The First Task

Khaat held the gold gilded tray that held eight crystal champagne flutes that were filled with the celebratory libation they were using to toast the beginning of the first task. The drink, like champagne, was effervescent, but unlike champagne, this drink was an elegant ruby red that sparkled and glowed. It was a special beverage called Phoenix Fire and was made with the juices of blood oranges, lemons, and cranberries along with a blend of select spices. It was reserved to be shared only on the most auspicious of occasions in the wizarding world. She waited until the champions and their headmasters had arrived in the champions’ tent.

“Good afternoon, Judges,” Khaat said, looking at the headmasters and Jess Potter. The four would serve as judges for the tournament, in addition to her. “Good afternoon, Champions,” she smiled, turning her attention to the young women. She saw their eagerness, their excitement, and their anxiety. It was understandable. All the training and ceremony came down to this moment, and a great deal of responsibility rested on their young shoulders.

“Welcome to the first task of the Triwizard’s Cup,” Khaat continued. “Tradition dictates that the tasks are designed to test your wit, your strength, your endurance, and your skills. If you use your abilities to your utmost, you may find you survive. We wish you well. You are permitted your wand and nothing else. Anything else you need will be offered to you along the way if you are clever enough to find it. You will notice that you have not been given a means of exiting the task prematurely. That is because there is one way to end the task and one way only. You must complete it. One of the most important things you will need to decide along the way is this: Which is more deadly—illusion or reality?

“This is very special for us for a number of reasons. First, it has been nearly 30 years since the last Triwizard Cup, and it is the first time in the over 700 year history of the tournament that we have had three lovely ladies as our contenders. We congratulate you, and we offer you a toast in your honor.” Letting everyone select a glass at random, she offered the glasses on the tray to the judges first and offered the remaining three to the young champions. She took her glass and raised it. “To your success,” she smiled and took a drink from her glass. When everyone had taken a sip, she said, “You may find this delightful little drink may go to your head a wee bit.” Khaat watched the champions closely. It would be only a matter of a few precious seconds before this special version of Phoenix Fire would begin to affect the champions. Their vision would fade, their heads would spin, and everything would turn to silent darkness.

''At this very moment," Headmaster Doyle spoke,"you should be feeling a little dizzy, but do not let that worry you, that is the smallest problem you will experience. What you have just taken is a special potion of my own brewing and it will transport you to your first task in a matter of moments. It does have side-effects, but more on that after you wake up, and it will cease effecting your body when you finish your task. You will be transported to the Orient Express, to a small compartment of your own in the middle of the night, but only to find out that your bunk-buddy is dead, his throat slashed and his blood on you. How? Who? When? And how did he end up in your compartment when he wasn't there when you went to sleep? Those are some questions you will have to answer in order to clear your name.

"Your assistant will be a person names Wanda Boardfoot, a girl your age which will help you in your goal. You have to understand that you will be doing this task in the year 1929 and you have just enough time until the train takes a stop in Belgrade, the capital of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It means that you will have roughly two, maybe three hours time to complete everything, but do not worry about the time component. You shall receive further instructions by Wanda once you wake up in the great Orient Express. But, in order to comfort you, no need to worry, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you die, but that won't be a problem, will it? I have timed this correctly, and you should be hitting your heads on the ground right... about... now!'', he finished, as the champions fell down. ''It seems that I have done this correctly, haven't I? Timing is crucial! They should be waking up in a moments time'', he said to Khaat.

OOC: Champion, you will begin your task, and when you have completed your first post, you will be given more information from Wanda that will be sufficient to finish your task. It is a bit unorthodox from how we normally do this, but it is the way this task has been designed.

Selene walked into the champions tent with very little flourish. A lot less than she normally had anyway. Sitting down at the table everyone else was at, she looked around for her headmistress. Seeing her made her feel a lot better and she sat up a bit straighter, looking around at the other contestants, she forced a grin, and then looked up when she was offered a glass. Selene sniffed it nervously, unsure about it's contents, until suddenly there was a toast. Right before she took a drink, Selene had one fleeting thought, where was the audience? Wasn't the school supposed to watch their tasks too? Once the liquid touched Selene's throat she started to feel woozy. Maybe that was just her nerves acting up. It was a type of alcohol after all wasn't it? Selene had never taken alcohol very well anyway, and now it was really affecting her vision.

Suddenly the headmaster spoke, and his voice seemed to penetrate through the fog as she started to feel her consciousness slip in an out. She looked at the other contestants and realized that they too weren't looking very good, and knew that this was one weird task. Normally tasks involved physical labor, battling your endurance and quick thinking.. this.. this was something else, this was using your head, which kind of seemed to go against the entire ideology of the tournament. Make them fight to the death, not make them use their skills while intoxicated, it didn't seem very fair. His last words melted into her consciousness about... now and she slumped forward in her chair, her goblet forgotten on the table beside her.


Selene woke up feeling horribly dizzy, a small headache was forming above her temple and she realized she was laying on the floor. Sitting up she felt like she was tipping back and forth, like she was on some sort of boat, but she quickly dismissed that as just being her head as she sat up to quickly. Her hand on her forehead, she slowly let her vision settle to look around the compartment. It seemed to be older in fashion, and she recalled hearing the headmaster say something about 1929, so it should be older fashioned, very old fashioned in fact. She looked down at herself and realized that she was covered in blood. Great, that was gross. She picked up her wand, which had fallen out of her pocket, and quickly cleaned herself up, it was gross and she didn't like it.

Slowly Selene staggered to her feet, looking around and seeing the dead body. Great... dead things. Of course it was a fake... wasn't it? I mean, they didn't ACTUALLY kill someone for this task. That would be.. horrible. Then again, the teachers at the school were mostly Death Eaters, so somehow she wouldn't put it past them, Selene had never really liked that Hogwarts Headmaster anyway. Selene suddenly realized how grave this situation was. Her memory flew back to 1929, the great depression was starting soon, people had no money, killings were probably common were they not? Police forces were less then what they were today, forensics sucked. So of course all she really had to do was pin it on someone else, but that wouldn't get her any points in the task, so she better stick with looking for clues. Then her memory was jogged by another section in what the headmaster had said. "Your assistant will be a person names Wanda Boardfoot, a girl your age which will help you in your goal. Great a person to deal with, someone to give her information the judges didn't seem fit to tell her themselves. What were they to good for her?

Selene finally turned her attention to the room at large, not to big, not to small, smelt like death, probably because of the dead person next to her. Good thing she was told of it's presence, she might have screamed and alerted the train people, which wouldn't have been a good thing. Might have deducted her points at the very least. Finally Selene let her eyes settle on the girl of her own age standing in the compartment, how convenient. A contact. “Vell, vat information do you 'ave for me?” She asked noticing now how strong her accent was.

[OOC: I'm rather confused, do you want me to post the rest of the task NOW? including the name of the murderer, or do I get more information I should know about? ]

Champions. my apologies for some apparent confusion with this task. I am trying to make sure it doesn't happen on the second and third tasks. Bear with me.

However, here is the bit of additional OOC information you need.

You do not have to solve the murder in order to solve the first task. From an OOC standpoint, we are looking to see what you do with the information given to you already. Your task is to see what you do with your character, with very limited information in a very limited time frame. As a player, your writing abilities and creativity will be tested.

Remember, the Triwizard is a series of events. This is only the first step. You will not be getting more IC information in this particular task. If you have already posted your task information, feel free to edit if this gives you any assistance at all. Solving the crime is not as critical at this point as it is for you to do your best with what you have.

Questions?
Khaat

You may godmod any character on the train with you.

Selene was nearly deafened by the scream of a girl as she flew into her compartment, staring at the dead man on the bunk beside Selene. Whatever potion they had given them was seriously making her head hurt, and it wasn't a very nice thing to be screamed at seconds after having woken up to the smell of carnage and seeing all of your things thrown about the room. Selene put her hand on her head and stared at the girl who seemed to recognize her, talking much to quickly and much to.. much. She should calm down, at least a little bit anyway. She said something about her clothes, and the fact that they went to the same school together. It was at this point that Selene started to actually pay attention, mostly because there was something she was likely to miss if she didn't concentrate on the hysterical girl, and not the splitting headache.

Selene took a quick study of the room she was in. Blood was everywhere, so was her stuff. Seeing this, Selene immediately ruled out robbery. This man was not murdered for his own possessions. Had he been murdered for them, his room would have been massacred not hers. Unless they were trying to rob Selene, which didn't make sense, why kill a man? Selene had been out for who knew how long before this ruddy train ride. Selene half listened to the girl prattle on about her life, and why she was on the train in the first place, making sure to note and store important pieces of information for her to think through later. In the mean time, she continued to survey the room, making odd such notes, as to where everything had been thrown, in what way, how he was laying, and the type of wounds on his body. Obviously someone had made it a large show to make him look bloodied, and Selene was almost disappointed in the contest's thinkers, at least make Wanda seem more terrified or something.. maybe cry a bit. But as it was... Selene was quickly led to another compartment down the hall.

It wasn't a long hall, but it did give Selene time to think of some stuff. Things such as, if the body was drug, it would have left a blood mark on the ground. But she saw none from hers to his compartment. So obviously he had been led to the room before he was killed, possibly by someone he knew. Though it seemed the only ones awake were her and Wanda at the moment, it was clear that anyone on the other side of the doors could simply be standing there, waiting for their cue to wake up. So anyone could have dived into a compartment, moments before she had woken up, and Wanda had come screaming. Thought it was odd they were taking so long to wake up after the screaming incident, but no matter. Selene followed Wanda into her compartment, noting that Wanda had a key to his compartment, and had had to open it. Her father had not been to his room before he was murdered.

Selene quickly looked around the compartment, almost falling over with the motion of the train, and the wooziness that was the potion she had been given. She steadied herself on the door frame, and looked around the compartment, her eyes skimming over the articles she had been shown. One thing stuck out to her, and that was the dining menu. Everyone would have been there last night, there could be a face they hadn't seen, or thought they didn't know, that knew them. In a world like the time she was in, faking an identity was easy, and getting caught was the hardest thing alive. Selene put her hand on her head and slowly took the paper that Wanda was holding out to her. It had a long list of names on it, people in the compartments. Wanda was prattling on about what she knew about them, but Selene wasn't paying attention.

According to this list, Wanda's room was immediately to the right of her father's compartment. Selene's was farther past her room. So had her father been taken from his compartment, there would have possibly been a struggle, waking up the people along the hallways, and passing his daughter's room, before he could have been pulled into Selene's room. So that meant, that he was either unconscious when taken to her room, or he had been led there willingly, before he was brutally murdered. There was no blood stain in the hallway, so that meant that he could not have been killed anywhere else but her room, and the stains on the wall proved that it had been rough. Why had no one waken up? Why had Wanda not heard a disturbance? Why had Wanda been looking for him at this time of night anyway?

Selene froze, listening to people waking up, and cast an odd look at Wanda, before quickly pulling out her wand. She murmured something and her clothes quickly changed to a short dress, her hair was cut short, and her shoes became slender heels. She looked like the typical 1920s flapper girl, which is what Selene would have to be, to be traveling alone on a train like this one. Selene quickly looked at Wanda and nodded carefully, her eyes scanning over the people looking out of their compartments, it felt like an old movie, one that should be in black and white, but someone had gone back and added color and made it high definition. Selene could still smell the blood from the other room, and her head was still killing her. “Wanda..” She said, her accent thick and making her feel all the more stand outish. “I do not theenk zat I can solve zis without asking everyone on ze train more about zemselves.. but eef zere eez one zing I know.. he eizer had to have known ze person who killed 'im, or.. he was unconscious.. zat.. and zere eez no motive for robbery... Unless zey were robbing me.. and let me tell you, I 'ave nothing of value.” Selene glanced down the hall. “Wanda... given what you have told me... I can zink of only two people who might have killed 'im.. and I know one of zem did not...” Selene closed her eyes and leaned on the frame of the door again, her head aching and spinning as the cart shuddered as it thundered along the track.

“Your compartment, eez in between mine, and 'is... because of zis... I must say, you would 'ave 'eard a commotion had zere been one.. but as eet eez, zere was not a commotion.. so zat zere eez no way he was dragged zere. Wanda.. your father was not in pain before he died.” She said lightly, putting her hand on Wanda's shoulder comfortingly. Looking at ze wounds on his body... I would say eet was actually rather quick.. but for certain, done in my compartment. What do you think Wanda? Zat he just... went in zere and killed himself? I zink not.. someone 'as killed him, but, as I said.. only two people could 'ave. Me... and you Wanda..” Selene looked at Wanda and sighed. “Deed you kill him Wanda? Eef you did not... well.. I am sorry for accusing you.” She looked at her sadly. “But you DO 'ave a motive. Your father... 'e just got a lot of money correct? Your mother.. she eez dead, and you.. you are now alone, with all of ze money zat your father just got. I am sorry eef I am wrong, I am just trying to figure out who deed zis horrible act.” Selene looked at her and went back to leaning against the door frame, looking out at the hallway, so that she could keep an eye on the people who were now staring in horror at the dead body. “Please... may I just seet down?” She asked lightly, looking back at Wanda before slowly going over to the bed, and sitting down heavily on it.