Dungeons and Kreons

TF2k5 - Hubcap - Saturday, December 29, 2012, 12:17 AM

Trivia is an odd constant of the KRE-O-verse. He does not sleep. He's always awake, somewhere, doing something. However, all of it is rather inconsequential. Unmemorable. Safe.

But then, he never was the bravest Autokreon. Trivia peers at the gameboard that has been laid out in one of the city's plazas. Does he even want to know? Somneone is probably playing The Most Dangerous Game again. This happens at least once a week.

Then someone sets up a trebuchet behind him and launches him into the middle of the giant gameboard. Trivia splats down and falls into pieces. Grumbling to himself, he reassembles himself, and he starts to look around. Okay, stuck on a giant gameboard. Can't be worse than the Bohrok Crisis?

Grapple was honestly just... Passing by. Really. Walking past the square with a few bags of purchases in one kreoney hand. The other is a tube, you know; not really good for holding things. The clatter of Bricks-R-Us totes clacking against each other is inconsequential compared to the hum of the square. And why IS it so noisy, anyway? Grapple peers around and spots... The gameboard. ... Again? Third time this month. Bemused, he heads towards a set of stairs, where other kreons sit to watch.

The problem with being on this particular game board is that once on it, your arms are just removed. No particular reason, and they will return once someone finds an item. Like that minifig over on the far side! ...wait.

Ford seems both exceptionally comfortable and uncomfortable with being on this game board. On one hand, he seems quite at home with the bow in his suddenly there, but still unconnected hands. A bit like Rayman, really. Whatever that was... Ford's little bow launchs a small arrow down a row he's standing on at a monster a couple 2X2 spaces away, each space featuring only one bump to connect to. The monster Ford is shooting at it a little skeleton minifig in painted on armor, which does little to protect it from the arrow that scatters it into pieces on impact. Turning back, Ford opens a little chest piece behind him, before all the other skeleton pieces on the board move about 2 spaces each. One of them taking two hops as it moves towards the space Trivia has landed on from his catapult in. Others seem to be hidden behind the rather medieval setting of the trees and castle wall pieces surrounding the Kreo board.

Hubcap frowns. A moment ago he was ... somewhere else, now he's standing on some strange board, and everything seems, well, pixellated. No, wait, it's all just blocky. His arms are missing, but a disembodied hand floats next to him, holding a staff with a knob on the end.

Trivia is now missing his arms and is also a Druid, but he does not question either of these developments overly much. Weird stuff happens in KRE-Oland. It is a fairly pleasant place, nonetheless. No one ever gets /really/ hurt... except then they do.

Trivia does not dwell on that, though. He declares, "This invasion of monsters is unnatural, and it is my duty to set the world back into its proper balance! ...I feel like I just read that off a cue card, right, so, never let the Rogue out of sight."

Ford turns himself on his little knob, noticing the two new players on the field. Newbies... Ford rocked his body a bit, in an attempt to wave at the new guys with his whole figure. "Hey, Druid, Mage! You guys picked an unhealthy time to join in! The  Wight Knight is about to make his rounds on the board after this turn! Stay out of his path or you'll get blocked up!" Ford takes a quick look around his side of the board before nodding and hopping 4 spaces to a nearby chest. Ford nodded to a rather sinister looking minifig on a far end of the board. The black face was covered (painted over) with scarred white armor, red eyes seering from the peepholes it's helmet had. "He's gonna follow that white path you're standing on down and back. Keep off it if he gets close! Attack from a non-white panel!" Ford instructed, before a dice plopped down next to the other two players.

These game boards had a habit of popping up every so often. Whenever people were generally down, someone filed a permit and had the thing built overnight. Really, they were quite entertaining; the surrounding stands were filling up. Grapple had even found a seat near the front, a tub full of one-square-yellow popcorn bits, and he had some time to kill. A tube-arm waves enthusiastically.

Hubcap turns to face the player addressing him, raising his staff in greeting, then glances down at the ground, then follows Ford's nod towards what he assumes to be the Wight Knight. "Right, Get out of scary guy's way." Glancing around, he hops a few spaces, headed towards the one who seems to know what's going on. "Note to self: Either learn the rules, or stop betting against Jackpot."

Trivia gets off the white path however many squares that he is allowed to do so, looking rather squeamish. "Yes. Well. This is not exactly how I was planning on spending my evening, but." He shrugs. Brickily.

Getting off the white path should be easy enough, even with a spellcasters 2 block movement range, and considering the path is only one space wide with plenty of offshooting paths. The white brick road itself weaves around the board, ensuring maximum chaos. As the player pieces finish moving, the skeleton minions all move 2 spaces each, one of them continuing to advance itself on Trivia while another comes in from the other end. A third is advancing on Ford's space and 2 more pop up on little black spawn spaces, though thankfully, those are at the ends of the board.

Now came the Wight Knight, and boy does he haul brick butt along the board. Moving a veritable 7 spaces along his 35 brick path, he comes uncomfortably close to Hubcap. In an impressive, but creepy display of game detail, the Wight Knight turns and faces the closest player near it... in this case, Hubcap, glaring at it with those hellish red eyes. But not to worry! So long as the players stay off the path, they'll be fine... right?

Ford looked down as the boss minifig started to move. "We'll need to get the 3 bricks that make up the Tomb Wall! We seal it in and we win! Just... lemme see..." Ford's painted eyes scan the board as he searches out the treasure chests, which are scattered all across the board. "Skeletons carry keys! Bash them up when you get close to them and you get one to open a chest! Of  course, if you just stay where you are, you guys should be able to hit them from afar... just make sure you aren't on the Wight's path!" Ford's lengthy explanation finished, he hopped his 4 spaces as he moved to another chest.

Trivia attacks the skeleton, looking for a key. He cries, "Off to the great brickyard in the sky with you!" He feels like he read that off a cuecard, too. It is something that someone bravier and snappier might say...

Hubcap, apparently unconcerned, treats the Knight to one of his most disarming smiles, then hops along a couple of times, taking care not to stand on the path. Then he pauses, and looks at the Knight thoughtfully. "Hey, how tough is this guy, anyway?"

The skeleton goes down without much fuss. A key flies from the flurry of pieces it scatters about and lands at Trivia's feet; easy pickin's. The other skeleton coming from behind continues to advance, but thankfully, it's on a bridge, and has quite a ways to go before it gets to Triv.

The Wight Knight simply continues to glare at Hubcap as it moves once more along it's path, away from Hubcap and towards Trivia, now turning it's gaze to the druid minifig. While the Knight moves away, another skeleton minion advances towards Hub, it's painted mouth clattering teeth at the staff-wielder.

Ford hops along his spaces, keeping an eye on the skeletons near him as he opens another chest. Judging by the bleep'd swearing, he didn't find anything useful inside. Drawing his little knife piece, he looks back to Hubcap. "Really tough! If we attack him indirectly, hie'll be stunned for a turn! But don't try attacking him up close, he'll break you, and then you'll lose all the wall pieces you have! Remember, we need at least 3 to beat him!"

Hubcap's mouth twists into a sour line as he absorbs that. Rapping his staff against the ground, he mutters "Fuego" and a burst of fire streaks out towards the skeleton. "I /hate/ playing by the rules."

Trivia picks up the key at his feet and then tries to attack the other skeleton. Unlike Harry Dresden, he seems content enough to play by the rules, not even questioning that the rules /could/ be broken.

Both attacked skeletons get scattered to pieces, as more keys fly out to their new respective owners, as more skeletons slowly fill up the board. The Wight Knight moved once again, making it's way past Trivia as it glares his way and slowly moves in Ford's direction.

For his part, Ford moves quickly across the board, moving away from the skeletons chasing him in pursuit of another chest. He already had one wall piece. Time to hunt for another! "The rules are there for a reason, trust me! You win 5000 studs for beating the guy, plus an extra 1000 for each additional wall piece you find, along with 500 for each key you collect! Not to mention the bonuses hidden in some chests! The rules may suck, but the payoff is well worth the time!"

Hubcap collects the key that skids to a halt at his feet. Then straightens up and hops a couple of places, headed for the nearest chest, frowning thoughtfully. "So, hypothetically speaking, what would levering up the white tiles and rearranging them into a circle, with someone placed to lift up the tile connecting the circle to the path at the appropriate moment, result in?"

Trivia recoils away from the Wight Knight. What a horrifying creature! He tries to see if there is a box he can open with one of his keys. Tremulously, he asks, "...do the boxes have monsters in them, uh, ever?"

Ford paused, looking back at Hubcap as he offers his theory. "...never thought to try that. I don't even know if you can pick them up." Ford replied, before looking at the Wight Knight as it moves closer to him, now turning to glare at the rogue as he moves to the next chest opening it up. "They can, but I've only had that happen to me once, so I think it's pre-- GAH!" Ford apparently demonstrates what happens when that rarity occurs as a flurry of little bats fly up out of the chest he'd chosen.

Scattering studs everywhere around him. Ford hurriedly raced to pick them up, as they flickered out of existence around him.

"They scatter your studs everywhere, along with extras of their own. You could potentially lose or gain, depending on how fast you are." Obviously, being the money grubber that he was, along with the +200 popping up over his head, Ford apparently earned back more than what was taken from him by the trap.

And the crowd goes wild! The full game-watching stands were apparently waiting for a monster to pop out of a chest. It doesn't happen often, and it could throw the whole game in to a new spin! There's some thrown one-brick flats and one-round studs that fall out of the stands, but they're almost entirely food pieces.

Trivia keeps looking for a chest that he can open, but he is not very fast, being a DRUID. He winces a bit as the bats attack Ford. He asks worriedly, "That did not injure you, did it?"

Hubcap's expression brightens at the news that he might get to change the game. He hops his permitted 2 spaces towards the side of the white path. "Well, no harm in finding out, right?"

Ford turns to wave at the crowd as they cheer on the heroes. Apparently, even in Kreo form, Ford is still a sucker for praise and adulation. Then, turning with his typical painted smirk at the Wight Knight, he waves his knife at the monster, before hopping away for another chest. "Nah, not to worry, I may be the light-armored rogue, but I can last!" Apparently the concept that Trivia was more worried if the trap hurt period was lost to the big-headed miniFord.

Speaking of Trivia, he's close to a chest! One more move should do it! Hubcap's also pleasently close, but he seems to have idled to try picking up pieces of the board. Luckily(?) for him, the pieces come right up! Looks like the rules could be broken just as easily as the board!

But something happens as the path comes apart. The Wight Knight turns to face Hubcap, eyes glaring at the little hero before altering it behavior and moving swiftly back to the broken spot in the path. Ford grows a little uneasy at this new change.

"Hey, that may not be such a good idea...!"

Trivia, with obvious trepidation, advances on the chest. He whimpers, "Please do not be full of bats, please do not be full of bats, please do not be full of bats..." Then Trivia gives it the old college try to open the chest. He glances sidelong in the last moment and asks, "...so, what happens if the Wight Knight escapes off the gameboard and into the city?"

Hubcap grins happily as the path tile comes away in his hands. Then he glances at Ford, then the Knight. "It's okay, right? The Wight Knight can only move on the white tiles, and this tile is ..." Oh, he hadn't considered that. "On me. Aheh." Quickly, he places the tile down again, but not reconnecting the path. Instead, he turns a straight line into a corner. "If I should die, know only this of me: I'll be back to get you!"

"I don't know! I've never been stupid enough to try altering game board. I'm hoping he's beatable even when he's off the board, but I don't know for sure!" Ford replied, frowning discouragingly at Hubcap. The Wight Knight continues to move towards the infraction in the path, taking the corner and landing juuuuuuuust short of the end of the path. Oddly enough, it no longer seems concerned with glaring at other players. It simply keeps it's focus on the dead end. "You may want to move... I don't know what will happen if he gets to the end of that." Ford rolled his painted-on eyes as he moved, then opened another chest, cautiously  this time. Thankfully, inside was another wall piece! Only one more to go officially! "Got one! Only one more and we don't have to find out what happens if he reaches the end of that path!"

Luckily for the crew, the chest Trivia is opening is filled with a surprise! And it wasn't bats! Nope! As he opens it, a special 2x1x3 brick comes floating out, as golden studs scatter about and gravitate towards the lucky druid. A "+1000" appears floating over Trivia's head as Ford claps his hands... somehow. "Awesome! We got them all! I typically stick around to get more, but since /somebody/ might have broken the rules along with the board, I'd rather not chance it, myself..."

Hubcap hops away his alotted 2 moves, then swivels to watch the Knight with interest. "You've got to admit, it'd be interesting to find out what happens." He catches the criticism in Ford's last comment and sniffs haughtily. "I regret nothing."

Trivia has a brief moment of sheer delight over his surprise windfall. If he had hands, he would be clasping them together. As it is, his painted optics just widen. Trivia exclaims, "I will finally be able to buy all those clear pieces for my!... well, nevermind that. So, we need to brick up the wall?" He starts to putz towards where the brick needs to go.

Ford nodded, before grimacing back at Hubcap. HE may not regret anything, but if that Knight got loose, Ford was sure gonna be doing some regretting. "IF things aren't as broken as I fear, we should simply have to hold up our pieces and he'll teleport to his little throne, before getting walled up automatically..."

Sure enough, and thankfully before he gets to move, a pillar of white engulfs the Knight, sending him back to his little throne at the end of the board closest to Hubcap. Screeching loudly, the wall pieces Ford and Trivia prossess suddenly whip from their inventories, trapping the Knight in a small space, before a flat piece clomps on top, sealing it in. It rattles and rumbles a little, but eventually stops, going silent.

-WINNERS!- Trivia: 6500 studs! Hubcap: 5500 studs! Ford Benett: 5200 studs!