[hr][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vkOwURp.png[/img][/center][hr][hr][center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0HJoU0zczY]𝅗𝅥   𝅘𝅥   𝅘𝅥𝅮   𝅘𝅥𝅯   𝅘𝅥𝅰[/url][/center][hr][hr]
[color=7ea7d8]The morning dawned warm, muggy, and overcast, after a harrowing night. While many of the students, both local and visiting, took the opportunity to revel in their youth and wealth and excitement, filling the taverns and bawdy houses of Ersand'Enise to the brim, they were strongly discouraged from venturing outside of the city's famous white walls.

There Be Monsters.

...and it was not safe, even if they, themselves, were a species of monster. Every day, now, ever more ragged refugees streamed in from the broken yasoi lands as the Grey Fleet of Tarlon continued its relentless offensive. Some were simply people fleeing violence that they had not asked for. Others were ardent and embittered nationalists in exile, refusing to bend the knee to a foreign - if eerily familiar - overlord. The majority, however, were addicts, and that made them dangerous in the eyes of the people who ran the great city as well as those of more common breeding who made up the bulk of its inhabitants. 

Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.

Still, brave, stupid, or just unlucky, the youths wandered into trouble, warnings or not. There were multiple reports of altercations after dark, three kidnappings, warnings about active sanguinaires, and at least a hundred calls for binding services that night. There was one poor yasoi girl who needed her abdomen sealed and three miraculously intact severed fingertips reattached. She seemed eager to hide from a cousin who came looking for her and a tall Virangish girl who demanded to know her whereabouts. By the time that Shune was halfway through in the morning, however, two out of the three missing persons had been recovered.

The exception was Xiuyang Solari.

There was no note or demand. There was no obvious evidence of motive, but there was violence. The school made promises and then got on with things, assigning the Tan-Zeno Jocasta Re - a skyborn, tethered, and near-unparalleled prodigy - as a temporary replacement. She had much to tell her team, however: truths that the school preferred to keep under wraps, but truths that they could not realistically stop her from speaking. She gathered with her temporary teammates and thousands of others in Blathazar Square, and there, for them, were outlined the rules of The Trials' next game: the venerable Thin Air. Of course, there were other games being played. One was Thieving Cherune which, after a slow start, had recently kicked into high gear, with numerous thefts and deals during that night of skulduggery. There were yet greater ones, however, in the halls of power, in the back alleys of Mudville, and in the saunas and private rooms of Bath House. These were games that had the power to determine the fates of tens of thousands, perhaps of entire nations. These were games that the students, by and large, who were giddily preparing for their next event, were unaware of and had never asked to join. They were soon to be swept up anyhow, but perhaps... not quite yet.[/color]
[hr][hr][center][h2][color=7ea7d8]Thin Air: Posting Rules[/color][/h2][/center]
[indent][color=7ea7d8]1. Similar to our last event, this one will be decided by means of strategies submitted to me, by DM, on the forum.
2. An important difference is that these will [b]not[/b] be individual strategies, as in The Dragon.
3. Instead, each team (which includes your allied guest team) will be submitting a single strategy of up to 400 words.
4. Strategies will be due by Friday, December 22, at 3:00 PM EST. There will be no extensions given. 
5. Event rules, info, and resources may be found below.[/color][/indent]
[hr][hider=Event Resources][h3][color=7ea7d8]Resources[/color][/h3][indent][color=7ea7d8]1. [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dC8JfsYSK_Sd4vANef-ALOP4EACVTy0b_O4TwT-tc4Y/edit?usp=sharing]Complete Event Rules[/url]
2. [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D_qSivxmZtb9UFzpn68Ds7fX4ZYxPhRgg4NNqP0wylw/edit?usp=sharing]Guest Teams Guide[/url]
3. [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yFDXbaNT2j7PC5t6LD3eDh6nGD9jTVROP3M6tiyySrI/edit?usp=sharing]Ally Selections[/url]
4. [url=https://keepthescore.com/board/dwtqbjlhqymte/]Current Standings[/url]
5. Don't forget Thieving Cherune![/color][/indent][/hider]