A-B-C-D-E, F you

Part 1

The next mission is announced at the start of the week. The Autumn Guild Leader, Sawyer, posts a message that reaches everyone's phone:

"To especially those not afraid of the dark or being underground: it's time to go to the Crystal Mines. Those who come along will receive 50 000 Moon Coins as a reward and as many crystals as they want. Those who don't want to go can help with preparations and still receive monetary compensation, even if less (10 000 Moon Coins). Mission starts on the 18th, while major preparations are focused on from the 15th onwards.
- Sawyer"

Attached to the message is a list of things people can help with: food & medical supplies, mining equipment & armor enhancing and working on enchanted, protective masks. The masks are meant to protect everyone going into the mine from possible magical poisons that might become an issue. Tools have been given to make the masks and enchant them. All of these preparations are made through the whole week, but especially during the weekend.

Part 2

Those who wish more of an action role in preparations are once again asked to deliver a teleport crystal to the site and prepare the camping area with barrier stones. Dragons will gladly lend their fast travel services. Meanwhile, anyone who has made friends with one of the flower fairy dogs will learn that they can teleport once a day to a desired location, as long as it's within the same segment (and as long as they receive plenty of pets and ear scritches before and after).

The area around the Crystal Mines is currently the territory of monsters called zweig. They're basically humanoid looking monsters who have been made out of dead branches. As long as there are dead branches around they can form themselves over and over again. They also use these very sharp branches to attack anyone invading their territory and their screams can temporarily paralyze those who hear it, giving them time to dive in to attack. Fire does work well on them, but they're also clever enough to dive into puddles and make themselves as moist as possible to avoid getting burned.

Once they notice the barrier stones their primary goal will be to toss those away or break them. Apparently zweigs hate stones and rocks that emit magical energy and want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Part 3

The library in Amberfall is also attempting to help with the preparations. Keyword being in attempting, as the local library fairies are currently fighting over which books to take to the Fairy Kingdom and which should be kept where they were. So the library is literally a mess.

Those who visit the library (either asked by the guild to fetch relevant books or for any other reason) will be caught in a magical war. Library fairies use the power of the books to give inspiration to their spells. Getting hit by fairy magic will have several different effects:

• Changing their clothes to fit the theme of a book
• Turning someone into a walking, talking book
• Trapping people into a prison made out of books
• Trapping people into a book (to live the story, whatever part of the story - pray it's not a picture book of volcanoes)
• Making someone speak like a book does (different accent, language or just more dramatic)
• Giving someone wings that start taking them to a different place (meant for books to transfer them automatically). The same magic can also randomly try and sort people into bookshelves - and even make them tinier to make it happen
• Random animal ears and tails
• Giant beard (no matter the gender), very similar to dwarves
• Devil horns, tail and little wings

All of the effects wear off usually by the end of the day (but usually sooner, in a few hours). None of the effects are lethal, but they can cause some manner of injuries. Most of the effects can be reversed by getting hit by fairy magic again, as two different magics cancel each other out.

Occasionally some of the magic also gets past the front door and into the Amberfall district.

They're Taking the Otherworlders to Mine-rinth

Part 1

The entrance to the Crystal Mines isn't sealed by anything, but any of the natives helpers advise to wait for Sawyer to appear before entering the place. They will not, however, stop anyone from wandering in. However those who go in can't come back out or warn anyone about it.

As soon as people enter the mines, all devices stop connecting to the internet. Something is jamming the signal, making communication impossible. Another thing that happens is that all magical powers are nullified, both seasonal ones and otherwordly ones. It does seem most magical items work, however (the ones that don't are any that would deal actual magical damage).

The mines themselves are dark, but the crystals and gemstones in the walls shine with bright enough light to see. The halls are big and completely made out of stone and there's a pathway leading deeper. There's a partially broken down railing stopping anyone from falling, but the pathway is wide enough so there shouldn't be too big of a risk.

Those who decide to walk deeper instead of waiting around will risk getting kidnapped by a skeleton. The skeletons always pick two at the same time, whoever are the closest by, and drag them down into the pit in the middle. If the skeletons think they're in dangers of getting caught or destroyed they will cut their arms off and flee.

Part 2

Even once Sawyer joins the expedition, the situation in the mine doesn't change for the better. Even his powers are nullified, which makes him mad, punching the wall. This seems to open a weird, out of place digital panel. Through this, Sawyer barely manages to send a SOS message outside, warning that something is wrong.

Instead of sitting around, he will arms himself with his weapon of choice: a set of two chakrams. He will lead a group to find those that were kidnapped and fight off more of the skeletons trying to capture more people as they venture down. Finding the others is a priority now and he encourages anyone confident in their weapon skills to follow.

Those who remain at the entrance may investigate the panel more to discover strange games are going on the screen on autoplay. They might see familiar people running through different hallways, but sadly they're unable to really do anything without a proper keyboard.

They can, however, try finding other ways out from the main floor. It's hard to see, but there are tunnels here (dwarf sized). Anyone who can fit through there is free to explore places and possibly find something along the way.

Part 3

The skeletons will take those they've captured into various tunnels deeper inside the mine. Once far enough in the tunnels they will use ropes to tie people together. Some suck at their job and may leave the ropes a little too loose, but once they're done they will leave to find more victims.

Luckily, there's plenty of sharp rocks lying around that can be used to cut the ropes. It's getting out of the tunnels that will be more difficult. The tunnels are like a maze that seems to be moving. See that entrance? Soon a block of rock is covering it. Instead another tunnel is open that wasn't before. Some of the tunnels are even hiding items someone might have dropped while being kidnapped.

Some of the tunnels hide skeletons that are patrolling the area for anyone who might attempt to escape (and will attack people they see out and about), traps that activate when stepped on (such as a pit full of tar that's almost impossible to get out of) and magical gas that starts traveling freely when a rock is moved from its way. This special gas saps away touch energy, so holding onto someone's hand will help with it. The masks made and given before coming to the mines will help combat the effects - if someone didn't get theirs stolen by the skeletons (who will wear them on their head just for fun).

It might take a while to get out. There are rooms that are safe from the moving of the labyrinth; these are the houses of the dwarves that lived there. They can be barricaded from possible skeleton attacks and used to take a break from the madness. There are also canned beans that still haven't expired and some very, very old wine. The beds are extremely small, but at least the blankets seem regular sized.


(OOC note: The paths change because someone is playing the Labyrinth game on a computer somewhere remotely. Until people start playing against the person (in Section 3: Prompt 1), the results are usually unfavorable.)

Always Bring a Laptop to a Sword Fight

Part 1

Sawyer's SOS message arrives. The group still stationed at the entrance start to look for clues and eventually finds even more panels similar to the one inside. An emergency text message goes out to every device;

"Anyone who's good with technology - especially with coding and hacking - please come and help us; we have an emergency at the Crystal Mines."

Research Center staff manages to connect some computers into the panels. Those who came over to help will be asked to look into the coding and take control of the programs inside the panels to best of their ability. The code is complex and whoever is behind it is fighting back whoever tries to access the codes.

Fortunately, one of the programs that's easy to access is the Labyrinth game. Remaining people are encouraged to face whoever is playing the game in a match. The goal is to help the two people they see to advance through the labyrinth and avoid any hostile skeletons by moving walls into different places. This will also help distract the program owner and make it easier for the hackers to work.

This Labyrinth game is, indeed, connected to the actual mazes the kidnapped people are stuck in, so playing the game will also help them.

Taking over the programs lets them shut down one named "Mine Trap.exe", which lets anyone who was stuck inside to finally get out... and power to return. There may also be various other discoveries.

Part 2

Sawyer and anyone following him make it through to the floors where the hostages were taken to. There they will find even more skeletons to fight. Luckily, they're not very good fighters, but there are a lot of them. It's their intent to try and overwhelm the group with their numbers.

Eventually, however, everyone can feel their powers suddenly returning. Sawyer takes full advantage of this by trapping most of the skeletons into a cage made of earth and stone. The fight is far from over, but these skeletons are very weak to elemental magic so defeating them is a lot easier now.

The tunnels stop acting like a game as well, letting anyone who was stuck in them to easily find their way out - or at least let anyone go find them, if they can't get out on their own.

Once the rest of the skeletons are either defeated or captured, Sawyer advices that they should go back and rest. Whoever set the trap clearly knew to wait for them, so they have investigations to do. Before they find how they knew they'd be coming here the actual mission is put on halt.

Part 3

Outside there's a chance to rest and heal before heading back to the city. Those who still want to stay and explore or mine can of course do that, as the problem of powers not working has been solved.

There's still the mystery of how the digital panels have been placed here and why, too. Their expedition really gave them more questions than answers this time.

Sawyer stays for a while to see that everyone is doing alright before heading back to the city, so he can report what happened and start some very serious investigations.




code bases by tricklet