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

code

Comments

[outofsynth]

[Ungrateful fish that he is, Min-Gi shakes his head at the offer to help.]

It's fine. I can do it.

[Flipping himself onto his front is easy enough, but the forest floor is filled with obstacles. His shirt and the scales on his tail offer some protection, but pulling himself along is still unpleasant and his progress is... limited.]

[succiduous]

Right.

[And he will stand off to the side and watch for a moment... and feel a little bad watching for a moment...

Mmm...]

Are you sure you wouldn't like help? I could carry you, or at least carry some of your discarded clothing.

[outofsynth]

[Min's painfully aware of how ungainly he looks, and he really is making terrible progress. He tenses up, pausing as Gnosis offers his help again. It would be so much easier if he took him up on it. The problem is needing to be carried somehow feels even more humiliating, especially by someone he doesn't even know that well. His cheeks burn as he imagines it, angry at his own incapability. Once again he's helpless in a world where everyone else seems to be anything but.

It sucks.]

I can do it.

[But...

His gaze lingers on the mini-synth. Even if it didn't have its magic, it's irreplaceable. Whether he keeps hold of it or tries putting it in his pocket it could easily be damaged while he's moving like this. That's not a risk he can afford. He holds it up reluctantly, wishing he had better options than trusting a near stranger.]

Can you hold this? It's important to me.

[succiduous]

I can.

[Gnosis will crouch and take it, holding it carefully and protectively as he follows along after Min-Gi. For as much as they don't know each other, Gnosis doesn't want Min-Gi to think that complete strangers can be untrustworthy.

(He gets it, because he used to be the same way.)]

Ah, that's right, you play music. You and your friend... Ryan, was it?

[If they're going to walk — or rather, Gnosis will walk while Min-Gi drags himself along through the grass and leaf-litter — they might as well talk, right? He'd normally be one for awkward silences, but now doesn't seem like the best time for it, when one of them is extremely tense.]

[outofsynth]

[It pains him to let it go, but it's maybe for the best. Thankfully Gnosis holds it carefully, and it doesn't take long for Min to stop checking in and let himself focus on pulling himself towards the river. It still isn't an easy task. He has few enough clothes he doesn't want to risk damaging them, and there are plenty of hidden stones or even pointy twigs that could cause him problems.

That, and his tail. The scales seem to offer more protection than his bare skin, but they aren't impenetrable, and being unused to it he doesn't see any option than to let it drag behind him like a dead weight. Occasionally it flops or twitches, but it's almost entirely unintentional and each movement makes him feel a jarring loss of his sense of self.

Conversation is awkward, but it's a welcome distraction even if it does make progress even more difficult. Or would be if it didn't immediately make him realize another issue with dragging himself down to the river.]

Ryan.

[Ryan doesn't know what's happened. He'll be expecting him back before long. He looks behind him, suddenly stricken.]

Maybe we should go back to town. It doesn't seem like I need water, and I'm more likely to find a cure if I can get back there.

[Town is significantly further. With Min moving at the pace he is it would take them hours.]

[succiduous]

I agree, but... no offense, you're moving quite slowly. It's going to take you a long time to reach town at this rate. The offer to carry you is on the table, or I could go find Ryan myself and alert him.

[He gets the impression that Min-Gi really doesn't want to be carried, which is fine! This is why Gnosis offers to find his friend instead, still gently holding the synth like a precious jewel.]

[outofsynth]

[Min-Gi gives him such a look. Yes, he's moving slowly. Offense still taken.

He knows Gnosis is right though. And the though of being left out here to fend for himself until however long it takes Ryan to get here is terrifying. His nostrils flare as he sucks in a deep breath, continuing to pull himself towards the river.]

No. I know. The river's better. It won't take long to get there.

[He sounds almost pleading even if he's not outright asking him to stay. It might still take a bit even with their proximity to it, but it's definitely going to be quicker than going back to town.]