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

:))) slorps your ideas like a fine pasta salad

[lotusflower]

The bookworms are going to love you.

[A historian! A guy with a photographic memory! A nerd! They will eat him up, and at least Kanda won't have to worry about the rabbit getting himself into any trouble with a gaggle of geniuses, he... thinks. That's probably true.

...who is he kidding, this is a recipe for the lab blowing up somehow.]

Probably. There's a library north of here, too. [He was doing his own research. It felt weird and wrong to have his nose in books when he's much more combat-oriented.] Not that I looked into the history section too deeply.

two words to consider: hallucinogenic moss

[inkandhammer]

[A pout from him. Don't you dare think to keep him locked up inside. At least past recovery. He'll go stir-crazy in no time at all. He's an indoor-outdoor cat, as much as one would like to keep them inside. Besides, Lavi's not one for experiments, they can blow up this "lab" by themselves.

Was gonna have him volcano blessed, but conjuration because of bonds was just too good to pass up. He could've been a fire extinguisher...]

If they're gonna be as chaotic as those books, 'll pass for now. [Despite his best efforts, that bowl is empty now and the bread is long gone. And as much as Lavi would love to have seconds, it's probably not good for him.]

hilarious. added to the setting automatically because i love cursing my players' lives

[lotusflower]

The ones I briefly got into seemed normal enough.

[Weird that Kanda's reading all of a sudden! Don't worry about that, it's not important, he's going to attempt to quickly flip the subject around.]

You ate that about as fast as Beansprout eats anything. [An observation and nothing more, though Kanda's at least entertained by it, judging by the glint in his eye.] Feeling better?

i've been dying to try and work it into a game/muse box premise but alas

[inkandhammer]

[Raising...an eyebrow.] Yu picked up a book for somethin other than to throw it at me? [Or whatever nearest equivalent would be without Lavi present. Which...was probably Allen. Maybe Link.

Huffing now as he sits up straight, arms crossed over his chest.] It was just good. 's been a while [Months.] since I had anythin substantial, yeah? ...But yeah. More steady.

ALAS...... been there

[lotusflower]

[ROLLING his eyes. At least Lavi doesn't look like he's about to pitch to the side and perish, though!]

I promised Beansprout something. That's all. Don't make a big deal out of it, you know I keep promises, and that's all it is.

[inkandhammer]

[He wasn't going to in the first place! So long as Kanda didn't try and treat him as normal. Which he hasn't. Which is...slowly getting more concerning, not gonna lie. This isn't very Kanda.]

So what now? Think the tailor is back in their shop? [Lavi should be free to roam the streets as he is, yes?]

[lotusflower]

[Kanda has gone through, checks notes, a few things since they last met. He knows he's being a bit awkward, but imagine admitting that he heard from Allen that Lavi was fucking suffering and was, shock and awe, moderately concerned! It'll be like pulling teeth with him. He may opt to keep said teeth for as long as possible.]

Probably. I don't keep track of that guy's schedule. [Or anyone's schedules, really. He expected the bartender to be here, after all, and instead they got ghosts.] If not, I know Heimr sells clothing.

[Just not, y'know, stuff that's tailored to the person and custom-sized and all that. Heimr is a busy man!]

I guess I'll let you hop to it. Try not to get in trouble again so I don't have to hear Beansprout bitch and moan, yeah?

[inkandhammer]

[He's had more adventure than Lavi, that's for sure. Not fun adventure, by far, but seeing as no one likes the dentist, we'll agree to stay out of there for now.

Well, more so that Lavi shouldn't risk running into him and be kidnapped.]

Suppose I should go find a few of those shells then, yeah? That way I can at least get some shoes, won't horrify any townsfolk. [While dirty, his sickbed clothes aren't torn.

Snorting, running a hand through his hair.] 've already been told to stay out of it. And the ruins. For now.

[lotusflower]

[Kanda wonders how horrified they'd be. Some of them seem quite feral to him, but there's also some kids who walk around with cameras and talk weird and might say something awful like "dude you have the grippers out for free??" so yeah, shoes may be for the best. He does know that if Heimr sees Lavi, that Lavi is going to walk away with at least six pairs of shoes. The old man is particularly concerned about everyone here, which is for the best.

None of this gets voiced, because of course it doesn't. Internal monologue continues to be internal while Kanda leans back in his seat.]

They're in the muck in the river, you'll find 'em. [...] We'll group everyone up before we go explore any ruins.

[Including Link, Kanda supposes, while making a face that is a telltale sign that he's Thinking about something (someone) (god he fucking hates that CROW) and not voicing it.]

[inkandhammer]

Probably best to do tha' while I am barefoot, then. No need to try and keep too clean.

[Grousing a bit at this.] Ruins can't be so dangerous that we need a group of us to go. [Unless they want to make it a picnic outing, anyway. There were people in the not too long ago (for them) times that would do that. Same with picnicking in the graveyards, make a whole day of it! (I have too much weird knowledge from playing him...)

Lavi notices the face.] Bee in your bonnet 'bout someone in this group?

[lotusflower]

You need some special glasses from Heimr to go past the fog wall as far as I know, and everyone insists the woods are dangerous. I don't care about that alone, but with all the chaos going on with the random fucking magic, it's probably better to travel in a group anyway.

[He'd love to let you go, Lavi, but his own haywire magic had him on the goddamn ground not that long ago. Sorry not sorry!]

Don't you have shells to go dig up? [Grumpy!] ...it's the fucking CROW. That's all.

[inkandhammer]

[But he has ~*~SPECIAL EYES~*~, Kanda!!! lol No, no worries, once he gets close enough to see (or not see) that the fog and woods are not to be fucked with, especially without a weapon, he'll wait.

Putting his chin in his hand as he leans on the table.] Two-dot is always frustratin, though. [But Lavi, there have been developments in this relationship now. Not that anyone has yet told him anything.]

'll make my way back to the river, yeah? If Allen comes lookin for me in a tizzy 's where he'll find me. [Getting to his feet now.]

[lotusflower]

[Oh the things Lavi will be finding out soon, probably.]

Got it. If he comes looking, I'll tell him.

[...snidely, with a stupid little smirk as Lavi is headed out:]

Don't fall in and drown.

almost done with lavi's app~ (getting frands to review) & updating wuwa (8+ months gone)

[inkandhammer]

And deprive you of the joy of pushing me in yourself? Perish the thought, Yu~

[He must be feeling a bit better.

Because yes.

That was indeed a light hair tug.

Before he's scurrying out the door.]

gasps excitedly... rubs my hands together like a little fly!!!! i will see you soon >:3

[lotusflower]

[Oh Lavi you're so lucky there is a table between you stopping Kanda from tackling you to the goddamn floor, though the swipe he goes for says he Might get your ass later. Better run, little rabbit!!]