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

Craydon

[wizardseason]

6:30am Lodge Cots, Craydon:

[wizardseason]

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?

Rory + Gail

[roaryrory]

Rory yawns loudly and stretches her arms as she wakes up. Somehow visiting the Protector made her rest that much sweeter. She rubs her eyes, and looks around her room... only... it's not her room?! She springs up panicked and quickly spots the centaur still sleeping nearby.

"Gail...? Gail?! Gail!"

Ill-advisedly, she goes to shake him awake. She's freaking out and she needs him to tell her it's just a dream, something, anything! What's going on?!

[partyhorse]

Sober Gail is very light sleeper so he awoke to Rory's loud yawn and even louder scream, causing him to quickly get on his feet and hit his head to the roof. This was NOT a centaur sized room!

"Rory? Where are we? What happened? Am I still alive!?" Yeah the horse panic was starting to grow and Gail looked around franticly while holding his head. Headache was the last thing he needed right now

[roaryrory]

She gasps, lifting one hand in front of her mouth while keeping the other on Gail's horse back. "I'm so... so sorry! I didn't mean to sca- startle you," she stammers, "You're alive, probably, I mean I can touch you and you probably can't touch a ghost, so, that's a positive. I don't know where we are though!"

[partyhorse]

He surely did FEEL alive but that was about that. The room they were in seemed like a fairly normal cabin room and nothing seemed out of place. Not considering that it was NOT where he had fallen asleep.

"How did we get here? I'm sure I fell asleep at my place back in Bamburough. Did we get kidnapped!? Is that a thing that can happen!?!" Yeah Gail was freaking out hardcore, he was starting to become very restless.

[roaryrory]

"That would be a big mistake! We're knights, we will fight back!" Rory says and punches the air above her head. "I didn't go to sleep in any sort of a cabin either, or in my regular clothes! There's some foul play going on, it was probably the Wizard!"

[partyhorse]

Now that Gail thought about it, Wizard being the reason for this all made the most sense. Of course this was the Wizard's fault.

"Okay. Okay yeah that makes sense. Uh. Are the, are the others here? We should probably look for the others, I think."

gyre + seth

[sustainer]

"Gh!" Gyre chokes as he wakes up. He's not where he fell asleep. He doesn't know where he is, but even these cots are too comfortable for him to be able to sleep. He blinks blearily around, shoving himself up onto all fours and looking out the closest window.

"Fuck. Fuck--" he mutters, repeating the word again and again as he realizes how early it is, and stumbles out of bed. He can't be awake right now. There's no way he's going to be able to function like this, and while he registers that Seth is in this foreign room with him, he's going to walk right by him without comment.

And then uh out the door. He needs to find out where he is or else find someplace to sleep. Either will work for him right now.

Re: gyre + seth

[silentwords]

Seth actually uh...kind of wakes up to the sound of the door being used. Kind of a light sleeper.

And when he wakes up it takes him a moment but then he recognizes he's not where he fell asleep at and it freaks him the fuck out. He's fumbling as he gets immediately up from the bed, after a moment, to his relief, noticing that while his bad is nowhere to be seen, he is still clutching Abigail to his chest like he was when he fell asleep.

Feeling scared, after a rather useless look around the cabinet he also goes out of the door, feeling rather scared and vulnerable.

[sustainer]

Hopefully he's not moving too quickly as he leaves out the door because Gyre has stopped directly outside of it. His head is tipped back, and he's staring at the three moons hung up in the sky, entirely intact.

His breathing is careful, controlled. He's trying very hard not to hyperventilate honestly, and he moves suddenly into the camp. Again, if he notices Seth at all, he doesn't say anything to him, picking up an Amarosian newspaper that's been abandoned beside the fire pit and reading it over.

"Fuck," he murmurs after a moment.

[silentwords]

Seth pauses when he sees Gyre. Okay, thank god he's not alone.
He looks at the other with fearful confusion, as Gyre is just staring at something in the sky.

Before he can really react to that though, Gyre's already on the move. Not wanting to be left alone Seth runs after him, catching up at about the same time he hears Gyre swear.

Okay this is freaking him out, what the fuck is going on, where are they, can this stop being a thing please.
He searches for his phone, pretty much out of reflex. Only to realize he only has his Knight phone with him, which has him swearing internally. Fuck he didn't even know if this thing had text to speech let alone where he'd find it in it. He used it only for the group chat.

Putting it away, he hesitantly reached out to tap very lightly on Gyre's shoulder. Thankfully he at least should be communicate with him since Gyre actually knew sign language.

[sustainer]

He sees Seth moving out of the corner of his eye, but it still startles him when he feels that tap on his shoulder. He jumps a little, lowering the paper and looking at him. His expression is extremely guarded, and he grits his teeth hard for a moment.

"I have to get off this island. You can come with me or not," he says curtly, and he sets the newspaper down, turning to leave this area.

[silentwords]

How guarded Gyre looked really didn't sit well with Seth. And neither did the idea of going off into the unknown. And right now that overpowered his fear of being left alone here.

Hesitantly he nodded before running to go back inside the cabin they had woken up in...he'd probably feel at least a little safer inside there.

9:30am Exploration, Crayon:

[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?

[sustainer]

Things have been weird enough for Gyre already. He's doing his best to not have a complete out of body experience, but every time he looks at one of these cracks in the ground, he can feel his chest tightening. Everything is wrong.

Everything is wrong and the one familiar thing that isn't deeply painful to him here is the flash of the wizard's hat in the corner of his vision. Suddenly, that's all he wants to focus on. He can process the rest of this later. She'll have more answers then the newspapers do, he's sure, and he darts suddenly after her.

"Hey! Wizard, stop!!" he shouts after her the best he can, his voice catching in his throat before he can call again. Hopefully that was enough to get her attention.

[wizardseason]

The Wizard hat that Gyre starts to follow stays just out of his reach. Each time he makes it to the corner he'd seen the Wizard vanishing behind, he turns the corner to see the hat already at the next corner, disappearing beyond sight once again. The path of pursuit leads Gyre over some of the cracks in the ground again and again, making it impossible for him to miss the state that Craydon is in.

However, it shouldn't be long before Gyre picks up on something being wrong.

The first part of the pursuit had left turns, right turns, stairs, and alleyways. Now, though, every corner the hat is disappearing behind is a right turn. It's a right after a right after a right after a right. Gyre's being led in a square, around the same building over and over again. It's nothing special, just a three-story bank and apartment setup. What will he do? Continue the pursuit? Change it up? Something else?

[sustainer]

He continues calling after the hat as they move through the city, though his voice gets weaker and weaker each time. He actually stops halfway into the second loop around the bank to cough, hacking into his hand for several seconds. He rubs his throat, considering how he can catch the wizard when she keeps just enough ahead of him. He doesn't understand what she's doing honestly, and it's as he wonders at what she wants here that he realizes they've just been circling.

Immediately, he looks up at the building, trying to see if it's anything special. It doesn't look like it. Just a bank, right? He glances up towards the last place he saw the hat, and then behind him. If they're just circling, then the wizard should come back around this way any second now, right?

He's going to wait and see, watching expectantly in the direction he came, refusing to move until he's sure she's not coming.

If she isn't, then he'll head into the building instead to see if there's anything here he ought to be paying attention to.

[wizardseason]

Gyre's theory is proven false when no one turns the other corner. Wherever the Wizard is, it's not continuing to circle the building. The Wizard hat is nowhere in sight until he goes into the building. It's a standard bank layout with a set of elevators at the back of the area. Gyre'll hear a 'ding' as an elevator opens and a wizard hat makes its way around the corner and into the elevator. Even if he moves fast, he'll get to the elevator just as the doors close in front of him.

It goes up 1, 2, 3, and then stops at "R".

The directory to the side of the elevator says:

• 1: Craydon Local Bank
• 2: Lodge Apartments 1-1
• 3: Lodge Apartments 2-1
• R: Roof Garden

[sustainer]

He does move fast! He doesn't shout again, his throat starting to ache already, but he does run through the lobby, almost slamming into the closing doors when he finally gets there. Just a second too late.

"Dammit." He takes a deep breath, steadying himself before he taps the elevator and waits. He'd take the stairs, but he knows she came this way, so this is the way he's following, and he considers the directory for just a moment before he hits R. He doesn't want to walk through these dreary apartment hallways if he doesn't have to.

But if there's nothing on the roof, then he'll go down to 2 next, and start testing to see if any of the apartments are open.

Re: 9:30am Exploration, Crayon:

[roaryrory]

Rory is dizzy from the anxiety in her chest pressing into her ribs, and for the moment she can do nothing but run. This has to be a nightmare, it has to be, there is no way this is happening otherwise. You'd think it would be easier to just keep running if it was a dream though, but that's not the case; she does have to stop eventually, and she falls on her knees next to a crack on the ground. It seems she's made it quite close to the mountain.

She takes a moment to catch her breath and hold her bad knee that's complaining about running so much so soon after her injury. Then the light from the crack brings her back to her senses. Well, that's new, but not the first new thing she's encountered today. Her curiosity beats her nervousness on this one, and she digs up a rock from her pouch to drop into it.

[Rory drops a small rock into a crack.]

[wizardseason]

Rory, what if this crack didn't want a rock? Huh? What then? Gosh.

Unfortunately the crack has no choice but to accept the rock, and when it plunks down into it it taps a few times before there's a pulse of bright blue light and then the rock is gone.

And then Rory will feel a weight in her hand and the rock is back there, hanging out in her fingers like it'd never been dropped at all. Did she actually drop it? Was this magic? Weird!

[roaryrory]

Well, in that case, it's an ungrateful crack! It should know Rory only collects the prettiest, most interesting of rocks.

She blinks at the rock back in her hand, then drops it back in. Have to make sure that wasn't a fluke.

[wizardseason]

Okay fine it'll just have to eat the rock this time.

But even so, a few seconds more pass this time before Rory feels the familiar weight in her hand. Rock's back.

[roaryrory]

Huh. Well, then. At least no rock was lost. Rory stands back up, not feeling any more certain about what's going on. The cracks are magic, alright.

She looks up towards the mountain, and the vortex above it. Is there something going on there? Maybe it's the Wizard's doing. She furrows her brow in determination and [starts hiking up toward the eye of the storm.]