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+--- Thread: [Quest] The Trials - Part III (/showthread.php?tid=6839)
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Game Master Dark - Jun 27 2019
This was not unexpected.
What was unexpected was the sheer percentage of survivors. It mattered little, to the Merchant: what mattered was that these had proven worthy. This was good. "Come. Present your trophy," he told them, as the exhausted competitors arrived at last in the slightly-cooler cave mouth.
"And be... rewarded."
He waited. Feathers. Claws. The Matriarch's entire head. And after the last of the trophies were turned in, the Merchant--Vargas now pacing up to sit beside him--raised his hands.
Power crackled. Black. Inky.
Down it swept, engulfing those who had returned. Agony--brief, overwhelming. The mind slipping away. All Gembound who returned a trophy would be struck by this magic: powerful enough to instantly return them to their chrysalis. Those who did not return a trophy would be struck dead on the spot.
"A... success," the Merchant said.
All Gembound who successfully return a trophy to the Masked Merchant in this final posting round will be struck by a flash of powerful, painful black energy and returned to their chrysalis. You may choose one of the following mutations for your character to awaken with--or forego a mutation, and choose instead the option to return at a later date to ask the Merchant to guarantee a Gembound's successful Give Life spellcast on any stone. Amazon will not awaken with a Hydra mutation, but rather a special alteration which allows her to survive low-level radioactivity. All Gembound will awaken with any wounds sustained in Hydra having healed, though scars may be left behind.
Survivors' Reward Choice
1. Mutation: Vulture Wings - long-feathered black OR soft-skinned beige wings, large enough to carry the Gembound.
2. Mutation: Scorpion Tail - a curved, segmented tail with a venomous barb at the tip, which can whip over quadrapedal Gembound to sting an enemy and poison them.
3. Mutation: Sandworm - sandy-colored scales sprout over the back and flank and bristles along the spine, and if they choose, massive mandibles; if chosen, the Gembound will be able to use these to chew rapidly through soft substrate and to burrow.
4. Mutation: Bone Hare - the Gembound's color is changed entirely to a sandy brown, with white bone-like markings over it which mirror its skeleton.
5. Mutation: Quillmouse - the Gembound's back and flank will be covered in long, stiffly-flexible spines. These are easily shed on impact to impale attackers, and are extremely difficult to remove, working their way deeper over time.
6. A guaranteed-success Give Life assistance from the Masked Merchant. This can be redeemed at any time; the Gembound will need to come to the Merchant, and ask him to aid them, at which point he will guarantee that their Give Life spell succeeds regardless of roll.
After exiting this thread, Gembound may begin to awaken from their chrysalis in the current time, whether in new threads or off screen.
Click to view final placement rankings.
1. Garnet Five-Seven-Nine
2. Desert Rose Thirty-Five
3. Lapis Ninety-Five
4. Labradorite Five-Four-Six
5. Yoosung
6. Reseda
7. Opal Three-Seven-Six
8. Asimona
9. Quartz Eight-Six-Zero
10. Styx
11. Quartz Five-Two-Four
12. Amazon & Imp
13. Shango
14. Mayngo
15. Agate Two-Three-Six
Please post in Update Me for the following rewards!
1. [Quest] The Trials - Took part in opening the cave Hydra for the Masked Merchant - All Participants in The Trials Pt. I & Pt. II who aided the Merchant with returning stones and so forth (not single postings for claiming an adoptable) may claim this achievement.
2. Champion of Hydra - Survived the Trial of Hydra - All survivors of the Trial of Hydra (The Trials - Pt. III) may claim this achievement.New Spell Unlocked: First, Second and Third-Place Winners may claim 1000, 700 and 500 Magicka respectively, along with the following spell.
Desert Heat - Light - High Intensity Manipulation. Focuses atmospheric light to alter a cave's weather to clear, warm and very bright. This can be pleasant and balmy, encouraging plant growth, or stiflingly dry and hot. Works well and lasts longer in already warm, dry areas.@Yoosung @Amazon @Shango @Quartz Eight-Six-Zero @Labradorite Five-Four-Six @Agate Two-Three-Six @Desert Rose Thirty-Five @Garnet Five-Seven-Nine @Lapis Ninety-Five @Quartz Five-Two-Four
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Vargas - Jun 27 2019
Vargas came up alongside the last of them, passing quite close to Agate and to Shango, peering closely at them. They seemed wounded, but able to finish, and the storm-cat's brief baring of teeth and hiss up at Vargas' far larger bulk left the far-larger beast chuckling.
He paced up to the Merchant, turning to take his place sitting behind him, watching the Gembound who had survived.
"Congratulations," he growled.
A diverse group. I wonder what else they can do? I will need to devise a few more trials for them, and get an idea of their abilities. His mind flicked over them, making mental notes. Asimona's speed, and magic. Garnet's astonishing survivability--but how could they actually utilize this? Perhaps use it to create another--larger, he mused. Desert Rose would still prove a worthy messenger, and Labradorite perhaps a spy. Lapis had done well overall...
His mind occupied, Vargas did not react when the Merchant lashed them all into their chrysalises at last. He simply stood, and turned, offering the Merchant a nod. "I couldn't have done better myself," he said.
But he was hungry, and it was time to eat--and no more of them had fallen. When the Merchant turned to leave, Vargas turned too, and went with him.
exit Vargas
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Shango - Jun 27 2019
Shango had, in the flood, and in the muck, lost a feather or two. But he'd placed a few into his mane, and so when he finally limped--one leg broken--to the Merchant's position, he had a few left to pluck out and let fall.
Then he collapsed--not utterly, but to his haunches, panting and trembling with exhaustion. Rain still drizzled around him, now here in the cave mouth, and his eyes slipped shut as he allowed himself to rest, listening.
The big, ugly thing he'd simply hissed at, a fearless (foolish) warning, as it passed him. And now--
The magic hit him, searing pain, and he wailed out in brief agony. His ghostlight eyes sprang back open, wide, and then everything went gray. His body hit the sand with a puff of dust, and a moment later his spectrolite spread, engulfing him, encasing his limp form in a protective shell.
He had no time to think before he was locked within, unconscious and blissfully at rest.
exit Shango
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Imp - Jun 27 2019
Imp hauled himself in, eyes blazing intensely even now. He opened his jaws, bat-like nose wrinkling a little as he worked the thick talon out of the space between cheek membrane and teeth. This he dropped at the Merchant's feet.
He then backed up, eyeing Vargas with caution.
"Big. Big and ugly," he muttered to himself. He then sat back--tired, but not as worn as some--and listened to the Merchant's halting speech.
He had hardly time to consider the hooded being's words (tucking them away as best he could for Dragon, later) when he was struck by a blast of ink-shade magic so powerful that it felt as though his spirit were being rended from his body. A single, strangled cry escaped him, wings spreading, body thrashing up and back and crashing down into the sand. His mind only managed one fleeting thought: BETRAYAL!
When he hit the ground, he was already out cold, gemstone covering him in the striated browns, blacks and golds of iridescent Tiger's Eye.
And there--for some time, at least--he would remain.
exit Imp
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Labradorite Five-Four-Six - Jun 27 2019
Labradorite Five-Four-Six dropped his bundle of feathers with a heavy breath. The sand skidded up by his paws as he came to a stop, exhausted. He could have dropped over and slept right then and there if it didn't look bad on his part. Instead, he kept himself upright until the Merchant knocked the group out.
The relief was more powerful than the agony to him. The ability to finally settle back down after surviving once more. The fox-dragon's eyes flickered shut in the same instant that he fell and beautiful, blue-and-gold rippled gemstone began to cover his body.
It would be alright. He survived. His brother had survived.
Five-Four-Six's mind slipped away with this, into a deep unconsciousness, as the labradorite chrysalis covered him completely.
exit labradorite five-four-six
(he's gonna take the guaranteed give life)
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Hemlocke - Jun 27 2019
Necrosis wouldn't be what killed it---!
A magic and agony it hadn't known before locked iron jaws on every joint of its body, wretched and infectious as it danced through each of the Champions, new and old. The world vanished in a sharp curtain of black, pupils dilating and shuttering out of usefulness as Garnet Five-Seven-Nine slumped against the floor and forming another kind of shell, wondering on Death's door...
Wondering what it had done wrong in these trials.
Wondering if its failure could be chalked up to one stupid stupid stupid mistake.
Exit Garnet Five-Seven-Nine.
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Lapis Ninety-Five - Jun 27 2019
Oh, you fool, there are rules, I am coming for you
Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins
But as the object left her beak, Lapis was quite unprepared for the sharp stab of pain shooting through her, even though she knew she could have been. She opened her jaw and let out a piercing avian shriek as, with surprisingly not-gruesome suddenness, she sank down onto the ground and curled up.
Ready for next time, she thought, last words tinged with hollow resignation, as she felt the familiar pain recede into a warm blanket of numbness, and the imprisoning walls gradually take their hold around her.
--exit Lazuli--
"Speech."
"Thoughts."
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Amazon - Jun 27 2019
At last. She was exhausted, thirsty, hungry, and everything hurt, but she'd made it. With only a few scratches and a missing scale or two. It was a miracle and, despite the weariness that made her limbs sore, as she arrived at the end, at the mouth of the tunnel where the Merchant was waiting, she knew she'd never felt better. She was going to go home!
She hobbled forward and opened her mouth, the small feather she had collected dropping down in front of the Merchant. She eyed the strange creature that stood beside him, feeling a fleeting nervousness to bear near such a beast, a creature the other champions seemed to be terrified of, and quickly retreated, waiting to see what the rewards would be.
But then....agony. Horrible, horrible pain burst through every nerve and Amazon screamed, a surprisingly loud and high-pitched noise for a creature so small. She collapsed forward, the sickly green gem on the top of her head deforming and spreading around her body. She was terrified and shocked, but she didn't have any time to think about it before her consciousness went under. The last thing she thought about before the uncomfortably warm gem consumed her was Luster and Livius and how they had been stolen from her right at the very end.
*exit
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Asimona - Jun 27 2019
Asimona was more then relieved that, not only had she survived, but those she could call friend now had made it as well. Ru, Agate, Opal...they were all alive. Barely. She was still seething from Nemean's actions in the swamp, however, and as she was asked to present her trophy, she stepped up and unceremoniously dumped the vulture's head at the Merchant's feet. There was a low growl in her throat and, for a moment, she considered just turning away without a reward. She didn't want anything from them. They were cruel and toying with life and she despised them for it.
But she didn't get a chance to leave. Before she could react, black sparks rolled over the group and she reared in pain, opening her jaws and letting loose a deafening roar. As she fell back to the earth, she focused on the two standing there, eyes blazing with fury and let loose a stream of freezing air and ice from her jaws in their direction, but it only lasted for a second before her consciousness went under and the blue-tinted diamond spread across her body and encased her within.
*exit
tags:
notes:
RE: [Quest] The Trials - Part III - Reseda - Jun 27 2019
Reseda limped forward towards the Merchant as she got close, glaring at the fox and the sand dragon as she passed them. They would both pay for what they had tried to do to her during the trial. Her tongue flickered with mild agitation, but otherwise she said nothing, opening her jaws and depositing a small, saliva-covered feather on the ground in front of the merchant.
She expected a reward now. A powerful reward. One she could actually use. Something that would be useful against the Seven. Instead, though, she was greeted with pain.
Her eyes widened and she hissed loudly. Was this how it was ending?! A betrayal! Perhaps it was fitting, but still, as she fell, she silently cursed herself for trusting anyone to be useful. She'd have to do this all herself.
*exit