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

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Comments

[sticksandbonesmods]

Will's valid, get back to homebase.

Hoku tilts his head slowly, stalking around quietly.

You have stolen kin. I shall return the favor.

... He makes no move to attack.


Yet.

Loop will feel an oppressive wrath in the air.

[purevanillacookie]

[ Boy howdy he loves all his children, he tells himself through gritted teeth and a headache coming on. Timekeeper not listening to him is a given, frankly. The woman operates on her own chaotic morality, for good or ill, but Loop remaining raises his hackles because he's a Star target.

And that accusation makes him wince. The fact that Hoku isn't just a mindless beast... had Felicity told him wrong? Had he read what she showed him wrong? Would they have been able to communicate after all? ]

Wait! We will return it after we have found a cure for the corruption! We only need to study that which inflicts it, inflicts you all!

[ But he's still going to protect his daughters shrine so he hurls the staff in it's direction, using just a touch magic to propel it forward enough to land beside it, where it will begin to send out pulses of energy that will help push back the corrupted hoard. How well? He's not sure. He's not even sure if the magic will last. But it is a weapon Felicity can probably use if she can get her hands on it.

Then he moves back towards Loop, taking his hand with his own. ... Also sends out a thought. Shadow Milk? ]

[jesterlies]

[Are you FINALLY calling him? After he has been angrily pacing his room waiting for some kind of explanation but knowing the moment he chimed in he risked breaking Vanilla’s concentration??]

Finally!! What in the OVENS is going on over there?!

[purevanillacookie]

[ WELL he was HOPING YOU WERE RESEARCHING AND NOT PACING THE ENTIRE TIME, THERE'S A DEAD MAN TO RAISE THAT WON'T LAST FOREVER. ]

Oh, well! We got our star subject but have a tiny problem now! Not a large one! Just the first Star showing up, nothing too overly serious! Timekeeper and Loop are here with me, and I'm afraid Loop is in great danger. I'm certain Timekeeper can get him out of there but I'm unsure if she can get all three of us out. Are you able to open the Other-Realm?

[ Thank god for thinking via the power of thoughts, all that is dumped very quickly and cheerfully enough to hide the constant sound of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa under his thoughts. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Oh hey, since this is a separate thing, here's some Comprehension for you: Only Hoku can speak coherently. ... He's still mega corrupted though, with his love for his siblings- Felicity included, that's why she must be assimilated to the Black Sea of Stars- being twisted into an avenue to spread it further. The rest... do have some thoughts. But they're muddled, muted, dimmed by the pain and the need to swallow the light.


Yay!

[purevanillacookie]

............... yay............

[jesterlies]

I dunno Vanilly, that’s a lot of magic with my current limitations.

So, to make up for it tonight-

[purevanillacookie]

I'm going to throttle you, my dearest Other-Half.

[jesterlies]

Do you promise?

[Hold up nerds, the air around yall shifts funny and then- the crackling black and blue energy of some kind of void like portal suddenly opens. It is struggling a little though. Better be quick guys.]

[theuniverseleads]

[With the spell cast, they can only pray that it was worth the risk. Stardust might've been tempted by the possibility of negotiations, but Loop isn't stardust, and experience has taught them that talk just leads to backstabbing. Besides, they already know even corrupted stars can talk, and that's definitely a bad thing—the malicious aura is more than enough to confirm it.

They grip Vanilla's hand tightly, using the other to snap their fingers. Speed buff! For escaping! No time to make a shitty pun at the big spooky lion!!]

Timekeeper! [if you've got any more tricks deploy them now they gotta go go go]

[ephemeralflow]

[Ah, PV is making use of his other half, she's proud of him honestly.

Also she's a bit tired of getting her name yelled at her, but since it was Loop this time, she'll let it slide. She'll have to drop all other time manipulation she's doing to pull this off for the three of them, but...

All she does is snap her fingers, and everything around them (save the flickering of the portal) slows to a near stop. All goes dead quiet. Wind ceases. A falling leaf hangs in the air. It's a time snap, the same skill Timekeeper regularly uses to steal snacks or seemingly appear out of nowhere, but applied to the group. Enjoy the accelerated time for a minute or two, you should probably use it to escape.

...But Timekeeper herself isn't touching the clown portal, nooooope. Because ew. But also because someone should probably make sure that the one person carrying their actual objective doesn't get eaten by a lion.

So, her smile widens for a second - and then she hops on her scissors and blasts off in the direction Will ran.]

[purevanillacookie]

Ti-!

[ But she's zipping out of there and there's no use trying to call her back. Will headed in that direction so he will leave her to help the other get their quarry out, while he moves with Loop to the portal. And because he knows Loop will FIGHT HIM ON IT if he tries to push him in first, he will tug him in by his side to step through together.

Hope your accuracy is good here, Shadow Milk, because if you dump them in the literal lions maw he's going to scruff you.

You know, after he's done dying by lion. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Hoku roars, sending a sonic wave of damage- just in time for everyone to vanish. Timekeeper has Will covered, and the rest are gone- a portal, perhaps?

He considers his options. The staff the old man threw is providing the rose star security. To leave the Sea is to leave them without direction, in agony with their missing pieces. Dawn will come soon.

Deep in the woods, and even back in the town, one can hear a thunderous, earth-shaking roar of fury.

[goldenambition]

Will meanwhile kept running. He's fast, but with flight Timekeeper can likely catch up with no issue.

I suspect the rabbit has kicked the shit outta him though.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Oh yes. But it did fall limp eventually- the pain of being a horrible nettle zombie is not an easy one, and a way out is a way out. ... It's not dead, just depressed.