promittere | central mission

central mission

ECHOING PAST MARZIALE

The sun sets on the manor when Tatara seeks out Akira, Kurapika, Syrlya, Kiryu, and Mòrag individually and brings them all outside, saying they've been summoned.

When they step outside, they will quickly see why: dressed in the royal blues and golds of the Granvelle family is an entourage waiting for them on horseback. Among the multitude of castle guards are two distinguished-looking gentlemen that everyone here will have seen at the ball. One, a shorter, portly man, leaps from his horse when he sees the wizards emerge, while the taller of the two remains perched atop his white horse to watch in silence.

"Good! You decided to show yourselves," the man says. He remains professional, but there is a hint of distrust in his eyes. "I am Drummond, Minister of Arcane Management at Granvelle Castle, and we have summoned you today to fulfill a direct request of ours.

"We believe the the castle is experiencing—don't laugh!—a haunting to a degree never before recorded or spoken of. It is simply unbearable to be there after dark. It is so much worse in the lower levels of the castle. Too many of our staff are flat-out refusing to come to work, and the situation is growing dire.

"We believe a magical artifact located somewhere in our vault is causing this. Locate this item and neutralize it."

He gestures to five horses, saddled with no riders.

"You will be coming with us back to the castle. Chop-chop! We don't have all night."

OOC NOTES

Welcome, Central wizards (and witch), to your mission!

Missions are mod-guided events that are partial CYOA, partial play-by-post instances. In general, you are free to interact with a scene as you please, and the mod will tell you how the scene reacts as a consequence of your actions. Some scenes will allow for more flexible threading, such as exploration or conversation, while some scenes will require strict turn order to preserve rounds, such as combat or other time-sensitive conflict. The mod will inform you if strict turn order is required at the start of a scene. Regardless, always be sure to bold any important actions you take.

This mission has been specifically tailored to Central disposition, attitudes, and magic. If you find yourself struggling to tackle a situation, refresh yourself on the description of Central on the locations page, and make sure to confer with your teammates too!

As a bonus, here's your theme music!

You will have until 11:59 AM EDT on Saturday, May 4 to reach a conclusion for this mission. Good luck!

» NAVIGATION

Threaded | Flat

[ There's a short period of time where the horses are being readied for you that Drummond seems open to questions.

He's rather tense and doesn't seem all that friendly, but understands that he needs your trust and cooperation for this problem. He'll answer what he can, to the best of his ability.

Feel free to reply to this toplevel with your questions for Drummond, or you may threadjack your friends if you want to build off their questions. ]

[ Once everyone is saddled and ready to go, Drummond urges everyone on their horses and the entourage sets off. Tatara remains standing before the barrier, waving you off.

The sky is streaked orange against the darkening sky, and you know it will be a couple of hours before you arrive at the castle, having been there very recently. The way the guards form around you make it seem both as though they are guarding you from outside assault, as well as keeping you in place.

Now that you have a moment away from the manor and the other wizards, as you travel across Central land on your own, you realize how comfortable you feel, as though the spirits here are rejoicing in your presence, and welcoming you home...

You may use this moment to talk amongst yourselves and share what information you already have. ]

[ The sun has dipped below the horizon by the time you arrive at the castle. The darkened sky has blanketed the world in the dim of darkness, the only illumination being the torches from the surrounding guards, the street lamps, and the waning moon above.

Unlike your night at the ball, the castle is dark—a black and foreboding mass against the sky.

You all come to a halt right at the castle gates. This time, it's the older gentleman with white hair that turns his horse around and holds his hand out to Kurapika. Resting on his palm is a key. ]

This is the key to the vault. Hold onto it.

To get to the vault, you must go down the corridor past the great hall, down the stairs and through the staff quarters, then down one last level into the vault.

We will be waiting here for you.

[ Two of the guards step down from their horses to push the great doors to the castle open for the five of them.

The entrance corridor is dark, cavernous, the candles unlit. The cold air that drifts out feels a bit too frigid for this mid-spring evening. Yet you have no choice but to step inside.

Welcome to Granvelle Castle, heroes. ]

[Any hesitance the ghost has slowly fades, a smile even crossing his face as be chuckles good-naturedly at Kurapika's nickname. Between the mop of dark hair and his confidence, Akira has him convinced he's a member of their resolution.]

Full glad we are to have people like you on our side. We'll make Ser Alec proud!

[With that declaration, the ghosts fade, no longer barring their path forward.

If they venture up the staircase, they'll find all the doors locked, paranoia and fear making the living staff and residents take every precaution to keep themselves safe, so they only really have one path forward. At the end of the corridor they finally reach a door that remains unlocked, leading to a staircase to a lower level. As they take the stairs, the heavy atmosphere in the castle gets heavier still, and the lit candelabras and Akira's flames do little to keep things from feeling dark. Anxiety that is and isn't their own crawls over their skin, making everything feel oppressive.

At the bottom of the stairs, the corridor turns to the right, while directly across from the mouth of the staircase is a door. If they look down the corridor, they can see ghosts standing guard, looking somehow even less friendly than the ghosts that stopped them.

There's nothing stopping them from trying the door, so where they go next is in their hands.]

[With all of the ghosts taken care of and a few of you worse for wear, it's finally time to get to the vault and potentially find the source of all these ghosties.

Behind the door are even more stairs, spiraling downwards. The deeper you go, the more you feel like you want to flee. Dread permeates your entire being, getting more and more unbearable as you face a large portcullis. It feels like you need to expend the entirety of your willpower to keep from turning tail and fleeing, but through the bars of the portcullis you can see the castle's vault...

And two differently colored glows illuminating it.

While you cannot make out what, exactly, is glowing, you can tell that something within the vault is glowing a gentle white, and something else is glowing a bright purple. You're also aware you can just open the door, but with how thick the air is with anxiety and the injuries from all the ghosts you've been dealing with, it may be prudent to exercise just a smidge of caution.]

Threaded | Flat

POST-BRIEFING (?) Q&A

EN ROUTE - INTERLUDE

THE CASTLE

ONWARDS