The Game - Gathering the players [Team Dawn, closed]

[Tarot]

82nd day of Winter, 509 AV

It all begun one quiet winter night, when something burned in the Syliran wildlands. The flames were green and throbbing with wild Djed that had collected in a large pool. A large patch of thriving woodlands turned to ashes in a matter of bells, the eerie fires easily visible from the top tiers of Syliras as well as a vast section of the wildlands.

The really strange thing that greeted Mizahar the morning after, however, was the small castle, of clear pre-Valterrian architecture, that sat exposed without thick woods screening it from the outside world. It was nowhere as large as Syliras, of course, but it was remarkably well-kept, hinting at magic being involved in its preservation. The castle was square, with four towers framing the bailey plus a central one rising on top of the keep. A wide moat surrounded it on all sides, oddly with two drawbridges situated on the opposite ends of the castle, East and West. A stone archway marked the point where a drawbridge would connect when lowered. The East archway was decorated with a sun and a moon as its keystone, with the inscription 'TEAM DAWN' . The West had a moon and a sun, a mirror image of the East side with the inscription 'TEAM DUSK'.

Next to the archway, sat a smooth stele on which the following writing had been carved.

WELCOME TO THE GAME - PLEASE READ THE RULES CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING 1. By touching this archway, you agree to be a part of Team Dawn. Your opponents belong to Team Dusk. The eyes of Team Dawn will turn yellow for the duration of the Game. The eyes of Team Dusk will turn red for the duration of the Game. 2. The Game shall not begin until both teams are prepared and filled with enough participants. 3. The objective of the Game is to reach the door on the top floor of the central tower of this castle. The first participant to unlock this door will grant victory to his or her team. My legacy will be split among the members of the winning team. 4. You all start out as Innocents. If you inflict physical damage on another (as judged by me), be it a member of the other team, your own or a denizen of the castle, you will be marked with a drop of blood on your right hand for the duration of the Game, marking you as a Sinner. Sinners do not receive any penalty, however only an Innocent can open the final door and win the Game for his or her team. A team without Innocents cannot win the Game. 5. Black doors are positioned throughout the castle, leading to various exits. You can use them to surrender and safely leave the Game; however, by using them you forfeit all rights to your reward should your team win the Game. 6. You can make deals both with your team members and the other team. There is no penalty for betrayal in either case. 7. In the event of both teams failing to achieve victory within three days of play, the Game will end and the prizes will be left unclaimed.

Someone in this crazy world of Mizahar had thrown a gauntlet and challenged the people to play a strange Game.

Who would step up to the challenge remained to be seen, though.

[Alistair deGrey]

A green inferno, that could be classified as bizarre. Alistair had been walking around the outskirts of Syliras again, as he was prone to do lately. Inspiration was becoming difficult to find within the walls of the city. That was when he saw the fire. Deciding it would be best not to get incinerated by the clearly magical flames, deGrey returned to his workshop for the night. However, today was a new day and the flames were gone. It was time for a small investigation as to what exactly had happened. Who knows, he may find something interesting. Before he had left that night, Alistair had packed a backpack with a few items he may need: A rope, some food, and water. deGrey also picked up one of his spring loaded canes off the wall and considered the object, I suppose this can make due as a walking stick... Alistair was not too experienced with the outdoors, and could not think of too much else he would need. Especially not for a quick daytime trip such as this.

deGrey had recorded the direction in which he had seen the flames, and was now traveling briskly to the area. He realized he must be making an awful ruckus, stealth in the wilderness was not exactly his forte. incalculable amounts of snapped branches, footprints, and disturbed grass littered his path. I suppose its irrelevant, unless I'm being stalked... The thought was not a pleasant one, and deGrey began jogging.

Idiocy, I am not being pursued. Why in Mizahar would anybody pursue me? Alistair slowed his jog, purposefully walking slowly. Enjoying the environment. The sky was a lovely blue, with naught but a few clouds in the sky. Pine cones and leaves littered the forest floor, a testament to the damage autumn had wreaked on the forest earlier in the year. A light breeze began to play across deGrey's face; however instead of bringing the usual forest scents, he smelled the distinctive smell of burning. Or rather, of burnt. Alistair started jogging again, anxious to see the area.

Within minutes Alistair saw signs of the fire, burnt trees and undergrowth everywhere. The entire area was charred from the magical fires. However; Alistair barely noticed the blackened environment. Rising from the skeleton trees could be seen a stone structure. Alistair narrowed his eyes, Is that a... The inventor walked a bit closer and peered through the branches, It had to be, but it couldn't...

Continuing along his path he came ever closer to the castle, noticing its four towers, its drawbridge. The gateway that loomed before him had a sun and a moon on its keystone, accompanied by an inscription that said "TEAM DAWN". How odd, I wonder what this place is? Better yet, why in the name of Syliras is it here? Then deGrey noticed the stele sitting next to the archway, and approached it. He walked up and kneeled down and read the inscription. After a quick perusal of the tablet, he stood and stared intently at the archway. I do not see a reason not to, this shall indubitably be interesting. It is not every day one sees the inside of a pre-Valterrian castle. Alistair touched the archway.

[Jaeden Kincade]

A small breeze swept up from behind him as Jaeden kept his gaze fixed to the ground. A set of small game tracks were laid out in front of him, and he followed them as each step he made saw his foot stretching out slightly to sweep away a few twigs or fallen leaves that obscured his view of the tracks. "Better not be a ferret," Jaeden remarked, observing the less than slight imprints in the ground made, suggesting the weight of the creature was light.

As Jaeden took another couple of steps forward, he soon found a sharp sting of pain over the top of his head as it rammed into something hard in front of him. He fell backwards, landing along his back as both hands reached to his head, rubbing away the sting that lingered. "Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, damnit!" Jaeden grumbled as he pushed himself back to his feet.

Still rubbing his head, he looked to see what he had run into. It wasn't a tree this time, rather a large archway entrance that in turn lead to a small castle. His gaze then fell to the carved etchings of the rules as he muttered them under his breath as he read. "Huh, not something I see everyday," Jaeden then simply said as he looked around for anyone else reading or waiting.

[Evarette Karmine]

Fire. Smoke on the wind. The scent of charred wood and earth made Ivar uneasy. The Nightwalker bowed his great neck, expelling a coarse breath as he grew light on his feet, dancing eagerly in place. He longed for an open stretch of road, a field, any flat expanse but this knarled mess of a woodland maze. A steadying hand descended upon his shoulder, and he grudgingly grew still...

Evarette leaned over the black horse's neck, ducking a low-hanging limb. She glanced ahead, brows knit in confusion, for the scenery was swiftly dissolving into the aftermath of what appeared to have been a recent forest fire. Just as Eva considered the merits of turning back, a shape caught her attention...looming beyond the screen of cauterized trees lay a castle. She sat back, signaling Ivar to stop. How unusual...She'd not heard tell of a castle so near Syliras...what was more, the structure itself appeared ancient by design. It wasn't long before Eva began to feel that all too familiar prickle of curiosity stirring in the depths of her mind...

Just one look...she told herself, urging Ivar forward once again. The stallion snorted his disapproval...but relented all the same.

She came upon a gateway sooner than expected. Glancing up, Eva marveled at the intricacy adorning the gateway's keystone, murmuring aloud the words she found there..."Team Dawn," she frowned thoughtfully, pulling her eyes away as Ivar shifted his weight beneath her. It was then she noticed another--a young man, crouched by a stele. She dismounted, shifting her weight as her feet touched the ground, for she'd been riding for some time. Watching the stranger, she stepped after him as he moved to place his hand upon the gateway..."Greetings, sir! ...Do you live here?"

It could have been a stone, or perhaps a fallen branch. Whatever it was, it caught her foot mid-stride and arrested the use of it. This in turn, sent her lurching forward, hands outstretched to catch her inevitable fall. Another skipping stride was made to compensate for the distance, and Eva one barely managed to catch herself against the gateway. As she stood braced against it's support, she shot a meek glance up at the stranger before the stele's inscriptions caught her eye...

"Oh..."

[Danica]

She thought it had all been a dream, the green glow that she had woken up to in the middle of the night. Altari didn’t appear bothered by it and so she had merely shrugged it off at the time and curled back up and drifted off to sleep, a splay of green playing on the other side of her eyelids.

It wasn’t until she got up the next morning that she found something wrong. It was the feeling in the air, like it prickled, and the scent of burning or burnt that lingered on the air. She was quick about cleaning up her camp and getting Altari ready before she swung herself up onto his back. The pair navigated the woods by scent, hoping to find the origins of the mysterious burning smell in the air. Altari wasn’t panicking either so the smell must be old. Her horse wasn’t one who was inclined to fires, and she never had been able to train him out of it, so their walk went on with both of them slightly wary.

The going was slow as they wandered through the wildlands but that hardly meant what happened was far away. Had Danica been on foot it would’ve been much easier to get there but leaving her horse behind wasn’t an option and never would be for any Drykas, and so they weaved their way there. She ducked under a particularly low branch before she came out into the open with a castle rising up in front of her.

She stared at it as she slid off Altari’s back and stood there a moment more. She finally noticed the people standing there. She smiled at the woman but didn’t grace the men with one. Instead she walked slowly over to the archway that they were all standing under. “Team Dawn,” She whispered, and touched the archway lightly before she noticed the stele. “Well then . . .” She glanced at each of them. “So . . . who’s game is it?”

[Devandre]

A specter shifts through the darkness of early morning; the short, cloaked man walks around finding the night blooming blossoms of the Wildlands necessary for a week elixir that causes temporary blindness in who ever gets it in their eyes. The short man moves through the trees and brush silently like a wandering soul finding it’s way to the afterlife. His pack filled with the necessary soups to sustain him for a week, gauntlets always on and hidden in the folds of his cloak. Bow and arrows strapped to his back ready to be drawn and fired if needed. Dagger lay hidden among his body, laced with a poison quite potent. Devandre has no intentions of using it this morning. The blade; an extension of himself acts as the fangs of both of his heritages, or a handy tool when the money is right. After some more walking and searching he stops in a clearing full of the flowers that were slowly dying as the morning progressed. Living during the night and dying before nights end, pity the poetic flowers were not more poisonous. Even though this is what Devandre had been looking for it wasn’t what he was looking at. Among the white blossomed flowers is a fine burn line out of place and very suspicious to the man. Even that strange anomaly couldn’t hold his attention, eyes drifting to an archway. The archways relief’s seemed foreign yet familiar to him. Recalling back to a book talking about the pre Valtarian Era, one of the illustrations within shown similar decorations that adorn the castle and the archway. There is no one around which he finds odd but feels drawn to the strange ruins. “No” he thought, “Not ruins, to well kept.” He runs his hand over the archway inspecting the stone and it’s intricate carvings of the sun and moon. Feeling suddenly drawn to a small stone almost the same height as he, stepping through the arch his hair stands on ends. The feeling of dread and unsure ness crept up his spine like a spider everything about this seemed very odd and out of place. Shaking the feeling off with the morning dew that had collected on his cloak, he reads the tablet. Cursing loudly to himself, “ACK! You Ssstupid asss have dug yourself into a social trap…” He inspects around as the sun’s rays begin to shine over the horizon. As the first rays of sunlight grace his paled skin. A revelation occurs, making sure that no one is around and he isn’t being tailed or heard he leaves the archway he did after all had other motives. The sun up and the harvest of moonflowers ready he begins to gather some before seeming to vanish into thin air, out of site and out of mind. “Thiss is going to be interesting, to say the least. Sssiku guide me to what I desire….” Grinning wide as he goes and collects supplies for a potentially sinister three days.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Deleted.

[Alistair deGrey]

Evarette Karmine Leaves and undergrowth crunched beneath the approaching horseman. Horses were not quiet, and Alistair was wondering why he had not heard it earlier. A long sigh escaped his lips and he let his head rest stone, not turning to face the rider. I suppose company will not harm... No, this is no good. Time to bid farewell to a pleasant day alone. deGrey closed his eyes and brought his hand to his temples as he heard the rider dismount behind him. "Greetings, sir! ...Do you live here?" deGrey turned and peered at the woman approaching his position. She was pretty, but she was company. An eyebrow raised as she tripped over a small stone and stumbled forward. Then she touched the archway. Damnation... Alistair released a groan and leaned back against the archway. More people equated to more talking, if he wanted to talk he would have been visiting Stitch at the Welcome Home. Regardless... Torn between walking off and welcoming his teammate, deGrey quickly reevaluated his surroundings. The seared forest around him, the small keep that towered in front of the two, and the smooth archway they both touched. I suppose it could be worse. A curt bow to the woman, "Err, welcome to the game my good madame. How lovely of you to join me on Team Dawn. Oh, and I do not live here. I was simply investigating the err, blazing green inferno." deGrey stepped away from the wall and dropped his pack of supplies and cane where he had been standing. "Ah yes, before I forget, I am called Alistair deGrey." The inventor stepped over to the newly arrived woman and extended his hand.

Danica Ten thousand curses upon the entity that created this game. It was not soon after the Drykas woman had arrived that a pertinent question arose within him, How many people must be in this game? Alistair had not thought through this decision, he had been too excited over the prospect of exploring this castle to do so. It was with these thoughts that deGrey greeted the new rider. Lovely. Yet another woman had stepped from the aching forest to join this mysterious game. deGrey began to pace back and forth, tapping his index finger against his lips. A nervous gesture he had adopted a while back. Many new faces. This one was different than the first Drykas though, she did not seem bright. deGrey watched the new woman approach the archway where Team Dawn stood. That was why she wasn't bright. After she had touched it, Alistair heard her tentative whisper, “So . . . who’s game is it?” Taking the liberty to answer her, "We know nothing of the designer of this game. We know the rules, we know that we have to wait," a sigh, "and we know we need more players." The first woman had turned out not to be so bad after all, maybe this one would be the same. But Alistair doubted it.

[Jaeden Kincade]

After finally having rubbed the sting from his head, Jaeden finally spied around the area to see who all was there. Alistair was the first he noticed, then two others appeared shortly after. A cordial nod and silent, "Hello," was given to each as his initial nature towards new faces kicked in.

After looking at the rules once again, the realization that the stele was indeed the object that he had hit his head upon sunk in. On one hand, he wasn't exactly the type to jump into a game like this. On the other, it could prove interesting, and there was some pleasant scenery in the form of the females already. His gaze then fell to the castle as he looked over it's size and width and wondered just what would be inside. Of course, observing from outside would give him no inclination of what was to be found on the inside. Especially considering how the castle apparently appeared in the first place.

Jaeden then felt a slight rubbing along the back of his leg. Looking down, he then saw a small ferret, sniffing at his left leg in curious investigation. "Great, I was tracking a ferret," he muttered under his breath before giving a steely eye to the small mammal. "Anything that happens to me in there, I officially blame you for."


"Well, what's to lose, other than my life I suppose," Jaeden thought to himself before his hand rested lightly along the hilt of his blade.

For the time being, he simply looked to the others, remaining silent as he eavesdropped on their idle conversation, trying to take in the simple demeanors.

[Karona Isenbach]

Timestamp: One hour after the other members met. Undergrowth, charred wood, melting snow, and the emerald blaze. This myriad of natural scents wafted through the air and surrounded the atmosphere with an aria of mystery, and the thick smoke belched out by the green flames called out to the rest of the world of the great and assorted power that was gathering there. The castle, majestic and sturdily built, stood tall amidst the rather barren patch of land like a stone sentinel in the distant horizons, and the clouds gathered round its lofty spires. The woods around the clearing were dark and damp with frost and ice, and the seemed literally devoid of life, with only the shadows and shades of ancient ghosts entertaining the place of unintentional despair. To the casual observer it would have seemed that it had not seen a living soul in several centuries, if not for the footprints, hoof-prints, paw-prints and slither-prints that lined the lonely trails leading to the castle. The mist surrounding the quiet soon began to form into the likeness of a woman who, despite the luxury in her gait and the sweetness in her lips, serenaded with an aura of sorrow and hollowness. Dressed in clothes fit more for a regal show than an adventure, the lady glided about the moat in her vibrant crimson silk and satin ball gown, complete with ruffles and an extremely tight corset. A necklace made of pounded silver and gold lined the soft white of her breast, and a brooch was stabbed into the flowing fiery locks that fell to her exposed, white shoulders. The figure seemed almost strange in her solitude in the middle of the square land area; an entourage would have been a proper escort for such a pompously dressed woman. Truly she seemed to fit the castle's guarded profile, and she moved about like she was quite at home with the tense atmosphere. Hands swaying about in an eerie, wraith-like repetition, each graceful print she made in the snow radiated with the tormenting black of death and decay. The drawbridge to the east soon found her staring at the stele's inscription with cold, gray eyes, a playful curiosity miring her perfect eyebrows. "Mmmm. A game." she mused over herself, looking over her shoulder as if someone was actually there. A smooth laugh with a devilish undertone began to rise from her as she daintily touched the stone arch with a satin-covered hand. Almost at once the archway began to pulse with a sordid force, and for a moment it seemed to choke and bleed red from within. The inscriptions in it changed none in writing, but they now whispered demented voices to anyone who touched it. "Let us play then." she whispered as her eyes began to glow with a searing unholy yellow light, each wide open orb projecting a terrifying kind of amusement and excitement.