[hr][hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/Fh7ea50.png[/img][hr][hr][color=FF4500][h1]The Dragon: Street Hoghs[/h1] Whatever wonders the Iron City of the Hegelans had to offer, racers had to imbibe them as they ran, for it was now [i]all[/i] to play for in this final leg of the race. The labyrinthine streets of Hogh Munkhelad, at times grand and open, at junctures narrow and claustrophobic, were inevitably confusing for the new arrivals. They were made even more so by the addition of barriers, blockades, and purposely unreliable signage. Dozens of people of a species most had never encountered before and some had never even heard of peered eagerly down from windows and balconies, pointing, clapping, and shouting. Others ran alongside them, some allies and some given the task of becoming obstacles. Charging through the portal, the students who'd come from Longwan had the luxury of awe and exploration. Their peers who'd been waiting for the past hour did not. They had been balances on a knife edge of anticipation for almost as long as they'd been here, and now they took off. While some relied on brute power, others hoped for fortune and treasure, and some leaned into special talents and abilities, there were those who took a methodical approach to finding the five token stations and the five gates they would need to pass through. And yet, for all of the teammates simply carried as deadweight instead of having their talents utilized, for all of the crashed rickshaws, lost 'geniuses', sneaky plans quickly debunked, and great efforts not quite rewarded with results, Vyshta once again had her say, and not in the form of Tyrel'yrash, whose magic did much - but not quite enough - to overcome her physical shortcomings. A free gate key allowed Yulia Vasilieva to skip an entire step and steal the lead from Marlijn Vaanse. Silas Reiger and Ahrora Babayeva's teamwork, nimbleness, familiarity with the region, and shameless sabotage allowed them to leapfrog well ahead as well, and not without the help of some Powergazer energy detection. Sometimes, there's no substitute for being lucky. Sometimes, there's no substitute for being good. It came down to a footrace, with all of the top five finishers in sight of one another in a flat-out sprint. In this, the Vossoriyan Sanguinaire held off her hard-charging Kaganese opponent, Zarra Travendour burst from the greyborn dimension for a last-second kinetic boost that saw him leave his one-legged teammate in the dust and [i]nearly[/i] saw him poach the lead, and Marlijn Vaanse was simply outclassed in raw power and not quite able to close the gap. You Could Never-Shortlisted took the win and, with it, the crucial 200 point finish bonus, SYCAMORE-Good Guy Team came from [i]way[/i] back in the pack to claim second and a crucial fourth-place finish overall with their late charge, and Snaked and Afraid-Vyshta's Favoured edged out Lucky Seven-Sea People and Heartstoppers-Skull & Crossbones, who came in as a pair just as they'd started. The cavernous underground city erupted in cheers and celebrations at the finish of The Dragon of DZ54 and the first public step in the opening of their cloistered civilization to the rest of the world. Other teams finished over the proceeding half hour, hearty drinks and congratulations handed to all. For some, these felt well-deserved; for others, they couldn't help but ring a bit hollow. The medal ceremony was held then and there, in Hogh Munkhelad, with the Zenith and three Arch-Zenos in attendance. The high finishers reaped the rewards, while others went back to the drawing board, worried that their chances of that much coveted top five overall finish were fast slipping out of reach. They would have a chance to redeem themselves tomorrow in the next event of The Trials: Roses & Neskals. [hr][hr] [hider=Submitted Strategies][h2]Zeno Afraval: Yuliya & Korin[/h2] Yuli and Korin for 'Street Hoghs' Strategy: Korin will wear red clothes in preparation for the race, to make the other teams believe she is hostile and can time them out for two minutes(I know it's men in red and women in green but eh, harder for non hegelans to spot differences with a bit of makeup). Yuli will be using her sensemaster on anyone who still dares to get close to distort their sense of colour, and make people not discern green and red. She will use her knowledge of hegelan language and society to ask locals for pathways, shortcuts and the like to help her get about the racetrack. Bribery will be done and YUli will bring a significant amount of personal cash to both buy items and buy information/sabotage. Any mana brews she's able to snag will be saved for later, unless she can drink them to keep her buff going without puking. Following a stern re-assessment, Yuli will keep property damage to a minimum to avoid penalties to the team, but will not hesitate to fuck over everyone she possibly can given she's completely juiced up on mana brew. Searching for treasures at a 6/10 - hopefully Korin being a hegelan will be useful in the search for them. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Colloy: Abdel & Elaurrah[/h2] Relevant Skills: Abdel: 6.40 RAS ❖ Tethered to easily find his way around by how energy flows through the streets. ❖ Thunderchild for extra strong magnetic, useful to cleanse debuffs and stun red shirts. ❖ Can maybe sense runes, or at least where people congregate to get them. ❖ Can still jog despite affliction. Wenhak: 6.59 RAS ❖ Sunblessed stored power for big burst. ❖ Useful trinkets that can have use. Has a compass to be particularly useful here. ❖ Used to sniffing around tight spaces and getting around danger. ❖ Sunblessed to fuck shit up with illusions/speed/anything arcane. Roles / Dragon: Both will be splitting up to find runes as they both have means to track their locations with Abdel capable of keeping tabs on his teammate. Abdel can use his Magnetic powers to stun the red shirts, and binding to block paths with stone walls from other contestants. He can jog and not feel too uncomfortable for the duration of the trial. Will stun opponents to get them tagged by Hegelans. Wenhak can go super saiyan if needed, effortlessly passing through them and causing various illusions/mild heat strokes/freeze traps to others in her way. If she has enough energy stored, she can make a mad dash for the finish line with fire jets and loads of RAS. Her compass allows her to navigate easier, and she is used to convoluted pathways and tight spaces. Treasure Searching: Abdel 1/10, Wenhak 9/10 Abdel is too slow to get much from this and sees no use in finding some at this stage. Wenhak is an ace at tracking goods, so naturally she’s the best for this and wants to grow her hoard. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Moonlight: Zarra & Tyrel[/h2] Being both dark magic specialists, Z&T have little regard for walls. Using liberal use of pen and paper, they'll be using counting of lanes and limited perception of crossroads in the dark dimension, navigating the maze while also making a 2 dimensional map of it. Travel strategy is to look in the near center of the maze first, taking 1600 steps, then spiraling out, as it's likely the waypoints will be high activity areas for maximum character on character engagement. As well as higher area for Helagen patrols. Will pace themselves to avoid lactic acid build up, drawing kinetic when possible. Will mostly ignore signs and illusions, they'll be relying on maze architecture and obvious landmarks to chart their traversed areas, only exception is checking the color allegiance of Helagens. If green, they will reappear out of view and ask for information. Worst case scenario Tyrel and Zarra end up in a fight, they'll at every opportunity attempt to ghost and disengage, as fighting is time they could be using searching for waypoint sigils. In the scenario a team member is tagged, they have agreed to have the other person continue the pen and papermarking, counting to 120 along the way as to keep track of how long they can be gone before they need to save their captured teammate from another red tag or intervening players. The person who is tagged will phase away and stay in place and also count to 120 before shifting back and waiting for their partner, unless reprimanded by Luna for poor sportsmanship. Will mutually share the sigils, Zarra holding the 5th. That way if they're stolen off one of them, they aren't forced to start from square one. Effort into finding valuables is 2/10. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Mozaru: Carmillia & Huitzilin[/h2] Treasure Searching: Huitzilin - 7/10, Huitzilin’s ōcēlōtl - 1/10, Carmillia 7/10. Carmillia: -Minor kinetic enhancement allows her to be relatively ‘athletic’. -Brilliant thinker, making her less likely to be impeded by illusions or misleading signage. -Merchants are great at reading maps, and Carmillia isn’t your average merchant. -Dark bolt can possibly create new paths in the labyrinth by blowing through roadblocks and/or walls. -Can possibly ‘pursuade’ the Hegelan women into revealing or aiding more than they should. Huitzilin: -Her ōcēlōtl can search ahead, revealing illusions, incorrect paths and to warn them of incoming Hegelan men. -Her Greengrowth abilities allows her to impede others without violating any rules; be it creating fauna obstructions or stirring up the local wildlife (rats and such) to be a nuisance to the other teams. Strategy (179 words): Even with their relevant skills, there is no doubt that this duo is far from being the favorites in Street Hoghs. Instead, they’re going for a medium-risk gamble, putting some effort into obtaining treasures that will aid their leg. In order to make up for lost time during the search for the hidden items, Huitzilin’s ōcēlōtl will be the main carry, scouting ahead and identifying the ideal paths for them to take, allowing them to progress efficiently. Treasure hunting aside, the strategy that the two have agreed would be most practical is through sabotage as neither of them are powerful kinetic mages, a big detriment in a footrace. Huitzilin will focus on physical sabotage whereas Carmillia will use her guile, tricking other participants into incorrect paths, persuading the Hegelan women into aiding her more than they should and the men to impede others instead of them. Hail-Mary? Maybe. The goal is to get a decent placement even if there's no Lady Luck shining. And while waiting for Yalen to arrive, Carmillia will be stirring shit among the waiting participants. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Secto: Leander & Anjeluun[/h2] Treasure Search: Leander 6/10, Anjelunn 3/10 First Waypoint: Mostly using very short bursts of Magnetic Magic to keep red Hegelans and sabotage from students away. Snatching a token with Magnetic magic. No sabotage for now. Second Waypoint: Sprinting then using Magnetic magic to pull along Anjelunn’s Ricksaw with wall run for high speed movement. Tossing iron caltrops in people’s path and snagging a token. Third Waypoint: Still pulling along Anjelunn’s Ricksaw with wall run, and using Arcane to give everyone free color blindness, attempting to confuse everyone but the duo. Fourth Waypoint: Still using wall walk, but now using Arcane to keep cool. A. Final Stretch: Moving from wall walk to ground and using Magnetic to to rocket forward, turning the Risckshaw into a mobile battering ram. At this point, Andy’s pulling out all the stops, simply focused on speed. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Solstice: Marli & Mahoomak[/h2] 1 and 1 for treasures Marli’s strengths are literally speed and illusion. There is nobody who isn’t a local that I can think of who’s better suited for this race. She can both recognize sabotage and actively participate with an extremely high success rate. Mahoomak’s thing is his intelligence, tactical acumen, cool head, and puzzle-solving. He won't be easily fooled, will recognize patterns quickly, and can narrows down possibilities while Marli outruns people. They’ll be going all in on speed here. Towards the end, if she knows where she’s going, Marli will ditch him and go full-bore to the finish line. [hr][hr][h2]Zeno Zemana: Silas & Ahrora[/h2] With Ahora from Good Guy Team Silas and Ahora will be going high speed low search, 2/10 untill they finish their leg. They will be splitting up, Ahora finding the Gates while Silas searches for the tokens (taking as many as he can find) and using speed and wall running to try and avoid any Hegelens unless sure they are female and helpful. Ahora signals where the gates are so they are easily able to find eachother. After passing through gates, Silas will use improved RAS to seal them shut/increase the fiction of them, making them incredibly heavy and slow to open for following teams. Will also use Ahora's blood magic to destroy any obstacles that cause too much of a detour and tokens after they are used. If possible, will use small arcane illusions to lure other teams towards the red Hegelans. Ahora will pass through the finish line first while Silas stays behind so search for any treasures left behind (10/10 search) and sabotage other teams though 'stickying' surfaces, slowing them down, and hiding tokens. [/hider] [hider=Leg Standings][h2]Final Tally[/h2] [b]Finish Order:[/b] Afraval (1,5), Zemana (2,11), Moonlight (3,10), Solstice (4,14), Secto (6,7), Mozaru (8,9), Colloy (12,13), Huggynant (15,16) [b]Leg Time:[/b] Ahrora (1), Yuliya (2), Zarra (3), Marli (4), Leander (5), Anjeluun (6), Korin (7), Carm (8), Ash (9), Huitzilin (10), Tyrel (11), Rainbows (12), Silas (13), Abdel (15), Mahoomak (16), Wenhak (21) [b]Treasure:[/b] Wenhak (ruler), Huitzilin (spellsword), Carm (shots), Korin (hammer), Yuliya (major), Leander (major), Anjeluun (minor), Ahrora (minor), Silas (minor), Tyrel, Zarra [b]Points:[/b] Afraval (42), Zemana (32), Moonlight (31), Solstice (26), Secto (25), Mozaru (20), Huggynant (11), Colloy (8) [b]Point Standings:[/b] Afraval (170), Solstice (148), Colloy (145), Mozaru (130), Moonlight (114), Secto (109), Zemana (101) [b]Time Back:[/b] Afraval (00:00.00), Zemana (-00:02.43), Moonlight (-00:04.19), Solstice (-00:06.88), Secto (-00:07.04), Mozaru (-00:10.56), Colloy (-00:16.94), Huggynant (-00:21.23)[/hider] [hider=Championship] [b]Finish Order Bonus:[/b] Afraval (200), Zemana (150), Moonlight (140), Solstice (130), Secto (120), Mozaru (100), Colloy (80) [b]Final Total:[/b] Afraval (370), Solstice (278), Moonlight (254), Zemana (251), Mozaru (230), Secto (229), Colloy (225)[/hider] [hider=Resources][h2]Resources[/h2][url=https://keepthescore.co/board/mbsregmpihe/]Overall Standings[/url] [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/14cFFYSadgymj1squer0sAnvs_vSnN1OdaVRd-_D66eA/edit?usp=sharing]The Dragon[/url] [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f72g4DryElAghRPmV9vusrSt9MkLLowz1UN8aX6EDDk/edit?usp=sharing]Roses & Neskals (Incomplete)[/url] 1. We will be taking a short cycle off from the races. During this time, feel free to summarize your actions during during the race, after it, and/or play out any specific events or side missiosn that may have taken place. 2. Please make sure that your group has made their allied team selections. We will also be ranking the alliances to make a seeding system and tournament bracket for the next event's series of head-to-head matches. Stay tuned for more information.[/hider] [hr][hr][h3]Next Up: Roses & Neskals[/h3][/color]