dramatispersonae

[After the requisite amount of time, a blinding flash fills your vision. When it clears again, you find yourself standing (or sitting, for the less balanced among you) on the beach … except you’re a hell of a lot smaller. And the sand dunes are a hell of a lot bigger.

You and your knights are each approximately an inch tall, with exceptions made for the lucky dragons and other large non-humanoids, who are the correct size, proportionally. A large flat stretch of sand is on one side of you, with a fresh mound of easily moldable sand next to that. Not that there’s any shortage of sand on the beach. In addition to that, you will find a box full of tools that you can use to craft your sandcastles, including shovels in all shapes and sizes, buckets, cups, and other basic sand stuff. There is also a box labeled SPECIAL SUPPLIES, which has the following items in it:

+ One flag (in team colors)
+ One collapsible drawbridge (push the button to make it life-size)
+ One collapsible portcullis (same as the drawbridge)
+ One cute plastic dragon (person-height)
+ One packet of “instant moat” (just add water!)

You will find that all the tools work at amazing speeds with very little effort. Constructing an epic multi-story castle is very doable even within this short time frame.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How fond of castles are we, do you think? I've never thought them very welcoming.

That really does sting for a bit. And I suppose they are rather forbidding, when you think about it.

Are you all right, Miss Violet? It's a little painful...

I'm all right. Just a touch disoriented. So, not a castle--something more like a mansion, then?

Maybe... a beachside house, I think. Small enough to be comfortable, but very open and airy.

I like that. We could use this "instant moat" to simulate the ocean.

I wonder how far away the ocean itself is.

[peering around]

[just far enough away that it won't take down your castle/villa, but close enough that you could easily channel it closer.]

*Peeeeeer* Hmmm--not too far, but I'd worry a bit about the waves if we got too close.

We could dig swimming pools as well as a moat. Maybe an enclosed section *mdash; make the house a square shape with a channel running through it and a courtyard in the middle—