Spooky Event

Tad Windrift had taken a job that brought him to Oak Town. While he was here, he'd heard about the Halloween event and since he'd completed his job, he decided to check out the event. Naturally, he'd been to events like these before, but he'd never been to Oak Town's so he was interested to see what kind of activities they would have. The people were clearly enthused, some even dressed up in outfits that were some parts scary and other parts overly revealing. He did look a little too hard at a couple of the bare chested men who were parading themselves about.

Tad perused the various vendors, selling things like wood carvings, farm grown vegetables, and even a variety of crystals. Tad wished he had packed a costume as he felt a little out of place without one. He was even tempted to stop in at some of the vendors and purchase some items to make himself a costume. Of course, none of the things he found at the event were quite up to Tad's fashionable sense so he didn't buy anything too extravagant. He did stop at a mask vendor and buy a simple black mask which covered his nose, upper portion of his cheeks and most of his forehead. It left his hair and mouth free, which Tad appreciated. After strapping the mask on, Tad continued perusing the event.

WC: 233

There was a unique sound that drew Tad's attention away from the vendors. He followed the music until he found a seating area outside with three musicians up front on a small stage playing music. Tad went ahead and had a seat near the back, so he could leave quickly if he got tired of listening to the music. Tad looked more closely at the group on stage: one had a saxophone pushed up to his lips as soft, deep tones came from the horn, another had a keyboard that she tapped with elegant fingers, and the last female stood in between the first two, singing with a delicate voice. All three of them were dressed as fruits, one orange, one apple, and the other a banana, clearly they'd opted for a more comical costume choice. Tad enjoyed the music, slow and moving. They finished their song, thanked the collected audience and left the stage while a single man with a guitar came up, taking their place.

He grabbed a stool and leaned against it, settling his guitar on his thighs. Tad was tempted to leave, but decided to wait as the musician plucked a few strings to ensure the instrument was properly tuned. He then began playing a song, quicker than the last group and more upbeat. Tad noticed himself moving with the music, as well as some of the other audience members nearby. The man wasn't the best singer, but he clearly enjoyed what he was doing and put his all into being the best performer he could be. While the lanky mage wasn't overly appreciative of the man's music, he was appreciative of the man's effort and talent: he clearly had put a lot of time into becoming a musician. Once the song ended, Tad slowly got up, turning to leave the music area. A woman standing by the exit handed him a skull token as he walked out.

Looking at the token, Tad thought Hmm, wonder what this is all about. Time for some recon.

Fiddling with the skull token in his pocket, Tad went back to the perusing the event. After a few minutes of wandering around, Tad decided to sign up for one of the events. The lanky mage found a game that he thought he'd excel at, as it was based on speed and reflexes. As a lightning mage, Tad's speed and reflexes were both boosted above the normal, so he was sure he'd be able to really show off when it was his turn. Naturally, he had to wait, as a couple others went before him and he was sure after watching them that this game would be a breeze.

WC: 448
Total: 448 + 233 = 681

The member 'Believer' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Tad grabbed the mallet and stepped up to the machine. His smile never left his face as he raised the mallet up to his chest, still peering over it into the field of zombie holes. The first zombie started coming out of the middle hole on the left side and Tad began to swing his mallet. Even before the zombie's head could fully escape the hole, it was hit back inside. The next one began coming up in the bottom right hole and once again the lightning mage hammered the undead back into the hole that it was coming out of. Tad had watched enough of the other contestants to know that the machine started slowly and sped up, so he was barely even trying at this point.

The third, fourth, and fifth zombies were quickly returned to the earth that they'd been attempting to climb out of when the machine began to make noticeably more noise than it had before. Tad knew the noise from the last person who played, the machine was speeding up and Tad would have to do the same if he wanted to continue his zombie hammering domination. The next zombie started coming out of the top left hole and Tad began to hammer it down, but as his hammer went downward on the zombie, his eyes noticed another zombie already trying to escape its hole at the top right of the zombie field.

Rather than lifting the mallet back to his chest as he had been doing, Tad slid the mallet towards the emerging zombie, barely lifting it up. As the zombie came up, Tad pushed the mallet back down onto the zombie's head. It didn't make as nice of a sound as his other thwacks had, but the game was entering the middle stages and the sounds weren't nearly as important to Tad as succeeding in demolishing the zombies that were trying to invade his space. For some reason, Tad had begun to see himself as the protector of the space outside of the holes, so he was doing his duty by smashing them back into the holes that they attempted to get out of.

The next round of zombies were rising from their holes at decent speeds, but the lightning mage had no trouble keeping up. A crowd began to form as spectators saw Tad's actions and began slowing and stopping to see what was going on. As more people stopped to watch, others wondered what was going on so they also began to move over to see what all the commotion was about. Tad, zoning out all the spectators and whispering, kept his mallet moving, slapping those undead back into their holes.

The machine once again began making a noticeably louder whirring noise as it seemingly was about to kick into a higher gear. This was the real test as Tad hadn't seen any other participants reach this stage of the game. He had no way to gauge how quickly these zombies would pop up except to experience it himself. With the back of the hand that was still holding the mallet, Tad wiped some sweat from his brow. Despite the movement, his eyes and focus never wavered from the holes and tops of zombies' heads that he could see within them.

While the zombies had come out in multiples during the last stage, they were always delayed by a moment. Now, Tad realized, two zombies on opposite sides of the field were coming up at the same time. A double whack followed, smacking both zombies back into their respective holes, but the zombies weren't going to give up so easily. A multitude of undead grey heads began to emerge and a torrent of mallet strikes followed. The noise coming from the crowd began to cease as they were now too enthralled in Tad's game to keep up their conversations. The machine's whirring noise and Tad's frequent mallet strikes were the only noises within that vicinity. Even Tad had to admit that the game's speed was likely too much for any regular person to keep up with, but he enjoyed the challenge and was seemingly rising to meet it.

The machine's noise got louder again; all the spectators had assumed the game was on its top speed so when it got louder once more, they, seemingly as a group with one mind, stepped back as if the machine might attack them at any moment. Tad was also surprised and his focus wavered slightly. Then, a plume of smoke erupted from the top of the machine and the whirring noise declined before eventually stopping altogether. Everyone watched, even Tad, wondering what would happen next.

"Ok, sir, well done," said the attendant as he stepped forward, holding a golden skull token. "This is for you and we're going to take a short break before resuming the event. Thank you everyone for your patience." Tad took the token and turned around, surprised by the crowd that had amassed behind him. A grin formed on the mage's face as he walked away.

"I could do that."

"Me too, if the machine weren't broken." The kids talking just made Tad's grin get a little bit bigger. The lanky summoner merged back into the crowds as he was no longer the center of attention. While the zombie smashing game had been manageable for Tad, he'd still worked up quite a thirst, so when he came to a place with punch, he got in line.

WC: 917
Total: 917 + 448 + 233 = 1598

The member 'Believer' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

The more Tad stood in line, the more he realized that this wasn't just a concession stand. People were getting their punch and complaining about blue flashes, others' were noticeably changed into the opposite gender, and some just seemed to enjoy their punch and wander off. Tad was already in line, so he didn't want to wuss out now. He wondered what would happen to him, already assuming that any magical reactions caused by drinking the punch would undoubtedly linger only for a short while before being reversed. It was all fun and games, though some of the 'victims' weren't nearly as understanding as Tad.

Tad continued watching as people got their punch and tasted it. He was actually pretty impressed when one 12 year old turned translucent after drinking the punch. "Their punch maker is pretty good," he mused aloud.

"You think that's good! That poor kid must be scared out of her mind." The response from the woman in front of him seemed inaccurate in Tad's mind. The girl was clearly enjoying himself, laughing as she made 'boo' noises.

"Very scared. She scoffed and turned back to facing the front of the line. Tad's eyes rolled of their own accord and he went back to watching the reactions. The translucent, glowing girl's mother seemed to have no reaction as the two wandered off together.

The next man turned to the crowd after consuming his punch and bared his elongated canine teeth. "I vant to suck your blood!" His proclamation was followed by laughter as he and his buds went off. Tad couldn't help but wonder how many different punches they had back there. He had, of course, been in line long enough to see the same potion multiple times, so Tad presumed they only had 5 or 6.

The woman in front of Tad got her punch and stepped to the side, seemingly needing an extra moment of courage before consuming it. She turned around, smiling as apparently nothing had happened to her. As she took a step away from the booth, all of her hair just fell off her head. Now completely bald, the woman's hands shot to her head in order to feel the lack of hair.

Tad stepped forward and got his cup of punch, taking a sip right away. He noticed it was sweet, but didn't notice any odd changes. He returned the cup and a skull token slid across the counter to him.

"By the way, what do I do with these?"

"If you get three, you can turn them in for an reward."

"Cool, thanks," Tad said and walked by the bald lady who was still crying about her loss of hair.

WC: 452
Total: 452 + 917 + 448 + 233 = 2050