December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

[lifeaftr_mods]

DECEMBER EVENT: NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: Your trials by fire
When: December 15th - 18th
Where: On Maati and Ensō
Warnings: Character deaths and violence are both likely - please mark as you go!

The Trials: Only Then Can We Begin

As noted in the OOC info post, your Trials will all begin on December 15th. As many of you will not be deposited into your trials with food and water (or any items of your own at all, in most cases), the Trials will last only as long as December 18th. If you've failed to complete your Trial by this deadline but have not used up all the deaths allotted to you, you will awaken by Maati's mana pool at the event's conclusion. If you have not failed your Trial by using up all your deaths, this will not count as a character death, and you will not need to submit for a penalty; you simply won't be able to obtain the reward you would get if you had succeeded! When your character wakes in their allotted Trial, they will discover that their starting chamber has been inscribed with the name of the Trial, the names of those participating, and the number of deaths they have remaining - though the latter aren't labeled in any way. You'll simply have to learn it the hard way; every time your character suffers a death, the number will go down by one. If it wasn't obvious what those numbers stood for at first, by the time the dying starts properly, it certainly will be. And you probably don't want to see it go all the way down to zero...

Should you reach the end of your Trial, you will step out onto the rocky cliffs of Maati, exiting from one of the seven doors set into the cliffs at the seven points of the island's star shape. You see, those doors you discovered earlier weren't the entrances to the Trials at all. They were the exits. And set into the towering cliffs...why, those house the winding mazes that comprise the Trials themselves.

There will be a top-level below for each Trial. Remember to plan with your groups and communicate with your thread partners! Whether you choose to do mingle-style threads or lengthier group threads is up to you.

Once you know the outcome of your Trial, success OR failure, please do let us know so that we can ensure your character gets the reward that befits their triumph...or lackthereof.

Remember also to let us know if your character uses up ALL their deaths during this event. While death penalties will not be inflicted during Trial deaths, if you use up all the deaths allotted to you and die for real, your death penalty will NOT be reduced.

The Water: Don't Let Them Get Away

The rest of you have plenty to contend with as well, of course. If you've opted out of this month's event, be advise that the waters creeping across shores of Ensō, along with the rest of the island, aren't going to take evasion kindly. They'll seek you out, spread along every inch of the island if they can, until they can find you. There is a top-level below, if you're intrigued! Though if you end up top-leveling yourself, we may very well reach out and find you anyway...

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 15th: The Trials on Maati begin, and the water begins to rise.
[ ♆ ] December 18th: The Trials reach their end.
[ ♆ ] December 19th: Those who have "perma"-died in their Trials are revived.
[ ♆ ] December 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[piercetheheart]

As long as nothing living comes crawling out of it I think we'll be fine.

[Odds are there's not going to be anything dangerous but that hardly means he wants to go sifting through this mess if it's full of roaches or mold or rats. EUGH.

He's really disappointed he doesn't have his boots at least now, though. Because something just squelched unpleasantly underfoot.]

Somehow I doubt it's as easy as just... wading through this shit.

[thermalwind]

Yeah I don't- whoa![He eases his other foot into the trash and slips on something that feels cold and metallic. He throws himself to the right and lands hard on his backside.]

There's something here.

[He thrusts his hand into trash with a grimace and fishes around. He produces a key.]

[piercetheheart]

[Gladio immediately tries to move to catch Keith before he goes down. Whatever squelched earlier leaves his feet slick though and one skids out from under him, dropping him to one knee before he can close the distance fast enough.]

You ok- [A pause, staring at the key in Keith's hand.]

Oh hell no.

[thermalwind]

[He flips the key around in his fingers and slowly climbs to his feet. A key means they need to find the lock it fits into. He inspects the metal key carefully. No markings.]

...let's see what's on the other side of this room before we go cursing about it. [He tucks the key into his pajama pants pocket and steps over to help Gladio up.]

Might be we're already done but all have to have our hand on the key when it turns?

[piercetheheart]

[So optimistic, Keith. It's... kinda nice, really. They could use a little optimism here. Gladio's always been one to plan for the worst, however, so he's more than a little wary of that idea.

Still he lets Keith give him a hand up just to make sure he doesn't end up doing the splits.]

We can hope, yeah. C'mon.

[No sense in drawing it out. Though he does move a little slower now, more careful with his footing and cursing Anabaki for dumping him in here without even his boots. It shouldn't be too hard to make it across the room, as long as they don't step on anything sharp. Slick and sticky he can deal with. The last thing they need is someone ending up with glass in their foot.]

[thermalwind]

[Keith climbs to his feet with the help. He braces one foot in case either of them slip. Nothing happens. Good. He takes a moment to check himself for weapons again. No blades.

Damn it.]

My senses got dulled down. I won't be able to forewarn you about much. [A friendly warning in and of itself. Keith moves with him his movements falling into a silent stalk of an assassin. When they get to the door he stares at it. Seven key holes around the door.]

...great, just great. Shift trash, find keys. Awesome.

[piercetheheart]

[It's cute that Keith is being all stalky and stealthy and shit because Gladio is... not.

The man is a mountain, what do you want from him?]

's too bad we can't... I dunno magnetize some scrap in here. I could do it if I had my kit.

[Cause there's a strong little magnet in there for polarizing needles for compasses and shit.]

[thermalwind]

Let's work on it together then. We clear a section, search it, move on. We can work the edges of the room and move in towards the center. We can assign more people to hit other sections as they get here so we all form a grid.

[He turns to face the rest of the room and stuffs the key into his pocket.]

Left or right side first?

[piercetheheart]

You take the right, I'll take the left and as more people show up we can shove them in corners on that side.

[A nod toward the door they entered through.]

We'll make our way center eventually.