[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CTwj2R4.png[/img][/center][hr][hr]
[color=f6989d]The tropical atolls of Kiluaho did not sleep that night, for great had been the noise coming from the lagoons, islets, and beaches. The torpedo threshers who had long made the sandy isles their home during these early dorrad months found their nests under siege by swarms of dog-sized invaders. The Rosy Threshers had first appeared some seven or eight years ago, their eggs transported in the bilge of visiting ships from Palapar and Virang. Since then, they had become a menace, consuming much of the floatmelon and sea peach vines that the Torpedos’ usual prey ate and then feeding on the larger threshers’ eggs when they were left unguarded. Now, their numbers had grown to the point where they openly swarmed, and the sounds of relentless combat rose over the crash of the waves and whisper of the wind.

Soon, as well, multitudes of humans and eeaiko began to arrive, as the faintest glow of the slumbering sun started to chase the stars away. In catamarans and various assorted watercraft, they came to rest in the lagoon or make landfall along the many sandy beaches of Moatu Suva. Some had brought snacks with them. Others had brought torches and lanterns. There were those whose job it was to scare off the many threshers that feasted in the waters of the atoll at this time of year for, as Ipte gave way to Shune, a brilliant swirling light appeared in the central square of Taoranga Town and began to disgorge a motley array of mostly foreign youths. The people of Kiluaho were polite people, of course, and known for their enthusiasm, so they cheered the newcomers as one would expect. The loudest of these, however, were reserved for young Kamehameha Mahelona, crown prince of Kiluaho.

Then, it was a waiting game. As the sun rose in earnest, the islanders passed out coconuts and crab stews and serenaded the two-hundred-fifty-six students and dozen faculty who stood upon their shores. Yet, this was not so much a game as a handful of other events were. The annual migration of the torpedoes was the lifeblood of many of these people, and it was threatened by an invasive species that had arrived with Constantian and Severan ships. The song was an ode to the spirit of helping one another, something that both reflected the collegial nature of these games and repudiated its ruthlessly competitive side.

Raffaella and the preposterously named Giggling Calamari were through first for Raffscallions, and then a silence as they made their plans and started moving. A yasoi princess and a rezaindian nun came next, followed rapidly by a heavily bandaged yasoi and a Nashi girl in all black. Then, came Teatro Sorridente, the villains of this peace. The Kressian girl began screaming and slamming things right away while her greyborn partner faded out of reality. That effectively negated all other strategies dependent upon stealth, forcing boos and grimaces from the locals and frightening hundreds of rosy threshers into greyspace. Still, she carried on with her harassment, dozens more of the large crustaceans skittering deep into burrows or vanishing into nothingness. If Raffaella cried, they had little time for it. They were busier being angry!

Then came the prince’s partner from the previous leg, princess Erita Teriimani of Mohiti, supported by none other than the Sun King himself in a royal rendezvous! The crowd roared and cheered and rose to their feet. His team was well behind, staggering through in thirty-third, but he wasted zero time in dropping a sonic dampening bubble from afar over the noisy Kressian. 

If it drew massive cheers, it was too little, too late. At nearly the same moment, Edyta Laska, of Singers & Saints, came hurtling across the beach. Second later, Sister Dominica, Taleja’s partner, materialized from greyspace, coming from the opposite direction. The two rezaindians put everything that they had into sheer footspeed, but there was no making up Laska’s lead and she crossed the threshold first, dumping a sack of  five unconscious threshers at the feet of the judges. Dominica was through seconds later, and Taleja mercifully stopped. Then came Guy, of Fiske n’ Chips, with his own thresher in tow, having made up loads of ground. Raffscallions crossed next, followed by a whole slew of teams. The crowd roared as the locals finished, and then, finally and rather pathetically, King’s Ear, the one-time leaders. Yuliya had tried the same thing as Guy, but had her thresher poached along the way by another team and spent most of the time looking for it. In the end, she and her partner were the second-last of the twenty-six to finish.

There, on the beach, as morning shadows shortened and applause echoed across a tropical lagoon, the Sun King removed his mask emphatically to reveal himself as the famed performer Leon Solaire. There, on the beach, as the waves rolled in and the invasive threshers were drugged and loaded onto a waiting carrack, a podium was raised and platinum, gold, silver, bronze, and iron were crowned. Of course, that didn’t mean that the party was over. A feast was laid out in the square of Taoranga for all to eat. Children scampered and darted about, some of them making random ‘Taleja noises’ to scare parents and elders, some playing with Raffi, others pretending to be threshers or zenos or the Sun King, for here, in a place like this, he was more famous than Leon Solaire. Also here, in a place like this, for a brief moment in time, regardless of whatever else was going on in the world, everything felt right.[/color]
[hr][hr][center][h2][color=f6989d]Results & Standings[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
[hider=Submitted Strategies][h2]Teatro Sorridente: Taleja & Dominica[/h2]
Taleja - Shock & Awe
Search: 10 - Going for Major Treasure (heart of the ocean)
Taleja is going to prioritize looking for treasures for much-needed upgrades, any boons collected go to Sister Dominica. Taleja is also going to focus on sabotaging everyone. She is going to make loud bangs, going to scare away the threshers. Those best laid bait/traps? Tough luck with fireworks going off. Boom, bang, smells. All threatening. Make all those Threshers hide in the Greyborn Space. If Laska is around, might just conveniently stand near her to disrupt her greyborn spacing.
Taleja will also manufacture the good stuff. Bait for Sister Dominica to use which will lure the threshers and make them feel safe in her care. The good sister protecting them from the bad Taleja.

Sister Dominica - Collection
Search: 1 - Collecting Rosy Threshers from Void Space. How do they get there? Hello Taleja. Don’t worry, Sister Dominica will take good care of them all, using internal chem to feel nice and safe with her. Can use alchemical goods from Taleja. Hand them in to get the quick finish reward and end the race. Can help Taleja with collecting after finishing race, to help her finish off too.

[h2]Vyshta’s More Favoured: Pluurii & Rainbows[/h2]
Participants:
❖ Pluuri - Search Level 1
❖ Dances-with-Rainbows - Search Level 1

Strengths:
❖ Highly trained Magusjaeger with high RAS that is seasoned in hunting.
❖ Master illusionist troll. The skipping might actually put off creatures, allowing her to do her thing.
❖ Huggy Bears meme magic to storyline whatever you want. Good or bad.
Weaknesses:
❖ No solution to VOID out.
❖ Not the strongest power-wise, leaving them vulnerable.
❖ Troll Huggy Bear. May change search level on a whim.

Strategy:
❖ Pluuri will immediately try to douse enemy teams with a substance that attracts bloodsucking species in Tarlon.
❖ Dances puts on a pleasant show and charisma check to get local help.
❖ Pluuri’s concealment and hunting experience come into play to gather the pests. Frost arcane to slow down their metabolism just enough to lower reaction time.
❖ Dances will actually opportunistically cast a convincing enough illusion to steal an enemy thresher right as it is secured, usually with depth perception, making them ‘miss’ their mark while she runs with the goods.
❖ Both in theory have enough chem to knock out the bugs on contact.
❖ No messing around, one secure Thresher is immediately cashed in.

[h2]Rock and Stone: Samaxi & Ash[/h2]
So, we have a stealthy magusjaeger who is also a high sanguinaire, and a tiny, nonthreatening dark mage. Samaxi may struggle a bit with mobility here and will have to leave her wheelchair behind, but Ash has the RAS and skill to easily help her along, though she can honestly do this herself. Samaxi is small enough to probably not trigger an immediate threat response from the threshers. Ash can sneak up on them very quickly and dose them with chemical or simply concuss and knock them out. If they try to scramble, Samaxi can scoop them out of the VOID, to some extent. This should be a walk in the park (well, for Ash, at least). Search: 3/10 - (minor: soporific, floatmelon)

[h2]Beware the Nice Ones: Johann & Jessica[/h2]
We have a chemical mage, magneticist, and binder with a friendly bearing, immense RAS, and internal magical manipulation abilities. He’s paired with someone who knows and understands animals and plants extremely well and can grow the latter. She’d know that these rosy threshers, aside from their current egg-heavy diet, would enjoy sea peaches and floatmelons. Time to give them what they want. Time to lace it and, when they come out, a quick and overwhelming dose of chem and/or magnetic magic to knock them out. Search: 7/10 if in a good position. 2/10 if behind. (Gas)

[h2]Raffscallions: Raffi & Calamari[/h2]
Raffaella is a girl who… works at her own pace, and is easily distracted by pretty rocks (10/10 search). She secretly relishes in the attention that acting helpless brings, and will certainly try to enlist the help of locals. If other teams sabotage her, she may cry, turning locals against them. Calamari is a chaotic element, but is known to share a weakness for sweets which makes her manageable. Raffie will have to rely on Calamari communing with the VOID to detect the creatures, but once they’ve spotted one, Raffie has many tools at her disposal.

If there's a particular smell these creatures use to communicate or navigate, she could try to recreate it, and make herself smell like "mom" or "home" to the little guys, coaxing them out. If she makes a mistake, she can try to upcast for memory alteration to reset their “alert level” or try Bloodwarping for a more… assertive approach. Her Toothpick can attract the threshers’ food to her, for use as bait. The yarn, though its greyborn effect only comes into play if things go truly, horribly and irretrievably wrong, will temporarily give her the ability she needs to chase the creatures directly.
(bebbe threshers, golden conch)

[h2]King’s Ear: Yuliya & Tiakah[/h2]
Yuli will rely on her Kinetic, probably.

[h2]Fiske n’ Chips: Guy & Zolasta[/h2]
❖ Guy - Pebble - Search 4, boosts (minor: pointers)
❖ Zolasta-Alatexi-Sola - Search 6, items (major: nest)

Strengths:
❖ Guy is well-versed in Rosy threshers and will use that to trap them with relative ease.
❖ Zolasta is a cazenax with increased range. She also has Chemical Magic along with Dark magic.
❖ Pebble fills the role of an Omega. She will be a critical asset for sabotaging other hunters and convincing the other Rosy threshers of safety.

Weaknesses:
❖ Zolasta is sunblessed and could have odd effects with the Threshers.
❖ Guy is low RAS and easily messed with.
❖ Zolasta is a pyromaniac.

Strategy:
❖ First step is for Guy and Pebble to gather treats for the threshers like Seapeach, Mangocounch. Zolasta gathers vines for them to climb to the trap.
❖ Guy and Zolasta start to set up the trap. Pebble scares other Rosy Threshes with the warning clicks to expressly mess up other people and also tire out the threshers.
❖ Once tired, they will find the Omega Imposter, Pebble. Pebble will lure them in by eating their favorite food. The first ones they eat are safe, the others are laced with drugs. Then Zolasta and Guy knock them out.

[h2]Fait Accompli: Trypano & Rooster[/h2]
Treasure hunting: 5/10. (map)
Trypano and Rooster will use stealth to make their way through the bamboo forest, coating themselves in mud to mask their chemical trails and moonflower powder to camouflage before searching the lands proper. In this state they will search and study their environment to better understand the fauna around them. Since the threshers they are after prey on thresher eggs if they spot any thresher they will trail it back to it's nest and abduct it's eggs in secret. By analyzing the egg's qualities Trypano will be able to duplicate convincing replicas which she'll use to bait out a rosy thresher. From there they can stalk the rosy thresher to it's nest and then steal it's eggs too. The rules stated they need to capture five rosy threshers, it did not specify how old they needed to be. If the people at the station don't accept that then they'll just move on to plan B: Use drugged bait to lure out rosy threshers and sedate them.

If the two encounter other teams operating nearby she can generate blood in the rivaling team's area, drawing mosquitoes and Tarpit Lurkers towards their location.

[h2]The Invisibles: Esmii & Ai[/h2]
Strategy - Esmii or Liu Ai will try to ask locals information on the Rosy Threshers, like roughly where they are, what things they eat. Esmii will use her animal tracking skills to track the Threshers. On finding the Threshers they will watch them to find out information that they got from the locals (If they were able to get any). Then she will this information and also use her animal knowledge and her binding and chemical magic to create food that the Rosy Threshers love to eat, Liu can help Esmii her chemical magic to make the food more appealing, and Esmii can make the food put them to sleep, with her chemical magic. If the food doesn’t work, Esmii will use her chemical magic to put them to sleep, while Liu uses status to freeze them in place. While they are travelling around looking for the Threshers, they will both keep an eye out for any treasure.

5 looking for Treasure - (major boost: torpedoes) 

[h2]Singers & Saints: Edyta & Anjeluun[/h2]
At the end of the day, we have a greyborn and a dark mage who can enter greyspace with her if led. We don’t need to finesse this. Get in there, scare the lil’ buggers into greyspace, and nab them without mercy. Anjeluun will want treasure. Edyta gives zero fucks. 5/10, 1/10 (minor: no omega)[/hider]
[hider=Results][h2]Results[/h2]
[b]Standings:[/b] S&S (1,14), Teatro (2,18), Chips (3,15), Raff (4,10), Vyshta’s (5,8), Fait (6,9), Rock (7,11), Invisibles (12,13), Nice (16,17), King’s Ear (24,25) 

[b]Speed:[/b] Edyta 1, Dominica 2, Guy 3, Ash 4, Pluurii 5, Calamari 6, Trypano 7, Rainbows 8, Anjeluun 9, Esmii 10, Rooster 11, Raffi 12, Ai 13, Zolasta 14, Samaxi 15, Johann 15, Jessica 17, Taleja 18, Tiakah 19, Yuliya 20 

[b]Treasures:[/b] Taleja (Heart), Raffie (Torpedo eggs, conch), Zolasta (major), Esmii (major), Johann (gasoline), Trypano (map), Ash (minor), Anjeluun (minor), Guy (minor), Samaxi (minor)

[b]Points:[/b] S&S (57), Teatro (50), Chips (48), Raff (43), Vyshta’s (50), Fait (37), Rock (40), Invisibles (31), Nice (28), King’s Ear (28)
Time: S&S (00:00.00), Teatro (+00:03.11), Chips (+00:06.33), Raff (+00:06.79), Vyshta’s (+00:08.09), Fait (+00:10.79), Rock (+00:12.52), Invisibles (+00:15.68), Nice (+00:18.76), King’s (+00:38.91)[/hider]
[hider=Final Standings][h2]Final Standings[/h2]
[b]Round Points:[/b] Raff (274), S&S (264), Vyshta’s (225), Teatro (261), Chips (206), Fait (187), Nice (179), Rock (165), King’s (155), Invisibles (143)

[b]Finish Points:[/b] S&S (200), Teatro (150), Chips (140), Raff (130), Vyshta’s (120), Fait (100), Rock (90), Invisibles (80), Nice (70), King’s (60)

[b]Final Results:[/b] S&S (464), Teatro (411), Raff (404), Chips (346), Vyshta’s (345), Fait (287), Rock (255), Nice (249), Invisibles (223), King’s (215)[/hider]
[hider=Resources][h2]Resources[/h2]
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j66Pf8SWKPj3jolqbIZOxuL9Rw8AwaIGLSjsj1Jx9yw/edit?usp=sharing]Round Rules & Guide[/url]
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/12ln37WK4u7I17Td3jJPO7XbfccFK-HWHOZMpJ0PKjBk/edit?usp=sharing]Round Results Page[/url]
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D_qSivxmZtb9UFzpn68Ds7fX4ZYxPhRgg4NNqP0wylw/edit?usp=sharing]Guest Team Guide[/url]
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tzS9vL-xSQJydDYj7Bd_j8vj_82-yk7RtBbzv2enC3E/edit?usp=sharing]Ally Selections[/url]
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JYeKpoy3TNMddLqRuaTpDVgGidN0yXsxa6WWrOrhEzQ/edit?usp=sharing]Loot Table[/url]
[url=https://keepthescore.com/board/dwtqbjlhqymte/]Overall Standings[/url]
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