winter games, y11

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erudite competition
Rumors had begun to circulate throughout Amaryllis, whispering promises of a grand competition that would soon be gracing the lands. It was a break from their often calamity and chaos – and though it would still spark the competitive nature that many of the peninsula’s inhabitants already possessed, this would be more-so the healthy kind. At least they hoped.

A trio had found their way here, unannounced and slipping, at first, within the comfort of the shadows. They were cross-country scouts, some would say, with a pulse for adrenaline and a wanton desire to find the most skilled and formidable trade masters among them. They had traversed many territories, seen many lands – and now, their next stop had brought them to Amaryllis, curious to see who would rise to the top. Not to mention that the winning team - the one who would prove themselves to have a strong and diverse arsenal of members to partake in these competitions - would get some of the best bragging rights of all time.

Let the games begin.

This was an interesting place, to say the least — the lion had traveled to many lands, and this maze of ice, snow, and mirrors had to be one of the odder anomalies that he had seen in recent history. His eyes were narrowed as he wandered through the labyrinth, nails clicking against the frost-coated flooring until he found himself in a large, and rather open, foyer. He studied it quizzically for a moment or two, before an absent grunt vibrates through his chest — it didn’t really matter where it came from or how it came to be, because today it would serve as a proving ground, of sorts, and the venue for this next trial.

The game-master halted on one end of the chasm, taking a perch atop a wayward slab of ice before letting loose a summons for any that were hoping to put their skills to the test. Only time would tell who would come out on top. “Erudites, it’s time to pay attention!”


rules & instructions

This is the thread for the erudite trade competition. Your character must have this as their master or sub-master trade, and their team is based on their usergroup (pride, band, rogue). The goal is for your team to amass the most amount of points and win the competition. Read all of the information here.

Sign-ups for this competition are open until December 12; you must post here before then to participate. On December 13, the competition will start and the first round of match-ups will be posted.

• Only post your character here if they intend to participate. There are no observers to the competitions.
• Your character must be at least 1 year old. There are separate events for cubs.
  
• You can post 1 character PER team to participate.
• If you have 2 lions in Caladan Cove that want to participate in the Ranger Competition, you can only post 1. If you have 1 lion in Caladan Cove and 1 lion in Firnen Rainforest that want to participate, you can post them both.
• Every round will feature and play off of a different, associated trade task.

Round 1 Match-Up: On December 13, every participant will be randomly matched with someone else and the NPC will explain the first task. An NPC will be used if there are uneven participant numbers.

You have one week to post again to your match-up. In your reply, respond to the prompt and insert the following dice roll at the bottom of your post. Whoever rolls the highest number out of each pair will win that round and move onto the next.

Code:

[roll=1d20]

Round 1 Match-Up Results: On December 20, the winners of the Round 1 Match-Up will be re-matched and the cycle will continue every week, with the new match-ups being posted on Wednesday.

Failure to post to a given round on time will result in disqualification.

In the case of a tie being rolled between match-ups, Staff will do a tie-breaker.

You can earn the following points towards the Winter Games in this thread. Make sure to submit your points via Discord or DM to @Squid!

• +1 - Participate in a posted trade competition (claimable once per thread, per character)
• +1 - Win a match-up in a posted trade competition (claimable for each match-ups that won)
• +3 - Be one of the last ones standing in a posted trade competition (win the final round match-up, results posted on January 10)

He was not one for social gatherings, summoned or otherwise he tended to avoid putting himself in such situations. There were exceptions, naturally, and one of those exceptions echoed across the continent to pluck at the inherent curiosity that was harbored within the nomadic lion. Haruki lifted his chin to the horizon, sea glass eyes squinted against the sun that was bore high in the sky and the blinding glare it gave off that annoying, troublesome snow that had suddenly blanketed the world. The man was not a fan of the deities spring snowstorm, but this summons – this test – proved interesting enough to oblige.

The nomad was on high alert as he made his way into the cavern; he had never obliged a deity before, nor did he know what to expect from the test, and this shift from the known left him unsettled. Muscles were taut beneath his lilac fur, his brilliant gaze restlessly moving over the cavern's floors and hallway as he made his way forward, until he finally emerged into the foyer that possessed the crimson-pelted deity. Haruki stopped on the precipice of the room, surprised to find it was only the two of them; surely others would come too? As much as he hoped that was the case, Haruki disliked the fact that he was first to arrive. Stepping off to the side, he would say nothing to the deity and instead stood in a wary and attentive silence as he waited for instruction.

code by corvus

Nervous was... a great way to describe her, actually. She hadn't gotten her father's confidence or her dad's friendly nature. Nope, she was just the hang out in the den and try to stay out of the way sort. But she couldn't do that forever, and she did wish to learn and have information to pass on, so she would come to this competition come hell or high water. It was probably good that it was so close, because she still almost chickened out a couple of times on the short trek. If it had been further, she no doubt would have convinced herself to turn around and walk back to the Summit.

At least there was only one other there at the moment, because if she saw a crowd then, again, she wouldn't have been able to keep herself moving forward. As it was, she could only force herself so close to what she assumed was going to be their gathering place, hanging out in the back of the back as she waited.

Yarrow was quite surprised to find the gathering in the caverns to be quite a small one. Had they lost themselves to the mirror-like walls of the tunnels? Maybe they had been unable to find their way to the central cavern where the handful of bodies had gathered. Or maybe no one cared to try and make their way along the slick and icy floor of the tunnel.

The lipard glanced around the area as they waited for the competition to get underway. Magenta eyes studied the walls of the cavern, looking beyond the rosetted figure of themself that was displayed there to try and spot the rock wall that simply had to be beyond the ice.

The caverns wasn't particularly a place Sabre would have been seen exploring, but with the oddity of it still snowing in the middle of Spring he felt as though he needed to engulf himself in the environment. Colossal form moved at a steady pace, watching his paw steps so that he didn't slip on the freshly fallen snow. Twin tails flick here and there, ears cupped forward as they catch the sounds of one's booming voice in the air. It causes for a brow to rise and his lilac gaze to shift in the direction the voice had come from. And being his curious self, the guard dog pivots so that he were now moving in that direction.

He pads for a little while until he sees a couple of others, giving them all a curt nod once he was close enough. Sabre finds himself standing at the back of the others, his attention shifting toward the stark red one before them all. Exactly what was this?

_{background — art by drifty — code}

The frozen caverns would not exactly have been Maven's first pick as a good eventing spot. But what did she know? Perhaps entertaining the unusual summons would offer her an answer as to why the crimson lion had wanted to bring them here. That was what an 'erudite,' to borrow his term, was meant to do best, was it not? Ask questions and then find out their answers.

The petite lioness slinks daintily through the icy tunnels, mismatched gaze pulling away from the distorted reflections rippling across the wavy walls to study the appearances of those who had gathered. So many strangers...but it was a pleasant change to see lions gathered together without the underlying strain of rising tensions. Or so it seemed. The day was still young.

She would turn crimson eyes upon the maneless man at the chamber's center, raising her chin expectantly. He wanted her to pay attention? Then he'd better offer something worthwhile to pay attention to.

ART BY SPU, CODE BY DEE

winter games, y11

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erudite competition
As the man sat there, waiting, he had the most brilliant idea come to his mind for the first round of the competition, prompting the quick movement of his feet and mind as the lions would begin to gather. Nimbly, he skirted around the edge of the cavern collecting a series of sticks and multi-coloured stones - black and white - before shifting back towards the front of the foyer and setting up a game that he was sure would put their minds to the test. Arranging the sticks in two-by-two lined, overlapping to create a six-squared board, the tradesman was quite content with his work, and was even more pleased that others had opted to heed his call and join in on today’s competition.

Settling back and giving them all a chance to see the game that had been set up for them, he would not waste anymore time, and opted to get things started. “Erudites – thank you for gathering here today. I’m looking to see which one of you has what it takes to outsmart the others and prove that brains can overcome brawn. In rounds, I will be pairing you off with another Erudite to compete head-to-head with in a test of my choosing. The one out of the pair that wins or impresses me the most will move onto the next round, and we will keep going until a winner, or winners, are evident.” He allowed a temporary pause to slip through his words then, just to make sure that they were all following along. When he was confident that things were clear, he was quick to continue on, however, and get to the specifics of what he had so abruptly planned. “Your first task is to complete a small strategy game that I have prepared for you, called tic-tac-toe. One of you will play with the white stones, the other with the black stones, and the game works in alternating turns. The objective is simple - get three in a row of your item on the board. The one out of each pair that is able to do so first, wins.” Totally simple.

Finally, with all of the rules and regulations covered, the man would finish things off by gesturing the pairs together for their games of tic-tac-toe and ushering them towards the boards – and him? Well, he just had to sit back and watch, albeit the fact that he remained keen to see who would prosper in this test of strategy.



match-ups & instructions

@Maven vs. @Haruki @Sabre vs. @Sariel @Yarrow vs. npc

• Round 1 Match-Up: Your character has been randomly matched with someone else and the NPC has explained the first task. An NPC will be used if there are uneven participant numbers.
• You have until December 20 to post again to your match-up. In your reply, respond to the prompt and insert the following dice roll at the bottom of your post. Whoever rolls the highest number out of each pair will win that round and move onto the next.
Code:
[roll=1d20]


• Round 1 Match-Up Results: On December 20, the winners of the Round 1 Match-Up (the ones out of each pair with the highest roll) will be re-matched and the cycle will continue every week, with new match-ups being posted on Wednesdays.
• Failure to post to a given round on time will result in disqualification.
• In the case of a tie being rolled between match-ups, Staff will do a tie-breaker.

You can earn the following points towards the Winter Games in this thread. Make sure to submit your points via Discord or DM to @Squid!

• +1 - Participate in a posted trade competition (claimable once per thread, per character)
• +1 - Win a match-up in a posted trade competition (claimable for each match-up that’s won)
• +3 - Be one of the last ones standing in a posted trade competition (win the final round match-up, results posted on January 10)

winter games, y11

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NPC Dice Rolls for Trade Competition

Because of an uneven number of characters in this trade competition match-up, some characters were assigned an NPC for their pairing. The following dice rolls are to be used as the baseline for determining if your character wins or loses their match-up – reminder: the character that rolls the number out of each pair wins.

If you have been matched with an NPC, feel free to PP them as desired in your own reply. Make sure to include your own dice roll ([*roll=1d20]) at the bottom of your post. Failure to post in time will result in disqualification from the competition and the next round of match-ups.

NPC 1 vs @Yarrow:

Rolling 1d20: 6

Only one other arrives after him, their group staying small. The man who called them all begins to speak, explaining why they were all called here before explaining a challenge that he wanted them to complete. Tic-tac-toe? It sounded like an easy enough game. Eyes flicker over to the much younger yearling he was paired with, giving her a friendly smile before positioning him next to the stones. He selects the white ones, placing them in strategic placements in order to try to win the game. It was definitely something he'd never done before, but it was amusing and a bit fun all the same.

Rolling 1d20: 3

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The gathering remained quite small. Perhaps there weren't that many interested in learning. Or else they just weren't interested in the cold. Yarrow wouldn't be able to blame them if it was the latter. In fact the lipard wasn't thrilled about the cold either and wished for the warmth of the Jungle once more.

A game was proposed for the competition and the rules were laid out. The game sounded simple enough, just get three in a row. But there had to be a catch, right? The lipard yearling stared down at the stones and stick board that had been prepared for them. They were trying to puzzle out the trick to this. Yarrow had never heard of the game before and they weren't certain if their opponent had or not.

"You first." The yearling stated and allowed the other to make the first move. The lipard watched intently and went back and forth laying out stones.

Rolling 1d20: 15