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

[poaceae]

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.

[outofsynth]

[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?

[poaceae]

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

Yeah.

[outofsynth]

[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.]

[poaceae]

[ 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.

[outofsynth]

[It's not so much that he doesn't think Fern should feel bad as he's kind of scared of what he now knows he's capable of. Fern doesn't look like he's about to jump from his bed into Min's and attack him, but how is he supposed to know he won't if he reacts in a way that makes him see red?]

I didn't say I didn't want you around. But you... you killed someone. On purpose? Of course I'm going to be afraid of you.

[He probably shouldn't have said that last part, but it slips out before he can think better of it.]

[poaceae]

[ He nods, face still in his hands. That makes sense. It's reasonable. It's nothing for him to be crying about like a little baby. ]

I'm sorry. I don't know, really, exactly what the curse did to my head, but... I'm not... gonna hurt anyone. I don't feel all wrong and out of control anymore. Honest.

[outofsynth]

Was the curse making you hurt people?

[It's not intended to be confrontational even if it potentially sounds that way. It's more that Min's hoping for some kind of explanation. Something to help him understand why Fern would have done something so awful.]

[poaceae]

I think... maybe?

[ He doesn't want to admit it, but he still wants to reassure Min-Gi. He's afraid that the moment he starts blaming it on the curse, it won't seem like such a big deal anymore. It might even happen again, if he's wrong. Most of all, he doesn't want to be someone who's okay with having killed someone.

He lifts his head enough to stare at his hands, but hopefully Min-Gi can't see that his face is wet. ]

I used to be all about helping people and fighting evil. But that was years ago now. I don't know... But I don't want to hurt anyone.

[outofsynth]

[It still seems like a big deal, and Min isn't completely certain how comfortable he is being this close to him, but it's more reassuring than if he still had the urge to do anything like that. He thinks. It's not as though he has much option for now.]

Did being grass stop you from aging?

[Are these important questions? Not really, but he'll take a distraction over probing any deeper than he has already and Fern does seem young to have been fighting evil years ago.]

[poaceae]

...What?

[ That question is so totally random to Fern that he looks up and over at Min-Gi on the other bed. Then he realizes that he's been crying, flushes, turns, and rubs furiously at his face to dry it. ]

I don't know. I don't think so? I look the same now as Finn did the last time I saw him, and that was just before I came here.

[outofsynth]

Really?

[It might seem random to Fern, but Min seems genuinely surprised by his answer.]

You look so young. You weren't actually fighting evil, right?

[poaceae]

Well, yeah. I was 13 when I fought the Lich the first time. That guy's, like, the incarnation of evil.

[ If he wasn't old enough to be fighting evil, Jake wouldn't have let him go. Right? ...Right? ]

[outofsynth]

But not really, right?

[There's got to be some level of exaggeration if nothing else.]

[poaceae]

No, literally. I think he's immortal.

[ The unending embodiment of all evil in the universe. ]

[outofsynth]

And you fought him? At thirteen?

[No wonder this kid's so messed up.]

[poaceae]

Of course. That's what being a hero is all about.

[ It's kind of nice, actually, to get recognition for the things he's done without Finn taking all the credit as 'the real Finn'. He was every bit as brave and strong back then. ]

My brother helped too.

[outofsynth]

You shouldn't have to be a hero at thirteen! Nobody should. You're just a kid when you're that young.

[It doesn't seem any better that his brother was helping, whether he was a similar age or a much older sibling. Both those options are different kinds of messed up.]

[poaceae]

[ His frown deepens. His head is pounding, if not from the venom or frowning so hard for so long, then from the sheer distress of it all. Still, this conversation is... confusing, and he doesn't think it's because of the headache. ]

Nobody made me do it. It's what I wanted to do.

[outofsynth]

[It's definitely a weird time to be having this conversation. Fern's still being hit hard by the venom, and while Min's on the road to recovery the revelation that Fern's killed is reeling in his mind.]

That shouldn't matter, Fern. You were too young. You shouldn't have even had the option.

[poaceae]

[ His head hurts. This is... kind of dumb. This is dumb. He drops his head back into his hands, but this time it's to press on his forehead. ]

Okay? Man, it was... [ Hold on. What is 17-13? Computing... ] ...5 years ago. Like, who cares?

[outofsynth]

[5 years ago. So he's 18 now. Still young, but old enough to fight if he wants to at this point. Though Min kind of hopes he doesn't given some of his earlier admissions.]

You should. Maybe it seems normal to you, but think about it sometime. It's messed up.

[poaceae]

[ He grew up as the only human in Ooo, of course it's not normal. Nothing about his life has ever been normal. ]

Maybe. But I don't care. So why's it so important to you?

[ He stops pressing on his forehead to look up at Min-Gi for an answer. He's genuinely asking. Is Min-Gi afraid of him, or not? He can't even tell anymore. Maybe it's all a distraction until Lily gets here, or something. Whatever. He's exhausted. ]

[outofsynth]

[It's a good question. Some of it is probably to try and rationalize Fern's actions, but even if he hadn't killed someone it's still messed up.]

You should care.

[poaceae]

[ ... ]

Why?