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

[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?]

[troublereduction]

[ Things Day wasn't expecting to ever have to do: try to explain how he figured out which magic to use. ]

I ain't gonna speak for the others, but for me, I could tell the rock had...too much magic, I guess. It made all the townsfolk who were working in the field sick too, and we tried healing them. So it seemed to me like some kinda poison or corruption, and I thought maybe we should try purifying it of all the nasty magic.

[ They did however talk about possibly having to destroy it in a worst-case scenario, but it never came to pass. ]

[shadowkin]

[Mostly imperceptibly, Cid perks up at this -- corrupted magic, making people around it sick, needing to be purified... yeah, a lot of that sounds decently familiar, actually! He feels like it may be too much of a coincidence to end up in a different world entirely and still find something connected to the Cult of Diablos.......

... But hey, there's all kinds of worlds and parallels out there. Maybe the Calamoonity is a fan of standard magical fantasy tropes. Maybe it's just got magical indigestion. You never know.

He waves Day down to ask more questions!!]

Wait, wait, wait, so was it like, too much magic or messed up magic? And you said the townsfolk and the plants both got messed up, but some of the plants died and some like, evolved? And all the people started rotting or something, or was it also regular stuff like diarrhea??

[Okay, so maybe that's too many questions. He doesn't want to appear overly eager.]

Seems like this moon has way too many effects...

[Boss debuffs that go on for days......]

[dadsandals]

And the magic didn't affect any of you? Or was it because none of you got touched by it?

[troublereduction]

It might be 'cause we were wizards, but... Even then, we could tell that if we went in there unprotected, we weren't gonna stay safe either. We used a bunch of protection magic to keep it from, uh, changing us, to put it one way. Still felt pretty damn bad to be in there.

[dadsandals]

You were safe because of the protection magic, but if it weren't for that, you might've not been immune.

[ He doesn't like that. Ohhh, he doesn't like that at all. ]

Well, I'm glad you all made it out of there in one piece.

[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?

[chronosynthesis]

Er... I was looking for specifics, yes. [He looks over his shoulder.] You haven't mentioned reducing the amount of magic in the rock, only changing it?

[troublereduction]

Uh...honestly, I ain't totally sure exactly how it worked. It's...when we used our magic to purify it, we were thinking 'bout the good things we wanted for the town, and kinda poured all the hope we had into getting rid of that awful aura it was radiating. [ Like in that single moment, their combined wishes made their combined spell powerful enough to purify the overwhelming sense of dread. ]

I can't speak for how the others approached their spell specifically, but for me at least, I was thinking 'bout it like...setting this thing right, to the way it should be, and stop twistin' everything else around it.

[chronosynthesis]

So you just... hoped for it to correct itself and it did? [Like, there's an aspect of willpower and intention to magic. That isn't strange to him. A large purifying scale being run on faith alone though is quite fantastical, though.

It sure didn't work when he and Kiryu were trying to bless that rock a week ago.]

[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.

[annihilator]

[Yeesh, poor guy. Malice winces at that hand absently going to his missing arm before he resettles.]

So did y'all have'ta fight the vine thing first?

[troublereduction]

[ Hm. Noting that. ]

Obviously. Maya and Yodarha did great, especially.

[annihilator]

Yeah? Good to hear. Can ya tell me how it attacked? Could be useful if we run into anythin' like that again. Was it just swingin' vines around or usin' magic or what?

[specialinquisitor]

[One eyebrow goes up.]

That's worth quite a bit. Still, for it to be purified so comparatively easy implies that it is not the source so much as the vessel.

[troublereduction]

We figure the rock was probably there for a long while before this, so maybe time also made it easier to purify it when something went wrong.

The other thing was that after we purified the rock, four green orbs appeared. I don't know what they were, except maybe spirits? ...They thanked us before they left.

[specialinquisitor]

Perhaps a host of malevolent energy then, which has... gradually dissipated into the world? These conjectures are all excessive. We ought to find a person who can use their magic to get answers instead.