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lifeaftr2020-02-16 08:58 pm
lifeaftr_mods) wrote in lifeaftr2020-02-16 08:58 pm
February Event: The Sound Resounds
FEBRUARY: THE SOUND RESOUNDS
Who: Anyone who wants to deal with some crystalized monstrosities!
What: Something buried becomes unburied
When: February 16th and onward
Where: How could something so terrible reflect so much light?
Warnings: Potential warnings for character illness and body horror; be sure to mark your headers if things get more intense!
What: Something buried becomes unburied
When: February 16th and onward
Where: How could something so terrible reflect so much light?
Warnings: Potential warnings for character illness and body horror; be sure to mark your headers if things get more intense!
I Wish the Tide Would Take Me Over
The Water did a lot of work with the heavens to get that cloud cover to be nudged aside so that you all could access those floating islands. And hopefully you'll be able to get quite a bit out of those fragments of reality while you can still traverse them, because what awaits you on solid ground isn't going to be anywhere near as pleasant.
It seems as though the effort of unveiling those islands has put a lot of strain on the balance of water surrounding Ensō. So much so that those flooded caverns underneath the island have started to overflow. Not very many of you might be left to remember, but those caves already weren't most ideal to go trekking through, even without the discovery of the horrible, humanoid creatures that frequented those areas. The consequences of adventurers' first (and last) excursions into those caverns can be read up on right here, for the curious.
The important part is that, after an awful lot of adventurers perished down there, the Storyteller was able to get everyone to safety (only after being the one to send them down there unprompted in the first place, it should be noted), and immediately prevented the problem from escalating by sealing the underground shut. And for years, that solution has more or less worked out just fine!
Until now. On the morning of February 16th, travelers who live near the monkey compound or the mountain temple will hear a loud rumbling, like the sound of rushing water...right before those big stone doors break violently open and water comes pouring out.
We are happy to leave the choice of damage to individual homes and resources up to you, but at the very least, you can expect that much of the area surrounding both the monkey compound and the mountain temple will be flooded for a few days at the very least - and suffering a great deal of water or structural damage at the most.
Burn Down Our Home
The more pressing issue will be, in all likelihood, the hulking green, humanoid shapes that look to be composed almost entirely of a greenish crystal. Almost immediately after that initial flood of water sweeps over the area, the creatures known as the quartzalcoatl are going to start spilling out as well. While they move slowly, you definitely don't want these things to so much as touch you, for they're capable of spreading a crystalizing "virus" that will steadily consume living tissue and cause crystalline growths to start spreading throughout the body.
This virus is just as awful as it sounds. The crystalline disease spread by the quartzalcoatl cannot be repelled by regenerative abilities, and characters with chances of immunity at 50% or higher will have to RNG the results. Even worse? The local fauna on Ensō is going to be just as susceptible to the spreading virus as any of you. It's in your best interest to dispose of these creatures before they start consuming everything on Ensō.
An important thing to keep in mind this event is that much of these quartzalcoatl have been down there for a long time. Those who either succeed in killing or curing any of the quartzalcoatl who originated in the caves (that is, any that were not formed because someone got infected during the course of this event) will find that when they break apart, it will be to something...familiar. For ease, we have unscreened any comments from that event from our Deaths page, and will also be linking the item claim thread for an idea of what other items you might uncover from the dead.
If you want to find something extra special in some quartzalcoatl, however...we've got a special thread for that, in case you go busting open any of these things that were stuck down in those caves before this nightmare began. Just let us know, and we'll be happy to give you a personalized treasure to uncover, if you so desire!
Things Have Gotten Closer to the Sun
So, for those of you who don't want to resort to pure brute force, you have two options, listed below Characters should be advised that if they undertake one solution, they will not be able to go to the other god for the other - the Storyteller will not help someone who has accepted the Water's aid, and vice versa. There will be advantages and disadvantages to aligning yourself with one or the other, just as there will be advantages and disadvantages to aligning yourself with neither!
If you go to the Water for help, they will bestow upon you their blessing and a powerful symbol that might appear to be familiar, to some. Once you accept this gift, the Water will inform you that need only engrave or draw that sigil somewhere on the crystal casing of the infected and recite the following phrase:
Once this incantation is uttered, the crystal will harden and drain of color and then start to crack and flake away, leaving its victim disoriented and frail and probably quite confused, but alive. The central drawback to this is that as long as the sigil remains on them, they will be unable to contact the Storyteller for any reason - including Item Requests and Death Penalty Removals! The Storyteller will be, in fact, incapable of even perceiving them. The sigil must be removed if your character wants to contact or interact with the Storyteller again. The sigil will be present on the character's body even after the crystal has all flaked off, whether cut into their clothing or dug into their skin. It'll have to be...removed in whatever way you see fit if you want to make use of the Storyteller's services again.
On the plus side, you now have the Water's blessing, and with it the sigil magic that will not fade even once the threat of the quartzalcoatl has passed. Those who take this route may now use it to repel or keep the Storyteller out of any area they wish. This magic will work virtually anywhere, with the exception of the Storyteller's temple. Those who align themselves with the Storyteller may find themselves extremely uncomfortable with remaining in any area engraved with the sigil.
Once this incantation is uttered, the quartzalcoatl will not pass the line you draw, even if the physical line is obscured or destroyed. The area of effect is somewhat limited - the incantation will only work on an area of five feet across at a time - but it will ensure your protection from the creatures for a long, long while. Just the same as the case with the Water's sigil, this ability will endure even after the event's end, and your paper bird will continue to follow you, though you can bid it to stay behind or take its leave if you wish. Anyone who aligns themselves with the Water may find themselves extremely uncomfortable with crossing any such line as well.
By February 29th, the primary threat of the quartzalcoatl and the flooding of parts of Ensō will have...receded to manageable levels, one way or another. The Storyteller will reseal the doors to the caverns, this time for good. So it's recommended that you shepherd any of these quartz abominations into those caves before this happens, in the case that you never want to see them again. Though you could always just...kill them. That works too.
This doesn't mean that the threat of the quartzalcoatl will be gone completely - whether or not the quartzalcoatl are completely exterminated or not depends on how thorough you all are in dispatching them.
I Could Bring Paradise
Of course, there's a lot going on in the background as well. Characters are not required to face this threat, as it is only present on Ensō; you're free to explore any other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. You are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed!
Also remember that if you died this month or this event, to fill out the corresponding form over on our Deaths page! Due to the possibility of a cure, death penalties will NOT be reduced for the duration of this event.
If you have any questions about this event or any others, please feel free to ask them over on our Monthly Rundown post!
( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )
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It's always eyes, isn't it. Yukio doesn't know how to even begin explaining about eyes and demons and the reason for the blue of his fae mark splashed like flames across his face. Even if he could speak, he doesn't know where he would start.
So he just tries to ask Ginko about his situation, raises his hand to his own left eye and makes a motion in front of his glasses like flicking something away.]
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I... lost that eye when I was young, and a mushi ended up trapped in its place. I never noticed its presence doing me any harm, and nobody knew how to remove it. So... there it stayed, until I ended up in Ryslig.
[After a moment of hesitation, he pushes his bangs aside to reveal a fully intact left eye, solid green except for the horizontal slit of his pupil.] This came later, but... when I first woke up on that peninsula, the mushi was gone.
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He doesn't understand entirely, but he knows that it must have been unsettling. The whole thing, from the presence of the mushi to its absence.]
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He doesn't flinch, but it does take him a moment to respond.] ...Thanks.
By now, I'm at least... more or less used to it being gone.
[He's reluctant to say outright that he... almost misses the tokoyami. It feels like a strange thing to admit out loud. But, he guesses that's what happens when you lose the one consistent part of your life, whatever it might be.]
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There's a lot he wants to ask, but nothing he can actually say.]
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I know I've mentioned kouki a couple times, but I haven't really said much about it in itself - do you want to hear more about that? I suppose understanding it might make some things about mushi make more sense.
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However, proximity to light veins still has a significant effect on an area’s fertility, which can fluctuate as the pattern of the kouki’s path shifts underground. Areas above the path of the light vein often seem to be bursting with life, plant, animal, and mushi alike; around harvest season, as the light vein drifts closer to the surface, it can even overwhelm people unaccustomed to it if they enter areas where its influence is particularly strong.
The bodies of mushi are made up mostly of kouki, and they have very little "matter" in their physical makeup; in turn, the kouki that flows underground is made up of embryonic mushi - billions of tiny life-forms with no body to speak of. However, if kouki is drawn out of the ground and bridges the gap between its state of existence and ours, it takes on a liquid form resembling golden, glowing sake.
It’s considered very valuable among mushi masters, as it has a few applications in our work, but we can’t replenish our supplies of it very often.
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But everything that Ginko's said about mushi feels like demons, like exorcists handle demons.
Yukio's snake tongue flicks out, a long slow motion as he considers the entire idea.
He reaches out to draw in the dirt again, wipes an area clear with a swipe of his hand and scratches out some images.
Something that's... probably Ginko. More of those coal tars (he knows mushi probably look different, but coal tars are... relatively easy to draw). A river with coal tars coming up out of it. Some trees, and then some bigger trees. That's the easy part (despite Yukio's art skills), because that's what Ginko explained already.
The hard part is...
A circle on the ground. Inside the circle, a figure that's probably Yukio, and some trees. Another circle, and inside that are more coal tars. Some coal tars crossing between the two circles. The trees die.
.... actually that's terrible and explains nothing and Yukio still can't talk.]
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So... demons work in reverse of kouki?
[That is, at least, his guess as to the basics here.]
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He shouldn't be sitting out here, it's embarrassing.
So he gestures back at the clinic. They should probably go inside.]
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So this is a somewhat surprising relief. Ginko's ears perk up slightly, and he nods and pushes himself to his feet.] After you.
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He'll probably go back into the rain, eventually. There's too much, and it's all going to come down on him again. But for now, as they go back inside, he isn't thinking about it.]