Super Secret SEA Strategizing

In one of the cleared out rooms of Castle Reach several tables have been setup. Most of these tables are around the edge of the room and contain various maps, scrolls, and messages. In the center of the room lies a larger, more prominent table, and is the focal point of the room as several individuals look down on the map they have displayed. Currently it appears to be a partial map of the second floor of the tower.

At one of the side tables Zorin stands inspecting a much smaller map which is currently set out there - a rough blueprint of Castle Reach itself which has several notes and annotations on it with details.

Periodically a messenger or one of the SEA adventurers come into report or discuss plans. There is no formal meeting occurring at present, so several adventurers of SEA are taking advantage of the space to make their own plans with the resources here. A few guards are posted at the entrance to ensure only known individuals enter.

    Wisteria in human form, just a tall albino girl in a kimono, rather than a monster bunbun of nightmare. Inspect is a joy it makes meetings so much less awkward. A quick scan and she's heading over to Zorin. "Hey Zorin?" she asks despite having used Inspect. "I'm Wisteria, seems you're the one who's beat me on the punch for a tourney. I was gonna try and use one to drum up buisness and support for Tolbana." she grins "So I'm here to offer my assistance with yours." she says with a grin, brushing her shaggy pixie cut out of her face.

"There's a tournament happening, huh?" BlackRose asks as she enters. "That's a bit of an interesting development I have to say." She stretches her arms downward and cracks her neck, before looking to Wisteria. "Don't know if we've met, but call me BlackRose." She smiles a little.

Tournaments are a funny thing. For there to /be/ a tournament, there has to be a prize worth fighting for, right? Just going in and punching the ever-living crap out of friends and enemies is great and fine and dandy if all you're looking for is an old-fashioned bar brawl, but a tournament implies there's something to /win./

It also implies that there are going to be a lot of people nursing a lot of wounds. PVP combat is definitely still a thing here in this brand new world, but if people are going to be not-dying, then there's going to have to be someone on hand to make sure of it.

Hence Prophylaxis, who is busily grinding together a batch of nondescript herbs with a mortar and pestle at one of the tables. "Is it just a tournament you're planning?" The Doctor asks of the knight with the blueprint, "It looks vaguely like you're thinking about doing some repairs while you're at it."

He nods to the two ladies as they enter. "Hey. How's it going?"

Looking up from the map of Castle Reach Zorin looks over at the albino, Wisteria, and gives a slight nod, "Yes, I'm actually Ryusei, but without being able to update my gamertag it seems I'm Zorin now." He shrugs in acceptance of this fact. "It's nice to meet you Wisteria." He bows slightly with a warm smile. Then repeats this once again towards BlackRose.

Zorin nods as Wisteria explains how she was planning a tournament, "Oh, drawing attention towards Tolbana would be a worthwhile endeavour! But you're right that I do have some plans in the works for a tournament which I hope will draw adventurers to join the Scale Emblem Alliance." Zorin then motions the other to follow him to another table where he pulls out some notes. "Here we go." He mutters as he flips through the notes.

Looking back up at Wisteria, "So one of the advantages of originally making my character from the Holy Empire Westelande is I have a bit of an in there. They have the colosseums which are already used for various tournaments. I thought what better place to hold one of our own to draw attention from all across the lands?"

Then turning to Prophylaxis he bows in greeting, "Oh, Prophylaxis, it's been awhile since that last time we tried to clear out those slimes. And yes, I have been planning a few different things. Mostly just the initial estimates right now, there is a lot of work still ahead of us."

    Wisteria smiles "Cool, well I'm a Kendoka." she says trying not to sound arrogant about it "I'm nationally ranked, and I'm a Deus..." she says "So I've got a lot tourney experience with how they're setup and run but even more so how they're RUN... like it's important to have proper leader boards, make sure people are properly seeded, make sure that you have someone to do comentary because people watching get bored it if it's just all technical fighting stuff." she says licking her lips.

"So you're Zorin, nice to meet you," BlackRose says with a slight smirk as she listens intently to what is being said. She then looks to Prophylaxis and says, "Hello," before looking to Wisteria and saying, "A Kendoka, you say? That's pretty cool." BlackRose then looks at the notes with a raised eyebrow and nods as she listens to what is being said as well as what's happening.

"Oh, so it's going to be held over there? That makes sense. It's not like this place is exactly kitted out for that kind of thing," the good doctor shrugs! "If the infrastructure is already in place, that makes things a lot easier, huh? They've probably got a bunch of refs and such there too."

"Are you planning on letting any Landers compete?" He asks, then, setting aside his current batch of herbs. "Seems like it might be a good idea to get some exhibition matches going, too. Like, 'come fight the great champion of Westelande!' Or something like that?"

But it's not just tourney-talk on the table. "That's true," he agrees, on the subject of A Lot Of Work To Be Done. "I'm just glad that we're not showering in slimes very often anymore."

    Xander wasn't going to be at this meeting. He isn't really the meeting type. He is the follow orders or sometimes do his own things if he doesn't have enough orders stacked up.

So, the talk of 'Tournament' catches the ears of the Salamander as he was walking by. He does a step back or two and peers in, munching on a piece of jerky. The dark scaled Salamander raises a brow before he steps in. Leaning against the doorframe, he chews a bit more, swallows and says, "What this about Tournaments and the Holy Empire?" His tail flicks before he stands up fully.

"More importantly, who is going to fund it. You, the guild? The alliance? The Empire itself?" Xander walks over and does a quick inspect on those present. He already knows Prophylaxis, he might have run into a few others as well.

Smiling warming at BlackRose he replies, "It's nice to meet you too BlackRose. You happened to come in at a great time to hear some of what is being planned."

Zorin's eyebrows raise slightly when he hears Wisteria is nationally ranked but he grins widely when he hears she is a Deus, "Oh, reeeally? While I never got into the tournament side of things both me and my wife our Deus too! I've been to a live event though, and they really do have some flare."

After tapping his chin he continues, "Hold on, let me check here." He hums for a moment as he reads. "Right, right." Zorin inspects the sheet he has in his hands. "It looks like most of the coordination to use the colosseum is on track, so that portion is mostly taken care of. We do have some volunteers to take posters and advertise in the different Root Town Hunters Guildhalls, but we always could use some more help with that as we prepare to announce the event. Oh! We are still looking for more individuals to act as MCs during the tournament as well."

Looking up at Wisteria, "I don't suppose you could help to lead that portion? Perhaps even find some more who are willing to help out? I'm much more the back office planner if I can help it." Then looking at the others around him, "I don't suppose any of you might be interested in helping out with any of these aspects too? If nothing else just starting to spread news of the upcoming tournament by word of mouth is helping in its own way."

Then turning to Proph Zorin replies, "To be honest, I didn't even consider the Landers. I don't really know if the duel system works for them? I'm sure we could use the event to draw some attention from them though."

Turning to Xander he nods as the Salamander arrives and Zorin grins a bit at the question of finances. "Strange as it is the Landers involved seem to be handling most of the financial side, they are giving us access to the colosseum in exchange for charging tickets to the audience. There will also be an entrance fee for the participants, and this is largely what will be used for the grand prize." Zorin then shrugs, "Honestly, this isn't as much an effort to turn a profit as it is to draw attention to get more adventurers helping out in the tower to actual get things done."

    Wisteria taps her lips "Well... I've been wanting to do more enchanting practice... I could enchant a weapon to go to the winner, or maybe some armor, or even an accessory." she says "I bet a lot of our crafters could come up with stuff if we really wanted to make the prize a draw, and hey more gear like that could help out in the tower as well. I mean if someone wins the tourney then joins us, or even just helps out in the tower it's more good gear in the tower helping us climb."

    "I'm happy to MC and find people to help out. Hope you don't mind if anyone MCs and participates? Since we won't be judging just doing color comentary?" she grins, someone wants to get her blades wet it seems.

    "Hmmmn. I mean, in terms of monetary gain, putting an enchanted weapon up for the prize does seem like it might let us come out of things on top... Depending on what exactly will go into creating said item. If we spend more resources on crafting the thing than we get back from entry fees and spectator seats, then it kind of defeats the purpose-- especially if the winner ends up *not* signing up."

"That's something I'm admittedly a little concerned about," Prophylaxis says with another shrug. "If we're doing this to attract players and adventurers... What's the draw, there? What would make people look at this thing and think 'wow, I wanna go help those guys climb the tower!!' Maybe if we put a prize up, it should be made from stuff you can /only/ find in the tower?"

Zorin nods, "Yeah, since we are going to be using the duel system the game pretty much takes care of the judging process. It makes our lives easy on that front. And the tournament is open to anyone, and the more people you can get to assist the better. Just make sure you go through some degree of a vetting process, we don't want anyone with a screw loose in front of the audience, but you seem to have a good idea about this kind of thing, so I will trust that to you." He grins happily at the initiative being taken.

"In terms of the grand prize.." he hums in thought, "I'm not sure I want us to go that far. While having a powerful enchanted weapon as the prize would undoubtedly draw interest, I rather make sure such an item stays firmly within our grip and be used in the tower."

He turns to look down at the sheet and then back up, "Although I don't think we should rule it out completely as an option. I think first lets focus on the initial advertisement and see what kind of signup we have before we make definite plans on the prize. There will be some time between the deadline for signup and when the tournament actually starts, enough for us to go over this in detail."

Looking over as Proph goes into some more detail Zorin nods, "I think the prize will be just that. A draw to the tournament to gain rewards and show your skills. Not everyone who signs up will be interested in joining SEA or helping with the tower. We can use the attention though to draw awareness of our tower efforts, and if we can show others the skill of our adventurers that in itself will draw attention. The simple fact that we can put on such an event as this will speak volumes of our alliance."

    "So, its a pot winning then." Xander says softly, with a gentle nod. He then walks over and goes to take one of the chairs that does have arms and low back, turning it around so his arms rest on the back of it as he straddles it.

The Salamander goes back to chewing thoughtfully on that piece of jerky he has, his tail swaying slowly behind him, as his golden, fiery eyes observe everyone present.

He then adds in while it is on his mind, "Also if you need posters made... You may want to see if Kita wants the job. She is a SEA member and she is a really good artist." He shrugs. "Just an idea."

    His eyes slide over to Wisteria, "Enchanting stuff is always good. Given how many lower level adventurers /need/ better gear. The concept of getting a magical item out of it might bring more out... Considering how long of a trip it is."

Xander the motions to Prophylaxis, seeming to not disagree with the man, as he nibbles on that jerky still. His tail still slowly moving side to side behind him.

    Then Zorin goes on and Xander goes quiet and as he now just listens for the time period.

Zorin's eyebrows raise some at the mention of an artist, "I'm afraid I haven't met Kita yet, but I do recall some SEA adventurers helping out with art for missing individuals. Perhaps she was one of those?" After a moments pause in thought he continues, "Say Xander, if you know her personally do you think you could ask Kita if she is interested in helping out on this project? Our posters that are planned right now are mostly just text, but if we could get some kind of artwork, or even make a stamp from the art, that would go a long way!"

"Yeah, sure." Xander says idly, "I can talk to her. Need to catch her anyways before the push for the Second Floor Boss."

"I mean, that's true," Pro says of the whole... Maybe not wanting to put up such a huge prize-dealio. "But I'm not going to lie, I still have no idea how half of the enchanting system even works anymore. If you like, you can view this whole exercise as an opportunity for us craftier types to hone our skills, and whatever the best-- or maybe even second-best-- item we can come up with ends up being can be used as the prize?"

"At least then we'd have an excuse to all get together and experiment, write down some recipes that seem to work, stuff like that. Right?"

    Xander looks over to Prophylaxis, "Upside is too, if the crafters don't make Tournament worthy stuff, we can sell it here in Alne to folks for the coffers of the Alliance." The Salamander then finishes his piece of jerky that he has worked on since he came in.

Zorin nods along with Xander, "I do feel like we can get a more direct benefit from the skills of our crafters and enchanters. Still, I think we need to see what the turnout is like before committing to anything for the prize." Looking up and to the side Zorin taps his chin for a few moments, "We may benefit from some more coordinated crafter workshops or cooperative efforts here in HQ." He hums in thought and then pulls out a blank page from a stack and scribbles some notes as a reminder to follow up on later.

    "Well," Xander goes to stand up about then, moving the chair back into place. "Glad we had this little chat, gents and ladies." He then walks over to Zorin, extending his hand to him.

"I'll see if I can talk to Kita about those posters for you, but no promises." He says with a gentle smile. "And I look forward to the Tournament."

Zorin reaches out and shakes the Salamander's hand in a firm grip. "I appreciate that, Xander. I'm glad you came by today and look forward to seeing you in the tournament!" he says with a grin.