Event Blossom Ball- Trial of Hades

English = 5D4A64 | Russian = 4E7A27

Irina had moved on to the next trial and she already sensed a huge difference in them. This one was so dark that she could barely see her hands in front of her. It worried her a little bit but she was sure it had to do with the trial at hand. She wasn’t scared though, if anything the darkness and vibe of the trial made her feel more alive and ready for adventure. As she walked forward to figure out what the trial was about, she almost tripped over something hard.

Then came the instructions, she was to not use any light at all which didn’t come as too much of a shock. They had made it dark for a reason. All Irina needed to do was navigate the maze and answer the questions. It sounded easy enough but she knew better than to assume that it would be easy. Somehow she found her way to the entrance of the maze and started into it.

The first question she encountered was, What ingredients does it take to make an Ageing Potion? Irina was a bit confused at first but decided to think about it before guessing. Ok, ok an ageing potion. I think we must have learned about it in potions but what ingredients were in it. I know one of them is bananas because of how outlandish it was and I think another must have been an orange snake. What else could there be though??? Oh wait! It had Newt spleens in it and there was a green leaf too! I think that must be it but I really am not sure. Well here goes! ”The ingredients in an Ageing Potion are Newt spleens, bananas, an orange snake, and a green leaf”

As she got father in the maze her gut feeling kept going off, she wasn’t scared but it did make her a little nervous that something might happen. Soon she got to the second question. It was asking what a Blemish Blitzer did and Irina knew this one off the top of her head. She had used one before in the past and it was super helpful to her. ”A Blemish Blitzer treats acne!” she said feeling confident her answer.

Later in the maze, Irina reached the final question. It was, What is a Bundimum? A Bundimum, wasn’t that a type of creature we studied? It’s was green right? Oooh I remember that once when exploring at Koldovstoretz I saw one on an old building. Okay I think I can answer this now, let’s do it. ”A Bundimum is a greenish many-eyed magical creature that feeds on dirt and smells like decay.” That happened to be the last question in the pitch black maze and Irina was still hoping to succeed in this trial.

WC: 468

For Moderation:

Reducio

Action: Doing the Trial
Stats: STA: 8 | EVA: 8 | STR: 7 | WIS: 9 | ARCP: 6 | ACC: 7
Heath points: 800/800
Abilities: Sixth Sense, Fearless, and Calming Presence
Effect: +2 to their awareness rolls. If a player attempts to enter a thread that you are already in, there is a 25% chance that you automatically detect them on entry.
Effect: Fear effects such as a dhmpir's aura, the ability terrible presence, a lycanothrope's intimidation or certain charms, potions and jinxes that would normally cause a fear effect do not work on you as you are immune to them.
Effect: An aura of calm. Allies (defined at the START of an instance regardless of later betrayal) gain a 10% chance to auto-hit their chosen target. This does not stack.

Trials tracker: [Orpheus] [Hades] [Hecate] [Persephone] [Hermes] [Apollo]

Health
600/600
Stats
◇Sta: 6 ◇ Eva: 7 ◇ Str: 10
◇ Wis: 3 ◇ AP: 4 ◇ Acc: 10
Abilities
Martial Artist
Terrible Presence

♣

----------𝐴𝑛𝑗𝑎 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑗𝑎----------

♣

--𝐻𝐸𝑋 𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑠-- #5D6D64

𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 [font=Times New Roman]hades • hecate • orpheus • hermes • persephone • apollo[/font]

o𝑢𝑡𝑓𝑖𝑡: [font=Times New Roman]gown • shoes • hair

[font=Times New Roman]Entering the trials had been something of a whim. Anja had come early enough that she could probably make it through all the trials before the actual ball began. This trial started off as pitch black. That was fine though. Anja liked the dark — the dark was safer than the light for her. She could sneak around more easily and she could weave lies with darkness. It didn't matter that she couldn't see past her nose. The ground seemed relatively level, so her shoes didn't present much of a problem, and she continued quickly through what seemed like maze. Anja kept her hand on a wall, and only once did she hit a dead end.

A question rang out into the darkness, an assault on her quiet-accustomed ears. She was not sure where the question came from, or how. It wasn't quite a voice, and it wasn't quite a sound. What ingredients does it take to make an Ageing Potion? it hissed out.

Anja thought for a moment. Hours of extra research in the library had done some good — she said calmly, "Newt spleens, bananas, an orange snake, and a green leaf."

She continued through the maze, until another question called out into the blackness. What does a Blemish Blitzer do? Anja hadn't heard of this one before, but it was pretty clear. "Well, I suppose it cures blemishes. Most likely acne." A little snigger. This Blemish Blitzer would be very useful at Hogwarts.

The next time the question was called, she knew it was the last. Things came in threes, and she was sure this trial would be no different. What is a Bundimun? the sound asked. A Bundimun. Strange. Anja wracked her brains, and the answer came to her. She called out, "A Bundimun looks like a patch of green-yellow fungus when still, and it feeds on dirt. It can destroy a whole house, and it is signified by a stench of decay." She thought for a second. "And, it's a pest," she added, just to be safe.

Reducio

Action
Completing Trial of Hades.
Stats and Abilities
's Grace
Stam 4 | Evas 4 | Stren 3 | Wisd 8 | Arc power 8 | Acc 8

Trial links to come!

[/font]

At first glance, the mention of an ordinary maze would come as no surprise to Elena. It was something she'd been honestly expecting given the trials that they would have to navigate something of the sort out of all the six challenges that they were supposed to complete. However, what the brunette had not been expecting that they would be thrown into it void of any light source and surrounded by complete blackness. She couldn't even tell which way was forward or back, they would just have to feel their way through and the urge to just pull out her wand to cast an Lumos was perhaps too strong as her hand twitched. No, she couldn't do it. It was just darkness, as far as she knew, no creepy monsters or dementors were lurking about in the shadows waiting to jump upon the first student that had the unforunate fate of happening upon them.

Using her sense of touch and feel, the Gryffindor felt her way through the maze and at certain points, she'd find herself bumping up against a wall or stumbling over something that would cause her mild frustration but it was nevertheless not too much of an hindrance. As Elena progressed, the first question presented itself before her and Elena had to pause to think about that one for a moment. "Ingredients..Ageing Potion.." She muttered thinking to herself. It wasn't a potion that they had gone over in Professor Barlow's class yet but Elena had defintely skimmed over it in the textbooks as the answers came tumbling into her head as if it had been there all along. She did not want to know what happened if you got anything wrong especially in this pitch black room. "Uh, let's see.. you start with newt spleens..bananas.." She trailed off trying to recall the remainder before concluding. "An green leaf and an orange snake!"

Where on Merlin someone was going to get an orange snake from, Elean did not know nor was it her problem. Perhaps the Amazon rainforest, the thing tended to have a lot of bright colors that indicated danger. Snake and orange fell into that category for her as she extended her hand slowly shuffling along before the second question greeted her, this one perhaps simpler than the potion question given the fact it wasn't asking her for a recipe. "Treats acne on the face and body." She replied confidenly, that one springing to mind almost instantly. She was getting an understanding of this trend with potion questions and wondered what the last one would be. The last one had to be the hardest, that was how it went usually, wasn't it?

Mentally counting the seconds in her head as she walked face-first into a hard portion of the wall that caused her to utter a few select profanites. "Can't even use light, preposterous." Elena muttered under her breath shaking her head before righting her direction and continuing on. It took a while, perhaps more time than the last two questions but finally, the grand finale of them all appeared before her as she struggled to pronounce the word. How did you even say that? Wizards sure did come up with strange monikers for their things as the answer slipped out of her mouth. "It's a pest, it feeds on dirt and it can destroy houses too if given the chance. They smell really bad which is how you know if you have an infestion of the blasted things." Thankfully, Elena herself had never had to deal with an Bundimun colony given the Jangleton estate was a relatively clean place. Sure, you had doxies every now and then but never any thing that bad for sure.

Continuing forward, her grandparents voices still fresh in her mind, Adlai was greeted with nothing but darkness and questions she needed to answer. Which was great, totally fine, in fact amazing for those who enjoyed the dark and pop quizzes, unfortunately Adlai was not one of those people and she highly doubted anyone was.

With a heavy sigh she hiked up the skirt of her dress once again and began navigating the maze to the best of her near nearsightedness and mulled over the possible answers for the first question.What ingredients does it take to make an Ageing Potion?

Now was she wished she wasn't such a space cadet during class. Who would even want an ageing potion anyway? - she wondered. "Wasn't it something to do with the kidney of a lizard? No, no that's not right...do lizards even have kidneys?"

"Come on Adlai, what on earth do you remember." Looking down at her dress she pondered for a moment. "Oh! Green leaf! That was one of them...and then something to do with fruit...oranges? no, bananas! Green leaf, bananas, orange snake and...um...newt spleen!"

After a few minutes of aimless wondering she began to think of the next question.
"What does a Blemish Blitzer (most likely) do?" Surprisingly even Adlai could answer this one with somewhat ease, "A Blemish Blitzer treats blemishes or acne."

Once again she wandered aimlessly, cogitating on the third question.
"What is a Bundimum?" After first she suggested that it could possibly be a bundle of something, but swiftly threw that idea out of the window when she noticed that the word was being used in singular terms. "Bundimum, Bundimum, Bundimum." she repeated to herself as she turned corners and redirected herself when finding dead ends before finally coming to a conclusion. "A pest! It's a dirt eating pest that smells really bad! Like termites they can demolish your home if not removed!"

INTERACTING WITH: @Marshal Mozor

MENTIONING: n/a

A maze. Lovely. Actually, Evelynn quite liked mazes. Their twists and turns and unexpected dead ends had a way of creating a sense of dissociation from reality, trapping an individual in an alternative dimension and providing a very real fear of being forever lost and never to see the light of day again unless the puzzle could be sorted. It was only ever a fragment of truth, however. No maze was ever without an exit. Not unless the walls could shift or the ground could fall away. There were tricks and wily ways to overcome the seemingly nonsensical.

But that was in the daylight. When the only enemy to be defeated was the maze itself.

Evelynn was no novice to mazes. Back home, corn mazes were very common. Maizes as her mother would like to joke, a crooked and annoyingly wide grin plastered across her face at the pun. It was always met with a roll of the eyes. The first time had been confusing. The second, amusing. Every one after that was simply overdone. Corn wasn't the only building block, however. Some had been made of stacks of hay. Others from shorn shrubs, or walls of bamboo. Just like escape rooms, they would make an event of them, seasonal features as they often were. Sometimes there were riddles involved, or scavenger hunts that required finding things or points or interest before exiting. But they were always safe. Always jovial without a sense of urgency.

This. This was different. The darkness alone was enough to unnerve her—she who relied so heavily upon her keen sight to spot the more obscure clue and slightest hint of danger. They weren't to use flashlights, not that she had one anyway. But other sources of light were also out of the question. Naturally, she instinctually wished to reach for her wand in that very moment. Even if she couldn't use it to cast the wand lighting spell, it would have eased her nerves to have it in hand and to be able to protect herself if needed. Alas, they'd specified that no source of light could be emitted, les she be disqualified. And nearly all spells cast were accompanied by an emission of light in some form.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing to be done then," she sighed, stepping forward towards the entrance.

Her gaze shifted from one set of illuminated eyes to the next, and finally the third. The thought of entering into that foreboding void rebelled against all rational thought. For a moment, a buzz echoed in her ears. One that had followed a similarly darkened scene during this event's predecessor. Glancing over her shoulder, she sought out the grounding hazel hues of the partner she'd allowed to accompany her this night. Courage. If not for herself, then it was a necessary display for him. Still, she hesitated. Stepping forward meant leaving his sight and side. It would only be a short while, she told herself. Surely nothing sordid would happen in that time. Not here, surrounded by so many others and in such proximity to the castle. He'd be fine.

"See you on the other side?" She offered one last smile of reassurance before crossing the threshold and disappearing into blackness.

Immediately, her left hand reached out to make contact with the wall. This was the trick. Eventually, so long as she didn't break contact with the wall and as long as the walls didn't move, following its length would lead her to the exit. That was all she had to do. She didn't need her sight. She needed only to feel, and to walk. One step, and then another. One foot carefully in front of the other. She was glad in this moment to be wearing her typical leather boots; and that the dress she wore afforded her a decent measure of maneuverability. Blind she may have been, but she was not entirely helpless. In some ways, it wasn't entirely unlike those occasions when she had to fly in a downpour of rain. Visibility, while not completely snuffed, was poor during those times. She wasn't entirely unaccustomed to relying on other senses. In here, she listened. For steps. For the crunch of a leaf or branch. For a scuff of a boot or the whisper of clothing not her own.

She practically jumped out of her skin when someone spoke at some point, asking her a question.

"The ingredients of an ageing potion?" came her echo, one hand lifting to rest palm flat against her sternum as though trying to manually settle her erratic heart. Despite the jump scare, she calmed considerably in a short period of time. A potions question. That was comforting. Potions was the subject in which she most excelled. "Er.."

In the dark, she stared forward. Interestingly, it was easier this way. There were no colours or objects to distract her from her mind's eye. Before her, the book lay open and she could see the page upon which the potion in question was discussed. Green. More sage, really. It wasn't one that they had practiced yet in class, but it was one that had caught her attention. Particularly when she had been trying to think of ways to sneak into Hogsmeade and pass unsuspecting through the streets there as an older student.

"Newt's spleen," she began, brows creasing in concentration. "A snake.. Orange, specifically, although I'm really not sure as to why, exactly," she recalled with a touch more confidence. "Bananas, and… and a leaf. A green leaf. For the colour of the potion."

And with that she was off again. This time with more haste. The sooner she could escape from the confines of this convoluted prison, the sooner she would breathe easily. And again, she would be stopped at a certain point.

This time her answer came swiftly. "Simple," she remarked to the darkness, unable to view the source of the query. "It treats blemishes. Acne, pimples, whatever your preference for calling it. It helps ensure clearer looking skin."

But the third question, that one stopped her short. "Bundimum? Is this a trick question? Is it not a Bundimun? Or is that something different? Or are they one in the same?" Perhaps she simply hadn't heard them right? "Well, a bundimun is a creature of sorts. Well, fungus, I suppose. In a ways, it's sort of like a cross between a gibbering mouther and a gelatinous cube. A toxic mass with eyes that can cause too much destruction to the foundations of a home if left unvanquished."

WORD COUNT: 1,094

[ @Kage Suzuki • @Scarlett Aden • @Henry Knight as Charles • @Rose Moon as Drew ]

question suzuki in a probably annoying manner • compete in the trial • fail at magical creatures

English #26687E • French #72267E

Mazes! Darkness! Creepy magical blackness! Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin was okay with all of these things. She was okay with not using a wand or torch (ah, so that answered her musings from earlier) and she was okay with the bravest succeeding. There were two things, however, that she wasn't so sure about. The first of these was the questions. The instruction to answer them was so vague that Cassie immediately dreaded them. They'd probably be something she'd never know anything about, and that would suck. Also, would she even have to answer them correctly to get the points? The girl who had told them their instructions hadn't mentioned it... hmm. Cassie sidled up to the girl, her jacket catching the eerie light from the weird glowing eyes surrounding the maze. "Heya. Cassie. From Beauxbatons. Hey, do we need to actually, you know, get the answers right to win?" She gave the girl a hopeful smile. "You didn't mention it..." Oh, how she hoped she'd found a loophole.

Whether the so-called 'loophole' existed or not, Cassie gave a wave to Scarlett, Charles and Drew before plunging into the darkness of the maze. It was a little disorientating, actually, and Cassie put a hand on the wall to steady herself.Right. Cassie's papa had taught her a few years ago how to navigate mazes, and she used that knowledge now, trailing her hand along the wall as she walked. Hey, that was smart, right? Maybe that was what the girl had meant about being smart - finding a way to navigate the maze without getting lost. When Cassie came to a corner, she followed it to the right so that her hand never left the wall. If she needed to go backwards, even without sight she'd know all the turns to take.

But then the questions came. What ingredients does it take to make an Ageing Potion? "Oh great," Cassie mumbled. "Uh, gimme a sec." Cassie was okay at potions - not brilliant, but not terrible either - but she usually had her textbook to tell her what to do. After that, it was just baking, really, only more precise. Cassie thought for a moment. "Green leaf." She remembered that one because of how stupidly precise it was. Seriously? Would any other colour even matter? "Newt. Um, I think it was a paticular part of a newt or something, but I can't remember which bit. Does that matter? Oh! And there was another animal too... snake! Orange snake." Again, what was the thing with all the colours? "And a fruit? I think it was... um... plums? No. Bananas! I think. Right?"

What does a Blemish Blitzer (most likely) do? Cassie blinked. "Uh, remove blemishes? Do I get that?"

At the next question, Cassie was well and truly stuck. What is a Bundimum? "I dunno, do I?!" Cassie complained. "I don't do Magical Creatures! And anyway, I bet it's got a different name in French. That one's way unfair. Can I just skip?" Whether she could skip or not, Cassie would push through, searching for the end of the maze.

[ sixth sense • fearless • sta 9 • eva 6 • str 8 • wis 7 • arc 4 • acc 7 ]

Closed to interactions outside of moderation
Outfit

The dark, somber atmosphere upon arrival in the "Underworld" had been comforting. Pericles derived tranquility from its ambience, finding it preferable to the Spring section's gaiety, though was the type to find enjoyment in either. The trials drew his attention first and foremost. It was Hades' test which dropped the mood from soothingly somber to downright dark. Too dark. He felt the small hairs on the back of his neck lift as he was plunged into shadow. It was an age-old instinct: not terror for the dark, but what lurked in it. A small spike of paranoia began to whisper in his head: What if this was wrong? What if it was a trick? A trap? No- it was a themed ball, silly. Scares were practically guaranteed. If he could not complete this first task, how was he to reach the others? It would be fine. Everything was just fine.

His prized aspen wand was kept tucked into a bronze bracer: easy to draw, but put away, resisting the temptation to summon light. Pericles proceeded with extreme caution, flinching when faced with the first question. An Ageing Potion? That brew wouldn't be taught until much later years, if at all, though he was fortunate to have a hobby of researching the bizarre. An age-altering spell was very much to Pericles' interest. After all, what properties of a banana caused one to become older? He remembered the odder ingredients first: "An Ageing Potion requires bananas, an orange snake, a green leaf..." the simpler one was almost lost on him, but came quickly tacked on at the end "...and newt spleens."

The second question seemed strange, out of place. Was aging and blemishes meant to share a deliberate theme, that of growing old and descending into Hades? At least it was a far simpler query than the first. "Blemish Blitzer is a cream used to treat blemishes of the skin. It's especially popular for curing acne." Simple, self-explanatory. On into the darknesss.

The final question made the theme theory shaky. Bundimum could destroy a home with time, if there were enough of them. Was this relative, or random? Nevertheless, another easy question, with bundimum being a topic they had covered. He recited with bookish precision: "A bundimum is a foul, green, Class XXX pest that releases the reek of decay, devouring dirt and excreting an acidic slime. If a building becomes infested by bundimum, it could crumble from exposure to the stuff, though it is said to work wonders in cleaning products if properly diluted." Peri seemed perfectly prepared to provide more information on the creatures if necessary, to pour out all manner of factoid as he often did on his homework, but would cease once sure this sufficed. Now, to find his way out....

Attempting to navigate and answer questions

Underworld | Hades | Hecate | Orpheus | Hermes | Persephone | Apollo | Aftermath