Discovery || Closed

The forest is quiet as the sun sets in the distance, a gentle sort of orange and red spread across the sky. At the forest trail there is the occasional noise of the wind against leaves and if any students were to arrive at the trail there would be three options laid out in front of them.

1.) Continue along the forest trail, after all it must lead somewhere ... right?

2.) As the wind blows all around, notice the slight sound of a piece of paper laying at the foot of a tree nearby. What could it possibly say?

3.) Honestly, this is really lame and it doesn't look like there's anything important going on. How do I get back to school again? I'll just turn back around and follow my foot steps back to the Court Yard or Meadow, it really shouldn't be that hard.

    The Fartius Knellius pranced down the forest trail with not a care in the world. A rare species of eldritch abomination, the Knell takes great pride in being as inconvenient as possible to any organized event it stumbles upon. Thus it was only natural that when it received some mysterious note telling of a hunt for treasure, the foggy fiend made his way to the specified location as quickly as inhumanly possible. Which is pretty quick.

[Option 2 selected, gimme dat paper]

    Something caught his attention as he skipped and hopped down this wooded trail though. The sounds of paper, whatever in the world that is, caused him to glance at a nearby tree. Knell took a knee before the tree to see what could be what this note had to decree. For some odd reason he couldn't really understand the gibberish scribbled all over the paper though, it shifted in and out of his focus, seemingly undecided on just what it wanted to say. Almost as if some cosmic force that dictated the lives of all beings in this existence had not yet got around to assigning a purpose to this parcel of paper. Of course he had never seen the thing before in his eternal life and thus there was no way that was true.

    "Wahoo!" Whatever silence that was present in the area was broken when a hyperactive girl slid her away in the Forest Trail without the slightest respect to the fallen leaves that were torn up by Kappy's shoes. Once she stopped at what she thought was the right spot, she spun her arm around wildly for a few seconds until she made a pose and stuck her thumb at her grinning face. Besides having a small, red scarf and a bag for some special equipment that hung just about her waist.

    When she realized that there was only one person in the clearing, a tick of disappointment flickered on her face. She got out of her pose and coughed her way towards the gassy mass. "Yo! You look like you're having a mental crisis! Let me check that piece out!" Kappy asked as she didn't wait for a response and snatched the paper out of his hand. After looking through the paper, Kappy yelled out in surprise, "Oh shit, this is some weird ass paper!" She was already bleeding out from her head.

[OPTION 2 picked]

    Shortly after, Mona came from out of the bushes, appearing very pissed off and if possible, set the world on fire if she could. She already had her body prepared to smash in a person's face with many sharp and pointy parts. She cracked her knuckles, looking at those who are currently present. "Alright, which one of you creeps sent that letter? There's a timed-event going on, so don't waste my time."

    Earlier, Mona found a letter that was slid from behind her door which made her creeped out by a tiny margin. While in reality, she was actually flattered that someone might have sent her a love letter, or better yet, a proclamation of absolute love and worship. Instead, it was only an invitation to go out of her comfortable dorm and face the wilderness in the dusk. As easily annoyed as the witch was, she wasn't going to let this go through. In her mild anger, she was going to yell at whoever is wasting her time, and already, she have noticed two freaks standing next to each other. 

    It would be an understatement to say that the Limbo God was not surprised at all by this turn of events. Whenever something could go terribly wrong for him anymore if usually did. He was just surprised the two maggots were only interested in the note and letter, and not turning him into a bagel or something. So his natural physical response to the girl snatching the paper from him was to just stare at her blankly before ever so slowly shifting his gaze towards the other interloper. 

    It was as he looked at the more recently arrived worm-maggot-peon that a sudden recollection dawned upon him. A recollection about when he was spying on a certain Insect of Shared Housing as they got the stuffing beaten out of them in the Town Center. Knell had thought that voiced sounded familiar. "If there is one thing I detest more then everything else, it's harming a defenseless little mistake like yourself," he stated matter-of-factly. "But then you hurt the worthless insect Cryland. Can't have people thinking they can harm my designated board game manager." And with that he vanished, as gaseous trolls often do, before reappearing in the immediate vicinity of the child who had demanded answers from a god. Without much thought he aimed a punch right at the mortal's gut, supercharging his metal arm mid-swing.

The note hadn’t been slipped under Miller’s door, though if it was he wouldn’t know. He very rarely visits his room, if at all. Developing habits and following a system made tracking him down far too easy and the last thing he needed was someone who was interested in finding him to succeed in that goal. Instead, the scientific abomination had noticed the note being slipped under the door of one of his curiosities, a student who seemed interested in him for some reason and Miller wanted more information as to why. The note seemed to be in some kind of code, promising treasure and a meeting place. Clearly whoever had hired the student to spy on him was getting paid for it, so instead he decided to intercept the message and scope out who this enemy could be.

Miller decided that it would be best to wait it out until near dusk since it was a much better time for his light sensitive eyes. Once within the forest, he kept close to the trail that the note had specified, but made sure to keep a safe enough distance so that he couldn’t be easily seen from the clearing. The last thing he wanted was to fall into some sort of trap that these mysterious spies could have set for him.

He clung to the trees and stalked the woods for a good while until he spotted a piece of paper in the distance. It was odd to see such a piece of litter lying around in the forest, so he quickly grew suspicious of it. He didn’t grab it though nor did he approach it in any way. Instead, he climbed into a nearby tree and carefully perched himself among the branches. His tattered green shirt somewhat blended in with the surroundings, though his massive glimmering blade could easily give him away to any eagle eyed treasure hunters.

As the creature watched on, he was more and more unsure of what to think of the situation. What looked to be a smoke cloud in the shape of a man stopped at the piece of paper and picked it up. He looked to have attempted to read it, but spoke nothing of it aloud. In that time though, two girls sprung seemingly out of nowhere, one of them taking the piece of paper and the other looking to be quite upset about something. She also spoke something about a letter. Curious.

The cloud began to spew more negativity back at one of the girls and proceeded to attempt an act of violence against her. Miller merely winced, not being the type to enjoy watching violence. Something was off about the group, perhaps it was Miller’s taking of the note meant for someone else that was causing the confusion between them?

    "Huh? What was tha-" Mona didn't get to finish her sentence as she felt a sharp pain on her lower body as she was lifted off her feet and was send fly several meters back. Any breath she had inside her was already gone as bits and pieces from her mechanical parts dropped off where she was struck. Despite her breathlessness, she was already screaming in mid-flight, as she face-planted into a particularity bristle trunk of tree upside down. While her parts of her that were mechanical absorbed most of the force from the punch, it was still enough to upset her stomach. She fell off the tree and onto the dirt, staying oddly still.

    Meanwhile, Kappy was laughing her ass off at that spectacular display. She bending over, having a riot over seeing a girl getting slugged into the air and landing in such of a painful way. She was already covered in blood from having such a great laugh. Once her eccentric chuckle slowed down, she walked over to the gasman held on to his shoulder. "Hey, that was pretty good! Bah ha ha ha ha! Already this hunt is entertaining enough! You did good my man, you did good!" With her laugh coming back for more, she let loose an out pour of blood, "Bleh!" The red liquid was running down her head, making her look like a serial killer who just offed their recent victim, her wide, open laughter didn't help.

    Mona simply groaned as she got up from the ground, still feeling the indent the guy made into her gut. "T-to be embarrassed by such display..." Saying she was pissed off is an understatement. She didn't get the gist of what her attacker mouthed off before he struck, but that was all moot now. All she wanted to do was to tear that gut limb-to-limb, even though her opponent is made of gas.

    The anger was odd to Knell. Normally the only thing that caused him grief were thoughts of other gods, but this had been simply because he saw a worthless ant who attacked his roommate. True, Kyland still had to set up the second board game for him, but such tasks would not normally be impeded by minor injuries. Most likely an eternity of pent up anger had caused him to take the first half-reasonable excuse to assert his dominance over one of these lesser creatures. Yes, that sounded quite likely.

    Back to the matter at hand, the more mannered but likely less intelligent of the two females was currently gripping his shoulder and bleeding in a manner that indicated severe head trauma. The latter would be hilarious if the girl wasn't about to get blood all over his clothes. With utmost care so at to not move the girl and cause the bloodflow to quicken, Knell grabbed her hand and removed it from his person, making sure to take a step back to create a safe distance between the girls wounds and his newly washed jacket. "...Yes, everything KNELL does is good. Like choosing to venture out into a forest full of entitled brats and worms that are not worried about bleeding to death. Now all we need is some other fool that sits in a tree thinking they're a bird and I can form a worthless worm circus of my very own."  

OPTION 2

If one were to be looking at the piece of paper found near the base of a tree, they would find the starting of a poem written in cursive on it. Once the paper switched readers several times, a sudden pop happened and the paper in question shredded itself - turning into hundreds of little bulbs of lights that illuminated the groups surroundings. The lights in question were about the size of a child's fingertip and floated all around.

Suddenly, a booming feminine voice echoed throughout the forest -

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul. "

As the voice spoke, the lights started to move to form a path of two directions, both that split off from the main forest trail. One path went east while the other one went west, both trails seemingly the same except for the direction that they were in.

1.) Follow the lights east.
2.) Follow the lights west.
3.) Talk back to the voice, maybe it'll answer?

NEWCOMER OPTIONS (also available to current characters in thread)

4.) You happen to notice the trail of lights going in two opposite directions, refer to options 1 & 2
5.) This is way too spooky, I'm just going to turn back around

    While fanning herself with the piece of paper, Kappy wiped off some of the blood with one of her hands. Teasingly, she flicked some blood towards the gas man. "There's more where that comes from! Woo!" She walked away from the cloud a bit before spinning around and pointing at right at him. "You're Knell, right? I heard about you." She waggled a finger towards the gas. While she has only seen glimpses, Kappy heard about some black cloud being a total dick to everyone, and of course, it must be this snooty freak who just sent a girl flying into a tree. Said girl in question was dusting herself from all the dirt and leaves from her clothes while mumbling about knights and various types of fertilizer.

    "So when are we getting this gig started?" questioned Kappy, and in response, the paper that she was holding blasted into pieces of light, which made her jump in surprise and made her land on her butt. Once a loud echo from the trees faded and the lights went their separate ways, Kappy got up from the ground, bushing off her pants. There was a glint of wonder in her eyes as she started skipping west, following one of the lights. Before she left the clearing, she turned around and yelled, "Let the games begin!" and continue to holler and yelp as she disappeared behind the trees.
[Option 2]

    Mona walked back towards Knell, giving him a solid glare of resentment. As much as she wanted to call Halcyon to deal with this menace, she held down that urge within her and bottled it up. She clicked her tongue at Knell. "If I wasn't so keen on dealing with whoever brought us out here, I'd punch off your face in and hang it above a wall," she pointed at the fiend, "So I'm letting you off this time!" She continued the stare at Knell before "hmphf"-ing her face away from her attacker and faced the trees. "With that, whoever is responsible, show yourself you creep! What's the purpose of this game?" [Option 3]

Earlier in the day, Saoirse had received a mysterious letter. She couldn't remember signing up for any sort of treasure hunt, but of course she was always up for one. There was no way she was going to miss out on an adventure like this. So, she had dressed warmly, ready for the cold that would settle in once the sun disappeared below the horizon. Aine slithered along beside her, seemingly happy to be free from her inky prison. Of course, she could never be too prepared for an unknown situation, and thus, she had brought along her snake ring--the one with black mamba poison concealed inside. 

When she reached the forest trail, a glimmering of lights became apparent. They snaked off into east and west. How intriguing. Which was she to choose? Saoirse glanced down at the snake, who seemed to be favoring the western trail. Without another moment's hesitation, the girl followed the westward trail, darting between trees and avoiding various impediments on the ground.

(OOC: sorry for short post, but wanted to get in before the adventure got too far ahead)

    Knell pulled out a napkin and wiped the bit of blood off his clothes, pleased that the girl had been in too much of a hurry to propel more of the disgusting substance at him. It's not like he hadn't been covered in much more maggot-blood anyway. The only thing he was really concerned about was the loud disembodied voice that had spoken pointless rubbish about possible gods and poles. And that the worthless worm he had sent flying was now making a laughable attempt to demand answers from it after daring to threat him. "You are only so keen on dealing with them because the alternative is trying to punch my face off. No need to lie about it, fear is the normal worm response to being antagonized by something more powerful then yourself," he told the girl with a chuckle.

    (3)While he was not one who gave riddles much mind, the God of Limbo simply adored mind games and so put his inherently superior mind to work trying to figure out the purpose of the voice's words. He looked once at each of the two paths, not sure that either of them were the correct way go. "It speaks of unconquerable soul, but to truly be unconquerable is to not take some worthless stranger's suggestions and come to your own conclusion. Neither of those ways should be he answer.." the god mused to himself as he pondered.

Miller continued to watch the confrontation with a relatively deep focus. He made some personal notes to keep in mind, the first of which being to avoid the kid(?) with the metal arm for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that his voice was beginning to give him a migraine. Above all else though, being able to punt someone the distance that he did made him a big enough threat in a fight, not that the bladed being was interested in one to begin with. In fact, he decided that he had done enough scouting for the time being and heading back before getting caught would probably be preferred.

The plan would have been perfect, if not for the voice that arose from nowhere and began to jibber nonsense about gods and just as suddenly lights began to spew and spread all along the forest. Did he upset some sort of spiritual being by interloping on some sort of ritual? That would explain the blood spewing out of the little girl like some sort of blood sacrifice. That was as far as Miller needed to know to decide that whatever was going on was not something he wanted to be a part of and escaping as soon as possible would be the only solution to the problem.

Miller hopped down from the tree rather hastily, which only gave him a worse surprise once he hit the ground. The girl covered in blood ran directly past him, causing him to jolt backwards momentarily. It was only made worse once some new girl trailed behind her only a brief moment afterwards, causing Miller to fall back completely as he attempted to shift out of the way.

The bladed being needed no further convincing from that point forward, he was as good as gone. Miller scrambled to his feet and began to trail back the way he came, just a couple meters off from the main trail and hopefully out of sight.

(Option 5)

[ooc; Sorry to disappoint everyone, putting this idea on hold to possibly be revitalized in another manner or through something else.]