sticksandbones | EVENT & TDM 022

EVENT & TDM 022

WAKE UP

Being out in the woods is, for some people, an ordinary day. You may or may not be one of those people — you almost certainly don’t remember going camping, do you? — and yet you emerge from a tent and think to yourself, hm, that’s quite odd! Where is the nearest civilization anyhow? If you’re brave enough, perhaps you set out to seek it, walking toward where you think you hear noise in the far distance. It sounds a bit like cheering. A party? A bonfire? You can’t be certain, not at first.

As you step onto the worn trail, something nearly clocks you right in the head. A nimble dodge to the left and a quick glance at the ground tells you that it’s some kind of tree branch made of… flesh? It’s certainly flesh-textured, though the colour is a deep blue that glows white. It seems to be rapidly rotting into the ground, and as you look up… a giant, several hundred foot tree of a similar eldritch makeup is falling apart before your eyes. Your walk back to civilization will be full of dodging probably-dead flesh tree bits.

Should you make it in one piece, the source of the noise becomes obvious: the people making up this small town are cheering and yelling about something else of eldritch makeup. It seems that some of the creatures who have lived in this civilization’s river for the last year, the Seaborn, have decided to evolve to be capable of flight. Some residents of this town seem extremely enthusiastic with this. Some are wary. Some simply don’t care.

You? Well, that’s for you to decide.

Welcome to the eldritch horror fae woods, dear friend. Enjoy your stay.

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS

While the black fog returns, some paths are left clear, or at least not as impacted as other areas of the woods. Mist fades in and out, and even if you aren’t one for nature, surely exploration can sing its siren song when the size of the town is too small and all the faces look the same. Paths line themselves with daffodils and chamomile flowers, with arctic poppies and clearings of wildflowers- foxglove and lavender especially prominent. They’re lovely, all of them, and bloom far more rapidly than anything else should be this early into spring, this late into winter, but they do.

But something creeps beneath the flowers, and something large digs through the earth, leaving upturned grooves in the dirt and grass, trails of flattened mud and roots with only bushes of camelia on the outskirts left behind. It’s quiet in the forest, not even birds singing. It makes the hiss of tongues all the more noticeable.

If you’re lucky, you might see a purple and grey stone shift in the distance, gone just as quickly as it was there. If you aren’t, you don’t see its much smaller, flower-patterned counterpart strike from the shadows. Snakes are working their way into the Grove, hiding in bushes and under steps, anywhere they can lurk and strike the unsuspecting, and their bite is venomous.

One bite brings excruciating pain, bone-deep cold, an increased frailty of the body and hallucinations. A second bite brings a deep, nightmare-filled sleep. A third bite brings death. All of them scar with a black sun over the bites, a mark of divine wrath — the Fallen Sun sends his regards, and his hate.

Those who perish to the snake bite will awaken in their bed in a few days, feeling nauseous and weakened, but…

'NEATH SERPENT'S GAZE

… This simply isn’t tenable. Between the paranoia and the snake’s stealth, it’s hard to feel safe outside of your home, and maybe inside, despite the fact that once again your homes offer refuge from the forest’s attacks—they hadn’t once upon a red, hot summer, after all. How did they face this last time? It was a flower, wasn’t it? And the new flowers in the forest seem special, if only because of their strong growth compared to the rest of the forest.

But if you go into the woods, two large stone snakes wait, ready to protect the natural gardens. Breaking them does little but slow them down for a time, and their bite is both larger and their venom stronger—the true version, the one that crippled a household in seconds. The severity of the symptoms are worse, murderously so, but survivable if it’s not the third bite.

They block the way, ambush would-be travelers, coil around the flower patches, and will not be stopped. Does this confirm that the flowers could help? Or are they simply protective of their master’s property? Is it play?

Regardless, they wait and watch.

CITIES & BONES

When all the violence of the month ends, and thank goodness for that, you decide to head to bed. For once, you might sleep well — there are no threats of snakes making you wonder if you or your friends might die tomorrow, and the Grove as a whole feels much safer. It’s as if someone or something is guarding over it — different from the Guardian Deities and the Goddesses as a whole.

For the next several days after the snakes disappear, your dreams are strange, as if you’re receiving a vision from another world. A modern city, so different from Aldric’s Grove that you’re not entirely convinced it lies in this dimension, blinks in neon lights behind your eyelids. Between the cacophonous sounds of motorized vehicles rushing by, the din of people talking in a language you don’t understand, and the distant electrical humming from the street lights, perceptive dreamers might hear something else:

The soft clacking of dry bones.

Spark Notes

summary

Wake up: You were apparently camping. You don't recall this. As you head out toward the sound of civilization, bits of giant blue flesh-tree nearly hit you in the head. You'll have to dodge the remaining flesh tree bits as it crumbles while you walk back to town.

A Snake In The Grass: Flowers spring up far too early in the season, and the fog wall returns. Purple and grey-coloured stone snakes begin to attack from the bushes and flowers where they're hidden. One bite brings cold and frailty, a second bite brings nightmares, and a third bite brings death. All bites scar with a mark of the Black Sun.

'Neath Serpent's Gaze: You've heard of a flower that can cure the poison, but to get there, you have to face two far larger stone snakes who are guarding over nature here. Whether they want to play or simply kill isn't clear. You're in danger of death either way.

Cities & Bones: While you sleep after the snakes disappear, you'll have strange dreams that feel like visions and feel watched by something safe and kindly. While your dreams are absorbed in that of a cityscape that feels almost too real, you can sometimes hear the clattering of bones.

out of character

Welcome to March's TDM and Event! Spring is springing and we've got a lot of really cool events coming up in the next few months. The magic system should debut this month as well, which we're very excited about. It is a slow process but the rewards should be well worth it.

updates

Any potential updates, such as characters damaging something important or whatever else, will be put here.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ March Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh...

[ He stops and considers that. He remembers getting bitten by a snake while grabbing those flowers. Then... did he get bit by another snake? He thinks he remembers that. And then... ]

...I hope the flowers made it back, after all that.

I'm not sure, but you should probably wait until Lily or someone else gets back.

[He. Really doesn't want Fern wandering off when he just woke up.]

[ He's very right to be worried. For one thing, he just realized he hasn't had any kind of interaction with Lily after he killed PV, and he knows now that they're married. ]

Uh. Is she, like, on her way here now?

I don't know. We'll have to wait and see.

[He's. Completely misreading his tone as impatience.]

Hnnng...

[ He starts toward the door, then back to the bed, and back and forth a couple of times. ]

I'm alright, I could just- Maybe I shouldn't bother her.

[ He promised himself he wouldn't run away from this kind of thing, but it's not like she's specifically coming to see him. Or maybe she is? Maybe he needs to find out first. But he's only in unspeakable pain, and surely he's already been treated, so what need is there for him to stay?

Taking responsibility is so hard. ]

Dude--

[Woah. Okay. Standing up that suddenly was not a good idea. He steadies himself, but he has no idea how Fern isn't just curling back in bed right now when he's been bitten much more recently. There's no way he's chasing after him if he does take off.]

You just woke up. Just sit and wait.

[ It takes a lot of energy! And wow, he should not have tried pacing, because that used up a lot of his reserve. Shouldn't he have more energy than this if he was asleep before?

He flops back onto the bed flat on his back like a ragdoll, shaking harder and breathing heavily now. ]

...There are other people that work here, right? Like, maybe it'll be PV, or... [ who else works at the Clinic ] someone that's not Lily, right?

[It's hard to imagine how someone could have a problem with Lily, but clearly that's where Fern's issue lies. Luckily for him there are other people working at the clinic. Min just. Doesn't know for sure who's working right now.]

It could be, yeah.

[ He makes some more strangled noises of general discomfort and lays an arm over his eyes. There's so much to consider here, and he's in a lot of pain, and why couldn't whoever found him have just left him on the couch in the inn or something?

A sudden thought makes him jolt upright. ]

Owowowowow. DC doesn't work at the Clinic, does he?

I don't know any DC.

[Not even if that's just Fern's nickname for him. But maybe that's a good thing. Whoever he is, he either doesn't work here or Min hasn't ran into him yet.]

Dark Cacao. He's PV's and Lily's husband.

[ He flops back down, trying to be relieved that DC probably doesn't work here. So it's gonna be Lily, PV, or... one of those other people he's seen in passing. ]

[There's a long, drawn out moment where Min doesn't respond. He thinks maybe he didn't hear right at first, but there seem very few ways he could have misinterpreted that sentence.]

Isn't that illegal?

[ ... ]

I dunno?

Are there laws like that?

I mean... yeah. You're not allowed to get married if you're already married to someone else. It's called bigamy.

"Big" whatwhat?

[ Eh, that's not important anyway. ]

I definitely heard they were married. She's gotta hate me, even if she didn't come after me with a sword!

[ He rolls over to groan into the pillow. ]

Bigamy.

[Do not retain that word, Fern. Min has so many things to learn about this world if he's going to stop offending someone every week or so.]

Why's she gonna hate you? Who came after you with a sword?

DC did. And obviously she hates me, I killed her husband!

[ He's far too distressed to learn new vocabulary. Also in pain, but actually he's in a little less pain now. Weird. ]

You did what?!

[Min likes Fern. He seems nice if a little awkward at times. It's hard to reconcile that image with someone who would kill a man.]

[ He flinches, which is so painful that he tenses up more, and ultimately he ends up curled in a tight ball letting out a high pitched whine like a boiling tea kettle.

After a second the sound stops, and he turns just his head to look in Min-Gi's direction. The pain isn't evident in his voice at all. ]

You didn't know?

No.

[Should he ask more? Probably not. Fern's clearly distressed, but also Min-Gi's next to the bed of a murderer. His own breathing is a little ragged now, but he tries to stay calm. Fern's not exactly in a position to hurt him now.

And hadn't Fern said DC had come at him? Maybe it was self-defence?]

So you killed Dark Cacao... because he came at you with a sword?

[That's understandable!]

What?

[ He's seriously confused. But wait, if Min-Gi hasn't heard anything about what Fern did, maybe he doesn't know what happened at all?

He very cautiously and steadily unfolds himself so he can actually look at Min-Gi while he speaks, and also be in less pain from the tense muscles. ]

No, I- What happened was, uh...

[ How does he explain this, even? He forces himself to sit upright. ]

I... killed PV. To break my curse. I... There was more to it, but...

[ After all that effort, he's already curling in on himself again. ]

You don't wanna know. But I'd do anything to take it back. DC found me after that.

[That's a lot to take in. Min-Gi stares at him in a stunned silence, really not sure how to take this. Fern clearly feels bad, but he still killed someone. No wonder he'd been so panicked when Min had mentioned Lily. It explains some of his body language back in the greenhouse too if he thinks back.]

That's how you broke your curse?

[ He curls up even more, shriveling in shame. ]

Yeah.

[Min goes quiet for a while. He feels giddy in a way that has nothing to do with the fact he's still recovering from the snake venom. He'd liked Fern. He thinks part of him still does. But the fact he's capable of murder...

That's terrifying.]

I guess at least he's alive now.

[He hates that sentence. He knows even before he says it how badly it's going to sit with him, but it seems like a bad idea to say anything that might piss off Fern when he's right next to him.]

[ He drops his head into his hands. More excuses for him to not feel bad about ripping a man's heart out. 'He's alive now, he forgives you, you were taken advantage of.' But he saw himself in the memory Dipper showed him. He didn't care at all when he did it. He doesn't want to stop caring now. ]

It's okay if you don't want me around. I'm not- The curse is gone, you don't have to be afraid of me, but I understand if you are.

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