When the wonder drew in new assistance, it peppered both the top and bottom floors of the Ossuary with their presence. A dozen more strangers to Scholomance found themselves abruptly in a vast chamber and ambulatory, with stairs at their back. Echoes of voices reached them from the upper floor, where hints of the tribulation filtered in. The unmistakeable hiss of a creature, an argument over death and its permanence, and hurried declarations of needing more power gave shape to their reason for arriving at such a place.
Initially the vast room remained dark. Soon, lights detecting life flickered and stuttered into existence with a cold, white blaze. Like tiny stars, they hovered above ornate posts that were occasionally connected to the walls like stylized buttresses. The chamber itself hosted many pillars in true gothic fashion, drawing arches across the ceiling between each, and fostering intricate patterns etched overhead. The walls themselves knew mostly charring, as if the room blacked in a flash fire that only slightly damaged the floor and ceiling. Great paintings that hung on the walls were mostly evidenced by the remnants of frame that still clung desperately to its surface. Occasionally, narrow flutes of glass extended from floor to ceiling and spidered overhead with a brilliant blue smoke rushing through its hollow core. It, too, provided some illumination to the deeper reaches of the space.
The great room was not empty, however; rows of drawers lined the walls in select locations, and while most of the labels grew illegible with age, a handful of names remained on the labeling - enough to indicate a convention of surnames. A number code was scrawled alongside the name, and within the drawer itself was often found a neat arrangement of a complete skeleton, human in nature. Not all of the drawers remained in pristine order - without pattern, some of the drawers remained jerked open and their contents gone, presumably contributing to the smattering of bones that dusted the floor.
In the distance, beyond a cluster of columns marking the center of the room, the barely-visible form of a desk or altar loomed. The architecture reminiscent of a cathedral coupled with the grandiosity of the room suggested an altar could be found there, but the regularity and scientific attentiveness to human remains hinted at a desk in the distance. Further exploration into the depths of the strange place was required to find out.
Ultimately, those who found themselves within the confines of Scholomance were left without explicit purpose. From upstairs came only a single conversation, in which came the hints of the troubles that haunted the place.
"Blaine, there are no second chances at life. Whatever you think you're doing, whatever you expect to accomplish here - it can only end in failure. It always has. This creature, this monstrosity you're working with isn't going to change that course. Death is beyond the manipulations of mankind. You will not live twice."
Another voice, markedly different from the first in timbre and tone, responded. "I've had a dozen lifetimes' worth to compile my research, Scholomance. Perhaps it is not you who should cast down my endeavors so readily - you, who has failed to produce any invention, any magic, any improvements from within these walls. You, my successor, shall bear witness to what it means to be a true knight of Scholomance, and from you I shall reclaim my Knighthood.
"You will distract me no further," the other voice continued. "He will have no interruptions. His power is the defining variable that will push my endeavors to fruition. You will see, Scholomance, and you will weep for your wrongness."
The first voice's declarations grew louder, as if addressing a crowd. "If the lot of you were sent here to assist, then help me stop my ancestor. Help me stop that damnable thing that's puppeting him."
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:59 pm
Information
Rules
RP's standard DBDB (Don't Be a DoucheBag) rules apply! If you're unclear of what these rules are, or if you think one of your RP decisions may go over badly, feel free to PM! There are no judgments here.
Please read over the mechanics for the event before posting!
I reserve the right to make any plot decisions regarding the event and its course.
Please bold text that requires my input as the event's DM and quote me. The quoting part is especially important since I tend to miss things (and if I do miss a quote, please let me know! It is not a personal affront; I do have trouble weaving through notices occasionally).
Mechanics
Characters in this area will be playing with rerouting the power in Scholomance! This can be done in a number of ways and directly impacts the other segment of this event! Will you break the glass cylinders that funnel magic through the building? Will you cast on certain devices to see if they change the direction of magical flow? Will you attempt to interfere with the battle going on upstairs? Your choices here can impact whether Sabazios wins or Scholomance wins - the outcome is not set in stone!
This is effectively a create-your-own-adventure module without predetermined choices. This means that all occurrences within this section of the event will be tailored to the actions of the characters. Be careful, though! Scholomance was a heavily protected research facility, and each room has the potential for some serious surprises. This means switching grid sectors might invite some interesting consequences!
Sabazios will, depending on your character's actions, attempt to interfere with any attempts to reroute power. This is the nonviolent component, however; there will be no direct physical damage or enemies to attack!
Creativity is rewarded. This event is not on rails, therefore players have a lot of leeway in how they affect the event. This means that characters do not have to attempt rerouting power at all if it's not in their personality to do so! If a character so pleased, they could completely ignore the situation and just wander around Scholomance. Conversely, they could also try to level the entire top floor of the Ossuary. Anything goes!
Magic has some weird effects here. The Wonder of Scholomance has been heavily saturated with magic over its years of service. This results in interesting reactions when further magic is pumped into the environment. Characters who use their magic may randomly be targeted for magical reactions!
Map
This map will primarily come into play with exploration and location of devices. Please have an idea of where your character is located when posting!
There are stairwells to this area located in grid numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. All characters will arrive in grid number 1, and are free to explore in any direction from the start of the RP.
Posting Requirement
In order to keep things uniform and easy to read for everyone, I ask that people follow a posting convention to keep others informed of which character is doing what and where they are located.
Please bold your character's name and title at the top of the thread including their location sector. Please quote people who are in your same sector if you are using magic that may affect them, or if your character is speaking to everyone in the area. Please bold the use of magic or speech in your post that pertains to everyone in the sector. Everything else is up to you! If you have specific size or color tags for different characters, keep on using them! Just please keep the header with your character's name and location above / outside those color tags.
For example:
Quote:
Scholomance, Squire of Saturn // Sector 04
Blah blah things wow look at this dump who even decided a wonder like this was a good idea w/e I guess I'll keep walking oh wait "hey guys there's some kinda weird trap right here".
Quote:
At the bottom of your post, please quote players in the area that this pertains to. You can spoiler this or leave it showing!
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Garbage Cat
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Garbage Cat
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:00 pm
Attending Members
Assisting Scholomance
a-disgruntled-dragon
Chibi Sailor Iduna
shibrogane
Page Colchis
Sami-Fire
Super Sailor Cor Caroli
Kaefaux
Sailor Loke
Guine
Super Sailor Varuna
Sunshine Alouette
Squire Palatine
Kolina
Guardian Cat Magnus
litian
Guardian Cat Liryn
baby_gwing
Squire Dallol
Torvil
Page Corinth
Unoderi
Page Slievenamon
Shinigamisgirl
Prehnite
Fiction1119
Chibi Sailor Ellicott
Shinigamisgirl
Lt. Prehnite
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:01 pm
And reserved, just in case I need an extra post for notes or updates.
Varuna had never seen anything quite like this place. One moment she was on Earth, the next she was in this strange gothic-like Cathedral with bones scattered about, old paintings barely discernible along the walls, and something above that wasn’t quite… human.
Who else had been drawn into this with her? Anyone she recognized? Hopefully they would be able to find a way to get home before whatever it was upstairs decided to come down.
Curiously, Varuna moved to inspect the walls and paintings.
Kaefaux
Sunshine Alouette
Strickenized
I hope I did this right. QQ
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:14 pm
Magnus, Guardian Cat // Sector 01 The location was...well...interesting. It certainly was not something that the grey feline had been expecting to find when he felt the pull, but there he was looking around at a rather wrecked large hall. The blackened walls, decayed portrait frames, and scattering of bones did not portray a rather nice story. The Wonder, was not something the feline would consider a happy place, but it certainly had a specific….eh...charm to it, if that was the word you’d use to describe the gothic arches, and details. Still, he figured he was here for some reason, along with the others that had arrived along with him.
The voices from above bounced around in an obvious echo. Ears perked Magnus listened closely. So, this is Scholomance I assume. Not too hard to deduce from the conversation at hand, but the Guardian certainly knew nothing about the Wonder besides what was in front of his eyes. Alright then, he needs help… How they were suppose to lend aid, Magnus wasn’t sure.
“Standing around won’t help.” He murmured to himself before padding around. Dust clung to furry feet as the feline navigated around the area in which everyone had arrived in, making sure to avoid kicking any bits of bones that lay scattered about. His attention had been drawn by the appearance of….something further ahead past the colum. His eyes narrowed before he turned back to the gathering. “You heard him. He needs our help. We should split up into small groups to explore and see if we can find anything useful in here.” He addressed the group, trying to get others motivated and moving. "Has anyone been here before?" There was always that chance that someone in the group may have ventured to the Wonder at some point in the past. It may prove useful if they had any relevant or possibly useful information.
One moment Ellicott was in the city, practicing... patrolling, and the next she felt a pull and was in a dark room. She didn't have a chance to react before the lights flickered on and the young senshi realized she was in a giant building. Sound drifting from above proved that she, and the others near by, were not alone and apparently whoever was above needed help.
She wanted to help but first she needed to know how to help so when a gray guardian cat spoke to the group in general she nodded. The feline had a point, they would need to explore, to find a way above... if there was one. There had to be something down here in this large building to assist the people above.
Ellicott absently drifted towards the walls, her gaze on the ceiling and the fire damage, her bare feet padding quietly against the floor. "I have not. Do you have any ideas?" She asked the cat right before squealing when she accidentally kicked someone's poor bone across the ground. "Grossgrossgrossgross," the chibi wrinkled her nose in disgust and scrambled away from the walls hoping to avoid any more human remains.
Kolina
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:34 pm
Palatine, Squire of Venus // Sector 1
Though she'd experienced other such strange summons before, particularly in her travels to Olympus, Palatine had not felt enough of the sensation to grow used to it. She appeared somewhat bewildered when she arrived, even if she'd made the conscious decision to come along for the ride.
She didn't know what she'd been expecting to see. Olympus, probably, given that it was the only place other than her wonder that she'd ever been to outside of Earth. For a moment, Palatine wondered if she was still on Earth. That question was soon answered by voices from above.
Ancestor. That spoke of someone's wonder.
One of the voices that drifted down was familiar to her. The Squire of Saturn from the disastrous battle on the Negaverse's home turf.
Other auras popped into existence. Most of those that appeared around her were Senshi and Knights, but there were a couple that stood out from the bunch and seemed not to belong. Other Chaos auras emanated from above.
A Guardian Cat spoke, and Palatine shook her head in answer to his question.
“Can't say I have,” she said. “But if it helps, I'm pretty sure the guy asking for help is a Squire of Saturn. I recognize his voice. So I'd say there's a very high probability we're on Saturn, given the whole ancestor thing.”
Palatine glanced around to take in the view. She spied her niece wandering off some distance away. Palatine moved as if she intended to follow.
It was the sounds of voices that woke him up. Multiple voices to be precise - and all of them out of place in the apartment where he had settled down to catch a little bit of shut eye.
Except..
Except when he opened his eyes, it had been to find that gothic pillars and ornate pillars with small cold white lights had replaced the walls of the apartment.
Purplish eyes gazed round his surroundings in curiosity. That he was no longer on Earth was clear, although he had no idea where 'here' was and whilst this wasn't his first trip to a Homeworld or Wonder it didn't make this place any less strange.
Some of the voices sounded closer than others and so Liryn tore his attention reluctantly from a nearby pillar of glass that seemed to extend from floor to ceiling and padded in their direction although he made a mental note to come back and have a closer look after and particular at the brilliantly blue coloured smoke that seemed to be passing through the pillar to somewhere.
He came across them in time hear a pink clad woman (Palatine) mentioning that she recognised the voice asking for help and that it was perhaps a Squire of Saturn.
There was another mauvian (Magnus) nearby too, as well as a chibi senshi (Ellicott).
Sunshine Alouette
Kolina
Fiction1119
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:56 pm
Chibi Iduna, Senshi of Apples // Section 1
This was not like the moon. The moon was safe, if really cold and impersonal. This... place reminded her far too much of the Rift. Iduna still hadn't gotten over that whole excursion, still having nightmares from it. When she'd gotten the pull, she hadn't know what it would be. So, curious, she answered it. Maybe it would be exciting, or something less threatening than the Rift.
Scholomance was about as exciting as a scary movie. Zombies, crazy ancestors - aparently knights had those - and a really weird monster. Oh yes this was exciting. Though it brought up the idea that perhaps she had her own place, that she was named for. Hopefully it was less... like this. And more happy, and sunshine, and maybe having to do with apples.
This was such a great choice she thought, glancing around the floor. Creepy. Really creepy. If she didn't already have nightmares, she'd get them now. Iduna decided she would begin by investigating the walls for devices that might be used to contain magic. She looked more specifically for what would switch the direction of the flow.
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a-disgruntled-dragon
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 2:49 am
Guine
Beyond the endless organizers for bone fragments, the walls of Scholomance looked smooth and flush with stone. Great windows cut into the thick walls, offering view of a rippling glasslike barrier that separated the Ossuary from the rest of the campus. Peering through the window featured the ever-wavering landscape, decrepit and barren, with a massive spire reaching to scrape the sky. Other buildings were barely discernible in the distance, almost wholly obscured in fog. Water met shore to the extreme left of the window's scope. Were they on the cusp of the ocean, or on an island?
Most paintings and decorum fell away from years of rot and desiccation. Bars that once held tapestries now clung uselessly to their nails. Picture frames now featured no more than flecks of stiff, furled paper. Hung highest on the wall, however, featured a single discernible portrait. An older man, grave-faced with pale hair hewn close to the skull, stared out to the left of the viewer. Red eyes looked dark and somber in the painting, as if age ate through his liveliness. His mouth tucked firmly into a line, a show of severity against the otherwise brilliant and ornate stylization of his armor. A victorian coat adorned his shoulders, fitted with curious, seemingly glowing piping. Beneath the painting sat a barely legible caption:
BLAINE VAN [XXX XX]NDEN, [XX]TH KNIGHT [XX] SCHOLOMANCE FOUNDER A[XX XX] OF SCHO[XXXXX]CE OSSUARY ERECTED [XX] DE[XXXX]ER [XXXX]
[Scratches dig deep into the plaque from here - all further information expunged]
a-disgruntled-dragon
As a campus dedicated to magical research, Scholomance contained magical fonts, baubles, jars, vases, and chests in abundance - though all had long ago lost their enchantments. Within the Ossuary itself, the walls largely fostered the endless filing systems for bones and their catalogued information. There were, however, breaks along the walls where sideboards held a surfeit of utensils. Each drawer bore a label that had long ago crumbled to dust, and within sat various tools with which to measure bone. If checked, the ratty velvet lining in the bottom drawer betrayed the view of a pamphlet beneath its surface.
Beyond that, the walls contained little more than the paintings and windows that Varuna sought. At Iduna's small height, she stood eye level to a section of wall where mortar threatened to crumble away.
Nothing along the walls heeded switches of any sort, however. Perhaps they lay elsewhere?
Elsewhere in the Ossuary, perhaps deep in its confines, hollow clacking sounded. A rattling followed, then a few stunted shuffles that sounded oddly rhythmic in their succession. Above them, battles bloomed. Sabazios' hisses echoed far through the building, tainting the air with an acrid urgency.
The sense of magic was not wholly unfamiliar to Prehnite. Though the last time he'd done this it'd been on purpose, of his own free will, and he'd been with the Knight in question. He was starting to get tired of being yanked about the spheres by generals and magical entities alike. Prehnite sighed, expecting to see something familiar when he opened his eyes; but Glitnirs wonder this was not. If anything the place resembled a tomb..maybe a mortuary? The din of battle above did not seem more appealing then the surroundings below.
Talking cats, Magical girls, and Chibis. Goddammit...
"Hearing does not equal heeding..." Prehnite tsk'd the fury creature, sauntering past the rest of them to explore. He wasn't going to climb those stairs and throw himself into danger unnecessarily, he would however, take advantage of the chance to explore another wonder. He couldn't exactly leave the place on his own, might as well enjoy it. They were, after all, fascinating. The place could have been eerily beautiful, if it wasn't in such a state of disarray.
Initially ignoring the tapestry's and faintly glowing glass tubing. Sparing a glance to the tombs that lined the wall. He didn't feel like disturbing anyone's remains though. Bad things could come with that, and he wasn't eager to meet any spirits this place held.
Faint unnerving sounds coming from deeper within the place. Even more disconcerting that whatever was creating them wasn't within sight.
Well ******** that....
Prehnite was more interested in what lay deeper in the place. Specifically wandering into an area that appeared more blocked by columns then the rest, the particular shape of this space seemed different, more compact than the area he'd found himself initially ported into, was there a door? He wondered, what, if anything, he could find here.Exploring Sector 5
Kolina
Nope, kthxbye!
Strickenized
-tosses boy places- Hoping I did this right!
Shiningamisgirl
Ruthless Consumer
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Fiction1119
Original Lunatic
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 3:00 pm
Ellicott, Chibi Senshi of Dance // Sector 1 --- Tapping on one of the glass tubes
The chibi glared at the walls before turning her back to them, and their creepy burdens of destroyed paintings and soot. The few scattered bones were more than enough for the rather prissy child to focus on the center of the room. She could hear the sounds of a fight drifting from above but there was little the chibi could do except explore so that is what she did.
Taking a deep breath to brace herself, and mentally hoping not to encounter any more spooky stuff, Ellicott headed towards the center of the room. She could barely make out what seemed to be an altar in the center of the room, ringed by columns. Maybe there would be something there that would help them some how. The young girl padded across the floor, her fingers absently slipping across the stone of the columns as she passed them, making her way slowly and cautiously forward into the enormous room.
Ellicott detoured however, approaching one of the narrow flutes of glass that extended from floor to ceiling, the brilliant blue smoke rushing through drawing the teen towards it. Could these somehow be affecting what was going on above them? Her curiosity was overriding her cation at this point. Reaching out the chibi tapped gently against the glass, studying the flow of the smoke, trying to determine if it was flowing up or down.
Strickenized
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 6:56 am
Mauvian Liryn // Sector 01 -- now in human form and trying to open a drawer
There appeared to be what looked like drawers set in the walls, although it didn't look like paws would be much good if he wanted to have nose through them.
And Liryn very much did want to have a nose through them because there was a possibility that there might be something interesting in them...
He stared at one of the drawers thoughtfully, perhaps he had a solution for the whole 'no hands' thing...
At least if he could repeat what he'd managed to do back during his time during Negaspace.
He concentrated and after a few moments and some jade green sparks there was a young man with jade green hair and tabby ears and tail in place of what had been a cat.
Goal!
Smiling cheerfully to himself, Liryn moved to take a closer look at the drawers that had caught his attention with the intention of pulling open the closest one to him.
Dallol, Squire of Uranus // Heading to check out Sector 6
Ok. A brief moment of her time to see if she had gotten her facts right here. This place that the whole lot of them had been brought to was the wonder of the knight Scholomance and it seemed like there was a fight going on upstairs between him and this ancestor of his called Blaine. Interesting.
Looking about herself and seeing no one else she knew so far, she started towards one of the enclosed areas (sector 6) to see if she could locate anything of interest that could help the other knight. The sooner they were out of here, the sooner she could get back to her studies.
