Festival: Spooktacular Peko Race

It is a time of year when ghouls and ghosts frequent the lands. No more so than in the Ninetails Dominion, which has had frequent incursions of the undead over the past year. So it is no surprise that they might celebrate this time of year a bit more enthusiastically, perhaps hoping that honoring these dark creatures would be enough to send them back where they had come from once the festival season is over.

Night has fallen early, as is common this time of year. An eerie mist lingers in the valleys between hills. It is only dangling lantern light that illuminates the area around the starting line, with various Landers and Adventurers dressed in costumes.

Unlike before the war, there is a security detachment representing all of the Alliances, seeming to have ensured that no one in attendance is an active threat, or so it seems. Still, even with the anxious energy, there is excitement as well. People seem enthusiastic about seeing the Pekos dressed in their finest costumes and seeing the thrill of the race.

After all this time, people need a distraction from war, and seeing oversized birds running through unusual challenges seems to be the best thing for that.

"Riders, take one pass by our wonderful fans to show off your costumes, and then make your way to the starting line!" The host for the festivities appears to be a squat looking Gnome with a handlebar moustache that sticks out from both sides of his face, curled up at the edges. He is wearing a suit and top hat which has a large peko feather sticking out from it. He looks more like a circus ringmaster than a race announcer, but it is the Shadow Festival, so it welcomes all types.

Time for the races! Races with outfits. The Artificer normally wears cloth gear and fashion even when there is no festival requiring it. The event kicks it up a notch. Today he is in costume as an Arabian Knight. Because it is a night festival and his last name is Nox. He is still going for some punnage. This is Haru we are talking about here. The outfit is complete with loose white pants, sandals, and a bare chest that shows off his swimmer's build. Although tall he isn't going to be burdening a Peko down with much weight. A eggshell silken shawl adorns over his shoulders as if to ward away the heat of a desert. The Enchanter's monocle remains, giving the young human an amethyst gem for one eye and a blue sapphire for the other.

Haru's Peko is a lovely birb by the name of Karen. Karen is a draft Peko, salt of the earth avian. Her breed is meant for hard farm work and not speed like a racing peko or combat like a charger. No, Karen is a large lady with dusky brown feathers not unlike the bark of a maplewood tree. Today is a magical day where a peasant becomes a princess. Haru has given her normal barding a makeover in favor of flowing eggshell coloured silks. Tuby beads adorn at the end of the cloth that jingle when she walks. Soft metalwork of gold, copper, and rosegold adorn in chains to announce her as a Flame Princess. No princess is without an appropriate tiara and a large one rests delicately on her head with a firefly design of gently red pulsing gemstones down her neck. Her eyes are as sharp as her beak. She is majestic and if you don't treat her right she will burn you to cinders!

Having such decorum and respect for his Peko, Arabian Knight Haru offers a formal bow with one arm across his chest and one outward. "M'lady," he starts, "may I have this race?" Kweh. "May honor be won in your name today, Flame Princess Karen." Wark! She brustles, beads shaking. Haru uses his Ioun stones as small platforms to step up and mount onto the Peko saddle without disturbing the outfit. Kweh. "Whats that, Princess? You want to get down and dirty with this race track?" Wark! "As you wish, you spicy birb," he says with a grin. Oh this is going to be fun.

The first thing that is requested is a little walk around to show off the costumes. The four floating stones that circle Haru become red like molten magma, erupting into small orbs of flame to circle around him and his Peko as he trots around, giving a wave to those watching and the other riders as well.

Schneider shows up astride a peko that is ... what it wearing is probably supposed to be a costume, because the race rules require a costume, but it is not a very well-made costume. It is mainly a sack, a fairly large and stout one, with a hole cut in the top for the Peko's head. There are some reflective bits which might be sequins or bits off an old suit of scale armor, but he either ran out of scales or ran out of time to sew them on the costume, and the scales have been completed by poor attemps to paint scraggly lines, with a bit of gold-ish, or at least dingy yellow paint across the 'scales' and non-scaled aread that would, one might expect, be scaled on something with scales all over it's body. There was a piece that went over the head, but the Peko, named Rarz, ate it. Bits hang from it's jaw, and it occasionally snaps at the rest of the costume, but can't seem to reach, or else can't be bothered to give it a good gnaw. In case the costume is not obvious, Schneider has helpfully painted the word 'Dragon' on the side in large letters in bright red paint.

Preparing for the race, Schneider dons his peko riding hat, made with the prize from the first season of Peko racing, it makes /him/ look a bit like a peko. Well, he's been called a bird-brain before. Rarz calms down a bit when Schneider dons the cap, it really does have an effect on his lack of riding skill, and Schneider, astride Rarz, joins the parade around, and then steps up to the starting area.

    Honouring the spirits of the dead is a great way to keep them from rampaging, especially if you honour them with fire. Still the idea of a festival is never a bad one, and there's always the chance of fireworks or other sorts of fancy light shows! And even if not there's still a playful competition to get involved in; one Fuka hopes will be fun and preferably free of interruption from those pesky Palace Landers.

    The diminutive Sylph rides out on her usual mount, a Peko she calls Sandy, standing up in the stirrups to tower over everyone as she grins and waves to the fans. Almost all that extra height being due to being in the saddle, naturally. She's decked out for a rather different season though, it seems. One that has a different sort of cheer which some might consider desperately needed. She wears a bright green coat and red skirt over candy-striped leggings, with a peaked hat of red with a white pompom on the top and red boots and gloves to match. In contrast, Sandy is caparisoned in a suit of clean white, the cloth draping about the Peko's body in a way that resembles a fine suit. Tied around her neck is a spiffy black bow tie; low atop her beak sits a set of horn-rimmed glasses, and a red apron with thin white stripes descends from around Sandy's neck to loosely cover her chest. She also wears a red peaked cap much like Fuka's, with the same white pom pom on the top.

    Yes, Fukaziroh has picked a costume that probably doesn't have any significance for the Landers present, but it's one that should be immediately obvious to any Japanese adventurers. An Elf atop the Colonel, all decked out for Christmas.

It was time again for Peko Races! And not even the pressing matter with demon worshipping gnolls was going to keep Shiruba from enjoying what has become her favorite Elder Tale competitive pasttime. We're just hoping that there's no rude interruptions from unwanted guests this time.

"I know you've been waiting for this as long as I have," Shiruba remarks to Tradewind as they trot up to the starting line. Immeadiately it can be seen that something is very different today. Tradewind was the one wearing a dark forest green cloak, with the hood pulled up onto his head to partially shadow his face. Several of his head plumes have been poked through a hole in the back of the hood to keep it in place, and give it an extra decorative touch. The straps on the left side of his riding gear have been fitted with sections of additional ribbed leather to imitate an archer's chest and shoulder guards. Similar braces are strapped atop his wings, with matching leather and bone-braced greaves adorning his legs to help solidify the look. Shiruba even carved a small bow and tucked it through his saddle straps so it looks like it's being carried under a wing, while several wood carvings of shrunken gnoll and goblin heads clatter on the saddle's read strap like a belt.

Plus in a bit of juxaposition Shiruba herself is wearing a fluffy yellow-tan outfit with artifical barding draped over her shoulders and back, and her ears tucked under her Peko Peko Hat that resembles one of the bird's head... so it looks like the Ranger is being ridden by a Peko instead of the usual way around.

Shiruba nods to everyone else as they take their place in the line up. Here's hoping everything goes well.

    Bird comes in riding on Rizadoman and readies for the race. Yes today Bird shall be riding on Rizadoman, it is absolutely not Rizadoman wearing a Peko outfit on top of Bird who is definately not wearing scale armor painted teal blue. Yes, it is absolutely easier to believe that Bird is riding on top of Rizadoman.

     As they stand at the starting line he looks about for a moment and then "Bird" leans forward and makes cooing sounds to Rizadoman and obviously Rizadoman responds with a receptive coo. Lizards and Pekos have a very similar language after all.

    June is... well she's June and as usual she's got KFC with her... the peko she hasn't managed to actually find fried chicken under the world with any of the system people. She is however dressed... differently. Normally she'd be doing her best Red Sonja impression, but today she's shifted into her monster form. Armored hide with wide iron horns, she has a ten gallon hat with a D on the front. She's wearing a leather vest and some of the newly created jeans and a grey kerchief. She's dressed as The Dakota Dude and obscure character from a more obscure show that never even aired in Japan.

Once she's signed up she pats her peko on the neck. "You know the score Kan Featherquill Chaucer III... we come in last, and you come in dinner, and KFC IV will be in the next race got it?" she nods to him and mounts up. Luckily she's small so even with all that muscle and iron scales she's light enough for him to carry easily.

Gwen was ready for another race and given the time of year she had an idea from her most recent armour find. She thought Heavy Metal, as in the comic.

SO here she was looking like she would be on the cover of it with the old black heavy blade armour. Also, did the jaws on the shoulders move? It's hard to tell but her Peco? That pecko feathers are black as midnight and wearing very heavy barding, its legs are armoured in a similar style as Gwen's of interlocking armour the saddle and armour on its torso is a cross-weave of armoured material matching the colour of the rest. Its wings are armoured as well and seemed to be bladed on the edge thankfully it's just a very well-made costume and the bird is in no danger of cutting itself on its own edge. The front torso has an armour plate with a red gem set in the middle of it and finally, its head is fully covered by a helmet with gems that seem to give it red glowing eyes and horns.

She looks over at Shiruba calling out.

"I see you have paid attention to my convention cosplaying!"

This is Not Halloween! And that means it's time to be spooky and terrifying and overall just a no good bad time for anyone who has a halfway decent imagination and a bare knowledge of things that are scary.

Once again, Prophylaxis reprises a familiar role. Not just as a peko rider-- though he is certainly doing quite a bit of that, historically speaking. No, he wears a familiar outfit, one that once graced the city of Dun Loireag a year ago. His face is covered by a plague doctor's mask, the sickly grey leather intentionally threadbare. A pair of dark lenses cover his eyes, peering out from under a broad-rimmed hat. His shoulders are wrapped in a voluminous, black cloak, a ruffled cravat tied around his neck. All else is black cloth and brass trim. Black gloves grip the reins of his trusty steed...

...Who is positively princesslike, if also appropriately gothic. Konpeko, too, wears a stylized plague mask, save for the cut-out for her lower jaw to hinge through. But she has also acquired a black bonnet frothing with white frill, a theme that continues down the peko's fluffy body. It's as though she wears a victorian ballgown, albeit one made for giant flightless birds. Her wings peek through voluminous sleeves and her tail wiggles where it peeks out between two the cascading halves of a bustled skirt. Her whole ensemble is decorated with midnight blue tulle that terminates at a bright, silvery brooch fastened at her breast.

Konpeko preens. She feels pretty today.

Heck, even her claws are painted! It's an adorably spooky gothic lolita peko with a much (much) more frightening rider!

While Curtana isn't exactly the best with riding animals, he does enjoy helping out with the festivities. Riding around on a peko does sound like a lot of fun, but doing it while both you and your mount are dressed up? That's going to be a challenge.

Riding on top of his rented mount, Curtana has a costume that's quite different yet similar to what he often wears. A metal helm with a chainmail curtain covers the back of his neck and rests on his shoulders. A pale white tunic that reaches the ankles with the icon of a grumpy sun was stitched on the front, and chainmail covers his arms completely. The Peko mount he rented for this event has mostly white plumage that fades to gray onto the wings. The saddle had bits of camping supplies with a buldging knapsack along the right side, with the grumpy sun stitched on the front of the bag as well. To top it all off was what appears to be two halfs of a coconut danging on strings around the peko's neck that occasionally clap together with a 'co-clop' sound.

Looking rather pleased with himself (even if his rented steed keeps trying to nip at the coconut shells), Curtana pats his bird's neck. "Almost time, Patsy."

After all, those who know Curtana well might have guessed what he would have tried. A King Arthur with an African Swallow.

Chikako grins as she rides out to join the rest. Like everyone else, she's dressed up for the occasion! Halloween was always her favorite holiday. She loved the chance to dress up. It's almost too bad there won't be anything for her to smash, unless the stupid Palace Landers decide to interfere like the last time. That just leaves the question of what she's picked for a costume!

Black steel armor covers her figure, shaped into impractically spiky, jagged plates designed more for intimidation than protection. The 'breastplate' is well named, shaped to present the image of a much more impressive bosom than she actually posesses in her human guise. Instead of a helm, she's expanded her horned headband to add several spiky projections mimicing a crown (not a Crown, though).

Her mount is caparisoned to match, jet-black of color either by nature or by artifice is unclear. 'Flames' of red and orange and yellow silk rise from its head and trail down its neck, joined by more affixed to each foot. The beast's claws are tipped with iron, as well, raising sparks where it walks.

Finishing the look is the weapon she bears, a massive and impractical-looking lance of twisted metal, with thirteen crystalline shards scattered about its length. "Bow before your King!" she roars, brandishing the massive weapon in a single hand. "Who here dares contest my inevitable victory?"

Yes, the Chuuni is out in force today.

Every year Syx had to go putting together some grand tribute to the greatest wrestlers he grew up watching. He's shown up in full costume for both Macho Man Randy Savage and The Undertaker, the latter being his costume for last year's festivities. This year, he decided to go with something a little more unusual.

Syx arrives with his usual flair for entrances, his arrival predicated by magical fireworks. Then comes Meteor, the red feathered peko he's ridden in all the previous races. This time, however, Meteor is dressed up with a long, flowing blonde wig, and green and black riding gear. Syx, on the other hand, is rocking the full Degeneration-X look. Black leather, a green painted logo on the shirt he's wearing, and the signature crotch chop, complete with inappropriate gesturing. Yep, he's dressed as D-X era Shawn Michaels and Meteor is his Triple-H.

In Syx's mind it's worth it if one person gets the reference, the Landers should just love him regardless, because they always love him.

Challenge 1: Running in Costume

"Look at those wonderful costumes, ladies and gentlemen! Don't forget to get your votes in for your favorite!" The Gnome calls out, tittering his amusement. "All racers! On your marks!"

There his a heavy pause before the Gnome lifts a hand and shoots a burst of fireworks up into the air. "Go!"

Of course, the one thing most of the Pekos are not used to, is running in costume. Some of them are more elaborate than others, and some Pekos better trained to deal with this kind of adversity. A few begin to trip over their costumes, or have pieces fall appart and end up getting in the way of other riders.

In short, it is chaos at the starting gates. It's clear that few of the riders are professional cosplayers who are used to having their costumes stand up under real world stresses. Then again, even those who have costumes that have held up the best, still risk the running into bits and pieces from someone else's failed attempt at costuming.

"It's a mess out there, folks. Let's see who can pull out of the tangle and take an early lead!"

Challenge: Handle Animal

    Rizadoman does not fear stepping up to any challenge and as the fireworks go off and even when he is played by a Peko, he burst into actions there three long strides with a turn in the middle as if imitating Rizadoman's Dance of the Naga and showing off it's skill before charging forward with a loud "KWAAAAA!" Moments later a roar of joy is heard from the lizardman dressed in a Peko suit. They will absolutely not lose today. Not when they are in such sync with each other.

Konpeko actually has very little trouble moving in costume. The problem is that Konpeko is a gigantic show-off and is far more interested in showing off her fancy duds to all of the other birds than actually... racing. Sure, she follows along with the rest of the pack, but that's only because if she didn't, she wouldn't get any attention from other pekos! And that would just be terrible!

By this point, Prophylaxis is quite familiar with his peko's proclivities, and can do little but sigh and patiently usher the lively, preening peko forward. It's alright, they've been together for this long, he's not just going to abandon his bird because she's more interested in being pretty than being fast.

...

And so they go together, the plague rider and his sashaying, frill-festooned feathered friend. Perhaps luck will be with them today...?

Nah, who are we kidding, they're going to explode or something right at the finish line again.

Gwen has never won a race, she just really enjoys it. So here she is again she's cast her vote and is ready to go she'll hop back on her mount. She thought she'd got her still-unnamed Peko or has she not told anyone its name, either way, it's time to go and she'll crack the reigns and it's not going to go so well. She'll flail and try to hang on!

And they are off! Haru holds onto Flame Princess Karen with one hand, leaning forward. "Tonight, we ride!" It is night. They are riding. The peko prints behind Karen leave a sizzling black flame effect as the two dash off. Initially it is chaos and Karen is not shy about throwing her weight around to move forward in the back. She is a big birb and not afraid to make her natural talents work for her. Breaking through an initial line, she finds herself into a steady stride, galloping forward down the tracks as the beads jingle to either side and the silken attire of the two billow against the night wind. The orbs around the Peko and Rider maintain a firey trail behind them like they were tethered just behind Haru's shoulders. But really they keep the flame enchantment going on for a 'Peko on Fire' glam.

Shiruba glances in Gwen's direction for a moment with a smirk. "You talking to me or him?", she jokes back, jabbing a thumb sideways at Tradewind.

Then there's the ready call, and she settles into racing mindset. As does her ride, scuffing the ground with his talons a few times... and then there's the starting flare! Pooom into the air it goes.

Shiruba doesn't even need to give the command they've done this enough times together, Tradewind takes off as soon as the firecracker pops overhead to signal the start. The most Shiruba does is grab part of his cloak, holding it in lieu of reigns and to keep it from flapping up in her face. Over all the costume not being too flashy and out there works in their advantage as Tradewind is able to make a strong headstart, while avoiding bits and bobs of other less fortunate costumes scattering haphazardly about.

Schneider and Rarz are off like a shot. That Peko riding hat seems to definitely add something to the way he rides, and the costume isn't particularly cumbersome. Or good, if it comes to it. It's torn here and there, and some of the scales come off, but none of this seems to slow down Rarz, who is, at least, off to a strong start, chewing up ground. Perhaps it's Schneider whispering, 'Roses are red, violets are blue, pekos that lose are made into glue.' Or perhaps he's eager to be rid of the costume, and so the sooner he's done with the race, the better. Whatever the case, they're off to a strong start. Now lets see if he can hang onto it?

    June accounces in English "This one is for you Cowlamity Kate." and spurs KFC forward... who promptly turns his head and stares at her "What? You think I can't be in character just because it's a race? What kind of cosplayer are you?" she stops and changes to Elvish "Junie... Kan is an idiot bird, and not even an idiot savant..." she shakes her head and then realizes the two of them are just sitting there. "Run you idiot." she says.

The Peko finally gets the lead out and starts charging off after the others. At least she's in the race even if it's towards the back. If KFC is lucky this moment of confusion won't lead to the deep frier.

    Fuka was reasonably careful with her costume choice, making sure it was something Sandy could still run in, but the Peko tosses her head to send the little horn-rimmed glasses flying before she starts running. The bird settles into her stride quickly and Fuka's a skilled rider, but they get off to a bit of a shaky start nonetheless as they get blocked in by other riders who got a quicker start but lacked that coordination of mount and rider and costume.

    By the time Fuka deals with the consequences of bad luck, she can see a few riders well ahead. "Catch them, Colonel Sandy!" she cries, gesturing forwards as if the Peko can't see them and hasn't already started running. Sandy, like Fuka, loves to race. Competition is in her blood, even if winning may not be. She's never started particularly strong but then, how you start is rarely important. It's how you end the race that counts.

It's more the fireworks going off than any motion from Curtana that has the nicknamed Patsy charging out over the line, with Curtana holding on for dear life. Managing to straight himself upright, he focuses on the road ahead. Several of the odds and ends that he had secured to the saddle and harness falls off, but the bag only jostles in place. "Note to self, learn how to pilot a bloody bird!"

Bits of costumes are flying from the other racers, and Curtana tugs on the reins sharply to get Patsy to curve around a large bit of discarded costume. Doing his best to help his rented mount find a route through the cluster of close racers with moving those reigns, but it honestly seems like Patsy is just humoring his king. It's going to be an interesting race for the Pooka.

This is Chikako's first race, and it shows. She makes a good start, but right out of the gate she's already banging into other riders. "Out of my way you sunday drivers!" she yells, waving her lance about and just barely missing someone's head. Onward she pushes, sparks flying from the iron claws of her peko as they strike the track. The silken scarves she's tied into 'flames' whip in the wind. Somehow, though, the Dark Knight, the Fallen King, carries on, pausing only to shove bits of discarded costume out of her path with a swipe of her lance. Half of the 'spikes' have broken off of it already, but she pays it no mind. "Haha!" she crows again, a wild grin on her face as she takes in the destruction. "Onwards!"

It seems that Syx, while he may think his costume is good, Meteor disagrees. The bird takes a few moments to peck at the wig before throwing it off, "Meteor, we talked about this!" Calls out, as they remain standing at the starting line.

Syx takes the bird's head and turns it around to look at the track and the rapidly vanishing racers. This gets Meteor to squawk and then take off, finally.

Challenge 2: Blending in with the Dark

As the pack of racers manages to get out of the tumble of bodies and costume parts at the starting line, they soon find themselves out in the open plains of the Ninetails Dominion. At first, everything seems peaceful enough, racing through tall grasses and dodging around rocks.

Oh wait, that was not a rock...

This is Ninetails, afterall, and it seems that the darkness has attracted a few unwanted monsters to the area. It isn't just the usual zombies in the area, but there seem to be other, more demonic creatures perched upon trees and looking for victims.

There is a cry as one rider is setupon by some kind of large, monstrous bat, while another gets an arrow shot at them by a skeleton archer.

It seems that the best chance of getting past these monsters is to try to blend in with the darkness, itself. It's not easily possible to sneak around while riding at high speed, but they can, at least, use some dark magic to hide themselves from detection.

Challenge: Dark

Karen is the night. Karen is... Night Mare. Ok, Karen is not Kau, but they both start with K. Haru reaches his hand upwards as his casting stones begin to shift color from red to an inky black. "Tenebris. Cadit. Lunae Lumen. Oriri. Occultare." Haru chants as the brown and red peko begins to be slowly covered in a mist of darkness. Only the red rubies shine through like cracks behind the coal. The glint of Haru's purple monocle as the dark rider and the wake of burning peko prints behind him as the large bird's steps behind muted at such a high speed. A misty blur on the race tracks. It affords avoidane to the archery fire and the monsters tend to leave the dark mist alone. Try not to run into her!

Once again it would seem that Shiruba's choice in costume for her Peko pays off in unintended ways. The hood and cloak don't disrupt Tradewind's profile in a manner that would make him more visibly striking and easily noticed like the more flashy outfits. As they keep low and to the shadows to avoid the high perched demonic figures, Shiruba uses one of the other techniques she's learned to adjust her eyesight for the darkness, picking out where the monsters are lurking with the precision one would expect of a hunter, and leading her mount away from their vision fields.

Schneider's Rarz is not a stealthy peko, and, like Schneider, is not afraid of a scrap. In fact, when he realizes that there are dangerous things out here in the race course, he turns and goes after them. Gnawing on their heads, Schneider is forced to incinerate them to pull Rarz's interest away. It does not stay away for long, he goes after another demonic creature, entirely oblivious to his own well-being, and Schneider's dumping a lot of MP on these critters to stay in the race. If he can be said to be staying in the race with all the racers passing him. He is soon overtaken and passed by the pack, but the monsters in his immediate vicinity are now charmarks on the ground, and Rarz can be convinced to rejoin the race.

    Naturally Fukaziroh had expected some kind of presence of dark monstrosities... whether of the Palace Lands variety or just the typical spooky scaries of the Dark itself. She considers her options quickly, coming to a plan. Light would be an option, yes, just blasting her way through or dazzling the attackers with one of her blinding spells. But light isn't really her strong suit, and at this time and in this field it'd make her stand out.

    Instead she chooses to do the opposite. Chanting low and strong, ducking her head low behind Sandy, she floods her skin with dark mana. Then she straightens up, her skin gone ashen with the presence of the dark energy pooled at the surface. "Catch them, my lovelies!" she cackles, pointing ahead to the racers currently outpacing her. "I, your dark mistress, command it!" she cackles. Yes, actually cackles.

    Of course she knows this will never happen. Anything already passed by the pekos will never be caught by ghosts, skeletons, or other night minions. They're racing birds after all. All she's looking to do is confuse them, distract them, get them to turn and look where she's pointing, all so she can race past them in the distraction. A CUNNING PLAN!!!

    June looks up noticing the creatures, and well this is why she's developed all the scripture magic she has. Once upon a time she would have cast PUNCH on the monsters, now instead she draws an Ofuda from the case she always has handy and flicks through a few quick brush strokes before slapping the seal to Kan's saddle. "Just keep running idiot." she says as the pair of them ghost into shadows, the ocasional flash of her iron hide or some of KFC's tack being the only real indication of who that dark shadow among darker shadows is.

    Forward the brave Naga warrior and his faithful bird ride forward until that is they come across the terror of the ninetail lands. The evil undead. Rizadoman does his best to calm Bird, "KWwaa kwaa Kwaa" After a few moments of hesitation the pair choose to not try and hide, instead they take a deep breath and charge right in with a loud roar and Kweh mixed together. Besides just as with any monster train, its not a problem to run past the threat, its what to do when you need to stop.

The darkness has never been Curtana's ally, and it shows as he rides on top of 'Patsy'. The rented beast suddenly leaping to the side of what Curtana could just see the outline of may have been a clue that they were literally running in the dark. An arrow hitting his helm and sending it flying was a much better clue there was more than just the racers out here. "Okay, remind me to feed you extra before I-whao!!" Curtana is almost thrown from the saddle as the Peko suddenly sharply turns to the side, just avoiding a pouncing ghoul that causes the air to whistle as it grazes the knight. Tugging the reins to get the bird back on track, he lets out a low sigh. "Okay...at least two apples...wait, do you even like apples?" A shrill cry seems to be all the answer he needed there.

Gwen has a few dark spells it's truie but they tend to go bady, so badly when she uses them. This time it's dumb luck as she's chanting somehing along the line of pass without trace. It does not backfire she does not end up glowing like the sun. Nay for once she pulls it off, Gwen and her mount vanish from view hopefully avoiding the bats.

"We can't stop here friend! THIS IS BAT COUNTRY!"

"Hey hey, it's alright buddy!" Syx says, as he leans down over top of Meteor's head, "Just keep low and keep running, we've got this!" He is bad at stealth, but he somehow manages to actually blend in. Probably all the black colored gear him and Meteor have on that's keeping them hidden. Maybe the monsters and demons can't see neon green.,

Monsters lurk 'round the fringes of the track, skulking in the shadows and creeping through the black. Some run and hide and others rush the tide. There is one, though, that stands tall over all lesser beasts, one whose cloak billows in the night breeze. The Plague Doctor glares daggers at the assembly of horrors, his voice as grim as the grave and as malicious as the devil himself: "Ye creatures that bring mischief upon this good night, know the price of your ill deeds and suffer the sinner's plight. Behold, open your ears to my words and your heart to my voice. Behold the nightmare of all sweet children and rejoice! He cometh! Witness!"

A black orb builds at the tip of the good doctor's staff. It wriggles like a living thing, like a worm of ebon chitin clad in a globe of ink. As he lifts his rod high, the globe widens and bursts, flooding the world in a wave of dark, inverted light.

It's as though nothing happens. Nothing. At first. But then it comes. The darkness swallows the awareness of a full dozen monsters or more. It thrusts them into a place they have never seen before. They are one and all strapped to a bed, bound by fetid leather, chains anchoring their heads. Their eyes are clamped open, their arms and legs spread wide. Their chests are savaged wounds, ribs pulled aside. Standing over them all, a nightmarish shape: A surgeon in bloodstained robes, eyes shining with gleeful hate. He laughs as he cracks open one rib, rejoicing in the scream that reveals his truest goal and his one true joy. A mouthful of teeth, gleaming and shining, wedged wide open by black tendrils, writhing. He lifts his tool, a vicious, rust-encrusted drill, and one by one ruins each of those teeth, cracking enamel and sundering exposing nerves with a mad surgeon's skill.

Yes. This nightmare that they see is a terrible one, a vision of that wicked dentist with wild, vile, malicious elan. None, not even monsters can escape that terrible soul, the one that they call...

                               The Cavity Man                              

...And while they're all writhing in the midst of that illusion, Prophylaxis and his bird stroll merrily by, totally unharmed. Look at Konpeko! She seems to be having so much fun!!

"HO, My Subjects!" Chikako bellows as she spots the creatures gathered in the shadows. "Obey my commands, and impede the other riders!" She rides on, not slowing, chanting a shadow-casting under her breath. Shadows gather around her, enveloping the 'King' and her mount in velvety darkness. Like... chocolate?

That wasn't what she meant. Not at all. And now the critters are more attracted to the chocolate than they are to the other riders! She charges on through the darkness, batting creatures away with her lance, unhesitating to slaughter her 'subjects' on her way to her inevitable victory.

Challenge 3: A Little TOO Dark

Unfortunately, utilizing too much dark magic to blend in with an already moonless night means that it soon becomes very, very hard to navigate and stay on the path. The markers for the race track are small, motes of light, but there are monsters that seem to be using lures to pull Adventurers off track.

One almost looks like a large angler-fish, sticking out of a nearby pond, which neatly gobbles up an unsuspecting Peko and Rider, followed by a satisfied burp.

Maybe it might be best to just deal run past the monsters or deal with them directly than hiding. With no moon or starlight, they'll need to light their own way, allowing them to not only see the other racers around them, but what obsticles may stand in their nearby path.

However, it is a delicate balance. Not enough light and they might end up off track and losing time. Too much and they will attract too much monster attention, meaning that the race may become that much more dangerous.

Challenge: Light

Sadly, Prophylaxis is soon punished for his terrible, monster-menacing, illusory crimes. While he leaves a terrified score of vicious beasts behind, he soon finds himself... Kind of lost in the dark, sadly. The doctor mutters as he nearly clips his plaguedoctory nose right into a tree branch. "Confound it, Konpeko. Where did we leave that damn racetrack...?"

Konpeko has no idea! She's just following her nose to keep track of the other pekos. Hopefully it doesn't lead her astray!!

Well. At least they probably won't be eaten by monsters.

Too much darkness. Too much night in the night mare! Haru doesn't think this is possible, but Karen thinks so and he listens to his birb. "You know how I feel about Light, Flame Princess Karen," he says as the pair blaze forward. Kweh! "Really now?" Kweh. "That is a compelling arguement." Haru has a conversation with his birb as the two round a corner. The race track markers are so small that its easy for the pair to end up off course or in the tree line. Some could even pull them away as they veer away from an angler fish monster.

"As you wish," Haru says as the Arabian Knight cosplay leans forward. The Light comes out in a dull fashion. It looks more like pale moonlight that softly illuminates the track nearby. Although not providing a ton of actual light, it does give a blacklight effect to objects nearby enough to keep the two trekking forward. Delicate balance.

That burp was not pleasant to hear. There is -something- lurking in the darkness still, and that is enough to be wary. Shiruba nudges Tradewind to slow down just a little so they don't stumble into any unecessary trouble. Then nocks an arrow in her own bow and shoots it in an upward arc. It sparkles and crackles with more of an electrical charge than strictly light, but it is just enough for them to see where to go and avoid the big gobbler, if they don't go rushing farther ahead than the faint light shines.

    Rizadoman and Bird are absolutely made for each other, why you may ask well that is because at the end of the day when they have a small horde of undead chasing them they don't stop. They don't choose to fight. Nope Rizadoman and Bird glow with a bright light of holy magic as they charge on to the finish barreling through in a sort of way that says they decided the fastest way to the end is a straight line. The holy magic healing any damage Bird sustains as fast as he takes it, on top of the fact that he is wearing decent scale armor. If anyone spots the shining bright light running in the lead they would inevitably notice the horde following them. Somewhere in the back of his head Rizadoman does try to figure out what to do with it by the time they get to the finish line.

Syx has an incredibly stupid idea. Which is basically the only kind of idea he ever has. He doesn't want to put out too much light, but he does want to make sure they have enough light to see where they're going. So he swings around under his peko, grabbing hold of Meteor's reins with one hand and the harness with his feet, he uses his other hand to create a lighted punch, but instead of hitting anything, uses the light to illuminate their path forward without giving away too much to the monsters above them.

Schneider's Rarz, now that there are no more shadow demons to chew on, resumes the race. He's a strong bird, making up ground quickly (when he wants to), Schneider seems to be along for the ride more or less literally. The light level is a problem, though, and the flickery firelight seems to attract more critters that need to be incinerated. Luckily, leaving a burning corpse behind him attracts the other nearby monsters to that, and Schneider goes with Plan B. Holy Light, the province of jerks like High Priest Geo, is his in this game, and the Holy Light doesn't attract nearly as many monsters. Rarz, now able to see where he's going, makes up for his earlier high spirits by running for all he's worth, and slowly pulls up on the frontrunners.

    June summons her cestus from inventory. The woman laughs into the darkness and shouts out in Elvish "You Have No Power Here, Servant Of Morgoth! You Are Nameless! Faceless! Formless! Go Back To The Void From Whence You Came!" she smashes her fists together, a clang of steel on steel and the world explodes into light, a shining silver light that causes the undead and even the darkness itself to seem to shrink back in fear. "For I bear the light of Earendil, be not afraid of the Dark!"

Kan leaves a trail of sparkling starlight in his wake as the pair plow through the night like a beacon the mix of costume and quotes perhaps leading to a bit of cognitive dissonance in onlookers.

    Fortunately Fuka doesn't see a rider swallowed up by a monster. Or rather, fortunately she doesn't see the peko swallowed up! The rider will pixellate and respawn. The peko, however, will just be crunchy dinner.

    Her idea of using one of her signature spells to masquerade as a monsterish queenly sort was a good one, Fuka muses, and it's let her pull ahead of the bulk of the pack. But they're in danger of getting lost, and there doesn't seem to be quite so many monsters in sight. So this time she pulls out the light spells. A chant of runewords calls forth a globe of light slightly behind and off to one side of her head. From the pommel of her back-slung sword, in fact. The blazing dome of light will no doubt draw attention from the denizens of the dark but Fuka doesn't give a kweh. It'll also blaze brightly enough to blind them while also illuminating Sandy's way. Besides between Sandy's feathers and the brilliant white of her costume, there's little chance they'd hide anyways. Best to just be outstanding as always, and see what she can see while she bedazzles all around her! "Onward, Colonel Sandy!" she bellows, raising a fist into the air. If she can also light the way for some other less fortunate riders, and perhaps distract monsters from them, so much the better! Fuka's never been interested in winning at all costs after all. Helping others who need it while still trying her best? That appeals very much indeed.

Balance must be restored and that's wha thappen she just can't get the light spell to woek maybe a debuff from the darkness spell she cast. Wait no she does c ast it but ends up blinding herself with it. Gwen lets out a cry and she can't see for a moment which means well she going to end up losing time.

Trying to steer a racing peko in the pitch darkness with little clue as to what you are doing is an olympican task and a likely way to break your neck. Where Curtana could barely make out the outline of monsters before, he might as well be completely blindfolded now. The sound of a burp echoing out through the darkness is enough for Curtana. "You and I are no bat, Patsy. Let's light up the darkness!" Curtana starts to chant and he raises his right hand, forming an orb of light brilliant enough to light up the landscape.

While this is absolutely fantasic for seeing, it also acts as a beacon for the creatures that await in the dark. The knight ducks down to dodge a bat that looked bigger than both him and the Peko, and he resists the urge to curse under his breath. Hearing June somewhere far ahead does give him a bit of inspiration. "She's right, after all. Fly, Shadowfax! Fly!"

The renamed peko, unseen in the darkness, rolls his eyes at his silly rider.

Dark King Chikako rides on through the darkness, still laughing and roaring out orders to the monsters that none of them seem to pay any attention to. She doesn't seem bothered by that, simply batting away or stabbing any that get in her way or try to attack her. "Just how dark is it going to get?" she asks, and then her question is answered as she spots a light.

Wait, that's -not- one of the other riders, or even one of the track markers! It's a monster! Well, the Oni King knows what to do with monsters -- she SMASHES them! And that's why her lance is solid steel despite being a costume item.

Seeing other riders lighting up the path, she decides she might as well do the same. But of course she has to put her own chuuni mark on it. Instead of simple light, she calls on the tiny faeries of the land. "Come, spirits of Light, spirits of Fire! Light my way!"

And they do. Not by lighting the path ahead of her, but by lighting -her- and her mount! The faeries gather around the silken 'flames', the crystals that still adorn her lance, the points of her 'crown', and even some in her hair! Faerie lights turn her costume flames to something more real, as if she truly were a monster of fire and darkness!

Challenge 4: Monster Mash

It doesn't take long for the racers to end up with a particularly long train of monsters following them around. Luckily, the fastest riders are able to kite them and keep the group at a distance. However, they can't very well continue following the track and lead this entire mob of monsters back towards where unsuspecting Landers and Adventurers are waiting.

There are guards shouting warnings, offering up nets or rope or other devices to the riders to try to slow down the shambling mess of enemies that are following them. Trying to just outrun the enemies seems like a bad idea, the few riders who had tried soon found themselves overwhelmed by others coming out of the darkness around them.

It seems like the riders are in for a fight, trying to round up and capture as many of the trailing monsters as they can before continuing towards the finish line.

Challenge: Capture Monster

Karma! More karma! Prophylaxis grumbles morosely as Konpeko flutters back onto the track, a squirrel's nest clinging to the top of his fancy hat, with squirrel still inside. "This is what I get for terrifying a bunch of monsters. Damn you, aggro mechanics! Quick, Konpeko, keep up the pace! If we can catch up with the others, they might be able to pull some heat off of us!"

(This may be easier said than done.)

Schneider finds himself, like many others, leading a train of monsters. It would be a bad thing, all told, to lead them onto the track and into civilians, so Schneider will try various tactics to give them the slip. Unfortunately, he seems to have turned his taunt aura on, and however hard he tries to give the monsters the slip, they continue after him.

Once again, Schneider's forced to wheel around and confront them. He doesn't want to dump the /really big/ boom, that would probably cause problems on the race track. It would probably obliterate the race track. So he goes with more of his low key magic, hurling DAMNED and GUNZENRO at the pursuers while they chew more of Rarz's costume off, and once again, the pack passes him.

The race is a lot of fun. You get to put on fun outfits and feel the night wind through your hair. Haru looks over his shoulder and notices way too many monsters going on back there, though. "Alright, Karen, take the lead," he says as one hand remains on the reigns and the other turns around. The Wave Artes user is not about to stand on his birb to do this. He evokes out the Ioun Stones circling him to start a series of debuffs, starting with calming mesmeratic pulses on the monsters. Some are subject to become confused. Some pacified. Some asleep. The Enchanter focuses on the Crowd Control a few at a time, moving at speeds that would make targetting tricky if he wasn't about to be a jerk to accidentally hit people's birbs. And he isn't about to go and do that.

"The slow ones should be easy to wrap up," he lets the guards and other riders know. Haru slips his attention back to the Flame Princess as any more of the mobs are out of his range now.

    June sees the issue and out come the Offuda. The blazing starlight around her she draws the correct phrases and drops the seals in her wake. Each petrifying a monster when it gets caught in the sphere of green that bursts from the paper shortly after the woman tosses it over her shoulder.

Well it's not as bad as LAST time, but it's still a danger they can't just ignore no matter how much they want to race, or it will turn into a big mess again. Tradewind seems to sense this too, veering to a side so Shiruba can grab one of the offered nets. "Thank you." She hooks the head of one of her embued arrows through the knot, and draws it back in her bow. This is a bit tricker than shooting just the arrow, but the spell alone won't be enough to slow down so many monsters. Shirub turns to ride side-saddle for a bit so she can aim behind them, for one of the larger monsters, and fires.

As it strikes the arrow passes its Thorn Bind Hostage charge on to the net as well, causing the ropes to become like vines to grapple firmly around the large monster so it looses footing and falls over, hopefully on top of several others and crushing them. Then the barbs growning from the rope because of the spell dig into the ground to root the creature in place. So to speak.

    Coming out of the dark stretch, Fuka dismisses her light since it no longer seems to be needed. Still, she's drawn together quite the monster train herself, what with her brilliantly-blinding light. She hears the shouts of guards and frowns. They do have a point. She'd just assumed they'd break tether as she continued moving... but no, looks like she'll need to do something about this.

    Fuka doesn't even consider just forging ahead and letting the monsters have their way. That's just not her style, not even in a competitive race. She accepts a net and begins circling around, trying to entangle a host of monsters as best she can. How hard can it be anyways?

    Well, hard. Very hard, in fact. She gets a new appreciation for her monster-handling friends at the exercise. Some monsters evade her nets, some break free. And others are ensnared, yes, but there's always more. By the time her nets are exhausted, Fuka's left with her sword out, carving a path for herself and Sandy, getting bogged down and barely managing to get free with great effort as guards come to her aid with their own ropes and nets. Oh look, someone's added a whole lot of new red streaks to her red-and-green elf costume!

    Rizadoman and Bird's luck give out finally as the swarm catches up to them and buries them. Any on lookers would look at the crowd with horror as if the rider and peko had just been lost to the swarm of monsters. There is no way anyone could survive that. Finally there is a moment of silent...

     Then a muffle sound from the pile of monsters, "By my Brontosaurus ancestors..." and moments later from the horde burst forth Rizadoman and Bird. Rizadoman's relic, the pin around Bird's neck and obviously maybe juicing Bird with the might of a thousand pekos and running through the horde in such a way that they are running through some of the zombies but at this speed no monster can follow them. Alas it won't last to much longer.

"Keep going, I'll catch up!" Syx calls out to Meteor, as he spurs the Peko. He stands up on the saddle, and then grabs one of the nets, before backflipping off of the peko saddle.

He lands on top of one of the monsters, which snarls and snaps at him before he wraps the net around it and then drives it into the ground to take it low enough for the net to take effect.

He repeats the process a few more times, dropkicking a flying monster out of the sky and dropping an elbow on another, each time using Meteor's saddle to give him the extra height he needs in order to pull off his moves.

Gwen is having fun but her Peko is not at this point the darkness the light, the damn costume. So Gwen has some issues as she'll attempt to take one of the offered nets and will fail to net a monster chasing her she'll have to fight it off. This yet again slows her down. Here bird? Enjoys it moment to take out some of its anger on a monster HONKA!

This entire race seems like it had been traveling from one misfortune to another after he left the starting line with his rented steed. Maybe the race could have been planned for the middle of the day instead of in the blackness of night? But complaining, even to himself, is unbecoming of a knight. And with monsters on his tail and potentionallly for many of the other racers, something has to be done.

A loud roar echoes out in the night, and for a split moment, silence fill the air. That moment is broken as many monsters find a new target to chase after, the knight clinging to the back of a pale peko. Driven by fear with so many beasts behind it, the peko seemed to have gathered a second wind of sorts. Leaping over several of the large nets being used by the guards, the renamed Shadowfax doesn't look back, but Curtana risks a look. The large mass he managed to collect had just reached the nets and were tangling up very well, which was slowing down many of the monsters behind those already caught.

"Well...when I told you to fly, you really did so. Thank you." Curtana pats the neck of the peko, already starting to feel a little fond about the creature. Shame he would have to return him later.

Chikako and her mount emerge from the darkness, mount and rider alike 'aflame', still laughing merrily as she skewers yet another monster. Ahh, finally, back in the light. Excellent.

She grabs a net and rope in passing, without slowing, from one of the attendants standing by the track. Then she yanks on the reigns, and her mount rears back, screeching! She wheels about and goads the peko, which charges back towards the mob of zombies.

"Time to round up my army!" she calls, tossing the net onto the front of the mob and riding a wild circle around it with the rope to secure them. "Now, follow me!" she shouts, and rides on, dragging the mob behind her. Zombies sliding out from the back of it from the sheer force on the rope as it slides over their heads.

Challenge 5: When in Doubt... Fire

While most of the monsters are able to be captured by the combined efforts of the riders, there are still a few that manage to break free and continue the persuit as the riders make for the home stretch. They can see the lights of the fans and hear the cheering...

Well, there is one thing that definitely works against the undead, and that is fire. The guards seem to be helping, but the riders are going to need to join in if they want to keep themselves and their audience safe.

It becomes almost like a very gruesome fireworks display, with various techniques lighting up the night as monsters are turned into barbeque for the joy of the peko racing fans. The question is, who can escape their tail of monsters and get to the finish line first?

Challenge: Fire

So close. But some of those monsters are being persistant and stubborn. "Keep running, Tradewind!" Shiruba has faith in his ability as a natural racer to keep going towards the finish on his own, allowing her to focus on dealing with cleaning up the end of this race.

Thankfully, since it can be used as a substitute in providing light, Shiruba did come packing heat. She nocks several arrows in Thundersnow Howl and fires them one by one at the lingering monsters still in pursuit, each one igniting into a potent blaze of it's own to burn down whatever monster it strikes.

That also burns a lot of mana though, and Shiruba is reminded she needs to finish working on those non-magic fire arrows.

Haru and Karen ride onwards as they make the home stretch. They can see the end in sight. Still there is one thing more important and that is making sure the finish line isn't about to be overrun with a train of monsters. The Enchanter taps the pinion holding together his silken shawl as it begins to burn red. The ruby gemstones on Karen burn red like embers. "Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos."

Karen spreads those wings wide as a heated gust of wind carries into the air hundreds of feathers. They cut through the undead like hot knives, landing and immolating others. Its a flurry of down that gusts up into the air and settles slowly down fractioning like ashen snow still burning like fireflies. A great way to end the race with the Flame Princess Peko!

    'Bleeding' and annoyed, Fuka pulls free of the pack of monsters. Seeing some of the people around her lighting up the night with blazes of flame, the little sylph growls. "Come on, Colonel Sandy. Let's Kentucky FRY them!"

    Chanting, Fuka lashes out with glowing balls of liquid fire, shooting her depleted mana supply dry. Reeling from weakness, health loss and mana depletion, she slumps over the front of the saddle, apparently out of pretty much everything.

    Fortunately for Fukaziroh, Sandy knows what to do, and the bond between peko and rider is a strong one. The bird carries her rider towards safety. Towards the finish line and the cheering crowds. And Fuka ... somehow manages to keep in the saddle, snuggled in like a plushie elf.

Schneider is, at least, entirely at home with fire, and has been using it liberally for most of the race when he's been overwhelmed. So, this is really just a case of the same thing, but as we're in the home stretch, the trick is to do it quickly and get running. This adds a bit of complication, because while GUNZENRO is quick to fire off, he's burned through a ton of mana, and so he's got to let it recharge just a smidgen before he fires it off again. That spell is one of the ones he can basically cast all day, but he's not /quick/ on it, when he's basically out of mana. On the other hand, his GUNZENRO is sufficiently badass that the stragglers don't hang out for long, and he can make a run for the finish line.

The swarms of monsters are growing thick. There are... many of them. Far too many to take on without setting everything ablaze. Is this where the remains of Ninetails' hostile undead army had turned up? Well...

"Ah sod it," Prophylaxis grunts. "Konpeko, brace yourself! We shall become, ourselves, a comet streaking across this dark night! Let's go!" The doctor sweeps his staff once more. A wave of heat blasts through the darkness Konpeko squawking with surprise as she feels her body blaze with heat...!

She hops! She skips! She...

/TAKES OFF LIKE A ROCKET./ Literally, her feet are emitting tiny thrust cones that inexplicably leave a catastrophic wave of fire in their wake. The conflagration sweeps forth like a tidal wave into the swarming undead, lighting the lot ablaze as if caught by a particularly incendiary sonic boom...!

It's... very pretty, at least? But will it be enough!?!?

    June gets to the end of things but she's low on paper for Offuda and she's in a race casting Punch from peko back is well... problematic. She growls and writes her last fiew offuda in balls of fire but then she and KFC are down to kicking the undead back to death with flaming blows after she swaps out the plate on his saddle.

    Rizadoman and bird look at the the remaining horde of monsters infront of them as he grins and leans forward to put his head near Bird. "Today we show them how lizardmen disposes of things." Bird and Rizadoman both take a deep breath and both blow, Bird sending gusts of wind and Rizadoman flames as they create a huge breath of fire infront of them while charging on through the mess of the undead and on to the finish line. They keep blowing there breath of flame the entire way and when they get pass the finish line they both point there head up in the air and create a fountain of flames for others to see.

    June crosses the line far behind where she was before the little kick fight with undead... but hey is that Gwen there way in the back... KFC is safe for another season it seems. She makes her way over to Riz and Bird. She pats 'Bird' on his brestbone "Who's a good Peko, you're a good peko." she says and gives 'Riz' a beer, holding it so he can get his beak in. "Good job on the race." she says to the peko as she tries to entice it to get it's beak into her mug of beer.

Fire the source of man's problems and it's soultion.

"What did the man say...Ah yes!"

She looks at the monsters as they go after the fans, she's not going to win this race she turn and wills tart chanting spells letting bolts of fire go. She'll cross the finishline but after she's turned the monsters to ash!

"BY FIRE BE PURGED!"

Curtana may have managed to aid in capturing many of the undead that traverse the ground, but there's still those that fly through the air. Undead bats, winged skeleton lancers and shadowly blobs float through the air after the knight, still caught up in his Anchor Howl's effect. Despite the speed Shadowfax was putting out now, they wouldn't lose aggro in time. "We're starting to get too close to the stands now..." He needed to do something before they got too close...

The 'cl-clop' draws Curtana's attention, and he leans over to spot that the coconut shells were still hanging up despite everything. "This could work..." Leaning over, Curtana snatches the shells and tugs them off the string before cupping them into his hands. Chanting softly, the shell started to build up in heat before noticably bursting into flame. Twisting around, he pitches his improvised weapon backwards at the undead still hounding after them. A few moments go by before the night is lit up with an impressive fireball, with bits of flaming shell flying everywhere.

Curtana turns around and lets out an impressed whistle at his handiwork. "Let the sick rot that plagues this land be purged."

Fire? FIRE! Chikako grins and looks back at her slowly-dwindling mob of zombies. Best to get rid of them before any more slip out of her grasp! "Alright you lot!" she bellows. "Look at you! No discipline! No determination! No SPIRIT!"

She lifts her lance high in the air. "I'd say you deserve this, but you don't deserve so much as to be crushed under my foot!" She brings down the lance, and faerie-fire trails its wake, lashing out at the zombies like a whip!

Except that, well, it's FAERIE fire. It looks pretty. It shines and flickers like real flame. But it doesn't /burn/.

Oops.

She waits a few moments to appreciate the pyroclasm that doesn't come. Just 'burning' zombies shambling towards her. Uh-oh. She turns and spurs her peko on, rushing towards the finish line. Better to finish the race and let someone else take care of the zombies. She can go back and bash them after she's won.

"That could have been dangerous my good people!" The moustached Gnome calls out, makig sure everyone is paying attention to what has turned from a simple race into a fire fight. "It looks like most of the undead have been warded off by our capable riders and guards. Here they come. Let's give them all a rousing cheer!"

A roar goes up from the crowd as the Pekos and their riders begin to make their way along the home stretch, leading to the finish line.

"It's a close one folks! Who will it be? It looks like it might be, yes! Yes it is. It's Rizadoman and Bird in the front, followed a beak-length behind by Fukaziroh and Sandy!"

A group of Landers come down onto the field and over to Rizadoman, offering out a box made of darkly finished wood. Inside is a mask that is made for a person, but it is shaped like a peko's face. It is black with ample plumage and two demonic horns curling up from it.

"Last but not least, the winner of our costume contest is..." There is a drumroll. "Prophylaxis and Konpeko!" A box is carried over towards the pair. Inside is a mask which is obviously made for a person, but it has feathered, peko-like features, white feathers, and such an adorable angelic halo.

"As you can see, the rewards for this race are a pair of wonderful costume headpieces for our fastest racer and costume contest winner! Congratulations all around to all of our riders!"

Syx loves using fire. It's like, his THING you know? That's why he loves using Meteor, since the peko seems to enjoy Syx's antics when it comes to flames. Never bothered, always going along with whatever ridiculous idea Syx comes up with in the spur of the moment.

He roars forward and sends flames out in every direction, Meteor resembling his namesake as he rushes forward through the last of the monsters. When Syx crosses the finish line, he looks back and sees there's other people finishing after him, which means he didn't come in last! After settling down he gives Meteor a big 'ol hug around the head, "Nice job bud!"

Shiruba and her faithful racing Peko dart across the finish line, in third place. Which is perfectly fine with her, she enjoys the races just for the race itself. She still leans forward to give Tradewind a hug around the neck. "You did great as always, buddy." "Kweh!" Then sits up and holds her hands to her mouth to shout at the winners of the race and the costume party. "Congratulations!"

Haru whistles and cheers past the finish line, giving Riza a healthy cheer when the victory is well announced and a second for Proph on the costume contest one. That was fun. He gives Karen a scritch behind the ear and she kwehs, having had a good time too. The Enchanter hops off, taking the time to take the jewelry off so she can relax a bit more and get some well deserved rest.

"Pretty fancy riding there, Curt," the white haired human says to the new Alliance member, "real knightly stuff. Hitting a tavern though. Got plans?" An arm stetches upwards. He needs to get out of his costume as well given it lacks a shirt and the pants are a bit too baggy outside of a costume party. The Enchanter looks more like a thief right now.

Schneider crosses the finish line well behind the front runners, and he sighs at Rarz. "I thought you were a keeper, too," he says. "You started so well, and look where we wound up. You need to keep it together." The peko shakes off the last of his sacking costume, and also Schneider, and goes to graze. Schneider sighs, prepares to incinerate the peko, the decides not to and walks off, abandoning it.

    Settling down within the brightly lit track region after the finish line before the audience, Sandy coos and kwehs, trying to get a response from her rider. "Five more minutes." mumbles the semi-incoherent Fukaziroh.

    This does not impress Sandy, who begins to hop and jump until the little sylph is unceremoniously ejected from the saddle. "UWAAAAAAH!" she shrieks, abruptly awake and deploying wings instinctively, only to hit the ground and tumble due to not realizing where the ground actually was. "Colonel Sandy I can't believe you just..." she pauses, looks around. They're... in the finish area? And they got second place? "You just did *GREAT*!" Fuka roars, flinging her arms around Sandy's apronned neck. All is forgiven, no threats of the Kentucky variety uttered.

    Rizadoman takes the mask and removes his own Peko headwear and replaces it with the mask before letting out a victorious roar. Meanwhile Bird starts trying to peck the hand that holes the beer to stop June from trying to force him to drink things. Finally Rizadoman leaps off Bird and once again lets out another victoriuous roar in celebration before he shouts to everyone, "To all the racers today, you did not run in theface of terror, so you are all WINNERS!"

Curtana may not have won, and the race itself turned out to be way more dangerous that he had expected, but the race was actually fun now that it's over. He even did a bit better than he expected! "And here I was thinking I'll be thrown off at the start."

Curtana claps loudly as Rizadoman got a black mask, and Prophylaxis won the costume contest and the white mask. "Great job, everyone!" He almost starts to peel off and start heading for the inn he had a room at, but a call from Haru has him twisting around. The 'pretty fancy riding' has the Pooka blushing from embarrasment, sure that it was a teasing remark. "Honestly, that's all from this fellow here. I'm just the numbskull who stayed on all the time."

Turning his head, he looks at the rented peko that managed to lead him through all that chaos, currently crunching on an apple between his beak. "Maybe trying to make a purchase, but that won't be until tomorrow morning. Just know I won't drink too much, now!"

Konpeko and her rider manage to make it across the finish line... NOT in last place! The blazing bird leaves in her wake a score of scorched corpses, most of which were already dead even before she killed them. Alas, Not Last does not mean first, and the two finish decidedly middle of the pack. "Ah well," Prophylaxis shrugs, "It's still fun no matter wh-- eh?"

The costume contest...

They won the costume contest??

"Wehk?" Konpeko squawks, taken utterly aback. It's as if the bird is saying 'who, me!?' but in bird-ese. "Hah, you see that! Everyone knows how adorable you are now, Konpeko!" Prophylaxis laughs, receiving the box with gratitude as he dismounts, but...

The one who is really happy is... his bird, apparently? She's preening and prancing even more now! Do birds understand fashion contests? Apparently this one does.

"...Maybe we should go into Peko Beauty Contests instead of races...?" The doctor wonders, canting his head thoughtfully to one side.

"Humble as always," Haru laughs at the notion that Curt had nothing to do with the team's success, "but I can get behind it all the same. You two make a good pair." He raises a hand at the notion of the Pooka needing to get some rest and offers up a wave, "if you get restless, throw me a chim. I'll be up for a while yet. Could tell you a bit about Karen back there. Shes one helluva birb." Between that and his firebird, the young man does have a thing for avians. Must be because they have wings.

Chikako joins the rest, walking along with her lance over one shoulder and her peko's reigns in the other hand. "Well! That was fun, wasn't it?" she asks, grinning. "We should do it again sometime. I love the chance to get all gussied up in a fancy outfit."

    June gets out her kisiru and packs it before lighting up and puffing up a small cloud of bitter smoke. Yup it's a smoking cow girl in drag... see if that was on your isekai bingo card. She takes a swallow of her beer before offering it back to the peko 'Riz'.

Gwen will still cross the finishes off the monsters as she starts to to the finish line. The night is young and there's time for fun. She also gives her mounts some greens.

"That, I have absolutely no doubt. You two did amazing out there last night. Karen has raw power, but glad to see she has some good speed to her as well." Grabbing the reins for the peko, now that he's finished with the apple, Curtana gives a quick bow towards Haru. "Likely not tonight, but i'll be more than happy to hear about Karen later. That's a promise."

"Yeah, next festival," Haru mentions to Chikako's idea of doing it again next time. "Unless you mean costumes. I feel like there are still a few opportunities left before this one is over." He didn't explicitly state it, so he waves Fuka down so she knows, "You are welcome to get drinks too, though our newest Alliance member needs his beauty rest. I'll hold you to that, buddy." A nudge to the big guy. A look over to Gwen too, "And Gwen, of course, depending on your plans. Not looking to exclude anyone that wants a pint before setting off. Its nice to get away from the being busy for a night."

Schneider will come over to Proph and offer him, "Congratulations, that was a pretty cool costume you had." His own peko, abandoned now, is wandering off and chewing on things. A couple peko wranglers are eying him, and if they add another peko to their stable at Schneider's expense, he's got no heartburn about that. On the other hand, "Peko beauty contests? You been hitting the cactus juice?"

    Fuka perks up at mention of celebration. And Curt's need for beauty rest. "Hmmm." she muses. "Gwen might do you some good indeed! Maybe a little lavender, some ringlets? Big shoulderpads? You could end up downright pretty, Will!" she beams. Poor guy.

    Turning to Haru she nods. "Yeah, I like the idea of a little recovery... sooooo tired right now. I doubt I could power a flashlight!" she claims. Despite her claim she seems rather energetic, or at least not feeling as bad as her level of injury would suggest. She'll heal after all, and recover. Fun is more important than sleep!

The Oni laughs, raucus and loud, and reaches up to clap her hand on Haru's shoulder. "Hah! No, why wait for another festival? The night is young! C'mon, the track's still here. Let's go again right now!"

Haru vaults forward. The only less than having cloth armor is no armor and the human's upper half is bare. Knocks the wind out of him for a second. "Yeah," he coughs, "but friends dont let other friends drink and ride, and Im getting a drink." A blue eye squints, "You could join us." That sounds like a horrible idea. "You could also just ride the track by yourself and tell us you finished first." Another squint. Also a bad idea. He looks upwards. Why does everything with Chikako sound like a bad idea.

The blue eye finally settles back down onto Fuka, which means it keeps going down for a while, with a smile, "Fuka gets it. You slayed in the race today, by the way. Soooooo close. I bet Sandy was thrilled."

    June wanders over having congratulated the winners and patronized them for their costumes if only because they failed to win when she voted for them. She sips the beer she is holding and puffs on her kisiru. "Drinks you say?" she grins at Haru, a big bovine grin given she's still in monster form and still dressed as a Cow Dude from Cowlorado.

It honestly seems like everyone thought he needed some rest when he was just worried about the Peko he rode so hard. "I'm sure I can have a few drinks before I go to my bed tonight, just let me drop this fellow off at his...stable, right? He worked a lot harder than me tonight." Then Haru goes tumbling forward, which leads to Curtana bending down to help him back up. No one deserves a dirt nap.

It takes Curt a few moments before it finally dawns on what Fuka is going on about, and he furiously waves his hands back in forth. "Absolutely not! My hair and my armor doesn't need any changes. And big shoulderpads are just silly! Give me some classic rune plate any day." Hmmm...that might fly over everyone's head here, but Curtana is fine with that. "Hello, June. And yes, Haru is buying drinks tonight, apparently."

He does says this with a straight face.

After settling Meteor down, Syx wanders down to the others, "Wait are we getting booze and someone else is buying? Sign me up!"

Gwen will appear behind Haru without warning. "Drinks? That sounds like fun!"

    "Colonel Sandy was AWESOME!" Fuka notes of her beloved peko. A creature of strong bonds and particular eagerness to work together with a rider, she's an ideal mount for the animal-loving Fukaziroh. Sandy nuzzles her, knocking her elf hat askew. It must be wired in somehow to have stayed on all this time, or else clothing and menu magic is in play.

    Still grinning, Fuka peers up at the bovine werefang and the red-skinned oni. "Neither of you have trouble holding your booze, I'm guessing." she smirks. Then abruptly turns around at the chorus of others, blinking. "Gwen too! She has personal flotation devices when it comes to booze, right?" Fuka grins. "Come on, Will, join us! The night's young!"