Hello everyone! Just a reminder that approximately half of the time to complete the current challenge has passed. Challenge 2 submissions are due by Tuesday, January 5th at 1:30pm CET (approximately 1 week and 4.75 hours from the time of this post). I hope you all are making good progress and enjoying your holidays!
1) Due to some other obligations I have earlier in the coming week (yay for getting slapped with the flu and running behind with things~), I may not have the opportunity to properly grade entries right away, so I will be extending the due date for the current challenge by 48 hours to Thursday, January 7th. Judging will be completed by sometime on Friday, leaving the weekend for elimination and Challenge 3 starting Monday the 11th.
2) As this information may actually matter in terms of properly interpreting the background given for Cecil, BV's character, I am also making it public that Cecil's character is Human. As his background is given as nobility, this information may be important for anyone who references the information in his background. If anyone else has questions about race or other character information not given in the provided backstory document, you are welcome to ask, and if I feel the information is potentially important, I will share it to the public, as I am sharing this information now even though the question was originally asked to me privately.
I hope everyone is enjoying their 2016 so far! Good luck with the challenge~
I got my days mixed up, whoops! >.> So here is your final reminder. Challenge 2 is due tomorrow at 1:30pm CET, which is approximately 15.5 hours from the time of this post. Please follow the instructions given in the original post when your team is ready to submit. Absolutely no late answers will be accepted!
The deadline for Trivia Submission is Tuesday, January 5th Thursday, January 7th at 1:30pm Central European Time. That is the same as 12:30pm GMT, 7:30am Eastern US time, 4:30am Pacific US time, or approximately the same time as this post in your own time zone. If your team has not submitted your questions by the deadline, you will automatically lose and suffer elimination penalties.
Even though none of the other answers can be officially submitted, I think it'd definitely be a waste if we didn't get to see them. What do you guys think about posting your answers in-thread for everyone else to see? Xanadu Taniwha's answers will be featured in Thena's next update I think :x
I kinda agree with Celever that we should at least share our favorite responses in thread. I know I actually really liked some of the responses my team came up with.
When the deadline rolled around, Queen Athena stood proudly at the front of the work room and awaited her responses. To her surprise, only one team came forward at the appointed time. Naxi of the Xanadu Taniwha approached the Queen with her team's completed scroll, and bowed to her as she held their answers aloft.
The Queen accepted the scroll from Naxi with a murmured thanks, her brow furrowed as she looked at the other teams. Although the deadline had been reached, no one else was forthcoming, so Athena took it upon herself to check their answers, and she walked around the room to look at the answers written by the remaining 3 teams.
The Amber Phoenixes seem to have put all of their work into a very detailed and accurate answer for one of the questions, but had nothing else to show for their time. Still, their response was better than that of the other two teams; neither the Aureolin Amphisbaenae nor the Palatinate Cynogryphons has anything written on their scrolls but scribbles and doodles. Sighing heavily, the Queen took the scrolls from the other teams and walked back to the head of the room where she cleared her throat and waited for the challengers to attend her.
"Admittedly, I am very disappointed in the results of this challenge. Despite amble time given to complete the questions, it seems that many of you neither know nor care much about the country that you hope to Challenge. This is rather... disheartening.
"As I mentioned at the beginning of this challenge, the team that performed the worst in this challenge would be forced to eliminate one of their players fropm the competition. Unfortunately, both the Amphisbaenae and the Cynogryphons have managed to both end up with the worst possible score, zero. As such, both teams will be eliminating a competitor.
"Please decide amongst yourselves which member of your team will be eliminated and have them report to me. Once the expulsion is complete, the remaining challengers will share a meal with me and I will share with you the details of the next challenge."
The results of this challenge were indeed disappointing. Despite having 16 days to complete and submit answers, only one team was able to do so before the deadline. As such, the Xanadu Taniwha are the overwhelming victors for this challenge. As alluded to in the flavour, both the Aureolin Amphisbaebae and the Palatinate Cynogryphons will be forced to eliminate one member of their teams. With the 1 point they gained as a result of their advantage from the previous challenge, the Amber Phoenixes barely manage to avoid elimination.
Although it is somewhat harsh, I hope this comes as a lesson to teams to make sure that they are communicating and planning properly to tackle challenges. If no one else on your team is stepping up, take initiative. If you won't be around when a deadline is reached, then either make sure someone else on your team will be, or make plans to submit a few hours early when you do have the time. Make sure that all members of your team can contribute, and if there's a particular person who does not want to participate, then either vote them out or get in touch with me to speak to them if they want to remain in the game. If you personally do not wish to participate in the game any longer, either tell you teams so they know they can eliminate you instead of someone else who would rather play when the time comes.
The final contributions to Challesian Canon as a result of this challenge can all be viewed here.
Elimination
As this is the first time that we will be eliminating players from the game, please make sure to read the Elimination instructions carefully.
Each member of the losing team(s) must vote for a member of their team to be eliminated from the game. Provide your vote in an individual PM with me in the format "vote: [username]". You are of course welcome to discuss elimination with your teams if you wish, so long as all votes are sent to me privately.
Elimination deadlines will always be 48 hours from the time of the results post. In this particular instance, this means that all elimination votes are due by Sunday, January 10th at 11:30am CET. That is the same as 10:30am GMT, 5:30am Eastern US time, 2:30am Pacific US time, or approximately the same time as this post in your own time zone.
Every team member for the losing team(s) must submit an elimination vote by the deadline. If you do not, your vote will count as a vote to eliminate yourself.
The first available use of your accumulated Scroll of Summon Magical Assistant has been revealed! All Challenge 7 participants (whether they are on eliminating teams or not) may choose to use 1 SoSMA to act as a negative elimination vote for a non-self/team player of your choice. Detailed information about can be found below. Any Scrolls used in this matter must be submitted to be via PM by the same 48 hour deadline as the elimination votes.
Once all votes and Scroll uses have been tallied, the player from each eliminated team with the most votes will be permanently removed from the game.
In the event of a tie, the winning team of the previous challenge gets to choose who of the tied candidates is eliminated.
Scroll of Summon Magical Assistant: Use 1
Each of you started with a number of Scrolls of Magical Assistant, a magic item that can be used to give you various advantages throughout the game. Each time a new use of the item is revealed, it will be posted about in the Update (like this section here and now), and also added to the OP for easy reference. Please Note: Each Scroll is single use only! Once you use a Scroll for any purpose it is used up and your total number of scrolls goes down by one. If you ever want to know how many scrolls you currently have available at any given point, feel free to ask.
SoSMA 1: Negative Elimination Vote: Every time there is an Elimination, all current players may choose to use one scroll to act as a "negative" elimination vote on a player of their choice. This will subtract a vote from that player's total number of votes. If a player reaches 0 votes in this manner, they cannot be eliminated. In negative votes override all of the votes for a given team, that team becomes safe and none of their players will be eliminated.
However, there are of course some restrictions:
You may never use a Scroll to give a negative vote on yourself, or even another member of your team. You may only use scrolls to save members of other teams. Feel free to communicate and work out deals with other teams, if you wish.
You may never use 2 Scrolls in a row to give a negative vote to the same person. If you choose to use a Scroll as a vote for the current elimination, the next time you use a Scroll must be either for a non-elimination purpose, or used as a negative vote for a different member.
As an example, let's suppose that Team1 is voting for elimination. 2 members of the team vote for Player1 to be eliminated and 2 other members vote for Player2 to be eliminated.
Instance 1 - Player5 uses a Scroll on Player1. The score would then be 2 to 1 and Player2 would be the one eliminated. Instance 2 - Player5 and Player6 each use a Scroll on Player1. Player7 and Player8 each use a Scroll on Player2. The score would then be 0 to 0, all votes nullified, and Team1 becomes safe from elimination.
If you have any questions about this particular use of SoSMA, please ask!
The Next Challenge?
Due to the elimination vote, the next challenge will not start until elimination has been completed. However, I will give you all a few hints about the next challenge that you can use to speculate:
Challenge 3 will be significantly less mentally strenuous than any of the previous challenges so far.
There will be an opportunity to use your SoSMA to give you a direct advantage in the following challenge, if you wish.
Partially as a result of 2, there will be a 24 hour preparation period between when C3 is posted and when the competition actually begins.
