"Run For Your Life!"
Welcome to the Big Etzos Underground Race Event!
Rosamond: the very PC who requested this catastrophe in the first place. When the rest of you find yourselves regretting your inclusion in this fiasco, you now know who to blame.
Vluharqih: One who has done the most threads with me. She should have known better. Don't feel sorry for her!
Jachiel: One already starting with a one-armed handicap. What chance does he really have? How much do we really care?
Nauta F'mos Geey: Our mystery guest...The mystery being how in the hell you pronounce that name!
And in THIS corner, we have your pitiless, conniving, brutal and malicious moderator, Maltruism! <insert cheers here>
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A few pointless rules - __________________________________________________________________________
1.) There will not be a strict posting order for you victims, but please do not post twice before I have the chance to step in and make things worse. If one of you victims does not post within three days of the prior post, you can be skipped. This does not mean you are out (though you might be dead ). Most likely, everyone else will have posted except one, possibly two. It just means I will not wait longer than that before I lay my disastrous embellishments upon the situation. Any that get skipped for missing a post deadline can rejoin the carnage during the next round, if they survive MY post...
2.) You victims may enter as either a spectator or participant in the race. It probably won't save you either way.
Participants will begin in the Crescent Arena, where there is a large heavy gate that opens onto the starting point.
Spectators have a few options:
- They may start at any general location in the city, but underground of course.
- They may start above ground, and be drawn below at points where fleeing citizens come bursting forth.
- If they have knowledge of some secret entrance to The Underground, they may use that way in, which may place them in a spot not normally accessible to the common citizenry.
4.) Armor is a different thing entirely, though starting as a participant pretty much negates the likelihood of wearing such heavy encumbrances. To offset this disadvantage, participants will be the first to be aided by guards. At least up until complete pandemonium breaks out.
5.) To be honest, torches are along the walls in sconces, not in the middle of the track. I just really like that picture. In all other regards it gives a very good idea of the construction of the Underground. Figure a few heavily reinforced doorways here and there, and you've got it! For the most part, they are locked and guarded. But in the mayhem of supernatural chaos, how many will truly stay at their posts to die?
6.) Those too cowardly to have committed in advance may join in anytime. But don't be whiny if I give a degree of priority to the brave few that were in this from the start. However, if you are a brand new player, that did not have the chance to be in from the start, I will cut you some slack, but still, you could have joined Standing Trials sooner!
7.) Anything else that comes to mind is subject to imposition without notice . No, in all seriousness, I will try to be fair if some obvious detail pops up that I have thus far overlooked.
8.) Any that are not quite aware of what is going on here ought to check out the calendar for this cycle, paying particular attention to "Trial 102".
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19 Saun, arc 716
Talk had slowly taken on a less and less dramatic tone throughout Etzos for the past two weeks. It seemed that there had now been an answer for every bizarre and deadly event. The chain of tax fraud incidents had long since stopped, with talk suggesting some believable perpetrator had been caught and imprisoned. The ghastly attack of shadow creatures had been firmly put down by Marshall Webb.His celebrity status, as a result of this victory, had set him upon the dais to announce the countdown to the start of the race. As the crowd watched, Webb knew he'd best hurry things along. The heat was still sweltering, and those spectators choosing to enjoy the surface carnival atmosphere, were nonetheless eager to retreat to the cooler warrens of the Underground. Webb himself was no different. Though his desire to be situated below was of a somewhat different nature.
Many had opted to claim their spots already, foregoing the music and dance, song and story, as well as the food and drink being offered in the swell of good feelings rising in the defiant wake of the cycle's previous turmoil. The latest stories of occasional attacks by the mysterious shadow creatures was being readily dismissed as a tactic of beggars. The civil unrest stemming from the accusations of cover-up over the tax fraud issue had been successfully glossed over. The odd wounds from strange fish in the Southwood River was attributed to the recent appearance of The Misty Miasma, and had now run its course; and even been lucratively capitalized upon by a few exceptionally skilled fishermen.
So all was well that had ended well. The Misty Miasma, as was so often the case, was saddled with blame for everything that had gone wrong with the arrival of the hot cycle. Anyone watching Marshall Webb closely enough, and with vision not distorted by drink, might have noticed an odd hesitance to count down the last few numbers, almost as if he expected some eruption of new trouble to burst upon the city at the count of zero.
But the crowd roared its count along with their current hero; the "zero" morphing quickly into a confetti-riddled cheer of thousands. The race was officially on! A howling barrage of "sizzling" arrows over flew the walls, accompanied by trumpets and gongs; colorful banners waved and weaved over the heads of celebrants as the throngs made to follow the racers into the entrance. A last hurried round of wagers were placed, many a fistful of nel finding the hand of thieves rather than bookies; many a jostled pint of ale finding the dirt rather than a thirsty mouth; many a winking male finding a ready female.
A path from the dais cleared for Marshall Webb as he strode confidently to the massive double-door entrance to The Underground, and the surface streets of Etzos were soon less than half as populated as normal. It was almost creepy to the Black Guard patrols that had been stuck with surface duty. They envied their fellows that were enjoying the cool of The underground.
This would soon change...