[All] Book 1: The Journey to Orario - Announcement

[Throndir]

Thalia Village
Day 1 - Late Evening

It was about two hours into the play, Thalia and the rest of the village was looking forward to this specifically, as this particular showing would have been the finale to the long epic saga that the goddess Thalia and the villager volunteer actors had been building up to for the last year. With only one session of the show per week, and with how slow and idyllic the village usually was, the play that was put on weekly became something everyone eagerly waited for. It was a time to spend time with friends, and even keep company with the rest of the villagers, not to mention a chance to see one of your village's goddess' hobbies in action (the largest one being theatrical plays).

The scene playing out right now was the final clash between the heroes of the story verses a gigantic metallic creature.

The theatre stage lighting homed in on the right side of the stage. Specifically towards two villagers who were wearing what looked to be a thick blanket with slabs of metal and shiny rocks painted pink on it. It was large enough to cover both of them, and together they acted out pretending to be a giant scary metallic monster. One was the lower half, with the other sitting atop them. Their feet thudded loudly as Thalia described the scene, crushing what was once a wooden toy village. In the story thus far, these creatures had been destroying the peace of this far off land, appearing out of nowhere, and laying waste to the countries and people around them.

"Uuhh... Rawr!" One of the actors in the blanket roared, staring towards the ground as if their foe were small little creatures. Her voice didn't quite match what she was portraying, but the villagers still smiled as they watched the 'creature' continue its work in destroying the small wooden village. She crushed the hastily created miniature village with abandon.

A few moments of that, and the stage lights moved again, this time shining the light on the left part of the stage. It was late enough in the night, that moving the stagelight dimmed the first pair of actors. The light focused on another set of actors, eight of them altogether. Each of these actors were other villagers too, though, they all held either some sort of weapon, or were dressed up in imaginative clothing. These were the heroes of the land who held special powers that were to be used in great times of need. Over the course of the last year of these theatrical plays Thallia would hold, the story had focused on each of these characters and their journey to become heroes.

Musicians, nearer the back of the stage began to play an upbeat song and rhythm to match the scene that was unfolding.

"Friend's list communication line is active!" A villager wearing a red wig announced as she looked upwards as if she were staring at something large and looming towering above them.

"I hear you! I'm holding it down!" Another one yelled loudly as he pointed his blue painted spear upwards. This one was clothed in a white robe, with green adorning it, and a gold trim that completed the look. The stage lights moved back to the right, and a moment after that, a couple more actors, this time, dressed up as tentacles appeared. They began to forcefully grab the 'creature'.

"A-au~ Noo!" The actress said frantically as both her and the other underneath the metallic pink robe were jostled back and forth by the people dressed up as tentacles. With the large creature pinned down, the other heroes burst into action.

The lights moved back towards the heroes.

"Charging your magic." One of the heroes said who was holding a lyre. She strummed her lyre once. "It's done!"

"Come forth, Golem!" Another one of the heroes yelled out who was wearing some sort of fantastic and unrecognizable uniform.

After that call out, the stage lights headed towards the center of the stage. From there, two more actors, one a large man, and on top of him a prum appeared. Like the metallic monster, they wore a kind of robe that made it seem like they were a single rock-like monster. The fact that this was two actors on top of each other however, made this new 'golem' taller and more imposing than the metallic monster they were fighting.

"Upgrade: Orichalcum!" A voice called out from the left stage.

"Target: Golem Fist. Condition: On Impact. Statement: Maximum MP, light it up!" Said another voice.

The golem quickly sped forth, running towards the metallic creature, as the gauntlets the boaz actor wore began to glow and spark. Closing the distance in just a second, both the large man and prum yelled with all their might as two more voices could be heard.

"Destroy!"

"Mimicry, Destroy!"

The fists connected! "Guuhh..!" Something on the pink robe triggered as well as sparks exploded from it. Not only that, behind the stage more flares sprung to life as a loud and deafening crashing sound of a large cymbal clashed. For a moment the blindingly bright light and sounds dazzled the audience.

The lights cut off then, and everyone was silent as they held their breath in anticipation.

When the lights slowly came back on, all 8 heroes were standing in triumph in a pose, as some musicians in the back took that as a cue to play a more heroic melody. With that, the villagers cheered; their thunderous clapping and roaring echoing through the quiet village.

[Throndir]

Thalia Village
Day 1 - Shortly After

With this last showing being the final act and play of the series, once the round of applause was done, each of the sets of actors who had played various parts in the play went up on stage as distinct groups, bowed, waited for the applause to finish, and rotate with the next group that was to follow who would then do the same. This went on for the next few minutes, everyone who had ever participated in the play getting a chance to gain a bit more recognition. Finally, the goddess Thalia herself went up to the front with roars and cheering.

"I'm glad everyone liked it! This concludes the saga of the Velothian heroes! Thank you for being a great audience tonight and each of our weekly nights since!" There was more cheering as the goddess simply smiled as brightly as the others. All the cheering made Thalia giggle and laugh as well, which only served to rile the villagers more. But soon enough, it was calm enough for Thalia to continue.

"Thank you very much! I couldn't have done any of this without you!" She said as she bowed towards the group with her back straight and at a 45 degree angle. There was some chuckles coming from the front of the crowd, with someone eventually shouting not to worry.

The sounds of the crowd soon died down, but the goddess continued to maintain her bow, which had begun to make some of the villagers uncomfortable.

Thalia took a deep breath.

"I have an announcement and request to make!" She said, keeping her eyes down, and maintaining the posture. "I am leaving for Orario! A-and... and I want my familia with me!"

[spoiler=OODM]Feel free to respond to this thread.

This is the first split of players! If you feel you may become inactive, that's okay! But please fill out the 'Inactivity Actions' in your character sheet, so we can at least continue the story for active players. You are always free to hop in whenever! This happens enough for large groups I should mention it here.



Option 1 - Vanguard Group

Party is full!

Vanguard of the expedition to Orario, to set the stage for Thalia. Leaves for Orario tomorrow morning. For players who want to jump straight into making story progress, and the first to reach Orario. Their goal is to setup a base camp at the city. Potentially more money rewards here. But potentially less if the money needs to be spent to procure a base. Either way, this first party will be given a sum of money to either spend for the familia or themselves.

Post here in character if you're interested in option 1.



Option 2 - Escort Group

Prepare for the departure festival. Leaves for Orario in two weeks, and accompanies Thalia. Similar encounters to the first party that goes out above. Festival itself will be a series of short skill-check based scenarios. Enough scenarios will be created to potentially spawn 10+ missions in here alone.

There is a risk: Without the presence of your goddess, you won't be able to update your falna, and therefore would not be able to level up.

Post here in character if you're interested in option 2.



Option 3 - Familia Group

Help the rest of the village move out. Leaves for Orario in four to six weeks. Players who do this, can also prepare for the departure festival, though will split from that group when Thalia heads out. Benefit here are simply more connections with villagers, and more village-life encounters. Effectiveness of PCs will affect how early or late the group heads to Orario, along with how much capital they bring with them (Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic) to aid with Orario base building.

Before the goddess leaves, ensure you get your falna update for any potential level ups.

Post here in character if you're interested in option 3. Yes, this goes to the same link as option 2.



One last note, if you feel your character would have been an actor, or musician, or stagehand during the play, or involved in any way, roll an associated Perform or Profession skill check. If you have neither, a simple Charisma check will do. For new players to D&D, I'll work with you to help you figure out how to do these.
[/spoiler]

[Mysticsage]

[info]Rolling acting as the back end of the monster
Acting
This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+1 : 6 + 1, total 7
[/info]

Taiga was used to taking hits and new how to act big, so he was perfect for acting as the backend of the monster. The key was just to follow the head's lead and make sure to stay in pace with her the whole time. The size different caused its own fair share of issues, and he almost stumbled over a few times but barely managed to stay on his feet. He knew he should have just been the whole monster on his own, but he was a sucker for Thalia's big dreams.

As he got socked in the face by one of the tentacles for the third time he began to regret his choices. However, despite the stars that he was beginning to see he managed to just barely stay on his feet and sag on time even if it wasn't the most graceful of performances. He was glad when their part was over with the whole thing. But then at the end, he thought he must have gotten hit harder than he thought as he heard Thalia's announcement.

[Throndir]

[spoiler=Taiga's Excelia Earning]CR 1/6 excelia earned.[/spoiler]

[Rei]

Seeing as this act was about one of Rei's favorite monster stories, she had requested from her Goddess to participate in this story. Particularly, the top half or "head" of the metal monster. Monsters were her favorite thing, unreasonably so and she wanted to make sure that the monster in this story was projected properly. She would have hated the play if somebody else didn't act right when pretending to be the monster. She would lead the rear of the monster, another Familia member named Taiga. Beneath the blanket, he wouldn't be able to see much and his movements would be based on hers. As such, when it came to taking hits, Rei would position her body beneath the blanket to let Taiga take the hits for her. She'd make the sounds of the monster during the destruction of the little village, as well as taking damage from the heroes. But silently, she disliked this part of the story. Most monsters were just misunderstood or treated badly. Maybe this one in the hero story just needed a hug or maybe it was hungry?

She put those thoughts away for the time being. Her goddess knew about her strange attraction to the beasts, surely this was one reason she had been allowed to participate as the head of the monster in the story even though she wasn't a terribly good actor. After the story was over and applause were going around, she'd throw off the blanket that was covering her and Taiga, giving a modest bow before allowing her goddess to take center stage and make her speech. She listened in the background, behind the curtain... surprised and excited. What could make a goddess decide to up and move to Orario? What was wrong with their little village? Or maybe there was something that Thalia wasn't telling her familia just yet. Either way, it wasn't Rei's place to make decisions.. and truth be told, she was excited at the thought of participating in dungeons to find new and fascinating monsters! She would look around, wondering what other expressions the other familia members might have. Subconsciously she reigned in her excitement, as she knew some were not as hospitable towards monsters as she was.

[Rei]

[spoiler=Perform (act) check][blockquote]Rolled 1d20+4 : 6 + 4, total 10[/blockquote][/spoiler]

[Throndir]

[spoiler=Rei's Excelia Earning]CR 1/4 excelia earned.[/spoiler]

[Schnizzer]

Virgil stands behind the stage as he readies for his part. He never particularly cared for the stories about heroes coming to save the day against monsters. He did enjoy seeing the happy faces in the crowd though. He really did it for the smiles. It didn't hurt that he occasionally got to play with fire. He smiled as he brought himself back to reality. "It's about that time." He gathered the bowls filled with powder and took lit wick and got ready. This was his favorite part. As soon as the lights go out he quickly lights the powder in the bowls.

Craft (Alchemy) to ignite the flares and smoke
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+6 : 16 + 6, total 22[/blockquote]

[Throndir]

[spoiler=Virgil's Excelia Earning]CR 1/2 excelia earned.[/spoiler]

[Kerrick]

Kerrick was put in charge of the curtains backstage he stands there waiting for cues while talking to all the performers as they walk by "hey how neat would it be if i had a lizard on my shoulder to talk to" looks at his shoulder with dismay "yeah it would be cool, hey but what if he was like a blue no a green one maybe red i would name him something i bet he would be a great friend indeed" Kerrick continues on like this watching for his cues and trying to not miss anything. This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20 : 15, total 15 the play ends he applauds and then looks worried with the news from the goddess

[Throndir]

[spoiler=Kerricks' Excelia Earning]CR 1/3 excelia earned.[/spoiler]