Everyone wakes up not in their own bed, but in some kind of grass near a pond at the base of a 20-foot tall waterfall. All who wake here are wearing what they went to bed in. The sky is partly cloudy and the leaves of the trees rustle a little in the breeze.

Holy Moley slowly sits up, putting his hand on his head in confusion. He is in pajamas. Holy then looks around to see who all is here.

Soul awakens from his sleep and puts his palm to the top of his head. "Holy hell, just how much did I have ta drink last night. "He looks around still groggy. "Were in the.." as he looks from left to right and the scenery comes into focus he realizes he is no longer home. He stands and stumbles a little tripping over a small figure. "Ow. what was that?" Soul looks back and sees a lalafell sitting in pajamas. "Well, that's the last time I try and down 10 Dragon's Venom back ta back. Hey you got any idea how we got here?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sat 05 Sept 2015.

  It was no sense of preparedness or paranoia that lead to Wawaiwai Lalawai having proper clothes on with pockets and everything when he awakes, merely that he was too tired to not flop face first onto the pillow practically as large as he was.

  Alas, grass and dirt is not as comforting on your face.  "...could have sworn I was paid up at the inn."  Wait, no, there is a tragic missing object. NO HAT OH MY GOD. Well that's okay he thought the sort of hats everyone expected him to wear looked stupid anyways.

  "Well, I don't owe anyone money.  The spirits of the forest haven't silently declared me not suitable for entry.  Maybe it was pirates?"  Probably not pirates.

Mits is wearing the summer event top and a summer skirt.  She yawns and stretches.  It slowly sinks in that this probably isn't the Dravanian Hinterlands where she crashed last night after getting repeatedly exploded by a raid boss.  Nice alternative, though.  She sits up and looks at the others with sleepy eyes.  "Wow.  Even the Echo blackouts don't leave me wondering where I am.  Pirates?  Dragon's Venom?  I've never known those to leave one unharmed in such a pretty place."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:19, Thu 03 Sept 2015.

Holy Moley looks at the others. That's one... two people he recognizes. And one he doesn't. "Hi, Mittens. Hi, WawaiIIII" he wobbles and falls over when Soul trips over him. "Oof!"

He then picks himself up and looks at the newcomer. "....hello there. My name is Holy Moley. This is Mittens Thunderstone and Wawaiwai Lalawai. Don't suppose anyone knows what brought us here?"

Soul nods to Holy "Names Soul, I'm aiming ta be the strongest fist in the world." He stands and offers his hand to help holy up. "Nice ta meet ya."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sat 05 Sept 2015.

  Wawai assumes soul means that metaphorically, because it's going to be harder to make his fist tougher than a giant monster shaped like a fist.

  "Please do not step on my friends." how straightforward.  He looks over to Holy and shrugs, "No idea.  Though shrugging and just getting on with whatever insanity is happening at the moment seems to be the leading way to deal with adventuring."

Mits smiles and waves.  She snickers and says to Soul, "Well you give a convincing impression of the Drunken Style with your talk of booze and stumbling around."

She puts her fists up and wobbles around, acting drunk.

"Yyyou dummo whad Imma do mekst, 'cuz I dummo wha Imma do mekst!" she slurs, punching at the air at random.

She headshakes to Holy's question and thumbs-ups to Wawai's point.  "Step one: Check magical map to verify that we're nowhere near the places we're familiar with."

With that, she tries to activate her magical map.

Holy takes the hand-up. He looks at Wawai with a nervous grin and says, "...ain't it the truth." then pulls out his own magic map.

Maps reveal this to be a place yet to be explored.

Holy Moley says, "Well my map is blank. Anyone else?"

A distant moan, like that of a large animal, can be heard coming from the opposite direction of the waterfall.

Laughing at the impression of himself Soul almost falls over again at the startling sound of the noise behind the waterfall. "He turns and takes a stance ready for anything. "Please be bunny wabit hic... Pwees hic.. be a hic..uny wabit." He takes out a flask drinks a long swig, the power of the smell seems strong enough to knock out a full grown behemoth, and retakes his stance wably as it may be.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:03, Sat 05 Sept 2015.

Wawai sighs, "Wildlife.  Worse than the Empire." Wawai, seriously!  It's only AS Bad as the Empire.

Mits shares her map. "Same, pretty much.  Looks like it'll fill in as we explore, at least."

She giggles at Soul's antics, glad she was able to make him laugh.  Mits thumbs-ups at Wawai's commentary. "Especially when much closer than the Empire.  Well I'd sooner start getting the lay of the land than tangle with whatever made that sound.  So my vote is for heading away from that sound."

She uses a magical whistle to summon her thunderhorse.  Yes, she was wearing a bathing suit glamour when she fought Ramuh for a pony...  but at least it wasn't a bikini!

Holy Moley looks in the direction of the sound and thinks on it before pulling out his own whistle. A unicorn fades into reality as it walks up from the ground under Holy Moley, picking up the lalafell even as it appears. "I'm with Mittens. Let's get going."

He looks towards Soul and Wawaiwai.

Soul fiddles with his pouch, "I..hic...Ims...hic not running, hic..i..hic.. tacti..hic..le retreat. Not run..hic..ing." He finally fumbles a while out and blows on it hard, but takes three tries to realize he was lowing in the wrong end. He turns red, "Well..hic.. " he looks to the rest of them. " did dat .. hic on purpase just ... hic wanted to see if itd work. Hic .. maybe get um to come out backerds...hic.." He blows the whistle and a large growl comes from a rock above them and a large Coeurl stands up top. "Vain..hic cmer...hic boy..hic tim ta go." The beast jumps down walks toward soul sniffs and raises a paw smacking Soul backward, and continues to smack him around till he rolls back out of the assault. "So you wana go do ya...hic les go en." The Coeurl just lets out a sound like a big sigh and walks to Soul who is now talking to a big rock and grabs him by the collar with his teeth and throws him up on his back. He then sniffs the air and looks at holy seeming to wait for instructions on were to go. Soul is sitting backwards on the beast points forward and yells "Charge...hic." and the Coeurl hits him over the head with its tail knocking him unconscious lets out a satisfied low grunt and waits for directions.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:31, Wed 09 Sept 2015.

Yup, that's a Coeurl mount with plenty of experience right there.

Wawaiwai meanwhile puts a perfectly normal chocobo to use, oh so that's where his Black Mage Hat went.  It looks better on the Chocobo, really.

"Whatever direction is away from the cave fastest sounds best."

Remember to always be yourself.  Unless you can be a unicorn.  https://cdn.society6.com/cdn/0...3033-tsrmw120_pm.jpg

Mits giggles at the amusing exchange between Soul and his mount.  "He passed out too fast for me to mention that the style is for pretending to be drunk.  Too much is still too much."

She asides to Holy, "Probably best to hold off on waking him for a bit."

Holy says, "My experience, Esuna only works on drunks if they are willing*."

He then looks at the Courel and gives it a nod of acknowledgement before heading to the nearest convenient path to get away from the noise they heard.

Once the group gets a certain distance, they can see the ruins of what was once a stone fortress built into the side of a rocky cliff. Holy leads the bunch inside. "Maybe we can hide out in here until we figure out what we're gonna do."

---

*If this were the game, it would bring up a pop-up menu "Holy Moley is using Esuna to cure you of drunkenness. Do you accept? Yes/No" Why? Because too many people had too much fun being drunk and others were curing drunkenness purely to be jerks. See also Everquest and how fun being drunk could be....

Soul."ZZZZZZZZZZZ!! Hic..I'm...hic gona be best."

Vain rolls his back and Soul falls to the ground. It then walk a little toward holy and with its claw draws the symbol for IDIOT! into the ground looks back to Soul, back to the drawing nods to Holy and vanishes.

Soul sits up and looks around feeling a little better after the Esuna from Holy. "Huh? Wait did I beat it already?" He seems completely clueless, but a little more sober than before.

(OOC The style is based on acting drunk, but the drunken fist is named so because the intake of alcohol allows the body to become more limber and numb it to most pains. The more you know!! :)

  "well, I suppose we should check if we are cut off from the aetherite network now that we are not avoiding ominous caves."

OOC: It's Video Games drunken style, which means boozing up gives you status buffs the same way raisins let me cast fireballs better.  It's science.

Mits is once again amused by Soul's silly antics.  More so by his mount criticizing him.  Mits dismounts and her horse vanishes.

"Welcome back to consciousness, Soul.  Glad to see you're looking improved.  Thanks, Holy."

She nods to Wawai.  Return spell activated, she hovers off the ground, the familiar teleportation magical sparkles and mini tornado below her.  She then quickly runs around in a circle to interrupt the spell.

"Looks like we're good to go on that end.  But I don't wunna return till I find an Aetherite to attune to in this region.  This could be the opportunity of a lifetime!  To be the first of our generation to explore this undiscovered country!  Totally worth shrugging off what I had planned for today!  You all will join me, won't you?"

She smiles hopefully at her companions.  As an afterthought, she checks her teleportation costs to gauge just how far she is from home.

Anyone checking their teleport costs will see it costs about 1,000 or so gil to teleport to Eorzean locations. Which potentially means; new continent!

Holy Moley looks over to Soul and says, "You were so drunk, you simply went unconscious before anyone even got to see what was making the sound. Vain carried you while following me here. Smart Courel. Anyway, we figured a fight wasn't what we needed while trying to figure things out. Such as where we are and whether we want to leave or explore. I'm for exploring."

He looks at Mittens, "You know me, Mitts. I won't pass up a rare chance like this, much less abandon you."

Holy then nods to Wawaiwai and checks his teleport status and confirms what was written in the narrative.

Soul nods in agreement, "New lands means new challenges, and new booze."

  <blue>"Well, I can hardly just leave you behind now can I?"<blue>  Yes, even the drunk guy.  Because Monks still have to worry about things more than the guy standing back chucking explosions.

Mits has been doing a lot of back row explosion chucking lately and can confirm that she tends to die less often than the melee types in raids.  But today she's sticking to paladin since heals and damage are covered by the other three in the team.

"Yippie!  So much more fun adventuring with friends!  Thanks for joining!.

"Oooh!  1,000 gil to teleport to Limsa from here.  We must be waaaay out!  Onward into the unknown!"

Poof!  Her trusty fat choco appears and she rides off to explore!

After some time traveling, the group finds what looks like a palace up ahead! It is shiny... and black. As if made of obsidian.

Holy Moley lets out a low whistle. "Pretty. I wonder if there is anyone inside..."

Just then, a guard calls out from the gate saying, "Halt! Who goes there!"

Holy introduces himself and the team (if Mittens doesn't beat him to the punch, that is).

Regardless, the guard permits them passage inside the gate.

Should the group proceed inside, they will notice various statues of people made of obsidian. Though oddly all over the place and in the form of people doing mundane tasks. The guard explains, "Everything here has been turning into obsidian. Can you help us?"

Soul whistles at the sight and looks to Holy "I just hit stuff, don't know much about this sorta thing so ill let you handle the talking for now. But if ya need something bashed just let me know."




(I will have mumble back up in a few days guys my big sister is getting married and I have not had the time between planning and getting ready to do much of anything. So ill have that back up and running soon and Ill try and keep up with this, but I will be out of town at the wedding the 20th-26th of October.)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Thu 08 Oct 2015.

  "This may sound crazy, but have you considered leaving the place everyong is turning to stone in? Even if you don't have ready housing elsewhere."

OOC: You hardly need to appologize for your family members having a wedding.  Though heads ups are always appreciated.

Mits is totally fine with Holy being the party face when it comes to non-combat encounters, so no interruptions were had over introductions.

"Reminds me of Haukke Manor's front lawn," she comments.

Mits nods to Wawai's question.  "Mittens is guessing the need for the gate is related to the monstrous roar we heard earlier, but it's still good to verify all options have been explored.  I'll be happy to help.  Is there an Aetherite crystal nearby?"

She chuckled at Soul's comment.  "Don't sell yourself short.  You punch things and sample booze.  For what it's worth, I'm betting you'll have opportunity to do plenty before the day is through."

The guard nods to Wawaiwai. "Yes. We considered it. And nobody who has stepped outside of these gates has survived longer than an hour. Sometimes, people who are sick of waiting for the end to come just exit the gates."

The guard looks at Mittens. "Oh sure. Aetheryte crystal over there." he points towards the center of the city.

Holymoley puts on a frown before saying, "I don't know if we can help you, but we will do what we can. Any idea what the cause is?"

The guard says, "It's a curse that was put on us by some powerful witch about three months ago. Every attempt to plead with her to undo the curse has been futile."

Holymoley asks, "Where is she?"

The guard answers, "She lives in a hut about a 30 minute walk due west of the gate."

Holymoley looks at the others. "...to the witch? Or did you guys wanna examine the city first?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Mon 19 Oct 2015.

"Town first we need to have provisions and most important.." Soul turns a flask he had strapped to his side upside down. "... I'm out a booze. cant fight without my booze." Soul looks to the Guard. "Got a good tavern anywhere in these parts?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Tue 20 Oct 2015.

  "Has the witch said why they did it at any point? Or what?"  Wawai bet's one person was mean to her so she's taking out the entire town as a 'lesson'.  Like turning dozens of staff members into furniture and dinnerware because a child was rude to a fairy.

"Sweet!  Thanks!"

Mits was about to sprint for the aetherite but the conversation wasn't over, so she stayed put.  "Powerful witch.  For as many powerful magic users as I've defeated, I must admit to having little experiences with witches.  Unless in these parts 'witch' is simply the term one uses for 'female mage.'  Like when people call a healer a 'white witch.'   Anything specific you can tell us about her, or whom to ask for such, would be most helpful.  Wawai's question, for example."

She nods to Holy and Soul.  "Attuning to the aetherite would make sense too."

Once the group is attuned to the aetheryte, the guard there directs them to the nearby tavern.

When the group enters the tavern, the people there look mostly like depressed people. There is a cheerful guy there. He looks like he's in his late teens. Has red hair and freckles. He's in the middle of trying to cheer up one of the hyper-depressed guys there.

The bartender looks extremely jaded. Neither depressed nor upset in any way. Just... there. He's your standard, overweight, balding guy with huge apron.

Holy Moley heads for the bartender to ask about the which. What do the rest of you do?

Soul follows Holy to the Bar, many bars back home have a secret stash for fighters like him one containing the potent stuff that costs a little more and might kill the average man if he drank to much at once. Soul walks a little in front of Holy and tosses a bag onto the bar (filled with gill from the sound) and shouts to the keep. "There is a list inside with enough gill for a nice tip, gimme the good stuff wont ya." Soul shows a small seal to the bartender. The seal has a bahamut in the center of a mug fighting a monk. Soul whispers back to Holy. "Bartenders across the world should recognize this, Ill explain later, but basically its a guild thing for those who use my style of fighting."

(if this is not ok let me know ill fix but thought it would be funny and not hurt anything.)

  Wawaiwai guess that's maybe a shrug at best for possible known motivarions, then.  Hopefully Bartender Man knows more than random guard on the matter.

  "Hopefully your style involves drinks that actually taste agreeable."  He's lived off raisins often enough in the past to appreciate, if not the finer culinary arts, at least pleasant dining experiences.

  Wawaiwai hopes the pleasant child doesn't turn to stone at a dramatic moment to remind them how serious the whole turning to stone curse is.  That would suck... For the kid.

When Mits notices the depressed people, she puts her hands together in prayer and glows with a holy light as her hair blows in a warm, magical wind.

"Greetings in the name of the Mother Crystal," she says, as soothingly as she can, "Take heart.  We, The Champions of Light, have arrived from distant lands and have agreed to face the witch that cursed your home.  To make that happen as smoothly as possible, we will be asking questions about what happened.  My thaumaturge friend here asked why the witch cursed the city, but the guard did not have an answer.  Does anyone know?"

She does her best to maintain a serene look, struggling to contain her silly nature.  But these people are probably in mourning for glassed family members, so she's worried one false move will make a grown man burst into tears.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:01, Tue 03 Nov 2015.

The bartender sighs. "Sorry, mister. Good stuff's all gone. We're remote and ever since the witch cursed this place, we've been unable to re-stock any imported stuff.... and the good stuff was imported. You'll have to settle for the best I can offer. But I'll give you a bit of information... another of your kind came through here just the other day. Young as that redhead over there. Female miqo'te, tuft-tail, loose brown back-length hair. Said she would look into things and went off to the witch's hut. Hasn't been back since. Probably died... like everyone else who tries going there."

When Mittens does the "Warrior of Light" thing and look all serene, Holy Moley looks at her surprised and befuddled. He had never seen her look serene before, except when sleeping. But he isn't about to mess up the moment when it is working so well.

And by well, we mean the discouraged people look hopeful. Well... most of them do. One just seems to look in her direction, get annoyed and go back to drinking.

The redhead teen looks at Mittens and then to Wawai. Then back to Mittens. "The witch cursed the city because the city found her sister guilty of a crime and put her to death."

Holymoley strokes his chin in thought. "So a standard revenge story. On the surface, at least. But as the saying goes; everyone has their price. Whether in coin, honor, or blood... here's hoping we can find hers."

Soul takes the few Items the bartender offers and heads to the closest empty table to take inventory. "So lets see, not counting my casual drink, I have 2 x Bahamut's Blood 2 x Chimera Tears.."Soul look to Holy  "You don't even wanna know how i got those" He returns to table "... 1 x Dragons Heart, and looks like I have a few Malboro Toxins. The Malboro Toxins will be good if we go against something that takes status effects, but the Dragons Heart is a boss only big shot drink. Trust me, you don't want me to drink that unless its an need be. The Chimera Tears give me frost on one fist and fire on the other and a nice speed boost that's close to lightning fast. As for the Bahamut Blood its a huge boost to toughness and strength, but they are all very rare and ill need to be stingy with them just in case." Soul looks to the selection from the bartender and sighs as they are only a few stat boost drinks though he will use them for now they will provide minor help compared to his usual assortment. "So Holy what's next, questioning or head straight into the lair of the big boss, hahaha i'm game for either?" Soul moves to flirt with the young Au Ra girl sitting at a near by table.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:00, Fri 06 Nov 2015.

  "...Yeah, that's stupid.  Like, even if it turned out she was falsely accused it's still stupid."

  He looks over to Mittens, and says "Find her remaining family members and make sure they get hit by the curse, forcing her to undo the unprofessional as all get out curst?"  Look, it's not all sunshine and flowers as a Black Mage even when you don't go around cackling maniacally.

Ah consumable item management.  Mittens does not miss the days when you'd miss half your shots with your valuable arrows against an experience grind monster unless you downed some expensive sushi first.  And then there's the utsusemi items you burn through when the tank inevitably loses aggro from the skillchain.  Better have big gobbie bags!  There's a lot about Eorea she prefers over Vana'diel.

Mits sends a quick tell to her sis, "You wouldn't happen to be hunting down a witch who cursed a city to randomly turn people into obsidian statues, would you?"

She nods to the redhead.  "That's helpful to know, thank you.  While my friends and I are powerful enough to have helped defeat a primal-eating super-weapon of the Garlean Empire, this enemy will likely require a great deal of finesse and trickery.  She's probably the only one who knows how to remove the curse as Wawai hinted at.  She may not survive a fight with us, and it would be time-consuming to get the answers we need if she takes them to her grave with her.

"Good idea, by the way, Wawai.  Here's hoping we can make that one work.

"So...  What else can you tell us about what happened?  What was the crime?  What evidence was there?  How did the witch find out what happened?"

The redhead looks at Wawai and says, "It gets stupider. The lady they sentenced to death? Convicted of witchcraft. Which she was innocent of. Her surviving sister, of course, turned out to be the witch."

Raichel answers Mittens' tell, "What?! How did you know?! Yes, I am-wait! Are you here?! I can tell you where the witch is hiding out. I... got caught and am a prisoner. She said stuff about "you don't have to get caught in this" and "this is between me and the citizens of what I now call Obsidian" usually followed by a cackle only a witch can pull off."

Holy listens to the story the redhead tells and then looks at Wawaiwai. "Assuming she even has any family left. And assuming they deserve being treated that way. And assuming we can even figure out how people get "hit" by the curse. All we know is that staying here means you eventually turn into obsidian. It's a good idea, but like Mittens said; it's making it work that will be the trick."

The redhead says, "Or treat! Zing!"

One of the guys in the bar groans.

Holy looks back to Soul. "Sounds to me like it's currently question time. We need to gather as much information as possible. But I also suggest the first thing we find out is what the shortest period of time was that someone turned into obsidian."

The redhead shrugs. "Not sure I know the answer to that one. Shortest I heard of was a baby turning into obsidian 2 weeks after being born."

Soul looks back to holy in the middle of his flirting "Sounds good ta me bosh." He staggers a little and the Girl laughs at him as he trips and lands perfectly in a char pretending it was on purpose. "Jush point me were ta go and ill break it."

"Don't you think you'r more of a hindrance in that state than a help?" asks the Au Ru.

"Ha yous just never seen me break stuff. Hic.. I may not be good at talking much but i can make most beasts turn and run just by yelling at um." Soul tilts the chair back looking proud and accomplished.

"That's cause your breath could melt dragon hide." She laughs and hangs around souls neck comforting the pride she had hurt.

  Wawaiwai lets out a proportionately big sigh like only a fantasy midget can.  "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if the ones actually directly responsible for the false charges already left.  Because a slow and unselective curse gives a guy feeling responsible all the time in the world to skip town."

Mits facepalms at hearing that the wrong person got executed.  Then frowns and clenches her fist upon hearing Raichel has been captured.

"That's my sister you just described.  Raichel is her name.  She just sent me a tell saying she's been captured.  I'll be asking her about dangers to expect."

She nods to Wawai.  "Starting to sound like even if we could hand over the real culprits on a silver platter complete with overwhelming proof that the rest of the city is completely innocent this witch would never willingly lift the curse.  I mean come on!  A newborn baby!"

To Soul she says, "I'm getting increasingly eager to unleash your destructive power on the witch's hideout.  See how she likes it to not be safe in her own home."

Mits info-dumps to Raichel everything that's happened so far, including the detail about the two week old baby.

Holy looks from Mittens to Wawai and says, "I agree. The only course of action is stopping the witch. But if we can find the ones responsible for the false accusation, we should. It will be one more piece of information we might be able to use against her."

Holy adds, "We have two weeks." he then looks at Mittens with a determined expression. "We'll get your sister back. But we won't do her any good unprepared. I advise spending at least one night gathering as much information as possible to be best prepared to defeat the witch. Who knows... maybe the last person we ask will know her weakness."

Holy glances over to see an Au Ra fawning over his drunk friend. He heads over to her. "What about you, ma'am? Do you know anything about the witch or how one might defeat her?"

(OOC: Feel free to insert a clue of your own making if you like, Nina, but remember that most citizens don't really know much beyond her being a witch, the sister of the wrongly accused lady, and that she lives out in the woods about an hour's walk from town. Can't be too easy.)

The girl looks to Holy and replies that she knows little, but that if we intend to enter the woods to be careful that the animals there have become much more aggressive of late.

Soul looks to mittens and laughs "Just point and say my friend and ill send it back to its maker."

Mits gets that seething angry smirk one gets when promised that the witch who's holding your sister prisoner is going to die.  "Thanks, Soul.  Looking forward to it!"

To Holy she says, "I'll let her know."

To Raichel she says, "Holy wants to gather info on the witch's weakness first before we come to your rescue.  I'm guessing from what you've said that you're not in danger of being killed in the next few days?"

  "Hopefully it involves fire, ice, electricity, or some combination of the three."  It's amazing how well fire worked on Ifrit.

  He sighs, in reaction to the lizard lady warning.  "Nature truly is the most frequent danger in the world."

Raichel responds with, "I can wait."

(Fast forwarding a bit)

After spending a day at the city, the group finds nothing more of value, information-wise. And soon, they set off towards the witch's hut.

It is very soon after that the girl's warning of angry wildlife becomes apparent as a group of 4 behemoths attack the group! "Thanks for holding them, Mittens." Holy says, expecting Mitts to tank.

Mits is used to Wawai's complaints about Nature so she doesn't argue.  Instead she compliment-teases with a smirk, "You would know, wouldn't you?  Being a very dangerous living thing yourself."

When attacked, Mits draws her sword and shield, reciting her shield oath, then blasts the enemy with blinding light and several celestial blades!

"Four behemoths!  All at once!  Wow!  It's rare to spot even one at a time back home.  Even the more common tame ones!"