Day 2: Monster Arrival

[wizardseason]

Afternoon: 12:00noon - Evening

[ IRL Timeframe: April 1st - April 14th, 2019 ]

Unfortunately for the heroes, only one of them has an easy time when the monsters arrive. In the history of the wizard fights, it was rare but not unheard of for multiple monsters to arrive. Years 12, 22, and 30 had featured three of a monster but only one was real. Year 9 had featured the tenth monster as ten individuals that all came together into one. And, most strangely, years 4, 13, 26, and 37 had featured a monster that had an active and an inactive body.

This year, the second monster appears in two places.

The first arrives in Craydon, its massive body just a ball of metallic spikes with two bright orange eyes in the middle. It looks like a massive urchin, its body easily close to ten feet across where it's sitting on the train tracks ahead of the train arriving. Its spikes stick out easily another ten feet in every direction, making it a gigantic terrifying ball. The party train's arrival to its 12:25pm destination ends with the conductor locking up the brakes to bring the train to a stop. This sucks!

The second arrives in Bamborough, its massive body easily sixty feet up in the air suspended atop dozens of small, thin metallic spikes for legs. Its two orange eyes scan down at the world below, its spherical body covered in smaller spike nubs on all other sides. The eyes aren't fixed in place, either, and they're scanning the oceanfront as it moves around. It's definitely looking for something and it's visible for miles. Good luck, everyone!

Monster Fight Opportunity: Craydon: Luka, Gyre, Web, Olivia, Joanna.
Monster Fight Opportunity: Bamborough: Haizea, Seth, Garrot, Gail, Zafika, Terrence, Matilda.

---

The Weather

• Windy.
• 61°F / 16°C
• The trees are rustling, leaves flowing through the air.

---

Prompts:

• 12:25pm Train Arrival: The party train comes to its final destination in Craydon at 12:25pm. The reason that it's a final destination is due to the monster on the tracks. Oh god, it's right there? Oh god, oh GOD??? When the train comes to a screeching halt, all the non-heroes quickly scamper out of the train to flee for safety. Good luck, heroes!


• 12:30pm, Ramen, Far Haven: Social Media is abuzz that the Wizard has left the power plant and has gone to one of the chain ramen restaurants in Far Haven. The restaurant is known for its decent ramen, but everyone knows it can't compare to the local shops around the island. This is the "I just want to eat" ramen restaurant. But more importantly, this one has some sports bar qualities and has TVs up on the walls to watch. The Wizard is here, seated close to one of the TVs, and she's watching the events unfolding in Craydon and Bamborough. How is she doing that? Who's recording?


• 12:30pm, The Bamborough Monster: Out on the waterfront boardwalk, the monster is lumbering its way along the wooden walkways seemingly in search of something. The few shops that were open are closing up as quickly as possible, the last thing they need is their already minimal business ruined by a visit from this monster. Please, someone come help.


• ??:??pm: Unknown What happens next?

---

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.

Comments

[zafika]

All Zafika gets to do to respond to Matilda is open their mouth to say something, when she latches onto the nearest spike before letting go of their hand. They chuckle a little bit at it, before they grab onto another spike. "As you can tell, not too gross. Then again, I'm used to plenty of gross things, like yesterday's blood gloop. But, well, it feels mostly like dry sea urchin spikes."

[wizardseason]

Fortunately for Matilda, the monster's spikes feel like smooth stone. Overly hard because of their size, they would be horrible to get stabbed with. To make matters worse, the monster has noticed its two new riders atop its head.

All around Zafika and Matilda, the spikes start shifting towards them. Like the walls closing in, the spikes are starting to come together to pin them in place. The monster doesn't want them to get away since they've gotten so close. It's going to trap them atop it in a cage made of its spikes. Time to panic, knights!

[scandeled]

Shit. Matilda gives up on clinging to the spike quickly, moving back closer to Zafika instead. "Awhmahgawd, do whatever you were gonna do, expeditiously, please!"

[zafika]

What the fuck!? This is bullshit, Zafika knows this is monster magic shit but this still sucks, they absolutely hate this!

They give a low hiss as they look around at the spikes closing in, before they let go of the spikes with their hands and instead grab their dagger more firmly. One hand firmly gripping the handle of the dagger, they rest their other hand's palm on the butt of the handle, putting their weight better into the movement as they stab downwards, the tip of their dagger aimed at the space between the spikes.

[Zafika aims a stab at the space between the second monster's spikes!]

[wizardseason]

Less panicking more dying, please, the second monster would very much like that. But that isn't going to be the reality here, the moment Zafika's dagger stabs it in the head its entire body vibrates for a moment. A moment later, its long legs are standing outward around it; two legs are down below it, two out front, two out back, and two more have slid up past Zafika and Matilda...

...and then the second monster starts tilting forward, its whole body falling forward until it can land on the two feet it had put out in front of it. Unless Matilda and Zafika clamber to climb to stay on top, they're going to topple off the front of it and sixty feet to the ground! Panic!

[scandeled]

Total panic- Matilda lets out a scream high-pitched and loud enough to probably break glass (or not, it's not her knight power). Thankfully she stuck so close to Zafika to begin with- She grabs desperately for the other knight, and the second she lays her hand on them, she squeezes her eyes shut, and with a loud pop, she teleports them off the monster--

And they reappear moments later on the flat roof of a nearby building. Matilda's still screaming.

[zafika]

Zafika had been ready to have Matilda teleport away, but then she's screaming and they have to cover their ears and-

And then they're on a roof, and Matilda is still screaming, and now that their tail is free, it suddenly snaps around her face, covering her mouth to at least muffle it. "Okay okay okay okay calm down...! We're fine holy fuck we're okay just please stop screaming-!"

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately the monster still has Zafika's dagger stuck in its head when they teleport away, but it isn't finished. It continues moving forward, rolling onto the next set of legs so its entire body is inverted. In this state, the dagger is now on the bottom and...

Gravity does its job and Zafika's dagger falls out of the second monster's head, clattering onto the ground far below. It's followed by an oozing drip of bright neon green monster blood.

The monster isn't done, though, and it completes two more forward rolls on its newly positioned feet before it stops, back upright. All of its legs fold back down below it, resuming its previous stance. But now... it's not moving. Now it's completely stationary. Odd.

[scandeled]

Matilda stops screaming then, but only because there’s a tail slapped across her mouth, which is completely rude, thank you! She resists the urge to try and bite it— Zafika’s a friend and ally, and she’s kind of distracted and mesmerized by the monsters weird somersault action— which she points at, since she’s temporarily shut up.

[zafika]

Zafika can finally remove their hands from their ears when Matilda stops screaming, and with that they can also release her mouth, their tail sliding back down to pool around their legs. They look at the rotating the monster is doing, and oh they're so annoyed by that thing!

Even worse, they see their dagger fall down those sixty feet, followed by a gush of bright green monster blood landing right on top of it. Perfect. Sorry Muraj, they'll clean that up once it's safe to retrieve their dagger!

"Okay, now what? That thing might as well bend reality in its advance, since it obeys almost no laws of physics or basic biology. So getting on top of it again is a no go, but that one stab might have done practically nothing."

[scandeled]

"We could probably do that again, like, multifariously." Matilda offers, though she does not sound confident in her suggestion at all. "Or... maybe there's a way to knock it down? I don't know. Do you want me to go get your knife ?"

[zafika]

Zafika doesn't question that big word Matilda just casually threw in, and instead eye the monster for a while, before glancing down at their dagger. Okay, screw giving up so easily.

"We can try that again... but, this time at a more rapid pace. The moment you get us up there, we need to stab it before it can do anything, then get away to a roof, and repeat after you've had a moment to catch your breath. You just got your ability recently, it takes time to raise stamina for it.." They peek down once more, before they turn to look at Matilda, of course not going for eye contact of any form. "But, I'd appreciate it if I could get my dagger back."

[scandeled]

Matilda gives a firm nod, readjusting her goggles, and pausing to remove her gloves and tuck them away in her pocket. She is not getting monster blood on cream lace, no thank you. Then with a tiny pop, she's gone, and with another pop, she's back, holding the dagger between two fingers as if it were the grossest thing in the world.

Scrambled....eggs? At least she won't lose any perfume over this one. She extends her arm, nose crinkled. "Okay. Give me a few moments, then we can go back to it."

[zafika]

Zafika takes a note of Matilda removing her gloves, and honestly, this girl is in a desperate need of better combat gear. But then she's gone and back with two pops and she has their dagger with her. They take it with a quiet 'thank you' and quickly wipe it clean of the blood on it.

"That's fine, take your time. Just... not too long. We don't know when everyone else will get here, but I want to get some more damage done by then."

[scandeled]

Matilda nods again, pausing only to daintily clean her fingers off with a handkerchief- considering briefly to replace the gloves, then deciding against it. She takes a deep breath to steady herself, fussing with the band of her goggles, then gives another nod.

"Alright! I'm completely composed!" She declares, holding her hand out.

[zafika]

Zafika lets Matilda do her little clean up, and when she says she's ready and composed, they nod and take her hand, and they're attacking once more.

With a pop, they appear on the monster's head, and both of them plunge their weapons as deep as they can into the monster's flesh between its spikes, and another pop and they're on a roof. They repeat the routine few times, but on the fourth time, they hear Haizea's shouting.

And then the monster is apparently charging them, and before either can do anything, strong winds suddenly manifest, nearly toppling both Zafika and Matilda over on the roof, and they retreat. Team Sabotage has done their part, and actually did pretty damn good too!