⇨ SAY UNCLE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone who isn't in jail!
When: Day 175, 11:30PM onward.
Where: The Realm that used to contain Heartstone Manor.
What: Team carnival has gotten what they came for, but in the meantime they have lost what they came with. With his ace in the hole gone, the Prince is tearing apart the Heartstone Manor and reshaping it into an impregnable fortress to lock away his new most precious commodities - the Ringmaster's captured followers. Welcome to a hostage situation, this could take a while.
Warnings: Violence, and etc.

AFTER THE BALL↴ Around 11:30PM is when everything starts changing - and for most in Heartstone Manor, the triggers will have remained unseen. In the ongoing thunderstorm it was easy to miss, and the Prince losing control over his realm only occured before a small group of workers intent on saving the carnival from a terrible fate. An ancient High Fae artifact called the Blue Rose was stolen from the Prince, and in reaction he is being forced to abandon his plans of controlling the Ringmaster, instead trying to hide away in his realm for the purposes of saving his own skin. His main bartering chip? The workers that he's been capturing up to this point. He knows that, unlike himself, the Ringmaster cares about mortals, and especially about the ones who follow her. He's willing to bet that she won't allow them to die for the sake of her own convenience, and he's right. Now that the Blue Rose is the carnival's, she's intent to take back what was stolen from her, as well as the lives of all the servants that the Prince has been stealing away for eons. By whatever means necessary. ► SPLIT THE EARTH: Characters all across the Manor will be treated with initial tremours that will soon escalate into a full-fledged earthquake, capable of collapsing buildings and rending the earth. The cause of this is simple: the Prince is using his powers of elemental earth to reshape his realm into something more suited to protect him. Specifically, he is changing what was a manor house into a fortress meant to defend, and allowing the rest to collapse into ruin. The Manor is still nothing but a castle floating in a void - as the earth breaks apart, it will be nothing but an endless freefall between the floating chunks of debris. Over the next twelve house that earthen debris will be reshaping and solidifying into a new layout, but having to be there while it happens is one hell of a ride! ► BREAK THE ILLUSION: It's as the world starts shaking that the last of the Prince's spell over the minds of his guests will begin to fade away. However, it may wear off more slowly than is helpful in an emergency earthquake situation. The ballroom trance may linger even as lives are threatened, and it will take a pointed effort to make sure that everyone gets out of the Manor's collapse safely. At the same time, the illusionary guests will begin to fade and disappear. The ones that remain are the ones that are real, but it may be a bit painful to realize which ones were simply a lie to begin with. ► SAVE WHO YOU CAN: Despite being knocked out by a surprisingly massive blast from the Prince's magic crystal, the Ringmaster will manage to gather herself up eventually. When she does, the last of the storm will finally come to an end. She'll be doing what she can to try to gather up both servants of the Prince and all of her workers, but it'll be impossible to get to all of them first. A large portion of the servants have undoubtedly been stolen away by the Prince into his newly built fortress, but with the effort of carnival members new and old, they can still save as many as possible. Of course, those held in the Prince's most secure prisons will remain out of reach... for now. ► WAKE THE SUN: As the worst of the earthquakes stop and the new islands of floating land begin to settle, the clouds from the thunderstorm will finally pass, as the Ringmaster seems to summon up a sun to light the realm for the first time since the carnival's arrival. In reality it's sometime in the early, early morning by the Manor's schedule, but whatever! It's easier to not die when the sun is out, don't you think? The Prince's security and gargoyle soldiers are still out and about, and they're clearly interested in capturing as many hostages as possible. ► SIGN A CONTRACT: This is when the Ringmaster will be taking those that were summoned to the Prince's ball aside to offer them contracts in order to free them from the Prince's influence. She'll do her best to explain that the only way to wipe out his control is to take on a new 'master', but they can take some time to think about it if necessary. The truth is, of course, that until they officially sign onto the Ringmaster's camp, there will still be the chance that the Prince will be able to control them. ► WALK THE RUINS: One Day 176 things will have settled completely, with the land now forming a massive fortress on the far side of several large floating islands. The ruins of the old buildings will scatter those islands, forming towers that will swiftly gain small colonies of gargoyles, ready to swoop down and attack carnival members. Further complicating matters is the fact that the rending of the landscape has resulted in bursting open the underground prisons that the Prince had been keeping his most bestial servants, which mean all kinds of mortals long since twisted into the forms of giant spiders, scorpions, monstrous beasts, and other terrifying creatures will now be running amock on the islands, desperate for food. Try not to hold it against them - they didn't ask to be this way. ► REGROUP: While the Ringmaster doesn't want everyone to just run back home (if they do that, the Prince will undoubtedly make them unable to enter again, or at least take over the landscape more fully) she will manage to open a portal back to the carnival in the afternoon of Day 176, formed between two freshly grown trees. This means that carnival members will be able to fetch new clothing, supplies, weapons, and whatever they need to prepare for the battle ahead. Right now, the chaos is still unfolding, but the battle to save the Prince's captives is still ahead. [OOC: Gargoyles and transformed servants from the underbelly can be NPC'd from this point onward. Gargoyles are the Prince's most deadly servants made of extremely durable rock and bearing scorpion tails with venom that can turn bodies into stone. They want to grab anyone they can, trap them, and then fly them off to the Prince's dungeons as collateral. Don't let them! Transformed servants are the beasts who were freed from the underground prison they were left in to rot. They are servants that were transformed into monsters by the Prince, and most of them have been driven insane with bestial hunger from months and years of starvation and atmospheric poison. The Ringmaster is interested in helping them, to see if there is way they can be changed back, so if you have the heart nonlethal methods are most appreciated.]

Comments

⇨ INVESTIGATION THREADS

[ringleaders]

Not all locations will have much to investigate, necessarily, but this is the section where people can make investigation requests for if their character wants to learn more about a setting than is immediately apparent. This can also be used to cover the broad strokes of interacting with various available NPCS.

Like before, you must be specific about what your character is doing to find new information, and you must keep your requests to one or two actions per comment. No big laundry lists of things your character is doing - it is much easier to handle taking it one topic at a time.

⇨ THE RINGMASTER GETS PWNED

[ringleaders]

So, the Ringmaster got hit by a huge magical laser when fighting the Prince at the sight of the Blue Rose theft, and ended up making a crater in the earth at the far edge of the Manor grounds. She is also knocked totally unconscious. This prompt is for going to check on how that's working out for her.

[spaghettimonster]

The Prince was all about manners and courtliness and timing, except when it's inconvenient to him. Then he just rushed in, brushing aside greetings and congratulations, and making craters of the place. So rude!

So, at some point after [shenanigans] and getting down from the tower, Papyrus focuses on checking on the one tower victim who didn't get hauled into the rock: the Ringmaster. It's not hard to find the crater she landed in, or figure out that she's still in there... unconscious. Which simply can't stand.

His plan: wake up the Ringmaster by exposure to smelling salts. Or, in the absence of whatever constitutes smelling salts, the remains of that stinky burger.

[atouts]

Less an investigation and more an immediate action when Childermass realizes the manor is being torn apart -- he's going to try and backtrack through the shadows to where he left that random servant he stuffed in a shadow on the way to the Blue Rose room.

Is he able to do that or is it much too late for that?

[ringleaders]

The tremors give enough warning before the whole place has broken apart that if he does it quickly he should be able to pull it off.

[criticallyfucked]

I'm sort of assuming that team Childerroof doesn't get stuck in the fortress somehow, which might be foolish of me... or that they aren't allowed to get stuck there in general, because Foster is an idiot who might think that's an idea worth attempting.

ASSUMING THESE THINGS ARE TRUE, and please tell me if they are not, then:

Foster will directly approach the Ringmaster and unfortunately for everyone in earshot, just straight up ask her how she wants him used.I know. I'm sorry too.

[ringleaders]

He can put the effort into trying to get stuck in the fortress if he wants. So he basically just wants to rush in there and get caught up in the reshaping?

⇨ THE ENGINEERING TEAM ASSEMBLES

[periphrasing]

After the Prince's fortress re-forms, and following a meeting with the Ringmaster and the other supervisors, Peridot will be putting a call out on the engineering radio channel requiring EVERYONE on her team to come meet up with her back at the safety of the carnival. She sounds uncharacteristically exhausted when she calls but she will be insistent that THIS IS A MANDATORY EMERGENCY GROUP MEETING, the agenda of which being 1) to get a headcount and make sure everyone is holding up okay, 2) To get all the vets on the team acquainted with the two newbies they’ve just acquired (Morgana and Five) and 3) to figure out whose talents will be best applied where during this TIME OF CRISIS.

Engineering team members are encouraged to reply here with how they answer the call, but basically this is an excuse for everyone to touch base and do some ic plotting/note sharing, and also gearing up.

[dressedtothe]

For those not in the know, 9S is the worst employee to Peridot because he is uncharacteristically rude to her at all times. He's generally dismissive of her, but he will reluctantly show up because she is his boss.

In these trying times he's also going to be pretty rude to everyone else in Engineering because he only cares about getting his missing roomate, Rita, back (sorry new blood he'll be less than chatty), and will pretty much say that. But he will team up with Peridot for rescue efforts once it's clear their goals align, even if he hates her a lot; he will gladly team up with someone he hates to fuck up the shit of someone he hates more.

He will tell everyone there that the monsters may be people so try not to kill them okay?

[kingsroads]

Sometime during early day 176 after the initial chaos has died down, the remaining supervisors (Carly, Peridot, Psi, & Childermass) plus Strange are going to find the Ringmaster and ask a few questions:

1: Does she have any semblance of a plan already brewing? If so, plz tell them.
2: What advice/help/etc. could she give them with regards to the Prince? Any magical weaknesses, where best to punch 'em, etc.
3: What resources do they have on hand that could help them win the fight? Peridot will pipe up that hey, they've got engineering and engineering can make some kickass things if needed to help further beat up the prince.

[ringleaders]

1. Sort of?? Her current plan is to harass the fuck out of him until he gives up, but that probably won't work very well because he is basically trying to save his own skin at this point, and he's smart enough to know that if he doesn't have any collateral left that she'll probably just kill him. The big issue is that he's a proper earth elemental, and breaking into an earth elemental's fortress with sheer force is going to be basically impossible. They need to either lure the Prince outside somehow or find a way in - possibly by making some sort of deal with him, or giving him the opportunity to save his ass over a challenge of some sort. Downside to that is that they'd have to be sure they could win.

2. Defense is his primary strong point - breaking into the fortress with force isn't going to work. He is the manticore of faerie, which means focused earth and poison magic. His type plays a long game - delaying attacks through durability while using poison to wear down victims. His weaknesses would be a lack of sheer firepower now that he's missing the Blue Rose (though he seems to have some of its power stored in that big crystal, but that will be in limited supply) and lack of transformation ability/mobility. Earth is stubborn, earth isn't built to move. It's why he can't fully change his form, because what he is is "set in stone" as it were.

His poison magic means his abilities can be pretty insidious and unrelenting, but acting fast isn't their strong suit. Forcing him to move quickly and adjust to circumstances quickly is probably his main weakness. He will end up behind on the times, much like his fashion sense.

3. Surveillance would be optimal at the moment. They can't break in, but they could try to sort out when the Prince will make his moves, and thus leaving himself vulnerable while things leave or enter the fortress. If they could get their foot in the door somehow, it could be a start. Otherwise, the carnival needs to come up with some kind of challenge that they could be fairly sure of winning, while making the Prince THINK he can win it. Of course, that is going to be putting all the chips on the table so if they fuck it up it will fuck things up BIG.


Importantly, he's using the hostages as collateral, and he's going to want to make people desperate to settle for saving them over saving EVERYONE/killing the motherfucker. The Ringmaster thinks that if she were to offer to leave him alone completely and never come back, or maybe to give the Rose back, then he'd probably be willing to release the carnival captives. The question is if that's good enough.

[whattaprick]

Presumably, being stuck in a wall limits a fair amount of your movement and ability to do much of anything, but Lambert's still going to try a couple of things:

1. Figure out if the cave is completely enclosed or not. Lambert will basically be trying to use his sharper sense of smell and hearing, Lambert wants to find out if he can pick up on any sound/scent (like, fresh air circulation) that suggest the Prince hasn't stuck them in a total tomb.

2. Test how durable the rock holding them in is. He will be doing this a couple of ways: a) straight up scratch/gouge the rock under his hand with his claws, which aren't anything super special, but enough that he could climb ordinary rock by using 'em to stab in; b) idly smacking the currently club-like portion of his tail (the part that got coiled and petrified in the Sans fight) against the wall.

[ringleaders]

1. It seems to be fully enclosed. The only time air moves at all is when a pathway opens through the stone for servants or the Prince to come and go, but even the air up above doesn't seem fresh.

2. It's pretty damn durable. Scratching it is difficult, and it seems like his tail will probably break before the wall does.

[otoko]

SO GONGENZAKA CAN'T DO MUCH. He'll try summoning his Daemon (And no doubt fail), but he'll also try using that dumb energy reading spell of his. Just to see what he picks up on.

Since magic isn't Totally drained off, is it possible for him to pick up on more than just himself and who's around? Or is it impossible to even do that?

[ringleaders]

Daemon doesn't work, you are correct.

The stone feels like it's vaguely alive, much like the Manor did in a house shape. Otherwise, he can only sense the other prisoners that are nearby.

[chronosynthesis]

As soon as the Manor isn't full of people about to be crushed to death and the Ringmaster is awake and walking around, Syrlya's bringing the Blue Rose straight to her! He's not terribly eager to hold onto it much longer because he can feel its power and he's pretty sure misusing this level of magic could have fatal consequences.

He hopes she knows how to use it, because they're probably going to need it to counter whatever the Prince just took with him into his new fortress.

[ringleaders]

She will ask him how it went, and while she will take the Rose off his arm, she isn't just going to throw it on to wield herself, either. She will be looking it over, and it honestly seems like she has more difficulty jiving with it than Syrlya did - she can handle it just fine, but it seems like the Ringmaster has more natural resistance to just letting it flow through her.

She will tell him that it's powerful enough to kill a True Fae no problem, though. A blast from the crystal he'd been storing its energy in knocked her flat unconscious, which basically never happens.

[soft_focus]

So, regardless of...where this is happening, how it's happening etc, Reira will probably come out of this mental fog a little in shock. Go figure. Despite that though, whether RM is just planning on ditching or not, she'll call for the Ringmaster pretty quick-she doesn't know Exactly what just happened, but she can take a guess, and between that and what she KNOWS happened she feels she needs to apologize.

If she'll listen, at least. This isn't said very confidently-she's not scared, but she's definitely going to be anxious and a little quiet when she asks to be able to say something to the Ringmaster.

[ringleaders]

The Ringmaster won't sound furious or anything, but she'll be quick to brush Reira off, like she doesn't want to deal with this right now and doesn't want to get stressed out even more by fussing with the people that partially caused all this. She's a little bit resentful about it, no doubt. At least at the moment.

[RADIO; direct to RM before the fortress is sealed off]

[criticallyfucked]

Ringmaster. Good evening, master... mistress? No, no, master!

...this is Foster.

Don't worry, it's fine if you don't remember that name! But I don't have much time. So I do hope this message reaches you.... alive. Hahaha. I need to congratulate you on finally making thorough use of me... no, I owe you my thanks, my deepest gratitude, the sincerest tribute that a worthless object like me can offer!

You see, I took it upon myself to remain in the manor. For you, of course! As my master, I know you must have some further use for me. It seemed the obvious choice for a disposable tool.

[There is a pause; it trails off strangely, and it's unclear if he's doing this on purpose or not. But he does seem... a little more calm?]

... mmmm.

So. What would you have me do...?

[ringleaders]

[The Ringmaster squints at her radio for 10 seconds before:]

What the hell are you talking about, Foster? You're in the Manor?

[criticallyfucked]

Foster will begin by attempting to find servant clothing.... perhaps a laundry room, if such a thing exists. He is trying a nonviolent strategy first.

If he cannot find one, he will attempt to ambush a servant of similar size and. Um. Kill them. To take their clothing.

[wild_magic]

So just a couple questions about poison stuff, mostly I'm wondering what kind of timeline are we looking at for the petrification spreading, and like for when other stuff (confusion/brain fogginess/whatever) starts to hit, or if it's player discretion? And also since it's poison, even though it's like a 'soul' illness, would for example being smaller make it go faster, because if so Susan is a shrimp so that's probably relevant to me and to my first question there lol.

[otoko]

After talking just a little bit with Lambert and discovering how the house is apparently 'alive', Gongenzaka is making a rather precise attempt to communicate with it while stuck in his shitty rock prison.

Specifically (after a long dumb apology and promise that they'll all get out of this because this is Gongenzaka we're talking about), he requests (at a whisper) the manor confirm it is, indeed, able to understand him...by adjusting the floor beneath his face.

Gongenzaka makes the request entirely because Sans is uh. Kinda still right there at this point in time, and he's pretty sure that even a simple game of Yes No Questions is gonna get a big fat tattletale if the guy clues in. If it's just a bit of floor under his face though, he'll feel it, and know!

NO ONE WOULD BE THE WISER

if this actually works i will Yell very loud tbh

[periphrasing]

After she's had some time to recover, Peridot is going to be working non-stop on two particular projects.

Her top priority is going to be in working on an antidote, or any method of reversal that she can to try and counteract the Prince's petrifying magic. She'll be putting her head together with Strange and Mari to tackle the issue, but I guess the best place to start for now is to ask the Ringmaster if she knows anything more about the properties of the poison. She knows the RM took the tooth in order to to try and reverse the effect, since she brought it to her in the first place, and she wants to help. SO, there's two questions to start out with: First, does the RM have any idea what form a cure might take. Are they looking to make some kind of medicine? A potion? Or do they need to find a way to craft a reversal spell? Second, She wants to know if it's possible to get samples of rock from the rescued/captured carnies that she can use to experiment on.

--

Her secondary objective between working on the antidote will be to devise a solution to the Prince's wards cutting out magical radio contact inside of the fortress (something they know based on the fact that they haven't been able to keep in touch with Foster). Peridot figures that the solution here may lie in good old fashioned technology, because a magical ward isn't likely to protect against regular radio waves. This is something that's actually in her wheelhouse: She has a pretty strong knowledge base of how Homeworld communications systems work, which are designed to work between literal galaxies. Plus, she'll also be working with 9S to possibly adapt something from the blueprints of his robot buddy's communications systems, in order to try and make something that's functional at a long range through thick rock.

(I guess... the second task isn't so much an investigation prompt yet or anything that needs responding to, I'm just recording it down here for posterity.)