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

Re: INVESTIGATIONS

[jesterlies]

Character(s): Shadow Milk!
Location: Probably around the forest
Action: Shadow Milk needs a body for a necromancy project. That's not why he's out here, but it is what I am hoping he finds.

He's out here because he is trying to trace magic leylines in this fucking town and see if stuff is connecting. Important mage business, you see.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Opens mod inbox

Closes mod inbox

(no im kidding, anyway)

Yeah you know what? This town? Ley'd. Do not read that outloud with your mouth or you'll get looks. Also I'm sorry if you expect leylines in the CRK way because I'm giving you leylines in the MtG way. maybe they're the same. I dont know.

Most of the powerful magic comes from the mansion. A lot of the natural leylines are pointedly being directed over there. TBD on Rescue Them Kids quest it's still inprog (sorry) but the leylines still point there regardless. Each building and major point are connected (so the inn, the mansion, the school, the well, the lake, etc etc). All very glued together by magic.

I will foist a corpse upon you in a bit. Where is he off to after this, or is he simply staying in town going "yep :) leylines are leying :)"?

[jesterlies]

Fucking beats me do you know how hard it is to track down cookie lore across like four separate cookie games that don't always agree with each other? Leylines are Leylines and Devsis can come to my front door if there's a problem

Anyway.

He sees, yes, okay, so this makes sense to him based on what he knows. What he is curious about is if leylines run to the boarder of their little fog dome, or if all the leylines seem self contained? And also if the lines are also connected to Player Buildings and not just Mod Setting buildings.

Is there any traces or remnants of leyline activity leading to the research hall his Past Self owned. The one with the door to the underworld in it-

This is getting away from me, he's checking all of this, but he will happily head into the forest more to trace any that might be heading outside of town.

[sticksandbonesmods]

immortalizing my shame like: yeah i did not run this investigation idk what this is
/wolfie ran this investigation. she super did know what it is. (sorry again-)

The leylines run out beyond the border, and yes, some of the listed locations (the school) are player buildings. So that would include the library, Wolfwood's church, etc.

The leylines do lead to that hall, as it is currently a very powerful area that should be connected through the magical pathways, yep.

SM heads into the forest. Although the clusters of leylines are smaller out here (they congregate around the buildings, mostly), it's still easy to find them. They reach far out into the forest in shimmering trails of mana. For flavour, which direction is he headed? North, south? These generally go everywhere, so pick your poison and I will pick you a corpse.

[jesterlies]

Hm, let's take a look at the ones running south. He'd like to follow one as far as he can get, until the fog pushes him back.

He is watching his steps though, and the eyes that float nebulously in his hair keep vigil of anything that might be lurking around. Hopefully nothing tries to sneak up on him while he is hyperfocusing on magic ground lines.

[sticksandbonesmods]

He is on a little quest :) The animals' eyes are meeting the eyes in his hair like >:(?? They do not like this, how are you perceiving them from all angles?

SM goes south and passes by Vash's house, a little campsite upriver that looks like Elsword has been there recently, and keeps going. The fog wall stretches further back than he might remember. The leylines are strangely clustered here, suddenly tying up into a big knot by the looks of it, just beyond the fog barrier. He could still feasibly reach this location if he has the golden glasses, or gambles and gets incredibly lucky with walking through it.

[jesterlies]

Fuck off he is the more eldritch abomination one here, the eyes will continue to Stare.

Hm, he does not have golden glasses at all, actually, and is kind of a cocky asshole about his own abilities so he probably thinks his own ability to See stuff is enough to navigate the fog. After all, if he can see the lies in what lay ahead, he can pick out the truth in the path right? He's gonna gamble it.

Just a bit. Pure Vanilla probably hears his roiling, murmuring thoughts go "Huh, I wonder what happens if I--"]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Congratulations you solved my riddle, yeah I was just going to give this to you I just wanted to build up suspense.

He manages to get through without much harm being done, although sometimes the occasional touch to the fog wall kind of hurts? Be careful king.

He gets to this cluster of leylines and it's (rolls dice) a corpse that (spins wheel) strangely has yet to rot and (throws a dart) appears to be a human male.

[jesterlies]

Holy shit.

That’s just a whole ass preserved body huh.

Sweet he needed one of those!! Shadow Milk will take his feet off the ground completely to float carefully over to it. Is it anyone he recognizes from the Grove? Is the body simply frozen in time or is he being held in place by anything?

Can he see anything with his Truth/Lie sight?

[sticksandbonesmods]

Surprise! I told you you'd get a corpse!

The body is not someone he recognizes (nor was it a prior player/character it's just some guy I made up for you specifically) (you can give him a name if you want).

Shadow Milk can see that the body is:
- Supremely frozen in time, but it looks like the clustered leylines are? preserving it?? It's very odd, but magic seems to be attracted to this body and preventing it from rotting alongside the usual Grove time shenans
- He is laying on the ground, face facing the sky. His eyes are closed peacefully, like he might be napping. Except he is very dead.
- The Truth/Lie sight basically reveals all the above, plus the fact that this body is strangely uncorrupted?? It seems like it's especially afflicted with Moon Magic, hmmmm.

[jesterlies]

Fucking fascinating.

Hm, he is hesitant to move the body right this second because he suspects theres a chance the preservation may … stop if he moves the body from the leylines and they need to keep this corpse in good shape.

So here is an idea. Pure Vanilla recently etched a bunch of runes into Shadow Milks skin so that he could borrow and store magical energy from him so he can do a little more magic than his initial limitations allowed him.

What would happen if he tried to absorb some of the magic off this leyline.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Probably a good assumption there.

Absorbing the leyline magic feels a bit like getting hit by several cinder blocks. It does work! But holy fuck it kind of hurts to redirect magic of This Strength, even with the buff. It probably won't stop him, it's not killing him or tearing him apart, but ouch.

I still need the corpse here i am sorry

[jesterlies]

-1
-5
-2
+25
-10
-3
+69
-1
-13
-5
+32
-1

This was a great idea, he's so fucking smart. When he's done soaking in that leyline energy he is going to stand, and not at ALL be super winded, and try and ...move the corpse.

...

He's a mage and has absolutely no muscle, he is going to try and magically levitate the corpse up off the leyline.

why are you sorry, this is a free-range pasture-raised corpse

[sticksandbonesmods]

appreciate the damage numbers lmao

The corpse moves! Because he's moving it to be clear, not on its own. Wheeeeeee corpse robbery! Thank god there's not a court of law here or else this would definitely get you arrested.

[jesterlies]

ACAB BABEEEYYYYY

He is going to drag that thing all the way back to somewhere safe. As funny as it would be to try and wrangle the corpse into his Inn room, he's probably gonna take it to the sealed ruins of his past life's old research hall. There's a nice intact basement where he can set up some kind of magical preservation spell or something. He'll make it work!!

[jesterlies]

speaking of crime and because I know how DnD works, anything interesting in this guy's pockets??

[sticksandbonesmods]

because i also know how DnD works I rolled you a random loot table (change the coin value to shells, you got 218 shells):