Summer Camp Mysterious Maze Group 1 Closed

"Pleasure to meet the both of you" Akari replied as she learnt the names of her two new group mates.
Happy that they agreed to have her join them Akari stuffed her hands into her sweater pockets and began to take a few steps further through the mazes' entrance.
Just then another showed up and seemed exceptionally determined to not go the same way of this Jack fellow. Akari whipped her head around to see who had spoken up and what was going on but then proceeded to just keep her mouth shut, not particularly wanting to get involved in a fight at this very moment. Luckily for them, before anything too bad could happen, the hedges surrounding them suddenly sprung to life and shot forward, closing them off from the others who had just arrived. Akari's eyes widened in surprise and she flinched ever so slightly from all the startling movement.

"Aye, it certainly appears so doesn't it?" Akari mumbled in response to the younger boy, a small chuckle threatening to slip out as she craned her neck to the side in order to get a better view of the pathways now in front of them. Her eyes then narrowing as she contemplated which direction to choose. Her first instinct was to go forward since it hadn't seemed like there would be any more immediate surprises, but on more thought, she concluded that that seemed a little too easy and therefore made her more suspicious and pushed her to favour the path that turned left. There wasn't a wrong answer though as far as she knew, so she might as well just go with her gut.
"I think we should head down this way" She stated, still having a few doubts about her final decision and unsure if the other two would agree with her.

Action: Suggesting to go left

Outift | Open to Interactions

The group of students was much smaller now, the prefect, along with the group of younger students had entered the maze from the middle entrance, not before snapping back at Starlee.

Scarlet walked near the two other girls that had also entered via the northern entrance to the maze, following it's bending paths. Looking back to where they had come from, she saw nothing but dense walls of greenery, any sign of freedom now hidden before the sharp turn they had just made. Along with this and the fact that Scarlet was certain the path was narrowing as they walked - they had been reduced to a single file line at this point - she was becoming increasingly aware of the confined space she now found herself in.

The group soon reached a fork in their path, "something different at last," Scarlet said to the two girls, "I was starting to forget this was a maze," she added with a small laugh, her relief at fianlly reaching the end of the narrow path evident in her voice.

The first path veered off sharply to the left, whilst the second took a more gradual turn to the right. Scarlet took her time looking down both, trying to spot any visual differences between the two, she soon realised this wasn't what she needed to be trying to spot, when she heard a faint rumbling noise from the path to the right. "Can either of you hear that," Scarlet asked the two girls, "I don't know if I want to follow it or keep away from it," she said, leaning further into the bend to try get a glimpse down the path.

It wasn't exactly a sound that lured her in her curious mind, so she instead decided to make her decision based on her own logic, "well, we've only turned twice so far, first left then right," she said, now turned to face the two girls, "so surely going right would take us back near the entrance... right?" she questioned, half confident in her reasoning. 'Of course the whole thing could be enchanted making that completely irrelevant' she added to herself, "I'm definitely feeling the left path more, not too keen on whatever that noise is as well," she said, gesturing to the right path.

Should anyone agree to take the left path with Scarlet she would be glad of the company and continue on as whatever size group they become, otherwise she would say, "race you to the finish then," with a friendly grin, jumping at any chance to enter into further competition, before giving a little wave and heading off down the path to the left.

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy & Anastasia Prokovdine (@Violet Carrington)

Action: Going left
Stats: Stamina - 4 | Evasion - 4 | Strength - 7 | Wisdom - 9 | Arcane Power - 7 | Accuracy - 4
Abilities: Terrible Presence

[font=Tempus Sans ITC]T[/font]here was a moment where Jack had thought about leaving the maze to follow the rude girl, but a sudden surge of the hedge upward had quickly squashed that notion. With a grumble, Jack turned towards his companions and sighed. "Alright, Lad and Lass. Looks like we are stuck in the choice we made. It did make a challenge, an' we accepted it. Let's hope for no rain or spiders...or raining spiders." The Hufflepuff reached down towards his pocket, and with a flourish, the boy's wand swished out into the air. "Lumos." With a lazy swish of the cherrywood wand, he spoke the words for the lighting spell.

[font=Tempus Sans ITC]T[/font]he boy nodded before agreeing with the soon-to-be first year, "It'd be strange if it didn' move, kiddo. That's when you 'ought to worry." Walking directly into the center of the intersection. Looking over at Akari, the prefect demanded, "Left it is!" his loud proclamation was an attempt to break the maze's shroud of silence. Then, like a soldier off to war, the kid began to stomp off to the left. Did he have any strategy for completing this labyrinth of pseudo-horror? Absolutely not. There was no way in hell he would do anything in a systematic manner.

Interaction with @Akari Kato & @Avery Chen

Action: Casting Lumos, and going left!
MARCH ALONG

Interacting with: @Akari Kato @Jack Warren
Action: Going left

@Scarlet Salvatore

Anastasia entered the northern entrance of the maze along a few other girls. To be honest, she would have preferred to go alone, but it seemed like she did not control this and now she was stuck with two cheerful girls to keep her company. Great. She was tempted to roll her eyes since her mood was definitely not the best at that moment, but since she was making an attempt to be less rude to the English, she just looked at the two open entrances.

Anastasia listened to one of the girls say that she heard a rumbling noise. Indeed, a noise was coming from the right path. The girl started to say that she was not sure if she wanted to go there. Anastasia, however, thought that it would be interesting to go that way. '' Maybe they are trying to make you think it's the other way by putting something scary the other way.'' Anastasia tried to explain in her best English. '' You two do whatever you want, I'm going the noisy way.''

She went to the right, suddenly feeling a bit more scared now that she was taking that way. Trying not to feel so scared, she continued to follow that way.

Taking the right path.

outfit

Interacting with @Scarlet Salvatore
Mentioning: @Jack Warren & Anastasia Prokovdine (@Violet Carrington)

Starlee had been quite pleased when a girl followed her into the northern entrance. She seemed pretty sweet, and was someone who apparently wanted to be on the dueling team. Starlee would smile back at her and nod along to the girls comments.

Of course, the supposed 'prefect' had to get one last word in before he was engulfed into the maze walls, and Starlee just rolled her eyes. "Ugh, how annoying." she would say to Scarlet.

Another student would enter their path, one who would say nothing. Starlee didn't recognize her at all either, but she wouldn't say no to the company.

The fog grew thick around them as the trio entered the maze. The walls would taper inward more and more, until the three of them were walking single file. The smell of watermelon was still there, and they made their way toward a fork in the road. Another option. Scarlet pointed out that she could hear a rumbling noise from the rightmost path. Starlee agreed, it could be something to investigate, but it could also just be something boring. "I agree with Scarlet," she began, "Let's head to the left then."

Of course, the unnamed girl decided she would follow the noises, and she watched as she walked away. Who knows what could happen in here, but surely not something completely dangerous if this was a school run event. Plus, Scarlet seemed nice and Starlee was always ready to make new friends. It seemed the other girl didn't care. Her loss.

Action: Taking the left path.

For Moderation:
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 6 | Wisdom: 8 | Arcane Power: 6 | Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Healing Sage | Comprehend Language (Parseltongue)

Reducio

The Outfit

Northern Route

After reaching a fork, the young explorers were faced with their first choice. Who knows what secrets might be held in the winding pathways. But it seemed that Scarlet’s ears had keenly noticed the soft rustling on the path that weaved to the right. It could have perhaps been the wind creeping through the leaves, but Scarlet wasn’t going to take the chance. Starlee seemed to agree with the assessment and followed the other girl's lead. Taking the left path, the corridor began to weave and turn, getting narrower at every step. Soon the sides of the hedges would be lightly brushing against the girls' shoulders as if they were ready to claim them. But they didn’t. Instead, they would again be faced with a fork and another decision. Left or right. The right path looked to be as narrow as the one they were in, almost overgrown in appearance. The left path opened into a wide path but the fog almost seemed thicker in that direction. Where would they go from here?

(@Scarlet Salvatore and @Starlee Kennedy can take one of these directions: Left, Right, Back the way you came)

Young Anastasia would not be fooled by the tricks of the old Groundskeeper. She knew in her heart that the scarier sounding path was likely the safer. Turning right, Anastasia would not have to walk too far. The path weaved around a corner and Anastasia would step into a small dead-end chamber. At first, there was nothing. Even the sound of the rustling seemed to halt. But within an instant, the empty chamber erupted with life.

Long roots and vines from the enchanted hedges shot out towards Anastasia like the tentacles of a Kraken looking to drag her to unknown depths. The binding roots were fast, launching through the air with ease to fill the small chamber as the tendrils inched closer to Anastasia. Perhaps it was fear or surprise that caused Anastasia to fall backward. But whatever it was, Anastasia tripped backward falling out of the dead-end chamber and out of the reach of the squirming roots that began slithering back into the hedge.

(Anastasia Prokovdine (iNPC @Violet Carrington) can take one of these directions: Back the way you came or into the dead-end chamber)

Middle Route

@Jack Warren, @Avery Chen, @Akari Kato

The three students now trapped in the central path seemed to have kept their wits about them for now. At the very least, they would not be wandering alone. Avery keenly acknowledged that things did enjoy moving on their own at Hogwarts. Hopefully he would remember that lesson as they got deeper. It was the mighty Akari who suggested the path that they would take. If it led them to peril, perhaps they could just blame her. Regardless, however, the trio would start their way down the left path. It would have quickly turned too dark, but it seemed that Jack remembered that his wand might be a bit of help.

With lumos now giving them enough light to see the walls of the maze, they continued down the path. But it did not continue for long before reaching another branching path. Their current path seemed to continue for some ways, farther than they could see even with the light. But there was now a path waiting for them to the left. However...that was not all. Due to Jack’s light, they would be able to see a slightly covered entrance. Leaves lightly covered most of the entrance to the right but if they crouched down, they would be able to crawl their way through the small secret entrance. What lay on the other side? Only one way to find out. Or they could perhaps throw Avery inside and hope nothing grabbed him...

As they arrived at the fork, however, the group would notice something that sat just inside the left path. Resting on the ground, barely propped up against the side of the left path was an old teddy bear. Its head drooped to one side and it stared blankly at the other wall. It did not move or look outwardly dangerous. Perhaps it was just Eliseo’s comfort bear, lost in the madman’s maze.

Available Directions: Turn Left, Go Forward, Crawl into the secret path to the right

Reducio

Departed the Thread

@Gia Adelard, Xeno Darkaz (iNPC @Winter Wolfhartz)

How to Navigate the Maze

1. Each round you can choose an available direction to travel or to take a different action.
2. Each moderation will list the available directions for each student.
3. You can choose to stay as a group or wander off on your own. But if you are alone...beware of the orange.
4. Depending on the paths chosen, you may encounter challenges or changes within the maze.
5. Stats will be used in this tread and thus you will need to ensure they are in your trunk.
6. There will be a moderation post at least once a week. Quicker moderations will be done if all active participants have replied.
7. If a participant misses two weeks of moderation, it will be assumed they decided to take a nap and will be removed from the maze for their safety!
8. As always...clothing will be required in this thread!

banner by Henry Llewellyn

@

As Anastasia took the steps toward the right path, she could feel her heart beating faster and faster at each step she took. Honestly, the sounds that she had heard before were creeping her out a bit, considering that she was now all alone. But she was brave enough to keep walking ahead until she reached a dead-end chamber. Her first thought was a curse since she knew for a second that she had taken the wrong way. But things were not like they seemed.

Vines suddenly shot towards Ana, though she immediately dodged the plant's attack, she could feel her heart beating faster and faster while she sat on the ground, trying to see what she could do. Since she was not at the plant's reach, she had an amount of time to think if she wanted to go ahead, where the vines were attacking or go back. The thought of going back was too much for Anastasia to bear, so she decided to stay for a few seconds and think about what in the world she could do with the vines to pass through that way.

Going back to the dead-end chamber, Anastasia took out her wand from her pockets and pointed at where the vines had come from. ''Incendio!''

Casting Incendio at the vines.

Outift | Open to Interactions

Scarlet was relieved that at least one of the girl's had decided to go with her, she wasn't to keen on the idea of being alone in the maze.

"How far do you think the professors would go," she asked Starlee "I mean, surely they wouldn't put anything in the maze that's actually dangerous, right?" Scarlet started to doubt that the professors had any limit to what they might do, aside from putting in anything life threatening, she hoped.

Scarlet continued with Starlee along the winding path, it was only a hunch before but now she was certain, the walls were definitely coming inwards. They had already had to walk in a single line since the last fork, but now she felt some of the branches actually brushing past her arms as she went. "It's funny, when I signed up for this, I didn't actually consider the fact that there'd be tight spaces like this, not sure why," Scarlet said with a half-hearted laugh, "but I'm not the biggest fan of all... this," she added, waving her hands gently around her so they purposefully skimmed the walls on either side.

After what seemed like far longer than last time, they reached another fork, again a decision left or right had to be made. Almost immediately, Scarlet had dismissed the right path in her mind, no way was she going down an even narrower path, and it wasn't just narrow, it looked unkempt as well, 'it probably just merges into a dead end anyway,' she thought. The right path looked as if it opened up, which despite the thick fog that clearly hung over that area, made her feel much more relaxed about going there. But she had realised by now, that she would much rather continue as a pair than go either path on her own.

"What do you think?" she asked Starlee, wanting to know the girl's opinion before suggesting to go left, "if you don't have a huge preference, we could try left, the right path looks like it might just become some kind of dead end." Whilst listening for Starlee's response, Scarlet pulled out her wand from the large pocket of her hoodie, "Lumos," she said, "I'm sure this will come in handy whichever way we go."

If Starlee, like Scarlet would also want to remain as a pair, Scarlet would go with whichever path she chooses, if not Scarlet would make the choice to go left.

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy

Action: Casting Lumos and suggesting left but will follow Starlee
Stats: Stamina - 4 | Evasion - 4 | Strength - 7 | Wisdom - 9 | Arcane Power - 7 | Accuracy - 4
Abilities: Terrible Presence