In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
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The town of Aries Garse is known as quite the party location, which is why it draws in quite a crowd in spite of it being in the forsaken realm. Due to the wide array of gambling events, there are also those who wish to profit off of it. As such, a local “Entrepreneur” has asked interested individuals to check in with him at his store. There, they will get to take a set of loaded dice. Take them to one or more of the gambling establishments to see how well they work. More importantly, this is to test if the one using them gets caught or not.
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[attr="class","shadowsSub"]Details
Maximum Number of Players: 2
[break]Minimum Word Count: 1500
[break]Location: Aries Garse
[break]Special Requirements: Be clever with using these dice, use them primarily to win larger hauls, and don’t risk overreaching. If the owner of the establishment figures you out, the dice will be confiscated and you will get kicked out, meaning you will earn nothing but a bad reputation. After a successful job, return the dice to their creator and he will allow you to keep what you’ve earned with them at the gambling tables. Remember, if you get caught, it's an automatic failure.
[attr="class","shadowsSub"]NPC Information
What NPCs are in this mission? Please fill out the template for any notable NPCs. While those you have to socially interact with during the mission are not required, any enemy that is presented in the mission must be listed here.
[break]Magic Element and Types: Earth | Attack Creation | Restraining
[break]Combat Style: These bouncers use their size and their muscle to work you out of the establishment, and will not hesitate to rough you up if you choose to make a scene. Being physically strong and quite durable, they are not the kind to make into an enemy.
[break]Additional Information: Will only engage when they catch someone cheating and only get violent when they can’t persuade said person to leave the building, at which point they will get violent.
Aries Garse - a town for people who loved to live life on the razors edge. Gamblers and party-goers alike tended to congregate in the city that never sleeps. For men like Mania it was a town bountiful in harvest and ripe for the picking. The young rogue had come to Aries Garse to seek such ends and opportunities. If one was privy to back-alley channels, then they would know of the plethora of work available to rogues seeking an easy payday.
Mania could always use more Yul, so he had spent much of the early morning in search of something lucrative, but simple. It seemed like every other day the rogue had been getting into more and more jobs. The difficulty varied, but today he wanted to do something a tad more low-key. It didn't take Mania long to get the gist of a job from a connection he made during his last visit to Aries Garse. Word was there was a local entrepreneur in possession of some illegal dice. He had been looking for lesser men it seemed to test his dice, offering to let you keep any winnings you received. It was simple enough, but Mania would have to inspect the dice to be sure the counterfeit, loaded replica would pass the eye test.
The last time Mania had visited the gambling hall ended tragically, with him and another misfit stuck in a dark cellar. The two had narrowly escaped a sting operation set by the town Magic Knights. There was one good thing that came from that hectic day - the boy Arwin he had met. They exchanged some conversation which ended with Mania making a promising business partner. It didn't take Mania long to come upon the modest-sized shop. The rogue would enter the establishment, a bell heralded his entrance as he walked to the front counter. A sly-looking businessman with a long mustache and pretentious face greeted the rogue.
"Hello, you looking for anything in particular?"
He asked Mania as the rogue would disinterestedly look about the store's miscellaneous wares before leaning atop the glass display counter. Mania would draw closer, leaning in as another person in the shop would exit.
"Yeah... A little birdie told me I can find some special dice here. Know anything about that?"
Mania spoke coolly in a low whisper, but loud enough for just the shopkeep to hear. The man would flash Mania a wide grin as he gestured to the back discreetly.
"Of course, whatever you need you can bet your ass you'll find it here. I keep the expensive merch in the back. Why don't you go have a look while I tend to these guests first? There's another client I have that's interested in that too. When he's here we can get to business."
"Sure thing!"
Speaking flatly, Mania would slip into the back room as he tended to another customer. It seemed someone else had been interested in testing out his dice. It didn't matter much to Mania, he had met many kinds of people from all walks of life. He was quite used to being paired with strangers. The rogue would enter the dimly lit room, it was practically empty except for a round table that sat in the middle with a few chairs. Taking a seat Mania would kick his feet up upon the table, resting his hands behind his head. Mania would close his eyes and wait patiently.
Post by Dominique Blouin on Oct 26, 2021 12:55:51 GMT -5
Aries Garse, the city that never sleeps. Dominique had heard some stories and rumors about Aries Garse from Miss Jackson, his caregiver at the orphanage and the closest thing he had to a mother. In her youth, Miss Jackson was an infamous rogue and frequenter of the Aries Garse underground life. She ran various scams and whatnot in the gambling rings and dabbled in all types of criminal enterprises that afforded her various types of friends and enemies. Apparently, there were multiple locations in Aries Garse were Miss Jackson had either been banned or welcomed with opened arms. According to Miss Jackson, eventually she was forced to leave the city of Aries Garse by those hidden and dark figures that lurk around the corners and rule the corrupt city unseen from the shadows.
Dominique had never been interested in gambling, nor had he been interested in Miss Jackson stories of her past exploits and victories. At the time, he wanted to stay away from places like Aries Garse, and walk a road straighter than an arrow. Unfortunately, fate did not shine its golden tooth onto Dominique, and a series of unfortunate events led him here searching for a job. After all, Yul is needed, and crime is without a doubt one of the easiest ways to attain Yul. Ironically enough, Dominique found himself trying to recollect and scavenge the memories of her stories so that he could manevours through the streets and to find him some sort of work.
The most obvious way to find a job was through back alley-way channels, and rumors that were whispered throughout taverns and inns that dotted Aries Garse. Dominique had learned from his close friend Valentino how to keep his ear out for rumors, and then how to sort out rumors from leads. Sorting out leads from rumors happened to be a useful skill to pick up and develop, a skill that Dominique placed in good use as he stalked the streets. He met with a roguish individual who informed Dominique about a dice forger who wanted someone to try out a new pair of loaded dice that he crafted.
The last time that Dominique was in the gambling hall he had found himself in a dark cellar with an odd brunette boy, the two fortunately had been able to escape, albeit narrowly. To be honest, Dominique did not want to be caught into another situation like that again, but when push came to shove in the pursuit for Yul, Dominique had been pushed own the staircase for Yul. So, begrudgingly Dominique sought after the merchant who crafted the rigged dice. His search led him to a modest sized shop, were a familiar brown-haired boy stood at the counter with the merchant.
He silently watched from the doorway, keeping his presence mute and unknown. Eventually, the familiar kid left the counter and made his way to a back room, Dominique cocked an eyebrow upward as the scene played out before him. When the kid disappeared into the back room, Dominique officially entered into the modest shop, and silently perused the merchant’s wares with mild interest. The merchant had somethings that caught Dominique’s interest, but until he got some more Yul, he could not afford to waste money at this moment in time. After a moment or two of exploring the shop, Dominique approached the merchant and greeted him.
“Are you having some difficulty with finding things dear sir?” The merchant flashed Dominique a kindly smile, to which Dominique flashed a smile in return.
“Indeed, I am kind sir, you see I am looking for a pair of dice to test my luck with.” He paused for a moment and scratched his chin in thought. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to help? Would you?”
The man grinned and leaned into the counter, “Of course I do dear sir, if you’ll head into the back, where that other young man went to, I’ll get you settled in a moment.”
Nodding, Dominique entered into the back room where he saw the familiar brown-hair kid sitting with his feet propped up on the table in front of him. Dominique could not help but frown a bit and enter into the mostly empty room with the familiar kid. After a minute or two of wandering around the room, Dominique silently located any exits and windows that he could find, and then sat down at the table, across from the familiar rogue whom he had previously escaped a sticky situation with.
“I knew that was you that I saw at the counter.” Dominique muttered with mild interest and placed his chin in the palm of his hand. “Tell, me is this another situation that we would need to work together and escape from?” He asked sarcastically.
STATS
POW: 20 DUR: 10 SEN: 00 STA: 22 CON: 22
SPEED: 5m/s HEALTH: senior MANA SKIN: senior MANA POOL: 34 / 34 MANA REGEN: 05 IC / 10 OOC
SPELLS
List spells here, would recommend using spoilers if you include spell descriptions
Not much time had elapsed as the rogue sat with his eyes shut, delved into the darkness of his mind - pondering idle thoughts. From his position Mania could hear the coming and going of customers and even the muffled speech being exchanged. He halfway found himself listening as footsteps drew closer to his location. Mania would open one eye to observe the room.
A white-haired young man had stepped into the back room, his pale skin accented by eyes that shined the color of freshly spilled blood in the dimly lit room. A brief moment and Mania had realized he knew the skittish man who appeared to be on edge. Mania could tell because as he watched through one eye, he saw the man search the small room. Looking for possible exits to escape should things get dicey Mania would presume. Finally, the young rogue would open his eyes as his likely partner sat across from him. "Only if we get caught during this gig."
Mania replied coolly whilst the roguish shop-keep would enter the room thereafter, temporarily locking his store door. He would spin animatedly before opening a side draw on a shelf closest to the entrance in the room. Producing two sets of what appeared to be normal dice. Mania's curious gaze would be fixed to the entrepreneur as he would shake the dice within his hand, approaching the table that sat the two rogues. "Now for what you gents have been patiently waiting for..." He would lead as he looked at both Mania and Dominique, a wide smile pressing the corner of his lips.
"These are no simple ordinary dice!"
The shop-keep would proclaim as he craftily rotated them between the fingers of his hands expertly. Being sure the two rogues could clearly see them as he played with the dice for a moment longer before continuing.
"Made by yours truly, I created these dice to always land positively for its handler. The only problem was that I'm too good at what I do, so these dice never have bad results. Meaning it would be quite suspicious should you roll them every time."
He warned as the dice would be tossed from his hand, rolling onto the table. The dice would bounce and land on a natural eleven. Mania smiled as he took a pair into his hand and replicated the man's actions to test them himself a few times before he would be satisfied.
Seven.
Seven.
Eleven.
Seven.
Eleven.
"Just as advertised. I'm impressed."
Mania would state, happy with the results as the man gave a bowing gesture.
"Just to be clear anything we win we can keep, yeah?"
The rogue would palm the dice, before grabbing his long brown jacket from behind his chair.
"Of course, I just need fine, brave risk-takers such as yourselves to test the dice for me. Make sure they work as intended without raising any alarms. Simple right? Just be sure to return those to me."
Mania would wave him goodbye, his eyes straightforward on the exit.
"Lets go Dominique, suns getting low. and we got plenty of Yul to make."
Mania would exit the store, expecting Dominque to follow suit. He would make his way to one of the plentiful gambling halls in Aries Garse. The town had so many that it would only be a short walk to find one. Eight minutes and Mania was outside the establishment, two fairly large men appraising the duo before letting them pass. Taking the opportunity as they walked down the entrance hall Mania would lean in close to Dominque whispering in a hushed murmur. One that only he would be able to hear.
"We should work the tables individually. Being together would only draw unwanted attention. I'll take the left and you the right. After we hit it big we can blow this popsicle stand. These blokes will be none the wiser~"
Patting him on the shoulder, Mania would saunter off, grabbing a drink from one of the fine-looking female servers as he surveyed the wide space filled with people. Looking for his first mark!
Post by Dominique Blouin on Oct 28, 2021 18:28:09 GMT -5
A small smirk appeared across Dominique’s thin and scarred lips at the dark blue-hair boy’s sarcastic words, or well at least what he picked up as sarcasm. A slender young man, the rogue who sat before him was not too hard on the eyes, he had sharp facial features with hazel-colored eyes, and steel-blue bang that hanged low enough to frame his face. He spoke in a cool tone; Dominique had some trouble finding emotion within the other’s voice, but nonetheless, assumed that he made use of sarcasm with his comment on being caught in this ‘gig’.
There is a chance that the other rogue was being serious, a strong chance, but Dominique chose to interpret his words as sarcasm. It made the other rogue a bit more interesting, not that he wasn’t interesting before, but mainly because he found blandness and stoicism to be relatively boring. Dominique would be the first to admit that he too was a laid back and even at times cold guy, but that wasn’t him twenty-four seven. Put some alcohol and he was nearly a different person, something which he recognized probably not a good thing to admit.
“Indeed.” He smirked at his potential partner. “Getting caught would not be fun, your name was Mani” before he could finish his sentence, the shop keeper would rumble through some draw that sat closet to the entrance and produced two sets of what appeared to be normal die. Dominique’s lips drew into a thin line as he closed his mouth and went silent again.
The merchant seemed to have been proud about his own creation, as seen but his huge smile, and his tone of voice as he went on to explain how the dice worked. He explained that the dice were made to always land positively for its handler, but unfortunately, the dice will always land on a good result and never a bad result. Which made it a bit difficult to utilize. The merchant showed them that the dice worked by throwing it a few times onto the table. Dominique watched as the dice rolled across the table and landed on absolute perfect rolls.
Truth be told, Dominique could have cared less about the dice and the gambling scene. With that being said, the merchant was paying for someone to test out his dice, and well, Dominique was definitely going to at least pretend to be interested in his dice. “So, we are to be your test subjects in order to see if they can later be used to make someone else a fortune?” Dominique asked sarcastically and tilted his head curiously when he saw that Mania had already swiped the dice from the man, Dominique too would do the same, and then follow Mania out.
The two rogues made their way around Aries Garse, to one of the many gambling halls, were to large men checked them before granting them access to the establishment. Mania would recommend that they split up, as to be less suspicious and to hit more tables. Dominique took a moment to consider Mania recommendation and yawned in a bored manner as he nodded in agreement. “Fine, fine, I suppose that makes sense. What is our game plan should thing go south?” But as he spoke, Mania had left and went out to one of the tables, Dominique sighed and went off to the opposite direction.
STATS
POW: 20
DUR: 10
SEN: 00
STA: 22
CON: 22
SPEED: 5m/s
HEALTH: senior
MANA SKIN: senior
MANA POOL: 34 / 34
MANA REGEN: 05 IC / 10 OOC
SPELLS
List spells here, would recommend using spoilers if you include spell descriptions
Downing the shot of whiskey, Mania slightly winced. The body of it was strong and instantly hit the bottom of his stomach. Discarding the empty shot glass atop a nearby table, the rogue's keen hazel eyes would spot a table occupied by three men. They looked like they were decently loaded and prime targets. Mania would put on a smile and saunter towards the table, hailing the men down as he approached.
With his right hand in his pockets Mania felt around for the pair of real dice he bought earlier in the day. Palming them Mania would clutch the dice, rattling them in his pocket.
"A fellow just got paid from work and I'm in need of some company to lighten my pockets~"
They would eye Mania who wore an inviting smile, his posture.
"You mean fatten those pockets! HAHAHAHA"
The larger man of the three would speak first with a joke, chuckling heartily afterward.
"You got me~"
Mania smoothly proclaimed as the bespectacled, older gentleman motioned for him to take a seat. Mania would nod, taking the fourth and final spot at the table of craps. He would cleverly slip the loaded dice into his opposite hand. Shielding them from view by deftly holding onto them with the small of the inside of his finger. His free hand would hold the normal dice as he shifted to a more comfortable seating position. They would begin to play, Mania leading with a small bet he would lose to the large man. This same situation would go on, Mania winning some smaller hands here and there, but mostly he bet just enough to seem genuinely interested in betting.
Mania had already decided that when he hit his threshold for the amount of Yul he lost, he would slowly increase his bets and start to employ the special dice he received. A few minutes would go by before finally, Mania deemed it was the time to act. Expertly he would clearly display grabbing the normal dice he had been using up until now, but with his loaded right hand. Being sure that the motion was seamless as he slide the normal dice into the sleeve of his shirt, where they would fall into his lap, hidden by the table.
"You boys have been cleaning me, where's lady luck when you need her?"
As Mania spoke he would take a shot glass from one of the beautiful severs walking about. To the head in one shot Mania would slam the empty glass onto the table. Appearing as if he was fired up, the men in the game joked and laughed while they continued. Steadily Mania's plan was working well as he consistently begin to win some larger hands off the men, but chose to call more often than not to avoid suspicions. Before they could become warier, Mania would casually swap the dice once more. Retrieving the real ones and moving the loaded ones back to his right pocket. A little sleight of hand could go far and his cleverly deceitful actions would go unnoticed.
Continuing the game Mania would have made a sizeable amount of Yul. He had done a large amount of winning, but it was peppered with sensible losses that veiled his cheating. After another small loss, Mania would concede to the gentlemen. They wanted him to continue, but Mania needed to hit various marks, never sticking to the same for too long. If he did, it would inevitably become apparent the rogue was cheating. He wasn't here to make a fortune off these dice, but he could make a respectable amount he mused, smiling as he cleverly doubled his Yul. Mania would begin looking over the large gambling hall. He figured it had been a while so he would pay Dominique a visit. See if things were going well for him as well.
Mania however had thoughts of tripling his current Yul. If possible he wanted to quadruple it, but he would first see how far he could push the issue on utilizing the loaded dice to win much larger bets.
Mania would watch Dominique for a short while before returning back to gambling with the loaded dice. After some time the rogue would finish up, but notice Dominique was still preoccupied with gambling so he would leave the fellow rogue in the gambling halls and return back to the shop to return the dice. While exchanging the dice back, Mania would cleverly with the help of sleight of hand and misdirection swap the loaded dice with his real ones. With his payment in hand and the loaded dice successfully lifted from the unsuspecting man, Mania would make off casually. [EXIT] WC: 99 TWC: 2,041 Notes: Exiting mission due to inactivity. Completed the required word count. Also I tried to steal the loaded dice, just for story stuff if allowed.