Day 3: Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: April 22nd - April 29th May 8th, 2019 ]

It's the third day and, in striking comparison to day two, it is not a bright and sunny morning. The day begins for every hero with an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar time.

When your characters check their phones, clocks, calendars, or any other timekeeping implement they'll find that the year is 00 AW, forty years before the present day. The year before the Wizard's first game was held, the year before it came down to only two knights and the Princess facing off against the Wizard. It was before all of it.

Everywhere your characters go, there are no people. Their devices will not connect to the internet outside of the island, their companions will not appear, the Protector will not answer, but they can text each other without difficulty. If groups in the same city try to find each other, they will find that some kind of mystical plot barrier is keeping them from finding each other. A wrong turn, a locked door, a lost connection. Somehow, they're kept apart. All the support they have is who they woke up with. Oddly, everyone wakes up in their normal day-to-day clothing rather than pajamas.

There have to be answers somewhere, but where?

Third Morning Event: All Cities: The Past.

---

The Weather

• Eerily still.
• 64°F / 18°C
• The trees are unmoving, there is no wind.

---

Prompts:

• 6:30am Spa Hotel, Bamborough: Two sets of heroes wake up in the Spa Hotel in Bamborough. Garrot wakes up in the same room as Olivia. On the far side of the Spa hotel, in one of the waterfront cabins, Haizea and Joanna wake up in the same room. The hotel is empty, but every room is unlocked. Food's still in the dining areas, too. Oddly, things look like they were in use around the Hotel. Carts in the middle of hallways, half-eaten meals on tables, bags halfway up staircases. Odd.


• 6:30am Lodge Cots, Craydon: The Craydon lodge isn't much, but it's a spanning complex of cabins that maximize occupancy by filling them with cots for that "outdoor camping" experience. Rory and Gail will wake up in one of the cabins near the base of the mountain. On the furthest edge of the lodge, Gyre and Seth will wake up in their top-level cots higher up the mountain. There are a few campfires going with meat roasting over them, piles of raw meat to the side ready to cook, and various festivities left laying around. It's almost like everyone up and left all at once, but where did they go?


• 6:30am Cozy Inn, Far Haven: Far Haven's 'Cozy Inn' promises the 'small town feeling' in the middle of the big city. The inside is exactly that, a very cozy little hotel with three floors of rooms and a covered walkway with a glass floor over a garden into another section of the hotel. Zafika and Web will wake up in a room on the first floor nearest the train station exit of the cozy inn. No doors are locked here and it looks as if things were left strewn about like the people just teleported out of here. Terrence, Matilda, and Luka wake up in the glass walkway above, in sleeping bags. They'll find that the only way out goes to the cozy inn's far building, they'll have to go through a spanning cafeteria space with tons of empty tables that, strangely, look like they were just in use. Plates with half-full, or even untouched plates sit around on every table and there are even jackets draped over some chairs, purses on the ground. The city outside is much the same, vehicles just stopped in the middle of the street with no drivers, things dropped on the ground. What happened...?


• 9:30am, Exploration, Bamborough, Craydon, Far Haven: The scene is much the same in all three cities. When the heroes make their way outside, they'll notice that the sky above Harsen Island is a massive vortex centered over the mountain in the middle of the island. Heroes in Craydon will get to see it a little closer, the massive clouds occasionally crackling with blue lightning. All three cities have glowing cracks in the ground in various places, the cracks lead all around, some larger, some smaller, maybe there's something to be found? There are large glowing obelisks that are floating over each city and outside of them, they occasionally float down near the ground enough to touch or look closer at. Once the heroes make their way out into the streets, they might start seeing glimpses of a Wizard hat in the distance but each time it passes behind a wall or into shadow and is gone. Maybe they can catch up? Maybe your hero takes a moment to search through local news, the paper, letters, a television station. What's going on in the city right now?

---

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: 'Exploration' toplevels will unlock additional information as items in their descriptions are explored. If your character explores a feature, write [Character explores ____] at the end of your tag and send a ping on Discord to get a reply with further details regarding that item.

Comments

Bamborough

[wizardseason]

6:30am Spa Hotel, Bamborough:

[wizardseason]

Two sets of heroes wake up in the Spa Hotel in Bamborough. Garrot wakes up in the same room as Olivia. On the far side of the Spa hotel, in one of the waterfront cabins, Haizea and Joanna wake up in the same room. The hotel is empty, but every room is unlocked. Food's still in the dining areas, too. Oddly, things look like they were in use around the Hotel. Carts in the middle of hallways, half-eaten meals on tables, bags halfway up staircases. Odd.

Garrot + Olivia

[daddykong]

Mmm... five more minutes... [ Garrot's protests are groggy, and it's not until his leg twitches that he realizes his bed is all of a sudden too short for him. His feet are dangling, which he's not a fan of, and- he's not in his bed? He goes to look at his phone, to see ]

What... the fuck?! [ The words are whispered, because he sees the year, and he sees that someone else is in the other bed. The cute girl from the bar?! But this isn't good- none of this is good. They barely know each other and they're somewhere they shouldn't be so uh

he gets up from the bed carefully and whispers her name. Loudly. He's not trying to be subtle, just less gentle than shouting. ] Psssst, Olivia. Heeeeeey, Olivia! [ And then he gives the blankets on the bed a little tug. He really doesn't want to scare her, since he's a huge, muscular, hairy, clawed beast with jeggings, a black sleeveless hoodie, and contacts instead of glasses. He looks like he was about to spend the morning on a long jog or training or something. At least the hood is down! ]

It's Garrot, are you awake? [ He wants to flop down onto the rest of the bed, but resists the urge. Instead, he gets a little frantic sounding. ] Please wake up...

[disguiseself]

[Olivia, apparently, was sleeping in a black poncho and ripped jeans. She stirred when he whispered and tugged at her blanket, thinking for a moment it was just her hangover fucking with her, but when he raised his voice her eyes immediately shot open and she jumped out of the bed in a matter of seconds, a dagger in hand. Her pupils are fully dilated as she scans the room, panicking as she doesn't recognize it. Her eyes set on Garrot as she backs away from him, ready to defend herself if she has to.]

What is this? Where are we? [She hisses. She's disoriented and terrified, but she makes an effort to remember last night's events.] We - didn't leave the bar together, I-I remember talking to Gyre and then... took the train, found a place... [She then mumbles something about the Protector and lowers her weapon; pretty sure that it wasn't Garrot who put her in this situation, at least. Were they fucking kidnapped? She breathes heavily during this pause, trying to suppress a full blown panic attack. When she repeats her question, it isn't in an accusatory tone anymore - she's just scared.] Where are we?

[daddykong]

[ Garrot's hands go up, palms open with gentle, calm down motions. He does pick up on the word Protector in that mumbling, but he's more concerned with that knife. Not that it's a knife, but more what could happen to Olivia if she decides to use it. She's asking some good questions, though! ]

I woke up just a minute ago, saw you, and wanted to see if you were okay. [ His head gestures towards the knife, but at this point he's got a little smile. ] Are you? I- I'm glad you found a place, too. [ Garrot takes a chance to hold up his phone, which displays the year as forty years prior. He looks grim. ]

You know about as much as I do. [ Admittedly, he doesn't really know what the inside of Bamborough hotels look like. So he's kind of winging it a lot. And he might be thinking his phone is bricked. ]

[disguiseself]

[She nods as he explains, she believes him. She tentatively takes a few steps closer to look at his phone's screen. Her brow furrows as she sees the date, taking out her own phone and discovering the same.] I don't - get it. Magic fucking up the antennas?

[She's still trying to calm herself down; taking deep breaths. She rubs at her face as she tries to focus, and the stains on her fingers show her that she's wearing her make-up. That's good, that's a good thing. Okay, okay, okay. Deep breaths.] I can't - think. We're not safe anywhere. I need to move. I need fresh air. I need - Iv.

Iv? [She calls out to her companion, expecting a reassuring hand to fall on her shoulder - but she's met with silence. She calls out again, but when the minotaur still doesn't come, Olivia looks at Garrot with wide eyes.] She's never not answered. Something's fucked, this is all wrong, I - let's go? Outside, stay with me?

[daddykong]

[ Garrot looks perturbed at the idea of fucky magic, but that gives way to concern because Olivia is starting to freak out. A lot. No matter what's going on in his head, he needs to keep his shit together for her. ]

Xaljim. [ The name comes out stern like a parent reprimanding a child. No response. He looks around the room for something, anything to use as a weapon, while trying to focus his mind to summon a double. Still nothing. ] Tch.

Hold on, this might be loud. [ And then he walks into the bathroom, and with a loud and violent grunt and a few dull thuds, Garrot returns with a steel shower rod in hand. It's no quarterstaff, but it'll do for now. ]

You'll be safe with me. Ladies first. [ Garrot gestures to the door, so she can bug out as soon as she's ready. But he does give her a nice little smile as he does it, because he wants her to be Okay. ]

Haizea + Joanna

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea wakes first, as suddenly she feels supremely uncomfortable. When she opens her eyes, she sees why; she's fully dressed, in jeans and boots and everything. She's literally never been able to sleep like this, and the sheer wrongness of it all makes her shiver a bit until she jumps out of bed.

When she sees Joanna, her eyebrows raise. What on earth happened?

"Hey, uh... Joanna? Joanna, wake up!" she starts of speaking softly, but reaches an tone closer to yelling by the end of that.

[fauntofwisdom]

Joanna's ears flick at the sounds for a few seconds before the rest of her catches up, and stirring enough to roll over and blink at the world.

"I'm... I'm awake," she mumbles, raising a hand to shield her eyes and help her focus.
"...Haizea, right? Is something upsetting you?

As she pushes herself up to sitting, Joanna surveys the room. The curtains are mostly closed, but it's light enough to make out this is an unfamiliar place, and she's waking in a bed, fully clothed. That much isn't a terrible surprise, she'd struggled to fall asleep the night before, with her thoughts churning over the aftermath of the monster fight...

If you can really call it the night before.

[tropicalstorm]

"Uh, yeah, I'm a bit upset! Do you remember us falling asleep in this room? Or even whose room this is?" She starts checking her person, as if that will answer her questions. Her outfit is basically what she'd intended to wear today, and she finds her knight weapon brass knuckles in her back pocket but only her knight phone in her jacket.

"I don't know 'bout you, but never in my life have I been able to fall asleep fully dressed like this. I got a bad feeling..."

[fauntofwisdom]

Joanna regrets asking the question almost as soon as she takes in a little more of their situation. Even if Haizea hadn't directly answered, the shape of her questions after gives it away. So Joanna sits for a moment, controlling her breathing and listening, trying to wake herself up a little more.

"I haven't visited anyone else's 'home', but this isn't mine," she confirms softly, and slowly stands. "You think we've been brought here by someone. We're not restrained... and you have a weapon on hand... so it may simply be a prank."

She doesn't think so, either. Their voices sound a little too loud, and her every step towards the door seems to echo even though they're on carpeted floors. It's like the world outside has gone silent. Ominous.

"...I'll try opening the door. Keep a lookout, would you?" Joanna asks, pausing a second for an answering nod, before opening the hallway door.

[tropicalstorm]

Haizea nods and slips her brass knuckles on. If this is a trap, she's ready to fight her way out of it. When the door opens though, there's just.... nothing but an empty hallway. She walks out into it cautiously and listens for anything unusual, and hears not a sound.

"This feels weird... let's try and get outta here, we can at least figure out where we are then."

9:30am Exploration, Bamborough:

[wizardseason]

The scene is much the same in all three cities. When the heroes make their way outside, they'll notice that the sky above Harsen Island is a massive vortex centered over the mountain in the middle of the island. Heroes in Craydon will get to see it a little closer, the massive clouds occasionally crackling with blue lightning. All three cities have glowing cracks in the ground in various places, the cracks lead all around, some larger, some smaller, maybe there's something to be found? There are large glowing obelisks that are floating over each city and outside of them, they occasionally float down near the ground enough to touch or look closer at. Once the heroes make their way out into the streets, they might start seeing glimpses of a Wizard hat in the distance but each time it passes behind a wall or into shadow and is gone. Maybe they can catch up? Maybe your hero takes a moment to search through local news, the paper, letters, a television station. What's going on in the city right now?

[tropicalstorm]

Eventually, Haizea makes her way out of the hotel and into the street. The vortex sky is the first thing she notices, followed shortly by the cracks in the ground and the floating obelisk. She walks out into the street and squints.

"This town ain't got no business looking like this..." she mutters to herself, before deciding to approach one of the obelisks.

[wizardseason]

The obelisk that Haizea's found is floating about a foot off of the ground, drifting slowly down a street in Bamborough. If it keeps going on its trajectory, it's going to smash into a building straight ahead in... probably about eight minutes. But if Haizea's been watching the others, she'll know that the obelisks seem to automatically pathfind their way over or around obstacles as they putter around in the air.

When she approaches, it starts glowing faintly with little wisps of electricity licking off of its surface. If she gets close enough, she'll hear a crack as the charge strikes her but oddly she won't be injured. Perks of being grounded, perhaps?

The surface of the obelisk is a dark stone, semi transparent. Enough to see that there's something beneath the surface but it can't be made out from where Haizea is now.

[tropicalstorm]

The electric charge doesn't unsettle her as much as it would someone else, but it's still surprising. She takes stock of herself real quick to make sure she's uninjured before approaching closer.

"What the hell is this thing," she mutters again, and reaches out a hand, intending to touch the dark stone once she's close enough.

[wizardseason]

The surface of the stone is smooth, surprisingly so. There isn't even the slightest roughness to it, instead it's just a perfect slab of whatever it's made of. Even the corners are shocking smooth to the touch. This thing couldn't hurt anyone even if they ran into it.

If Haizea looks close enough, she'll be able to get a clearer look at whatever's inside of the stone itself.

And if she looks close, she'll make out the details.

It's a kid.

In this obelisk it's a kid with black hair and tanned skin, seemingly free-floating and asleep within the crystal itself. Is it solid inside? Hollow? Who knows.

[fauntofwisdom]

With cellphones working - maybe not perfectly, but well enough for all the knights to communicate with each other - Joanna and Haizea split up to search separately. Covering more ground is more effective than searching in a pair, especially since there don't appear to be any other people they can talk with about what's going on.

Joanna begins by pretty literally covering the ground - she goes directly to examining the glowing cracks in the ground, checking for signs that they might be expanding... or that there's anything specific within them causing the glow.

[Joanna explores the cracks in the ground of Bamborough.]

[wizardseason]

There's no sign of what's causing the glow, instead it just seems like the rock itself is what's causing the glow. Like it's a hollow vessel filled with something magical, but if that was true then why was only this glowing? Why was every inch of the whole ground not glowing? Weird!

Fortunately there's no sign that it's growing, they seem largely stationary. The only odd thing is that none of the cracks seem to have ripped through buildings like fractures from earthquakes do. Instead these rip through paths, roads, parks, all natural areas.

Hopefully Joanna doesn't try to drive anywhere.

[fauntofwisdom]

Weird, yes. Almost as weird as waking up in an empty island full of glowing cracks in ground and sky alike.

It's plain that something unnatural and magical is going on here, even if she doesn't understand the details of it... yet. Since it seems the ground probably isn't going to crumble beneath her hooves, Joanna crouches down next to one of the cracks. If the rock itself is glowing, wouldn't that glow spread further than the cracks? This seems more like there's something invisible about the cracks causing the glow to radiate forth... and there's an easy way to test it.

She pulls at the edge of the stones, searching for a glowing piece small enough to pick up and carry away from the cracks.

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for Joanna the glowing rocks seem fairly solid, but since the ground is all crunched up and damaged... It doesn't take more than a few pulls at the edges of the glowing cracked stones to find one that breaks away.

But the moment it's pulled free, the blue glow vanishes from the rock. The blue glow on the ground she'd broken it from remains, but the little piece she's holding is now just a rock.

It was worth a try.

[disguiseself]

[After taking one look out the window, Olivia runs outside, taking in the situation. She bites her hand as she looks around, trying to ground herself and not panic. She probably only has a very vague idea of what had happened in the year she's currently in; she dropped out of high-school and wouldn't really remember the history lessons from when she was younger. Regardless, this is really fucked up. We are not in Kansas anymore.

She doesn't wander too far from the hotel, not wanting to be separated from Garrot just yet. She carefully walks over to one of the cracks in the ground, crouching down to inspect it, ready to jump away if it does anything weird. She leans in a little, trying to see what's going on inside it.]

[wizardseason]

[ The crack itself is just a rip through the ground, like someone took two sections and pushed them against each other until they jutted upwards from the force. It's only the sections that have jutted up, the middle of the cracks, that are glowing. ]

[ When Olivia crouches down, she'll get to feel how the air itself changes around her. The closer she is to the ground, the more it feels like she's being pressed in on all sides by static electricity. Everything crackles, everything starts standing on end. Whatever's going on, it's charged. ]

[daddykong]

Hey, I was wondering where you went, you just took off, and- [ Garrot comes bounding around the corner with the grace of worried parent, but he almost skids to a halt when he sees what Olivia has found. ] Whoa.

[ The doctor quickly approaches, one hand grasped tightly around his phone, which is definitely recording. This is a research goldmine, they're here when everyone on the island was gone. ] One of these showed up in the schoolyard back home. Recess got cancelled, and all our parents had to come pick us up. [ For a nearly-fifty-year-old man, he sure sounds bummed! And mostly like he's talking to the air- Olivia doesn't have to listen to his elderly ramblings. ]

But it might be dangerous. [ A beat, and he puts a hand on Olivia's shoulder. ] Wanna throw a water bottle at it and see if it gets zapped? [ Garrot sees those electrical visual effects, and he's a man of science. ]

[disguiseself]

We're supposed to save the planet, dude, not make it sicker by throwing plastic bottles into weird... magic cracks.

[She keeps her attention on the crack, trying to ignore how weird the air feels. She tentatively runs her hand along its edges, wishing really badly she had some sort of healing power instead of disguises.

But, since she can't heal the ground and Garrot seems to want to do science anyway, she slowly sticks her hand inside. Her goal is to see what'll happen, but if there's anything physical inside that could be causing this, she's gonna try to take it.]