[Prism Shard] Great Grassland Search

Grass gnolls be damned, Jack had already spent a fair amount of time aimlessly wandering through the endless stretch of plains and stalks of vegetation. Prior to this encounter, he had already stumbled across a mysterious puzzle chest which bore a good amount of fruit from his labors. Why not continue on his lucky streak and press on for a bit more? Sure the gnolls were dangerous and the man was somewhat eager to vacate the zone in order to return back to safety… but considering how that strange field was in the same direction as his exit path, it was hard to resist the temptation.

Slinking quietly through the tall sheaves of grass, he’d continue scrounging around the field. According to the rumor, a strange object had last been spotted here, a shiny one at that. Keeping his eyes peeled and his ears alert, he’d sift through the nearest tall patch of grass in hopes that lady luck was on his side. Sure, there was a real sense of danger and things could easily go awry, but the man wasn’t too worried… yet. Given his current skill set, Jack figured he could hold on at least long enough to run. After all, illumancy focused primarily in healing and defensive magic, no?


@Pandora - Patch #4

 

Courage? That’s something Rudiford have plenty of, if not in excess. Things like Gnolls don’t bother him in the least. After playing a game like Alfheim Online, he had a pretty good foundation on virtual gaming, as such, he was able to weave through the grass gracefully, scanning every inch of the ground for the rumored crystal he’s heard the locals mentioned over drinks. Although Rudy came into the maze of grass with every confidence, he became more and more discourage as he searched his section. It seemed that everywhere he turned to, he could have sworn it was the identical tall grass he’s been looking at a few minutes prior.

A sudden rustle from afar made the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up as he flitted his head from left to right, figuring out where the sound might have come from. Was it a Gnoll? If it was a Gnoll, he was in trouble, for among all of the skills he possesses, running away really fast was not one. Upon hearing the sounds of players, however, Rudiford was relieved, fooling himself into thinking that if there were other adventurers nearby, then they would have been able to cover for one another.

@Pandora Patch#6

 

Unsure of the results of his labor thus far, Jack would continue to search through the various patches of grass with a hellishly persistent fortitude. From the looks of it, another fellow low level player had meandered on over to try his luck as well. A quiet but friendly wave was given with the raise of a lone hand as he acknowledged the man and nodded once before resuming his search once more through the tall grasses.

Hands sweeping from one portion of grass to the next, he’d shuffle over a small distance while inspecting his second patch. Though somewhat of a boring endeavor, it didn’t change the fact that he had already committed to the activity. He’d have to stifle a yawn occasionally however in order to not alert any unwanted lurkers of his presence. The action itself was simple enough, the task even easier to understand. The process of enacting it however was incredibly tedious and perhaps more than he had bargained for?

“Just where is that darned object? I hope the gnolls didn’t cart it off…” He’d mutter quietly to himself while fervently wishing mentally that his fears hadn’t come true. It’d be an awful shame for the players to meticulously clear the field, only to have a single gnoll ruin their efforts.


@Pandora - Patch #7

 

“What the fuck, I am going to burn all this weed down!!!” Astor roared as the grass tickled him, fueling the anger that was boiling inside his gut. Astor wasn’t sure why he was searching for a needle in a hay stack, i.e. the prism shard, but he heard from fucking @Jack Anders that it was worth a fortune in town. Thus, he decided to follow suit and began working in the patch next to Jack. “AAARGH!!! Mother fucking hole, fuck you!” The detective was clearly in the bad mood as he cursed the sink hole he had stepped into, splattering nasty ass mud all over his rich tunic.


“Yo you found anything yet? I haven’t found shit in here…” Astor called out to his friend, complaining at the top of his lungs. Gnolls didn’t concern him in the least, he’s seen at least a couple already, and they just look like really big mongrels who are too ugly to exist. For the moment, Astor did not know that his booming voice may alert the Gnolls of their invasion of their cultivated fields, which Astor assumed belong to them. Even if they are beasts, surely they have enough of a humanoid mind to actually have some kind of small and functional society, even if it’s a crude one.

@Pandora - Patch #9

 

It would seem that Una was rapidly becoming quite the maven of rumors. Curious to see what the hubbub was about concerning some crystal gem or some sort she quickly set out before anyone else could up and find it. It wasn't that she -had- to have it, but she also didn't want a lucky adventurer to make off before she had, had her chance to try and figure out what it actually does! In the distance she could see some other adventurers taking their best shots. Shrugging, Una quickly found her own little patch and set to the somewhat tedious work with a grin.

"Everyone knows that the proper way to find gems in a patch of grass is with a sword!"

It was good practice anyway, one one hand, Una as a character was wracked full of skills related to combat, on the other, however, it also meant that each skill had to be raised individually. One could be competent with slashing weapons, but she also had to practice utilizing two at once. In reverse, she could become quite skilled using both her arms simultaneously, but this could come at the cost of having her understanding of the blades themselves suffering. It was quite the predicament and the only solution was to more or less work twice as hard as others. Una was always training. Skill-levels aside, she'd have to hone her mind as well, there was no stat for her real life brain.

Shouting katas for luck, Una took to rhythmically swinging her two katanas:

"Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Hyaaaahhhh!"

And she didn't shut up for quite some time.

@Pandora - Patch #11

 

Dempsey was her usual dirty, sweaty, and energetic self by the time she arrived on the plains. Excited from last nights discovery beneath Stokbon (sp?) she was energized and ready to.. well... find a crystal! Nobody had bothered to tell her what it was, or why it was important, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore, and potentially gain a powerful artifact. There's no way that it wasn't something awesome, she figured.

channeling her much improved astramancy, she invoked otherworldly beings to begin searching with her. The spell did not behave as expected however, and she was disappointed after a series of false positives as astral wisps found stones, small animals, and once a discarded farming tool of some sort.

with a sigh she resorted to exploring the hard way, brushing aside the grass with a stick and searching by hand. It was hot and tedious, and not at all interesting, but something compelled her search regardless. Even if she didn't find it herself, perhaps this object could be bought, or even stolen. She didn't feel like making mortal enemies of anyone here today though, so instead she simply plodded on, poking at the grass with a stick like a simpleton and wondering what adventures and excitement everyone else was up to right now.

After quiet a while, she began to get flustered and produced a flask of rum. 'Nothing fends off heat stroke like being partially covered in fur and dehydrating myself further' she mused as she sipped. this was boring and stupid, and she was probably going to get bored and leave soon. After lunch. Maybe.

@Pandora Patch #3

 

@Pandora Patch #19

with flask in hand, she continued her search, Now quite entertained by the whole situation. She'd long since stripped off her armor and repalced it in her inventory, telling herself that nobody was around to see her anyway, and she had her chest covered in a tight wrap that somehow managed to still leave something to the imagination. She spun in circles, using her tail to sweep at the grass. this method was more entertaining than effective however, and it wasn't long until she was laying on her back, giggling.

"I deserve a day off, dammit! and today is that day!"

She flipped to her feet and wobbled once, then continued on 'searching' as she emptied more and more rum from the flask. Suddenly, inspiration struck. She tapped away at her palm menu and went through the list of spells available until she found the one that looked promising. Brand new and untested, but promising. It was called "Astral burst"

She attempted and botched the incantation twice before giving up and using the menu to do the heavy lifting. When the spell was ready, she was left with a glowing ball of energy in her right hand, and instinctively she knew she only had a few moments before the casting completed, and a shock wave of force would fire from her hand in whatever direction she was pointing.

during these brief moments she did two things; First, she knelt and aimed the spell so that it would hopefully clear or flatten a wide swath of grass, and second she wondered how it ever occurred to her that this would be useful. 'too late now' she mused, just before the force of her spell knocked her backwards.

 

@Pandora - Patch #13

Alpha couldn't help but prance and hop around the greenfield. The grass was as nearly as tall as her and the entire event was like diving into a pool of green, leafy vegetation—definitely one fun and thrilling adventure! As her laughs and giggles filled the area, she wondered what was it she was looking for again? With her pointer finger pressed against her chin, she went deep into thought. A...gem, crystal, shard? Yes, the latter one! A prism shard, that's right, and it glowed the colors of the rainbow!

Her smile grew and she danced on the balls of her feet, eager to find that miraculous treasure. Although she didn't exactly know what the shard did or, well, anything about it at all, she knew that it'd be one great day of entertainment to search for it and she was proven right! She listed around her to see her competitors checking every nook and cranny of their respective plots. Although she couldn't see far over the tall blades of grass, she could definitely hear the rustling of leaves and, well, everyone seemed to be having a blast!

"Ready or not, here I come!" she sang, examining a smudge of dirt. Who knew how big the prism was, maybe it was about the size of caterpillar and no one would be wiser! Except the glorious Alpha, of course, she grinned. This entire event reminded her of one of the Easter Scavenger Hunts her school would hold back in Elementary and she couldn't help but feel a wisp of nostalgia.

"I'm gonna find it first!" she playfully shouted, challenging the others. Games are always more fun with friendly competition, after all.

 

Though their efforts had been fruitless for the most part, the dark haired man had to admit that such an activity was actually quite entertaining. Things had initially been slow at first when it was just his lonesome self, however now that others had slowly collected; it was if a mini-event had taken form spontaneously.

A few of note were especially comical, including his old friend, Astor, who had taken to wildly burning away entire swaths of grass in order to clear a plot. Though seemingly harmless, such behaviors were a bit alarming given Bao’s knowledge of the man’s actual profession. “Sheesh, it’s a wonder he hasn’t gone nuts in reality yet. Must be his way of letting out all that pent up stress… Guess beer doesn’t cut it anymore.”

He’d begin to slowly scoot off to the side however as sweat began to accumulate on his brow. After all, despite not being a direct target of the flames, the heat did begin to accumulate slowly. It was rather impressive considering the accuracy to detail that the game developers had fully committed too. As for Jack himself, he’d continue quietly sifting away through another plot of grass off in the distance. Perhaps this time he’d find more luck.

@Pandora - Patch #14

 

At some point this tedious task had turned into a sick game of sorts. Though the primary goal was still to find the shiny object, the secondary goals that Jack had set for himself were slowly and ever inevitably becoming increasingly more and more important with the passage of time. He had turned it into a game of sorts, one where he searched for other things in addition to his primary prize. Among those other things he kept an eye out for, quite a few were rather silly and absolutely pointless. He began keeping track of the number of ants in a single plot, the rigidity of each sheaf of grass based on their position in the plot, and all sorts of odds and ends for the sole sake of various extrapolations to keep his mind preoccupied.

It seemed as though this activity was slowly addling his brain as he continued scouring the field with a hellish and seemingly possessed diligence. Only once or twice on occasion would he look up from his surroundings in order to survey the current progress of the others. After all, there was little point in searching a field more than once right? Well, that was assuming everyone else put in their due diligence.

@Pandora - Patch #20

 

Having cleared darn near a fifth of the plots all by himself, the man grew increasingly frantic with his searching over the passage of time. After all, it wasn’t as if the activity itself was fairly enjoyable therein of itself. The sole driving factor for all the souls present was simply the promise of perhaps wealth? Fame? Glory? A pony? At this point did anybody really know what they were seeking to gain out of this anymore outside of the sheer satisfaction of knowing that the task had been seen through to the end? More likely than not, this was now the sole thing in mind that kept the dark haired man pushing forth.

He’d let out a frustrated sigh as he continued sifting through the grass. Though less meticulous than before, he’d continue pushing onwards. His attention to detail had significantly dropped however. As time passed, his actions had grown more rushed and hurried. Perhaps thoroughness would lose out to haste anyway? Only time would tell given the lack of any joyous shouts as of yet. From the looks of it, none of the other individuals had come across a stroke of fortune, one which would finally put the others out of their misery.

@Pandora - Patch #2

 

The madness continued as the magician pressed onwards. His eyes growing increasingly more bloodshot as he continued to comb through one plot of grass after the next, he’d shake his head once with a renewed vigor in order to refocus his eyes for the task at hand. Despite his efforts however, it was clear that the activity of searching for this damnable object was slowly taking its toll on the man. He’d let out a much less muffled laugh as he’d wave over in Astor’s direction. Regardless of whether the man had responded, he’d point out curiously at a particular plot of grass.

Perhaps it was just his mental fortitude fading, or perhaps the plot of grass really did look like an acquaintance of the two, but regardless of the actual outcome, the lad found a bit of humor in all of it. It really did remind him Tony, one of his more frequent customers with regards to landing himself atop Bao’s operating table. Both the crooked nose, slanted eyes, and the infamous pudgy quadruple chin. All the telltale signs of Tony’s face were present in that simple plot of grass. Who knows? Were this perhaps any other situation, even Jack himself would begin doubting his own sanity.

@Pandora - Plot #12

 

Okay, this wasn't as fun as she had expected. Alpha kicked a few pebbles out the way, examining the floors quickly as she rushed through the plot. Her glances were kept short and minimal as she didn't know how much time she had left before one of the others found the bounty and stole away her chance to make double rainbows everywhere (well, that was what she assumed the prism would do considering that the object was literally made with seven colors of the spectrum).

After she had triple-checked the first patch she had thoroughly investigated, she had to whistle and call Terry for help. The wolf had been waiting off to the side, napping in the daylight sun on his back with all four of his paws outstretched. His tongue was lolling on the side, drool slowly dribbling into a puddle when Alpha had awoken him. Although he had a pleasant time, he was eager and excited to help (well, after a few treats, pats, and a quick pseudo jog-and-play session).

"You can do it Terry!" she cheered off in the sidelines, walking along the path and trailing Terry slowly. She had a cup of juice in one hand and had somehow obtained sunglasses which she wore. She took a sip. "Soon we'll find that prism!"

@Pandora - Patch #5