⏳ THE SCORCHING ISLE: Oracle Event One ⏳

[beleos]

ARRIVAL

All Bearers have heard whispers of them - the Oracles. Mysterious and unknown entities of an abstract nature, they serve as the heart of each faction’s cause - both as a means to an end and a very real stepping stone in achieving their objectives. To claim an Oracle means growing ever closer to victory: to see your homes restored as they were, or to herald in a new one of your making.

So you go.

A Cornerstone has been set up for each faction; one for the Zenith and one for the Meridian in Yima’s manor and Heliopolis, respectively. They warn you that upon transportation, your safety cannot be guaranteed and there is no telling what waits for you beyond - to be prepared. To make sure you have whatever you deem necessary with you before you go, as there is no telling when - or how - you will be coming back. CONTINUED HERE...

NOTES

Upon your arrival, you woke up with an HOURGLASS NECKLACE. Please refer to the Time Mechanics on the OOC Summary and bottom of this post for details on its usage.

The COURTYARD is frozen in time. Player Characters and the Great Tree are the only signs of moving, free life in the courtyard. During the intro, time magic does not work.

Characters are free to investigate but cannot move beyond the courtyard if you choose a prompt during the intro. You may mingle among your fellow Bearers or speak with [MR. TIBBS] if you so choose. (Also? LOOK AT HIM HELP)

Iconoclasts and Stargazers will notice Aspect benefits/detriments now.

All characters will be weak for the 24 hours - think like mild flu - and unable to leave until Mr. Tibbs has dispersed them. This is the time in which any threads with the NPC will be carried out.

The INTRO concludes with said dispersal of PC’s once interactions concluded. They will be sent to a location around the castle of your choosing; they are free to move about freely from here. Your prompts can start with you waking alone or in the presence of others - whatever you’d like!

Your character will innately understand how to use time magic from this point forward. It will come naturally to them, like a skill they were born with.

CASTLE: OVERVIEW (p a s t)

The Scorching Isles is home to the Atirat, a people of sea-dwellers who have the ability to walk on land. (Think mermaids with the ability to shift back and forth between human and mermaid forms.) As such, much of the Scorching Isles is covered in large bodies of blue water and glistening pieces of ice to accommodate their lifestyle.

THE CASTLE, however, is what dominates the landscape and it's where the Shard-Bearers will be spending their time. The white castle with colorful glass windows is obscured by a thick layer of clouds and fog. Nearly every location on the island has a thin layer of fog that rolls through it, which gives the entire Island an inescapable chill. The castle has artfully built rooms with a CAVALCADE OF DECORATIVE ICE, lavish mirrors, and white plants accented with blue decorations. Several portions of the castle are submerged due to the aquatic nature of the native residents.

And everywhere you go, you find them - STATUESQUE BODIES FROZEN mid-movement. They are haunting reminders of the power in your Hourglass - the very real power to decide their fates.

The castle has many winding paths to explore, as castles often do. There are sleeping quarters, HALLWAYS, a wine cellar, and a few large rooms presumably for diplomatic affairs. Players can use these rooms at their own leisure for whatever purposes they see fit. (Exploration, combat, or supply gathering.)

However, many of these rooms will require some strategy to access their full potential! Atirat were much more comfortable being underwater than many Kenosians may be. Therefore, rooms of higher importance may be COMPLETELY SUBMERGED or require swimming through an underwater pathway to reach them. Very minimal supplies will be kept out in the open for all to reach. More desirable supplies - such as warm clothing, small weapons, treasure, and the like - will be located past or within one of these flooded areas.

Players may gather supplies within and preserve their Sand or use their Sand to make other rooms accessible and gather whatever lies within! The larger the asset you attempt to unfreeze, the more Sand it costs - and the more drained/vulnerable you will be as a consequence, so choose your path ahead wisely.

Currently, a pervasive fog is preventing you from wandering beyond the Castle's limits. Should you try to venture past it, your Sand will rapidly be stolen and you will find yourself suffering the same fate as the islanders if you don't move back to safety quickly... However, if you ask Mr. Tibbs what lays beyond the mist - he will tell you about the thriving farmland, the once-bustling village surrounding the castle, and the beautiful coral reefs beneath it. Sadly, they're beyond your reach - but maybe if the Bearers decide to unfreeze them when the week is up...

LIBRARY (s a f e z o n e)

The ROYAL LIBRARY - A treasure trove of knowledge, history, and glimpses of a fractured past scattered throughout. The lower floor of the Library is void of much reading material and contains several intricate-looking art pieces on decorative pedestals.

A spiral staircase dominates the center of the room, with its once delicate structure overtaken by sheets of formidable ice; it leads you toward the upper levels where a sea of books awaits. There are isles and isles of books, most perched on intricately carved shelves. Many books lay in piles or are discarded onto the floor, and scattered papers are common throughout.

Curious Kenosians may pick out books from the shelves and read on various topics, but players may also pass through this room on their way elsewhere. This area will function as a safe haven where violence and the taking of others' Sand is not allowed; do not disturb the books or Mr. Tibbs won’t be happy!

NOTES

Characters who wish to receive a book with lore specific to the island may comment [HERE]. You will be RNGed a book from a pre-written list of topics. The books may give you a deeper look into the island, its inhabitants, and its history! (Only 1 book per player! Please assume all other books they read are about commonly-available topics.)

THE EATING PARLOR (p a s t)

There are no basic amenities on the island. No hot water, no warm beds, and no salacious magazines (that you know of. heh heh). That would make the Eating Parlour a wise stop for anyone. After all, this could be the perfect chance to procure some provisions!

The EATING PARLOUR has all the equipment one would need for meal preparation. Dried plants hang from the ceiling, and the walls are lined with mason jars filled with every strange manner of presumably edible thing (Is that a head over there? Hmm… maybe you should check).

The parlour also comes with a garden under a massive windowed dome so that the inhabitants could have fresh produce at hand. Many plants have withered, but there are some salvageable plants if you know how to look for them. But beware… Some of the plants have a strange blue glow. These plants can spell potential disaster.

If someone should make contact with these glowing plants, they will crumble into glass shards - glass that will quickly burrow its way under the skin and curse that person with Blight. Blight will make all resources within that person's vicinity slowly age and eventually crumble to dust. (Which I relate to on a personal level tbh.) Iconoclasts will be immune to its effects.

NOTES

Please see the "Blight" section below for more information on its effects.

TREASURE ROOM (f u t u r e)

Faint singing can be heard coming from this room. Once you hear the song, it dulls your senses and leaves you in a haze. There is no stopping your feet from guiding you to it through the doors and into the Treasure room. The door slams shut at your back, sealed with a wall of ice and magic.

Players will find themselves lured to an icy chamber bordered by a ring of cold blue fire. There is a deep pond that surrounds the platform you’ve found yourself standing on. Beyond its glassy surface and crystal clear water, one can glimpse all manner of treasures - from crowns, jewels, ornate statues in various statues of repair, scepters, spears, and books that seem impervious to the water's cold chill.

As you come to your senses, you will find yourself frozen in place and at the mercy of a large statuesque being before you. This beautiful and horrifying figure in a perpetual song is the SIREN, the only Atirat you’ve seen in person. She measures nearly 20 feet (6 meters) from her head to the tip of her long-finned tail. She cradles an icy shard in her arms, singing to it as if it were a child.

She sits serenely in front of a large hourglass filled with white sand, which is bordered by a spear and a lance. Emblazoned in faint text at the base of where she sits reads: “The future lies in our hands.”

NOTES

Welcome to the Siren’s Chamber! Players must use their wit, charisma, or some good ol' fashioned elbow grease to escape the room or break the Siren’s magic. The Shard that the Siren holds contains dormant time magic that players may activate by using the Sand within their necklace. Players can access the future in 5-second intervals and use whatever they find in that time period to escape their predicament.

For example, if they activate the shard by using their time magic, that shard will begin to glow blue. The room around them will shift, and it could change to a point in the future where there is a sword nearby. If you can grab it, now you have a weapon! When the 5 seconds are up and time returns to the present, you will still have that weapon on your person. You may also try verbal communication if you’d like. If your character is someone who would try and talk their way out of a situation diplomatically, they may give it a try!

It is up to player discretion/creativity to think of a scenario you’d like. Each “future" does not have to be the same across player encounters! What one group experiences may be tailored to the player wants (because branching timelines exist). Let your imagination run free!

HALL OF MIRRORS (p r e s e n t)

Should you reach the rightmost wing of the massive castle Library, you will find a door hidden in the very back of one aisle against a wall; it looks as though the door used to be concealed by magicks that have since dissolved.

The stairwell leads down and into darkness. Once you reach the bottom, shimmering light cast from an unknown source beneath sheets of glistening ice will illuminate your new surroundings; you are in a maze of mirror-like ice. This labyrinth is silent save for the quiet creaking of shifting ice that may disquiet you and leave you uneasy regarding the stability of this area… but it holds beneath your feet.

Mr. Tibbs had told you that the “Kaleidoscope” - where your Sand is counted - rests through here, so eventually, you must brave the journey. Is it a trick of the light? Maybe the product of an especially active imagination…?

Did you just see one of your reflections move without you?

NOTES

Please refer to the OOC Summary for details on the Hall of Mirrors!

THE BLIGHT and TIME MECHANICS

BLIGHT

Blight is an infliction that will age supplies and infect people with a creeping disease that steals their Sand. For objects, this includes weapons, food, and items like cloth. It will take a few days to deteriorate things beyond use - so watching your supplies and acting accordingly is in your best interest. Generally, it will make it more difficult for PC's to get by given that their already scarce resources will dwindle and deteriorate - especially since it's 'contagious' through touch.

The Blight will not act quickly enough to severely hamper infected persons, but repeated exposure will cause effects to a person's body - notedly protruding VEINS in the face and extremities, a lower body temperature, and increased agitation. These effects start out mild and grow more severe with each 'dose.'

Characters must touch an object/person that is Blighted to become inflicted with Blight themselves. When that happens, it will become easily identifiable as Blighted from the faint blue, shimmering outline around the infected subject, as well as the WITHERED, FROSTBITTEN or ashy appearance it takes as it progresses.

However, there is one single perk with Blight. (Or is it a perk?) Players will feel reduced impact by the cold surroundings, making the climate around them somewhat more hospitable. Beware of falling victim to a chill you can't feel...

TIME

To use your Sand, each character is granted access to and innate knowledge of a spell they channel from their Shard that automatically manipulates their Hourglass. This allows the remote control of Sand (aka gathering and dispersing), as well as the ability to pull Fragments of time from Shards.

Fragments are literal pieces of you taken from your Shard. They manifest as memories or images displayed on little shards of broken glass (think of the memory being played out in real-time on the mirror's surface), and can be crushed to convert into Sand automatically, either voluntarily or by force. The only stipulation is that the parties must be close to one another, and the Fragment must be exchanged while both Bearers are still. This means someone has to give it to you, or you need to immobilize them before you take it - one way or another.

Once the Fragment is crushed, the memory and associated time of that person's life is lost and your character will suffer amnesia until the Oracle is claimed. How deep this goes is up to you; they could lose a large chunk of time - even all their memories surrounding a person or place for a big payload of Sand, or they could lose very little for a meager net gain.

Sand is automatically gathered or distributed by your Hourglass and added/subtracted to your running total. No need to micromanage. Convenient!

Please note that using Sand to unfreeze anything (resources, a door which can be then opened, etc) is an unpleasant experience. Each time you use Sand in this way, your character will be left feeling weakened and flu-like for an hour or two, which will leave them vulnerable. This effect stacks and scales up to outright KO-ing them for a few hours if they go crazy, so unfreezing too large of an area is off the table!

NOTES

• An OOC POST will be coming shortly explaining how Sand is going to be tallied and the Oracle claimed.
• Should your character attempt to unfreeze any NPC's, please respond [HERE]. NOTE: unfreezing NPC's may result in physical violence with CW's for severe mental instability/illness and a potential reference to self-harm.
• HAVE FUN!!!

CODING

Comments

III - Mirrors

[lachtara]

Perhaps entirely on cue, they could hear the 'tip, tip, tip' of footsteps from somewhere inside the hall. The sound is slow but crystal clear among the quiet. It's not clear where it's coming from since all the mirrors still reflect their own images, but someone has certainly entered the hall with them.

The feeling of the Hall of Mirrors turns oppressive. What magic that has resided here changes when someone else enters - and suddenly all the eyes in the mirror's reflections turn their head to Cid with a disapproving glare.

[youngprodigy]

The familiar doesn't have time to respond, because both look around wildly for the source of the noise. Cid exhales, his breath visible in the cold air. He's no combatant, he shouldn't have come in here without the familiar giving the go-ahead.

He can't very well head towards the source of the noise, but that doesn't matter when he sees every one of his reflections in the ice turn straight towards him. "W-w-what the hells?"

This is quite a bit more than an "anomaly".

[lachtara]

There's a cavalcade of voices that waft through the air as the footsteps grow closer. 'Tip, tip, tip'. Emet-Selch rounds the mirrors as he follows the sound within. Someone is certainly making a racket with their reflection.

"Did you think you could save them when you're so full of hesitation?" A voice calls throughout the mirrored hallway, in a voice Cid may recognize. The 'Cid' in the mirror points accusingly, "You could do it. You could save them with technology in our grasp. If only you had the courage."

[youngprodigy]

Cid's eyes go wide, terror immediately welling up inside of him. As 'Marques', he'd been a shell of a man, blaming himself for things he couldn't even remember. Spending his days wondering why the pious of Eorzea would both with being kind to a Garlean like him.

Trying to figure out what direction to flee to isn't doing him any favors at the moment, disoriented as he is in the room full of reflections glaring right at him. "I... I can't not alone." It sounds weak, even to his own ears.

[lachtara]

"There is that doubt." The reflection says sharply. "The doubt that saw to the ruin of the world. All because you 'can't do it alone'."

The images in the mirror shift, and now the reflection wears the tattered clothing from a ruined future. The fabric frays, the soot marks streak across cloth which used to be pristine white, and the faint spatter of blood on his sleeve which is made clear. "One by one they fell. The very person who stood by you was the first sacrifice to your inhibition."

Emet-Selch finally rounds the corner and the sound comes to a stop. He looks at the reflection and then to Cid before folding his arms. "What did you do now?" He asks, flatly.

[youngprodigy]

Cid stares at his reflection, transfixed, his mouth hanging open. "That's not," he begins, even though he has no idea what he's protesting. Some part of him thinks it must be true, that the Seventh Umbral Calamity had already been his fault. That he should have done more. That other him from the Eight Umbral Calamity... he'd lost so many people. Some Chief he'd been.

It takes him a very long moment to even realize he's been addressed as he pivots to look at Emet-Selch, his eyes wide. "I..." he begins, without having a clue what he's about to say. Behind him, something changes in one of the mirrors, like a planar fissure to the Void opening as a lone figure emerges: a man in dark robes with silver-white hair and golden eyes that seems to grow from neutral to angry in an instant, scowling at the sight of Emet-Selch.

[lachtara]

As a new reflection joins the fray, Emet-Selch looks back at it - him - and narrows his eyes. There is a twinge of...something in his glance. Longing. Hurt, perhaps. His eyes sweep forward to the visage that accosts the engineer and his mind quickly begins to think: what would cause them to see these reflections?

"Some manner of enchantment." He says quickly. Emet-Selch turns and begins his way down the path while paying his own reflection no mind. "The sooner we are out of range of it, the sooner the enchantment will fade." A common thread with most spells of this nature.

[youngprodigy]

"R-right," Cid agrees readily, trying to drown out the noises from the incensed reflection. He automatically moves to follow Emet-Selch, more than happy to leave the hallway and his jeering reflection behind.

He isn't able to walk more than a few fulms before a jeering voice echoes behind them.

"Fleeing, so soon? How utterly unbecoming of you. Are you truly so hesitant to look yourself in the eyes?"

[lachtara]

Ever the leader - used to leading the way with confidence - Emet-Selch continues his way onward through the sea of mirrors. The reflections beside them shift and move along, bending taller, shorter, and more distorted.

The engineer's reflection is quick to catch up to them. "Run from your fate as you always have. You cannot turn deaf ear to the cries of those who need you!" And like a snippet that had been stolen from the gates of the underworld itself, the Hall of mirrors erupts with screams.

They can hear the sounds of the dying; The Warrior of Light, the Scion's, Jesse, Biggs, Wedge, and his second in command - the once bitter Garlean engineer. All a cavalcade of suffering voices echoing in the chamber.

For his own part, Emet-Selch continues walking onward and ignores the reflection behind him. He does not engage it beyond the tightening of his fist. He has heard so much of it in the past. What could this reflection say to make him give pause?

[youngprodigy]

He's able to ignore the taunts from the reflection, but it's the screams that make Cid stop in his tracks, each worse than the last until he picks Nero's voice out of the cacophony. It's enough for him to bring both hands to his face as he collapses to his knees.

The silver-haired Emet-Selch follows close behind, seemingly warping between the mirrors, Darkness billowing in his wake. "How many lives must you destroy before you are satisfied? How many billions more shall you slaughter? You defile the seat of Emet-Selch."

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch stops his paces and turns just enough so that he can glance over his shoulder at his own reflection. Or what was once his own reflection. The youthful complexion and once hopeful eyes have certainly sullied in bygone years.

His tone is sharp as he addresses the specter. "The vow of my seat is to protect the people who are under my charge. Which I will do until the sky falls."

And that very sky had fallen on many shards. Again and again and again, all to screams similar to what they hear now. He had long since stopped hearing them. He turns back and carries onward. "To keep my word and see them walk the world once here, there is no sacrifice too great."

[youngprodigy]

"Ah, yes," the reflection sneers. "There's that shirking of responsibility all have come to expect. The steward of the Underworld, claiming the deaths of innumerable persons is for the greater good. Even though he knows full well the cost to the star such actions will bring. It will be a glorious rejoined Etheirys." The specter raises his arms above him as a new, competing future billows from the mirrors.

Unlike the dark, suffering future shown to Cid, this one is brilliantly white. Nothing but an endless Burn can be seen, with many people in dark robes wandering the land desperately looking for any sign of life. One by one they fall. To thirst, hunger, or exhaustion, it doesn't matter. "He will be the last to fall, accepting his dear friend's actions without judgement until his dying breath."

[lachtara]

His steps come to a halt.

Generations upon generations had come and gone. During that time, Emet-Selch had fashioned himself a shield from the suffering that followed. It was nigh impenetrable; whatever insults or dramatic speeches were thrown his way, their words would never pierce it. It's the reason he held his past so close to him. If held his heart close then no one could break it.

As he turns, there is a sharp look to his gaze, as cutting as any of the glass that surrounds this island. These words and these images are not acceptable even by a mere enchantment. The change in his presence is palpable in light of them both.

He says nothing. Emet-Selch raises a hand and makes a cutting motion through the air. The air around them erupts with the sound of breaking glass as a spell tears through the mirrors around them.

[youngprodigy]

Whatever else the false specter would say is cut off with the shattering of the mirrors. The noise is enough to snap Cid out of his stupor, hands going up protectively around the back of his neck. There's a silence after the spell is cast, and Cid looks around him pensively. "Did... did you break the enchantment?"

The mirrors around them look cracked and broken, with pieces of ice scattered about the hall.

Emet-Selch's double had been as vicious as his, and Cid casts the other man a hard to read look before he slowly stands, visibly shaken.

[lachtara]

"These illusions were confined to these mirrors. Break the source, break the enchantment," Emet-Selch says with a clipped tone of voice. The specter might be gone but the frustration he feels is still present.

His eyes slide over to Cid briefly before turning to head for the room across the hall. This would have made for an ample opportunity to procure some of that oh-so-coveted 'sand', but he hardly sees the point.

Instead, he makes for the exit without another word.

[youngprodigy]

"I wonder what caused such illusions to come about in the first place...?" it's murmured, and not directed towards Emet-Selch so much as it is him thinking aloud. He looks to the shattered remnants of the mirrors for a long moment before he turns, meeting up with Emet-Selch with a short jog.

"Wait just a moment."

He hasn't used much of his sand, well aware of the cost. After all, he'd revived one denizen at great cost to himself only for them to flee from him without a word. He's still not sure he'd made the right choice. Cid visibly hesitates before he pulls a handful of Sand from his hourglass.

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch comes to a stop some distance away to reluctantly oblige the request. He looks back over his shoulder at the sand that has been retrieved, and then his eyes meet Cid's face skeptically. "What do you plan on doing with that?"

[youngprodigy]

Cid scowls, but doesn't withdraw his hand. "I'm giving it to you," he says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

It figures Emet-Selch would seem to believe there's some sort of conditional use to the Sand. "And no, you won't owe me for this." They're allies, after all. Though he remembers little of it, it's not like the situation in Horos.

[lachtara]

The 'gift' is eyed warily. There's a moment of contemplation as he considers the motivations behind such a gesture.

Without a word, he flicks a wrist in the air. The offering of sand disappears in a streak of light, reappearing to fill his own hourglass necklace a little further. Then he makes to leave.

It could speak volumes that he would even accept such a thing. He would make no assumption that this is anything but transactional for ridding the room of his illusion - a mere coincidence.

[youngprodigy]

Cid hadn't expected a response. He hadn't actually expected Emet-Selch to accept the Sand in the first place. So as Emet-Selch leaves he offers a very simple, "You're welcome."

He joins the man only briefly, before walking in a different direction to continue exploring the castle.