EVENT & TDM 022

[sticksandbonesmods]

THE SERPENT UNDERNEATH

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

Comments

[psychokinesia]

[Karte flaps its little metal wings, absolutely thrilled that New Friend is carrying it around. An adventure!!!!!! Yay!!!!

Alas, no one jumps out of the shadows to claim their fucking alien. Whoever this Add person is, they don't seem to be around... not that Karte seems to be too concerned about it. Maybe they ran away from their cruel and uncaring master, huh? What do you know about the struggles of an alien robot dragon???

They vibe contentedly in his hold for awhile as he looks around... until they suddenly go rigid. Head raised, a sharp and distinctly threatening hiss. It whips its tail back up at his arm, trying to coil.]

[foreversembrace]

[Haha well that's fucking concerning!!

When Karte suddenly goes still in his grip, Till goes still too. He doesn't know what Karte going still and hissing like that means, but it can't be anything good.]

What!? What is it now-??

[psychokinesia]

[It continues to hiss, swivelling its little head around until it locks onto a direction—an innocent-looking bush, just a scant few steps ahead and to the left of the path. Karte fucking hates this bush.

... nothing is really happening, but. whatever is in(?) the bush rustles, and Karte starts squirming hard. Unhand them, human!!]

[foreversembrace]

[What the fuck is happening he's starting to feel more and more like something is about to fly out of those bushes and kill him-

Anyway, yeah, Till will just release Karte at this point.]

[psychokinesia]

[In the same moment that Karte launches itself off Till's arm like a spring, something flies out of the bushes to kill him—

The two bodies collide halfway into a knot of angry hissing. Unfortunately for the snake, Karte is made mostly of metal and space rocks and thus lacks the proper skin and circulatory system to get poisoned with. It also has a taser built into its entire tail, so. There's a lot of loud pops and sparks going on down there before the snake stops fighting back.

Karte bites at its neck toothlessly like a cat playing with a mouse.]

[foreversembrace]

[It is relieving at least to see that it was just another one of the snakes and not, you know, something more horrifying or big that Till wouldn't have been able to deal with on his own. Though, huh...for a weird little robot alien, it did take care of that snake pretty handily.

Till carefully walks back over once he's sure the snake has stopped moving, watching the way Karte plays with it's corpse. Lovely.]

Damn, you're ruthless. Glad that's not my face.

cw: ????? dead snakes ??????

[psychokinesia]

[It's hard to tell since all the shocks are making the body writhe and snap at random, but it's probably dead? Hopefully?? It's dead enough that Karte seems to get bored of it eventually, untangling itself from the corpse. It looks up at Till proudly, tail swaying excitedly, snakehead still twitching and hanging off the side of its mouth.

... and then! It flies back up! To give him the cool thing it found (the snake)!!! And also climb onto his shoulder, so he can take the cool thing!!!! It is Gift!!!!!]

im SOBBING

[foreversembrace]

[Screaming

As Karte scrambles up onto his shoulder again like a dragon-shaped cat, Till- what else- scruffs it again and holds it up in front of his face.]

No! No. Spit that out-!

[He gives Karte a little jiggle. Spit it out!! If that snake wakes up and bites him in the face he is going to kick whoever's ass this thing belongs to he swears to GOD-]

[psychokinesia]

[Scruffed AGAIN... they struggle for a moment before going limp, head hung low. Their gift!!!! :(

They hang there looking sad for awhile longer... maybe he will change his mind... but no, Till doesn't like their very cool and thoughtful gift. Rejected. They drop it on the ground where it spasms some more in its death throes, please try to keep your grippers out of the danger zone.]

[foreversembrace]

[Sorry Karte...Till is still quite new and skittish, so his tolerance for silly bullshit is pretty low, especially when he knows these snakes can, like. Kill you. He's appreciative that Karte got rid of it, but bringing it back to him...one step forward, five back.

Anyway, he's quickly going to step back away from the snake and move in a different direction, huffing as he readjusts his grip on Karte.

...

He does fee a little bad, given the way its just hanging from his hand like a sad, wet bug. After a moment of consideration, he'll plop Karte on his shoulder.]

Stay. I'm gonna find your owner. Don't fly off, got it?

[psychokinesia]

[They perk up immediately upon being set on his shoulders. Oh!! Perch: granted!!! They wrap their tail down his arm again for balance, making a (minor) effort not to dig into his shoulder too much.

They can stay! Till is their New Friend, so they're not going anywhere! They hiss into his ear so he knows this fact.]

[foreversembrace]

[The sudden hiss makes Till jump, but it's...fine. It's fine! He is just going to be careful and still so that Karte doesn't get launched off his shoulder (or feel tempted to dig in those claws) as he starts back for the Grove. Clearly, somebody will eventually spot this big dragon robot alien thing on him and be like

points, hey that's mine]

[psychokinesia]

[The manage to stay perched despite any jumpiness. It's not unlike how Add used to act around them, back when they were first "born"... so! They will stay still! So he doesn't get surprised too much!! They sit up straight and tall, stretching their wings for balance as needed.

Anyway, Add is currently passed out under Ain, so he's gonna be searching for awhile before literally anyone is available to point and say they that's mine. Congrats on your new alien friend!]

SOBS

[foreversembrace]

[Hi hello where the fuck is this guy-

Till searches...for a while, but since it's probably(?) unlikely that anyone other than Ain would recognize this thing, and both Ain AND Add are elsewhere currently, meaning that Till is just Karte's unwilling babysitter for the day. He is, admittedly, very tempted to just throw it into the woods and then go inside before it can follow him, but that's cruel even for Till. Plus, Karte kindof saved his ass from one of those snakes, so like...

God. Goddddddd.

He has to just give up after a while, throwing up his arms as he heads for the Inn.]

Whatever, fuck it- I guess I have an alien now! If anybody wants to come get this from me be my guest!!

[He just kindof shouts into the empty Grove as he goes inside.]

[psychokinesia]

[Karte just kind of :)? goes along with this, because Till is their New Friend and that's like Add but Not and that's endearing, they will protect! New Friend!!

So yeah, they're just gonna chill with him for the day. If he tries to boss them around he may be surprised to learn they are actually quite good at fetch... Karte can fetch many useful things. Tools, food, extremely specific requests... also good at flying in circles really really fast. Also also good at charging electronics.

If he allows it they will attempt at some point to sleep around his neck like a metal boa that gives you static shocks (Add thinks it's comforting, sorry, hope you enjoy the electrotherapy).]

[foreversembrace]

[Till...isn't exactly super comfortable with Karte being with him by any means, but he's at least determined that he's probably(?) not going to eat him in his sleep or something. The little static shocks are alarming the first few times (sorry if he like, throws you on accident Karte), but eventually he kindof gets used to it...it's not Karte's fault that Till has Issues with unprompted stimuli, especially anything that could be construed as painful.

What a weird fucking thing. He will at least use Karte (once he figures out it can do this) to get things from the Inn without him having to leave and be around people, which is nice. He'll also sit against the wall and watch Karte spin in the middle of his room like "what is wrong with you".

...also fine he guesses you can sleep on him. You saved him from the snakes so this is Till giving back a little, just don't get used to it.]