First Year Entrance

Boat: Black Bear

moderation action: Keeping balance.

Can't Bear the Weight

Place: Great Lake
Date: September 1st, 2025
Time: Evening

Avery was calm in the face of the rolling waves; he'd more or less summoned the squid after all, so he was expecting the animal to come rolling up to meet them. Admittedly, he hadn't expected it to be so chaotic with students actually falling in the water left and right. Once the squid was gone, the now rather elderly caretaker gently stood up and lifted the students who had fallen into the water with a repeated wave of his hand, starting with one of the girls in his own boat.

Pyce Rotanski was the first to fall in the water. It seemed that clutching their bear instead of the boat did not exactly do them any favors. As the squid rolled underneath the last boat, Tavi wavered and tripped, but twisted herself in just the right way so that she landed inside the boat. This maneuver, along with a successful assist from Shelowyn, landed both girls securely in the boat as it was lifted and placed back in the water. Pyce was not so lucky as the upward bounce of the boat sent them and their bear rolling out of the boat, down the squid's side, and directly into the water.

Next, the Sun Bear boat had its own casualty, as Roseline Everhart was the next to go down, losing her grip on her seat as the boat swayed sideways and dumped her into the water. Her neighbors in the black boat, namely Jaxon Grayson and Brutus Palmer, did a much better job of remaining in their seats.

As did all of those in the Panda Bear boat ahead of her who followed Archibald's excellent advice and benefitted from Janet's stellar lean to keep the boat more upright. Even Tatiana Contraire maintained her seat well enough to find her hair tie in all the chaos.

The Polar Bear boat and Avery's own lead boat were not as lucky, each depositing one more student into the murky, black waters. Esme Hestridge and Verity Engels were the last to end up in the waters, but the first to be saved by the enigmatic caretaker. Thankfully, every student that fell into the water was able to be lifted and deposited right back into their boat, and for a moment, it was smooth sailing one more.

Peace never does last at Hogwarts, though, no matter how carefully planned an adventure the staff takes the children on.

Silaswas the first to notice something was amiss. In his actively looking around during the chaos of the squid's visit, he was able to catch that in the wake of the giant squid, all other creatures had fled, leaving the night quiet once again, except for one, glaring distraction. The bear that he had been constantly prodding for the entire boat right seemed to become increasingly, almost violently agitated, writhing in its glued position like it was trying to escape hell itself. One by one, that ever-growing agitation of the other bears on the other boats reached a fervor to match Silas' polar bear. They all twisted and sputtered and seized, just as desperate to escape their trap as the polar bear was.

Then, one by one, starting with Silas' over-stimulated bear and then sweeping from the front to the back, the bears began to multiply at rapid rates without anyone touching them. A waterfall of multiplicated bears came pouring into every boat, the speed of the onslaught increasing every moment.

Avery's spell to duplicate and produce the bears had gone horribly wrong.

Within seconds, the boat filled with tens, the hundreds, of duplicate bears, beary-ing and overwhelming the first years in each with their own personal plushie sea. Some of the boats began to sink at the staggering weight of the new passengers, while others saw the bears flinging themselves into the water as if to try and keep the boat afloat themselves, despite more of their fellows following as they jumped out.

Avery's boat and every boat on the left side of their little tour ([Cantebrian, Polar, Black, Kodiak]) slowly started to sink under the weight of the bears, with the Polar Bear boat sinking the fastest due to already being filled with bears before the rapid duplication began.

What were the students to do now? What was the elderly caretaker going to do to fix his mess? Hopefully, something quick before every student that was dry ended up in the water as well.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

BOATS

Each boat will contain 5 students, except for the lead boat which will contain 5 students and Mr. Finch.
Please note which boat you are joining in your first post.
Do not join already full boats.
IC all boats are full, even if they are not full OOC.
More boats (and bear types) will be added if necessary.
Students joining after the boats are already moving may act as if they have been there the whole time and have gone through already passed events.
Boat formation: Lead(-===-)Last

1. Cantabrian Brown Bear - Lead boat - Avery Phineas Finch, @Lucille Rosenhart, @Verity Engels, @Leo Noxley, @Corinna Starling, @Livia Machavariani 5/5 - FULL
2. Polar Bear - @Aaron Stone, @Angelo Angelov, @Silas Norwood, @Esme Hestridge, @Aislin Darragh 5/5 - FULL
3.Panda Bear - @Janet Flannel Roll Banana Karen, @Tatiana Contraire, @Archibald Learmonth, @Emily Harris, @Ally Craig 5/5 - FULL
4. Black Bear - @Róis O'Rourke, @Milica Vranekova, @Matisse Ellison, @Jaxon Grayson, @ Brutus Palmer 5/5 - FULL
5. Sun Bear - @Rosaline Everhart, @Frederick Buckley, @Maisie Fenwick Rose Williams , @Seraphina Vale , @Nora Doyle 5/5 - FULL
6. Sloth Bear - 0/5
7. Kodiak Bear - 0/5
8. Spectacled Bear - Last Boat - @Harold Franklin, @Tavi Honey, @Shelowyn Bloomthorn, @Pyce Rotanski, @Katelyn Magnolia 5/5 - FULL

Each boat has a plush likeness of its bear sitting on the bow of the boat, leading the way. To clarify, the bear is attached to the front of the boat and does not move from that place.

Note: dNPCs are not allowed to participate in staff moderated threads. If you have a dNPC in first year (a cousin, a twin, a stepsibling, childhood friend, etc) you may roleplay that they joined the American Brown Bear boat and got a plush, but that is where they must be left.

OOC NOTES:

Welcome first years!

- This thread is open to all 2025-2026 first years as an introduction to open, moderated threads.
- I will be posting a moderation post every 2-ish weeks to moderate actions and progress the story. Please do not write beyond what is written in each mod post! We don't want to get ahead of ourselves and miss the fun.
- If you would like to perform a moderated action, please state your action somewhere clearly in your post, preferably at the beginning or the end. Do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or any other results of your action until the moderation post has been made and I have stated whether you were successful or not.
If you'd like to perform a moderated action, please state the action clearly in your post. You may only perform spells if they are indexed in your trunk. And do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or results to your moderated action until I have clearly stated whether you were successful or not. Only one moderated action per part/moderation post.

Moderation is over. You may still join the thread, interact with your boatmates, and roleplay as if you had been there all along, but I will no longer be doing action rolls.

Hope you had fun!

- All RPG rules apply. This means a word count minimum of 200 of your own words, excluding quotes from other's posts, occ chat, and coding. Any post under 200 words will be deleted after a warning owl is sent.
---- If you are having trouble meeting word count, try to be descriptive: How is your character feeling? Why did you pick the boat you picked? What do you think of those already in the boat? What do you think of the scenery?
----You do not need to be indexed to join this thread. You do need to be indexed to perform moderated actions.
- If you have any questions at all or concerns, don't hesitate to owl me. My window is always open.

Some helpful tips for large, open, moderated threads
- Tag the people you're interacting with (in this case, those in your boat) by putting each name in mention brackets like this:

Code: Select all

[mention]Full Name[/mention],[mention]Full Name[/mention], etc

- Feel free to read every single post or only the ones that have to do with your character.

Note: Everyone may notice that Avery doesn't quite look the age that he started this trip as, it's a bit too noticeable to go unnoticed.

Rolls:

Reducio

Cantebrian Boat
Verity Engels - Holding onto her seat - Strength: 2 ([d20: 8, 17] + 2 = 10) 10 < 13 → Fail

Polar Boat
Silas Norwood - General Observation - Wisdom: 5 ([d20: 6] + 5 = 11) 11 > 10 → Success
Esme Hestridge - Holding onto the boat - Strength: 2 ([d20: 9] + 2 = 11) 11 < 13 → Fail

Panda Boat
Archibald Learmonth - Telling everyone to grip the boat and stay sat. (If success, boat gets advantage.) - Wisdom: 5 ([d20: 15] + 5 = 20) 20 > 10 → Success
Tatiana Contaire - Find her hair tie. - Wisdom: 6 ([d20: 12, 12] + 6 = 18) 18 > 15 → Success
Janet Flannel Roll Banana Karen - Holding on and leaning to offset the tilt - Strength: 1 ([d20: 14, 14] + 1 = 15) 15 > 10 → Success

Black Boat
Matisse Ellison - Try not to fall (Strength: 13) (12) - No stats
Jaxon Grayson - Cling to the boat - Strength: 5 ([d20: 11] + 5 = 16) 16 > 13 → Success
Brutus Palmer - Keeping Balance - Strength: 10 ([d20: 8] + 10 = 18) 18 > 13 → Success

Sun Boat
Roseline Everhart - Holding onto her seat - Strength: 5 ([d20: 2] + 5 = 7) 7 < 13 → Fail

Spectacled Boat
Pyce Rotanski - Bracing himself against the boat - Strength: 4 ([d20: 7, 6 ] + 4 = 10) 10 < 13 → Fail
Shelowyn Bloomthorn - Saving Tavi and herself - Strength: 4 ([d20: 10, 14] + 4 = 14) 14 > 13 → Success
Tavi Honey - Spectacled Boat - Falling in the boat - Wisdom: 3 ([d20: 17, 15 ] + 3 = 18) 18 > 13 → Success

Savery
Save the children: Wisdom: 15
Avery Wisdom: 10

Verity: ([d20: 15 ] + 10 = 25) 25 > 15 → Success
Esme: ([d20: 18 ] + 10 = 25) 28 > 15 → Success
Roseline: ([d20: 17 ] + 10 = 25) 27 > 15 → Success
Pyce: ([d20: 17 ] + 10 = 25) 27 > 15 → Success

Sinking Ships
50 and under sinks

Cantebrian: 16 → Sink
Polar: 44 → Sink
Panda: 65 → Success
Black: 3 → Sink
Sloth: 90 → Success
Kodiak: 47 → Sink
Spectacled: 69 → Success

Note: If you see any mistakes in the rolls, defintely let me know.

Interacting with @Avery Phineas Finch, @Lucille Rosenhart, @Leo Noxley, @Corinna Starling, & @Livia Machavariani on the Cantabrian Brown Bear

Holding on the boat did, quite frankly, nothing to help Vera not go overboard. Perhaps she should've tried the side of the boat instead of her seat, but she doubted it would've actually helped her.

It was only a few seconds of being submerged before the caretaker levitated her out of the water and back into the boat. Being drenched wasn't anything new, considering her history in horse riding, but the fact that they were over a lake with a giant squid(?) nearby did not ease the tension in her shoulders. In fact, it made it worse, because now her clothes were sticking to her skin.

"Bloody hell," she breathed out as she peeled her robe just enough to separate it from her skin. The water in her shoes made awful squelching sounds as she moved around. The first thing she was going to have to ask was how laundry worked in the school; if she let these clothes sit for too long, they were going to smell and she was not having that.

Concern over her wet clothes was quickly overshadowed by the excessive amounts of teddy bears on the boat. Not a second later, the water level around the boat rose.

Vera huffed. "My god." Then, with an outstretched arm, she took a bear by their ears and threw them overboard. Hogwarts' event planning and managing was among the worst she'd ever seen.

Action: throwing only a few bears overboard (mostly sitting there like a wet cat; very uncomfortable)

Time seemed to slow for Pyce as they fell into the lake. It resumed the second they hit the freezing cold water. Despite not having the good sense to hold onto the boat earlier, Pyce did have the sense to take a gulp of air before their head slipped under the water.

It was a very brief moment that Pyce spent in the unforgiving lake, however. The caretaker, who Pyce was too cold to remember his name, had magicked them out and back onto the boat.

Pyce shivered, now thoroughly drenched. Their hair stuck to their face, and considering their glasses were still on their equally wet bear, they couldn't see anything. With shaking hands, Pyce returned their glasses to their face, wiping off the water that remained with their sleeve. Their still wet sleeve. Pyce sighed and surrendered to the fact that their glasses were going to be smudged now.

Of course, Pyce was not granted much time to lament their situation, when the boat suddenly began filling up with plush bears. They looked around at their other boatmates, getting a somewhat better look at them all, considering Pyce was actually wearing their glasses now. They supposed they should probably help getting the bears out of the boat. Were the stuffed toys really heavy enough to sink them? They must be, considering some of the other boats were fairing far more poorly.

Pyce kept a grip on their bear, but started flinging the new ones out. With luck, this boat wouldn't suffer the same fate befalling the other boats.

Action: Throwing bears overboard

Bearly Bearable

Place: Great Lake
Date: September 1st, 2025
Time: Evening

There was a burst of mildly organized chaos as many students, namely Jaxon Grayson, Verity Engels, and Pyce Rotanski, started flinging bears out of their boats. Verity being a little less enthusiastic about the task than others as she pouted like a drowned cat in the sea of soft bears. Similarly, the bears did what they could to assist by flinging themself out of their boats and into the water with whatever logic charmed stuffed animals possessed.

The caretaker was completely unruffled on the outside, it wouldn't do to panic as basically the only adult in front of some forty or so eleven year olds, but inside, his brain racked with solutions and reasons why this might have happened. The squid was a semi-intentional happenstance. He had wanted to children to see the relatively friendly creature, SEE, not interact, but hadn't realized that it would come up the row of boats the way it did and dislodge the students into the water.

This was a result of his own magic as he had charmed the bears to duplicate in the first place. Regardless, the general solution was simple. He'd deal with the malfunction of the charm later.

Avery lifted a hand that was, at this point, barely skin and bones. In the eve of this journey, the caretaker probably more matched some of the students expectations of the staff that worked at Hogwarts. A wizened old man. His curly, dark green hair had gone a pale white, still with that green tinge and he had grown a rather impressive, if he could say so himself, matching beard that reached to his chest in gentle waves. The youthful skin that covered his face a mere hour or less ago was cracked and leathery, as if he'd spent many years working in the sun.

If and when the children saw him again, the caretaker would have the appearance he donned about halfway through their trip. That of a youthful, jubilant man in the early twenties. Was it some magic of Avery's the youth had yet learn about or did the lake do something to the caretaker across their trip that was washed away in the morning? Inquiring minds are always welcome to ask in the halls of Hogwarts. They were here to learn after all.

With a repeated flick of his hand, one by one, each of the head bears vanished, then, in a wave, the bears in the boats and the water vanished as well, and finally, the water in the boats sifted itself out "all on it's own." The bears that were being clutched by children remained, though, still as statues and further uncharmed and they would remain that way all the days of their lives. A memento of their first day at Hogwarts.

Avery stood carefully in his now unsinking boat as it continued the last feet of it's course across the lake unincumbered. The caretaker's voice rang clear, young, and amplified over the crowd of children in their boats. I'm very sorry, children. I did tell you that there were adventures to be had here. He stated as the rescued boats floated gently into a clearly refurbished boathouse and docked without further incident, much like an amusement park rollercoaster. Rest assured, you will be safe here, if not unscathed. Magic is a testy thing for even the most skilled in it and sometimes things go awry in unintended ways. Come with me, and we shall enjoy the sorting and our feast.

During the sinking, the mongoose had returned to Avery's shoulders and it continued to cling there as the wizened old man stepped out of his boat with a lot more spring in his step than seemed capable for a man that appeared to be his age and began to help the children out of the boats. As each child passed him, he waved his hand and sent a gust of air to dry their clothes, then the caretaker gestured for the group to head up a set of stairs that climbed around the side of the majestic castle. Once the last child was ashore and accounted for, the spry old man followed them up and into the Great Hall.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

BOATS

Each boat will contain 5 students, except for the lead boat which will contain 5 students and Mr. Finch.
Please note which boat you are joining in your first post.
Do not join already full boats.
IC all boats are full, even if they are not full OOC.
More boats (and bear types) will be added if necessary.
Students joining after the boats are already moving may act as if they have been there the whole time and have gone through already passed events.
Boat formation: Lead(-===-)Last

1. Cantabrian Brown Bear - Lead boat - Avery Phineas Finch, @Lucille Rosenhart, @Verity Engels, @Leo Noxley, @Corinna Starling, @Livia Machavariani 5/5 - FULL
2. Polar Bear - @Aaron Stone, @Angelo Angelov, @Silas Norwood, @Esme Hestridge, @Aislin Darragh 5/5 - FULL
3.Panda Bear - @Janet Flannel Roll Banana Karen, @Tatiana Contraire, @Archibald Learmonth, @Emily Harris, @Ally Craig 5/5 - FULL
4. Black Bear - @Róis O'Rourke, @Milica Vranekova, @Matisse Ellison, @Jaxon Grayson, @ Brutus Palmer 5/5 - FULL
5. Sun Bear - @Rosaline Everhart, @Frederick Buckley, @Maisie Fenwick Rose Williams , @Seraphina Vale , @Nora Doyle 5/5 - FULL
6. Sloth Bear - 0/5
7. Kodiak Bear - 0/5
8. Spectacled Bear - Last Boat - @Harold Franklin, @Tavi Honey, @Shelowyn Bloomthorn, @Pyce Rotanski, @Katelyn Magnolia 5/5 - FULL

Each boat has a plush likeness of its bear sitting on the bow of the boat, leading the way. To clarify, the bear is attached to the front of the boat and does not move from that place.

Note: dNPCs are not allowed to participate in staff moderated threads. If you have a dNPC in first year (a cousin, a twin, a stepsibling, childhood friend, etc) you may roleplay that they joined the American Brown Bear boat and got a plush, but that is where they must be left.

OOC NOTES:

Welcome first years!

- This thread is open to all 2025-2026 first years as an introduction to open, moderated threads.
- I will be posting a moderation post every 2-ish weeks to moderate actions and progress the story. Please do not write beyond what is written in each mod post! We don't want to get ahead of ourselves and miss the fun.
- If you would like to perform a moderated action, please state your action somewhere clearly in your post, preferably at the beginning or the end. Do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or any other results of your action until the moderation post has been made and I have stated whether you were successful or not.
If you'd like to perform a moderated action, please state the action clearly in your post. You may only perform spells if they are indexed in your trunk. And do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or results to your moderated action until I have clearly stated whether you were successful or not. Only one moderated action per part/moderation post.

Moderation is over. You may still join the thread, interact with your boatmates, and roleplay as if you had been there all along, but I will no longer be doing action rolls.

Hope you had fun!

- All RPG rules apply. This means a word count minimum of 200 of your own words, excluding quotes from other's posts, occ chat, and coding. Any post under 200 words will be deleted after a warning owl is sent.
---- If you are having trouble meeting word count, try to be descriptive: How is your character feeling? Why did you pick the boat you picked? What do you think of those already in the boat? What do you think of the scenery?
----You do not need to be indexed to join this thread. You do need to be indexed to perform moderated actions.
- If you have any questions at all or concerns, don't hesitate to owl me. My window is always open.

Some helpful tips for large, open, moderated threads
- Tag the people you're interacting with (in this case, those in your boat) by putting each name in mention brackets like this:

Code: Select all

[mention]Full Name[/mention],[mention]Full Name[/mention], etc

- Feel free to read every single post or only the ones that have to do with your character.

Note: Everyone may notice that Avery doesn't quite look the age that he started this trip as, it's a bit too noticeable to go unnoticed.

Rolls:

Reducio

Throwing Bears
Jaxon Gayson - Throwing bears overboard - Strength: 5 ([d20: 12 ] + 5 = ) 17 > 5 → Success
Verity Engels - Throwing (a few) bears overboard - Strength: 2 ([d20: 5 ] + 2 = ) 7 > 5 → Success
Pyce Rotanski - Throwing bears overboard - Strength: 4 ([d20: 8] + 4 = ) 12 > 5 → Success
Note: If you see any mistakes in the rolls, definitely let me know.

@Tatiana Contraire @Janet Flannel Roll Banana Karen @Emily Harris @Ally Craig

› The subtle disturbance of the lake was nothing compared to what happened next. The first glimpse of what horrors magic could produce. And they haven't even touched the school grounds yet. Or any ground, to be fair.

› Suddenly, the bears that served as plushie figurines of each boat, started to duplicate uncontrollably. Cursed, no less. Being in the open air seemed not dangerous for this, but they were on a boat, which meant there was limited space. Before Archibald realised he could've started to throw the cursed bears out of the boat, it filled the whole empty space. The weight of them was too much for the boat and it started to sink.

› Sinking was nothing unusual, he had been on sinking boats not even once. The problem was that the bears were multiplying with such speed that the crowd started to swallow the people inside the boat. So in a couple of seconds, he was stuck under a pile of plushies trying to inhale. At the same time he felt his knees already in the water, which was of temperature far from some summer sea holiday.

› He made a deeper inhale, prepared to dive both in the water and in the bears, when the disaster ended as quickly as it started. The boat siphoned the water out by itself and Archibald, panting, looked at everyone in the boat, while listening to the caretaker apologising for the near-death experience. The only way to determine they had just survived anything was that they were soaking wet.

› As they approached the boathouse, the children started to get out — some looked frightened, some looked amused by the whole thing. Archibald carefully got out, forgetting to be a gentleman and help the girls out — blame the caretaker and the magnificient display of magic on their first day. Just as they were passing, he felt a sudden gust of warm air, and realised that he was not wet anymore, just as he proceeded to wherever they were being taken.

Action: Held on for dear life and now entering the castle, and leaving the thread.