Day 1: Monster Arrival

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.

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!

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]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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?

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.

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.

There's an arrow jutting out of the center of its mass, its single eyeball is now gone, almost like it wasn't there to begin with. It's just standing there, uncertain to anyone looking at it if it can actually perceive the world around it or not. 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!

Edited 2019-03-09 14:39 (UTC)

Luka barely has time to process what just happened. He finds himself outside the multipurpose center, but can't remember how he got there in all the commotion.

The presence and voice of the Protector are still fresh in his mind, but Luka can only find himself bemoaning the fact that the first monster showed up before he even had time to get in a costume change. Not that many people would be seeing him, but it's the thought that counts.

"Why did it have to be NOW?", he says, exasperation evident in his voice.

It had all happened so suddenly, and Rory needed a moment to react even with the tinge of anxiety she got in advance. She had barely paid attention to it, and didn't know what it was about anyway, so there was no way she could have prepared for this. She glanced around disoriented when the monster disappeared, but when she spotted it again, she wasn't going to waste any time. She was going to run after it.

"Sefaq!" she shouted while running. "I need a weapon! Something to throw into that eye! Maybe a spear!"

Zafika rushes to the main hall of the Multipurpose Centre, having followed behind Garrot. Stay behind? Screw that. They're staying behind for long enough to form a plan with some of the other Knights. So, for once, they just leave their blindfold hanging around their neck, and go look for the Knights that hadn't ran off.

Most importantly, they need to find Haizea and Gyre, they know Haizea can fight, and they have a feeling that Gyre can too, despite not having talked about those things with him. He's a wild elf for fuck's sake. Aside from those two, they'll honestly round up any of the other Knights that can fight.

"Muraj, I'm going to need that dagger soon."

Seth had actually been trying to find Zafika, they were the one they had gotten the best along with so far and so were the best option of who to stick to as far as Seth's tired, exhausted mind was concerned.

Having had no less than 2 mental breakdown's in the span of the past a little over an hour or so...he was done.
His energy to be anxious was gone.

So when he spotted Zafika he quickly made his way over to them, expression eerily blank, phone already out.

[Olivia's first instinct upon seeing the monster was to exclaim "that's fucking AWESOME!"

Her second instinct had been to stand between it and Luka, producing two daggers seemingly out of nowhere. She watched as the Wizard golf-ed it away and as the monster made its escape, but she didn't relax her protective stance.]

No rest for the wicked, huh? [She says, assuming that he's annoyed that they have to fight so early on. She licks her lips, her slit pupils trying to catch any movement from the monster.] It's some kind of ball. With an eye. An eyeball. With legs. Real ugly. What's the plan?

He squints. "It ran off... I think. Some of the Knights with it, too. Where did all the locals go? This is a mess."

Edited 2019-02-25 01:08 (UTC)

Sefaq appears at Rory's side after only a few steps, running alongside her in pursuit of the monster. When she speaks, it's with this unmistakable excitement in her rumbling voice.

"Consider it yours." She responds eagerly, looking over to Rory as a particularly fancy spear manifests floating in the air between them. Better grab it before it drops, Rory!

The people just - disappeared, I don't know. The Wizard did something.

[She looks around the room, quickly counting heads.] Ah... looks like blondie went after it.

"Are you going to follow?" He asks, a bit frantic.

"We have no idea where this thing is going, or what it's capable of yet."

"Thanks," Rory says and grabs onto the spear, trying not to lose running momentum while doing that. 'Now, Rory, this can't be more difficult than throwing darts, you can do it,' she reassures herself when she takes aim, though the monster is hopelessly faster and there's only a small chance it's within her normal throw distance.

With a mighty roar worthy of her status as the Tiger Knight - what seemed to be magically enchanted - she throws the spear. Holy shit it flies far, much farther than she knew she was capable of. She almost stops running in her awe of herself, but she's aware she must not do that right now. Wow, was that her knight power just now? That was awesome!

[Rory attempted to throw a knight powered spear at the monster from behind.]

Garrot's hustled up alongside Rory, with a smile like this is just a brisk jog. It might be residual adrenaline from his prior meltdown, but he's grinning ear-to-ear, just as excited as she is.

"Nice throw, Rory!" He gives her a thumbs up with one hand, the other occupied with a shield as tall as about half his body. The front has a bunch of spikes on it. Xaljim is flying nearby, keeping pace as he holds Garrot's smartphone. The Monkey Knight is streaming their chase. If he can get near any of those sparkles, Garrot tries to reach out and catch them, but he's mostly focused on what's ahead.

"Next time, try aiming for the legs so it can't run away!" It's a simple suggestion, one that he gives with an earnest smile. The only reason he resisted the urge to make a visceral remark about crippling it was because, well, he's on camera. His kids are probably watching! "Oh, and I got your back!"

He then shows her his shield, and his eyes fixate on the path ahead. He might be a little too cautious on the first monster, but a forest would be a great place to topple trees on unsuspecting Knights reckless enough to split from the group. And he can't let that happen. He won't. So his eyes glow teal and he waits, in case anything goes wrong. He'll obviously wait to tell Rory how dangerous it is to run off alone.

[ Garrot's using his minor power and shield to try and dodge or smash any trees or random debris that might come their way. ]

Gyre won't be hard to find. All the people have up and vanished, and now the fourteen of them are all starkly revealed to each other. He had followed the wizard out when she decided to make her move, and he hasn't figured out what to do just yet. He seems to be taking in details, noting who runs off and who stays, working through his thoughts.

As Zafika approaches him, his eyes focus and drop to them, a grim expression settling on his face.

"At least a couple of us stayed," he mutters, glancing pointedly towards the trees where at least two of their good fighters have just run the fuck off. "What're you thinking?"

Well he didn't intend to be standing next to the princess while all this went down, but hey, he's here now. The gears in his head are turning as he takes this whole scene in, and it's only Luka's voice that pulls him suddenly out of it.

"Had to happen sometime," he says back, his voice utterly neutral. He's not snarking. He's just talking, and he turns more fully towards Luka.

"Do you know where the other people went?" The princess is supposed to have specialized knowledge about this game or something, right? He has no idea how this is supposed to work.

It takes a few moments for Terrence to catch up to the pair, being considerably slower than either and only barely managing to gain on them while Garrot briefly stops.

"I-I believe I can be of assistance!" he shouts between pants, waving one arm to try and flag the two knights down while his other clumsily grips a companion-conjured shortsword. "I'm not entirely certain how it works yet, but I can help!" Can he? He's never used this new power, he can't fight, even just running that far already has him visibly winded... Why is he following them again?

'Don't hesitate if you get the chance.'

Sucecq's words from this morning play back in Terrence's mind. Is that why..? Well, this certainly wasn't hesitating!

Edited 2019-02-25 08:19 (UTC)

The first monster is, surprisingly, quick on its two feet. It dodges and weaves in and out of the trees, always moving ahead. It dares a glance back to see what's following--

Three knights!! Bunny! Monkey! Tiger! One of those was chasing it last year too! There's the briefest moment of delay as its eye opens a little wider in surprise as it sees something glinting towards it.

Fast moving thing that seems shiny is dangerous?

It considers this for the briefest of moments before it turns to resume running-

And Rory's spear grazes right along its side, sailing forward and clattering against the ground. There's instantly a light-show of fireworks and sparkles as the Monster crackles and pops out of existence. Further ahead in the forest, much further ahead than it was before, the monster pops back into existence and resumes running away.

[ The monster has sustained a cut from the Tiger Knight's spear. ]

Rory does a little victory hop while running and cheers loudly. "WooooOOOOowie! Did you see that Garrot, I hit it! I think I have super throwing? Or something?!"

She thinks she might have to make herself a First Hit On Monster medal when she and Zafika go out to find ribbons for their Rory's First Friend medal. Wait, is that too braggy? Oh well, she'll have time to think about that later, now is chase time! "Good tip about the legs! Hey, Sefaq, let's pick this spear up fast so we can try again!"

She then turns to acknowledge the rabbit knight and realizes they hadn't had a chance to talk before. New friend! Unfortunately this is not the situation for friendly introductions so she just flashes a grin. "Hi Bunny! Can you keep up? Need help?"

"I'll certainly try," he offers, though both his face and tone of voice betray a lack of confidence. Look, bedroom stamina =/= marathon stamina! "Excellent work, though, I'd say this is a good beginning!" He means it, too. It's been all of, what, 45 seconds and they've drawn first (metaphorical) blood? Nice.

The poncy rabbit actually isn't doing too bad. He's in shape, just not particularly used to spontaneous sprinting, not to mention in a suit and wingtips! Still, he's obviously nowhere near the speed of these two between the size disadvantage and difference in lifestyles.

"I can, ah, enhance your strength if you need it! Something like that, anyway... Do let me know if you need it!"

[She lets out a nervous laugh.] I don't intend to get myself killed on the first day, no.

We're in this together, you and I, yeah? I'll stick with you. [His team that famous people have, whatever they're called, seemed to have poofed out too, so... congratulations, you have one (1) new bodyguard. You don't even have to pay this one! Although she might pickpocket you.]

Zafika stops next to Gyre and sighs, running a hand through their hair as they look in the direction the monster disappeared to. "The loudest ones seem to have gone after it.. I think I saw Rory run after it, as well as Garrot..."

"The ones who stayed behind should form a plan, the ones chasing it can keep an eye on it and inform us on its location. But most importantly, they can try to incapacitate it and blind it, so its mobility is cut down. That huge eye is an easy enough target, the legs less so, but even if we can just blind it, it should be of some help."

Their behaviour has changed, they seem much more serious, and it's clear that they're used to making plans for how to take something, or someone, down. "Its ability to teleport is annoying, but if the Knights chasing it can herd it to a specific location, the rest of the Knights here who can fight can go there, maybe set a trap, or just prepare to take it down."

Zafika notices Seth approach them, and since their blindfold is off for once, they notice his expression, but right now they don't have any time to ask him if he's alright, the monster is their first priority. But they also know that Seth can't fight, so they have to do something about that.

"Seth, good timing. Can you round up some Knights who can't fight and have them look for the people who disappeared in here? I'm going to look for Haizea and Gyre, and anyone else who stayed behind and knows how to fight, and plan with them on what to do about the monster."

Seth's quick to start typing.

"The people who disappeared are fine. They're already eagerly tweeting about the first monster's appearance and Garrot is actually streaming the chase, don't ask me how, probably has his animal companion on it. I can still help you round up the Knights who have stayed here though."

Seth fills Zafika in. Oh yeah, he really is the social media master, already up to speed thanks to it...not like he'd been doing much else after his latest breakdown due to the wizard bullying him.

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Page 1 of 5

Day 1: Monster Arrival

Afternoon: 12:00pm - Onward

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure::

The monster!! GET IT

The monster!! We need a PLAN!

The gear train

The showdown

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