Welcome to Gaia! ::

General Information
Maintaining a superior defense is the pride of the Moon Division, defending even at the expense of attacking. However, this can be hard, especially for trainees who just got new magic weapons full of glowing and powers. Thus the Princess Island. At the center of the island sits a princess who will do absolutely nothing to protect herself, and it's up to you to build defenses that will withstand shadowling attacks so she she doesn't die in a horribly realistic manner.

There's four main paths for shadowling's to travel through, and you have 3 types of building materials to create your defenses from: straw bales, wood, and bricks. The sturdier the material, the sturdier the barrier, but the fewer you can build in the allotted time. After a set amount of time, the princess will crush a pumpkin pill, attracting varying amounts of lurking shadowlings. You get to watch helplessly from the observation station, without getting to attack yourself.

These creature are extremely weak and ill formed, coming up against a solid defense they will disperse, but in turn they also weaken said defense. When a defense goes down, they go right to the princess and attack her. Should she survive the wave, you get to go back down, rebuild, and do it again.

If you fail: the princess has died, horribly, and you've wasted a lot of time on this only to look fairly incapable. All things considered? Most pleasant course to fail.

If you win: peen points and bragging rights go to those with the healthiest princess and lasted through the most attack waves.
If you choose to go beyond 5 rounds, switch the enemy dice roll to 4 d20s.

Mechanics

• Your princess has 20 hp
  
• First, roll the strength of you defense, using the dice for whichever building type you choose.
  
  Brick: 4 d12
  Wood: 8 d6
  Hay bales: 12 d4
  
  The order of the die determine the HP for each barrier location. For example, with bricks, rolling 5/6/8/1, would mean that path 1 has 5 HP, path 2 has 6 HP and so on. With a wood roll of 3/3/3/1/2/5/5/2, the first 2 dice would equal the amount of the first path. Brick would be the least math-y of the building materials (you lazy asses.)
  
• Roll 4 d12 for the attacking forces. Once again the order of the dice correspond with the path being affected. Then do the math to determine the status of your defenses and princess.
  Example:
  My defenses are 5/6/8/10
  The attackers are 3/7/3/8
  
  The result defenses are 2/-1/5/2
  Negative numbers are taken off the princesses HP, leaving her at 19 HP.
  
• Go back and rebuild your defenses in the same manner as before, you'll be building on top of old defenses so you add the new defense HP to the remaining defense HP. Negative numbers = 0 HP for the defense, not negative HP.
  
• Minimum rounds to complete the course is 3
  
  Bonus Mechanics
  
• Their defense expertise allows them to build slightly sturdier barriers. This applies to all paths that start at 0 hp. They do not stack. So if you are re-building on a barrier that lasted from an existing round, this bonus does not apply, as it is already still in effect.
  
  
• Trainees: 0 hp bonus
  
• Moon Trainees: +1 hp bonus to each path
  
• Hunters: +1 hp to each path
  
• Moon Hunters: + 2 hp to each path
  

Kiki was lucky: Zeke tended to be an early riser, long gone by this point. And she was unlucky: Ever's schedule was shot to hell, which meant that he tended to sleep in. Her pounding brought him up out of sleep, and he answered the door in a pair of PJ bottoms three sizes too big, cinched tight around his waist, and a poorly-fitting t-shirt that maybe, once upon a time, had been emblazoned with a band logo.

He stared down at her, hair a tousled mess around his face, and frowned down his nose. Decisively, he didn't ask her what the problem was. He was sure she'd say, anyway.

For a moment, he still looked stunned: blinking down at Kiki with distant eyes, his hand tangled up into the mess of his hair. Then he licked his lips, looking back over his shoulder at the mussed bed behind him -- perhaps longingly -- before he closed the door in her face.

Surely she'd rage against it in the hallway, but in the meantime, Ever'd get his hands on some boxers, change from his [or, well Zeke's] pajama pants into proper clothing. It would make it easier to deal with her, when he opened the door again.

The banging didn't make him open the door -- that was his choice, a few minutes later, by which point [perhaps] she'd have shouted herself hoarse. But he was dressed now, shaking himself out a bit as he peered down at her. Still thin, and pale, and his hair was a sloppy mop: not long enough to truss back but long enough to get in his eyes, so as he stepped out into the hall beside her, he shoved a hat onto his head.

"Are you going to wear that?" It was an easy sort of dig. No matter what she had on.

Ever shook his head just a little -- a smile quirking across his mouth and hands spread in a vague gesture. He didn't look ready to star on any covers of fashion magazines, maybe, but at least if his clothing got dirty it wouldn't be some great disaster.

He didn't say anything else to her, though, just easily guided the way out.

When they reached the run, it probably wouldn't be what Kiki had expected: not some fancy party with elaborate ball gowns but, instead, a rough-and-tumble training area, dirty and dusty. There was, at the very least, a princess -- one for them to share, and protect.

Tanned skin. Pale hair that ombred to the same pink as her oversized ballgown.

Peyton blinked up at them, daftly, from her place at the heart of the island.

"The idea's to defend her," Ever offered, helpfully.

Ever couldn't help but wince; a hand coming up to swipe at his ear as the sound lingered, echoed. The princess, at least, seemed unbothered, and that made him squint just a little.

"She's just a golem. Are we doing this?"

"If she dies, then you did a shitty job." Ever offered it absently, hands in his pockets -- at least fully awake now. He shrugged, blinking down at her and flashed a little smile. It was impossible to tell if his goading would have any effect on her at all, but honestly, it was no skin off his back. Neither of them got anything for success or failure.

"We can grab straw, wood, or brick. As far as I can tell, it's all pretty much the same. Depending on how much you want to lift." He paused. "I'll carry some, though. You just make the decision."

Ever couldn't help but snicker at her pettiness -- but he'd help, putting the hay bales where Kiki directed, if she needed someone to move them around. Or, realistically, just wanted someone to.

Afterward, they could watch from the observation tower as the shadowlings worked their way through the paths, getting held up -- and infuriated -- by the sturdy defenses.

It was, honestly, surprising.

"Hm. I halfway expected you to sabotage her."