New Moon/Zahliya Event START!

[mooninthewater]

NEW MOON, WHO DIS?

!

"INVITATION"

Everyone will get a recounting from Mizuki about his encounter with the creature in the woods, regardless of whether or not you had your own run in it with. He knows it was brought up before, but he just wants to make extra sure everyone is up to speed! He gives a general outline of information that he learned from Ydalir, the Trader. (And, yes, he calls her that to everyone.)

One, the creature's name is Zahliya, but has many overall titles. His full title seems to be "Zahliya, The Purifier, He Who is the First Sentinel, the Grove's Guardian". It's kind of a mouthful, but Mizuki seems adamant you do your best to remember it all.
Two, "Purifier" seems to imply his capability to ward off and, well, purify corruption from the forest. This is obviously going to be very useful to the Grove as a whole.
Three, the fog is apparently at its weakest during that of a new moon, hence the timing. Which is tonight, Mizuki happily reminds you!
Four... "Zahliya needs our help."

He doesn't seem to elaborate further on that last point. Feel free to ask him about it, or just go to your fellow neighbors and be like "hey, what the fuck is that cryptic twink on about???" Regardless of what you do with that information, Mizuki strongly encourages your to meet with everyone at the edge of the fog closest to the inn tonight.

!

GATHERING

...And by "strongly encourages", it means he will drag your dumb ass to the meeting if you need an excuse to have them actually show up. Mizuki seems very adamant about this. Zahliya is their friend now! We don't leave friends behind.

Mizuki explains that it seems relatively simple, all things considered. Simple relative to other things within the Grove, anyway. They just all gotta... "wish" for Zahliya. Sort of like believing in fairies, or calling out one's name for them to appear. Sort of.

He's certainly not going to lead in this, however. He's just here to provide the information! If anything, he's more hopeful that someone else will take the reigns from him the moment all knowledge about this is out there.

!

OOC

The OOC post about this event is here. I figured I should make the post about it initially, considering Mizuki dug for the lore about Zahliya, but considering he is not the leader-type, he will simply defer to the group from here. This is helpful for both chaos reasons and so everyone can more easily be involved. I also left the first prompt open for any pre-discussions about this you'd like to get out of the way, though if you would just like to read through Mizuki's discussion with the Trader and handwave knowing it, I'm totally fine with that, too. Mizuki wouldn't make any attempts to hide information from anyone, assuming they asked him the question first.

Recap of the Event so far! (Click to Expand!)

• The event begins with characters learning and talking about how to go about the information above. Caoimhe's brought a song. Natsuno brought knives. BB brought herself (unfortunately). Add brought... medical attention. All's well!
• Until it isn't, as when the moon is at its zenith, there's a horrifying roar and two mysterious sets of footprints within the fog. Using the goggles from the Shopkeeper, Add is able to find a twisted looking creature and a humanoid. It's decided that it's now or never to call out for their Guardian friend.
• And he does, in fact, appear! But he certainly doesn't seem to be doing so hot...
• ...but taking care of him might have to come second to the very angry monster beyond Felicity's barrier.

Comments

MIDNIGHT.

[sticksandbonesmods]

[When the New Moon is at its highest point in the night sky, the fog begins to pull back from the treeline. Slowly, slowly does it uncover tracks the size of your heads, pacing along the barrier of the fog wall in back-and-forth motions, as if something has been waiting to get in.

Within those tracks are much smaller ones, roughly the size of a human foot. Next to each are still-wet droplets of blood.

Something within the forest roars, a large shadow flinging itself against the fog barrier. A set of blood-soaked antlers pierce through it before they're quickly covered again.

...

Whatever you're going to do, you'd better do it now.]

SECRET VISION: ON

[harmacy]

[haha

Add isn't going anywhere near that mess yet, but hey, guess who actually has the golden glasses on him today and the ability to put (half of) them on? this guy.

he is looking towards the fog what is happening out there]

[sticksandbonesmods]

[Add looks toward the fog and sees several things, and depending on how he's feeling, these could all be equal levels of "oh shit" or he can put them in a prioritized list.

The first thing he'll notice is that the fog isn't there. Within the trees, through the gloom, Add might be able to faintly see ghostly outlines of old buildings, of spectres moving throughout the fog as if going about daily life.

If he looks to where the antlers just pierced the barrier before being re-absorbed back into it, he'll see a ghastly, twisted-looking creature made up of sinew and bone and shadow, continually ramming its horned head into the barrier in any attempt to break through. Something akin to green flames licks the tips of those antlers.

Next to it, crouched on the ground, is a small, winged figure. It glows brightly, like staring into a raging inferno, the same green as the antlers. Like fire in the shape of something humanoid, it has black nodules within its system that seem to be burning up. The fire breaks apart at several points — over the right leg, the right side of the abdomen, and the left shoulder. Next to it are two long twin blades, silver glinting in the moonlight.]

[harmacy]

[Add putting the glasses on/off for comparison a couple times while squinting worriedly into the middle distance

eventually he sighs, because this still feels so embarrassing to resort to but maybe he can still make it sound cool...]

Purifier, First Sentinel, the Grove's Guardian... Zahliya, answer our call!

[throwing a hand out like he's an anime character, yeah]

[simplicitas]

[Elsword, with equal enthusiasm, doing the same arm motion so that Add isn't left out—]

Come forth, Guardian!!

[yeah he forgot everything else in their long list of titles.]

[devilishkouhai]

Oh no! Whatever are we going to do!!

[ Eats popcorn, ]

[amethystic]

( almost immediately, fel casts a barrier- not a full bubble like the one on the inn, but a shield against the fog, something anything with the intent to do harm cannot pass through. )

Time's up guys. Get to wishing.

( she'll... semi-reluctantly go after more do, because she needs to focus. she's not letting another fucking moose monster in- )

[sticksandbonesmods]

[ANGRY MOOSE NOISES?????????????????

LET ME OUT I AM JUST A NORMAL MOOSE]

[amethystic]

( FUCK OFF THIS IS AN ANTI-MOOSE ZONE )

[sam reich voice] I've been here the whole time (again)

[cleavethetides]

Those of you not prepared for a fight might want to stand further back!

[ Sigh! She's so tired of the horrors. But she's not about to let all this go to waste. So, even despite the fact she's pulling out her rapier and hand cannon... ]

Zahliya, the Grove's Guardian, please come to us.

[mooninthewater]

Mmmh, seems like you were right, Doctor Add…

[ Who's Mizuki muttering to? Doesn't matter. Mizuki doesn't seem to fussed if he doesn't get a response. He twirls his harpoon-brella around over his shoulder and musters a little smile. Well, at least, he didn't think this would truly be so easy. ]

Mister Zahliya, if you can still hear us, we'd like you to come home. If you're hurt, though, let me take care of this first, okay~?

[ Rage rooms are nice and all, but you know what's better? A nice meal— ]

Thanks for the food.