gyre. "Going alone probably isn't wise, though. I can come along and advise you when it's near. I'd rather not be up close and personal with the thing, anyway."

[zafika]

Zafika nods briefly at Gyre, before they turn their attention to Matilda, they're bit uneasy about needing to keep their blindfold off, so they just stare at the empty space next to her head. So she could teleport too huh? Useful, definitely, but she'd have to be able to get away from danger. "I can at least try to keep the monster's attention on myself, Haizea will probably be better at protecting you. But, if you can teleport us close to the monster once Gyre has taken out its eye, that'd be a big help."

At Luka's words, they glance towards him and, oh, he's blind. That was a relief, they can actually look at him as well. "Right. You, Gyre and Olivia should get going, you need time to get ready, we'll catch up with the chase team to herd the monster to your location as well as we can." As they're speaking, they remember the stream Garrot has up and running, and dig out their phone to actually take a look at it now. It should help with finding the chase team. Not that finding a huge and very loud doctor with anger issues towards the Wizard was going to be that hard.

[scandeled]

Matilda's still frowning, even trembling a little, but she nods sheepishly at the suggestion that she might be a big help. "Y-yeah, I should be able to do that!" She doesn't sound very sure of herself, but her nod is a little more energetic than it had before. When she speaks again, she seems more energetic, even giving a little bounce as she speaks, fists balled. "I'm ready whenever everyone else is!"

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea has just gotten off the phone with Terrence and is full of information.

“Looks like the monster is headin’ towards the train station, so let’s try and set up there and in its path. Matilda, you come with me and Zafika, we’ll get near the station and keep watch, then teleport into the station if it makes it past Gyre and everyone else. That sound good to everyone?”