NOVEMBER EVENT | THE HARBINGER ORACLE

[beleos]

HEDGING YOUR BETS

Bearers feel it. Similar to when the Scorching Isles was opened, there is the same tug, from somewhere in the distance. Those who are in springstar feel it from closer, like a blossom of warmth in your heart, you feel the Oracle spring to life. Those in Highstorm feel it too, but distant. Far away. You remember Cyrus’s words, that it would come to life in Springstar, and you know, just from the relative distance, from how far away it feels – He was probably right.

So bearers must make their way to the center of Springstar’s residential district. Finding one’s way to Springstar will be difficult, in fact. Preparations have been underway since Cyrus’s announcement, and Springstar leaps into action. The Legionnaires are already marching by the time the first bearers start moving throughout the city. In addition to any of Meridian’s own preparations, the Legionnaires establish choke points and start organizing evacuations. It will be difficult to make your way through Springstar, but the closer bearers make it to the hedge maze, and what seems to be the oracle at the center, the warmer their chests feel. Throughout the city, it feels warm, like small wicks of heat. The closer bearers become, the more it feels like a torrent. It is burning them to their center and igniting them to their cores. Like the fire of drive, is what it feels like. Like the hunger for something more than just food, or anything else, like the anticipation of victory.

The maze itself is where it is the most intense as bearers start to make their way through the hedge maze. Vines and brambles lie within a neat hedge, and it looks like it is safe to jump, or scale, but the moment a bearer tries to jump it, cut through it, or even go beneath it, roots, brambles, and vines lash out to entrap bearers, and start to drag them down and into the hedges. You will have to figure out a way out – lest you be stuck for seemingly the near future.

Of course, when Dimitri’s hand touches the stone statue in the middle, it all goes dark, and wherever you were, whoever you were fighting –

Every bearer collapses at the same time.

YOU'D BETTER BE A-MAZE-ING!

In the dark, there is that fiery impression of the Harbinger. Competition, drive, disdain for even those that best them. It is clear, in the dark, with your eyes closed, that the Harbinger does not see the Bearers as worthy to obtain it. You feel ghostly hands on your mind, into you, as if it is delving for more, trying to pluck and pull out the right memory. It looks for victories, triumphs, defeats, or betrayals. Something that shows the mettle of the bearer, what it is looking for. When it finds what it is looking for – or is this just a dream? – after the bearer experiences the dream, they will get the distinct impression that it is not enough. That the Harbinger wants more. It wants to see what this bearer can do. It wants to see you rise to the challenge, bearer! Will you do as it wishes, and show it the scope of your mettle, or will you capitulate and let the Harbinger know that it was right – you aren’t enough?

The Harbinger wants you to prove them wrong. Can you do that? Will you use spite to convince it that it is wrong? The Harbinger at the center of this labyrinth imparts to bearers, that it will not allow the weak to succeed, that nobody who cannot reach it, would ever be able to protect them. They look down on bearers, and it is up to you, to convince them that you are worth their attention.

When bearers wake, they will be stuck in a foyer. The walls seem blank, and there is a door, leading further into the maze. It is not… fully dark, everything here seems to be lit just enough to move around without trouble, but it is not bright. Bearers can look left, and right, and see others beside them. They are not alone, but nor are they with others of their faction. No, you can feel it, between all of you, gathered here in one space. The humming of your shared aspect fills the room, as if all of you together in one space feels right.

You will not be able to stay. The foyer lasts only until the last person leaves, and if any try to stay behind and stationary, they will find that eventually a door appears, and the room begins to shrink. You had better get moving!

You must move further into the maze. You will find that grouping up for long periods of time becomes impossible, and moving from one door to the next can find foes, allies, or even neutral parties. Every door you open within this maze, leads to new and unusual locations. You may both walk in, from opposite ends, only to find that the doors are gone when you turn your back. Do you end up on a precarious path over spikes, lava, or even water? Do you walk into a room with your greatest desire, a hunger that can now never be sated? Will you do anything to find your way through the corridors? Will bearers help each other, and resist the call of the Harbinger, or will you push over even your treasured ones to win?

MADE IN THE SHADE

And even further in, as you start to catch sight of them, patches of darkness seep into the corners, into everything. They may be hidden, at first. They may lurk underneath patches of leaves, or in shadowed corners. But the longer bearers are within this labyrinth, the longer the shadows seem. They start to reach out, to pull bearers into their shadowy depths. You may feel malaise, or an unwillingness to continue, once you first step within these patches. The longer you are there, the harder it is to get out. You will need help from your friends or dear ones, or sheer strength of will – but can you fight on, as you start to lose the things that motivate you?

And then there are the visions. People you know, love, or trust, they round corners, just ahead. They seem just out of range, and at first, it is difficult to tell if they are there or not. But they happen to reappear, and then disappear around a corner. Try and chase them, if you dare. When your fingers touch their arm, or grab their clothing, or heaven forbid, if you pull them into a hug – it seems impossible to pull away. They were treasured, weren’t they? There is a reason they appear here, to you. Why would you want to pull them away? Why would you –

They reach out, their fingers seem long, as they reach toward your shard – they will not be deterred by clothing or armor, their fingers seem to bend and twist around the junctions – before they find purchase on your shard. They rip it from you, and it feels like you are being separated from something. It’s painful, it hurts, but the last thing you see, as they hold your shard in your hand, is someone you care very deeply for, placing the shard in the same place on their own body, and your own face smiles back at you, and it all goes black. You are gone. Into… nothing.

NOTES

Here are some prompts to set the scene and foundation of the Exalt Oracle! Please refer to the ooc post for more details about what’s happening in the labyrinth! Feel free to direct questions here.

If your character gets killed by a shadow-copy, please let us know in the reporting post that goes up on November 20th if they touch the effigy. If they do not, please let us know on the deaths page! Don't forget to report any dissipations as a whole! Please also let us know if your character is saved by another bearer, or if your character’s shard is taken by the shadow copy for the entire duration of the event. This will not result in any permadeath, but you might get some cool lore! Teehee! If your character defeats a shadow creature, please let us know [HERE]

Comments

[epiprocta]

[ Three things happen at once -- Fane's toes (and his shoe) yank away from his foot, that errant kick lands on Gen's thigh, and the sudden shimmer of air earns a dizzy blink -- which all contribute to Gen stumbling back one, two steps. And though he's smugly satisfied to see he's managed to procure what he was looking for, that sense of accomplishment only lasts until he tries to take his next breath.

A big mistake, as it turns out. The vacuum immediately steals what breath is in his lungs, and Gen stumbles back a step further as pain prickles through his throat; it feels like there's a hand squeezing around his trachea. Whatever shallow noises he can choke out are accompanied by the frothing of his own spit, forcing him to just glare at Fane to communicate his ire.

Well, that and aim a broad swipe of his empty hand in Fane's general direction -- immediately gouging out a grave-shaped hole in the ground beneath him. The moment he's dropped in, the dirt around him starts crumbling inwards, aiming to bury him. Gen has to assume that cutting off Fane's line of sight will be enough to dispel whatever's been done to him, but hey -- if it also happens to kill this fucker, he won't complain. (Though, do skeletons need to breathe? Maybe it'll just trap him.) ]

[faceripper]

[ Magic swirls at Fane’s fingertips as he stumbles back to regain is footing, but he’s quick to stumble again as part of the foot just isn’t there anymore. Or the shoe, for that matter. He’ll be furious about the indignity of it later, but for now, he’s still engaged in a fight.

A dim magic circle forms on the ground nearby, and as it starts to pull up ghostly shapes of bones as if from nothing—

Gen swipes his hand, and Fane falls into the hole. Both the vacuum and the magic circle stop, though it’s less from a broken line of sight and more the sheer surprise of being dropped suddenly breaking his concentration. He lands painfully on his knees and looks up sharply just in time to see the dirt crumbling in around him.

It’s not quite the same. But it’s close enough.

There’s a pang of fear, real fear, as the dirt crumbles in and starts to bury him. Once, before he’d become this, he’d been sealed away in a tomb and left to literally rot, but never to die. A grave, a tomb, they’re both a resting place. He still feels that visceral feeling of panic as the world closes around him. It comes out in his voice as he shouts. ]

Wait—

[ But if there was more to say, it’s cut off as the dirt fully covers him.

…But it doesn’t matter so much now. He doesn’t need to breathe, but nor can he cast his spells with no target in sight or even a patch of ground he can see to summon the Bone Widow. So, he just claws through the grave dirt to try and find some purchase to climb back out. Soft as it is, it’s proving difficult. ]

[epiprocta]

[ It's a small mercy to Fane that the dirt simply falls upon him. The ground that closes in on him is heavy with its own weight, but it's no more forceful than that, and he should be able to start clawing his way back into fresh(er) air with a little effort.

Though that mercy is less out of Gen's generosity and more simply because he's distracted catching his breath.

The dissipation of the vacuum had come with the disorienting sound and sensation of air rushing back into the space around him, and Gen had promptly buckled in place, doubled over hacking for air. Even if he'd only been deprived of air for a few moments, his pulse still rattles in his ear loud enough to drown out the sound of his own coughing; it's less the oxygen deprivation, and more the simple, animal fear of being subjected to something he doesn't fully understand that has his adrenaline levels spiking. And even as he swallows thickly, frothing drool lining from his chin, he knows -- he should leave. Now.

God knows what that fucker would have done if that stupid magic circle of his had been allowed to activate.

By the time Fane manages to poke his head out of the loose dirt, clawing his way back to freedom, Gen's stumbled his way over to the Harbinger's effigy. And though Gen's gaze whips back at the sound of that movement, his nerves still on edge from the moment of suffocation, his hand's already outstretched above the effigy's own held-out, waiting hands.

The handful of bones composing Fane's toes, as well as his sandal, are dropped into the effigy's grasp. ]

[faceripper]

[ A heart that’s no longer there hammers like a phantom, or at the very least, that’s what Fane feels. It’s a similar reflexive fear that they both experience, but it’s not exactly something that will join them together. But when the moment passes and Fane’s more rational side regains control, he starts to claw his way out and up. It’s difficult, but he’s able to reach out and grab the “edge” of the grave and pull his way up. It’s probably a startling sight for Gen too, since the dirt moves smoothly between bones, including leaking from eyesockets and under his jaw.

However, that horror movie style imagery is a bit less impactful when said skeleton watches his toes and sandals simply disappear into the effigy’s hand as the sacrifice is accepted. He’s not completely sure what he’s just seen, but it almost doesn’t matter. The point is, part of his foot is now somehow gone??? ]

You—

[ He claws out further with a noise of frustration, but right away, magic returns to the area as that sigil does too. At least now Gen has a way out, since with the sacrifice, the door opens to release him. ]