[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qPnUc6a.png[/img][/center][hr][hr]
[color=bc8dbf]There is, in every world that exists and every world that might, perhaps, at least one place of great curiosity. In truth, Sagand (known to many as Sipenta), was a world filled with such wonders but, even among these, some stood out above others. One such place was the Pinnacle. The tallest of a series of great needle-like rock spires that soared into the tropical sun along the border of Paggon, Tanso, and Yarsoc, it was a microstate in the true sense, or perhaps a city state, in truth. Its inhabitants were virtually all endosymbionts: bearers of a rare mana type that allowed them to photosynthesize like plants while giving their skin a strange, greenish hue. 

Hundreds of these odd people, in forms of yasoi, humans, eeaiko, and hegelans that no longer mattered, had gathered in a large flat clearing atop the great pinnacle that they had built their homes into. There, they spread their arms and raised their faces to the sun. They moved about occasionally, of course, but those who had nothing else to do simply watched. Up above their heads, but not so very high above, came the cloud colossi. Enormous airborne relatives of the threshers that populated the sea, their life cycles remained a mystery to most other races, save the mythical cherune. All that was known was that, once they took off for the first time, they never landed again, not until they were dead. Their legs devolved, their carapace-like wings (in truth, specialized secondary claws) widened in span and stiffened, and the arms of their main claws became long and spindly and eminently flexible, dangling below them to snag trees, beasts, and mountaintops. The first of the enormous creatures burst through the clouds and, with it, came a rain of multicoloured translucent eggs. These began plummeting towards the ground below, a few showering the mountaintop, others bouncing and bounding between other lesser spires, and still more falling into the abyss. None of them, however, shattered. Many, however, were collected.

But that was not the only show that the Pinnaclites had gathered for. Some stayed atop the summit. Others went home and returned in the earliest hours of the morning. All night, the Cloud Colossi continued their annual migration overhead. Then, shortly after the sun broke the horizon, as first light as reaching the inhabitants of this strange outpost, a portal appeared atop that flat expanse on its summit. From it emerged hundreds of youths. With a nervous sort of anticipation, they gathered and milled about, Zenos of that great distant academy at Ersand’Enise weaving between them, curious locals exchanging comment or simple goods and services. Most, however, stared at the spectacle up above. Some used their magic to practice deflecting or catching the bouncy ball-shaped eggs. Then, as the nascent morning made its way to genuine brightness, they were ushered to the edge, standing behind a cordon, prepared for…

There it was!

A second portal swirled open and, through it, they could faintly make out the environs of distant Civitalunga, in Revidia. [color=3CB371]“Sorridente, Raffscallions, Singers!”[/color] shouted one of the zenos, and racers from those three teams, along with their visiting allies, took deep breaths and leapt from the edge and into the green abyss below. [color=3CB371]“King’s Ear! Vyshta’s!”[/color] They, two, dived. [color=3CB371]“Nice Ones, Fiske n’ Chips!”[/color] came the call and they, too, were off. [color=3CB371]“Invisibles, Rock, Accompli!”[/color] They continued to call out names, and there were dozens more to follow, but those at the leading edge surely had an advantage, as another three of those great flying beasts appeared through the clouds overhead, sublime in their size and majesty, and began raining eggs. 

While some pairs stuck together, others took on distinct roles and, for the most part, this seemed the better tactic. Still others - though they were few - made use of precision teleporting or tethered range. A couple were saddled with a deadweight teammate, and a couple even had makeshift gliding suits or parachutes. It was an eclectic bunch, to be sure. To add to the chaos, Harlequin Kites peeled off of the pinnacle and other nearby spires. How they darted and zipped about, snatching eggs out of the air! In a few instances, they harried the students, who were already beleaguered in their attempts to snag eggs of various colours, dodge each other’s attempts at sabotage, navigate without losing control, and sink the eggs in the right baskets, distant or else rocking back and forth under a balloon! 

It was Tommy’s and Silver Ape’s clever effort for Raffscallions that took the checkered flag here but, in truth, it was a logjam at the top, at Teatro Sorridente, Vyshta’s More Favoured, Singers & Saints, and Beware the Nice Ones came in one after the other. Fait Accompli made up enormous ground with the help of two temporal mages, coming in ahead of Fiske n’ Chips, Rock & Stone, and The Invisibles. It was highly-placed King’s Ear who truly dropped the ball, however, with El Alacran, nominally their strongest member, who had to carry their allied teammate, an eeaiko utterly unfamiliar with flight. The overall points leaders plummeted, and not in the literal sense. 

There were one-hundred-seventy-three finishers out of the two-hundred-thirty who’d come through the portal. Some had needed rescuing from a would-be fatal fall. Others had missed their eggs and given up. Still others had simply lost their nerve and refused to jump. Ultimately, the entire race took no more than forty minutes, in fact, from the first teams entering until the last ones leaving. Most teams, individually, took no more than five minutes. Who’d have thought that falling was quick?[/color]
[hr][hr][center][h2][color=bc8dbf]Results & Standings[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
[hider=Submitted Strategies][h2]Teatro Sorridente: Rikard & Ignatius[/h2]
Rikard has both magnetic and kinetic for flight and can do so easily and fluidly, moving about with greater speed and precision than others. Ignatius has a similar spread and massive RAS. Except for the rare types, tactics mostly involve the big man falling quicker while Rikard secures the eggs and then using his suitable magics, massive size, and big RAS to secure the floating baskets so they’re easy shots. Both will keep lightly charged with magnetic to ward off flying predators. Those tend to be wary of lightning. Rikard will only perform a perfunctory search. 2/10 (Black egg)

[h2]Vyshta’s Favoured: Ashon & Kittens[/h2]
Punches-Kittens: Search 10 - Prioritize Major Boons/Boosts to give to Ashon to boost hi, and the *Special*. (Aux basket)
Ashon: Search 1

Priority Order:
Purple Egg in Zone 1 to carry to Basket 6 (*special*)
Yellow Egg in Zone 2 to put in Basket 2
Red Egg in Zone 2 to carry to Basket 4
Orange Egg in Zone 3 to put in Basket 3
Green Egg in Zone 5 to put in Basket 5
Blue Egg in Zone 6 to put in Basket 6

*Special* Ashon skips Purple Egg. Punches-Kittens will collect a Purple Egg for him, and bring it to Zone 6 to hand it to Ashon to hand in, and give him any boons along the way. The purple is rare and super slippery, so having Punches do it for Ashon, allows him to easily do the others.

Use any Ham & Green Egg bonuses on Ashon where applicable.

Jamboi is master gravitational kinetic, he can zoom zoom this shit through the air.
Arcane: To disguise eggs
Chemical: Change surface stickiness / smell

[h2]Rock and Stone: Yvain & Flint[/h2]
❖ Yvain - Search 3, items (colossus spear)
❖ Brother Flint - Search 3, items (yellow eggs)

Strengths:
❖ Both high RAS, Kinetic mages.
❖ Yvain is a decent enough illusionist to disguise inanimate objects.
❖ Great in-air control

Weaknesses:
❖ Perrench and Eskandish love-hate relation.
❖ Both don’t have the most ‘finesse’
❖ Yvain’s potential competitive spirit kicking in to bite him in the ass.

Strategy:
❖ With Yvain’s proficiency over Wings of Magic and his high capacity could contest the others for the eggs.
❖ As Yvain secures an egg he will give it to Brother Flint for safekeeping until they can be delivered off.
❖ He might potentially use Kinetic magic to sabotage by making someone else’s gravitational pull worse. 

[h2]Beware the Nice Ones: Oksana & Anthony[/h2]
Oksana: Search 3 - Going for Boon/Boost. (red eggs)
Anthony Pierce: Search 1 - He is going to Powerman it. He is the Quentic Homelander.

Priority Order:
Purple Egg in Zone 1 to carry to Basket 6
Yellow Egg in Zone 2 to put in Basket 2
Red Egg in Zone 2 to carry to Basket 4
Orange Egg in Zone 3 to put in Basket 3
Green Egg in Zone 5 to put in Basket 5
Blue Egg in Zone 6 to put in Basket 6

Use any Ham & Green Egg bonuses on Oksana where applicable.

Arcane: To disguise eggs
Chemical: Change surface stickiness / smell

Oksana will use binding to put eggs in boxes/baskets for easy carrying and attaching to her, to make it far easier. Oksana has kite-ear hat for flight, so can flap to hand in at tethered baskets.

[h2]Raffscallions: Tommy & Ape[/h2]
Participants:
❖ Tommy: Search Level 6 (two purples)
❖ Silver Ape: Search Level 4 (rasp powder)

Strengths:
❖ Tommy is a tier 5 kinetic mage and a tier 4 magnetic mage. He's also got superhuman reflexes so this is doable.
❖ Silver Ape is a yasoi, and is experienced with climbing/acrobatics. He is also a skilled kinetic mage.
❖ Both have keen senses which are key to this trial.
❖ Both are capable of being very careful and precise with delicate objects(heh)

Weaknesses:
❖ Relatively low RAS.
❖ Not the smartest bunch.

Strategy:
❖ It's a freefall. They can outspeed their competitors, and thanks to the sensory advantage, Tommy can still keep somewhat of an eye out.
❖ Silver Ape will use his high arcane to disguise any eggs collected. Tommy will do any dunking necessary.
❖ On the slippery eggs, both will use binding to create a high friction cloth in order to keep it from falling so easily out of their hands.
❖ Both will make use of binding in order to generate 'faux' eggs in order to bait and sabotage teams. Trickery will be hard for other teams to put on them due to his superhuman reflexes.

[h2]King’s Ear: Alacran & Wenhak[/h2]
Augusto does flying boi things. Dude has a RAS from here to Retan. He won’t waste time searching for things  and will have to carry Elaurrah most of the way since she’s not a kineticist and… questionable decisions were made. 2/10 search. Anyone messes with them, he will aggressively target and sabotage, to the point of being a jerk. Partner is deadweight here. Worse comes to worst, just accelerate her to the bottom, put her down gently, and get on with it.

[h2]Fiske n’ Chips: Penny & Erbir[/h2]
A brutalist in a freefall event… interesting choice, teammates. Erbir is going to be entirely reliant on drawing from his own momentum to slow his descent, and there will be lots for him to draw from. Otherwise, he’s mostly useless here. The main goal for him is just to… not die. Penny will do her best to carry. As a leadvein, she will absolutely plummet, so she’s made a special suit, skintight, with large flaps of resilient fabric stretching from her wrists to her ankle. If she spreads her arms and leg out in a perfect triangle, she can suddenly arrest her momentum and quasi-glide. Of course, as a skilled kineticist, she isn’t entirely reliant on this and can still hover, albeit with some difficulty. She’s also overheard a clever strategy by Ashon and just might be riffing on it herself. 

In short: Penny glides at the start to look for purples, then tucks in and plummets until the lower levels, drawing passively the entire way and using her excess energy to hammer other targets opportunistically, to telekinetically draw in eggs of the less rare types, and to augment her shots. She’ll go for the easier baskets as speed is not an issue and she can afford the small time loss. 
2/10 search. (crutch plans)

[h2]Fait Accompli: Tyrel & Salmon[/h2]
Tyrel is an accomplished kineticist and temporal mage. So is Salmon. They won’t waste their time looking for things. The goal is using Tyrel’s keen yasoi senses to seize on those rare purples, teleporting there, and then plummeting. Teleport close to baskets for easy deposit. Teleport to the bottom when it’s all done and land with style. Both of them can do this, fwiw. Tyrel has bigtime RAS and shouldn’t make an easy target. Salmon can also slow or speed up time to enhance their speed or give them more time to snag some of the tougher eggs. 1/10 search.

[h2]The Invisibles: Marlijn & Nia[/h2]
Marlijn is a passable kineticist and will manage well enough. Nia is specialized in gravitational magic. The latter will be the main gatherer while Marlijn can still help significantly and augment. Instead, she’ll be looking to sabotage other teams subtly with illusions, drawing circling dragons in to them while disguising her team’s own finds. In particular, she’ll be drawing dragons to the baskets once they’ve already made their shots, actively sabotaging. She’ll put a bit of effort into a search: 3/10 - (free green eggs)

[h2]Singers & Saints: Ayla & Revan[/h2]
Ayla: Search 10 - Going for Major Treasure, will *special* - pearlescent egg
Revan: Search 1 - Assassin's Creed the Eggs

Priority Order:
Purple Egg in Zone 1 to carry to Basket 6
Yellow Egg in Zone 2 to put in Basket 2
Red Egg in Zone 2 to carry to Basket 4
Orange Egg in Zone 3 to put in Basket 3
Green Egg in Zone 5 to put in Basket 5
Blue Egg in Zone 6 to put in Basket 6

Use any Ham & Green Egg bonuses on Revan where applicable.

*Special* Revan skips Purple Egg. Ayla will collect a Purple Egg for him, and bring it to Zone 6 to hand it to Revan to hand in, and give him any boons along the way. The purple is rare and super slippery, so having Ayla do it for Revan, allows him to easily do the others

Arcane: To disguise eggs
Chemical: Change surface stickiness / smell

Ayla to deter harlequin kites away from Revan with sonic to mess with their senses.
[/hider]
[hider=Results][h2]Results][/h2]
[b]Standings:[/b] Raff (1,4), Teatro (2,5), Vyshta’s (3,9), S&S (6,12), Nice (7,11), Fait (8,10), Chips (13,15), Rock (14,17), Invisibles (16,18), King’s (19,20)
[b]Speed:[/b] Tyrel, Salmon, Tommy, Ashon, Ape, Rikard, Ignatius, Anthony, Revan, Kittens, Ayla, Oksana, Ayla, Erbir, Penny, Yvain, Nia, Flint, Marlijn, Alacran, Wenhak
[b]Treasures:[/b] Ayla (pearlescent egg), Kittens (major), Tommy (boost), Rikard (black egg), Yvain (spear), Penny (crutches), Silver Ape (minor), Flint (minor), Marlijn (minor), Oksana (minor)
[b]Points:[/b] Raff (68), Teatro (53), Vyshta’s (53), S&S (34), Nice (34), Fait (60), Chips (28), Rock (28), Invisibles (28), King’s (28) 
[b]Time:[/b] Raff (00:00.00), Teatro (+00:01.71), Vyshta’s (+00:03.03), S&S (+00:05.76), Nice (+00:06.11), Fait (+00:06.34), Chips (+00:08.43), Rock (+00:08.47), Invisibles (+00:09.19), King’s (+00:14.22)[/hider]