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

[sticksandbonesmods]

Little Bird Kiera sees with their eyedbarls... no beasties! Well, hostile ones anyway. The snakes don't come here (not many much things to hide in this close to the sea). There are the fruit sharks from last summer out and about, though they aren't necessarily on the ship and are more just vibing out in the water/in the air, as fruit sharks that do not have to be in the water constantly do.

The vibes are kind of cute to be honest. That may change when they enter the ship, though, because that thing is broken down to fuck and back. They get the impression that setting foot on it carries a risk of falling through the upper decks (in fact, last summer, someone already did, so there's a White Lily shaped hole there).

[cryopathy]

well, good thing they are just a little bird who weighs nary an ounce! they give the plantimals a wide berth -- they are not dinner, thank you! -- and swoop down to land tentatively on some railing from which they can find an entrance. an open door, a broken window, perhaps? the longer they can stay in this form to investigate, the better.

[sticksandbonesmods]

I have wonderful news my darling little bird: There are entrances all over the place. The gangway is still down. There are entire missing port windows, and the door on the upper decks that would lead to the lower decks is entirely missing. There are footprints that are fresh on the wood because some idiots were plonking around there recently. Hmm.

Kiera could also just fly down to the lower decks through the Lily-shaped hole if they wanted. Many options available.

[cryopathy]

LILY HOLE! LILY HOLE!

for real though, that seems like the quickest way into the belly of the ship, so down they go! still scoping it out in here before landing anywhere. they don't trust like that.

[sticksandbonesmods]

take lily's hole to the nsfw channel smh smh

Kiera enters Lily's Hole™ and (i am forcibly dragged offline and ostracized from the dwrp community)— well, it sure is dark in here. Enough natural light filters in through the various holes for Kiera to easily tell the following:
- most of the "junk" and "useless shit" from the last time this place was explored was cleared out and removed. the remaining crates are full of a fresh stock of useful items (???) such as fresh food (things that will keep at sea — so dried meats, trail mixes, the works) and bottled fresh water. there is a crate of musket balls that's left uncapped with a very, uh... janky looking musket laying on top of it. it looks old-timey but like it might have been modified with newer technologies. hm. other crates that have been left open include clothing of various sizes, fabric, extra sails... you know. Supplies™.
- it smells fucking musty down here
- the lower decks and especially the storage they fly into seem more structurally sound than the rest of the ship
- this is a pretty typical old-timey cargo ship. it LOOKS like a pirate ship at first glance, but it's far too small and lacks key components for one (a berth/gun deck, brig, etc).
- judging by the holes in the lower deck, this ship should have sunk a while ago, but it is not only in shallower waters but seems to have been propped up somewhat recently
- it is moldy. this is a wooden ship with a poor finish. that bitch MOLDY. did i mention the MOLD and the MUSK and the MOIST yet.

[cryopathy]

judging by the mold, boy, are they glad that they don't have a super strong sense of smell in shrike shape. (i couldn't help the alliteration, congrats on this week's echolalia.) seems whoever was in charge of this ship long ago wanted it to appear threatening or to blend in with outlaws -- a conscious form of batesian mimicry, perhaps. it makes kiera wonder if there's anything nicer in here than some generic supplies, but treasure hunting can wait!

are there any carts down here, broken or intact, that kiera might be able to jerry rig to a horse to bring some of the crates back to the grove?

more importantly... they settle on a sturdy-looking section of the floor and shift to cat (oh, beasts, the smell), then, assuming it holds, wolf (oh, PHOENIX FEATHERS, the STENCH). if the floorboard doesn't try to give out, they'll take their human form at last.

now, kiera is the type of person to have hidden compartments in every piece of furniture they own. they search along the belly of the cargo area, hoping that perhaps the builders of the ship placed a false wall or secret door somewhere... if not, maybe a section with a large area for painting or carving (however the rune-writers choose to do it) that could be convincingly walled off by hand.

[sticksandbonesmods]

dude, 6th grade me who was learning alliteration would've loved to be you right there.

- No carts. Judging by the footprints back and forth, this was all moved by hand. Some of them extend onto the docks, even.
- The deck does hold for a little kitty! The deck explodes when Kiera becomes a person and they die instantly— no, I'm kidding, the lower decks here are sturdy enough to hold a bunch of heavy crates, so Kiera is fine. They SQUEAK ominously, but Kiera does not go through the wood.
- No false walls or secret passageways :( It's all very... I guess on the straight and narrow? But there are a lot of rooms as they go that look like the doors could simply be removed, and the room inside could be repurposed and then sealed up properly. There are many down here without windows, for obvious reasons.

[cryopathy]

boo... their dreams of treasure hunting, dashed. also, their dreams of bringing shit back to the grove EASILY. maybe they won't even mention all the free shit laying around here. they're rude like that. and lazy.

this looks sufficient, at least.

... is there anything especially shiny or nice in here? they have crow brain, okay. going back totally empty-handed would feel horrid, even if they're... full-brained?? actually, those fabrics -- are there any silks or furs in there? even that would be sufficient for kiera's obsession with fineries. like, they'll still leave without it if there's nothing... but they can't not look.

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's nothing super shiny or nice. These genuinely look like newly-placed supplies... now, if Kiera were to ask White Lily, Pure Vanilla, or Dark Cacao, they would find out that the first time this ship was explored, the supplies in the crates were old. Moldy, even. The supplies here being so new doesn't track with the rest of the ship being run-down.

These are very basic supplies too. Cotton and tweed and things that are cheap to produce. Nothing that someone who might be trying to survive at sea would bring, despite this being a trade/cargo vessel. Maybe there's nothing to trade at this time?