⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

[ringleaders]

Who: Everybody!
When: Day 64
Where: The Camping Grounds
What: While the Ringmaster attempts to purge the carnival of magical tracing spells and deal with the angry fire fae in her belly, everyone else is getting sent on an emergency camping trip with some unusual local fauna.
Warnings: Camping.

CRYPTIC CAMPGROUNDS↴ You're given about three hours to prepare, after the Ringmaster tells you her plans for the coming week. There is a vast selection of camping equipment at your disposal, and the means to take along enough food for the length of the stay. The wilderness of the planet you're left on is nearly idyllic, but some people just don't like the great outdoors. ► CRYPTOZOOLOGY: As it turns out, the carnival won't be alone here. There is a varied ecosystem of cryptids to be found as well, living in relative peace and mostly reacting to the newcomers with curiousity. More details can be found on the plotting post. You are free to NPC the cryptids as much as you need to, as long as you stick to the behaviours described. ► DREAMSHARING: There is a player plot going on which will allow characters to share dreams! These are specifically more dreams than nightmares, and the mushi-adept characters will be here to help. ► CHILLAX: There isn't any plot twist for this setting, so this is mostly an opportunity to decompress from the last plot and get ready for the future. The Ringmaster will show up occasionally to help with needed medical treatments and check on things, but won't stick around for long.

Comments

a

[wild_magic]

All Susan had to do was find the nightrunners and convince them all to let him join, but that was easier said than done. After all they weren't in the Carnival where he could just hang around the trailers, there was too much to explore, too many places to see, and everyone was all mixed up in the tents.

And even when he finds someone... Well, he still has to talk to them. Not that talking is hard for him, but when he doesn't know Rita all that well and she seems preoccupied with... Writing or something, it's hard to really know how to start.

Instead Susan finds himself distracted at first by looking down at her piles of notes, trying to see if he can read them. His cat familiar, ever useful, sits on the stack closest to him. He shakes his head with a smile as he turns to Rita instead, his reading attempt forgotten for now.

"Did you write all of these, just from what you remember?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita looks up from her notebook with a start, then relaxes when she sees Susan. Right... she knew he was probably going to approach her one of these days.

"Some of it," she replies casually. "Some of it's copied from texts found in the Athenaeum, and some are summaries of other writings I've found, but yeah, the rest is mine."

[wild_magic]

Books and writings aren't something that Susan knows a lot about, but he still thinks it's a pretty impressive amount of notes and stuff from just one person. He looks back to all of the stacks before back to Rita with a grin.

"Wow... This must have taken you forever." It would for him, at least.

[anti_nonsense]

"Not really," Rita replies casually with a shrug. "Acquiring information in the first place is the tricky part. Organizing it can be a bit of work... but once that's all done, the actual writing hardly takes any time at all."

At least, not for Rita, who spent an entire childhood immersed in books.

"You want something?" she goes on to ask. Having heard from Lambert about Susan's intentions, she already has some idea of why he's approaching her now.

[wild_magic]

"What if I just wanted to talk to you?" He says it with a cheeky smile, but after a moment he continues on anyway.

"I'm trying to be a nightrunner. The Nightrider said I have to talk to all of you, though, before he'll say yes. Since you'll have to work with me and stuff." It's maybe not quite as simple as that, but he doesn't know how better to explain it right now. It's close enough at least.

[anti_nonsense]

"I heard," Rita replies. She wasn't going to bring it up first, but she might as well admit as much now that he's taken that step.

"So what does a runt like you want to join a mercenary team for, anyway?" The same could probably be asked of Rita, considering she's not all that big or strong-looking herself. But she wants to hear his answer, even if the question may be worded in a somewhat hypocritical way.

[wild_magic]

A runt? Of course he wants to argue, since everyone always brushes him off as being a kid (and often as being even younger than he is, his half-elven heritage not helping there), but he knows that won't be a good way to convince anyone he's actually competent. So instead he bites it back, taking a moment to take a breath before responding.

"I want to be able to help the Carnival. To actually contribute, and to help make sure everyone can stay safe. Right now no one will let me. If I'm a nightrunner, I can actually help."

[anti_nonsense]

"It's not that I don't get how that feels..." Rita begins, giving him a doubting glance, "but you'll only be helping if you're strong enough to handle what's ahead. Otherwise, you'll just be a liability. You really think you've got what it takes?"

It's blunt, and it's not nice, but Rita isn't going to mince words with a kid who's thinking of throwing himself into danger.

[wild_magic]

"I do! I'm strong. I know I don't look like I am, but my magic is really strong, stronger than most adults around. Me and my brother help people all the time back home." If it weren't for the fact that he's supposed to try and convince her, he might not even bother honestly. But it's what he's supposed to do, so... He has to just ignore the bluntness and just answer. Hopefully it's enough.

[anti_nonsense]

"Oh, yeah?" Rita gives him a slight smirk. "Prove it."

They don't have any training dummies around here, so...

Rita raises a hand and conjures some fire nearby, just far enough that it isn't likely to catch on her notes. The fire grows and takes shape in the form of a hulking brute. The elemental raises a fist menacingly, but doesn't move to attack.

"Think you can dispatch an enemy like that?"

[wild_magic]

He watches as her fire forms an enemy, already thinking as he tries to figure it out.

"Most of my magic is fire," he says conversationally, even as he walks a little closer to the fiery form trying to decide what spell to use. Using fire on fire isn't really a great idea, unfortunately, so it's too bad that she's chosen fire since it sort of leaves him with not a lot of other choices. But it's not like he has no options, and so after a moment he waves his hand with a few words and a wide bolt of lightning springs from his hand towards the elemental, shooting past it for quite a while and... Well, very likely hitting a couple of trees (and scorching them) before it disappears. Sorry trees.

[anti_nonsense]

The lightning tears through the elemental's body, leaving a sizable gap in its stomach. However, the construct feels no pain, and it lurches forward, swinging a fiery fist at Susan.

Rita cups her chin with her hand as she watches to see how the kid handles being attacked by something much larger than himself.

[wild_magic]

Well. That makes sense, he guesses, that something she made out of fire wouldn't feel pain or stop just because he shot it with lightning, but it still surprises him a little when it keeps moving forward. He's fought before, fought monsters before, and so even though it's pretty big compared to him, especially with his smaller size due to the Carnival's magic, he only takes a step back and casts a Shield spell, the invisible force field shimmering around him for only a moment before taking the hit for him. He wishes for a moment she hadn't used fire, but it's only a fleeting thought before he casts another spell, a group of tiny meteors coming into existence around him before he flings two of them straight into the "creature", hoping that at least if he can make more holes in it there won't be anything left to fight.

Meanwhile, Susan's cat looks up as the elemental moves closer to her sorcerer, standing and stretching her legs, just in case she's needed. For now she just watches, though, from her place on Rita's papers.

[anti_nonsense]

The meteors pummel the elemental, crashing through its form and leaving massive holes where limbs, a head, and a torso once were. The remaining fire is left in an odd, indistinguishable shape. Rita opts to dispel it, allowing the rest of the body to fade into smoke, leaving only scorched grass where it stood.

"Not bad," she comments. "Looks like you can handle a fight after all." A short demonstration like this may not be enough to get a full understanding of his abilities, but if he's got the basics of attacking and defending with magic... well, at least he won't be helpless out there.

"I've just got one last question for you. You were there, in the Prince's prison... We were afflicted with magic poison, left to suffer helplessly, and were eventually transformed and killed. Being a nightrunner means taking a higher than normal risk of ending up in that sort of situation. Are you really okay with that risk? If it came down to it, could you do it all over again?"