⇨ END OF EVENT LOG

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone participating in the Prince's challenge.
When: Day 178, Afternoon
Where: A Conjured Forest
What: The Carnival takes to the Hunt again, but this time, with the intention to win.
Warnings: Violence and death.

SACRIFICES↴ In a bid to definitively settle a victor and reclaim the captured carnival workers, the Ringmaster has challenged the Prince to another hunt. If the Prince wins this challenge, he can claim the Blue Rose the Carnival stole; if the Carnival wins, the Ringmaster will be allowed to claim one True Name in the Prince's possession. With the Manor reshaped as it is, there's no longer a courtyard to transform into a suitable hunting ground. Instead, the Prince's magic has turned one of the floating islands between the fortress and the Carnival into an overgrown forest. Being a fae contest, of course, each side's idea of victory is not as straightforward as it would appear, but for those participating in the hunt, there is only one objective that matters: to kill their prey in the time they're given. The captives who have been transformed into beasts will have little of their human sentience remaining, and will be set loose to wander the forest freely. Instinct will compel them to conceal themselves or attack hunters, depending on their individual disposition. Upon death, the beasts will remain in their bestial forms. IN HOT PURSUIT↴ To win this challenge, the hunters must bring all of the beasts down with weapons or innate strength within the time limit: an hour and one minute. No magic may be used to take any of the beasts down -- any use of supernatural or magical abilities to trap, track, or kill the creatures will result in a forfeit to the Prince, and this will be made explicitly clear to the hunters before the contest begins. Hunters are allowed to bring their own weapons and mounts, provided they are non-magical in nature (or their magical abilities are not being actively used). If they do not have their own, ordinary ones of any variety will be provided to them. To expedite the proceedings, rather than dragging the bodies back individually, each hunter will receive a token from the Prince: an enameled blue rose. To formally claim a kill, they must place the rose on the dead beast (ideally, in their mouth, though as long as it's touching it it will do) and activate the spell by reciting the following words: "I claim this life for thy Master's game." "A life surrendered to claim my prize." Using the rose in this way will cause its petals to instantly wilt and magically bring the dead beast, and any hunters touching it, back to the Prince. So, don't touch it if you want to stay in the forest for more hunting. A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE↴ The Prince and the Ringmaster will be waiting for the results of the hunt in a roughly-constructed marble amphitheatre on another floating bit of rock. Those whose stomachs are too weak to take up even just the appearance of hunting can stay at the Carnival or hang out in the amphitheater, with the caveat that any attempt to attack the Prince or use magic to aid the captured prey will instantly default the win to the Prince. Should they want something to do other than twiddle their thumbs, the non-fighting carnival workers can peer into the hand mirrors left on the seats, smaller versions of what the Prince is watching the hunt through. They will be unable to control what images are brought up in the mirror, and it essentially only shows whatever the Prince is looking at himself. There's no sound, but the images are in full color (all the better to see blood with). This is also the area that the hunters and prey will be brought to when the spell is activated (or when every creature has been hunted). So, expect for a pile of corpses to end up there. [ OOC: This log wraps up the end of the Heartstone Manor plot! It is up to hunters and prey to create their own toplevels and sort out who will be delivering the finishing blow (feel free to use the OOC post about this event to coordinate that), but OOCly, it's set that the Carnival will win the Prince's challenge. The hunt's conclusion will be posted as a separate comment for characters to respond to.]

Comments

[crystalspeeddemon]

Indeed. And upon seeing one that approaches what it deems too close to the water, everyone will hear a drawn out hiss- rising in volume until it quickly leads into a roar.... perhaps frighteningly familiar to the flying one- as the draconic snake rears up from its watery hiding spot, snapping its jaws at Carly.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Yuzu let out a panicked yelp as she jumped at the sudden appearance of the creature. Of course, instead of attacking the beast or even warning Carly, her first instinct is to snark at Zangetsu.

"...of course you wouldn't. Don't wanna miss another kill."

[moonfang]

Her snark earns her a snort of laughter from under the horned helm.

"At least I won't be the one responsible for the Carnival falling to the Prince. If all you're going to do is miss on purpose again and put all our lives at risk, I suggest you stay out of my fucking way."

He pulls the large polearm from the saddle of his horse and yanks on the length of cloth he'd tied to the end. It wasn't the sword Zangetsu, but he's sure he can still manage some impressive Deadly Darts with this baby. Polearm in hand, and still armed with his western style sword and daggers, he dashes to where the snake-beast has come out of the water.

[insidescoop]

"HNNH-!" Carly isn't about to just stand and be bitten-she dodges with ease, pulling back and raising her bow immediately. Yet, she freezes...just for a moment, looking over crystal and stone, and those eyes.... "Y...Yuug..."

No.

She can't. She can't let that stop her, and she draws her arrow. "I'm sorry for this..!"

Unfortunately, unless she gets lucky, the chances of hitting something that isn't armored are, well....

Not good.

[bananaspeedrider]

A hunter! Of course it was!! Now it's a fight! The snake dragon doesn't notice yet (assuming he will) that Zangetsu's charging for him from the other side of the lake, attention solely on Carly. He growls and-

PWING-KOOOSHKT!!!!

-lets loose an intense shot of lightning at the flying archer. Just screw off and leave him alone!!

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

"I WON'T MISS!" Yuzu shouted. "You just stop enjoying yourself!"

And she tries to prove it by attacking the dragon with an arrow of her own while its distracted.

[moonfang]

No response to that. Partially because he's running away from her and... well. Because he really isn't enjoying himself. He's not laughing madly, for example. That was usually a pretty good indicator that he was having a good time!


... Oh good. Lightning! Change of plans. He runs to the edge of the lake and plants the not-so-pointy end of his pole arm into the dirt, and then vaults himself up and over the water. He stretches out his legs, hooked claws brought to bare, like an owl swooping on prey.

He connects! He digs in!

... and gets himself hooked.

Amazingly, he's never used these feet offensively before. Sure, he learns fast! But... this is not a great time to learn.

With his talons hooked in the stony flesh of the amphitere, Zangetsu sort of... dangles there, still holding his polearm.

"Well, fuck!"

At least he's close enough to the head end that he probably can't turn around and zap him. Probably.

[insidescoop]

Well shit-dodging is easy enough, especially when the majority of her feathers are just light-the lightning passes harmlessly through a hole, as much as it causes her flight to dip. Suddenly though there's shouting-and a white blur, and-

"H-HEHH!?" she protests, looking first to Zangetsu, and then to Yuzu. "W-What are you both doing here..!?" Actually, that mask seems like... "...You were the one who was trying to eat that cockatrice..!!"

[bananaspeedrider]

What is that? As frustrated as the beast seems that he keeps missing the stupid flying hunter, Yugo swings his head back and forth trying to dislodge whatever is hanging from the back of it, even thrashing in and out of the water if that's not working.

"GHHHAUUURHHH!!!!"

Not much room for a conversation, in that case.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

"I actually don't want to be here anymore, but I rather not spend the rest of my days around crying!" Yuzu shouted at Carly. She's still shaken up after the death she witnessed and she's pretty much running on adrenaline.

[moonfang]

Zangetsu yells out with each thrash of the beast's head, his voice cracking every now and then... because he has the vocal cords of a teenage boy and that shit happens sometimes.

"EeeeyaaaAAAAHHHHH yaaaAAAAAAGH AAAAhhhhHHH!"

He's too busy yelling and trying to get his toe free to acknowledge your accusation, Carly. He swipes at Yugo with the spear as he gets thrown to and fro, but to no avail. This is... not his ballpark.

Finally, the claw rips free.... of his toe. The hooked talon remains firmly stuck in the stony scales of the amphitere and Zangetsu goes flying upward and away from the lake.

Where he lands in the branches of a nearby tree, laid out like a white flag of defeat.

[insidescoop]

Well. That certainly happened. Carly gawks as the other flies around, but as it is, the woman huffs at Yuzu's words. "H-HEY NOW, I didn't say anything about cry-" Oh right, there's a dragon thing snapping at them-

"Let's just focus on this ok!? We need to stop Yuugo!"

[bananaspeedrider]

Oh is that what that was, another hunter? For a moment the amphithere reorients himself... then Yugo starts to move toward where his thrashing sent Zangetsu flying, slithering through the water.

It seems that Carly isn't the focus of this beast's very narrow attention span anymore. One could easily take it as a stroke of fortune in their favor. Though not so much for Zan, perhaps.