Snow in the courtyard & Snow Tag

[Venefyxatu]

Even though the temperature at the Mighty Pen Keep isn't extremely cold, dark clouds are gathering above a corner of the courtyard. Snowflakes start falling down and stay on the ground where they fall. When a soft breeze blows some of them away from the corner they melt, but most of them start to form a snow blanket...

 

Katzaniel, taking a stroll across the courtyard to have a look at the booths, notices that there's more snow than there should be and briefly wonders whether she should have someone to get ri - hey, look, Wyvern's set up a booth! I wonder what he's come up with this time!

From a safe distance, so she won't be drawn into any plots the lizard might have thought of, she watches the bruteweiser turn into mud, the snow all but forgotten...

 

 

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

|*. '`. ~ * ´*.'~ °, .`* ~ . , ° ' .~` " *, .:. -|

|. ~.'°'¨. -:';´,* ,'-* ¨` ° *. `'" ::. '´,* ",´.°|

|¨`,'- *: °, .' " :`~' °, . ~* "`¨,.:,. '`´ ° *. ,|

 

OOC : This is going somewhere, I promise

And I hope it'll turn out to be more than a mere exercise in patience and present tenses for me

 

Update : More snow!

Update 2 : Even more snow!

[Venefyxatu]

It's been snowing in the corner for a day now and for some reason nobody has cleaned it up or indeed noticed it yet. In fact, it's been snowing so hard that none of the Pennites would still be able to look over it if they'd care to try.

 

Dressed in warm robes, carrying a rolled up parchment in one hand and closely followed by a hovering table full of ice blocks and chair, Venefyxatu crosses the courtyard towards the snow, refusing to let his own spell distract him from it. Not dispelling it just yet, he unrolls the parchment and looks at it for a few moments before rolling it back up and getting to work, the table and the chair gently floating to the ground.

 

He chants a quick spell that levitates him about an inch above the ground and then starts murmuring one quick spell after the other, his free hand weaving through the air in small patterns, his fingers making complex movements. Slowly, the snow in front of him starts to disappear, leaving a gap wide enough to walk through. Not interrupting his murmuring and hand movements for even a moment, he hovers into the gap, going deeper and deeper, and vanishing around a corner.

The murmuring continues for some time before the snow next to the already existing gap vanishes as well, creating a second opening, thus enabling Venefyxatu to come out of the snow again.

He floats down to the ground again and leans on his staff for a few moments to catch his breath and ponder whether he didn't forget anything in there.

Let's see... there are no footprints on the ground that can be traced and as long as the courtyard is lit there will be light since the corridors have no roof.

The enchantment that keeps the snowy walls from melting or being dug away is in place and there is still snow on the ground that can be used to throw at others. And, of course, there are some unexpected surprises set up as well... I think that's everything.

 

Carefully blending two spells together, he dispells the spell that kept people's attention away from the snow while at the same time making letters glowing a soft blue appear on the walls.

 

Venefyxatu's Snow Maze - search your way through while I make your ice sculpture

 

5 geld for participating

 

With that done, he bends over to scoop up some snow and roll it into a vaguely skull-shaped ball, then with a snicker tosses it across the courtyard towards the two giant Guinea Pigs at the kissing booth. Satisfied that he managed to hit one of them, he puts on his most innocent face and sits down on the chair where he starts blending skill and magic to carve something from the first ice block.

 

Nuncio : "Wha?"

Guido : "Hey, look! Der's snow! And a ... maze? Gotta be a mage thing, and dat guy prolly knows more!"

Nuncio : "I'll ambulate over to check it out! You stay and smooch the babes" Ducking Guido's playful blow, he heads over.

 

As he approaches the table, he wonders what all this is about.

 

Nuncio : "Hey, mister?"

 

Seeing the slightly confused Guinea Pig in front of him, still with snow in his fur, Venefyxatu can't suppress a grin.

 

"Sorry about that, I just couldn't resist. Tell you what : you get to be the first to try out my maze and afterwards I'll have a sculpture waiting for you right here."

 

Nuncio looks at him for a moment before he decides that this could be fun and enters the maze. While squeals of glee and surprise erupt from it every now and then Venefyxatu continues working, magically creating the tools he needs out of thin air as he needs them, blue light flashing from his fingers from time to time.

When Nuncio emerges from the mage, grinning and completely covered in snow, Venefyxatu gets up to hand him a beautifully crafted ice sculpture of both him and his companion.

 

"It looks like you had a good time? The sculpture is enchanted so it'll keep itself cold - you could literally take it through Hell."

Brushing the snow from his suit, and shaking it off his fedora, he takes the sculpture, and answers : "Thank you sir, but having been to several, I have no intention of returning anytime in the forseen future."

 

With that, he heads back to his own booth, holding the sculpture in plain sight -

 

And a snowball behind his back...

 

Edit : Underneath the announcment glowing on the maze, new letters slowly take shape...

Edited December 12, 2004 by Venefyxatu

[Black9]

Black approached the maze with much intrigue. He could see a faint image of Venefyatu on the other side and knowing nothing of what was going on...chose to go see his old friend anyway. Not realizing he was taking part in a real time event...Black entered the maze...and soon hit a dead end. Taking a new wrought...the old vampire tried to navigated the maze...but failed as he hit yet another dead end.

 

Black-"Blasted dead ends!" Unfortunately, Black rather sucked at mazes and took some time to make it though. Not yet reaching the other side...Venefyxatu sat in his chair...his sculpture already complete and wondered what was taking Black so long.

 

Black-"Hey! Vene! How do I make it to the other side?" Venefyxatu only shook his head and responded.

 

Venefyxatu-"It's a maze...you have to find your way on your own." Black tried this a few more times and hit dead after dead end. By now having given up on his deductive reasoning...Black distracted Venefyxatu and flew to the end in one smooth motion. By the time Vene turned Black way...the old vampire had just exited the maze. Turning with a grin...Black spoke.

 

Black-"Hello good buddy...why'd you make it so hard to reach you?"

Edited December 8, 2004 by Black9

[Kasmandre]

A grizzled old man works his way through the various booths, muttering to himself about whatever grizzled old men muttered about (popular music mostly). Eventually, he arrives at the entrance to the snow maze. He stands in front of the enchanted sign, squints, moves a few feet closer, squints at it again, moves up until his nose is almost touching the letters, then squints until his eyes almost disappear.

 

"Vene- Verer- Veneneen- Venef- Verbot-" he mutters to himself, attempting to decipher the enigmatic first word of the sign. After several more unsuccessful tries at pronouncing the offending name, he scowls, backs up, snorts, and shuffles back up to the sign, squinting even harder.

 

"Veni-whatzitz's Snow Maze, search your way..." his voice trails off as he finishes reading the sign, then he pipes up in an annoyingly high pitched screech, "An ice sculpture, you say! Well, if that isn't a seventh day wonder! And of me no less! Well, I'll just have to show this young whippersnapper that there isn't a maze made that can out-boggle Kasmandre T. Koot!" With that, the grizzled old man trudged resolutely into the maze, disappearing around the first turn.

 

Three hours pass.

 

More than a little worried about the elderly contestant, and long since done with his sculpture, Venefyxatu hovers into the maze, looking for Kasmandre.

 

It doesn't take long. Shortly after rounding the first corner he comes across the old man bent over his cane, fast asleep, muttering to himself between snores.

 

"Whippersnapper...zzz...hippity-hop music...zzz...'n my day...zzz"

 

Not wanting to disturb his rest in case Kasmandre planned to finish the maze, Venefyxatu simply conjured up a flannel blanket and draped it over the geezer, then floated out of the maze as quietly as possible.

 

"Well, if nothing else, he'll be a bit of an obsticle for the others," the mage thought to himself as he sat down and waited for his next customer.

[Vahktang]

Vahktang motions the truck to it's parking spot, the annoying beeb-beeb-beeb disturbing the winter solitude.

When it comes to the appropriate places, the workmen lower the 10' block of solid ice to the ground, placing it just so.

They then unload the ice sculpture equipment, including chainsaws (of various sizes), blow torch and a boom box.

The workmen leave and Vahktang begins work on his sculpture.

A passerby notices, stops, then comments to the sculpter.

"It's winter. It's cold. Why don't you have a jacket? You're still in short sleeves."

"Yeah, it's winter, but it's only December, not even mid December. Doesn't get actually cold for, what, a month?"

Vahktang stops, pops open a container of apple cider, takes a drink and passes over to the boom box.

He hits play and the strains of Graham Parker's 'Temporary Beauty' fills the air. Nodding to the beat, Vahktang returns to the sculpture, this time with a blow torch, wondering what the sculpture will end up being.

[Gryphon]

Gryphon bounds over to the snow maze and reads the sign...

 

A snow sculpture? Of me?

 

He sits for an instant thinking how marvelous the sculpture is going to look once it's completed - it will be perfect and everyone will be so impressed - how could they not be? It is after all a sculpture of a Gryphon

 

Yes! I'll do the maze in record time and afterwards I'll have to find somewhere to display the sculpture that will be worthy of it.

 

Gryphon races into the maze and for a short while thereafter there are sounds of an enthusiastic Gryphon racing in circles around inside a giant snow sculpture. Shortly after that there is a blaze of coloured light and the maze is lit up from the inside with red, blue and green as Gryphon sends his dancing lights to bounce through the maze transforming the snow maze into a blaze of glory.

 

Moments later Gryphon comes bursting out of the maze and sits there in a pose waiting for Venefyxatu to finish his sculpting.

 

I'll leave the lights behind if you like. They make the maze look incredible and it'll mean that if you want to you can keep running it at night.

[Venefyxatu]

Venefyxatu sat enjoying his view over the courtyard, making sculptures of any Pennite who cared to try his maze. When Black finally made it through and wanted to know why it was so hard, Venefyxatu answered with a grin.

"I needed something to stall you guys while I'm sculpting here... but you did earn your sculpture! Congratulations!"

With a toothy grin, Black took the sculpture and looked at it appreciatively. Apart from the colour it looked just like a miniature version of himself. They chatted for a while before Black excused himself, probably to go and do something that somehow involved blood.

 

He was still wondering when the old Kasmandre T. Koot would wake up and continue the maze when he heard a truck backing up towards the snow. Slightly puzzled yet greatly interested, he watched the workmen unload the giant block of ice and the tools before they drove off again. Seeing Vahktang get to work he wondered at the music box and the impressive tools he was using, curious as to what the statue would look like in the end.

He didn't get much chance to think about it, though, with Gryphon entering the maze so enthusiastically he barely managed to avoid Kasmandre. When Gryphon starts sending his dancing lights around the maze Venefyxatu muttered, "What in the name of Moon is he doing in there?"

Hearing the explanation from Gryphon while he was screeching to a stop made Venefyxatu smile.

"There's a thought! Do you have a knack for mazes or something? You were so fast I didn't even get the sculpture finished!"

Chest swelling with pride, Gryphon tried his best to appear modest.

"Well, umm..."

When he saw that the statue Venefyxatu was finishing was only about 8 inches in height, however, his enthusiasm lessened a bit.

"I thought it'd be bigger...", he muttered.

"Tell you what... because you were so fast and you left those impressive lights I'll make it self-illuminate. That way everyone will be able to admire it in the dark as well, even those without darkvision! How's that?"

Happy with the idea that his sculpture would be the most visible of them all, Gryphon bounded off to show it to everyone who wanted to see it, as well as everyone who didn't want to see it.

[Vahktang]

'Bobby Drake, Iceman from the X-men?

No.'

Vahktang kept cutting.

'Victor Fries, Mister Freeze from Batman?

No.'

A large chunk fell off.

'An ice cube, about 2 inches square, suitable for a high ball?

No.'

He changed to the torch and the ice transformed to water and steam at it's touch.

'Ice Cube, the rapper and actor.

Hmmm.'

 

Vahktang kept on cutting and creating.

[Ayshela]

Ayshela entered the maze with a curious look, tapping gently on the walls and wondering how well they'd hold up. Seemed solid enough, she mused, and with a nod to herself she went on. With only a couple wrong turns, quickly corrected, she found her way to the center where she found Venefyxatu gently rubbing a small statuette as if to brush off residual ice chips and smooth the edges.

 

"Hah, i found you! Don't you get cold sitting in here?" Ayshela asked.

 

"Not really," Venefyxatu replied. "I keep too busy to notice the cold." And with that he handed Ayshela her statuette, a stunning likeness.

 

"It's beautiful!" Ayshela gasped. "Wonderfully done! Thank you so much!" And with a beaming smile she levitated herself, walked up the walls of the maze, and launched herself toward her window to go put her statuette somewhere safe.

[Wyvern]

Wyvern curls the Scarf of Disastrous Spell Prevention around his neck as he approaches Venefyxatu's carnival booth, shivering at the intense change in atmosphere as he nears the gigantic snow maze. Glancing at the ice sculptures that Venefyxatu is creating and then eyeing the entrance to the maze, the overgrown lizard quickly scurries up to the table where the ice sculptor rests and exclaims:

 

"Hiya Venefyxatu. I'm gonna do my best to beat Gryphon's record time in your little maze, but before I head in, I was wondering if it might be possible to mold me a lifesize piece of geld rather than a figurine of myself? Thanks."

 

Venefyxatu opens his mouth to speak, only to slump over in his seat as the lizard dashes off in the direction of the snow maze's entrance before he has time to respond.

 

Wyvern quickly sets about darting through the initial segments of the snow maze, making it through one of its passageways before being met by a dead end. The overgrown lizards thoughts immediately turn towards cheating as he decides that he doesn't have a minute to lose, and charges towards the wall of the dead end in the hopes of diving right through the snow and landing on the other side of it. Unfortunately, the reptilian Elder runs straight into one of Venefyxatu's magical barriers of enforcement in the process, and is knocked unconscious just as a piece of the dead end wall avalanches down upon him...

[Kasmandre]

The sound of a collapsing wall deeper in the maze wakes Kasmandre.

 

"What's the commotion? Can't a body take a nap in his own..." He trails off as he realizes that he's not in his armchair in his quarters but rather in a corridor of snow. After a long moment, he remembers why he's there. "AH! Yes, that was it. Now in my day, we didn't put sleeping enchantments in our snow mazes, but it's a clever trick," Outside the maze, Venefyxatu smiles to himself, trying to decide whether or not to tell Kasmandre that his maze contained no such enchantments as Kasmandre continues rambling, "It quite reminds me of a time many years ago when I and my good friend Roland were building a snow maze. Now in those days..." his voice fades away to a mutter as he continues deeper into the maze.

 

After another ten minutes of shuffling through the falling snow, Kasmandre comes across the unconscious form of Wyvern, half buried under a snow drift. "Ah another victim of the dastardly Sleep Traps! You seem to need this more than myself my good man...er, dragon...um, I mean...well, you need this more than I do!" He finishes with a flourish, throwing the flannel blanket over the almost-dragon and mostly missing. He doesn't notice this as he attempts to clamber over the part of the wall still remaining.

 

Ten minutes later, after sliding down the snow drift several dozen times, Kasmandre decides to take a less mountainous route and find the real right way through the maze. After two hours and running into more dead ends than actually exist in the maze, Kasmandre emerged at the other end. He proudly stepped up to Venefyxatu to receive his sculpture. "Beat your little maze! And in record time, I bet!"

[Katzaniel]

"...And in record time, I bet!" finishes Kasmandre before being hit in the nose with a snowball. He whirls around in time to see Katzaniel, wiping the flakes from a pair of gloves. "Why, in my day -" he begins, stooping to get some snow.

 

"No tagbacks."

 

"Wha..?"

 

"Snow Tag. You're it. You can try to hit me back if you want, but it only counts if you tag someone who hasn't been It yet. And the real catch is, you have to tag them by bringing them within the maze. Do it however you want, by hitting them once and getting them chasing you or by telling them about those great statues, I don't care what your methods are, but you've got to hit them with a snowball within sight of the maze before you can pass on the It."

 

Kasmandre had been trying to speak repeatedly thoughout the speech, but Katzaniel just kept going. Now, before he could get out more than a word or two of protest, Katzaniel shifted into a small cougar and raced into the maze.

 

He stood there for a moment, stammering and grumbling. But the It begins to soak in and along with the desire to get Katzaniel back he also has the overpowering urge both to tag someone new.

 

OOC: I highly encourage continuing on with the maze posts, but additionally this thread is now going to host the Tag game. Please accompany a Tag with a PM to the new It. 5 geld for participating, although you don't choose when you're tagged! (PS, Yes, I got Venefyxatu's permission to do this).

[Kasmandre]

"Bu- Wha- I- Qui- Ka-" Kasmandre tries to interject, but before he can get an entire word out, Katzaniel is already in the maze. "I'll show that little ragamuffin! Her snow-fortin' ways are no match for the way we did things back in my day. We didn't just toss snow balls willy-nilly, we fortified ourselves!" With that, he strikes the ground with his cane and out of the center of the maze, an enormous tower of ice and snow arose. Then he taps his head with the cane and a army helmet appears.

 

Taking his sculpture (which now has a helmet to mimic its recipient) from Venefyxatu, he says, "Thank you, good sir, Veneboolyhoo, but I've got a war to win! Come Lieutenant Sculpture, the game is afoot!" And striking the ground with his cane again, he disappeared and reappeared back at the top of his tower.

 

"Come one, come all! See Veneflippityflops' amazing snow maze! Brave the barrage of snowballs from myself, Kasmandre T. Koot, from my impregnable tower! Fear me and my ITing-" He's cut off as a snowball arcs up from the maze and snacks him right in the face. From far below, he can hear Katzaniel giggling.

[Venefyxatu]

Venefyxatu can't help but grin broadly as he follows Katzaniel and Kasmandre's actions. This is going to be interesting... , he thought.

He puts his ice sculptures aside for a few moments and bends down to make a small pile of snowballs - all of them end up being vaguely skull-shaped for some reason. He tosses one over at Vahktang while he's deciding what to use next on his giant ice-cube-turning-statue to get his attention, and says in a slightly raised voice, "Kasmandre needs you in the maze..."

 

Then, with his weapons (aka snowballs) at the ready beside him, he gets back to sculpting, a larger piece of ice this time...

 

OOC : Not an attempt to create two "It"'s since I do not consider this as an "Official Snowball" I'm trying to attract some attention to this thread and actually participate a little

[Peredhil]

Muttering grumpily about lucky shots and interrupting perfectly good challenges, and no respect for elders, Kasmandre winds up a mighty arm and flings a snowball back at Katzaniel.

 

Or that was his intent.

 

The snowball looped a wide arch high through the air as Kasmandre gaped at it.

 

"That wasn't how it was supposed to work..."

 

The snowball continued on its inevitable path until it intersected with a certain Elf walking away from a Kissing Booth.

 

Pow! the snowball exploded on the front of Elrohir's chest. Kasmandre winced in momentary sympathy - and then shouted,

 

"Hey Son, YOU'RE IT!" Leaning over the wall, he shouted down at Katzaniel, "Did you see that throw! Be glad such awesome power weren't aimed at you, yonker!"

 

He jerked back just in time for Katzaniel's snowball to miss him, and was still laughing and jeering at her when Elrohir ball splatted on the wall below him.

 

Ducking safely out of sight, he momentarily nodded off for a quick nap.

[Quincunx]

Minta hadn't come home for a few weeks now--far too long for Rydia's taste. She looked out of her window and saw the snowflakes swirling over the carnival site, and decided to dress warmly: thick warm leg warmers that fit inside her boots, matching long gloves and scarf knitted from extra-fuzzy yarn, a stretchy hairband with sleek yarn that would not tangle in the hair, and fuzzy conical ear warmers. Bundled up above and below the nose, she stumped downstairs and out into the courtyard. It was peculiar, definitely magical, how the snow fluttered only over the grounds of the carnival, and she hurried through the warmer sections of the courtyard before beginning to sweat inside her layers.

 

She slowed down when entering the snowstorm, feet turned slightly inward to prevent a loss of traction, until she noticed the total lack of ice. Rydia's ears started to slice elliptical tracks above her head to brush snowflakes away before they could land near her eyes, and she scooped up a handful of snow to make a pre-emptive snowball--it was best not to go unarmed into snow of this perfect snowball-forming quality. Following the light breeze, she rounded snowbanks and booths until she stopped dead in her tracks. The forgotten snowball landed on the toe of her right boot. The snow maze glowed everchanging pastel with all the colors Gryphon had set loose within it, twinkled at a million points with ice crystals, and sometimes let loose a ricocheting comet of deeper-hued light into the sky.

 

"So shiny," she breathed, and wandered glassy-eyed into the maze.

[Peredhil]

Elrohir was wildly throwing snowballs and not hitting anyone.

 

His cheeks shone red and his breath steamed happily in the air as he realized the magical snow of the Pen's Keep replenished as he made snowballs. This was perfect.

 

Taking a small break in his barrage (and taking a few spattering hits in the process, he rolled up some big snowballs (which packed perfectly and didn't fall apart while rolling) and made a small fortress.

 

Within minutes he was throwing snowballs again.

 

Whooosh! A string of six snowballs whizzed in formation around Venefyxatu's head, causing his hair to rise then settle with the wind raised by their passage. Venefyxatu didn't even blink any more. He'd noted that Elrohir's snowballs hadn't hit him except when he dodged.

 

Shooosh! A high looping shot hit the wall just above Kasmandre's head, waking the cranky old Mage.

 

Zing! Oooops. A snowball thrown in sheer exuberance actually hit someone.

The neato necro gnomie girl Minta took one on the chest while she was incoming from the direction of Wyvern's booth.

Elrohir had MEANT that one to hit the front of the Kissing Booth, but...

He winced, then smiled as instead of pouting, Minta shrieked in delight and returned fire!

 

What he didn't realize was that Minta had just been Tagged, for IT was hiding in that snowball...

 

He didn't even see Bravery...

 

Suddenly, the snowball fight was on!

[Quincunx]

It hopped gleefully inside Minta's head, overjoyed at being back where It belonged and rushing to enjoy all the sugar-fed craziness before she forced It back into another cold snowball to go hurtling to It-knows-who. . .

 

To everyone else, Minta was just rolling around forming snow gobbies (by falling forward with her bottom stuck up in midair, forming gobbie-death-pose-prints all over the place) and bouncing up and down while kicking to cause snow fountains and causing chaos in the usual fashion.

[Wyvern]

"YeeeaaaaAAAAAAAAAAH!"

 

Bravery let out a dwarven war cry as he rushed out onto the snowy field, fully equiped with a dwarven rock-carrying sack of snowballs and clenching his teeth as the last of the mud falls from his back. He spent no time contemplating losses, but jumped forward as Elrohir let out another furious volley of snowballs, performing a rolling slide as each of them proved to be way off-target.

 

"Yaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

 

The Elder Dwarf dodged back and forth as Venefyxatu tossed several snowballs at him, arriving at the sculptors ice booth just in time to grab a thin piece of ice and hold it up as a shield, blocking a snow barrage from Kasmandre T. Koot's impregnable ice tower in the process. He turned to toss a snowball just as Venefxatu tossed another one from behind, blocking the maze-head's attack with his own.

 

"Heeeeaaaaaaahhhhh!"

 

Bravery fearlessly dashed out into the field area once again, cartwheeling as several high shots aimed at Kasmandre's tower from Katzaniel arced from within the maze and crashed around him. Still untouched, he turned towards the inexhaustable source of snowballs known as Minta Rose just in time to duck down as seven tightly formed balls passed overhead, jumping to the side as a new volley erupted from her only moments later. Reaching into his sack, he countered Minta's machine gun volley with a rapid-fire volley of his own, only to find his sack empty at the end of the third succession of snowballs.

 

"Ye-e-e-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h-h-h-h-h-h!"

 

Bravery suddenly seemed to move in slow motion as he dashed in the direction of Kasmandre's tower, seemingly doomed by the next round from Minta's arsenal as fourteen large snowballs sailed in his direction. Much to the amazement of the other participants, the dwarf sidestepped the enormous snowball volley and agiley jumped foreward, using the large pattern of snowballs as a staircase leading to the tower wall. Reaching into his tunic, Bravery let out a triumphant grin as he pulled out a dwarven grappling hook and threw it towards the top of the ice tower, screaming:

 

"Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrhhhh!"

 

Unfortunately for Bravery, the dwarven grappling hook proved to be too small and fell short of Kasmandre's area, faintly clinging to the ice wall for a moment before slipping and falling. The Elder Dwarf's grin turned to a look of horror as he crashed into the wall, followed by fourteen snowballs, each of them labeled with the word 'It' and newly muddied from Bravery's dwarven boots...