EVENT & TDM 024

[sticksandbonesmods]

MONSTER MASH

WAKE UP

Where were you last? Do you remember falling asleep, thinking you’d wake up in your own home, your own bed?

When you open your eyes, the room you’re in doesn’t feel like your own. In fact, you’re almost certain you didn’t fall asleep here. You’re given only a short few moments to get your bearings before the door to that room opens, the doorknob jiggling as whoever is on the other side is unlocking it. Is it a library study room you’ve found yourself in, or an inn room that doesn’t belong to you? A home that isn’t yours? A business after-hours?

An unfortunate few of you may find yourself face-to-face with the real owners of these rooms, homes, and businesses — and surely they’re just as confused as you are. The lucky ones might instead find themselves being “rescued” from their sleeping states by a heavily scarred man with dreadlocks and an impossibly sunny demeanour.

“Mornin’, sunshine! Up and at ‘em!” he’ll say, hands on his hips and the door held open in a way that says he expects you to simply come follow him, whoever he is. “You ain’t where you’re supposed to be, but I’ll bail you out before the person who owns this place knocks your teeth out for trespassin’. It’ll be our little secret, ‘kay?”

TRANSPOREMATION

cw: body horror, monster transformations, fungal parasitism

As usual, Aldric’s Grove is something of a hot mess, and that’s especially true lately. Aside from random people popping into existence in various buildings, there’s a bit of a fungus problem lately. A wee little problem with cute little mushrooms. …a major, unignorable, horrendous problem with some very large, purplish-coloured mushrooms, fruiting on still-living trees and the forest floor. They look quite similar to meadow mushrooms, but far, far less harmless. While eating one won’t poison anybody too badly — aside from an episode of horrible stomach pain — stepping on them or touching them at all will cause them to shower you in a spray of spores, all of which suddenly curve around and cling onto you as if they have a mind of their own. Any attempt to remove them, to wash them off, to brush them away from your skin and clothes, only makes the spores cling more stubbornly. Soon, they’ve started to root under your skin, unable to be pulled out.

The resulting transformation is, for what little it’s worth, extremely swift. Perhaps you feel it, perhaps you don’t, but the spores leave you fundamentally changed no matter what.

Your bones lengthen and rearrange, grinding together underneath your muscle tissue. Snapping, creaking, where new joints form over the breaks. Wings rip through your back in a spray of blood and torn flesh, the wounds healing themselves over a short second later. You drop to the ground as your back legs become something foreign and new, toes bursting free of your shoes, claws digging into the soil as you writhe on the ground. Your spine elongates, the muscles in your neck tense and relax as it gets too long. The spores are deciding what to do with you, it seems, as extra eyes rapidly appear and disappear over your body alongside feathers and scales. Within the span of sixty seconds, it seems the mushrooms have come to a decision on what you should be, and the transformations it inflicts on you rapidfire begin evening out.

Whether that leaves you something wolflike, catlike, ghostly, chimeric, or otherwise… that seems to be up to the spores. Regardless, you’re no longer in your own skin. At least you’re still “you”, and at least you haven’t lost much more than your old form… right?

…

Well, not to worry. Try your luck stepping on the mushrooms again! This time, they might be kind enough to revert you back to normal… assuming they don’t turn you into a different type of creature instead.

TIME TREKS ON

For the foreseeable future, many people are “stuck” outside their normal bodies. It doesn’t mean that life in the Grove stops, however, as people flit from building to building — assuming their monster forms didn’t bar them off from entering most of them anyhow — and their daily routines continue. From the Church of the Golden Sun in the north of Aldric’s Grove emanates a lovely, warm light, inviting all who are loyal to the Goddesses within its halls and barring the Corrupted or those loyal to the Fallen Sun from entry. Describing it as a “church” may not entirely be accurate; instead of an altar, there sits a throne that automatically prevents anyone who isn’t the Goddess of the Sun from sitting on it (despite the fact she isn’t currently there). Instead of pews, the first room is a large combat arena, golden weapons hung up on the walls that are free to use if you need to spar. Thankfully, the doors are large enough to accommodate most monsters, though the halls in the back may not be sizeable enough for anyone over eight feet tall.

Within that church, the kilns in the back are fired up, pottery baking while animal spirits resembling lions and dogs mix paint with their paws. It’s difficult, being a little guy — help a critter out? You can paint a selection of finished pottery when you’re done, which they’d tell you if they could speak to you. If they bring you a flower-shaped plate or a vase in the shape of a tulip and a paintbrush, will you figure out what they mean? If you don’t, that’s not a problem, as they’ll nudge you toward the pottery wheels and get you clay to work with. When you make your own thing, they think you’ll be more willing to paint with them. Hope you brought your art hands, assuming you have any at all after those mushrooms got you.

In the opposite wing from the pottery room, the kitchen is going strong, the smells of freshly baked bread wafting down the hall. Here is where Ydalir is, the shadowy woman wearing silks who normally casts magic and sells items, who turns to you and extends a flour-covered palm. Come here! Let’s bake something together — it’s the least she feels she can do, since she can’t exactly eliminate the fungus problem. There’s a host of food sitting in the dining room nearby already, with Heimr and Renard setting the table, Heimr nitpicking the setup while Renard focuses too hard on decorating with garlands and candelabras.

If you can’t fit into the dining room for any reason, one of the three will bring you food. They’d hate to see you go hungry, after all.

IT NEVER ENDS

While the Guardians themselves are immune to the transformations — Moder is, in fact, eating the mushrooms when no one is nearby to get spore’d — it doesn’t mean they’re not enjoying the fact that some of you can now spend more time with them in ways you couldn’t before.

Those of you with wings or flight abilities are invited by Aurora and the newly-resurrected bone dragon Sehul to come flying. Though Sehul won’t land in the Grove (too many buildings too close together for a hundred-foot dragon to feel comfortable, you see), they’ll land on the seaside, and even invite you to race them there. They do have something of a body mass advantage, but when they eventually win, they’ll fairly concede that it doesn’t really count. Aurora, meanwhile, wants desperately to teach you to do a midair flip.

Those of you who find yourselves suddenly aquatic will be literally accosted by Callan, who swims up into the river for once only to wrap his tentacles around you and drag you off toward the lake with a watery laugh. He expects you to do the same to him in return, but the Guardian’s extreme strength might make it difficult. Worry not, because if no one comes to your rescue, Sinann will chide him until he lets go, and show you the nest the baby Seaborn have built at the deepest point in the river. You’re welcome to live with them for a while, if you want. Their pastime is singing, and they’d love to sing with you.

And to the folks with a sudden craving for plants, Moder will gladly show you where the best snacks are — her favourite trees to reach into, the best flowers to eat, a fragrant patch of wild herbs. She’s happy to stroll through the forest with you, calmer than her peers are. If you need a ride on her mossy back, she’ll accommodate, so long as you don’t mind her telling old tales of a world long gone.

The final Guardian, Zahliya, doesn’t seem too keen on playtime, and will simply perch in various locations throughout the Grove to keep watch, as he normally does. Gifts of food given his way are rejected for the time being. He has a job to do; why don’t you go play with everyone?

It’s a beautiful, sunny day. This world isn’t often peaceful and playful. You should take advantage of it before something horrible happens… you and everyone else here know the good mood can’t last too long.

Spark Notes

summary

WAKE UP: Welcome to the Grove! You've found yourself in someone else's home/business/room it seems. Good luck explaining this one, but maybe Renard will be in time to bail you out?
TRANSPOREMATION: The mushrooms in the woods will spray you with spore clouds if you're not careful, and then transform you into something else. After a potentially-painful transformation, you'll find yourself in a new, more monsterlike body for a while.
TIME TREKS ON: Despite the monster mash, Beiwe's church is going strong, providing an opportunity to get creative or cook some dinner. Ydalir, Heimr, and Renard are all happy to see you and invite you to a home-cooked meal. They'd probably appreciate help with the dining room decor, too.
IT NEVER ENDS: Despite the transformations, it seems like the Guardians are all super pumped to spend time with you guys in their own domains. Many of them will invite you and your friends to hang out, some more politely than others. It's peaceful for once, so why not take them up on that?

out of character

Happy May! Here is your usual reminder that TDM threads are game canon. Per our plotting post (linked below) please keep in mind our rules for the monster transformations, and have fun!

updates

Any potential updates, such as characters damaging something important or whatever else, will be put here.

submissions

❖ NPCs List
❖ Questions
❖ May Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations
❖ TDM NPC Contact

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Comments

C

[thebladebringstheflame]

[Tragic, he called out to Flamebringer, who has been transformed into a particularly massive panther-taur and is meandering, currently. Like, your average panther in the wild is only 2-3ft tall, "big cat" but not "alarmingly enormous cat"... but it's Flamebringer, so of course just his panther half is about five feet high when he's standing on all fours. Of course it is.

This also means that Flamebringer has cat brain. Which means perching. Wolfwood just essentially pspspsps'd him, and there's a moment when he pauses, cat ears swivelling toward the sound of the werewolf-angel's voice... and then he bunches up his haunches and oh no Wolfwood better fucking move because Flamebringer is leaping up onto the roof, all five hundred pounds of Cat, and if he's not careful the Sarkaz-panther is going to tackle him into the shingles.]

Sure, but this isn't a very high jump... is it? Jump off something higher.

[He taunts, doing that Cat Cirling Thing before he flops down against the exact spot Wolfwood is probably trying to clean. Oi.]

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood catches on to what it is Flamebringer is preparing to do a bit too late, but in his defense he didn’t think he’d be able to jump that high.

It results in Wolfwood getting completely bowled over as the panther-taur lands on him, all of that weight hitting him in the chest and throwing him backwards onto the rooftop. They’re lucky the roof is slanted, but not so much that they’ll both just go tumbling off of it. He wheezes as Flamebringer stands on him momentarily before circling and flopping down. Hi, good to see you too.]

Asshole.. You want me to break my other good leg…?

[I mean Flamebringer DOES have a point though, you’re not going to get very much lift from this height even if you can fly.]

[thebladebringstheflame]

It wouldn't have broken just from that. You're stronger than that, don't be a pussy.

[Yaaaawns. Rolls over onto his side. Look at his belly he is So cute :3 Pet him :3

His catlike pupils are very much dilated when he looks at Wolfwood, and he gives the man a slow blink. This is the only way he's ever going to be genuine with his emotions, it seems, because he can't control these instincts.]

If you wanna break your leg, there are other roofs to jump off of.

[lupusxylem]

[Remind him why he likes you again-

Flamebringer rolls all around and is acting all cute while Wolfwood strains to push himself back up to his feet, groaning like an old man as he goes. He picks up the broom he'd just dropped, hitting it a couple times on the roof to get the dirt off before he goes back to what he was doing.]

As much as I'd love to, I gotta get these chores done first. Shit got filthy somehow in the month we were away.

[thebladebringstheflame]

[Because he roughs you up and you're into it—

Flamebringer's pupils narrow to slits when he sees the broom, and then they dilate again. The broom goes back and forth, and Flamebringer's tail lashes while he's still laying on his back. He is Watching that broom.]

Why does keeping the roof clean matter? It's a roof.

[lupusxylem]

Yeah, it's a roof that gets like fifty pigeons shitting on it per day. You don't wanna know what it'd look like if I didn't clean it off every once in a while.

[Someone would show up to the Grove like why is that church roof white it clashes with the whole Grove and everyone else would frown and shake their heads.]

Add on the whole month that went by...you see what I mean.

[thebladebringstheflame]

Yeah, yeah.

[He is... not listening to Wolfwood anymore. His eyes are darting back and forth as he watches the broom, ears perked, panther claws flexing...

Flamebringer rolls back onto his stomach and crouches low. On occasion when Wolfwood isn't watching, he inches closer, butt wiggling.]

[lupusxylem]

[Because I think it's funnier if he doesn't, Wolfwood doesn't notice his broom's impending demise as he continues sweeping.]

Sucks because half of this ain't gonna come off. Gonna have to come back later with a fuckin' mop...

1/2

[thebladebringstheflame]

2/2

[thebladebringstheflame]

[anyway Flamebringer lunges forward at breakneck speed across the roof, y'know, like a whole three feet, and swats the fuck out of that broom.

It goes spiralling to the ground.

His claws are out and he's scrunching up to go chase it right fucking now, leaning over the edge of the roof like PREY?? PREY RUNNING????? PREY GET PREY GET IT CATCH IT AAAAAA]

[lupusxylem]

[Aaaaand there goes his broom.

Wolfwood kindof throws up both his hands (paws), shaking his head as he watches Flamebringer hurtle off the rooftop after it like the big cat he is.]

Fuckin'- really?

[thebladebringstheflame]

[BAPS BROOM WITH HIS PAWS BAP BAP BAP BAP B



looks up at Wolfwood from the ground with his ears flattened back. He is Standing on the broom bristles with his two forepaws.]

You were swinging it around!

[He was cleaning.]

[lupusxylem]

I was cleaning!

[Yeah, meta text!!

He leans against the steeple again, gesturing at Flamebringer with one of his big meaty paws.]

C'mon, bring that back.

[thebladebringstheflame]

...

Say please.

[oh my gOD]

[lupusxylem]

What? Why? You're the one who stole it!!

[thebladebringstheflame]

[...

Leans down, picks the broom handle up between his teeth. Scrunches up like he might jump back to the roof...

Bounds off away from the church instead. Goodbye he is taking your broom now!]

[lupusxylem]

Wh- hey! Hey!!

[He nearly falls off the fucking roof trying to scramble down, hold on-]

AT LEAST FUCKING CLEAN THE ROOF YOU ASSHOLE!!