Black Tower Tournament Round 1 (Open to those who signed up :P)

[Covai Seriba]

OOC: Make sure you post here http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,37526.0.html before joining this RP. Civilians are welcome to come watch from the sidelines.

 

IC: Covai tugged at the collar of his Storm Leader attire. Truth be told he'd much rather be in a simple tunic and leggings, but this tournament had been his idea, and it had caught on like wildfire amongst the ranks. The least he could do was have enough respect to take it as seriously as the men participating. Besides, the lighting bolts along the sleeves did look impressive.

 

Resisting he urge to shield his eyes from the sun to see who was approaching, Covai simply kept his eyes of the training field. Part of his role today was to keep people pumped up and wanting to impress. Squinting against the sun like a farmhand wasn't the best way to go about it.

 

Waiting a few minutes, Covai turned around to see how many and turned up. He was glad to see there were actually a few dozen people who had made it this early. It would be interesting to see how varied the skills of each would be. Clasping his hands behind his back, Covai addressed those assembled.

 

"Good Morning Everyone. I'm glad to see how many of you turned out this morning. Like I said yesterday, uou will all be pushed to discover new ways to use your ability to channel Saidin. Its been thousands of years since men like us have had the freedom to develop our skills, and there's a lot thats been lost as time has gone on. Its about time we rediscovered some of those abilities long lost to us."

 

"Your first task this morning.." Covai motioned to a series of candles spread out in a row at about twelve feet or so apart. "Is to use Saidin to light the wick on one of the candles. You are NOT however, permitted to use the element of fire in any of your weaves. You are not to get any closer than six feet either."

 

Stepping out of the way, Covai spread his arms. "Will the first six canidates step up. The rest of you keep your distance. I hate to have anyone accused of simply copying the weaves they saw from someone else." The mock sympathy in his voice thinly veiled threat. Today was meant to be a chance to each man to show his ability to think for himself. He'd just have to see how smart they were.

 

OOC: Have fun with this one guys. Please post your scores for each element you plan on using as well.

 

 

 

 

[Talavin]

OOC: Air 3(5)

 

IC: Ze'el had been thinking all of last night. He had many ideas of how to light the candle without using Fire, but each one was more extravagant than the other. Eventually it got to the point that he had a spiraling vortex of Water, Earth, Air, and some Spirit thrown in for the heck of it, when Ze'el realized that he would actually have to preform the task. He cursed his pathetic strength for the thousandth time, and settled for the simplest solution that he could find. The only problem was that it was very likely that it was the solution that everyone would think of.

 

Ze'el cursed angrily. As much as he liked a challenge of the wit, it was fairly useless to him when he was so restricted. What was the point of creating a flame without Fire. The whole point of having Fire was to light a fire! Nevertheless, Ze'el wanted to best the challenge, and so he made his way over to where they were supposed to meet. After hearing the rules and being sorted into the first group, Ze'el stood at his spot staring intently at the candle. He suppressed the urge to vomit, just like he always did, when he grabbed Saidin. The filth of the Taint nearly caused him to forget all about his purpose and retch, but he had enough practice to ignore it.

 

Mentally slapping himself for being distracted so easily, Ze'el channeled Air, interlocking the flows and rubbing them against each other. He was trying to heat the air enough that it combusted, but he knew that air was very hard to heat to that point. It felt like he was getting somewhere, and so he kept at it. Eventually, however, he realized that there was no way that he was strong enough in Air to be successful. Feeling defeated, Ze'el resorted to plan B where he used flows of Air to float flint and steel to the wick and light it on fire the normal way. Well, it wasn't exactly normal, but it was nothing special either.

[TaiDashan]

Tai walked to the grounds dedicated to the tournament in the early morning sun. He was always early and eager to boot. This challenge that Covai had spoken of was a puzzle, and Tai liked puzzles.

 

"Good Morning Everyone..."

 

Tai listened intently while Covai explained what was required. He quickly followed the other 5 men up an into the line. He had been spending all night considering how he was to do this. The trick was to not use Fire while still lighting a candle. He had thought of trying to make lightning somehow sans Fire, but even if he had barely brushed the wick he wasn't sure it would not melt. Looking at the Storm Leader he was not so sure he would be given a second chance. Grabbing hold of the Void he forgot everything but the candle and the air between them.

 

Saidin poured into him, a pulsing, frozen avalanche of molten fire. He knew his weakest element was Earth and so wanted to use as little of that as possible. Using Water to draw out as much moisture from the wick as possible, he channeled Air to pull little particles of stone from the ground beneath the candle. Focus was as sharp as the sword at his hip. Finer and finer, he wove the flows of Water. Pulling every last drop of moisture from the wick. Once he was satisfied he wove Air and the minute stone particles, dust really, surrounded the wick in a dense cloud. It was almost as if a stone had been vaporized but not allowed to dissipate. Channeling hair thin flows of Spirit, he drew the stone particles together. Channeling Air he spun the particles faster and faster, using the friction to his advantage. Sweat beaded on his forehead and slipped down his face, but went unnoticed outside the Void. Slowly the stone grew warm with heat and the faintest glow began, almost a haze. Faster and faster, he forced the Air. Suddenly a small wisp of smoke trailed skyward and a flame burst into life atop the wick. Channeling additional flows of Air, Tai drew away the now nearly spent particles and fed the flame as well. Letting the weaves fade eventually, Tai released Saidin and grinned. He had done it.

 

OOC: P.S. Scores Below.

[Arath Faringal]

Arath looked at the candle in front of him for a moment.  It was an interesting challenge that Covai had set before them.  A very curious puzzle.  How does one make fire from something else?  The same way anyone else would do it probably.  Making a spark seemed the most logical.

 

Siezing Saidin, he wove earth deep into the ground.  Stabilizing the earth under the candle so he wouldn't knock it over, Arath raised his hands and brought up a column of dirt and stone right beside the target.  Shaping the earth with heavy flows of Saidin, he bent the column over the top of the candle.  Two rocks of different kinds flowed through the column, pushed by individual flows, until they were positioned right above the wick of the candle.  Tightening the flows around the rocks, Arath began to grind them together. 

 

Tiny sparks began to fly from the grinding stones.  Not nearly as big as he would have liked, but they were still there.  Lowering the column down until the stones were almost touching the candle wick, Arath began again.  It took a little while, but soon a spark stuck and the candle sported a small dancing flame.  Carefully withdrawing his weaves, Arath let the earth fall apart after pushing it away.  The activity had been more exhausting than he had anticipated, but all things considered he was satisfied with the results.

[Covai Seriba]

OOC: Sorry for the wait guys, nice work though :)

 

IC: Covai was torn between grinning and grimacing as he watched the attempts with varying degrees of success. Most people seemed to be trying to use weaves of air to start the candle, which confused him to no end. ""What in the light are they thinking?"" He was glad to see at least Arath was one of the minority that seemed to have thought along the same lines as himself. People had used flint for years, so why not stick to it?

 

Stepping forward at the end of the final round, Covai waited as the attention focused back on himself. "Good work men. Some..... interesting ideas from some of you as well. Considering how many failed though, I'm not sure whether to be impressed or disappointed. But for now we'll leave that to the later rounds to decided. As for the next round, it will be more of an endurance test for each of you."

 

Waving two boys over from the side line, Covai motioned for them to drop the boxes they had brought with them and to wait. Acknowledging them with a smile and a nod, Covai continued his speech. "Each of you will be given a candle, just as before. The task this time..." Covai pointed towards the line of trees at the edge of the Training grounds. "..is to use Saidin to carry the Lighted candle over to the tree line. You can use whatever elements or weaves you like, but the candle must still be in one piece when it gets there and the flame can't have gone out. Otherwise you'll be unable to compete in the following round."

 

Stepping out of the way, Covai called the first six forward again. "Leave a five minute gap between each group. You've got just under half a mile to travel here, so make sure you'll be able to sustain the weave that long. Anybody lets their weave go halfway and I'll make them come back and start over."

 

OOC: Should be good here. Please remember for those of you with air scores of 2 or so, you won't just be able to use air strands to carry it AND keep the candle alight. Lets see what people can do  ;D (The next round is also ready to go after this, so there won't be a wait for stage 3)

[TaiDashan]

OOC: Sorry...I looked at the post and said "I will get to that tomorrow." Then I forgot about it till now.  :-\

 

"Good work men. Some..... interesting ideas from some of you as well. Considering how many failed though, I'm not sure whether to be impressed or disappointed. But for now we'll leave that to the later rounds to decided. As for the next round, it will be more of an endurance test for each of you."

 

Covai explained the next contest and Tai figured it could not be too hard to do. He could feed Fire into the flame to keep it strong against any gusts, he could weave a shield of Air to keep it from going out...It truly was a long way to go. Stepping up and taking his turn he focused on the candle. Weaving Air he raised it to eye level, it guttered dangerously and he quickly split his flow, weaving a shield to keep it from going out.

 

~Don't fail!~ Chaos clamored. Tai shoved him roughly away and focused on the task at hand.

 

By the time he had it halfway to the trees, sweat beaded his face. Maintaining a split weave was hard. He hesitated momentarily. If he attempted to weave something more complex, and hold it all the way there he was sure he would fail. However, if he...Weaving Spirit Tai opened a gateway large enough to pass the candle through, the trees could be seen much closer now through it. Extending his weave of Air he passed the candle through it and watched it settle to the ground still lit on the other side. He released his weaves and looked at Covai. The Storm Leader did not look well pleased, but he had said they could use whatever weaves they liked to carry it to the trees. Shrugging he went to join the others and wait for the rest to finish.

[Arath Faringal]

Arath thought carefully over the instructions Covai had laid out for them.  Any element at all ... the Storm Leader hadn't excluded fire this time.  A quick glance around quickly showed him that this fact had eluded the rest of the group.  He knew it wasn't terribly original, but Arath quickly decided on his strategy.  First, he wrapped a tiny thread of fire around the wick.  Experimentally he blew on it causing the the tiny flame to dance around.  But the weave sustained it, no matter how hard he blew on it.

 

Satisfied, he formed a simple movable platform of air and placed the candle on top of it.  With that he set off at a brisk pace.  The candle flame danced wildly, but never flickered low or threatened to go out at all.

 

Along the way he saw the efforts of some of the other contestants.  One distraught looking dedicated had tried to use earth to transport the candle.  His candle had fallen over and been ground into the dirt when his weave had rolled over the top of it.  A soldier was drenched in sweat as he tried to carry the candle and shield it with air.  He looked exhausted before he'd made it half way.

 

It wasn't long before Arath made it to the tree line.  He arrived second, after Tai'Dashan.  He wasn't sure if the gateway had been legal, but it was a good interpretation of the rules.  Carefully setting his candle down, Arath waited for the rest to arrive, eager to see what Covai had in store for them next.

 

[Covai Seriba]

Covai was barely able to keep himself from swearing. The bloody Dedicated had used a gateway as a short cut. Even he hadn't thought about that. It wasn't what you could call a new weave, but still, it was well within the rules. He felt like kicking Arath too. The man just used fire to make sure the flame didn't go out. It wasn't what Covai had hoped for...but again, it was within the rules. He wanted to specify things better next time, but that would just defeat the purpose. As much as it hurt, he'd been caught out twice. He'd just have to see how many more times it would happen before the day was over.

 

 

 

 

"All right now" Covai addressed those who had made it succesfuly. "Time for the next phase." They all stood some six feet or so from the edge of the tree line, with candles in various conditions on the ground before them. Covai walked around each of them tracing a circle at their feet just over a foot or so wide.

 

"This time is a little different. First rule, you can not step outside of the circle. Second rule, you have fifteen minutes to construct something that will allow you to cook your breakfast. I won't tell you what you'll be cooking, but your ingredients will arrive after you're done. So do try not to just make the usualy campfire. The second rule will come later."

[Talavin]

OOC: I knew I was forgetting something! :P

 

IC: Ze'el hummed as he thought. In the last challenge he had used Air (and failed), but this time he would try something different. There were many different ways to move the candle, and keeping it alight shouldn't pose too much of a difficulty. Ze'el already had a plot forming in his mind when he made his way to his starting position. He noticed that the men around him prefered to physically lift their candle up, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep the candle lit if he tried to lift it with Air as well.

 

Ze'el channeled Earth and raised two mounds of earth that ran parallel all the way to the finish. He grimaced though, feeling the drain that just that simple task costed him. However, he had the perfect size valley in between his two mounds. Next, he channeled Water to slick the channel that he had made. He couldn't wet the entire path, so he resolved himself to just wet the ground every once in a while. Finally, he placed his candle in the valley and pushed it gently with Air, wrapping the flows around the candle so that it didn't tip over.

 

Pushing the candle was much easier than actually lifting it and carrying it, although it was slower. Nevertheless, Ze'el made his way across the training grounds slowly but surely. With his focus intently on the candle and keeping it from going out, Ze'el found himself at the other end in no time. This time, he felt smug in his success, knowing that he had actually managed to do the task in a way that made up for his weakness in the Power. It wasn't as flashy as some of the other methods used, but it was effective.

 

OOC: I'll post the other task seperately... and I'll try not to take a month this time ;D

[TaiDashan]

Tai all but sighed in relief when Covai told him he had passed. Not that the man had been happy about it, on the contrary he looked ready to chew nails! He had allowed it though and Tai had to grin to himself.

 

"All right now, time for the next phase." Covai said to those of them who had succeeded. When Covai stepped over to draw a circle in the dirt around his feet, Tai furrowed his brow in puzzlement. He stared at the man's back as he moved to the next and did the same. What was this about?

 

~Does it matter?~ giggled Chaos. Time to show them what you know!

 

So far the tasks had been fairly odd if not simple. Lighting a candle, keeping it lit while moving it, what next? Why a candle? The common threads of fire and a candle thus far tugged at him but Tai could not quite put his finger on it. What was Covai thinking? His mind spun but he just could not figure it out.

 

"This time is a little different. First rule, you can not step outside of the circle. Second rule, you have fifteen minutes to construct something that will allow you to cook your breakfast. I won't tell you what you'll be cooking, but your ingredients will arrive after you're done. So do try not to just make the usual campfire. The second rule will come later."

 

Tai's eyes nearly bulged as he listened to Covai's words. Light! How was he supposed to come up with a way to cook something if he didn't know what it was?! Thoughts of the different types of things to cook and the different ways to cook them flashed through his head. Nothing for it but to try he supposed. Once Covai got them started, he began. Weaving Earth he opened a small pit in front of him and pulled up a few small walls of earth to surround it, leaving the part facing him open and the top covered. He grimaced to himself, it looked more like a small cave. Weaving Air, he chopped and stripped some larger branches from behind him and laid them in the pit for a fire. That would contain the heat should he need to roast something. Flattening and thinning the top with another flow of Earth, and using Water to draw out all moisture, he hardened it to thin stone that would heat nicely from the contained fire beneath. As an after thought he wove Earth again, raising a platform should he need to prepare anything. Sweat rolled down his face despite the cold wind. Earth was his weakest element and that was what he had used for most of it. Tai wove Fire almost without thinking and lit the branches, mostly closing it off with a final flow of Earth. He was exhausted. When Covai had said a test of endurance as well, he had thought it would be nothing. Boy was he wrong.

[Talavin]

"...and I'll try not to take a month this time ;D "

 

OOC: That was a lie. ::)

 

IC: Something that would make breakfast? To Ze'el it seemed like a bloody worthless waste of time. Perhaps he would be more inclined to participate if he weren't already exhausted from the past couple tasks. He was, after all, by no means strong in the One Power. Nevertheless, he clenched he teeth and got to work. With such ambiguous instructions it was hard to think of what he would need. The only information he had was that he would be cooking something. There were hundreds of things that could be cooked, and just about the same number of things to cook with. Ze'el kept himself from glaring at Covai and instead attempted to create the general tools needed for cooking.

 

The first thing he made was a fire. It was a rather pathetic fire though, due to his exhaustion. It would be enough to cook with, but certainly no bonfire. Ze'el arranged enough wood around the fire so that it would burn for a while and not go out in the middle of the challenge. He then tried to make a pan out of Earth so that he would have something to cook on. He couldn't quite manage a pan though, and instead he was left with a bowl that perhaps could hold a few meager servings of porridge. Due to the amount of exhaustion he felt, Ze'el knew that he couldn't manage much more, and would have to settle with that.

 

Once his- admittedly pathetic- preparations were finished, Ze'el sat back to catch his breath. Covai had told them not to just make the standard campfire, but Ze'el honestly didn't know what else he should make (let alone what he would be able to make). Unsatisfied, he sat back and waited for the Storm Leader, knowing that he probably wouldn't pass this test.

[Arath Faringal]

Arath took some time thinking about his task for a moment.  Cooking breakfast?  What was Covai up to?  He wondered for a moment if this might have something to do with Covai's latest cravings for Domani food.  Whatever the case, he was sure it wouldn't be a very standard approach to an early morning meal.  And how would the candle be brought into this?

 

Aware that his time was short, Arath began to work.  Delving into the ground, Arath located a good sized stone that would serve his purpose.  Pulling it up, he began to shape it into a large shallow dish, with gently sloping sides.  Quickly smoothing out the insides, he began work on the bottom.  Earth and fire sliced away large sections of stone, leaving the bottom as smooth as the top, and at what he hoped was just the right thickness.

 

Admiring his handywork, Arath added the finishing touches.  From the discarded stone fragments, he made three legs for the stone bowl, propping it several inches above the ground.  Plenty of room for a small fire, should it be needed.  Or the candle, if it was supposed to go there instead.

 

Settling back, Arath watched the rest of the men work while they waited for the time to run out.