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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 782404" data-attributes="member: 5137">Olympiad: Greppa 2The next major event, the one Greppa honestly hoped to do better in, was ray-shooting. Also based around a cantrip, this one the various minor rays arcanists learned early on. Kyriotes presided over this one, preferring the more strategic nature of conjuring to the brute athleticism of ray-shooting.The concept was simple: An area large enough to accomodate the maximum range of the rays was cleared, the arcanist would stand in the center, and Kyriotes would summon a puff of light which would then swoop, dive and zoom through the area for exactly one minute while the arcanist threw ray after ray at it.The puff of light (default color blue) flashed red on a direct hit (symbolizing blood, and worth 3 points), and white on a partial hit (symbolizing shock, and worth 1 point). Points were tallied based on how many hits and of what type, and the person with the most points won.As Kyriotes and his apprentices watched dispassionately, the puff of light zipped through the circle, and arcanists, some of them more than a little happy on wine, laughed and tried to hit it. The serious competitors mostly scored between 10 and 20, and Greppa, starting early with a total of 24, felt hopeful.Not of getting first, of course - Ophanara was in the competition, and she consistently scored in the mid-30s, often getting a ray off every three seconds, and targetting them with deadly accuracy. But he might make second or third.Then, alas, two strong competitors came in and beat him by a hair, with 25 and 27 respectively, and Ophanara finally went and, in a veritable fit of no-missing, two-handed ray-shooting, scored a 38, easily the highest score in current living memory. That pushed Greppa out of the runners-up entirely, although he was still in the top end of competitors (and next year, he would be viewed as one of the strong competitors).Then Aglaelos, a relative unknown from Little Lake, stepped in and began throwing quickened rays of heat like there was no tomorrow. An evoker who specialized in elemental fire, he'd been among the pure fireball-throwing crowd during the war, and so had not had much of a chance to make a name for himself like those who were constantly boosting the soldiers did, but this lazy afternoon, he shone. His score had to be tallied twice - 43 points - and he took the grape vine laurel with a grin that could have fit the valley.Greppa, meanwhile, was getting a back-pounding from Merideth and Bellos, Merideth because he'd done well, Bellos because he finally caught a glimpse of the grim determination Greppa put into his combat skills (it had been there during the fight with the hydra, but Bellos had been a bit distracted then). He suffered the sore shoulders, and grinned. He had done well, and his talents, recognized by Hurath, were finally starting to really show.In celebration, Greppa entered a wine tasting contest, got rather drunk, and failed to impress any judges whatsoever. But he didn't care - the important part about a wine tasting contest, to his mind, was expensive wine for free.Now thoroughly happy, he and his friends stumbled off to the performance casting tournament, already in progress. He had a bleary idea, firmly embedded, that he was going to show them all how an arcanist performed...Performance casting is an art form that involves more of impressing the audience and less of any kind of real power, but in which, as with many impressions, power does matter. Illusionists and arcanists both tended to participate, and illusionists tended to win, but not always.Today, Greppa had a real beauty of a plan - he was going to summon Uripedes (the sun falcon from Allas' realm) in his largest, most glorious form. Summoning him in that form was harder, but Greppa had gotten pretty handy with the spells, and even drunk, was pretty sure he could pull it off.Uripedes, he muddily thought, ought to be impressive enough for ANYONE. Greppa was a bit more loyal than sober, in this.Upon casting, Uripedes burst from the arcane circle, glowed brightly, and landed next to Greppa, dwarfing the ellini, and... a few people cheered, but mostly, they waited for the kicker.Mumbling to himself, I'll show 'em a kicker, Greppa began drunkenly casting fireball. He was saved by a tackle from his friends who, upon recognizing the starting words, did their best to prevent the conflagration, and his voice, squeaky with alcohol-induced-fury, could be heard over the laughter, "What! They liked it when I did it before! They'll like it now, yes they will!"The rest of the afternoon went a bit better.</blockquote>

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