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sticksandbones2024-03-01 09:09 am
sticksandbonesmods) wrote in sticksandbones2024-03-01 09:09 am
Entry tags:
EVENT & TDM 010
WOULD YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WAS A WORM?
WAKE UP
Nothing ever stays the same in this place. The people who came here before you know that, and have known that, and are used to that. When you and the other new arrivals start to stumble out of the fog wall and the surrounding woods, it’s an expected thing. They see you. They knew you’d be here eventually. Perhaps someone will be kind enough to explain how you got here, and why you have such a splitting headache, and why you feel so paranoid. Perhaps the sudden sense of foreboding and doom is too much to handle. It feels unnatural. It feels like the emotions aren’t your own. And when a butterfly with eyespots almost too realistic lands on your hand, it’s nearly impossible not to scream.
“Don’t touch the fog wall.” That’s what you’re told, and whether it reaches you through the fog-induced paranoid haze or not is left up to your will and your will alone. That sense wears off within half an hour, at least, though there are still more questions than answers in this place.
For instance: What is that in the river, that monstrous crocodile with too many eyes that seems to be stalking everybody who comes too close? “The Behemoth”, they call it, and it only wants as much to do with you as you want to do with it. Come too close, and it backs up to continue watching you from afar. Attack it, and it fights back, unkillable and gargantuan in strength. Offer it meat, and it cautiously takes the food from your hand before diving into the river’s depths.
Alternatively, you might wonder what that stone creature on the church’s roof is, or what the story behind the shadow-people are, or why there’s a two-story tall, many-limbed moose monster wandering around that no one seems bothered by. Where is this?
This is Aldric’s Grove. And for better or for worse, it’s your new home.
“Don’t touch the fog wall.” That’s what you’re told, and whether it reaches you through the fog-induced paranoid haze or not is left up to your will and your will alone. That sense wears off within half an hour, at least, though there are still more questions than answers in this place.
For instance: What is that in the river, that monstrous crocodile with too many eyes that seems to be stalking everybody who comes too close? “The Behemoth”, they call it, and it only wants as much to do with you as you want to do with it. Come too close, and it backs up to continue watching you from afar. Attack it, and it fights back, unkillable and gargantuan in strength. Offer it meat, and it cautiously takes the food from your hand before diving into the river’s depths.
Alternatively, you might wonder what that stone creature on the church’s roof is, or what the story behind the shadow-people are, or why there’s a two-story tall, many-limbed moose monster wandering around that no one seems bothered by. Where is this?
This is Aldric’s Grove. And for better or for worse, it’s your new home.
CAT-TASTROPHE
cw: forced animal transformations
Although time blends together in this place and makes it difficult to tell the exact date, it’s easy enough to tell that it’s early in March when everybody wakes up feeling and looking… different.
You recall going to bed in your usual body. You recall, as you fell asleep, hearing a childish voice whisper in your ear, “I’m booooored. Let’s race!” You almost certainly do not recall being an animal no bigger than a large dog, almost unable to leave your bedroom because door handles are difficult to open with paws or claws or anything else. It’s lucky that the windows are easy enough to nudge open with snouts and beaks so that you can leave your bedroom and see what, exactly, is going on.
You aren’t the only animal. Everyone here is, too, creatures of different shapes and kinds, though all of them hail from Earth itself. The Guardians and shadowy merchant siblings are just as miffed as you are about this. “Here we go again,” they say, just as the last of you arrives at the Grove’s centre — and then it all goes dark. When you next open your eyes, you’re deep within the woods, where colourful flag markers on trees and a winding, long path indicates a race.
A long race. One that will last at least eight hours, assuming you use your time appropriately and don’t take too many naps in the trees along the path. Fret not: To ensure everyone participates in the race as expected, the Creature in the woods has sent an entourage of monsters after you, with too many eyes and gnashing fangs and claws the size of tree trunks. They’ll chase you down and try to eat you if they get their talons on you.
Use your time wisely, unless you want to meet an untimely demise.
Although time blends together in this place and makes it difficult to tell the exact date, it’s easy enough to tell that it’s early in March when everybody wakes up feeling and looking… different.
You recall going to bed in your usual body. You recall, as you fell asleep, hearing a childish voice whisper in your ear, “I’m booooored. Let’s race!” You almost certainly do not recall being an animal no bigger than a large dog, almost unable to leave your bedroom because door handles are difficult to open with paws or claws or anything else. It’s lucky that the windows are easy enough to nudge open with snouts and beaks so that you can leave your bedroom and see what, exactly, is going on.
You aren’t the only animal. Everyone here is, too, creatures of different shapes and kinds, though all of them hail from Earth itself. The Guardians and shadowy merchant siblings are just as miffed as you are about this. “Here we go again,” they say, just as the last of you arrives at the Grove’s centre — and then it all goes dark. When you next open your eyes, you’re deep within the woods, where colourful flag markers on trees and a winding, long path indicates a race.
A long race. One that will last at least eight hours, assuming you use your time appropriately and don’t take too many naps in the trees along the path. Fret not: To ensure everyone participates in the race as expected, the Creature in the woods has sent an entourage of monsters after you, with too many eyes and gnashing fangs and claws the size of tree trunks. They’ll chase you down and try to eat you if they get their talons on you.
Use your time wisely, unless you want to meet an untimely demise.
BURIAL OF ANCIENTS
The Creature is a big fan of participation awards. Whether you won the race against your peers, came in second or third or fifteenth, or died during the challenge, it matters little when the fog starts to pull back. That’s your reward for being forced to participate in a race you didn’t want to be part of in the first place, aside from the regular reward of going back to your normal body: you get to explore, and you get to explore a lot.
To the east and west where the river bends, the fog is no longer a blockade impeding progress. You can travel far in either direction by river raft, chart unknown territory, and get lost in the woods for as long as you desire. Though it will take three days to travel to the new “end point” in either direction, an offering of shells and fruits can be given to the River Guardian to be granted a travel boon that will decrease your travel time from three days to one. You’ll still have to camp out along the shoreline, but asking for that boon will ensure you aren’t gone too long.
Taking the river to the west leads you through an ever-darkening forest, marked on the banks and trees by blue-glowing mushrooms. The canopy here is so thick that the sun doesn’t shine through, making it twice as difficult to tell how much time has passed — and to see where you’re headed in general. At the end of the journey, the black fog wall comes back into view, as the river begins to widen into the beginnings of a lake. A lake, which you cannot yet reach, as you dock the raft and hop onto the shore.
Following the path leads you to a wide-open clearing with more of those glowing fungi and a strong smell of moss. In the centre of it lies a humungous skeleton half-embedded in the soil, so enormous in stature that one wonders how such a creature ever roamed this land. The inside of its skull alone is enough to build a moderately-sized house within, and have a lovely view of the lake behind the fog wall to go with it.
If you approach the lake’s edge, you can hear a soft song from within, beautiful and hypnotizing. It makes you want to walk into the fog wall. It makes you want to enter the water and drown in its depths. And if you don’t, if you get control of yourself, hundreds of sickly black hands slam into the wall again and again, desperately trying to reach you.
…
The next time you come out this far, all three Guardians are here, arguing with the thing in the lake in a language you can’t comprehend.
To the east and west where the river bends, the fog is no longer a blockade impeding progress. You can travel far in either direction by river raft, chart unknown territory, and get lost in the woods for as long as you desire. Though it will take three days to travel to the new “end point” in either direction, an offering of shells and fruits can be given to the River Guardian to be granted a travel boon that will decrease your travel time from three days to one. You’ll still have to camp out along the shoreline, but asking for that boon will ensure you aren’t gone too long.
Taking the river to the west leads you through an ever-darkening forest, marked on the banks and trees by blue-glowing mushrooms. The canopy here is so thick that the sun doesn’t shine through, making it twice as difficult to tell how much time has passed — and to see where you’re headed in general. At the end of the journey, the black fog wall comes back into view, as the river begins to widen into the beginnings of a lake. A lake, which you cannot yet reach, as you dock the raft and hop onto the shore.
Following the path leads you to a wide-open clearing with more of those glowing fungi and a strong smell of moss. In the centre of it lies a humungous skeleton half-embedded in the soil, so enormous in stature that one wonders how such a creature ever roamed this land. The inside of its skull alone is enough to build a moderately-sized house within, and have a lovely view of the lake behind the fog wall to go with it.
If you approach the lake’s edge, you can hear a soft song from within, beautiful and hypnotizing. It makes you want to walk into the fog wall. It makes you want to enter the water and drown in its depths. And if you don’t, if you get control of yourself, hundreds of sickly black hands slam into the wall again and again, desperately trying to reach you.
…
The next time you come out this far, all three Guardians are here, arguing with the thing in the lake in a language you can’t comprehend.
SHIMMERING COSMOS
To the east, another three days out (or only one if you ask for that boon), is a forest of sequoias that reach into the very heavens, and moose tracks the size of your inn rooms. Out here, there are no glowing fungi to guide your way, only the distant sound of the ocean and the smell of salt. The closer you get, the stronger both of those become.
At the end of the river where the fog wall yet again impedes progress, you hear a waterfall. It’s overwhelmingly loud, nearly impossible to talk over, but if anyone is with you, you’ll have to manage somehow. Behind the fog — only a scant few feet away — is the edge of a cliff, and a sheer drop into the sea. In the far distance looms the silhouette of a lighthouse, unreachable, and in the sea itself just barely visible behind that black wall, within a spiralling whirlpool…
…is the sleeping, peaceful figure of a serpent, scales glittering with stars. It doesn’t respond to if you call out to it. Perhaps it can’t hear you. Perhaps it doesn’t care. It is the stars fallen from the sky and the cosmos you haven’t seen since you’ve been here, immune to your plight, because what is a mortal but an ant to a God?
Even though the Cosmic Serpent can’t be reached, a sense of calm washes over you the longer you stay close to the sea. Before you head back home, why not take a nap against one of those tree trunks? Just be careful you aren’t asleep too long. A “nap” to you might seem like a small coma to everyone waiting for you to come back to the Grove.
At the end of the river where the fog wall yet again impedes progress, you hear a waterfall. It’s overwhelmingly loud, nearly impossible to talk over, but if anyone is with you, you’ll have to manage somehow. Behind the fog — only a scant few feet away — is the edge of a cliff, and a sheer drop into the sea. In the far distance looms the silhouette of a lighthouse, unreachable, and in the sea itself just barely visible behind that black wall, within a spiralling whirlpool…
…is the sleeping, peaceful figure of a serpent, scales glittering with stars. It doesn’t respond to if you call out to it. Perhaps it can’t hear you. Perhaps it doesn’t care. It is the stars fallen from the sky and the cosmos you haven’t seen since you’ve been here, immune to your plight, because what is a mortal but an ant to a God?
Even though the Cosmic Serpent can’t be reached, a sense of calm washes over you the longer you stay close to the sea. Before you head back home, why not take a nap against one of those tree trunks? Just be careful you aren’t asleep too long. A “nap” to you might seem like a small coma to everyone waiting for you to come back to the Grove.
SPARK NOTES
CLICK TO EXPAND!
WAKE UP
Welcome to Aldric's Grove. New arrivals walk out of the fog wall feeling paranoid because they touched the fog wall. There's a biblically-accurate crocodile in the river. Surely this is fine.
CAT-TASTROPHE
Everybody gets transformed into an Earth animal and thrown into a long race in which they'll be chased by monsters the entire time. Sounds fun, right? ...no?
BURIAL OF ANCIENTS
To the west is a dark forest marked with glowing mushrooms. Travel far enough out via river raft and you'll reach the edge of the lake and find the ancient bones of a humongous creature. Getting too close to the lake and listening to the thing behind it singing makes you want to walk into the fog wall and drown in the lake. If you don't do this, hands slam against the fog wall, trying to reach you. Sometimes the Guardians wander out here to shout at the thing in the lake.
SHIMMERING COSMOS
To the east is a forest of sequoias, with moose tracks between the trees the size of an inn room. The further you go, the closer you get to the cliffside, where you can hear a roaring waterfall just beyond the fog wall. Through the fog is the sleeping form of the Cosmic Serpent, and the lighthouse in the far distance.
OOC
Happy March! TDMs are considered game canon. If you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. We encourage exploration considering the sheer volume of setting updates this time, so if there's anything you want to explore in more depth, hit up this log's investigations toplevel.
UPDATES
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SUBMISSIONS
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During the race
II.
Outside the lab
III. Wildcard
iii. Integrated Strategies: Gnosis and his Nerd Shit
forcedsocial interactions have finally drove one (1) cat crazy and drained him enough to make him go non-verbal. Thus, at some point (perhaps before he went to investigate things by himself, or maybe after that), he simply finds Gnosis (or he accidentally finds him), gestures at the massive set of bones, then vaguely gestures at the...general direction of everything. After that, he looked at him with a questioning look on his face.Essentially asking him, how old is all this
shitjunk, approximately? Do your lab science nerd stuff, birdman. Enlighten the massesand the voices in their heads. What Will Gnosis Do and How will he answer? ]IS5 will be about gnosis just doing nerd shit i'm calling it now
He's actually standing by the bones, trying to take scrapes off the surfaces with a knife. These scrapings go into a plastic bag for safekeeping for now.]
A full analysis is difficult at this time. I didn't bring everything I would have liked out here with me. That, and I don't have access to any radiograph technology, nor to a proper spectrometer for radiometric dating...
[thanks that's super helpful buddy]
Theoretically, I could ask Ydalir for one, and these scrapings will prove more useful. That said, the bones are dry enough to where I don't believe this creature could have been alive within either of our lifespans. It's so massive that it makes me think it could be thousands of years old. Megafauna like this would struggle to live in the age of man, as there's nothing big enough for them to eat, unless they were consuming millions of smaller organisms every day.
[Phantom sweetie I'm so sorry]
final boss first ending will be his tendency to yap for 8 hours abt nerd shit
He eyed the knife, and what the Liberi is currently doing. Didn't understand what is spectro-whatever and why would a radio date a metric, since he wasn't a scientist and didn't have a single science bone in his body, although he's not unintelligent. Thus, he gets at least the gist of it. He nods.
Then, because it's impossible for him to convey his question without going full-on hilarious mime, he finally decided to say: ]
...I saw its spirit. It's just...there. [ He gestured vaguely in the direction of where the spirit was, seemingly asleep. Science, meet mystical mumbo-jumbo, except it wasn't mumbo-jumbo, since he actually saw it. ] If it wasn't asleep, I could perhaps try to ask it for its age, or what manner of creatures it used to consume, to satisfy your curiosity. Although I cannot find any suitable offerings...
[ He frowns slightly, forgetting what he was originally going to ask him.
Not enough Originium Ingots for this option.But he did remember one thing. ]...Do you have a shovel? Be careful with scraping the bones. Don't want it awake and wrathful. [ As if he didn't just ask for a shovel, which means digging its grave. ] I saw a large golden disc down there, but it's buried. I need a shovel.
[ Don't be sorry, he chose to dive headlong into the Gnosis Special Event in this Integrated Strategies and It's On Him. ]
it's an endurance test, you have to be able to tolerate his ted talks
[Not that he necessarily speaks from anything other than pure instinct and, for once, superstition. He's been walking around killing corrupted bugs for his fucked-up little pinboard, after all, so surely the Forest has issues with that.
Regardless... a shovel. Hm, he didn't bring a large one with him, but he did bring a standard excavating trowel.]
I have this. [holds up the aforementioned trowel.] It won't be quick. I didn't think I'd be digging when I came out here, so I'm yet again afraid supplies are rather lacking. I may be able to form a larger one out of ice.
[hey gnosis
how strong is your ice exactly]
I
He's heaving for breath by the time he notices that flash of black and white in the bushes, reptilian eyes dilating for a brief moment as fight or flight threatens to overwhelm him for the hundredth time today. When he realizes it's Gnosis, however...
Sesa dips into the alcove without a second thought, immediately collapsing onto his side once he's far enough in to be hidden.]
Gnosis...how long has it been? I fear I cannot keep this up forever.
[This form, it seems, lacks the stamina of his previous.]
sets this tl up and forgets about it hey lol
The Forest is obsessed with the concept of racing.]
Several hours. I imagine we might be somewhat close to the goal, but I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't. I was hoping to wait it out, but I don't want to test my luck with some terrible demise, either.
shhshhshh ur fine
[Sesa exhales on a drawn-out groan, not even bothering to attempt getting up from the ground at this point. Just let him lay here...he will expire and become food for the worms.]
Have you ever heard of a race that lasts for several hours? If I were in my normal form, perhaps I could more easily keep up, but this is untenable.
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[So. Yes. Sorry he's like this.]
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:( ]
Most of us are not average marathon runners. I am worried about how the others are faring, but I seem to have gotten myself separated from the rest of the pack.
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[The ice knights had some degree of it, but the monsters? Yeah, two of them just ran past their hiding spot by the sounds of it. Gnosis isn't entirely convinced they're hidden from the Creature's gaze, all things considered, but he's pretty sure the monsters aren't going to stop along the path to poke their heads into every bush.
They just need to stay quiet.]
I am not an athletic individual myself, so I've been separated from the others. It's easier to think if I have the solitude, at least.
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ii
they're pleasantly surprised when he actually seems to greet them in his own way. good. they don't need to come up with an excuse to stop nearby and offer him a sickly sweet smile.]
Are you the gardener?
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[The digging will continue while they talk. Gnosis sees little reason to actually stop to have a conversation like a normal person might.]
I'm simply taking the opportunity to plant a vegetable garden, that's all.
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Oh? That seems a wise move, around here. What are you planning to grow?
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[...]
I have strawberries and raspberries that I'll be planting elsewhere, though. They're not quite as hardy.
[Those ones... will probably end up in the greenhouse, not gonna lie, so that the temperature is more controlled. It's still early in the season for them.]
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veggies are all well and good, but fruit.]
Where's "elsewhere?"
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II its-a me, tdming on u
But stumbling upon a man digging in the dirt was not only something that piqued her interest, but also seemed safe enough as a conversation starter. After all... she wasn't actually entirely sure what he was doing to begin with. Easy enough to ask about, right? And satisfactory enough of a segue into an introduction, she would assume...?]
...What are you digging in the dirt for?
its a you!!!
I'm planting a vegetable garden now that the weather has warmed significantly. It was snowing heavily every day until very recently.
oops this notif got lost when i changed my email around
[Vegetables are food, food doesn't come from flowers, does it??? Nanami carefully kneels down near him, respectful of personal space just as much for her own reasons as for being polite to him, to peer at the soil.]
oops!!!
[...this is not meant to be as backhanded as it sounds.]
I. cat time
A bit thicker and larger than a cat, but a cat.
She didn't know what else to call what she was, since again, she had never seen one.
It was a lot to get used to. Between the sudden enhanced sense of smell — more than usual, anyway — and the strange vision change, and the fact that she no longer had thumbs, she was a bit behind in the race.
Which worked in her favor, since otherwise she would have missed the sudden wing sticking out of a bush and Gnosis' offer.
A very tempting offer.]
That sounds lovely.
[She trotted over to him, pushing into the bush and once cleared of the leaves and twings, she shook herself to dislodge any of the stray foliage she had acquired.]
I'm pleased to see that you at least stayed a bird.
[She's looking at him with big ol' cat eyes, except red. A little unsettling, but nothing he's not used to at this point probably.]
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A crane, no less. I could've wound up as any other bird. [But being a crane is sort of his thing, so.] You seem exhausted.
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[As soon as she's in a safe area, she does that thing cats do where they walk around in a circle in place before plopping down. Her paws are stretched out, beans stretched.]
I'm not sure how Druids do this every day. Halsin was always turning into a bear.
[If she ever saw Halsin again, this was sure to be an interesting story to tell.]
How are you doing?
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[And like, he's not gonna go kicking one of the monsters. That's bad news.]
I don't have much in the way of stamina regardless. There's a reason I prefer the comfort of the lab.
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[Cat goes burr and so does Taliira.
If they weren't in immediate danger, she'd probably be taking a cat nap.]
You could always ride on my back and keep a look out while I run.
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