RE: The Battle of the Victors (*S1/2*) - Round "1" - Crystal Mirage XIX
12-04-2023, 11:41 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-04-2023, 11:41 AM by Ixcaliber.)
Moments after teleporting into an all pizza world Franchesca and Ginger were teleported again. This time they found themselves in an enormous underground space lit by the dim light of hundreds maybe thousands of flickering lamps. They were stood in an open plaza surrounded by simple stone buildings and in the centre a huge sea-green crystal that sparkled with a latent energy. Off in the distance they could see that atop a rise (the only real change of elevation in this entire underground city) was a more ornately designed building with spires and distant statuary.
Four wide open paths led off from the plaza, one towards the aforementioned raised building, one towards a very noticeable if plainly designed tower, one towards a long sloping path leading upwards and disappearing into the wall of the cavern and one towards a small docks area where it was possible to see a small boat just floating in the harbour.
“Woah.” Ginger taking in the enormity of the cave around her, and bracing herself against Fran as she stared up into the distant cave roof, only visible by the occasional scrap of light reflected off a low hanging stalactite. Fran had to admit it was kind of breathtaking, and even though their host had said it wasn’t real, as she ran a hand along the crystal it felt real enough. Vibrant green light within the crystal swirled to meet her touch.
“This place is beautiful.” Ginger had let go of her hand and was running around the plaza, peering into the various buildings, a tavern, a bank, an auction house, a little shop with piles of adventuring supplies. Off in one corner of the plaza was a pine tree decorated with gaudy little ornaments and tangles of flashing lights, and beneath it a pile of brightly wrapped boxes, tied with equally vibrant bows. The floor in that particular area, and nowhere else, was decorated with drifts of snow. Despite everything there was an undermining emptiness to the place.
It was incorrect to say that the city was entirely empty. There were occasional little scaled beings (generally between three and four foot tall) clustered at the edges of paths, behind the counters of the shops and stores and behind the bar of the local tavern. In the undeniably festive area of the plaza there was a furless person of ambiguous gender with faintly red skin dressed in bright red robes, sitting atop a softly chittering white spider creature. They were seated next to a comically large sack of objects, it was impossible to really see inside, and they were intermittently calling out: “Happy Renewal Festival to All!” to nobody in particular.
But overall the inhabitants seemed to have an incuriosity to them. None of them acknowledged Fran or Ginger’s sudden existence, none of them seemed to be interested in going anywhere or doing anything. A couple of them had floating green exclamation points over their heads that looked completely incongruous with their surroundings.
Ginger hurried over to the snowy corner of the plaza, scooped up some of the snow in her hands, patted it into a ball, turned and playfully threw it at Fran. “Think fast!” she called and Fran, a moment too late, raised a hand to protect herself. The snowball didn’t so much hit as dissipate upon impact with a distinct lack of any coldness or wetness.
Fran hurried over and joined her teammate as she wandered over to the red robed figure. “Happy Renewal Festival to you.”
“Happy Renewal Festival to you too.” Ginger repeated back to them. “We’re new in town, can you tell us about your festival?”
“Of course!” They bellowed. They didn’t seem capable of speaking in a more subdued tone of voice. “As you know the magic of the crystals is important to maintaining order here in the realm of Makvelia. Yet once a year when the nights become long and the weather becomes cold, the magic of the crystals can begin to wane. That’s where I come in.” They gestured two thumbs towards themself. “I’m Chromagicus the Archon of Renewal.” They paused for a moment as if to denote that this was a big deal. Ginger made appropriately impressed oohs and they moved on.
“Every year I descend from the heavens on my trusty steed Janjirica,” they gave their spider mount a gentle stroke as they mentioned her, “and we ride across Makvelia, bringing renewal to the Crystal Nexus and joy to the people of the land. Of course even this simple pleasure is opposed by the Dark Archon Nittelaus and his Monochrome Legions, and so occasionally I will ask for help from Heroes like yourselves.” There was an obvious expectant tone to the statement.
“We’re probably going to be a little busy.” Ginger said. “But it does sound like a lot of fun. Count us in.”
Chromagicus laughed and started rooting through their huge sack. “Wonderful to hear. Simply wonderful. It’s been so long since there have been any Heroes around to help me on my task.” They glanced at Fran and Ginger. “What are your favourite colours?”
“Green.” Ginger said without hesitating. Chromagicus looked at Fran expectantly.
“Orange I guess, why-” Chromagicus produced from their bag two fistfuls of paint and threw them at Ginger and Fran, who instinctively both raised their arms to protect themselves.
The balls hit with a jingling of bells but no real physical impact. Fran looked down at herself, now dressed in a low cut bright orange jerkin, matching miniskirt and orange and black striped knee high stockings. She was probably giving more of an autumnal vibe if anything.
“I was hoping for more of a lime.” Ginger said, “To match my hat.” Ginger was in a very similar outfit to her own but with a darkish green and a red and green stripe on the stockings. She still had her witch hat and satchel, though the hat was now a darker green than it had been. Upon seeing this Fran reached up to confirm, yes her goggles were still there, and then she reached behind her and drew her blade, Phaetix, now coloured an ugly grey-orange with a candy-cane striped handle.
“I don’t mind the ensemble, would have loved a heads up, but could you change Phaetix back? Not a fan of the stickiness.”
“I don’t normally fine tune these things, but you’re the first Heroes I’ve seen in years so why not? It's not as though there is a queue forming.” Chromagicus laughed loudly as they rooted around in their bag again, pulling out one handful of lime green paint and one handful of nothing. They slung the lime green at Ginger, who even though she was expecting it still instinctively raised her hands to protect herself and doused Fran’s blade with the nothing and it returned thankfully to normal.
“Perfect.” Ginger said. Her hat was now more or less exactly the colour it had been previously, and the rest of her outfit was coordinated to match it. “Thanks Mx. Christmas Wizard. Any other presents for us?”
“I have wands of renewal which will allow you to give any crystals you see a boost of magical energy, and temporarily change them to your chosen colour.” Chromagicus produced a pair of paintbrushes from their sack and handed one to each of the girls. “Every time you renew a crystal you’ll receive a Mystery Winter Treatbox, which could contain one of a number of different festive items.”
Ginger was immediately running over to the crystal in the middle of the plaza and splattering it with lime green paint. The crystal was already green, but a darker green, so the transformation wasn’t spectacular, but it did glow a little brighter. Within seconds a green and red treatbox was in her hands and she was pulling it open to find a small pile of snowballs.
“Snowballs? Lame. I could just pick them up off the ground.” She threw one at Fran, who instinctively flinched to block it. This time it hit and she actually felt the cold crisp snow impact her hands. As though somehow the snowballs she was holding now were more real than the one she’d made herself earlier.
“I think…” she started to try to tell Ginger about the different properties of the snowballs, but had absolutely no idea how to phrase it to make it make any sense, and so opted instead to gather up a snowball of her own from the ambient snow and throw it at Ginger. Ginger flinched and then frowned when it didn’t have any real impact.
“Oh I get it.” Ginger said, with a grin. “Fran, come and renew this crystal and see what you get.”
“Thank you for your time Chromagicus.” Fran said. “As Ginger said we’re probably going to be busy with our own issues but we’ll try to renew any crystals we see for you.”
“Happy Renewal Festival to the both of you.” Chromagicus called as Fran hurried back over to Ginger. She slathered the crystal with her paintbrush and as promised it turned a vibrant orange, and then a matching treatbox manifested in her hands. She opened it up and there was a little fanfare as she examined a small mechanical replica of Chromagicus’ white spider steed.
“Ooh.” Ginger snatched it out of her hands and examined it closely, leaving Fran with a one page manual for the item; what the manual referred to as a Crashin’ Thrashin’ Janjirica. After a moment spent reading, and then retrieving the item from Ginger, she placed it down on the floor and with focus and a gesture she was able to control it directly. Ginger laughed happily as Fran directed it over to where she was now sat cross legged, and had it climb up to her shoulder, but then she started pouting because all she got were a couple of stupid snowballs.
“I’m sure if we travel around we’ll see more crystals, find something fun for you.” Fran said reassuringly.
“No. It’s stupid. I don’t want to wander around doing seasonal quests.” Ginger complained. They sat in silence together, the awkwardness interrupted only by Chromagicus calling out a Happy Renewal Festival to the empty city.
“What do you want to do?” Fran asked. “We’re supposed to be fighting the other participants, right?”
“I mean, technically. But we’re just a small handful of people dumped into an entire world. Odds are good we don’t just bump into anybody.” Ginger said. “And even if we did…” she trailed off. “What would you do if you kept messing something up? Something important?”
“I don’t know, depends on the context.” Fran said. “But I think asking for help is always a good idea.”
“I’m not asking The Baker for help!” Ginger snapped. “I have to do this on my own.”
“Sure, I don’t know that I’d ask The Baker’s help for anything either.” Fran said. “She’s a little too comfortable with the idea of making people fight to the death to really be trustworthy… But that doesn’t mean there’s nobody you could ask. Maybe I could help?”
“Nuh uh.” Ginger said quickly, and then somewhat apologetically she added: “Its a magicky thing. Its not really your area of expertise.” The pair sat in silence for a while before Ginger continued. “But maybe there’s someone in this world who can help me! This is a pretty magicky world after all.”
“We did just get appointed as like assistants to some sort of holiday spirit or something.” Fran pointed out. “That’s pretty magicky.”
Ginger shook her head obstinately. “We’re going to the Mages Guild!” she announced, getting to her feet and marching over to one of the lizard creatures. Fran hurried after her. The lizard creature she approached was wearing an entire suit of plate armour (with a silver symbol of a soaring dragon upon their breastplate) that showed no hint of the person underneath. Beside them, firmly planted in the ground, they held a spear a little taller than they were. Fran supposed that they were a member of the city guard.
“Mages Guild please.” Ginger said without any word of introduction. The guard's only response was to gesture with their spear and suddenly there was a beam of green light shooting up from the base of the distant tower. Ginger wheeled off in that direction leaving Fran to say a hurried “Thank you.” before chasing after her again.
Ginger stopped at the edge of the plaza and turned back to Fran. “I’m going to go ask some mages about an important, and um… private, matter. Would you mind staying here for a bit? Asking around, seeing if anything interesting is going on?”
Fran hesitated. She certainly didn’t need Ginger to hold her hand, but she did feel part of her role here was implicitly to stick around with the girl and… um… keep her out of trouble maybe? The Baker had explained about the fight to the death elements but didn’t seem particularly interested in them. It left her really wondering what the point of any of this was.
“Yeah I’ll just-” Oh Ginger was already running off down the street.
“Come and find me if any of the other participants show up.” Ginger called back to her and then hurried along towards the distant tower. Though she’d already asked The Baker to take care of Myrrh for the time being it didn’t hurt to be careful.
Four wide open paths led off from the plaza, one towards the aforementioned raised building, one towards a very noticeable if plainly designed tower, one towards a long sloping path leading upwards and disappearing into the wall of the cavern and one towards a small docks area where it was possible to see a small boat just floating in the harbour.
“Woah.” Ginger taking in the enormity of the cave around her, and bracing herself against Fran as she stared up into the distant cave roof, only visible by the occasional scrap of light reflected off a low hanging stalactite. Fran had to admit it was kind of breathtaking, and even though their host had said it wasn’t real, as she ran a hand along the crystal it felt real enough. Vibrant green light within the crystal swirled to meet her touch.
“This place is beautiful.” Ginger had let go of her hand and was running around the plaza, peering into the various buildings, a tavern, a bank, an auction house, a little shop with piles of adventuring supplies. Off in one corner of the plaza was a pine tree decorated with gaudy little ornaments and tangles of flashing lights, and beneath it a pile of brightly wrapped boxes, tied with equally vibrant bows. The floor in that particular area, and nowhere else, was decorated with drifts of snow. Despite everything there was an undermining emptiness to the place.
It was incorrect to say that the city was entirely empty. There were occasional little scaled beings (generally between three and four foot tall) clustered at the edges of paths, behind the counters of the shops and stores and behind the bar of the local tavern. In the undeniably festive area of the plaza there was a furless person of ambiguous gender with faintly red skin dressed in bright red robes, sitting atop a softly chittering white spider creature. They were seated next to a comically large sack of objects, it was impossible to really see inside, and they were intermittently calling out: “Happy Renewal Festival to All!” to nobody in particular.
But overall the inhabitants seemed to have an incuriosity to them. None of them acknowledged Fran or Ginger’s sudden existence, none of them seemed to be interested in going anywhere or doing anything. A couple of them had floating green exclamation points over their heads that looked completely incongruous with their surroundings.
Ginger hurried over to the snowy corner of the plaza, scooped up some of the snow in her hands, patted it into a ball, turned and playfully threw it at Fran. “Think fast!” she called and Fran, a moment too late, raised a hand to protect herself. The snowball didn’t so much hit as dissipate upon impact with a distinct lack of any coldness or wetness.
Fran hurried over and joined her teammate as she wandered over to the red robed figure. “Happy Renewal Festival to you.”
“Happy Renewal Festival to you too.” Ginger repeated back to them. “We’re new in town, can you tell us about your festival?”
“Of course!” They bellowed. They didn’t seem capable of speaking in a more subdued tone of voice. “As you know the magic of the crystals is important to maintaining order here in the realm of Makvelia. Yet once a year when the nights become long and the weather becomes cold, the magic of the crystals can begin to wane. That’s where I come in.” They gestured two thumbs towards themself. “I’m Chromagicus the Archon of Renewal.” They paused for a moment as if to denote that this was a big deal. Ginger made appropriately impressed oohs and they moved on.
“Every year I descend from the heavens on my trusty steed Janjirica,” they gave their spider mount a gentle stroke as they mentioned her, “and we ride across Makvelia, bringing renewal to the Crystal Nexus and joy to the people of the land. Of course even this simple pleasure is opposed by the Dark Archon Nittelaus and his Monochrome Legions, and so occasionally I will ask for help from Heroes like yourselves.” There was an obvious expectant tone to the statement.
“We’re probably going to be a little busy.” Ginger said. “But it does sound like a lot of fun. Count us in.”
Chromagicus laughed and started rooting through their huge sack. “Wonderful to hear. Simply wonderful. It’s been so long since there have been any Heroes around to help me on my task.” They glanced at Fran and Ginger. “What are your favourite colours?”
“Green.” Ginger said without hesitating. Chromagicus looked at Fran expectantly.
“Orange I guess, why-” Chromagicus produced from their bag two fistfuls of paint and threw them at Ginger and Fran, who instinctively both raised their arms to protect themselves.
The balls hit with a jingling of bells but no real physical impact. Fran looked down at herself, now dressed in a low cut bright orange jerkin, matching miniskirt and orange and black striped knee high stockings. She was probably giving more of an autumnal vibe if anything.
“I was hoping for more of a lime.” Ginger said, “To match my hat.” Ginger was in a very similar outfit to her own but with a darkish green and a red and green stripe on the stockings. She still had her witch hat and satchel, though the hat was now a darker green than it had been. Upon seeing this Fran reached up to confirm, yes her goggles were still there, and then she reached behind her and drew her blade, Phaetix, now coloured an ugly grey-orange with a candy-cane striped handle.
“I don’t mind the ensemble, would have loved a heads up, but could you change Phaetix back? Not a fan of the stickiness.”
“I don’t normally fine tune these things, but you’re the first Heroes I’ve seen in years so why not? It's not as though there is a queue forming.” Chromagicus laughed loudly as they rooted around in their bag again, pulling out one handful of lime green paint and one handful of nothing. They slung the lime green at Ginger, who even though she was expecting it still instinctively raised her hands to protect herself and doused Fran’s blade with the nothing and it returned thankfully to normal.
“Perfect.” Ginger said. Her hat was now more or less exactly the colour it had been previously, and the rest of her outfit was coordinated to match it. “Thanks Mx. Christmas Wizard. Any other presents for us?”
“I have wands of renewal which will allow you to give any crystals you see a boost of magical energy, and temporarily change them to your chosen colour.” Chromagicus produced a pair of paintbrushes from their sack and handed one to each of the girls. “Every time you renew a crystal you’ll receive a Mystery Winter Treatbox, which could contain one of a number of different festive items.”
Ginger was immediately running over to the crystal in the middle of the plaza and splattering it with lime green paint. The crystal was already green, but a darker green, so the transformation wasn’t spectacular, but it did glow a little brighter. Within seconds a green and red treatbox was in her hands and she was pulling it open to find a small pile of snowballs.
“Snowballs? Lame. I could just pick them up off the ground.” She threw one at Fran, who instinctively flinched to block it. This time it hit and she actually felt the cold crisp snow impact her hands. As though somehow the snowballs she was holding now were more real than the one she’d made herself earlier.
“I think…” she started to try to tell Ginger about the different properties of the snowballs, but had absolutely no idea how to phrase it to make it make any sense, and so opted instead to gather up a snowball of her own from the ambient snow and throw it at Ginger. Ginger flinched and then frowned when it didn’t have any real impact.
“Oh I get it.” Ginger said, with a grin. “Fran, come and renew this crystal and see what you get.”
“Thank you for your time Chromagicus.” Fran said. “As Ginger said we’re probably going to be busy with our own issues but we’ll try to renew any crystals we see for you.”
“Happy Renewal Festival to the both of you.” Chromagicus called as Fran hurried back over to Ginger. She slathered the crystal with her paintbrush and as promised it turned a vibrant orange, and then a matching treatbox manifested in her hands. She opened it up and there was a little fanfare as she examined a small mechanical replica of Chromagicus’ white spider steed.
“Ooh.” Ginger snatched it out of her hands and examined it closely, leaving Fran with a one page manual for the item; what the manual referred to as a Crashin’ Thrashin’ Janjirica. After a moment spent reading, and then retrieving the item from Ginger, she placed it down on the floor and with focus and a gesture she was able to control it directly. Ginger laughed happily as Fran directed it over to where she was now sat cross legged, and had it climb up to her shoulder, but then she started pouting because all she got were a couple of stupid snowballs.
“I’m sure if we travel around we’ll see more crystals, find something fun for you.” Fran said reassuringly.
“No. It’s stupid. I don’t want to wander around doing seasonal quests.” Ginger complained. They sat in silence together, the awkwardness interrupted only by Chromagicus calling out a Happy Renewal Festival to the empty city.
“What do you want to do?” Fran asked. “We’re supposed to be fighting the other participants, right?”
“I mean, technically. But we’re just a small handful of people dumped into an entire world. Odds are good we don’t just bump into anybody.” Ginger said. “And even if we did…” she trailed off. “What would you do if you kept messing something up? Something important?”
“I don’t know, depends on the context.” Fran said. “But I think asking for help is always a good idea.”
“I’m not asking The Baker for help!” Ginger snapped. “I have to do this on my own.”
“Sure, I don’t know that I’d ask The Baker’s help for anything either.” Fran said. “She’s a little too comfortable with the idea of making people fight to the death to really be trustworthy… But that doesn’t mean there’s nobody you could ask. Maybe I could help?”
“Nuh uh.” Ginger said quickly, and then somewhat apologetically she added: “Its a magicky thing. Its not really your area of expertise.” The pair sat in silence for a while before Ginger continued. “But maybe there’s someone in this world who can help me! This is a pretty magicky world after all.”
“We did just get appointed as like assistants to some sort of holiday spirit or something.” Fran pointed out. “That’s pretty magicky.”
Ginger shook her head obstinately. “We’re going to the Mages Guild!” she announced, getting to her feet and marching over to one of the lizard creatures. Fran hurried after her. The lizard creature she approached was wearing an entire suit of plate armour (with a silver symbol of a soaring dragon upon their breastplate) that showed no hint of the person underneath. Beside them, firmly planted in the ground, they held a spear a little taller than they were. Fran supposed that they were a member of the city guard.
“Mages Guild please.” Ginger said without any word of introduction. The guard's only response was to gesture with their spear and suddenly there was a beam of green light shooting up from the base of the distant tower. Ginger wheeled off in that direction leaving Fran to say a hurried “Thank you.” before chasing after her again.
Ginger stopped at the edge of the plaza and turned back to Fran. “I’m going to go ask some mages about an important, and um… private, matter. Would you mind staying here for a bit? Asking around, seeing if anything interesting is going on?”
Fran hesitated. She certainly didn’t need Ginger to hold her hand, but she did feel part of her role here was implicitly to stick around with the girl and… um… keep her out of trouble maybe? The Baker had explained about the fight to the death elements but didn’t seem particularly interested in them. It left her really wondering what the point of any of this was.
“Yeah I’ll just-” Oh Ginger was already running off down the street.
“Come and find me if any of the other participants show up.” Ginger called back to her and then hurried along towards the distant tower. Though she’d already asked The Baker to take care of Myrrh for the time being it didn’t hurt to be careful.