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

[ninelines]

If you'll allow me to soapbox for just a moment, my theory is…

[ They're really in it, now! It's time for theorycrafting. It also means that Lodi is going to have to explain his whole Deal in more detail. He'd glossed over it previously, but now that he has an actual chance to tap into his abilities… ]

So, right, like you mentioned, whatever was tamping down everyone's own abilities caused some kind of… buildup. Everything comes rushing out after the buildup so everyone's dialed up to eleven, not able to control themselves, what have you. And then, as you've extrapolated, there's those inherent abilities, or inherent magic, in the Grove, that also gets dialed to eleven. Which could explain why you got a vision.

[ Lodi gestures to himself vaguely. ]

The key difference with uh, me, not to pat myself on the back, is that Sight is already part of my whole deal. It was just being given through a drip feed previously, when we were all effectively cut off. Now, I don't necessarily know how it might all stabilize and what effect that might ultimately have but, at least for the moment, I have unfettered access. So while yours was a flash, probably tempered by varied experience, mine was more… comprehensive? And, honestly, I've already started receiving stronger visions in relation to, uh… life-altering events for some of the people here. Outside of that initial death vision, I mean.

[ He won't say exactly what, since that would be incredibly unkind, but… ]

I'm at least glad to hear that nothing feels off for you. I would've worried about the vision throwing your equilibrium off but it sounds like it didn't, which is good.

[kingincognito]

[ Oh, surely the two of them conversing won't snowball into an hours-long nerd-fest. Surely! ]

Ah, interesting. So this has simply boosted your natural abilities. And you have not noticed any other magicks taking hold?

[ If he wasn't being so careful... Even the smallest flame could advance his Curse. Perhaps he could call Willowisp to help. He is terribly curious. ]

Considering that you arrived while our abilities were erased, there isn't any telling how effective your ability is here at a baseline, either. To tell the truth, I am surprised that you were able to have any sort of visions prior to now. Perhaps it is something similar to how I could still use my smaller bird form, even though I could use nothing else.

[ Perhaps some things had managed to leak through, and they simply hadn't realized the extent of it. ]

Is this... typical for you? Seeing these stronger visions, I mean. Have you been receiving more than usual?

[ninelines]

[ Of course not! That would never happen. It isn't as if they are already ping-ponging off one another at this exact moment in time.

Lodi pauses in his fidgeting long enough to allow his mind to dwell on the state of affairs. The Nine were unquestionably loud in his head, even now. His eyes drift from Joshua's face to some distant point as he flicks between metaphorical radio stations, the light in his eye pulsing to an undefined beat.

He removes his glasses a second later, folding them into his lap. ]

It'd be more accurate to say that there's a difference between how the two have been delivered to me. It seems to me like the innate magic here has taken a form similar to what I'd already had, so they're effectively… feeding off one another.

I couldn't say why I was able to receive visions at all when I first arrived. It's…

[ A faint, scoffing laugh leaves his mouth before he can entirely bite it back. He lightly taps his glasses against his thigh. ]

My situation's a bit complicated. I'd have to give this whole, exposition spiel, which I'm sure you don't really want to sit through. Heh.

Let's just say that I am used to receiving feedback the vast majority of the time, but that these have been similar to when I first started. Real punches in the teeth every time. Uh. Not to mention the physical effects! And they're usually not so specific unless I really reach for it.

[kingincognito]

Ah. So, two similarly-functioning systems that feed each other, then. I could see how that might be... complicated.

[ And the newer one is requiring some measure of adjustment. Joshua can understand. Much like how his wings had been, then. He's always been able to fly as the Phoenix, but having to navigate a human body with wings attached was not easy at first.

It sounds as though Lodi has quite the tale to tell, though. Much like himself. Joshua shakes his head with a smile, lifting a hand to pat his friend's shoulder. ]

You listened to my tale, did you not? Why, then, would I not afford you the same kindness? Please, feel free to tell me as much as you like. I assure you, I am quite interested.

[ninelines]

[ Is it ridiculous to think that the task of paring his experience down into something palatable is more daunting than sharing about it in the first place? Lodi thumbs at the arm of his glasses, glancing between them and Joshua quickly enough to likely make his nervousness a hint obvious. ]

If you're sure. Uh. Well. I had briefly talked about it on the Netbook, but the time period I'm from is what was evidently called the Space Age. I… worked with an organization that, more or less, set their primary goal as establishing first contact. That meant that they were trying to get in contact with extraterrestrials, or sentient beings outside our known space system. I was brought on in a linguistic capacity, to translate and start cataloguing the language of any species we might encounter.

[ Lodi spreads his hands, smiling faintly. ]

Things started getting weird, so to speak. I was having these incredibly vivid dreams. I'd wake up outside my home not knowing how I'd gotten there. I started, uh, hearing things no one else could hear. I didn't know why, but I somehow knew that something was trying to reach me. So, when I heard that call physically, clearer than I ever had, I knew I had to answer or I would… regret it for the rest of my life.

[ He laughs, quietly, leaning his head back against the clinic building. ]

Turns out, that was the Nine. Uh, how do I even begin to explain them? The Nine are… fourth-dimensional beings that are, more or less, the embodiment of the planetary bodies as we know them. They are incapable of existing on the three-dimensional plane as we do, so they require a, uh, a vessel. An Emissary. But they have to be… real particular about choosing, because with most, they just sort of… fall apart. Can't handle it. Even the ones that are suited for the role have to be… have to be changed.

So I got, more or less, pulled from my time to an indeterminate point in the future, hundreds of years after civilization as I'd known it had utterly fallen apart. And I was primed for the role, and then one day I was, well, given the job! The, difficult thing about the Nine is they have remarkably little concept of mortal limitations. So when I say I'm used to it, it was like, uh… going without sleep for a week because they were catching me up to speed, or, every unconscious hour spent threaded between points in space-time, or "hey, sorry, you blinked and the molecular structure of your desk changed because they're rewriting your atoms!"

[ He clears his throat. Glances sidelong at Joshua with a hint of a tight smile. Holy yap. Sorry! ]

Up until now they were just awful quiet. Couldn't get through, I reckon, beyond the real shitty home movies they were showing me in my first month here. They're pretty peeved. It's been a struggle not to, uh, lapse and let 'em start using me as a mouthpiece. I just can't imagine anyone here would take to it too well. Their grasp on human grammar is just, really terrible.

Sorry, that was probably a lot! I don't really talk about it all that much. Sensitive information and all that.

[kingincognito]

[ And again, as Lodi speaks, Joshua listens! Frankly, all of it is fascinating. Fascinating, and more than a bit familiar in an unsettling way. It makes him think about Clive, and how Ultima had intended him to be a vessel, had subtly guided their actions to achieve everything he needed Clive to do to prepare himself.

Founder, he hopes that isn't the case with Lodi. ]

Not at all. In fact, I find it quite interesting. I am, after all, one who would gladly spend his entire day with his nose stuck in the pages of a history book. Though I may not entirely understand the finer details of things like space systems and extraterrestrials, I understand enough.

[ He shifts just a little, smiling reassuringly and gently patting Lodi's shoulder once more. There, there. ]

And these beings, the Nine... Do you know much of their intentions? I only ask because my own experience with something similar did not turn out well.

[ninelines]

No, that's fine, and understandable, even! We didn't even really understand the depth of it when we were searching for them in the first place. I mean, I'd never been to space. I'd flown, sure, but never gone to space.

[ Honestly, thank god for Joshua. Lodi lays his hand over Joshua's on his shoulder and breathes out a long sigh with no small amount of relief. Getting this all off his chest felt… cathartic, in a lot of ways. It was a dangerous topic to simply bring up on the best of days but at least here it felt… distant, in a way. Like something wasn't going to immediately strike him down for bringing it up, or like he wasn't ruining a hundred thousand lives commiserating about it. ]

Uh, no, not really. Frankly, it's part of the reason why they need an Emissary. I was – well, at the time before I ended up here, I was trying to serve in an ambassadorial capacity. Like I said, they have a really poor understanding of humans and while I don't know if it's actively malicious, they were incredibly quick to throw their weight around to achieve what they had determined was necessary or optimal.

[ Lodi winces. The eye flashes. The Nine are clamoring up there! ]

'Eesh. I mean, if you think about it from a human perspective, ripping someone away from an established life because they needed the perfect dance partner is unfathomably cruel. To them, it was a necessity that needed fulfilling. It isn't always cruel, it's… a lack, or a gap, in understanding. Not to imply they aren't capable of cruelty at all, because they definitely were. Are.

[kingincognito]

Likewise, I have flown plenty, but our world cannot even begin to fathom traveling beyond the skies. I have gone precisely once, but it was in pursuit of stopping someone dear to me from harming himself. I do not know if it is feasible to remain out there long term... it felt like an unbearably cold place, even with flames to keep me warm.

[ It's funny, how similarly his own experiences parallel Lodi's. Not entirely, not one for one, but close enough in some ways to make him wonder. And make him concerned for what may lie ahead, to boot. ]

Like most god-like beings, then, they lack any grasp of humanity. But it sounds as though your Nine might be open to learning in some capacity, at least? If so, that is leaps and bounds above Ultima. But I would still be wary. Like as not, they have their own agenda, and they won't hesitate to put it first, as they've already somewhat proven.

[ninelines]

That would be space for you. Honestly, I'm surprised you were even able to get that far without your body giving out. Not – that I'm doubting your abilities, or anything, but space is unbearably, terribly cold, and even with something like the Phoenix…

[ Lodi shrugs a hint helplessly for what feels like the fifth time since they began this conversation. He wished he could assure Joshua more, speak to the motivations and inclinations of the Nine, but there was a reason they needed an Emissary at all. ]

Most of them, yeah. The Outer Orbits less so than the Inner Orbits, but – I don't need to expound on the political inner workings of the Nine. Frankly, I have a feeling that this is the limit to how they're able to influence this place. The fact I'm hearing anything at all makes me concerned about what else might be able to seep through, you know? After last month, I'm hesitant to trust in any prolonged sense of quiet here.