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

[mooninthewater]

[ Because Mizuki was amused with BB's otome shenanigans, is the only reason he doesn't immediately join the fight. All his friends are currently trying to kill this creature, and it's fair. Mizuki would like to do the same. Yet he pretty easily slips by all the chaos while in his natural cloak, eventually using a tendril to plop himself on the back of Moder.

He coos gently, a little pat against her back. He speaks loud enough to be heard over most of the chaos in Old Norse Aegirian. A melodic, sirenesque language. ]

« Miss Ydalir said you're not necessarily "evil" before, you know. Is this true, Mother? »

[sticksandbonesmods]

[She is injured, more injured than she will show... and while the vines whip at people, she stills in her thrashing. She knows language. She knows all languages, but can she speak in them? Well...]

«I will protect what's mine.»

[mooninthewater]

« And what is “yours” here that you’re protecting? It seems more like you’re hurting more than anything. »

[sticksandbonesmods]

« The forest is mine. Nene is mine. The creatures in the forest are mine. »

[mooninthewater]

« Hmm… Were you the one hurting Nene to begin with? » [ …Unlikely, right? Nene would’ve said Moder’s name at some point instead of just “The Forest”, right?? ]

« Either way, it doesn’t matter. She’s not here. You aren’t in the forest anymore, Mother. The only thing you’re doing here is hurting my friends.

And much like you I am willing to do anything to protect them. »

[sticksandbonesmods]

« I would not hurt Nene. She is important to me.

The Gargoyle needs to die. The Gargoyle wants Nene to be in danger.

You want Nene to be in danger. »

[mooninthewater]

« If I wanted anyone to be hurt, would I be trying to talk to you now? I don't understand why you think we want her to be in danger. None of us want that.

I think, perhaps, there's a misunderstanding… »

[sticksandbonesmods]

« You took her from where she was safe! You! »

[WHERE is Add she's going to Gore Him— oh he's over there with the gargoyle. Worry not, because these threads will connect.]

replies here to not clog up AoE attack world- (roll: nat20 baby)

[mooninthewater]

[ Mizuki's tentacles coil around Moder to help him keep on her, hands on her horns now. It would be so easy to wring her neck. It would be so easy to tear the flesh from her here. So easy, so easy, so easy…

They have Zahliya. They completed their task. Moder is the only loose end and she's causing so many problems and it would be so easy to wrap this up—

But there's something that tells him to keep trying. He's trying to understand, and he hates being yelled at, and he hates seeing his friends hurt. ]

« How can you call her safe when she has wounds all over her? When she doesn't smile? When she's miserable out there listening to that creature that just wants us to hurt and calls it "love"?

Zahliya wants to help us. How could you say the same for Nene, when she would hate you for hurting us???

We don't want her unsafe. The same goes for you and the gargoyle and everyone here at the Grove. »

[sticksandbonesmods]

[So easy indeed. So easy, when she's already on her last legs, when she's bleeding out and has used her strongest spell (tree)... so easy when Irene is mere seconds from launching her back into the air. It would be incredibly easy to take this victory.]

« She was safe! Safe in the Garden, safe in the Church! Safe until you dragged her from the forest and forced her into your lives! The forest is safe! The forest is sacred! The forest protects what is its, and I protect the forest! »

[You get the feeling that you won't be able to reason with her, especially as Irene launches her and the fog wall begins to blacken...]

[mooninthewater]

« The forest is hurting her and making her miserable! How could you ever want to see her like that if you care about her?! »

[ The tentacles withdraw. She does seem unreasonable enough he isn't going to protect her, then. It's not the time, perhaps…? He thought he was doing the right thing, though, wasn't he…? He knows Zahliya and Add gave him permission to eat her, but was that what they wanted? Was it the right thing?

He doesn't understand… ]

roll: 20

[cleavethetides]

[ The moment Moder starts to fall, Mizuki isn't getting off. It's frustrating, but she did warn him. She'll just have to really pay attention to where she's pointing this hand cannon... ]

My light will purge the vice!

[ Irene unleashes her barrage of pink explosions against her. And they are... expertly placed. It's almost as if she had five years of training under her belt or something! Crazy that.

Two shots pierce into her torso, two into her head, one into each of her front legs and finally the last two into whatever wounds seemed to be the worst on her. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

[Moder falls, and the explosions hit their marks effortlessly. She has no ability to dodge, between how many people are holding onto her and the fact that she's airborne for most of that. Irene's light does indeed purge the vice.

It's with a very pitiful moose noise that she collapses under the strain of her injuries, yet again shaking the earth when she falls. It'll be a minute until she fully bleeds out, but she's still, lying in a pool of blood and dormant vines and felled trees.

If she's left alone, she'll bleed out, but you can also just shoot her right in her torso-face and end it officially.]

Roll: 19 (cw: gore)

[mooninthewater]

[ Well, they do say you should go out with a bang, right? Mizuki is… honestly, wholly unsurprised by Irene's accuracy. The Iberian Inquisition is truly something not to be trifled with!! Mizuki can, at least, say that he tried.

He manages to keep steady on her despite both Irene's blows and the fact he is currently falling with Moder. But once they hit the ground, he gently pats a place against her neck that doesn't seem to have any injuries. His voice lowers. ]

« It's alright, I'll put you out of this suffering. Will you show up in the Garden, too, I wonder? I hope, if you do, you'll think about what I've told you.

In the meantime, I'll get this evil out of you. »

[ And with that, the stingers all tighten around the monster's neck. Ten… twenty… maybe even all thirty of them to make this as swift as possible as they all just rip her head-torso-thing off and separate it from her moose-like body with a sickening wet snap. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

[I have nothing clever to say here, she fucking dies immediately, enjoy your snacks!

Also you're all gonna have to clean up the grove because of all the trees and dead vines everywhere but it's fine. We can fix it. Nothing hit any buildings at least.]

nO NEED2 REPLY JST CAIMHE <o> _ <o> PERCIEVING

[amhran]

[ OH ITS IN NORSE, then Caoimhe can understand this, bc that is Elvish.

She is a little - bewildered. Eyes move from ADD chasing down Zahliya and grimacing at the way he handles their new friend. She wants to help, but the ground crackling and the vines wiping out cause her as she is about to rise to her feet - to stop. Caoimhe stumbles, but shuffles her hands into her bag and drags out her broom. So long as she rides it then - then she doesn't need to worry about the vines. She takes to floating about 10 feet in the air, desperately searching for who needs help, what can I do, and as her broom slowly turns she catches sight of Mizuki reaching out to their enemy. Speaking, with such an ethereal deliverance she forgets where she is, and what she was about to do. ]