The Powers That Be (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
powersthatbe) wrote2018-04-08 10:52 pm
powersthatbe) wrote2018-04-08 10:52 pm
Triad Creation Tourney - Maze Obstacle submissions
If your character is submitting an obstacle for the final leg of the Tourney, please fill out the form below so we have the details on it! This way the Champion players can pick and choose some of obstacles they want to face in the maze (we'll RNG some others).
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Obstacle artwork: A poem in which the shade of Patroclus rebukes his lover, Achilles
Meaning: What you do reflects on those you love--and they might not be happy about it.
How it works: Professor Montreve hides in the maze and recites the poem when one of the Champions comes near. That causes the illusions of their own dead to rise up and rebuke them. The identity of the ghost and the thing they're rebuking them with come from their own minds.
Difficulty Level: DEPENDS HOW WELL THEY DEAL WITH GHOSTS
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Obstacle artwork: fucking BULLS
Meaning: Life's gonna come at you hard and fast so grab it by the horns
How it works: Three life-sized wooden bulls are wandering the maze. When a bull sees one of the Champions, it'll start chasing them down.
(The bull only runs very slightly faster than the student it's chasing, and will always stop before it gets within a foot of the student, no matter how fast it was going previously - it may glance past without touching the student, but won't directly collide in any way. In other words, the bulls cannot harm the Champions. It will also not chase or otherwise interact with anyone else in the maze except for Kyle, to whom the three bulls are fully obedient.)
The bulls are not clever - even the most basic of distractions can capture their attention for long enough for the Champion to get to safety.
If the Champion manages to literally grab the bull by its horns, or interact with the horns in any way, the bull then becomes docile and obedient to the Champion, and will no longer chase that specific Champion. There are no signs to point out how any of this works - the bulls are just chasing the kids, to all outward appearances.
Difficulty Level: Hard and scary. GOOD LUCK, THINK SMART
Keep your eyes on the ball... and pray to RNGesus.
Obstacle artwork: Large hand Woven Baskets!
Meaning: They are just some very good, sturdy baskets (Nostalgia can easily trap you in the past)
How it works: These large handwoven baskets are a throwback to when Piña and her brother Connor would be put in the 'Lala Basket' by their teammates for pulling pranks and their general japery.
There is a little bit of perpetual in the baskets as when they were being woven, there was a large number of good memories, so being in them will make one feel nostalgic, which could hinder one's desire to leave it.
The fun bit is the Adversary magic that Pinya has managed to weave in. These baskets come in pairs, and when dropped on a victim, will swap the position to it's paired basket - a version of ! These only work once - ie, victims will not be ping ponged back and forth between baskets - once the blink inside them has been used, they will just be normal, albeit nostalgia inducing, baskets.
These baskets are large enough to fit Pinya in her current human body, and do not have to envelop the whole of the victim in order to work.
They are lightly obscured by her and so if people aren't looking out for them, they won't notice them.
Difficulty Level: Depends entirely on how you want to use them, they have a 50 ft radius bc of 's limitations, but this could be anything from a minor inconvenience to right back to the beginning!
no subject
Obstacle artwork: A computer terminal with a deeply encoded text.
Meaning: Always Know Where Your Towel Is (aka, be ready for anything.)
How it works: Matt's programmed a message into the terminal which will release a barrier to let the person through. All of the steps to decode the message are in a benign-looking book on top of the computer. The message is decoded to: What is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything? 42.
Difficulty Level: Depends on how good you are at codes
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Obstacle artwork: Musical panels
Meaning: You're going to mess up sometimes- and that's okay!.
How it works: The cloud panels all ring with different notes when stepped on, and in order to progress, one must seemingly dance out a particular melody (one designed to be very hard to complete). It will allow progression if someone actually manages to complete it- but the easier way to deal with it is just... to laugh at yourself. You're going to mess up sometimes and that's okay- the sound of laughter after some missteps will also allow progression.
Difficulty Level: Easy if solved with humility/laughter, Difficult if attempting to actually dance out the melody
no subject
Obstacle artwork: It's a photograph of a giant beetle that has actually given life to a real giant beetle. The original photograph was done with tilt-shift photography, a real longhorn beetle, and a miniature city.
Meaning: It's a recontextualization of the expected sizes of things...and Kurihara just likes kaiju movies.
How it works: As long as the developed photograph of the gigantic beetle rampaging through the miniature town is in one piece, the giant beetle will continue moving around. The giant beetle is about as smart as a normal beetle would be, and it is not particularly aggressive despite the framing of Kurihara's work. It's also not solid--it's basically a phantom of a giant beetle, though it looks perfectly solid and creepy as hell because beetles should not be this big. Kurihara's going to tear the picture in half after everything is over and does not need to be there for it to work.
Difficulty Level: Honestly depends on how well you handle giant bugs, but the beetle can just be walked right through.
Character Name: Zedward Masters
Obstacle artwork: Glitter Golems. Each Glitter Golem is an unholy amalgamation of silver glitter and clear glue, lovingly shaped into a three-foot-tall vaguely humanoid lumpy homnuculus. There are three of them, and they are capable of merging together to create a bigger Glitter Golem.
Meaning: There is danger even in the most beautiful and wonderful of substances.
How it works: All these Glitter Golems want to do is to give you a nice hug. They'll stop moving around once they have you, and they'll turn into a very thick glitter shell that might restrict movement. They're more nuisances than anything, and the thought of a singular nine-foot-tall Glitter Golem might be terrifying enough to send someone running. They're not very smart or fast, and they can be avoided if the champion keeps a cool head. Zedward doesn't need to be there for it to work, but he may say he does just so he can watch
and heckle.Difficulty Level: Medium-Hard
Character Name: Sento Kiryu
Obstacle artwork: The Joy of Math - it is literally just a packet of math equations. It doesn't actually do anything other than exist as a packet of math equations. This packet of math equations would not be out of the ordinary in any normal, non-magical school or non-magical world. It's just math. A pencil and eraser is also provided. These are also actually not magical.
Meaning:
That Sento is a freaking nerdIt could be regarded as a postmodern commentary on the nature of found art or how we often make things harder on ourselves than they need to be.How it works: Sento doesn't need to be present; it's literally six photocopied sheets of math problems stapled together (there is plenty of room to show your work!)
Difficulty Level: Easy if you just walk around the non-magical worksheet. Hard if you actually sit down and try to do these problems because you don't realize it's just a normal worksheet.
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Obstacle artwork: Mule Painting
Meaning: Stubborn as a mule - and that mule is blocking your path.
How it works: The painting gives a life to an actual mule. The key is to figure out how to get it to move out of the way without harming the animal or destroying the painting. The mule is very stubborn and seems to mostly be interested in eating whatever's in sight.
Difficulty Level: Likely very Easy, potentially Medium
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Obstacle artwork: An oversized but adorable clockwork rabbit
Meaning: Patience is a virtue; also watch your temper.
How it works: The rabbit meanders around its assigned area, generally minding its own business; however, it's not particularly fast, too large to really step over, and its meanderings will take it into the path of an approaching Champion and drastically slow their progress. Every so often, the rabbit will stop to look around, giving a patient Champion the opportunity to get around it without issue. An impatient Champion may have a harder time, as any attempt to disturb or damage the rabbit results in it leaping out of the way... and then exploding into a writhing mass of clockwork tentacles that completely block the passage for a set amount of time, after which it will transform back and resume its meanderings like nothing happened.
Difficulty Level: How's your patience level?
no subject
Obstacle artwork: A wall-hanging embroidered with fluffy clouds.
Meaning: Not all obstacles are as difficult to get past as you think they might be.
How it works: When it's hung across a path in the maze, it creates the illusion of maze wall. In other words, it's a fake dead end. (Charley plans to string it on a path that is definitely the right way out.)
Difficulty Level: Easy if you realize that it's a fake dead end; despite how it looks, it's really still just a wall hanging and you can manipulate the cloud wall like you would fabric. Of course, you have to realize it's fake first.
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Obstacle artwork: Three lovingly-crafted personal-sized savory hand pies... which then interact with a fellow Lone Star student's much more physically-manifesting artwork.
Meaning: Good food can do more than just nourish your body/a good meal will prepare you for the way ahead/Be ready to adapt to new circumstances
How it works: There are three hand-sized savory pies, one for each competitor, and each has different ingredients. They're laid out on a table, each on their own plate, and there's a sign set up reading "Please take one". (The sign is enchanted to enforce this by unfurling a folded paper hand from behind to slap at anyone that tries to take more than one pie.) Of course, the pies are magical.
Pie one has a filling like a very thick chicken pot pie, with a slightly creamy filling that tastes of sage and rosemary and onion. Eating at least several bites of it and fully appreciating the flavor will make the person consuming it move more swiftly for a short while, with correspondingly better reflexes.
Pie two has a filling of beef and onion, stewed down with beer. It has a warm and peppery flavor, and eating at least several bites of it and reflecting on it will make the person that consumes it sturdier for a short while, resistant to impacts.
Pie three has a filling of squash and lentil and feta cheese, that is surprisingly meaty and savory in flavor. Eating at least several bites and reflecting on it will make the person who consumes it much more analytical and thoughtful for a short while, able to think things through much more quickly than normal.
Immediately after this snack break, there's a room full of heavy rubber balls of various sizes suspended at various heights. Nudging one is likely to set all of them off swinging and smacking and making it very hard to progress. (the meaning of this installation is "beware the consequences of your actions".) Champions are free to navigate this with their own skills, or to figure out the benefits their pie has granted them and use those to get past.
Difficulty Level: Normal, I suppose? With the benefit of having eaten a pie, it should be an exciting action-based challenge!
no subject
Obstacle artwork: A door with a sliding puzzle that must be solved properly to unlock.
Meaning: Something simple can be genuinely complex.
How it works: The obstacle is a doorway with an overall art deco linework design all over it, with panels in the middle that are meant to be slid around, and a riddle engraved above it. The panels are designed so that they can be slid into several different configurations that form three different stylized images. Only one is correct. The riddle is as follows:
'I have no fearsome claw or bite
Yet all flee from my black and white
To provoke me makes bad sense
To them that knows my best defense'
And the three different possible arrangements are a panda bear, a gull, and a skunk. Sliding the pieces together to form one of the three, there will be an audible click and the image of the animal will glow slightly. Attempting to push the door open if it's the wrong animal (panda bear, gull) will result in a horrible odor being released, and the door will remain shut. Assembling the skunk will open the way safely.
Difficulty Level: It's a fairly easy riddle. (It's really more about Nero showing off the elegance of his work.)
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submitted anon if possibleObstacle artwork: Three mirrors made of frames that look like they were junk yard salvage block the path. Two hold reflections of different parts of yourself. The third one gives no reflection. Stepping through the wrong one sends you back to the last
save pointobstacle you went though. The correct one lets you pass through. The one without reflection is the correct path.Meaning: All reflections are false.
How it works: A mix of illusion and portals woven into the metal. Perma, so no need to be present
which is good cause he won't beDifficulty Level: Easy/Normal
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Obstacle artwork: A room full of mirrors. So many mirrors. They are pointed so that they show your reflection when you enter the area. You can see yourself reflected in the other mirrors.
There is a written question. It just says, HOW DO YOU GET OUT? FIND THE YOU THAT IS REAL.
The answer is, you are the version that is real. Say that, some variation and walk past the mirrors and out the door. Or just walk past the mirrors and out the door.
Meaning: Sometimes questions have simple answers and you don't always have to use magic to solve your problems.
How it works: There's a bunch of regular mirrors and a door at the end of them. No magic involved. Just common sense.
Difficulty Level: Easy if they get the question or ignore it and walk by. Medium to hard if they think it's an actual quest to find themselves in the mirrors as they won't get anywhere with that. Being normal mirrors and all.
no subject
Obstacle artwork: a barrier made of a collage number of other people's artwork and an array of sharpies, spray paint, a box cutter, and lighters.
Meaning: Creation is also an act of destruction. Also, a comment on the tournament and how nobody but the pre-chosen champions have a chance
How it works: the Champion will have to either deface or destroy the other artwork to get past the barrier. It can also be walked away from.
Difficulty Level: how hard is destroying/ruining other people's work?
no subject
Obstacle artwork: At the end of a dead on, in part of the hedge where walls have been build over the cloud-hedges, is a spray-painted mural that looks like a three-dimensional portal. Within this artwork at the blue spray-painted angels, although at first they aren't visible and are hidden by the artwork's magic.
Meaning: Illusions, deception, and that which hides in the spaces you cannot see, just out of sight. The surface of things only ever reveals so much.
Also Matty has been kinda on edge lately and just really, really wants to make things difficult for some students, apparently.How it works: The Champion needs to pass through the portal. To the first touch, the artwork will feel just like a wall; press harder, and they'll find that the mural shifts around them into a three-dimensional tunnel. They'll need to push forward, crawling through reach the other side. The angels - who at first will be hidden 'within' the artwork, hiding in the three-dimensional space that can't be seen from the outside - will attempt to impede their passing, either by talking to them or by actively attempting to drag them back. They'll need to be distracted, or persuaded, or cajoled in order to allow the Champion. It's definitely magical as hell, and Matty doesn't need to be there for it to work (the angels do, but Matty will bring them into the maze before the event starts).
Difficulty Level: HARD MODE ALL THE WAY. Unless you have an easy way of dealing with the angels, in which case it's much easier.
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Obstacle artwork: Essentially a large Buzz Wire puzzle that shifts and changes shape along its length as the Champions complete it
Meaning: Patience is important, rushing can stifle progress and the final outcome of your art
How it works: Each Champion has a larger-than-normal Buzz Wire to complete, with a steady hand they must guide the metal ring along the path without touching the wire, if that happens the Champion will receive a small electric shock (nothing harmful) and be forced to start again.
What's different about this is that the wire is enchanted to change shape into more difficult patterns the further along they get, and if they buzz the wire, the overall difficulty increases slightly. The more buzzes, the bigger the shock and the harder it gets.
The enchantment for it is already imparted into them and so Vicky does not need to be present.
Difficulty Level: Normal, unless you mess up really badly.
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Obstacle artwork: A mop leaning against the maze's wall.
Meaning: A lazy janitor forgot it there?
How it works: It's a mop.
Difficulty Level: As hard as your character thinks it is! For the last time, it's just a mop, people.