Player Plot - Haunted House 2 - The Moogle Test of Courage

[not_most_days]

Characters: Moogles and Heroes who signed up. Latecomers welcome for a brief time
Where: An old run down shrine north of Aqures Ixen
When: October 20th
Summary: Mysterious letters have gone out, inviting moogles to come take part in a test of courage, and inviting Heroes to come and be the monsters for it.
Warning: 2SPOOKY It’s too late a skeleton is inside you

Throughout the month letters were arriving in mailboxes, though it was never clear who actually did the deliveries. This was further complicated by the fact that the letters addressed to the Heroes who received them were all requesting a level of secrecy from them for the sake of making this event go off without a hitch. The letters that came to the moogles on the other hand only spoke of a challenge, and a promise of prizes and glory to the bravest of moogles, if they could prove themselves. The letters were simply signed Kutan. No letters sent back to them would be replied to.

The Heroes were encouraged to show up early on the 20th, while the moogles were told to come at sundown.

Comments

[mindofathief]

"Y..." Duster wheezed before opting to nod. He held his mask up, laying it horizontally so better take a look at the nose holes.

Just as he thought, they were too small. He was essentially covering his mouth and nose.

"No, you don't have to do that. I spent a week on this mask, but..." He held it out for Rialynn to check. "It looks like the breathing holes got covered up."

[rialynn]

"You made this yourself?" Rialynn's pale eyebrows shot up. She looked at the mask again, really studying it this time. "Duster, this is really good. I would have thought it was something a craftsman would sell in his shop!"

She dropped to one knee, rolling up the tattered hem of her costume to draw a small throwing knife from the inside cuff of her boot, and passed it to Duster. "Here, will this help? Maybe you can widen the holes a little with the tip."

Hopefully he didn't plan on using this mask to scare her to death after the trial of courage for the Moogles, because she was pretty sure she would have fallen for it in a frantic heartbeat.

[mindofathief]

"What?" Duster leaned back, a crooked smile forming on his face. "I just followed the instructions the craftsman gave me, that's all." It was a mess, though mostly unintentional. If this were meant to be anything other than a decaying zombie, Rialynn would not have complimented it so.

Masterwork or not, he accepted the knife. Stabbing a hole was easy with something so sharp. He held the mask horizontally, closing one eye to better aim the knife.

"Hidden weapons are pretty good in a fight. You know how to throw knives?"

[rialynn]

"Yeah. Don't tell, there's no point if the villains know I've got them," she winked, grinning, then looked at the mask as she watched him work. "I haven't really had to use them much since coming here. Most of the time if I get into a fight, the rapier does just fine. There aren't many places here that refuse you entry if they see you've got a weapon on you."

The libraries in her world wouldn't let any sword-bearing people inside, and also required a signed pass from a nobleman to gain entry. It was probably a good thing that Duster and the Gang never had to deal with any of those libraries, for they were hiding a great evil within their walls.

"Still," she shrugged. "It's good to have them if I need to keep a distance. Why, do you keep some too?"

[mindofathief]

"No, not daggers," he answered. "No one in Tazmily would let you in if you carried something like that. I had my Thief Tools, but they don't really hurt anyone. Just make it easier to me to fight."

He could ask Cid to bring them to this world, but that would involved talking to Cid. Or Biggs. Neither of which was a person Duster enjoyed talking to.

"Not that I'm having a hard time here. Back home, I didn't have any magic powers or a way to strike a bunch of monsters at the same time."

[rialynn]

"...Huh?" Rialynn blinked at him, confused. "How do Thief Tools make it easier to fight?" She thought that was just a set of picks meant for unfastening locks, Rialynn wouldn't have imagined that they would have any use in combat.

Unless you had to fight while manacled which, to be fair, one of her friends had done when locked in the bastille.

But at the latter, she could agree and she relaxed a little with a short laugh. "No, neither did I. No magic, no supernatural abilities. And hopefully no monsters, but you can never really be sure of that."

[mindofathief]

Duster turned two wide, brown eyes at Rialynn. As a boy, he was taught in the art of lockpicking and breaking and entering, but those were not considered Tools with a capital t. They were tools, but not the Thief Tools.

"Things like...pinning an enemy down with Wall Staples. Those can also be used to climb a wall, so that makes them twice as useful." Duster readjusted the fold of his sleeve. "And my smoke bombs and hypno-pendulum and the mask that scares enemies from attacking. Without them, I'd lose every time I faced more than one monster."

[rialynn]

"Really? Wow...sounds kind of like they've got some magical properties to them." Maybe she should look into getting one of those masks at the very least. Would that even work against the monsters here? It probably wasn't something she should test without decent backup, anyway.

Once he'd finished fixing his mask, she held out her hand to take her knife back, then dropped to her knee so she could replace it in its proper spot. "Are you going to ask Cid for a set?"

[mindofathief]

"They don't." The answer was obvious and trivial to Duster. His tools were no more magic than ghosts or walking gravestones or slugs that shot acid at intruders. Magic was the powers that Lucas and Kumatora wielded. The ability to heal or create lighting with their minds was incredible and almost unbelievable.

His mouth tightened at the mention of Cid. He had considered asking him, but after their first encounter, he wasn't sure about returning for another regain.

"I don't need them as much. I still have my Job to take care of it."