you opened your eyes, spreading it wide

[promittere]

THIRD QUARTER ALLEGRO

While our newly-arrived wizards have been settling in, learning their magic, and getting to know one another, the sage and their mentor have been busy with a different kind of work behind the scenes—bureaucratic work. It hasn't been particularly exciting, but it has paid off.

Because now, the world is ready to receive them.

Put on your finest clothes, because Granvelle Castle invites you to a welcome ball in your honor.

Didn't bring any fine clothes with you? No need to worry—specially chosen tailors from Central Capital have been commissioned to take care of you, and they will be visiting the manor to get you gussied up in the fashion of your choice for the day (by this, we mean feel free to pick whatever fancy clothes you want for the ball).

As the sun sets on the designated day, all the residents of the manor make their way to the castle. Granvelle Castle stands proud in Central Capital, its lights a beacon in the darkening city, and its doors open to outsiders for the first time in weeks. Upon arrival they're greeted by brightly lit halls, welcoming staff, and a grand ballroom, windows flung open to let in the spring breeze and pale moonlight. Everyone and everything seems determined to make this a cheerful affair, despite the underlying sense of dread and tension.

Live music fills the air, played the greatest musicians in the world. There are some larger ensembles, solo acts; some pieces are of more traditional folk dances, while some are slower, and some are upbeat and avant-garde. Regardless, the floor is open for dancing—grab a buddy and dance the night away!

Lining one wall is a long banquet table, filled with plenty of food and drink, both alcoholic and non to sate the new arrivals. The hors d'oeuvres and small plates comprise an array of delicacies from around the world, with everything from savory lobster bites to the sweetest portions of tres leches you have ever tasted. It seems someone has also put in a specific request for Japanese food—a part of the banquet table has been set aside specifically for Japanese dishes, and this includes small portions of ramen. There also seems to be a plate on the far end of the table filled with lovingly stacked pieces of charcoal... Is that meant to be food?

You aren't the only ones in attendance tonight. Representatives and dignitaries from around the world are also present—they have quite a lot to say about the unusual situation, and they are most curious about these otherworldly individuals tasked with fending off the moon under their national banners. The most dignitaries are from Central, West, and East, while there do seem to be a few representatives from the less populated North and South. Those from Central, West, and South in general seem to be the most social, while the rest are more reserved. There are also a few of the castle staff that seem (begrudgingly) willing to speak with the new wizards. Most are here to chat and mingle—lend them an ear, you may learn something new...

For those tired of socializing, the ballroom opens out onto a breezy, spacious balcony. It looks out over the main thoroughfare leading to the main castle entrance, and the nighttime lights of the Central capital twinkle in the near distance. For those that would rather take a breather, there is a small patio table and a couple of chairs. Despite the waxing moon in the sky, it is a very nice evening.

If you would like to have a chat with an NPC, then please respond to this comment. NPCs will be assigned randomly if no preference is given. While everyone has something valuable to say, they're not giving potentially sensitive info out for free—let's hope your diplomatic skills are up to snuff. We're doing our best to give everyone meaningful conversations, so please bear with us!

JOB BOARD

Rejuvenation. Thanks to your Southern friends' hard work, the South has been saved from a potentially devastating crop failure, and these fledgling towns can continue to grow as they're meant to! Give them a pat on the back and a round of applause.

But the South is not without its scars. While the root cause has been taken care of, the damage has been done. A town's wheat field has been partially destroyed—help them tear out the blackened, dead wheat, till and fertilize the soil, and replant what can be replanted. The City of Clouds, the most prosperous of the Southern settlements, have also offered extra tools, hands, and seeds to help set the town back on the path to recovery. Transport these supplies to the town. Let's hope your broom skills are up to snuff too, because it's a long ride.

Shadows in the night. The residents of the Central capital have recently been reporting eerie sightings after sundown: shadowy figures lurking in corners, the constant feeling of being watched, and, in some extreme cases, these shadowy figures attacking when traveling alone at night. Many reports seem to indicate an odd concentration of these creepy figures lurking around the Granvelle Castle moat, as though trying to find a way into the castle. Residents are understandably frightened and unnerved and cannot go about their nightly business—beat back what shadows you find and make the streets safer for the Central capital residents.

While physical attacks don't seem to do much against them, they dissipate rather easily under magic. Try not to wear yourself to the bone, though—there are a lot of them.

Escorting nobility. The Eastern Blanchett noble family have called an important meeting, inviting nobles and others of import from across the Eastern Country. However, their castle lies beyond Sherwood Forest, a very large, dense, and deep wood—while a fine natural defense for the Blanchett family, it's a bit of trouble for those looking to visit. While the Blanchett's own forest guard is absent, it is your job to safely escort these nobles to the Blanchett abode, and back out. But be careful: lurking in the shadows amongst the trees are all sorts of territorial predators like bears and wolves, not to mention the magical beasts that sneak up on unsuspecting prey. You may come across a brigand or bandit or two, since the forest is a near perfect hiding place for illegal activity. And please—try not to get lost.

Typical of any Easterner, the nobles are reluctant to make much small talk and are a bit suspicious of the new wizards, but they are otherwise pleasant and will generally comply with most requests.

WANDERER TASKS

Can you go a week without ruining food or the pots and pans? Stop being so wasteful and learn how to cook or stop trying.

Learn how to use magic to repair things. Again, if you're going to keep ruining the kitchen at least learn how to put it back together.

TATARA ACTIVITIES

I need milk. I'm trying to perfect latte foam art, but I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet... I used up all the milk (oops, sorry!), so I need more. Actually, could you grab me other kinds of milk while you're at it? I want to experiment! I'm sure other markets in the farther reaches of the world will have weirder milk... Please!

We should start a veggie garden! Or an herb garden? Doesn't matter! I found a nice sunny patch of grass in the training forest—we could dig up that spot, right? Help me get it set up! I need people to dig, and till... Oh! We need seeds to plant, too! Please and thank you~

OOC NOTES

🌙 Welcome to your second event post! Get out your snazzy outfits. It's time to party.
🌙 As you grow into your magic, your character might start realizing they can differentiate between everyone's magic. Everyone has a unique signature, and you may be able to start sensing who cast what, where. Someone put a magical seal on the kitchen door? Smells like Shinjiro's magic. Akira had some of Solomon's sugar? You can sense that, too!
🌙 As you start getting past the basics, your character might realize they have a much easier time with certain kinds of magic over others. For North, this will be offensive and attack spells; for East, this will be intricate seals and curses; for West, this will be manipulative magic like illusions and transformation; for South, this will be healing, purification, and protection. Central? A little bit of everything. Read up on your country if you need a refresher!
🌙 It's been peaceful at home in the manor thus far, hasn't it? Do you think that will last?
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Remember to keep all wider plotting contained to the OOC post, since not everyone checks plurk or discord frequently.
🌙 Our next group to go on their mission is Central. Be ready, heroes...

» NAVIGATION

Comments

MEETING

[dyingtohealyou]

[Please deposit tags and sub toplevels in the appropriate header.]

SOUTHERN COUNTRY ADVENTURES

[dyingtohealyou]

[For anyone who wants to share info from the southern country mission]

Moon rock

[troublereduction]

[ A few days after the Southern wizards return from their mission, as the residents as going about their business in the manor—

Good lord what is that noise. It goes on for a good twenty seconds or so before it stops.

Anyone who goes to investigate where it's coming from will find it's from the courtyard, where there's a small table set up with a single pale stone sitting on it. It's about the size of a large housecat, with telltale smudges of dirt indicating that up until recently, it had been dormant in the earth. There's a single jagged edge that suggests it might have been part of a bigger rock.

Day is near the table, with a vuvuzela resting somewhere next to him. At least he has the decency to seem kind of sheepish? ]

Aight, uh. Sorry 'bout the call, I just wanted to get everyone's attention. A bunch of stuff happened down in the South during the mission, and I think people oughta know 'bout this moon rock we found there.

[specialinquisitor]

[Mòrag narrows her eyes at him.]

[She has a really, really good glare. She's mastered it with years of long practice. And though she may not be a Driver at the moment, it nonetheless manages to perfectly convey just how close this instrument has brought this boy towards knowing nothing but searing flames, brilliant blue.]

[Worse, she holds the glare.]

[troublereduction]

[ This is like being back in the shrine with Path again, whenever he Done Fucked Up and she would look at him much like this. Except this is worse because it's from someone with no relation to him.

Even though he's trying to not visibly crack under the glare, he's sweating internally and all he can manage is: ]

...I'm really sorry 'bout this...

[specialinquisitor]

I trust you'll consider a different method of drawing attention in the future.

[Having successfully communicated her displeasure with that abomination of a noisemaker, she at last turns her gaze to the rock in question.]

This is a moon rock, you say. As in, a rock from the moon?

[troublereduction]

[ Please give him a short moment to recompose himself. ]

Yeah, Comet confirmed it. And this thing caused the whole incident we were asked to help with. I know Tatara and Wanderer mentioned the Great Calamity nearing, but I ain't sure if a chunk of the moon landing on the earth and causing problems some indeterminate amount of time later is a part of it.

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

So what you had to deal with is just a small part of what could happen if wizards fail to deal with the moon?

[Sounds like that, really, since this was caused just by a rock]

[troublereduction]

Probably? Right now it ain't doing much, but when we found it, it was oozing out some nasty feeling magic.

This thing was in the middle of a crop field, and the crops were slowly turning black and dying off. [ His brows crease as he recalls it. ] Just standing outside the circle of infected crops felt like dread staring straight at you, and it only got worse when we went in to get the rock. Didn't stop until we purified it.

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

How did you know what to know?

[Was it improvised? Instinctual?]

[chronosynthesis]

So it was found on the site. [He had wondered. Syrlya leans over to scrutinize it. That sure is a rock.] Tatara mentioned that these calamities happen annually, so it couldn't have been there for very long.

[He reaches for it, if nobody stops him from picking it up.] How did you purify it?

[troublereduction]

[ Day won't stop him! It sure is a rock. ]

I think it's been there longer than a week, at least, but we ain't sure how long. We asked the mayor if he noticed anything unusual 'fore the wheat field started going bad, but he couldn't think of anything. Best guess we have is that it landed there at some point in the past and sort of...just sat there until a farmer accidentally stepped on it, then all hell broke loose.

We used our magic to purify it. Uh, 'less you mean how we used our magic to do that?

[specialinquisitor]

[She regards the rock for a long moment, then reaches up and tugs on the brim of her hat slightly. That is all the evidence she offers of being perturbed.]

I must admit, I am struggling to reconcile the overwhelming calamity and our appearance here to address it... with this single, solitary rock. That appears completely unremarkable save for its origin.

[troublereduction]

For what it's worth, this rock had a ton of nasty magic oozing out of it before we purified it. Cursed the wheat field to start withering, and everyone who was working in the field or ate the wheat that was harvested fell ill.

[ He pauses for a bit, then decides he really should mention this to make it clear how bad it can get. ] The crops right 'round the rock didn't just die, they...turned into some kind of undead vine abomination that attacked anyone who got too close. The farmer with the worst symptoms had his leg so withered that there was no saving it. Everyone else managed to recover, but we couldn't fully heal them until we dealt with the rock.

[shadowkin]

[This part is also important (it's not important): before he gets into the nitty gritties of nibbling on the moon rock (hopefully metaphorically), Cid first pops up at the meeting in Day's vicinity -- but mostly in vicinity of the vuvuzela. He inspects it with a certain amount of inquisitiveness.]

Who knew a tube could be so loud? This is it, right? I would've thought it was somebody blowing into one of those war horns or shells if I didn't know better....

[



He picks up the vuvuzela.]

Hey, at least it's less annoying than whatever was goin' on with the noise when we first got here.

[Yeah, he's going to start blowing this thing again if nobody stops him.]

[foresightis2020]

[ Lazing around over here. Jing Yuan doesn't even seem bothered. Wow.


...


He'll suddenly try to grab a hold of it when the other tries to play. ]

[shadowkin]

[Cid still makes an aborted attempt! It probably sounds like a dying cat buried under concrete.

Mostly he's more startled and started playing before he registered Jing Yuan happening. He blinks at him for a moment or two.]




If you wanted to play it, you're trying from the wrong end, I'm pretty sure.

[foresightis2020]

[ He smiles pleasantly! ]

Oh, I suppose that I am.

Can you hold off until the meeting is finished to continue playing?

[shadowkin]

Hmhmm? Hmm? Sure, but I thought this was one of those meetings where you dropped by for the food and then left, and maybe dropped by again later.

[(And then you realized you didn't listen to 80% of the meeting and kidnap someone later for a synopsis--)

There is no food unless you very dubiously either start counting the participants or, you know, the moon rock. Cid definitely does not look at the moon rock while talking about refreshments.

But also we are not entirely sure what kind of meeting he was envisioning. He sighs and then starts tapping the vuvuzela against the nearest surface because now this is a Meeting, apparently. Fidget, fidget.]

[foresightis2020]

I don't blame anyone for believing it to be a casual meeting of that nature.

All the same, there are those who are treating it more than that.

[ Spoken lightly; not as if in harsh admonishment, but simply pointing out matters as they are.

He is thankful that Cid is listening regardless...they have regrettably spoken little, but he hopes to amend that. ]

I appreciate your cooperation, regardless.

GENERAL INFO

[dyingtohealyou]

[If people found out other useful things they want to share not related to the country mission]

GEN DISCUSSION

[dyingtohealyou]

[If you are synthesizing info from different sources or something.]

MINGLE

[dyingtohealyou]

[For socializing at the meeting or noting your wallflower was here.]

[1145pm]

[ Tatara is present, but really only Kind Of here. He's watching and listening, but will only step in if things get hairy or violent (or if someone expressly asks him a question). Carry on, little wizards... ]

[dyingtohealyou]

[He's also here to listen in, whether or not he shares anything is up to how his thread with the country reps go.]