[EXAM] Moira's Challenge (Group 1)

[Sosiqui]

The rumpled messages had arrived in the night, tacked onto the students' message boards...

CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING READY TO TEST FOR SECOND YEAR biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin !!!!
Meet at the dumpsters behind the Creepateria for your exam okay!! THANK YOU!!

... The note isn't signed. How strange.




It smells back here. It smells really bad. The dumpsters are overflowing with trash and various disgusting things, which might actually be to your liking if you were a particular type of monster! Unfortunately, if you're not... it's extraordinarily gross. Flies fear to go nearby lest they mutate into hideous abominations. Fortunately, there's a hideous abomination waiting for you - Moira, the headcrab zombie school janitor.

... Wait, Amityville is letting janitors run exams now?

Still, as you approach, Moira beams, clapping her hands in excitement. "Oooh, don't you look chipper and spry and ready to graduate to the next level?! I'm so excited to test your mettle, ghouls!!" The zombie turns to one side and gives one of the dumpsters a mighty heave, revealing a dark, trash-encrusted hole underneath. It's quite a big hole. More like a tunnel, really.

"So, ghouls! For your very special exam, I've prepared an adventure in the mysterious depths of Amityville Academy's waste disposal system!! Almost nobody's gone down there, so this is a real treat!" She whispers that last conspiratorially, and with utter genuineness. She seems to really, truly believe that this is some kind of huge honor she's about to grant you. "Now, sweeties, head on down there - I've hidden a super-special goodie! The Golden Scoop and Silver Pail! They're super-special artifacts of the holy trashcraft!" She claps her hands with excitement again. "So go on, ghouls! And try not to die!!"

With that she steps back expectantly, looking from the ghouls to the hole in the ground and back.  

[Sosiqui]

Waste Disposal Tunnel Maze

Roll dice to determine your character's status and fate! You may interact with each other if you wish. Until you finish, you are still first years so you have 30 HP! If you run out of HP at any point, you dissipate and fail.

STAGE ONE: The Entry Tunnels
This area is foul and dank. The tunnels are small and are coated with gross on all sides. It's impossible to go through here and stay clean...

Roll 1d 20. If you roll...
A 1: You slip and fall on something slimy, twisting an ankle badly enough that you can't possibly search for the artifacts! Automatic fail. sad
A 2-10: You continue on through the dank tunnels, but a few trash stalactites fall from the ceiling, striking you for 10 HP damage!
A 11-20: You continue on, but the stalactites miss you.


STAGE TWO: The Trashbot Labyrinth
The tunnels widen here, and become somewhat less completely disgusting. They're still pretty gross, though. Here and there Moira's Trashbots zoom about, looking for garbage to pick up and take back to the dump.

Roll 1d 12. If you roll...
A 1: A Trashbot suddenly charges out of a side tunnel and runs you over! You fail. sad
A 2-8: A Trashbot charges you and scoops you up! You manage to escape, but take 10 HP damage in the struggle.
A 9-12: You slip past all the Trashbots like a ninja.


STAGE THREE: The Dump
The tunnels all open up into a giant underground cave! ... With a garbage dump in it. Are the artifacts in here?!

Roll 1d 8. If you roll...
A 1: A trashvalance buries you. You fail, but Moira will come save you. Eventually. sad
A 2-5: You step on a mattress and a spring knocks you up into the ceiling for 5 HP damage! Ouch.
A 6-8: You wade carefully through all the trash without missing a step! Damn, you're good.


STAGE FOUR: The Trashy Grail
In the center of the dump, on a great mound of trash, are the two shining artifacts! Remember, ghouls, one artifact per customer!

Roll 1d4. If you roll...
A 1: A headcrab leaps out of the trash at just the wrong moment, causing you to fall off the trash-mound and... ouch. You fail. sad
A 2-3: A headcrab leaps out of the trash, but you only sidestep and whack into a rusty bumper. It gashes you for 5 HP damage, and possibly some tetanus too.
A 4: You're the mountain goat of the trash-Alps!


If you get past all four stages, you claim an artifact and pass your exam! Please quote me when you finish, or if you wish to interact with Moira in any way before entering the exam.  

[Sosiqui]

SUMMONING

Nio Love

Freya!

Rabid Ice Weasel

Taryn!

 

[Nio Love]

Freya had been so jazzed to hear that she had been scheduled for her exam. She had spent four hours trying to pick out her best outfit, and finally had settled on a pure white dress, tight in all the right places, and strapless to show off her shoulders. She'd gone through twelve belts before finally settling on the black one with the pretty blue designs, because it reminded her of Herryk. And then there came the matter of shoes..

All of these choices suddenly felt like the worst decisions she'd ever made in her life as she stood in front of the tunnel of filth that her instructor(?!) pointed towards, beckoning her and that friend of Roch's in.

Freya stared, holding her nose pinched in one hand, and tried very hard not to throw up on her favorite white dress.

Then she realized it wouldn't matter much by the end of this exam, so she turned her head and let it fly.  

[bobaTJ]

Taryn knew this ghoul from somewhere, she reasoned, narrowing her eyes. The haunted house, maybe? Freya. Her and that big boil...

Hold on a second. The chimera stared in horror at her instructor for the day, and as she tossed the dumpster she gave an honest yelp. Her outfit was modest, as they all were, and her shoes predictably flat...but that... that was trash. She had exposed skin! Where were the hazmat suits?! This was very unsanitary!

In her panic, Taryn realized that the other ghoul had just thrown up. Everywhere. She gagged and put a hand over her mouth, shaking her head.

"We'll go quick?" Her words were strained.  

[Nio Love]

"QUICK! HAH!" Freya stood back up straight, daintily rubbing the corners of her mouth with her fingertips, and her ashen face turned to Taryn with dismay. "Whether we are quicks, or slows, we are goings teh smells like teh ******** shits comings outs of the a** of an antweeker after it has eatens its own poops!"

What.

"Uuuuugh." She groaned, looking down mournfully at the heels she'd worn, and storming forward, heading for the entrance.

"No shower is goings teh be enoughs after all of this. I will has teh scrub my skin off and be one of those undeads yenno, with the skinless and the-"

She turned around, as if suddenly realizing something, and gave Taryn and apologetic smile. "By the way, is nice teh sees yeh here, Taryn. Even if I'd rather be anywhere else in the world."

Turning around was a mistake. Several stalactites fell from the ceiling of the mouth opening, piercing her bare shoulders and slamming into her head. She fell to her knees, held her head in her hands, and made a bellowed wail that sounded like an animal dying.

HP: 20  

[bobaTJ]

Taryn nodded, looking mournfully into the hole in the ground. This... was disgusting. How was this an exam?! What did this test?! Endurance?! She hadn't studied every day to show off her endurance! Still, she offered Freya a small smile before diving into the opening with her... and being hit by the same Jackdamn stalactites.

"AH--!" Oh ow. Breath hissing, Taryn tried to get to her feet. There was some damage, a little blood... this test needed to be over. It was a bit too much like the haunted house for her liking.

Rather than abandon her classmate, Taryn offered a weak hand down. Crap. Crap crap crap this sucked. "Come on..."

HP: 20  

[Nio Love]

Freya took Taryn's hand, and rose back up to her feet, maneuvering through the tunnel with tiptoed steps. Being careful didn't work - by the time they'd reached the trashbots, she was already filthy. Little whines kept escaping from her throat every time she brushed against something nasty, until finally she was scooped up by one of the trashbots, and carried away.

"TARYN, HELPS!! I AM BEINGS KIDNAPPED! THIS MACHINE, IT WILL TAKES ME AS IT'S BRIDE!"

HP: 10  

[bobaTJ]

"Hold on, I'm coming!"

The chimera went flying after the escaping bot, perhaps a little too eagerly. Her hoof caught a chunk of scrap metal and she tumbled forward... into the same bot's scoop. Oh, Jack--

"BAIL OUT!"

Taryn heaved herself to the side and tumbled into a sharp pile of... Jack only knew. Shards of glass? Horrible disease? Discarded sharps. She landed with a horrible whine, flat on her belly. Uuuuugh. She'd let her head drop if that didn't mean a face full of waste.

HP: 10  

[Nio Love]

Freya screamed as she flew into the garbage heap with Taryn, reaching out to protect the ghoul's head as they fell into the muck. She let out a screech a moment later, and uncurled from Taryn to stand up. "This is terribles! TERRIBLES! This womans, she is goings teh pays for my cleaning bills! No, she is goings teh buys me a new dress! A NEW ONE! Garbage never comes out of white!"

She didn't know that for sure, but rest assured when she got home, she would find that she was right.

As she stood, she found the first positive thing about her outfit. Her large stilettos were long enough that, when they dug down into the garbage, they kept the rest of her feet away from the muck. For once, things were going right.

She held her hand out to Taryn this time, and smiled. "We goes, yes?"

HP: 10  

[bobaTJ]

"Yes, please..." Taryn huffed, lifting her skirt as if she could save it from the grime already smeared across it. She was mucky everywhere. Everywhere. She tried to pick her way through the mass of crap that was this tunnel, and suddenly found herself stuck.

"Um."

Oh, crap! She'd gotten herself stuck in an old mattress, and she-- OH JACK. JACK NO. Taryn hit the ceiling hard and fell down with a sound that said she was near tears. "STUPID JACKDAMN PIECE OF-- I HATE THIS. I HATE THIS!"

HP: 5  

[Nio Love]

As disgusted as she was with the grime all over her, her heart went out to the ghoul. She continued to trudge on, trying to set a good example, and be strong. When someone else was on the line, Freya could do that. She knew she could. And so she got to the top of the trash pile, dug her hand in with a wince and a groan, and found the blasted artifact that they had come there to get.

"This things better be worths it.." She grumbled to herself, before turning around and holding it up to Taryn. "Gots it!"

HP: 10  

[bobaTJ]

What got her wasn't even a fling or a fall, it was a rusty bumper as she stood. Taryn peered down at the gash across her leg, watched some blood fall, and--

"FU--"

She dissipated, dying for her first time. When she reformed, she could only shriek.

Worst. Exam. Ever.

Late she would mope about failing.

She would then realize that trash-swimming was not a legitimate career path.

She could go without the janitor's pin.

Sosiqui

Bitter much? |D

 

[Nio Love]

... and her small smile as she held the artifact up to Taryn disappeared as she watched the ghoul dissipate in front of her eyes. Tears stung at her eyes, and she collapsed onto the pile of garbage, no longer so worried about the filth.

What a bittersweet victory.

Sosiqui

 

[Sosiqui]

A Trashbot with a headcrab on one shoulder trundled up the trash-mountain and scooped Freya up almost tenderly, carrying her back out into the light of the pumpkin sun. "Oooh, a victory! A great victory!" Moira gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, clearly delighted. "You, miss, have the makings of a great ghoul... a great and most perspicacious ghoul indeed!"

With that, the zombie took the precious artifact, and the Trashbot put Freya down with surprising delicacy. "Congratulations, spookie!! Oh, uh... I must have.. misplaced my pin but I'll have a gnome send it to you as soon as I can, you Knob you!!"

Nio Love

Moira doesn't have an official pin yet, but you can claim it when she does~ grats!

Taryn would recieve a hand-drawn card with a smiling little Trashbot holding a bouquet of dead flowers on it. Inside, it read:

"DEAR TARYN: I'm so sorry!! sad sad sad But you tried REALLY REALLY EXTRA SUPER HARD and I'm so proud of you anyway spookie!! Congratulations on being a Knob now okay!!

- Moira *********, Janitor"

Rabid Ice Weasel

grats 2 u too! <33