EVENT & TDM 034

[sticksandbonesmods]

WAKE UP

Cleaving across the sky of Aldric’s Grove is a deep black gouge — a rift, an open wound, that blots out the sun and moon in their respective orbits. Looking into the rift so high in the sky yields little; it’s too high up to actually see into it, but on occasion, flashes of the cosmos seem to flit through it.

Then, as the current residents of the Grove might say, people start to fall out of it, tumbling through the skies and painfully through the sky barrier preventing those on the ground from reaching those falling. New arrivals will find themselves careening through the stars and suddenly through a constantly-reforming magic barrier that feels like glass against their skin. Lucky arrivals will be caught on the backs of either a large, rainbow bird, or a golden scaled dragon — Aurora, the Sky Guardian and Sehul, the Sun’s Aide, respectively — before they hit the ground and become a smear in the grass. Unlucky arrivals won’t hit the ground thanks to timely aid from the remaining Guardians, though it’s a tossup which hurts worse: getting caught in a conjured bush made of thorny vines to break the fall thanks to Moder, getting tackled out of the sky by the tiny stone-skinned gargoyle Zahliya and rolling across the grass with him, or being grabbed by a mass of Callan’s tentacles only for him to decide he might deliver to you a “hello” bite.

At least the River Guardian Sinann sees fit to heal your wounds.

The magic here feels thin, everyone notices. New arrivals may find out from the old hats that magic was nigh nonexistent for several months, and the steady trickle of it returning has been akin to running the tap through a snowstorm — a drip, drip, drip, but the pipes still appear to be mostly-frozen regardless.

It’s just as people stop falling from the rift that the pipes finally burst.

PERCEPTION CHECK!

Suddenly, magic in Aldric’s Grove is unfamiliar and foreign. Those of you with existing magic and similar powers may find that your abilities are uncontrollable — that candle you were going to light with your fire magic is suddenly entirely melted and your bedroom is ablaze, or the healing magic you tried to use bursts outward from you so strongly that it saps all of your energy for the rest of the day when all you wanted to do was patch up a scratch. Things like this are a common occurrence, as though you’re a brand-new spellcaster all over again.

In addition to this, the magically-inclined and perfectly benign alike will feel something else brewing beneath the surface: the Grove’s own native magic suddenly becoming your own. This, too, is impossible to control — visions from the Blessing of Foresight plague your mind, the alchemy granted by the Blessing of Life shatters the vials of potions you attempt to make, and the summons from the Blessing of Conjuration do not heed your command. The elemental spells now at your fingertips are far more destructive than you intended them to be. Whether you’re an experienced caster or not, the leylines of the Grove remain wild and untamed, lashing out from months of suppression.

At least when the occasional monster strolls its way into the Grove past the flickering barrier of the fog wall, it’ll be instantly vaporized by you trying to use your abilities on it. Probably. You may just nuke yourself from orbit in the process instead.

-Players should scroll down to the “magic” section on the linked page for the full breadth of their abilities that can be freely played with.
-Magic from each Blessing is available to use up to Tier 3; the Gifts of the Sun & Moon are unavailable.

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE

With the chaos of the Grove being new and different, Ydalir the Trader takes it upon herself to find as many old spellbooks as she possibly can. This native magic has been untapped for eons, and with the sudden influx of random fireballs and ice storms every three and a half seconds, she’s taken it upon herself to dig up the ancient texts.

Unfortunately, they are ancient. Ydalir sits in the centre of the Grove and waves everyone she can see over, you included, before handing out random tomes with discoloured and dusty pages. She’s surrounded by them, towers upon towers of unsorted texts walling her off from most viewing angles. “I think I need help sorting these. And identifying them. And seeing if they’re even in a language that makes sense to people. There are hundreds and I’m stressed.”

She punctuates that with a laugh.

“You can keep any tomes you like or that you think will help you get a handle on things. Ooh, and I’ll give whoever helps sort these dusty old books properly and neatly into the library — no cheating, and don’t lie to me — some candy. I made it yesterday.”

Unfortunately, Ydalir imbues her candy with magic, too, and with it being haywire… you can expect effects, depending on what you eat. Have fun! Or don’t! She’s not your mom!

Chocolate Hearts	You turn invisible for 10 minutes, but your invisible form is surrounded by floating pops of heart-shaped fireworks.
Rootbeer Bottle Candies	You are completely immune to the effects of alcohol for 4 hours. When the immunity wears off, you immediately experience a type of drunkness that can only be described as "4 hours of drinking at the New Year's Eve party".
Cat-Shaped Sugar Candies	Wherever you go for the next 15 minutes, you do so by sprinting, leaping, and swatting at things uncontrollably. AKA: you have the zoomies.
Spiral Jawbreakers	You are instantly teleported to a different location in the Grove, forest, or beach. Anyone next to you is also teleported to that same location.
Gummy Pasta	Your hair grows uncontrollably long for 1 hour. Chopping it off only makes it regrow. After 1 hour, it will automatically return to the length it was previously.
Spicy Cinnamon Candies	Every time you exhale for 30 minutes, a small burst of flame comes from your throat. A harder exhale will let you breathe fire that smells like cinnamon.

SHORT REST

The month drags on and on. Every morning someone casts Fireball. Every night, someone’s summon bursts through a window, steals your food, and runs. Luckily, the chaos starts to slow as the magic flowing through the leylines is finally used up, and the Grove’s natural magic — and your own native abilities — start to listen to you again. It makes resting easier, at the very least. No longer do you have to wait for your window to automatically repair itself after something smashes it.

You know, unless someone wants to start throwing completely mundane stones at it.

With everything settling back into a sense of normalcy again, Ydalir is… still doing things. She never apologised for her candies setting off a chain reaction of chaos, but this time, she’s not feeding you. Kind of. “If you want to stay connected to the leylines here and maintain some of the magic native to this place, here’s a spellbook for you to write your spells in, and—” she slams a leather-bound journal into your lap, a quill on top of it next to a small crystal that looks like it’s made of quartz. “A star shard! You’ll need to eat that to anchor yourself to the magic here. It’ll taste like sugar, uh… and it won’t do anything weird to you this time, I’m so sorry. Anyway, you should go out and practice with your peers! It’ll make all of this easier.”

If you head out, it looks like you aren’t the only person who’s been snagged for a bit of a magic lesson. It might be worth asking the more experienced spellcasters to help you with whatever new school of magic you picked up, or you could grab a study-buddy that’s on your tier… or you could just rawdog it and see what happens. Surely it won’t be as catastrophic as when you tried to do that throughout the month.

-New characters that app while this TDM is good (March + April) & existing characters already in the game will be grandfathered into the magic system, automatically gaining one Tier One Blessing of their choice without the initial 10-thread buy-in. The rules on the page must still be followed.
-Existing characters with ties to Beiwe & Ourania are free to pick up Gifts of the Sun & Moon at this point, instead of a Blessing.

Spark Notes (Click to Expand)

summary

WAKE UP: New arrivals to the Grove are falling out of the sky! They will be caught by the Guardians, but they'll be injured. Please help them.
PERCEPTION CHECK!: Everyone's magic goes out of control, and new magic starts to spring up and be freely used. No one asked for this but you sure do have it!
ROLL FOR INITIATIVE: Ydalir needs your help sorting through these magic tomes. You're free to read them and try to make sense of anything in them as well as claim one for yourself if you find it useful. When you help her, you will receive candy that has Effects™ in it. Whoops!
SHORT REST: Magic levels start to equalize, and no longer is life a struggle magic-wise. Ydalir will give you a star shard if you'd like to anchor yourself to the Grove's magic and keep some of what you've learnt.

out of character

It's March! Reminder that TDMs are game canon. Don't mind my notes on the prompts this time (but do mind them because I need you to follow the rules also). Questions about the magic system should ideally be directed on the magic page itself. Also does someone know how to get anchor/jump links to work on my magic page because no matter what I did it wasn't registering my div id tags and I'm starting to go insane... please let me know thanks-

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

Comments

[galaxyfarer]

[Cookie... Stardust looks up and smiles when Pavlova laughs]

My name is Stardust Cookie.

[he says this, but then looks down at his hands, the fingers]

You mentioned that magic is unreliable. Is that the reason why I have a new body?

[lovelyredthread]

[ Stardust... he doesn't remember hearing that name before. ]

Hm? Oh... no. That's something that happens to all Cookies when they get here... we still have jam, and I still have things like my wings and halo, but outwardly we look like "humans". I guess because we were when we were here before? It'll probably be an adjustment. Skin and bone is a lot different than our dough was.

[ It's not all bad but it is definitely really weird. He'd panicked horribly when he looked down and saw witch-like hands ]

Magic being unreliable is a separate thing... it got blocked for the last couple months and it's taking a bit to come back.

[galaxyfarer]

[blocked magic! HMMMMM... don't like that. Stardust sits up again, letting out a sigh. this body feels so weird, not light at all. he feels so heavy and clunky. would he still be able to fly?

still, if other Cookies have gotten used to having human bodies, then so will he. he must, for however long he is here. which makes him think of another question]

There must not be any way to get back to Earthbread. How long have you been tra-- erm. Held here?

[lovelyredthread]

You can say trapped.

[ No point in sugarcoating it. ]

It'll have been a year soon, and others have been here a lot longer.

[ He rests his chin on his knees once more ]

Still, People are trying to discover a way to leave. It's just going slowly.

[galaxyfarer]

[Stardust winces visibly]

A year... With no way to get back home. I am sorry.

[no way that will happen to him. right?]

[lovelyredthread]

Don't be. Everything considered, I'm... probably doing better here than I would be on Earthbread.

[ He has very little to look forward to there and... at least here he has friends. At least here he has a family. He's cared for here. So long as the Forest leaves them be, then... it was better than being abandoned and walking on eggshells for the only one he had left. ]

[galaxyfarer]

[this is a conundrum. this Cookie is happier in a strange world with a new body than being on Earthbread? maybe it won't be so bad. Stardust traps his lips in thought]

I... I see.

[he doesn't see at all, but he's trying, Witches help him]

I'll admit, I do not enjoy the idea of being trapped. I value my freedom too much. But, if you do not mind it, then I shall try to accept it, as well.

[lovelyredthread]

Ah... no, I was already trapped before. That's part of why I don't really mind it. This place is more or less the same as where I came from.

[ It's unfortunate that he's so used to it that it no longer registers. ]

If it helps, the people here aren't that bad, mostly. Some are a bit prickly but most are friendly enough. You shouldn't have too hard a time.

[galaxyfarer]

[trapped on Earthbread? Stardust does not wish to pry, but he is alarmed. maybe they'll come back to this subject, but he doesn't feel it's his place to ask yet]

...Could you explain more about how we got here? Or, at least, what our purpose for being here is?

[lovelyredthread]

[ He's glad for the topic shift but this particular question is probably more alarming. He averts his eyes. ]

Mm... It's not exactly a pleasant reason.

[ And he can't break out the shadow puppets to explain like his father had for him. Ugh. ]

I told you about the past life part, but the reason that's relevant is because a vengeful entity controlling the forest has a bone to pick, and its taking that out on us.

[galaxyfarer]

[he looks like he is thinking]

Us, as in... our past lives? Did we do something to harm this entity?

[lovelyredthread]

From what I can tell, not directly. It might be a case of being blamed by extension since this place is the closest to where it was sealed.

[ There's a lot that doesn't exactly add up, or that they just don't know yet. He's putting it up to the forest being a petty bastard. Understandably angry about being imprisoned but at least take it out on people who actually caused your suffering? ]

But I don't know everything. Knowing too much about it gives it power so generally we're only given the basics to avoid granting it more.

[galaxyfarer]

[strange. Stardust does not like that he cannot know more. he wonders if he would be able to talk to this entity, and apologize on everyone's behalf. he's fairly strong, and he knows what it's like to be petty!

...but, perhaps, he is being overly presumptuous. if it were that easy, these people, and Pavlova Cookie, would likely not be trapped here. so there must be more that an outsider would not know about going on beneath the surface]

What does it do, then? To take its anger out on us? Are you saying we're not safe here?

[lovelyredthread]

Generally speaking we're safe in the town proper. The shops have safe things to eat, and there are specifc fruit trees that we can pick fruit from. We can take fish from the river as long as we return the bones and scales. But every now and then something bad will happen where we are not safe. It has regularly turned our fears against us or put us in situations where we could die.

Going into the forest itself can be dangerous too, since there's a corruption that allows it to control you if it is allowed to sit untreated too long. If you've been in the forest and start hearing voices or feel weird, I'd ask Zahliya to check you for corruption.

[ Kind of terrifying. Thankfully it's not something that's ever seemed like it gets too far with Zahliya's help.

If he's honest, he's wanted to talk to the forest for a long while, but he knows his father would never allow that. And he's probably smart to forbid him from it. Pavlova just can't help but see the Beasts in him though. ]

[galaxyfarer]

Corruption magic...

[he sighs. this all sounds terrifying. Stardust doesn't know how he's going to manage. he just needs to get a hold of his magic, and at least he'd be able to defend himself. and others]

Thank you for being truthful about our situation. Oh. And... for saving me.

[lovelyredthread]

I don't think that anyone benefits from not knowing our situation, honestly. Beyond maybe spacing it out.

[ He gives a little shrug, but at least... tries to be somewhat friendly since the guy was clearly at the point where they know the basics but don't know where to go with that. ]

But you're welcome. It kind of startled me actually, new arrivals don't usually drop out of the sky like that.

[galaxyfarer]

It sounds like... I'm experiencing a lot of things that don't usually happen here. What would you say is a usual day? In this place...

[he's almost scared of the potential answer]

[lovelyredthread]

A usual day is honestly pretty peaceful. I usually tend to the garden or bother my father and White Lily Cookie. If they're busy I might help Luca set up at the Watchtower or help Ain at the tailor shop...

There is downtime between the things that entity puts us through, and the passive stuff doesn't get dangerous if you're careful.

[ When it's bad it's very bad, but it's pretty... normal the rest of the time? Maybe his definition of normal is skewed though. ]

[galaxyfarer]

[the name White Lily Cookie sounds familiar, but only like Stardust Cookie has heard it in passing. hm]

This is good to know.

[he nods]

I was a bit worried when you said the entity wanted revenge. Honestly, I'm a bit relieved to know that you are alright.

[lovelyredthread]

Me?

[ He looks... puzzled. ]

Shouldn't you be worried about yourself? I'm alright

[galaxyfarer]

You've been kind to me. It's only natural that i worry about you. Though, I suppose I am worried about everyone else, too.

[is that wrong?]

[lovelyredthread]

[ Not wrong, he's just not used to it. That much seems clear in how he softens ]

You seem like a good person. Just don't forget to worry about yourself, too.

[ Speaking of which... ]

I don't know if anyone's at the clinic right now, since it's late. Are you tired?

[galaxyfarer]

[oh, a clinic!]

...I could rest, I think.

[he had been dozing on the train, before his rude awakening]

[lovelyredthread]

I could get you settled at the clinic, if you think you need that, or I could help you get settled at the Inn and you could check the clinic tomorrow? The clinic is a short walk right of the inn.

[ It was probably unlocked with how many people probably just got injured falling from the sky-- ]

[galaxyfarer]

[oh, an inn! that sounded so cozy... like a vacation?]

I think just finding a place to rest will be alright. I don't feel as though anything is broken, and I am no longer in pain.