UPDATE 5 October 2015:
Looking much more put-together now; let’s get some ideas for monster attacks (see Locations) and quest rewards before we post it in the forum! :D Please discuss any questions/comments/concerns here before we put it up~
RAMBLING UPDATE 9 October 2015:
Ughhhh it would make so much more sense if we just directly brought along an Apollo kid xDDD Also, since I wrote basically all of this and I have no experience whatsoever writing quests, make sure to speak up on how to make this more enjoyable and sensible! I get the feeling we need more monster attacks and fewer gratuitous plotholes. Summer and Ash, if you guys are too busy with your other quest and can’t focus on this one right now, it’s perfectly fine if you’d like to part ways with this quest (though I will be sad and miss chu guys ;-;)!
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Dream=
{{Modified Dream|A barefoot young boy dressed in a muddy T-shirt and torn jeans is trapped in the center of a moving crowd. It is unseasonably rainy, making traffic on the dirt-turned-mud road all but impossible for anything except pedestrians. Speaking loudly in several foreign languages, no one in the crowd pays the boy any mind. Over the course of several minutes he is gradually pushed outwards, until he stumbles into an alley with an awning at the far end. Drenched, the boy curls up under the awning and shivers, waiting for the crowd to pass.
A divine voice speaks up as the scene continues. “Hello, Aria, my child. It’s been a very long time since I’ve last spoken to you, and for that can only apologize. Alas, not even being a god means that one is truly free. And though I am glad we can meet, I do not bear good news.”
The boy waves to a man leaving one of the buildings in the alley and says something in a questioning tone. The man glances at him and begins to walk away. Switching to accented English, the boy cries, “Do you speak English? Wait, please, don’t leave,” but by then the man has disappeared into the crowd.
“This is Nabil Jandali,” Astraeus continues, “the third life of the Egyptian King Epaphus. In his first life he was the son of Zeus and the best friend of Phaethon, my adopted son. Eight years ago, when the world had rebounded from the Second Titan War, Epaphus finally asked to be reborn a third time, in hope that he could reach the Isles of the Blessed at last.”
The rain falls harder until the alleyway is covered by a layer of water. Sunset is nearing, yet the onslaught of precipitation shows no indication of relenting. Nabil drags a crate under the awning and sits on it, burying his face in his hands.
“In this life Nabil was born a half-blood with Koios as his father. This month, when he fled from his home in Syria to Turkey due to the Syrian Civil War, Nabil was separated from his mother. For the past week he has been living on the streets of Urfa, dismissed as being just another unregistered refugee out of thousands.”
The sky, already darkened by storm clouds, grows even dimmer as dusk approaches. Curling up once again, Nabil slowly falls into a restless sleep.
“Alone, unregistered, and sick with pneumonia, Nabil could very well die on the streets of Urfa within this week, his life of heroic potential ending tragically early,” Astraeus speaks gravely. “Growing up together, Phaethon knows that if anyone is destined to reach the Isles of the Blessed after so long, it’s Epaphus. Passively watching his best friend’s incredibly story end short with his spirit going to the Fields of Asphodel for all eternity is simply an ‘’unbearable’’ thought. Aggravatingly, neither Phaethon nor I can directly save his life, but we hope that you demigods can bring him medical attention and reunite him with his mother, at the least. May all the stars and Phaethon’s hope guide your quest, Aria, and please, stay safe.”}}
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Questers=
#[[Aria Shen]], [[Astraeus’ Cabin]] (Leader)
#[[James Spall]], [http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Poseidon's_Cabin Poseidon's Cabin]
#[[Gabrielle Javier]], [http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Ariadne’s_Cabin Ariadne's Cabin]
#[[Romulus Osborne]], [http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Apollo's_Cabin Apollo's Cabin]
#[[Benjamin "Benny" Carraway]], [http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Hebe's_Cabin Hebe's Cabin]
<!-- The last 4 cabins were all redlinking for some reason -_- -->
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General Overview=
King Epaphus’ third life as Syrian half-blood Nabil Jandali seems poised to end from pneumonia within the week. Before he was made a god, Phaethon, son of Helios and Astra Planeta of Jupiter, was Epaphus’ best friend. He knows that Epaphus is destined for the Isles of the Blessed, not the Fields of Asphodel, but he cannot directly save his life. On Phaethon’s behalf, Astraeus asks Aria to assemble a team of demigods to bring Nabil medical attention and reunite him with his mother, giving Epaphus another chance to live a heroic life. The team travels to Turkey via boat (James, a son of Poseidon, speeds up the journey) and trek along highways to get to Urfa. Eventually, they find Nabil before the week is up. However, as Nabil is a son of Koios, he encounters a telekhine and, in a panicked outburst, draws the telekhine’s metal weapons towards him and kills it. This unintended action, which surprises even Nabil, also attracts nearby pedestrians’ wallets and jewelry, resulting in him being taken into police custody. Dismissing his obvious pneumonia symptoms as a ploy to get a more lenient sentence and prejudiced against his refugee status, the police take their time processing paperwork while Nabil’s condition deteriorates as he is held in remand. The questers divert the officers’ attention to another part of town in order to treat him. Afterwards, they travel to Sicily to find Nabil’s mother and reunite them.
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Locations=
#‘’’Madalena, Pico Island’’’- This is a small town on the Portuguese Azores island chain in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The questers briefly stop here to pick up supplies (and maybe a light monster attack near the base of the Pico stratovolcano?)
#‘’’Tunis, Tunisia’’’- One of the trireme’s sails is damaged and the questers are forced to make a pit stop here, the historical location of Carthage. Though Greece didn’t have nearly the same amount of bad blood with Carthage as the Romans, the Sicilian Wars and Pyrrhic War didn’t exactly make Greece an ally of Carthage either. The questers are attacked by a Karkinos and hastily return to the seas.
#‘’’Mersin, Turkey’’’- The questers land at this Turkish port city and begin their trek across state road D400 to Urfa.
#‘’’Urfa, Turkey’’’- Nabil ended up on a van smuggling him here instead of on the boat that was supposed to take him with his mother to Sicily. When the questers find him, he is being held by the Urfan police for supposed robbery.
http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:The_Monster_Encyclopedia
#‘’’Catania, Sicily’’’- This is where Nabil’s mother has been living for the past weeks, under the impression that her son was dead. After mother and son are reunited here, the questers depart for Camp Half-Blood once again.
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End Game=
Nabil is treated by Romulus and Benny and recovers shortly thereafter. The questers then bring Nabil to Catania, Sicily, where he reunites with his mom. They plan to eventually move further into Europe and seek out a new life there.
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Quest Rewards=
‘’’Aria:’’’ A backpack that has no limit to how much it can hold
‘’’James:’’’A small glass cylinder that is 10cm tall, is unbreakable and has an unlimited water supply
‘’’Gabrielle:’’’ A map that always changes to where it is
‘’’Romulus:’’’ A spear that harness his powers and shoots out bolts of really powerful sunlight
‘’’Benny:’’’ http://camphalfbloodroleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Benjamin_”Benny”_Carraway
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Alex’s Guide to Shadow Travelling and other forms of teleportation.
On the wiki, certain cabins are favoured above others. These cabins (ie: Nyx, Hades) often have shadow travel as a power. However, users seem a little confused on how/where to apply it when necessary. I have written a brief guide to what we know from canon and how we can apply this to the wiki, without godmodding or meta-gaming.
The Basics: Shadow Travelling grants the user the ability to travel using shadows. (Shocking right?) Much like apparition, the user concentrates for a moment, dematerialises and then rematerializes in a new location. This ability can be used to travel great distances, shown throughout the Heroes of Olympus series, where Nico demonstrates the ability to travel across the Atlantic. Experienced users can target more precise locations. An example is Nico Di Angelo’s ability to travel between Tartarus, the Underworld and the mortal world. Although, this is likely unique to the son of Hades, many similar applications can be used to help establish plotlines.
Limitations/Requirements: The user must be somewhere that has shadows, and they must have a reasonable amount of energy left to shadow travel. If the user has eye contact on a target, or they have a strong connection to a place, it’s easier to travel there. The user has little control over where they’ll exactly end up, as shadows do tend to move. Demigods tend to land next to static structures, such as the Temple of Diana in BoO. This is likely because there are shadows at a fixed point. It would be difficult to land on a moving shadow/object, particularly if the target is moving, as there seems to be a slight time delay between dematerializing and rematerializing. Shadow travelling isn’t instantaneous. To shadow travel with another target, there must be a physical connection between the user and the recipient.
How far can I travel? : Distance is dependent on the strength of the demigod, the amount of energy they have, and whether they have been to the place before. A strong psychological connection to a place, ie: a childhood home, would make it much easier for a demigod to travel there. As stated before, demi-gods have some control on where they end up, but it isn’t exact enough for them to know which ‘shadow’ on which tree they’ll be using. Common sense would dictate that around 40 feet would probably be as far as a demigod can shadow travel in a fight, without losing control over where they’ll end up. In a Quest, Shadow Travel is a handy way to get around. However, the users will have to frequently stop to rest and over-reliance on this could make the quest somewhat dull, if one user is responsible for helping the whole party travel. Extra energy will be required to travel to other realms such as the Underworld or Tartarus, and the effort would greatly weaken those who tried.
How many people can I take? :
There’s no exact estimate. In The House of Hades, Nico states that he won’t be able to shadow travel the 8 demigods away from the House of Hades. He and Hazel both manage to teleport the party of eight onto a nearby hill. This is pretty significant evidence to numbers. If the most powerful children of Hades/Pluto (under book canon) struggle to carry four people each to a nearby location, this would suggest that an average demigod would only be able to carry around 1-3 people using shadow travel. Nico is shown taking Reyna, Coach Hedge and the Athena Parthenos towards Camp Half-Blood, however he was exhausted and arguably only managed because Reyna supported him with her powers. Objects can also be shadow travelled, the heavier/bulkier the object, the more energy it would likely use.
Things to Avoid:
Other Forms of Travel:
Rainbow Travel- This functions much like Rainbow Travel, using rainbows instead of shadows in order to travel. It’s likely that the user needs a source of light in order to create a rainbow and the connection would be stronger, if near a naturally occurring rainbow, a reflective surface etc.
Teleportation- This power is possessed by Hermes and Hecate kids. Although an explicit source of energy or matter doesn’t seem to be required, it’s likely that teleportation would need more energy than mere shadow travel and there would be a lot more chance that the powers would throw the user somewhere they didn’t recognise. In this case, the use is probably more focused on appearing at a specific place with a connection to the user.