april event, phase one: seeds of unrest 🌱

[beleos]

THE BEGINNING

Summertime in Springstar has been on its way out, heralding the arrival of fall; winter has likewise given way to spring in Highstorm - at least, according to the calendar. Yet there is an unseasonable bite on the breeze - one growing as frigid as the mood among Meris and Zenites in their cities. Between Alenroux’s occupation and talk of ‘the Blight,’ worries have been on the lips of the citizens with increasing frequency - and with good reason. The reports of plant life dying, of objects crumbling, of people whose bodies are deteriorating are dominating the rumor mills and local papers.

Everything comes to a head early in the second half of Pelu.

After an unusual pocket of commotion in the Seat of the Tribune and the courtyard of Yima’s manor, an urgent announcement is made on behalf of both cities: both Great Trees have been quarantined, and no one is permitted in either location without clearance. New rumors spread of an ‘incident’ that saw those in the immediate vicinity of the Trees rapidly demonstrating symptoms of an illness that was becoming all too easy to identify. It had stricken with frightening speed; not long afterward…

The unrest had spread into the streets, and it wasn’t just about the Blight anymore.

Cetina and Kathova wasted no time in reaching out to the Bearers via Communion to offer them guidance from their leaders and incite them to action.

SPRINGSTAR: THE ROOT OF THE ISSUE

Day by day, changes unfold that render the city increasingly dangerous...

ROOTS:

Vine-like roots have begun to thread the streets, creeping upon and over buildings, spreading outward from the Tree in Heliopolis. Over the next two weeks, they will continue to grow in size and become more troublesome, slowly blooming ice-like leaves that radiate a sickly glow.

• GROWTH: Contrary to the Blight’s normal behaviors, some people and things around clusters of vines or leaves can experience a burst of vitality, growth, and splendor as if transforming to beyond peak condition. In a normal citizen, this may result in an almost manic level of energy, reckless behaviors, and aggression. In objects, they become more durable and efficient, but dangerously so - for example, a stovetop cooks faster but burns uncontrollably hot. In plant life, this results in overgrowth that can overwhelm and choke nearby flora, objects, or even people. Then, they burn out an hour after exposure and immediately succumb to a dire state of Blighted.


• CHILL: The temperatures will continue to drop throughout the next two weeks. It will be coldest where vines have clustered and outright dangerously so near where flowers have budded or bloomed in great numbers. This will force some people from their homes.

TIME POCKETS:

In seemingly random parts of the city, areas referred to as ‘time pockets’ have populated. There is no way to identify a time pocket but to stumble into one.

• REGRESSION: NPC’s in these areas will appear to freeze in time once a Bearer has breached the pocket’s radius but appear normal from the outside. Time within has halted at the point the pocket manifested ( typically covering an area like a city street or inside a single large building that sees regular use ). Objects can be freely manipulated but will not fall if thrown, etc.
  • The pocket cannot be left until the Bearer has achieved their objective. Attempting to exit the way they entered, they’ll run into an unseen barrier that is painful to the touch, a sensation of frigidity that travels to their Shard.
  • Their goal will be to locate a past version of themselves hidden from immediate view. This past version of themselves can be from any point in their lives but must be from a moment when they felt extremely vulnerable, isolated, wounded, or fearful.
  • Once finding this past version, they will feel the compulsion to either find a way to reassure their past selves somehow or kill them. Whether it is the Bearer themselves who performs these acts or another Bearer in their company does it for them, as long as their past selves are pacified enough ( to player satisfaction ) or dead, they will gain immunity to the pocket and may leave. The immediate area will remain frozen, however, and the past version will be revealed to be made of roots that will shrivel and die.
  • Note: Bearers will be able to see other Bearer’s past selves, even after they have been freed. Whether the past reflections are capable of speech while functional is up to player discretion.

HIGHSTORM: THE ROOTS OF CHANGE

The snows continue to fall over the city, feeling brittle against your skin...

ROOTS:

Vine-like roots have begun to thread the streets, creeping upon and over buildings, spreading outward from the Great Tree in Yima’s manor. Over the next two weeks, they will continue to grow in size and become more troublesome, slowly blooming ice-like leaves that radiate a sickly glow.

• SACRIFICIAL: [ CW: self-harm ] Where the roots snake and gather throughout the city, NPC’s in several locations are falling victim to the quiet, slow pulse of the flowers and their buds. They will sit and stare at the flowers for hours, unblinkingly, as their body begins to succumb to the Blight. If they are disturbed in any way - a loud noise, an attempt to move their person, etc - they will calmly look up from their worship and crack off a piece of their brittle body before returning to their reverie.
• In order to save them, a pair (or more) of Bearers must sneak up on the NPC - one using a pacifying spell given by one of the faction leaders while the other crushes the flower. If the NPC is not pacified before the flower is crushed, they will become hysterical and the Blight will rapidly consume them, causing them to perish. If they are pacified and the flower is not crushed, the spell will wear off within ten seconds with the same result.

• CHILL: The temperatures will continue to drop throughout the next two weeks. It will be coldest where vines have clustered and outright dangerously so near where flowers have budded or bloomed in great numbers. This will force some people from their homes.

TIME POCKETS:

In seemingly random parts of the city, areas referred to as ‘time pockets’ have populated. There is no way to identify a time pocket but to stumble into one.

• REFLECTIONS: NPC’s in these pockets are moving in surreal blurs, pieces of them moving forward as others move backward, some changing as if time were rapidly passing as others remain frozen still. The Bearers’ surroundings are distorted as if reflecting multiple realities simultaneously.
  • Their goal will be to locate a tall standing mirror situated alone in the center of the time pocket’s radius. The Bearer who first touches their reflection ( henceforth called “mirror-Bearer” ) will cause the world inside the pocket to suddenly stop, reflecting a comforting environment they have fond or pleasant associations with. The mirror will be gone.
• Something or someone the mirror-Bearer highly values, deeply misses, or sees as imperative to their character, goals, or desires will be present. If they make contact with this object or person, the Time Pocket loops and sends them back to searching for the mirror - but they will have no memory of this occurring. Their partner, however, will recall everything.
• Both Bearers will be released if five loops occur without the mirror-Bearer being stopped from causing the loop or if the mirror-Bearer is stopped from reaching their goal for five minutes ( willingly or otherwise ). The longer they refuse to make contact with this object or person, the more tempting and dire the need becomes inside of them.
• Once the Bearers are released, the Time Pocket disappears. If they manage to avoid contact with the temptation inside the Pocket, the roots and flowers in this area will be withered and dying, buying the NPC’s and buildings in this location some time. Otherwise, they will be thriving and dangerously blooming.
• Note: the mirror will not respond to the non-mirror-Bearer once it has been touched the first time.

ENTREE-TING HELP

The Tree of Life is in danger, and you know it. Both Yima and Cyrus have directed all Bearers who might listen to increase visitation to the Tree and monitor it for signs of the Blight - of its leaves changing color, of any frostbitten bark, of its roots withering.

And then, during a moment in which you find your mind at ease, at rest... you dream, even if dreaming is unnatural for you. You dream of yourself sitting beneath the massive bows of the Tree's breadth, at peace. The perpetual dawn's glow warms your skin in a way that seeps into your bones, leaving you certain you are safe from harm. The Tree reaches out, and though it cannot speak to you in words, you feel it is trying to convey a message: one of urgency. One of plea.

But you cannot understand...

Soon, the branches of the Tree are reaching out to others. You cannot see them, but you know they're there; a spiritual tether connects your Shards together, bringing you all into a place of wordless unity. And once your fellows have been summoned, you know what you are here for.

You feel it rather than see it: some meager, barely-there brush of something cold in the warmth of the island's comfort. The Tree is already infected, and the clock is running down for all of you.

When you wake to yourself, a feeling of dread not entirely your own will chase you, and you will find a single violet leaf in your hand.

MISC NOTES

• Bearers start with immunity to the Blight. They will not succumb to the effects of the Blight even if they handle the vines and flowers directly without precautions or care.
• The above effects will occur in small clusters and are not yet spread city-wide during phase one. The escalation of frequency characters will come across problematic clusters or Time Pockets will be slow building.
• For context, it takes about a month from infection to death or dissolution for the average person or object to succumb to the Blight. By the 21st, it will be three days to a week.
• Bearers will be directed by Cetina or Kathova to make efforts to protect the civilians and investigate the manifesting changes around both cities. Both factions are working on their own methods to attempt to counteract the Blight, but neither has produced a failsafe solution.
• The roots will remain mostly outdoors, for the most part, these first two weeks.
• Tensions will slowly ramp up in Alenroux, and there are checkpoints for any non-PC visitors to screen for signs of infection.
• Player characters who die inside the Time Pockets are dead and need their Shards brought to the Tree of Life for revival.
• HAVE FUN!! ♥

CODING

Comments

[sterngaze]

[Liem is not quite prepared when Voryn — who to his knowledge is a wizard and a scholar, learned and experienced — responds to the news that the mirror is magic by reaching out and, without another thought, pressing his hand against it. Too late, he recalls that wizards tend to be known most for their curiosity and love of knowledge, rather than for their prudence.]

Lord Dagoth, perhaps—

[He stops mid-thought as long fingers contact the glass— and immediately the mirror vanishes, leaving, where their reflections had stood, only an elven man whom Liem has never seen before. His complexion is almost opposite Voryn's: golden, and pale of hair. Blood weeps from a hole in the breastplate he wears.

Liem only just has time to register this, and glance from the apparition to Voryn's stricken face, before the city around them changes—

And very suddenly, they are half a block away, on the street where they had made their approach. The mirror is just out of sight somewhere down the road, and Voryn is still standing beside him, looking as though he has seen a ghost.

At least, until he hastens back down the street, throwing his arm out as if to forbid Liem's advance. (This makes no difference; just as immediately as Liem had heeded his beckoning, so does he pursue the other man despite his objection.)]

Have some caution! [The words are uncharacteristically hurried as he cleaves close to Voryn's side.] We do not yet know what magic that was.

[sharmat]

Caution! (decries voryn, throwing an arm out as though he were tearing the very thought from his mind. there is no caution to take now that he has already been caught in the snare of nerevar's reflection.

voryn leads them again down the block back to nerevar. it is not the city's streets they wind through any longer but a long, tapestried hall. kogoruhn, the sixth house clanstead, is dressed in reds, blacks, and golds, and paper lanterns hang to illuminate dark corridors. there are no windows, and beyond the sharp and spiced scent of herbs and incense, the smell of soil and ash can be picked up from the walls, floors, and ceilings. they are deep underground but the stagnant air is not humid nor cool but oppressively hot, and they soon stand before the reason why. their bottleneck opens up into a vast chamber whose ground is constructed of flat metamorphic rock and whose walls are raw, solid earth. lava churns, viscous, from inlets that channel its runoff into draining pools.

on approaching a low stone stage where the mirror once was, nerevar stands before six great bells. voryn does not spare a thought for liem's comfort for liem has ceased to exist with their current company.)

Lord—

Voryn, (nerevar interrupts, reluctant to. nerevar knows that the name itself is both a command and an invitation that voryn cannot disobey. he watches his advisor slow at the steps leading up to him.) ... The Mother Soul has cursed you as She has cursed the Tribunal for their trespass. I had not expected to see you like this, my friend; I believed that the dead were spared it.

(they stand on different tiers which separate them from seeing eye to eye. voryn's head feels heavy but he defies his natural inclination to bow, angry.)

Friend? (nerevar does not flinch even as he watches voryn struggle to spit venomous thoughts at him. perhaps they are deserved. if they are, however, they should both be buffeted by them. narrow blue eyes say this, his mouth unneeded to convey his point.) Prince Azura cursed us our eyes red and our skin grey, but you... you... you inspired her. Your distrust in me, in your most faithful servant. Your betrayal of my confidence in you. And what was it all for?

(stricken, voryn is unable to move. nerevar, who has always been stronger, takes one step down.)

If you had only believed in me and heard my advice... What would have become of us?

We would have arrived at the same conclusion, (nerevar counters. it becomes readily apparent why this person was able to become ruler. his expression is held in neutral understanding, unwavering. his charisma cloaks him, an invisible and intangible barrier. it is evocative when wielded, able to shape one word in all who listen to him speak: hero.

he is someone who raises a sword for others, who ascended from humble beginnings to become a powerful uniter of beliefs and causes. he is daedric prince azura's chosen one, symbolized on his finger by the great ring of the ancestors, one-clan-under-moon-and-star. he is saint nerevar the captain. he is lord nerevar the chimer king of resdayn.

he again steps down to speak more intimately. it is clear even through his invulnerable calm that he still possesses great affection for voryn.)

I will not play this child's game with you, Voryn. That you would still cling to pretence when we have both lost our lives is not like you. I accept the role I played in our shared fate... I was blind to the deceit of my general, my wife, and my teacher. And while I rest in death, prophesied to be born again millennia from now, I shall wait for you all to accept your own.

But right now, you are changed. I do not know with whom I speak.

(with liem at voryn's back, he is unable to see the widening of his eyes.

the taint of discord, however, is able to easily be sensed, and its buildup occurs rapidly in this time pocket. if there were anything that could cause corruption in him so great as to force voryn to absorb kenos' energies, it is contained within this moment. vivec, almalexia, and sotha sil—their very mention compounds with nerevar's dismissal of him.

something within him splinters.)

You do not know? (his voice rings out over a tremor in the earth that makes the bells behind nerevar toll.)

You speak with the Lord High Councillor of the Sixth House, Lord Voryn Dagoth, Dagoth Ur. And the oath that I swore to you, Moon-and-Star, is one I still uphold. If you do not like the bitter thing that I have become in your absence, my friend, brother, and companion, know that it is by your hand that I have changed!

[sterngaze]

[The caution Liem urges on Voryn is cast aside without hesitation — and in scant moments only, the city through which he pursues the elven man is changed. Frosted cobble streets are replaced with a softly illuminated hall draped in rich colours — Voryn's colours — and the still night air becomes oppressively hot. Even as Liem strives to remain at Voryn's side, to ensure they are not separated, he casts frowning glances at the landscape that they now make their way through on their way back to the mirror.

His suspicion that the illusion is pulled from his companion's mind grows stronger when they emerge into a magma-filled cavern, in which rests a set of great bells. This room must hail from Voryn's home province — perhaps even from his own house.

But the golden man who stands within it, Liem still does not know.

He also does not know how they might escape from the trap in which the mirror has snared them. Liem does not see the mirror anymore, and hard though he tries to pierce the veil of magic that he is certain shrouds them, he can see nothing about them but igneous rock, feel and smell nothing but the baking air of the cavern. He does not think he will be able to escape this waking dream without Voryn's help, and his colleague is currently even more deeply entrapped than himself.]

Lord Dagoth. Attend.

[He steps forward to stand abreast of his companion, looking between him and the figure before them. He ill likes the feel of discord gathering in Voryn's presence.]

Do not debate the dead; we will be the only casualties of this contest. It works cruelly on you already, and I have not the means to undo this snare on my own.

[sharmat]

(liem's voice is so distant that it sounds like a buried thought or a half-remembered segment of a bad dream. that he should be interrupted now does not occur to voryn who is tied to this moment by all limbs.

his heart pounds, panting in the aftermath of his outcry.

nerevar looks at him with sadness and with pity. it was his order that brought this lord to ruin and now he is on the precipice of becoming the villain they fought in this war to rid themselves of.)

If it is by my hand that you have been changed, then it is by my hand that you will be saved. I bid you wait for me in Red Mountain until I am strong enough to do so. (he sighs, finally weary of the world and the people in it. voryn flinches at it for it rattles from nerevar's chest, his punctured lung leaking and causing his voice to become guttural.) I will at once repay you for your treachery and then beg you for your forgiveness.

But I cannot wait there... I cannot leave here! I am trapped within this world. Within this dream. Please, Nerevar—(his begging is halted. there is nothing that can be done. there were never any spells that could undo this, and the small smile nerevar offers him in response says this, too. he had always been terrible at magic.

so, there is no hope.

as though sensing this defeat in voryn, nerevar says,) Have faith, Voryn. You are on the right path and you need only follow it. Meridian is just and right; see in Triune Cyrus what you once saw in me. (he lapses into a momentary, thoughtful pause.) ... But first, I have a request. Selfishly and for a short time, I would like for you to delay. I would speak with you further before you must leave here with your new friend.

(liem may be unaware, but nerevar is not. nerevar looks at him, considers him, and then raises his arm.)

Delay your moral anger at your Lord and King. Delay your judgement of his poor choice of friends. Once more call him yours.

(the ringed, gold hand that is offered is taken desperately by voryn, and once more, they have transported away from nerevar. this loop is more violent than the last, propelled back by such a force that voryn's bracing stagger ends in a fall.

there on the street, cast out onto cold cobblestone, he remains, gasping and panting.)

Oh, Liem... Liem, I am not strong enough.

(his voice is a pathetic croak. the proud, regal chimer who had stood in this place only moments ago has been reduced to a deluded monster. his hair hangs piecey in front of his face, red eyes peering out, wild and disoriented, from the shroud created between strands. long nails carve into stone, scraping up gravel and dirt.)

I know that he is dead and I know that we shall follow him if we linger here... but I cannot ignore the words of my King. Though I have mourned my losses and the losses of my kin, brought about by his naïve hand and the poison lies of his false friends, I worship him still. Just as I cannot forgive him, I cannot disregard him.

I cannot, (he says a final time, possessed to move. voryn climbs up onto his feet and once more walks forward into the halls of kogoruhn.)

[sterngaze]

[Liem moves, when Voryn reaches out to take the golden elf’s hand, but he is too late. Once again they are hurled back to that place on the street that is only just out of sight of the mirror, and he gasps in relief at the chill that hits his skin when they are freed of that volcanic chamber. Winter clothing was not meant to be worn inside a cavern heated with pools of lava.

Though he staggers with the force of their transition, Liem does not fall. He crouches next to Voryn, reaching a hand out to grip his shoulder as he claws at the ground.]

They are not your king’s words, [he insists, even as Voryn climbs back to his feet. Unwilling to relinquish his grip on the other man, he attempts to hold him back, to make him at least pause and think before he walks back into that memory. Against the mindless insistence of his forward motion, he will pit first gentle pressure and then, should his colleague fail to heed him, he will step in front of him and grab him on either side of his shoulders.]

Voryn. He does not wait for you there. It is a conjuring of your mind, turned against you. You are dreaming while awake; will you forget all your sense just to wallow in your grief?

if this is too old please disregard!!!!!!

[sharmat]

(liem's colleague fails to heed him. with hands braced on both shoulders, voryn's difference in build becomes stark. taller by several inches, broader up top than the firm but lean dhampir, voryn's own bearing is no longer that of a sorcerer but of a soldier.

eyes fall to liem's offending touch. where they are now is a bastardization of where they were before; caught between two vistas, highstorm is layered unsystematically over the chamber within kogoruhn. snow and magma require a suspension of disbelief as they coexist, clashing as the friends do.

voryn will challenge the barrier preventing him from reaching nerevar by taking a step forward, his intention to force him backward as he addresses his concerns.) He is long dead. He does not represent danger, Liem, but wretched guilt and something far more tender. And you'd prevent me from going to him... I must see and hear him for I will never again have the fortune to. (as he does this, voryn rests his hand on the back of liem's. there's no ill will in it even as it is slid down the length of his forearm to take hold of him there just below the elbow.

what he does is close the space between them, his stare wide with focus. the shard in the centre of his forehead has begun to glow stronger now—discord.)

Please, you of all men must understand my devotion... I bid you wait for me here until I have said all that needs to be said, Liem. It is the most solemn request that I could make of you... for if you disallow me now and continue to interfere, then I shall kill you.

[sterngaze]

[With each step they take back towards that room, and each word Voryn speaks of the shade of his fallen king, Liem feels that he is losing the other man to the burn of his discord. He cannot stop him from advancing, despite the grip he maintains firm on his shoulders, leaning his weight into him. Mismatched as they are in size and stature, he cannot force him back physically, and his entreaties seem to glance off the other man like raindrops hitting glass. Frustration ripples through him, scorching, and he struggles not to let it ignite and consume him with despair.]

Is that the face of your devotion?

[He is desperate now, struggling against hope to make himself heard to someone who has ears only for one man. What is it about this person that commands such blind worship from Voryn, even another world and another life apart from him? Clearly he values his world above the one he calls Lord and King, for he has not been tempted by the promise to see him again — a promise that Lady Yima could surely make. And yet, his fervour in this moment makes everything around him ashes.]

If I cannot allow you to destroy yourself by indulging it, then you will destroy me instead? You throw yourself onto a pyre of your own making; your discord will eat you alive. At least let me ease it first, if you insist on plunging into the flames. This impulsiveness is unworthy of you.