Ruins of Azlant Gameplay

The first challenge of the course is a series of 3 straight walls, about 10 feet tall, no ropes. After some discussion, Kaimana suggests that he climb the wall first so he can hoist others up, while Kereda can boost Evie and Milo to help with their climb. At first, there's some confusion about boosting Kaimana up, but he climbs up the wall by himself before realizing that was a question. The first wall goes smoothly with one hiccup, though Evie suggests for the next wall that Milo go before her to help with hoisting. They take this strategy for the second two walls and clear them without difficulty.

The next obstacle is some low netting, and a framework of beams above it. Evie suggests that she and Milo crawl under and retrieve a rope on the other side to allow Kaimana and Kereda to climb across to which the team agrees. Both Evie and Milo start slow, but Evie swiftly untangles herself and ties the rope to the beam to let Kaimana and Kereda climb across, as Milo struggles below in the net. He manages to untangle himself and make his way out, shortly before Kereda climbs across as well, having had a false start or two of his own.

Jax is taking the scavenger hunt as a rare opportunity to rest and enjoy the all-too-rare celebratory mood permeating the colony. As he walks around, he sees Aisha and walks towards her. "Hey!" He calls out as he approaches.

Aisha smiles wide at the sight of Jax and waves him over. "Hey Jax! How're you doing? Need a clue?" she adds the last with a sly, joking grin.

"Maybe,", he chuckles. "Just wanted to see how you were holding up; haven't had a chance to see much of you recently."

"I'm doing well! Keeping busy helping all the new people get settled and all, but it's finally starting to feel like people are finding their feet now," Aisha replies cheerily.

"It's definitely been a welcome change," Jax turns to look at the colonists milling about. "I think this is the first time we've been able to celebrate without some crisis going on."

"Why would you say that out loud?" Aisha cries out in mock despair. "Now it's cursed!" She laughs and shakes her head. "But you are right. Now it'll be up to us to keep it that way."

"Yea. Hopefully this will go quickly and we can be done with all this." Jax's face splits into a wry grin. "Now, since we're friends can you tell me where one of the items are?"

"I could, but I won't," Aisha grins. "I can, however, give you another hint if there's one you can't figure out."

Amissa nods eagerly. "Yeah! We're going to make a sand sculpture of some Azlanti ruins. A couple more people means we could make it even bigger! Here, I have some ideas for how we can go about this..." She proceeds to lay out a fabulous, historically accurate, and structurally sound sand castle plan. "How does this look?"

"I knew you'd have a great plan," Machi says with a grin. "Lemme work on mixing up some sand and water so we can start with that," he says, starting to dig a pit with his hands to make a good mix for sandcastles, joined in that effort by the woman he's with.

Jax chuckles a bit. "Thanks, but I'd make a poor hunter if I couldn't find things without help." He begins to turn to leave, seeing another colonist approach. "I'll let you get back to your work then; it looks like someone else might need that hint."

Amissa bumps against Eliza lightly with her shoulder. "Come on. Where do you want to start?"

"Start at the center, and build our way out?" Eliza suggests, starting to pile up some of the sand.

The next obstacle in the course is a stretch of water with a small raft on the opposite side. There's no question that Kaimana is the strongest swimmer of the group, while Kereda and Milo have been instructed a little bit, so they decide to have Kaimana bring the raft back for Evie while the other two make their own way across swimming. It takes Kaimana almost no time to get to the raft, and he notices Milo is floundering a little while trying to get across. "You got this," Kaimana encourages him while passing back, "just remember to move your arms together a little more." Milo blows bubbles in the water as a reply and continues his efforts.

Kaimana swims up to Evie with the raft. "Okay, I'll hold it steady while you get on."

Evie nods, stepping on carefully. "I'll do my best to stay on."

Kaimana nods and checks back on how Milo and Kereda are doing. On seeing them struggle, he calls out trying to remind them instructions from previous lessons. Unfortunately, their heads seem underwater too much to actually hear him. "Hm. Actually, I'm thinking it'd make sense for me to bail them out first?" Kaimana asks, frowning.

Evie nods. "They do seem like they're having some trouble, go for it. I'll be here," she says.

Milo is the first target, since he's struggling more, and Kaimana quickly meets him. "We need to do a refresher, it looks like," Kaimana teases while helping him swim across. Kereda manages to figure out what's wrong on his own and meets them over there.

"Probably wouldn't hurt," Milo agrees with a sheepish smile.

That handled, Kaimana zips back over to Evie. "Okay, ready when you are!" he says brightly.

Evie grips tightly onto the buoy again. "Go for it." It's not long after that Evie can't keep her balance, and falls into the water. "So much for staying dry," she says with a sigh, though she seems more resigned than annoyed.

Kaimana laughs. "Being fair, that thing looks really hard to balance on," he notes, wiggling the raft and shaking his head at the flimsiness. "You know, if you're comfortable with it, I'm pretty used to swimming with someone hanging onto my shoulders. We could do that instead."

"Might as well now," Evie agrees, getting positioned on Kaimana's shoulders.

"I bet we could find a mage to dry you off later if you'd like," Kaimana adds, swimming across easily and reuniting the team. "Okay, whatever works to clear it, right?" he comments brightly, hoping no one's too discouraged.

"Actually, I was wanting to talk to you, Jax," Perrell says as she approaches. "May I suggest we form a team? I feel our skills might complement each other's."

Milo nods, shaking off his struggles with the swimming."Yeah! We got through them all so far, we'll handle the rest just fine!"

Amissa nods enthusiastically. "All right, let's start then!"

Time proceeds at a fair clip after that; Amissa gets drawn more and more into the building of the sand castle, supported by the others. The final result is a palace with a domed roof, some towers, and a short wall surrounding all of it. Fine details regarding balconies and windows are etched in using Amissa's any-tool. The others seem to enjoy building the sand castle as well, and close to the end of the process, a playful sand fight erupts on the outskirts of the structure - a fun interlude, causing no real damage.

Final Product:

The next obstacle is a series of poles to balance on over another span above water. There's a ladder near the beginning to get you back up to the start, and the other side is climbable, but much more challenging. There's also a pile of rope at the other side.

Kaimana suggests he just swim across to get the rope for the team to use. Evie adds that the rope could be helpful for support while balancing. With that determined, Milo sets off across the poles while Kaimana swims. The young man on the poles is surprisingly agile, and reaches the other side at the same time as Kaimana. Kereda is able to secure the rope to support Evie's passage. Evie struggles a little in comparison to Milo (as did damn near everyone trying this obstacle), but she makes it across. Finally, it's Kereda's turn. He initially suggests just getting pulled through the water. "No way!" Kaimana answers immediately. "I mean, I'll pull you out if you're in trouble, but you know damn well how to swim and you gotta practice!" Kereda concedes the point with a laugh, and it turns out he didn't need the assistance getting through the water anyway.

All that's left for the team is a victory sprint across the beach, and Kaimana cheers loudly as the team runs.

Jax stops and turns back to Perrell. "Sure! Have you found anything so far?"

"I've several thoughts on what the items we should need to find are," Perrell states, beginning to discuss what each riddle might be.

Riddles:

Once through the finish line, Milo pumps both of his fists into the air with a cheer. "Woo! We did it!" he exclaims.

"That was a lot of fun," Kereda agrees with him, a smile approaching his face. "Reminds me of the good old times, training together."

"You all had trained together?" Evie asks. "I can see why you all made such a good team."

"Yeah, one of the things I do around here is different kinds of training, when things are a little less hectic," Kaimana answers with a grin. "Different kinds of combat, swimming... we've had a few other people hop in too with their specialties, it's fun."

"That sounds quite nice, I'll keep an eye out for such trainings and classes returning," Evie says with a smile. "They all sound like quite useful skills to have here."

Kaimana nods, racking his memory. "Let's see, I think Eskelda's good to bring back her weaving class, Anya and Lyra do stuff with survival skills and foraging too... what else am I forgetting?" he asks Milo and Kereda, in the off-chance they remember.