sticksandbones | EVENT & TDM 022

EVENT & TDM 022

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His anxiety! Sure is not!! He wishes Mephisto were tall enough for him to hide his face into his shoulders, but the best he can do is squeeze his eyes shut and pretend he’s on a particularly rocky spaceship until it’s all over.

When Moder does finally stop, he’s going to have to be…literally coaxed to get off, at which point he moreso…slides off, then falls flat on his ass into the sand. At least the sand is soft.

He hasn’t even seen the sea fully yet, but just. Give him time.]

I-…in a sec.

[ Mephisto, meanwhile, is doing great. This isn't too bad of a trip. He's had worse. Namely with W. Don't let her drive a car- ]

...He hasn't seen the ocean before. So it might be a moment for him to adjust and such.

[Moder is petting Till with her handibles :) Is this helping—

Aurora chirps:]

It's alright. Take your time, sweetheart, we aren't going anywhere.

[Hm. Would the fruit sharks swimming above the waves nearby freak him out... Aurora whistles out a short tune, and a banana fruit shark floats over and around her, harmless and dopey-looking.]

Do you like animals?

Huh…?

[Till looks up, having briefly zoned out while Moder was pat-patting him, and is met face-to-face with a fruit shark. Oh, you sure are weird looking. They call them “animals” but Till would 100% point at one of these and just be like “that’s an alien”.]

Uh…I guess…what animal is this?

This is a shark.

[Aurora has a smile in her voice like :) yes this is definitely a shark and sharks do not look vastly different at all.]

They float over the sea and sometimes within it, and feed on plant matter. I am told that sharks deeper in the ocean are carnivores, but not these.

[Why are all of the creatures in this dimension so fucking weird.]

It’s so…stupid looking.

[Don’t be MEAN TO HIM]

[Aurora fucking Laughs at that. It sounds like a bird squawk.]

Do you think it makes them less scary? I whistled to call it so you could see it, since I thought it may make you happy.

I think so…I can’t really imagine that being scary.

[Which means congrats Aurora you did your job! He is friend shaped. He is banana.

…

Till will, after a moment of hesitation, hold his hand out towards it like he’s done before with Ain’s creatures. Sorry Mephisto he’s making a friend-]

[ Mephisto is not concerned, Till can take his time. Instead, he’s going to carefully go over to Aurora so he can climb aboard the bird instead. ]

…Thank you for getting us here, you two.

[Aurora tolerates this yes, come on up little guy.

Meanwhile the bananashark boops its nose into Till's palm. Hello!]

It is the least we could do, little ones.

[BOOP…Till carefully pets the bananashark’s nose. What does it feel like? Is it smooth and slippery, or kindof rough? Does he feel like banana peel-]

I’ve never seen the ocean before. It’s…a lot bigger than I imagined.

I don't suppose you at least know how to swim, right? Otherwise, you might wanna hold onto Aurora real tight when we're over it.

[………]

W…we weren’t goin’ in the water…right?

[hecantswim]

Not planning on it~! But don't fall off~!

[ The gremlin smile is here. ]

Hurry up, though, otherwise I'm gonna say we leave you on the beach.

[Urgh…fine, he’ll stop stalling. He frowns, pushing himself up to his feet and dusting the sand off his ass as he goes.]

Alright, alright…I’m coming.

[Byebye banana shark he’ll miss your dopey face]

Ahh, well, you heard him, Miss Aurora. Do you mind not going too fast, for his sake?

[Bananashark feels like bananapeel. :) It will head back to the sea with its brethren, orangeshark and kiwishark. Goodbyyeeeeee.

Aurora picks Till up in her beak and tucks him onto her back.]

We will go as slow as these old wings will carry me.

[Unfortunately she is a 30ft tall bird, it's still going to be fast, but she will take to the skies and leisurely fly out until they hit the secondary fog wall that surrounds this isle.]

[Till has been scooped. He has been placed! And bless Aurora for trying her best to be careful but man, Till is still scared as hell and he's not doing a super great job of hiding that. He's good at masking his emotions in a social confrontation, but when it comes to something like this? He's almost comically reactive, at times.

Which means, once they're in the air and headed over the sea, Till will reflexively duck his head down and hide his face behind Mephisto's shoulders. Given that Mephisto is so much shorter, it's more like he's dropped his head onto his shoulder from behind with a thin, balloon-deflating wheeze.]

[She feels bad... she wishes she could give you bird xanax but all her feathers are good for is resurrection, smfh]

We're almost there, darlings, don't worry. I won't let you fall.

[Of course, she can do nothing once they get to the outer fog wall, white and thick as it is. They can barely see through it, in fact, and Aurora is forced to hover as close as she can physically get to it.]

Oh, don't mind him. He'll get over it, I'm sure. You'd think someone from a spaceship wouldn't be fussed about flight...

[ Patting Till's head. Poor crybaby-

Once they're at the fog wall, Mephisto just stares at it. He's seen it before, of course. Till took him to it before. But it's still... odd. They truly are just trapped in a weird dome, huh? Caged, always, it seems... He clears his throat a bit. ]

Ah, I'm not too sure... how to do this. I just call out...? Is that how that works? Can the spirit hear me? Do I have to be loud?

I'm not from a spaceship-!

[He's FROM space, get it RIGHT-

He's still not looking down though.

But they're up here now, presented with the wall...and honestly, he's not sure what to do either. But what do they have to lose, exactly? He tightens his grip a little on Mephisto's shirt.]

J-just try it.

...It feels stupid. [ Mephisto- ] Ugh, okay. Um... I don't know it's name.

Is it just "Death"? Can you hear me??

...

...

ca... ... ... e?

Chi.... beyo....y reach...

Can you hear me, child of the earth?

Oh!! Yes! [ Leaning forward excitedly, and he reaches back to pat Till enthusiastically. ] It’s a little faint, but I can hear you.

How delightful, I was hoping to be able to talk with you. The Forest is keeping you out, right? Is there anyway we can help you back in?

[Haha uhhhh okay he wasn't actually expecting anything to answer-

Till keeps his silence for now, looking forward with wide eyes as Mephisto chatters back excitedly.]

EVENT & TDM 022

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