New Year's Challenge

Long ago the enchantress Morgana Le Fay penned a curse to humble Arthur. The full account of which is known as the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

She is dust and Arthur slumbers hidden by magic and the best defenses that the London Branch can devise. However this particularly wicked curse survives to this day.

While the original script has been lost to antiquity it has been penned many times by many authors. The curse is very appealing as it requires next to no actual magical ability to work.

Two victims will be affected by the curse, the intended and the unintended. The intended is the individual or group whom is focused in the caster's mind. Unlike the Weeping Winnow Curse or the curse of Gillette the victim needs not be anyone in particular or do anything in particular for this hex to affect them. Once cast the clock begins ticking down.
Editor's Note: According to the DPRCD's records the curse will only affect men. No records exist of a female ever being the intended target although women have been present during the challenge.

The unintended victim can be anyone, unless specified; a random passerby, someone seen at a distance, or any person which happens to have a moment's bad luck when the curse takes effect. Editor's Note: There are in fact a  few factors which will effect the selection  of the unintended victim. The first is that they will always be a man, the second is that they will be in the same area as the victim.

The New Year's Challenge curse will present no signs to anyone until New Years Eve. Upon this night the unintended victim, hereafter known as the "Green Knight" will feel compelled to separate himself from other people. Once alone they will undergo a metamorphosis; growing larger and otherworldly as they swell with magic.

Upon New Year's day, usually at lunch or dinner, the challenge will be issued. The Green Knight will challenge the individual or group to kill him. The exact method of challenge will differ, it used to be an elegant axe or sword; in modern times it will often take the form of a beautifully made firearm and a shot to the heart. Whatever the method, the challenge will be the same.

The target must kill the challenger with the weapon, in exchange they shall get the exquisite weapon. However in a year and a day whoever accepts the challenge must allow the issuer to do the same to them.

At this point the victim has two choices; to accept the challenge or to refuse.

Refusal is the smarter if less honourable option, their valour will have been called into question and all present will know them for a coward.
Editor's Note: The curse is a little dated and most people will not in fact hold an individual who refuses to help an eight foot tall madman commit suicide at the dinner table in too much scorn.

However this will end the curse, the Green Knight will leave and return to normal remembering the entire affair. This usually requires a good amount of professional counseling afterwards as they try to work out what they were doing asking a stranger to help them kill themselves.

If on the other hand the victim accepts and does attempt to execute the knight then the curse enters its second stage. The massive knight will pick up their head or pull the bullet from their heart and instruct the victim to meet at a certain location in one year and a day.

The location in question will normally be a nexus of belief. In most areas this takes the form of a church, mosque, or synagogue; in others it will be a grove or significant tree, a collection of mysterious stones. The exact location does not matter only that it will be some place known to the victim.

The victim now has two choices, to make the appointment or not. The vast majority of individuals fail this test and never show up. Once again this is probably the smarter choice to make, although less honourable, as this results in proof of cowardice and the weapon will disappear never to be found again.

If however the victim shows up, without setting up a police sting, they will be given the option of bowing their own head or baring their chest as the Green Knight takes up the weapon. Whereupon he will then proceed to faux strike/shoot the victim two times. Assuming the victim's courage holds the Green Knight will turn back into the normal person.

At this point the unintended victim will know the name of the individual who originally cast the curse and be compelled to explain to the intended victim what just happened.

For this reason the DPRCD classifies the New Year's Challenge curse as mostly harmless as at no point is anyone in danger of anything except a fright during through the duration.

Editor's Note: The curse is most dangerous to the individual who cast it originally as once their identity has been divulged the victims often seek revenge.