conversations: human
conversations:  "I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to you all. Everyone here will participate in four different games over four sessions. Those who win all four games will receive a handsome cash prize. You volunteered to participate in this game of your own free will, so this is it."  
  
  You would think it would be the rider wearing the mask, but instead their shark drifts unsteadily in the water, blinded by an enormous bolt of ragged cloth with a white octagon stitched into it.
  
  The failed athletes of the Sealympics (and associated failures) have been brought to a mid-sized room with ten sleeping areas, equipped for a variety of biologies. That that outnumbers those who are here escapes no notice. Those who bother to introduce themselves and who manage to obtain introductions from (or merely recognize) others are The Errant Princess Bulan (LSD), Nah Arah (MIR), Wasa Awasa (MIR), Haka Fa (MIR), Abuilie (SEN), SEN's Volleyballer, Dessia (SEN), Josie (SKR), Leon (CYP), Swarmkeepers with Tarym-Ak-Esh-Lin (CYP) [functioning as a single character mechanically], HEX's Wastesailer, Squall Volumozzo and Brusha Leo (GTZ) [functioning as a single character mechanically], Levt Sisters (SKR) [functioning as a single character mechanically], Baskoro of the Hidden Table, Felipina Mascerene (COS), Ilanda Loura (COS), and The Goat (MGM)
  
  Everyone is ushered to sign something. It reads:
  
   Player Consent Form
   
   A player is not allowed to stop playing 
   A player who refuses to play will be eliminated 
    Games may be terminated if the majority agrees 
    
  
  
  Soon enough after signing, a powerful voice, echoing through some sort of amplified throatpouch graft, announces "Attention, all players. The first game is about to begin. Please follow the staff instructions. Please make your way to the playing field." You are directed by masked riders to a wide field with a diamondlike pattern of even holes, perhaps a foot wide, stretching down into darkness. Before you and on the far side, a line stretches across a long play area.
    
  "All players please stand behind the line and await further instructions."  
   
   "Here is the first game. You will be playing Green Light, Eel Fight. You are allowed to move forward when "it" shouts out "Green Light". Stop when "it" shouts, "Eel Fight." If your movement is detected afterwards, you will be eliminated. Those players who cross the finish line without being eliminated withing the five-minute playtime will pass this round. With that, let the game begin."  
    "Green Light"  
  
  
  Green Light, Eel Fight turns out not to be the children's game we all know and love. Details to follow between rounds, but for now, all participating  characters  are asked to roll 2d6. Doubles and either odds or evens (determined between rounds) will be spared elimination. Round 26 will see the remaining three games, for those who make it that far.
conversations: Lumaeus:
conversations: human
conversations:  Standing at the starting line, her black eyes sweeping over the competition, proud Bulan sneered.  Surely, she would claim victory on this day!
  
   7 
conversations: TheDarkDM:
conversations: human
conversations:  Josie, the Hermit Crab nun, stands at the line, besides her, a trio of hulking Levt, the Marias, float.
  
  Josie is a paragon of the physically twisted race that long ago turned its back on nature,  preternaturally tough and capable of sudden bursts of speed.  This test, however, is of reaction, the speciality instilled into the neutral gender.
  
  
  The Marias are triplet clones, flowers grown from a single stem and augmented to act in perfect synchrony.   Their race lived in isolation for centuries, never knowing about the way the Cherry Blossom Path had been altered in their absence. When Gardener missionaries came, their culture was all but unrecognizable.   For decades,  though, they have been a vital part of The Garden.  Levt, opportunistic air-breathers derived from fish, were the perfect choice to play Supermarine Volleyball, they being adapted in part for the sky.  This test, however is not one of coordination, but pure reflex...
  
  Both get  odds 
conversations: Feathersnow:
conversations: human
conversations:  Ilanda Loura frowns and flicks her fin in disdain as the rules are described. The daughter of illustrious General Illdo Loura, trained in military strategy and hand-to-fin combat, reduced to playing a children's game? As the potential stakes become apparent, though, she sets herself more seriously.
   Odds: 9 
  
  Felipina Mascerena drifts nearby. While poised from practice, Ilanda recognizes her apprehension in the way she holds her arms tightly across her chest. Something in the tone of the speaker, in the use of the word 'eliminated', does not sit well with her.
   Odds: 7 
conversations: Frostwander:
conversations: human
conversations:  When they see the form, the swarmkeepers talk among themselves in their own language, nodding and coming to a consensus. Tarym-Ak-Esh-Lin - at least, presumably them, given the way swarmkeepers look and dress makes distinguishing them a little difficult unless one pays close attention to specific lumps and bumps under their clothing - swims forward and signs the form, before stating aloud that   "We are all going to die here."   A pause, then a clarification.   "Most of us."   Hearing that, Leon laughs, the kalan pushing forward to pick up his form and sign.  "You, perhaps. I'm going to  win ." 
   Both roll evens. 
conversations: Volthawk:
conversations: human
conversations:  The game is a harsh one. The Green Lights are brief and the Eel Fight segments sudden. However, this squad of losers is still a squad of Sealympian losers, and there is for a good minute only slow progress. It is Leon, of the Cyphiri Union, whose confidence proves to be the initial undoing. Too vigorous a swimmer at the green light, his momentum carries him forward as the eel fight begins, and suddenly from the holes below him swarm a dozen snaking eels, modified horribly to have more tooth than maw, barely able to open their mouths but well made to rend and tear wth the horrible dental tangle spilling misbegottenly forth from them. They swim in a tight knot and as the helpless onlookers are forced to watch, the scraps begin peel off as Leon's screams only increase. One of those scraps floats slowly over to the GOAT, who cannot help but take a nibble--and the GOAT as well is set upon.
  
  The carnage last a full minute.
  
  The next green light is a sprint, but that only leads to more loss of life. Abuilie of the Ennead is cut down, and dies without a scream, struggling almost longer than biology seems to allow.
  
  Squall Volumozzo and Brusha Leo move to confer with one another instead of advancing, falling maybe too far behind as Josie, Ilanda Loura, and Baskoro clear the finish line. As the eels rise up again, it is the swarmkeepers who are set upon. But when the eels retreat, a strange new eel swoops up, extremely large, unusually cartoonish, vast of mouth, and oddly textured like and made of Papier-mache. This horrifying creature devours both Squall Volumozzo and Brusha Leo and swims off.
  
  The rest of the game goes shockingly well for the survivors, with even the Hymenocera Expanse's wastesailor squeaking over the finish line.
  
  Nah Arah (MIR), Wasa Awasa (MIR), Haka Fa (MIR), The Errant Princess Bulan (LSD), Josie (SKR), The Marias/Levt Sisters (SKR), SEN's Volleyballer, Dessia (SEN), Ilanda Loura (COS), Felipina Mascerene (COS), Baskoro of the Hidden Table (LIT), and the Wastesailor (HEX) survive!
  
  Leon (CYP), Swarmkeepers with Tarym-Ak-Esh-Lin (CYP), Abuilie (SEN), and the GOAT are devoured!
  
  Squall Volumozzo and Brusha Leo (GTZ) are eaten by a fake eel piloted by Researcher 42 and saved!
  
  ---
  
  Three games remain and we're gonna wipe them out fast. I need your rolls and decisions for the next two now, deadline Tuesday at 10am Pacific time. Don't worry about it being between rounds. If you roll after round end, don't edit your post in the ic, just comment it here.
  
  GAME 1: The first roll will an unmodified 2d6. However, in addition to this, you need to pick a shape. The shapes are "Jellyfish" "Shark" "Extremely Intricate Sea Cucumber" and "Squid With Knives For Tentacles". This will determine your TN.
  
  GAME 2: For the next, I will need an unmodified 2d6 and a number (whole, rational, irrational, whatever) from 1 to 100, inclusive.
  
  (GAME 3: For the final one, we will first see who survives. You will be able to politic to determine the result (😊).)
conversations: Lumaeus:
conversations: human
conversations:  The Miru Miru delegates, miraculously all surviving the game of patience and stamina in spite of their frankly embarrassing Sealympic Results, warily press forward...
  
  Nah Arah selects the Jellyfish and the number 25.1337
  
  Wasa Awasa selects the Shark and the number 75.621
  
  Haka Fa selects the Intricate Sea Cucumber and the number 50.69420
  
  No one dares select the squid with knives for tentacles...
  
   Rolls 
conversations: MappyPK:
conversations: human
conversations:  Surprised that he was still alive, wastesailor continued with the games.  He had always loved sharks, so he naturally drifted to that form
  
  he selects Shark and the number Pi (3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937  5 10...)
  
   rolls 
   
   Spoiler: OOC one of my best shark pictures done in black and white 
  
   
   
conversations: farothel:
conversations: human
conversations:  Ilanda Loura and Felipina Mascerena share a quiet moment after the Eel Fight 'game'. Despite her training and confidence, Ilanda has not seen a real battlefield, and the carnage wreaked on a few fellow contestants has her somewhat shaken. Felipina is shocked and horrified - she entered the Sealympics for a chance at fame and prestige, and agreed to these games with the same premise in mind. She is a dilettante and performer, not a gladiator. Grisly death was not in her mind, and she quivers after the end of the first event, unable to maintain the fear-spurred discipline that kept her still during it. Ilanda makes the effort to comfort and calm her, hoping that she believes her own words.  "We'll get through this, together. The only way out is through." 
  
  
  Game 1:
  Felipina Mascerena select the  Shark  shape and rolls:  3 
  Ilanda Loura selects the  Squid With Knives For Tentacles  shape and rolls:  8 
  
  
  Game 2:
  Felipina Mascerena rolls:  8  - her number is 13
  Ilanda Loura rolls:  7  - her number is 27
  
   Rolls here 
conversations: Frostwander:
conversations: human
conversations:  Josie and the Marias just look at each other.  They weren't sure they meant to sign up for this...
  
   Dice 
   
   Spoiler: results! 
  Game 2
  
  Josie picks the Jellyfish shape result: 11
  
  The Marias pick the Shark shape result: 6
  
  Game 3
  
  
  Josie picks the number 47 result: 7
  
  The Marias pick the number 18 result: 4
   
conversations: Feathersnow: