Phoenixsong
beep beep coming through
- Pronoun
- she/they/any
Halloween Event 2008
~The Story~
No one knows how long the old villa has been sitting up in the western mountains; it was already there and crumbling under its own age when the first settlers (or, well, so they thought) arrived in Dachét years ago. People have gone inside before, mostly trainers lost on their way to Lacuna or the occasional contractor inspecting the property's condition. And none have ever... disappeared. Ever. The place might be dark, dilapidated, full of cobwebs and generally creepy, but there doesn't appear to be anything supernatural or dangerous about it at all (barring the fact that it's structurally unsound). For a short while it was popular among Lacuna's more mischievous youngsters to tell stories about how the place was haunted and dare one another to spend the night there, but this quickly fell out of style; there were no ghosts, skeletons, zombies or any other remotely interesting things to be found, at the stroke of midnight or any other time of day. The old mountain villa was boring and there was nothing more to it.
Until, that is, Dr. Reginald Heigel moved in.
Dr. Heigel was a very odd man. No one knew where he was from or whether or not that "Doctor" in front of his name came with any sort of degree in... anything at all. For reasons unknown Heigel was convinced that there was something supernatural about the villa, and, determined to find it and research it, he packed up his things and moved right in. So that he might share his findings with the rest of Dachét Heigel sent weekly letters to Kratos Aurion, the man in charge of, like, everything, to keep him apprised of the situation. This was a rather odd arrangement, as neither had ever met the other, Kratos had never even heard of the guy and he didn't particularly appreciate random people bothering him for no good reason. The letters never even contained any useful or pertinent information:
May 15th - My dear friend Kratos,
I haven't found any evidence of paranormal activity as of yet. I did, however, discover that when I am bored enough I can make a pretty killer tuna salad sandwich.
July 9th - Dear Kratos,
Still no ghosts. I'm getting a little tired of tuna salad sandwiches. They just plain don't taste as good when the Spinarak keep draping their webs over my ingredients. Ugh, Spider Web tuna salad sandwiches... very dry and sticky. Needs more mayo.
September 1st - Kratos,
I've gone for far too long sandwich without finding anything odd sandwich and am sick of having to live off sandwich Spider Web tuna salad sandwiches sandwich. But sandwich I refuse to leave the sandwich villa sandwich until I have proof sandwich that sandwich it is well and truly sandwich haunted sandwich. I just know sandwich that there are supernatural sandwich forces at sandwich work here sandwich and I sandwich intend to expose sandwich for what they sandwich. Sandwich will sandwich keep you sandwich sandwich in the sandwich.
September 20th
SAMMICH
After that last one the
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You are a member of the search party and have spent the last few days picking your way through the derelict mountain villa, trying to find some clues as to what might have happened to the batty doctor. So far, the search has been fruitless. His things are scattered throughout the various rooms, but there doesn't appear to be any sign of foul play or "paranormal activity". The sun is starting to set outside and it's getting too dark to continue looking for clues or avoiding weak floorboards in a dingy old building with no electricity, so you and the others are about to call it a night when you trip over something on the floor. On closer inspection it appears to be a trap door no one had noticed before. Unfortunately, it's stuck and won't open.
Fortunately, the floor is horribly rotted in that spot and you and the trap door fall right down anyway.
The area you now stand alone in is utterly black, save for the thin beam of your flashlight. As the other members of the search party dash off to get help, you sweep the beam around the room and discover an old writing desk that is littered with papers, candle stubs and musty old books. Strange, red markings you don't understand cover the walls and floor, some of them looking unnervingly wet, sticky and... fresh. The air is thick with dust, mold and age and it's a little hard to breathe.
Four doors are set into the far wall, all of them closed. The first one you try is either locked or stuck, and it doesn't crumble as the floor did to grant you access. The knobs on the other three appear to turn easily, but you don't push them open; you have no idea what might be behind them, after all, and barging through unknown doors in a villa where someone's up and disappeared is not a very smart thing to do. There is no indication of what might be beyond the doors... unless you count the three sheets of paper underfoot. The bodies of the notes can't be made out unless you look closely, but the paper looks new (ish) and you're pretty sure Dr. Heigel left them there. With nothing better to do while the others are fetching rope, you pick the three notes up, shine your flashlight on the text and then decide whether or not you really want to see what's behind doors number one, two and three...
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~The Specs~
Welcome to the TCoD Wi-Fi League's first official event! A change of pace from the usual tournaments or gym battles, events are special challenges where league members can battle specific opponents and play other kinds of games in hopes of winning a nifty little prize. (I hope to have the general event information thread up shortly).
In this event your task, as stated in the story above, is to discover the fate of the crazy old sandwich Dr. Reginald Heigel. In order to accomplish this (and claim your super-sexy reward!), you'll need to open each of the three unlocked doors, face whatever challenges might be lurking behind them and, should you manage to emerge victorious, hold on to the clue you'll receive. Once you have all three pieces of the puzzle, you'll have to solve it--the first person to do so correctly gets a special extra prize, but those who join the search party a little late can still get some nice swag, too.
You won't know what's behind the doors, so one choice is as good as any other. So you aren't going in completely blind, when you open a door you'll be able to read Heigel's note about it beforehand. The note probably won't make any sense at all at first glance, and you'll need to take a little while to think about it if you want to take advantage of the hint it's giving you. You don't need to tell me what you think the answer is and wait for a "right or wrong" response, as figuring those little riddles out is not part of the puzzle; it's just a hint, and you don't necessarily need it to do well in the event. Just think of the notes as a heads-up that gives you a little chance to better prepare yourself for whatever you're about to face.
To participate, just go ahead, get started and PM me stating which door you'd like to open first. I'll give you the hint on the note in front of that door, and we'll work out the earliest convenient time for you to attempt the actual challenge. If you manage to complete the challenge successfully, you can go ahead and open another door; if you fail, you can either choose to attempt the same door again or come back to it later and try your luck with another one first. You can try as many times as you like up until the event's end date, and because this is the first ever event and I'm feeling nice (and lazy) the challenges won't change between attempts.
Upon successful completion of a challenge I'll give you one of the three clues you'll need to open the locked door and get your just desserts. Once you have all three pieces, have arranged them in the proper order and think you've worked out the answer to the riddle they pose, PM it to me. If you got it right, you've won (and, if you were the first one to get it right, you'll get a little something extra); if not, keep trying! As with the door challenges, you have until the end of the event to figure it out.
That's pretty much all you need to know, other than some ground rules:
-This event is open only to registered members of the league, and when you PM me you must provide a link to your ID in the Records Office (NOT the Customs and Registration thread you signed up in). No link, no event for you.
-You may use any Pokémon you like, barring those that are on the official league ban list. Pokémon with Platinum-exclusive moves are not allowed in this event.
-Sleep clause (only one Pokémon on a team may be asleep at a time except for Rest), OHKO clause (Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill and Sheer Cold are not allowed) and evasion clause (moves like Double Team and Minimize that do nothing but increase evasion are not allowed) are on; anything else is fair game.
-The first time you PM me, please state whether you would like to take the competitive (EV-trained, IV-bred Pokémon) or casual version of the challenge. You are not allowed to change this selection once you've opened your first door, so be prepared to stick with your choice through all three challenges.
-You may only open one door at a time and must wait until the currently open door is resolved (you have completed/failed the challenge) to open another one/open the same one again.
-All challenge battles are single battles, Lv100 all. If you have PBR we can battle over that instead, in which case we will use my ruleset (single Lv50, all applicable clauses on).
-The number of Pokémon you are allowed to bring into battle may vary and you will be informed when you select your door.
-Successful completion of a challenge is a win on your part. Not a draw, not a loss but you put on a very impressive show. You have to win.
-In the interest of letting me attend to other participants and also the rest of my life, you may only attempt two challenges a day. If you fail a challenge and want to retry/try another one while you've got me on the line, or if you complete it and want to get a jump on attempting the next one, then that's fine, but no more times after that. Wait until the next day to try a third time.
You can guess the answer to the riddle as often as you like, however, as that doesn't take as much time to attend to.
-A disconnect that occurs after 8 turns into a battle, unless I know for a fact that it was my fault/there were extenuating circumstances, is considered deliberate. Dishonesty (of any sort, not just disconnecting) is not tolerated and if I think you're being dishonest then I'll ban you from the event. Note that even if the disconnect is not actually your fault, if the battle has progressed to a certain point I'll have to count it as a loss anyway, purely because I don't have time to rebattle you over and over again in one day.
-You must complete all three challenges to answer the riddle and open the fourth door. Even if you think you know the solution before you've completed all three, don't answer it yet. Give other people a chance to play for first place, too, and wait until you've opened and beaten all three doors. If you send in an answer and haven't completed all three then I will ignore you until you get your act together and finish up.
There is no need to post in this thread if all you want to do is ask to participate; just get started and PM me. You may use this thread to ask questions about the event; you may not, however, tell people the answers to any of the riddles/challenges. Let them work things out for themselves. People who spoil anything will be warned and their posts will be edited/deleted.
The last thing I would like to note is that, while I do have a nice prize or two in store for those who complete the event, it's... not much. I wanted to offer a special prize to the first person to successfully complete the whole thing and then smaller prizes to any who completed it afterward, but with only one or two smallish prizes that's a little difficult. I do have other things to offer as well, but they aren't quite as special or appropriate to the theme. If you are a kind, wonderful and generous person and think you have a prize that is at least remotely Halloweeny in nature (some sort of shiny Dark- or Ghost-type, for example, or one that may or may not be shiny but has good IVs, an excess of "scary" TMs), I'd really appreciate it if you could help me out. If you want to help with the prizes, just PM me. I'll see what I can do as far as compensation goes, and if you'd also like to participate in the event then you'll be able to get alternate prizes so you aren't winning your own stuff back.
This event ends at 12:00am/0:00 on November 1st, 2008, so get cracking! (Due to the forum's downtime I'm getting a later start on this than I'd originally intended. If it looks like the event is popular enough and it won't wrap up by then by then I might extend it another week; that puts it after Halloween, though, and for obvious reasons I'd rather not.
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