EVENT & TDM 008

[sticksandbonesmods]

LET IT GO

WAKE UP

It’s strange, how as the dawn of a new day finally arrives, coinciding with the howling winds dying out, classic, adorable snowmen seem to have popped up all over the Grove overnight. The fog wall has yet to surround the barren remains of a town that once was, but it’s visible once more in the great distance.

Not that you can see it immediately. Something covers your eyes, and you can feel something heavy and frigid wrapped all around you. As you struggle more and more, the crunch of snow echoes through your ears as you step free- and when you turn back to examine their prison, you’ll realize one of the snowmen was you.

Meanwhile, old residents will get to deal with more and more people popping out of snowmen like daisies, and must remember that this is just their life now. It’s just another day in Aldric’s Grove.

Though, maybe you ought to help them before frostbite sets in.

MIRROR, MIRROR

The quiet couldn’t last forever. You should have known that something would happen, especially with the fog beginning to make itself known again. And this time, it’s something quiet. As you wake up one morning, there is a mirror on your nightstand — it’s silver and round, able to fit comfortably in your hand and wreathed in crystalline snowflakes.

And as you look into it, your reflection twists into something still undeniably you, but… have you a temper problem? Too many lies? A sadistic sense of humor? All of your worst traits are dragged out and reflected on the mirror, and no matter what, it keeps ending up wherever you are — and whoever else looks into the mirror will see this awful, terrible you, too. All of your worst characteristics, all the things you try to hide, unable to be hidden.

Maybe you keep trying to hide it. Maybe you let it stay wherever it keeps turning up, following you like a particularly terrible walking salesman, or maybe you break it. Regardless, nothing seems to happen… for now.

WITH SHARDS OF ICE

“For now”.

Late into the night, everyone wakes up to a sudden, terrible chill. When you open your eyes, you’ll find that you aren’t in your inn room or home, but instead within a giant castle made of ice. It must be a ballroom of some sort, a grand hall glittering in the moonlight — but looking out the window shows that the world beyond the castle is but a frozen wasteland of more blizzards and nothing else. Though you’ve been granted some of your gear — weapons and some supplies, and coats if you’re lucky — you’ll find that the temperature is dropping steadily, while something approaches…

Peek out the door to the main hall and you’ll see what’s coming so noisily. An army’s worth of hallowed ice knights with all sorts of weapons are marching to the door, intent on slaying the intruders. Should they get close, they’ll attack; should they land the killing blow, you’ll instantly freeze into a solid block and shatter.

And if you broke the mirror that haunted you? On top of all of this, you can feel yourself gradually growing colder, physically and emotionally, and your magic, if you have it, takes on an icy flair that you may find difficult to control. Maybe it's your feet that start to turn to ice first — maybe it's your fingertips. But as the night goes on, you’ll steadily freeze solid, and like any fairy tale, only an act of true love could possibly save you. Good luck figuring out what that actually means. True love’s kiss? A genuine compliment? A hug? What could possibly save you from your fate?

Those of you who survive until morning, who don’t become solid statues of ice or die within the castle’s walls, will be lucky enough to witness the sun coming up through narrow windows the size of your forearm. All around you, the castle starts to melt, dripping freezing water onto your head. For as much as you try to run before you, presumably, drown terribly…

…your eyes will close, and you’ll wake up in your bed, drenched.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE FRESH SNOW

The morning after that dreadful night, things… settle, again. Aldric’s Grove is quiet, and clear sunlight glistens across the snowy plaza and radiates off of frosted trees. Even now, the apple tree and blackberry bushes are unfazed by the cold, though the fruit may taste crisper and chillier than usual. Those that died within the castle return to life, feeling colder than normal for the rest of the day, but there seems to be no lasting damage. And, everyone who participated in the castle “game” receives a mysterious gift: A wooden coin with a sigil on it, resembling a clock with backwards hands behind a shield, attached to frosted pinecones, red berries and sprigs of mistletoe. It feels warm and protective.

You go outside. It’s been some time since anyone’s seen anything from the woods, let alone something that doesn’t want them dead — so imagine one’s surprise when a small family of deer can be seen walking amongst the trees. Birds alight to the branches on rare moments, and it’s surely a sign of something, that life has begun to return to the forest despite the deep snow and deeper chill.

Never mind that one of the deer has an extra set of antlers and another has three eyes. Never mind that the birds sound like people. Never mind that the rabbits have blood on their maws.

It’s just another day in Aldric’s Grove.

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

WAKE UP

Good day, new arrivals! You are now a snowman. Hopefully people who have been here a bit longer are willing to give you a blanket or ten.

MIRROR, MIRROR

A mirror appears and starts following you around, reflecting what you think are your worst traits or worst version of yourself is. Other people can look into it and see the awful you, too. You can break it and it'll leave you alone, or you can let it stalk you all month.

WITH SHARDS OF ICE

Welcome to the ice castle! It's cold, but you have your stuff with you, and it's not unlivable. Well, until the frozen army of knights starts marching in with the intent to kill everyone inside, anyway. One lethal hit from them will make you shatter into pieces. For those of you who broke your mirrors, you'll gradually grow colder both physically & emotionally, and eventually start to freeze solid. Don't worry, though, you can be saved through the power of love.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE FRESH SNOW

Dawn rises on the Grove and the dead come back to life. Everyone who participated in the castle game receives a magical charm, though they don't know what it does so far. Animals come back to the Grove as well! ...why do they look like that?

OOC

Happy January! TDMs are game canon as a reminder, and if you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. While it is not known to player characters at this time, the charms granted as a reward for the ice castle can undo one future negative effect (i.e. a major death). They are a one-time use item. As for how characters discover this information... idk, we'll see how y'all decide to utilize those. :)

UPDATES

❖ None yet!

SUBMISSIONS

QUESTIONS
INVESTIGATIONS
PAST-LIFE PLOTTING
INTEREST CHECK

(CODE)

Comments

[succiduous]

[Gnosis gloves this man like he's putting gloves on a child. Wolfwood will probably have these when Vash dies in his arms lol He doesn't need the gloves, he's almost entirely immune to the cold. This is Another Day In Kjerag for him, basically.

Counterpoint is that the second it gets above like, 60 degrees, Gnosis suddenly wants to die. So y'know.]

I've been on the search for Enciodes myself. I'm impressed he hasn't sniffed me out yet. [That's because he's Dying, Gnosis.] I imagine you must be looking for your friends, correct? We should team up for the time being. We stand a fighting chance against the army that way.

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood works alone. It's kindof his MO. He's a lone wolf, haha, ha-

But right now...Wolfwood knows he needs help. He knows that he's in some deep trouble right now. Even deeper still, he knows that he's dying. So he can't be wasting time arguing about what to do.

He has been assuming this entire time it's because he's in here that he's slowly freezing to death. So...he just needs to find a way out.]

...yeah. Fine.

[He shudders, hands now encased in the gloves- for all the good it will do- as he starts to struggle to his feet. He has to lean heavily on the Punisher, which is leaning against one of the icy walls, but he manages it.]

There's...there's gotta be a way out of this place. There's gotta.

[succiduous]

The last time one of these "games" was played by the forest, [what] the voice of what I can only assume was the Creature spoke to us and told us to "escape" the volcano we were in [what the fuck] via climbing out while it tried to slaughter all of us in lava. [you can't just say all that—]

That same voice did not say anything this time when we awoke. I imagine the objective to survive is similar, but as for escape, I haven't managed to find a front door yet, and the "windows" in this place are no larger than my forearm. There must be a way, but the route was left purposely vague — obviously.

[lupusxylem]

Great. That's wonderful, really. I'm glad to hear it.

[Sarcasm sarcasm sa-]

This place is just ice, right? What's saying we can't just bash one of the walls down with something?

[succiduous]

Well. [oh no] The thickness of the ice is variable, but to my observation, the walls themselves are no less than five inches thick at minimum. It takes about 1,250 pounds of weight to shatter five inches of ice. Comparatively, if the ice was around twelve to fifteen inches thick, one can easily drive a medium-sized vehicle over it and not see the ice fracture.

[.....]

I imagine, in places, that the ice is several feet thick. Chipping at it would do the job eventually, but you would need... [doing math in his head] ...about 800 pounds of force per square inch to break the thinnest ice here.

[lupusxylem]

Just a "no you can't, dumbass" would've sufficed.

[Somehow, having the ice thickness mansplained to him makes it worse-]

Why do you even know all of that, just...off the top of your head?

[succiduous]

[kek

Gnosis pushes his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.]

I'm not insinuating that you're stupid. I'm merely suggesting that you need to find us a way to exert 800 pounds of force per square inch to get anywhere. I know several Operators back home who could do this.

[why does this feel backhanded]

I know all of this because, aside from being a scientist, my home country has the same climate as the Grove does recently. It's common to go ice skating on Kjerag's lakes during the winter, and most people know at what point ice will break on principle. It's how we live.

[lupusxylem]

[U g h]

Yeah? How does a laser sound?

[He kicks the cross gun at his side with the edge of his foot, currently too frozen to want to pick it up right now unless he has no other choice.]

This thing packs a punch, but for some reason the ammo is limited here. I won't be able to do it more than a couple times.

[...]

So what's it like during the summer? More snow?

[succiduous]

It depends. [please stop] I assume that your laser would pack a high amount of wattage, considering it comes from a... gun? [Is that a fucking gun.] It would have to be over 6,000 watts at minimum. This doesn't account for the heat produced by the laser, of course. I'd need to conduct a more practical field test.

...Later, of course. [Thinking noises] Kjerag is warmer during the summers, and lacks snowfall, but that doesn't mean it gets too hot. I wouldn't go out without a light jacket, for example, especially on the mountainous peaks.

[lupusxylem]

[.........dude]

I couldn't tell you how it works. I wasn't the one who built it. Whether it ends up working or not, it can't hurt anything to try. Other than the walls, which is the point.

[It's a laser, it's a gun, can it be any more obvious-]

It hardly ever gets that cold where I'm from. I'd never even seen snow before this.

[succiduous]

Truly? You're from the same place as Vash, are you not? He seemed to not understand ice skating when I taught it to him last month.

[He biffed it. It was funny.]

If you don't mind my asking, what's the climate like? Tropical? Desert?

[lupusxylem]

The entire planet is covered in sand. You see how there's trees and grass here? Those don't exist back home. It's just sand, worms, and rocks. It can get cold at night in the desert, but it don't compare to how hot it can be.

[So. Sargon.]

[succiduous]

It sounds rather inhospitable. A similar country with that climate exists on Terra — Sargon, it's called — but you're likely to see a cactus or some other desert-faring plant there. It sounds as though you don't have any of that.

[lupusxylem]

We don't. That's cause on this planet, you need a Plant to survive at all.

[...he's going to have to explain. He looks up at the icy ceiling.]

Plants aren't actually "plants". They're just called that for some reason. They're like these...alien creatures from another dimension that can produce everything we need to keep livin'. Water, food, actual thriving plants and shit. But there ain't many left, and those that do exist are monopolized by big cities usually.

[succiduous]

I see. Capitalism at its finest.

[GNOSIS, YOU MARRIED A CAPITALIST.]

Then, if all of these Plants were to disappear or die, your planet would be dead in a matter of days. What a harrowing situation. It makes Terra's plight seem less terrible, certainly.

[lupusxylem]

You got it in one. We'd be fucked.

[In fact let me tell you about how Maximum goes-]

We have enough of them to survive. Even a few smaller towns have plants, sometimes, but they're always at risk of getting stolen, or worse. And sometimes they just get sick with no explanation, and if you don't have somebody who knows how to fix one, good luck.

Then there's places that have plants that are really good at making certain things, like JuLai's water plant. It's the reason it's one of the biggest cities on the planet with the most money running through it.