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

[spookyroomba]

Web nods at this solution to their problem, while also gesturing at a nearby tree. "Mind marking that tree, too? A mark on the ground is fine, but it might get blown away. A backup wouldn't hurt - just a line, and we'll be off."

They keep their eyes peeled for any notable terrain features, as well, just to be on the safe side.

[Web's trying to find landmarks so they don't get lost!]

[zafika]

Zafika raises their brow the tiniest bit, and look at the 'X' they've carved to the ground. It's really, really deep, it won't be easy to blow off but... fine, they'll do it. So, they mark up the tree Web is pointing at, cutting a vertical line to the bark of the tree.

Once it's been marked, they head after the obelisk, making sure to stick close to Web just so they won't lose them. They're not risking any more weird bullshit happening that could keep them from finding each other again.

[Zafika heads after the moving obelisk to investigate it from up close.]

[wizardseason]

The woods are pretty easy to leave a trail in, but the Obelisk's path is anyone's guess. It isn't moving overly fast, though, so pursuing it isn't a problem. The 'X' stays put where they've left it, conveniently marks in the ground don't just up and walk away so it'll be right where they've left it.

When they get within ten feet of the obelisk, Zafika gets the first surprise. A child's voice speaks up far, far too close in their ear. It's like they're right beside Zafika, but if they whip around to look: There's no one, only the wind.

"Are we playing hide and seek?"

Web doesn't get left out, though, because less than thirty seconds after Zafika hears the child's voice (and Web doesn't hear that voice), Web gets a child of their own whispering in their ear (that Zafika can't hear). The child sounds like they're directly beside Web's ear, but if they look there's no one.

"Are you looking for me?"

[spookyroomba]

This time, Web really does bleat from surprise, and they very nearly fall over as they whirl around, trying to find the source of the voice.

There is none.

"...Zafika, did you hear that?"

[zafika]

Zafika, meanwhile, has had a bit more aggresive reaction to their own creepy kid. They didn't hear anyone approaching them, so when there's a sudden voice right next to their ear, their tail lashes at the air behind them as they whirl around to look who the hell it is, hand jerking towards their bag before they manage to stop it, but they're at least not grabbing a dagger. Yet.

But when they turn around, there's no one behind them. They only get a little bit of confusion, before they hear a bleat from beside them, clearly coming from Web however and less threatening too, thank heavens. Their question, however, makes them think that Web heard the same voice too, since they didn't hear their creepy kid. "Yeah, I did... first floating obelisks, and now creepy kids? Fuck this bullshit..." they mutter, and quickly pick up the pace to catch up with the obelisk, their tail carefully tugging Web to follow before letting them go.

[Zafika hurries towards the obelisk, in weird hopes that investigating it would get the creepy kid's voice to leave them alone.]

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately the child isn't going to be ignored and they're definitely not going to go away. They're right there again, whispering as two voices simultaneously in both Web and Zafika's ears. One voice is in their left ears, the other voice in their right ears.

"Look, you found me!"
"Look inside, it's me!"

And sure enough, when Zafika and Web get close enough to look past the smooth, crystalline surface of the huge obelisk: It's a child. It's hard to make out any details, but their dark hair is definitely some kind of cool color. Purple? Blue? But they look asleep, eyes closed as they're floating within the crystal.

[spookyroomba]

"That's a kid -"

Without thinking, Web reaches out to touch the obelisk, trying to find some kind of opening, a hinge, some way to get that kid out of there.

[Web is an idiot and touched the obelisk!]

[zafika]

Zafika's hands snap up to cover their ears, and they make a tiny, quiet hiss as they step backwards from the obelisk, glaring around at the voice. 'You found me'? What does that-

Then they look at the obelisk properly, and freeze to place for a moment. A kid!? Why the hell is there a kid inside this obelisk!? They have the same stupid reaction as Web does, and get close enough to the obelisk to touch it and peer inside properly, trying to get a better look at the child inside it.

[Zafika joins Web in being an idiot, and touches the obelisk too, trying to peer inside it better.]

[wizardseason]

Unfortunately for both Zafika and Web, nothing happens when they touch the Obelisk. They're left with this giant rock still slowly floating away from them with a child inside of it. The worst part is that it's now starting to float up and off of the ground, it was about a foot off the ground before and now it's up to a foot and a half. It won't be long before it's two, three, and... well, it's on some kind of path.

But the voices in Web and Zafika's ears come back separately. This time it's one voice each, in one ear.

"Are you a hero?" The voice asks only in Zafika's right ear.

"Will you do the right thing?" The voice asks only in Web's left ear.

[spookyroomba]

The right...thing?

"...Well, I'll try my best, voice in my left ear," Web replies. They look over at Zafika briefly, then at the slowly rising obelisk.

"Think we ought to turn back now, or hang on to this thing and see where it goes?"