Build An Adventure: Trial Run: Host Eclipse

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Build An Adventure!


As always with a new minigame we shall begin with a short explanation of the rules! This minigame is slightly special in that a specific person manages it and as a result we would have a thread per instance of the minigame. This one is a trial one with myself as the manager to see if people are interested in playing something like this.

The Host, Me, will start the game by posting a simple scenario.
Next, the players, you guys, will post what the PROTAGONIST or THE WORLD does. Unless otherwise a specific protagonist is provided by the host, the first player to post is considered the protagonist.
The Host will reply with the effects of the action and the new state of affairs.
Rinse and Repeat to construct our own little adventure.

Now before we go on I have to specify some rules for the protagonist and world actions.
A. No Action made by the protagonist or the world may harm or kill the protagonist. Only the host can declare injuries or death upon the protagonist.
B. The "World" consists of the environment itself as well as all living beings upon it. Feel free to insert your own characters as a part of the world, however they can be harmed and/or killed by player actions.
C. ANYONE can control the protagonists action per turn. If multiple people post the actions will be merged ASSUMING they do not contradict. If they contradict then the oldest actions get priority.
D. Please be reasonable with actions and keep them within the ratings of the site.
E. I reserve the right to reject any action and reverse to a state prior to it.

This is a trial run, so its success or failure with determine if we have more of these. Or if this will just end up being a never ending story or something. Without further Ado, Allow me to begin this tale....


Let the Story Begin...

A total solar eclipse fades away overhead and light slowly begins to blanket the landscape before you, a wide set of mountain ranges with snowy peaks extending above the clouds. The light approaches you as the shadow of the moon flees at incredible speed. Trees and various plants lean towards the newly unveiled sunlight as the pitch black darkness climbs up the mountain slope upon whose peak you stand, still shrouded in pure darkness. It is just as the line of light reaches your feet that you find the time to ask yourself a question. "Who...am I?" The light reaches as you glance down with a deep curiosity to see yourself revealed and hope to find an answer to that question. The light reveals a cloak of purest black that covers every inch of you. It hangs over your legs and your arms as you realize you feel the weight of a hood against the top of your head and you look up towards the sun. As the sun touches your face you feel an emotion that takes you a moment to recognize as you unconsciously grab your hood and pull it over your head hiding your face from the light, shyness. You have this queasy feeling when the sunlight touches you and a morbid fear of anyone or ANYTHING for that matter seeing your body. You take a quick moment to ponder this, but decide that even if you don't remember why you truly never want to be seen, you would rather die than be revealed for a moment. Your eyes glimmer with a golden light as you start to peer out of the shadow of your cloak and you flex beneath your cloak of truest black. You won't find out anything standing here upon the mountains now completely lit by the sunlight as the shadow of the moon as completely vanished. Time to decide....


Story: Amnesiac of the Mountain
Protagonist: Black cloaked individual; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Unknown; Eye Color: Golden
Special Rules: No player action may reveal the face/body of the protagonist due to their crippling fear/shyness of being revealed.

Antagonists

The antagonists are controlled by a different thread. No one in this thread besides the host may control the Antagonists. Please avoid dictating the backstory or origins of the Church of Ine-om in general, however, these six characters are the only people completely off limits from control. You may still create world characters involved with Ine-om as long as they do not directly involve or relate to these six characters. If you want to learn more about these characters, have the protagonist interrogate world NPCs who may know. Upon player request, I will add additional information to the characters below as it is revealed.

The Church of Ine-om
Antagonist: The High Arahdin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Unknown; Eye Color: Unknown

Antagonist: Thumb of the Arahsin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Unknown; Eye Color: Unknown

Antagonist: Index of the Arahsin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Male; Eye Color: Unknown

Antagonist: Middle of the Arahsin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Unknown; Eye Color: Unknown

Antagonist: Ring of the Arahsin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Female; Eye Color: Unknown

Antagonist: Pink of the Arahsin; Race: Unknown; Age: Unknown; Gender: Unknown; Eye Color: Unknown

The Plot Thus Far....
[Will be added at a later date.]

[Ryohei Sasagawa[Hero]]

Black cloaked individual slowly makes his way down the mountain making sure to keep himself well wrapped in his cloak where he finds a small town before him...

[Pokedude12]

Hagakure appears from behind a tree and summons seven UFOs nearby. His intention is unknown; but he does seem dangerous... in all the wrong ways. He does give off a creepy aura after all. He might even be one of those raving lunatics that are best avoided. Just look at his clunky crystal ball! Someone could even turn on an incinerator with that, or even destroy a black-and-white robotic bear...

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

The protagonist descends the mountain, passing the deranged Hagakure who seems to be focused on something that no one has noticed besides him.

Upon approaching the village it appears to be a small, but active town with a fountain at its center. Buildings are scattered around but none stand out as currently noise can be heard from the square and a number of market booths are currently set up. People are walking around in strange costumes, perhaps its a festival of some sort? You ponder on what to do. Time to Decide...

[Ryohei Sasagawa[Hero]]

a rather hairy man sitting in one of the houses looks out his window and sees the scene playing out he quickly notices the entry of the cloaked individual...being a part of the guard he grows concerned and exits his house to approach the black cloaked indiviual

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

The guard approaches the protagonist and waves them down. As he draws near you find you can make out his face and features more clearly. He appears hairy due to his beard but his age is shown by the lines under his eyes and his wrinkled skin that looks like aged leather. His deep voice speaks kindly, but has the hoarse sound behind of it of an old throat.


Guard: "Hey there friend, you are looking mighty shady in that black cloak. Could you lower your hood and show me your face and tell me who you are. Just need to make sure you aren't any trouble here."

Our protagonist unconsciously stiffens and reaches and pulls down on their hood further as if to try and sink back deeper in the shadows so no one can see them. The guard's eyes seem to glimmer as he notices the motion and his lips pull into a thin smile.

Guard: "Ah, I see. Moonborn is it? Some advice.... If you are going to attend a festival pick a brighter creature to dress up as, nothing is more suspicious than a person in a black cloak in a crazy festival like this one. You are lucky it was me and not the younger guard, he probably wouldn't have recognized that cloak as a costume even after the shyness act. Not many people remember those old myths now."

You think to yourself what a stroke of luck, he seems to think the cloak is a costume and has ceased attempting to peek under the hood. The question is what to do now. Time to Decide....

(BTW: I am totally ad libbing this so don't think I have any kind of huge plot in store for you yet)

[Ryohei Sasagawa[Hero]]

The old guard suggests taking part in the festival costume competition and then decides that since the black cloaked figure had brought fond memories of old myths he had heard as a child, that he would organize a guide to show him around festival and town. After coming to this decision the old guard looks around seeming to be looking for something and then opens his eyes wide indicating to see what he was looking for. He quickly walks over to the guard he had seen stationed nearby, it was a younger man with a long sword on his back that looked a little like the old guard, after a quick conversation out of earshot the two return together. The old guard introduced his son, Victor, to the black cloaked figure and confidently said Victor agreed to be his guide for the day, the old guard excuses himself saying "the young should talk with the young" and black cloaked figure is left standing awkwardly with Victor who seems eager to get going where black cloaked figure wants to go and says as much.

[Pokedude12]

Yasuhiro Hagakure (Dangan Ronpa) expresses shock at being ignored and feels dejected, fleeing the forest into the mountains. His intended goal is unknown; and he makes no further actions in the mountains himself. However, he sends the UFOs to spy on the protagonist's actions.

Meanwhile, Yosuke Hanamura (Persona 4) is seen in town, as a sort of merchant. He stocks fruits, costumes, and plastic weapons for the festival. Most of his goods are slightly pricy compared to the other stalls available, though the costumes are notably cheaper by contrast. A few citizens purchase his wares; but the majority of shoppers are gathering around the other stalls. However, the protagonist does overhear that a purchase of items of all three types nets a massive discount, about a third of the total price when purchased individually.

Meanwhile, Owain (Fire Emblem: Awakening) is desperately looking for a partner to perform a play for the festival guests. He seems overly eager, shouting nonsensical names like "The Sacred Stones!" "The Staff of Deep Hurting!" and so on. Most of the other citizens either ignore him or visibly avoid him. However, the protagonist does overhear that a prize will be granted to those who perform the best during this festival.

Meanwhile, the Banker (Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) is promoting his business to wary citizens, saying that he is expanding to numerous cities throughout the nation. It seems that he has a moderate amount of currency stored, just enough to purchase several costumes and some food from the stalls here; but the majority of citizens ignore his services. However, the protagonist does overhear that interest will be applied to stored currency over time. Furthermore, it seems the Banker's stall is not well guarded at all.

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

The protagonist shuffles uncomfortably as they try to figure out how to respond exactly to Victor. During this period of panic they do overhear several things.

Upon hearing about items at a discount our protagonist realizes two... no three things. First is that they know what currency is. Seconds is that that they have no idea what the currency for this town or land is. Third is that they realize that regardless of what it is, they own nothing besides the clothes on their back.

The protagonist makes a mental not to avoid the person known as "Owain" in future situations.

They also make a note that the bank might be useful if they ever had any money.

But Victor appears to be growing impatient. He is edging in a direction,supposedly towards the aforementioned contest. But what to do? Time to Decide....

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Overwhelm by all the events happening in such rapid succession, the protagonist turns and, with a speed they did not realize they possessed, dashed off deeper into the town leaving a rather confused Victor.

Our protagonist finds a small bench in a clearing between houses that is thankfully empty of people and (compared to the festival grounds) relatively quiet. There they sit and try to collect their thoughts and decide on what to do. Time to Decide.....


ELSEWHERE:

A man lies under the sunlight in a field of wild wheat, a lone grass of wheat extends from his mouth as if he had fallen asleep while gnawing on it. His snores are the only noise in the field of any description besides the rustling of the wind among the plants themselves. The man wears a cloak of gray and gold, with many fine markings and rune like engravings. Atop the shoulders are 5 stars per shoulder, a sure sign of high rank in whatever organization he belongs.

But suddenly his eyes snap open and the snoring ceases and he sits up. Very slowly his jaw works up and down as he thoughtfully chews the piece of wheat. His nostrils expand and contract as he sniffs the air and a slight grin appears on his face.

? ? ?: "Well I haven't had a whiff of this scent since I was but a wee pup in the order. It's so faint so it must be quite a long ways away from my nice fields."

The man sighs as he slowly and reluctantly stands up. The wind blows against him as he rises and his body is outlined by his cloak revealing thick muscles like wire that only someone who trains for long hours every day could hope to maintain. He reaches down beside him and with one hand hefts a brown burlap sack over his shoulder and with the other rapidly picks a number of straws of wheat and sticks the ends into his mouth. Holding quite a few straws in his mouth like a dog with a bone, he cracks his other arm and reaches down into the grass to grab his weapon and sheathes it on a strap attached to his regal cloak. Muttering to himself he grabs all but one straw from his mouth and wedges them between his weapon and strap.

? ? ?: "The others will never let me hear the end of it if I didn't at least start working in this situation. Well, I guess I don't have a choice in the matter so might as well keep a few straws for the road. It's gonna be a long walk."

With that the man confidently strides with the balance of a practiced warrior to the east away from the setting sun. His decisions are already made, for him it is Time to Act.

[Pokedude12]

The protagonist decides that s/he simply cannot maintain high profile status and figures that s/he should find ways to conceal her/himself for the time being. Recalling that her/his outfit is apparently similar to some entity celebrated by the festival, s/he feels that s/he might be able to wander the town without too much trouble, so long as s/he does not meet the sheriff or Victor.

S/He decides to pass by the Bank nonchalantly, aiming to better understand the currency of this town... hopefully without drawing attention to her/himself. Afterward, s/he would examine the other stalls to glance at their wares. Throughout this course of action, s/he would listen in on various conversations to better understand the situation of this village. However, as s/he is uncertain of her/his stealth and thieving skills, s/he would avoid stealing for the time being, just watching to better observe the general security of wallets and purses in this town.

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Our protagonist takes a longer route around avoiding the most crowded section of the festival, but still passing through decently crowded areas to appear as one with the crowd. Unconsciously our protagonist leans and sways like grass in the wind passing through the crowd, performing subtle body movements to pass through the thin gaps of the crowd without allowing even a thread of the fabric on their cloak from connecting with others. Perhaps the desire to not be seen led into a desire to avoid touch, but such fluid movements are not something any regular person would possess and it.

It was only now that the protagonist had not only time to think alone to themselves but other people nearby. Perhaps Victor or the sheriff had simply caused to much distress in our protagonist for them to notice their unconscious maneuvering. It occurred to them now that they had an extraordinary sense of balance and were light on their feet. Perhaps it was because they hadn't known anything but the downward slopes of the mountain in their memory, but thinking back on it now their had been some rather acrobatic movement in their descent. This flowing step and movement didn't feel forced from our protagonist, it felt natural as if that was simply the regular way to move. It required a level of concentration to walk levelly like the majority of the people in the town did. In the chaos of the festival very few noticed and none took note of the swaying black cloak navigating their midst.

Our protagonist arrived at the bank without any trouble and glanced around at the people speaking their, most in bright and crazy looking garb. There they saw that the people seemed to be trading small colored stones that were vaguely transparent. They saw three primary colors being used which was red, green, and blue. Whatever they were they went into pouches and purses quickly after they were received. Proceeding onwards towards stalls our protagonist further sees transactions with the stones and some customers haggling with the merchants. Through the conversations they were able to determine that the three colors of stones they saw, red, green, and blue, all shared around the same value, but some traders valued one color over another for some unknown reason. They also learned that these stones were known as "Lins" and were indeed the currency of the town and likely whatever area encompassed it as several people mentioned being foreign, but still used the currency.

Most of the wares appeared to be random foods that our protagonist does not recognize in the slightest. Other stands were selling small shiny trinkets and like they food, none are recognized. Unfortunately conversation does little to reveal much about the current situation. Mostly mindless chatter about livelihood and if people are enjoying the festival. Our protagonist does hear a few strange terms that they make note of for now.

Terms:
Church of Ine-om
Soem and Meos

After performing a lap around the festival stands and passing again by the bank our protagonist ponders what to do. Stay and try to hear more? Cut loose and get away from the crowd?...honestly they have no idea what would be the best course of action. Time to Decide...

Addition Rule Notice
Hello Again everyone. Eclipse here introducing the Antagonist Role. I will now explain the rules for the antagonist character/s
1. The Antagonist may not be harmed in player posts. Any damage will be stated, confirmed, and denied in the host's own posts.
2. The Antagonist actions cannot be controlled by regular players. Antagonist actions can be performed same as the protagonist by directly controlling the antagonist or controlling the "world."
3. The Antagonist actions are located in a locked board and only accessible by players who are controlling the antagonist.
4. Players who control the antagonist may NOT post in the main protagonist thread, but may see what is happening. After all, Evil eyes are always watching.
5. Actions made in the antagonist board that influence the protagonist will be carried over through host messages.

Any player may request to shift into the antagonist side, but may not switch back after learning the password to the antagonist board. You can request to shift here or by pming me.
The true antagonist has not been identified so the first antagonist players can contribute in the creation of the Antagonist character.

[Pokedude12]

The protagonist, having realized her/his manner of movement, decides to test this trait by practicing thievery. S/He watches for people with loose or open wallets and attempts to pick them stealthily, keeping an eye open for any who might notice their movements. The number the protagonist aims for isn't of high concern, just to collect several of each. However, given that the protagonist is still wary of others, s/he will avoid the riskier targets for the time being.

In the case that the protagonist obtains Lins, s/he checks her/himself for pockets and tied pouches to place them in. If the protagonist has no such thing, s/he will test the obtained Lins by attempting to buy a pouch from a stall, if possible. Before the purchase, however, the protagonist will watch sales at other stalls and compare the Lins used for other pouches and the like.

Meanwhile, the protagonist decides to keep listening for the terms s/he heard earlier: Church of Ine-om, as well as Seom and Meos.

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Under the guise of wandering the festival our protagonist attempts to pick some pockets of looser individuals. These individuals happen to mostly be people walking around carrying bottles marked with a strange insignia of crossed lines that the protagonist does not recognize. They walk unsteadily and seem to have very little awareness of their surroundings. Our protagonist finds it fairly simple to close the gap and brush up their sleeve against the pouches of these individuals and slink a few of the strange stones out of their pockets.

Our protagonist also find their cloak as a few hidden pockets on the inside, large enough to hold the Lins or other objects. The problem is that if too many things are stored and they clink together inside the cloak during the swaying movements it would prove difficult to not sound like a walking landslide. Our protagonist only takes enough Lins to feel comfortable keeping them inside those pockets quietly, which comes out to around 13 Lins. Of those Lins there are 6 Green, 4 Blue, and 3 Red.

While doing this our protagonist continues listening in for the previous terms that were mentioned. The terms Soem and Meos seem to be names of some description and this festival is in their celebration. Church of Ine-om does not seem to be mentioned in anything more than name so our protagonist does not learn anything more about it. It probably won't be long before some of those persons realize their wallets are lighter so it may be best to wander farther away from this area. Time to Decide...

[Daiwa Scarlet]

A purple cloaked figure watches the "festival" from a "church's bell tower." Curious eyes peek over the ledge, wondering at the actions of these "citizens." This "festival" happened yearly, but she had never really experienced it. In fact, she had never been allowed out onto the streets. Her master would probably reprimand her if he discovered she had wandered again... Her figure became pale and unstable as these thoughts filled her mind, but even the threat of punishment was not enough to quell her curiosity. These "citizens" were just too interesting and she lost track of time. However, a sharp pain on the back of her head drew her away and the figure on the tower flickered out of existence.

The flicker caught the attention of the protagonist. There was something about the purple spark that agitated him, but he couldn't remember why. It was brought to mind a feeling of warmth tainted with a deep sense of loneliness.