⏳ 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

[fishfearme]

[Byleth, of course, takes the question at face value]

No. There's no party. Dimitri and I were reacquainting ourselves.

[What a way to phrase 'coming to grips with the fact that we come from alternative timelines']

[hauntedking]

Ah-

[ He suspects Claude has not, in fact, just wandered in here. But he's not going to call him out for no good reason. He offers a slightly strained smile, though. ]

...as Byleth says, we're just catching up. It's... been an interesting conversation.

not me hitting post comment accidentally

[leicesters]

[To not have Byleth smile back or maybe even throw in a quip of his own throws Claude a little, and his cheerful expression freezes slightly, but he attempts a recovery after that slight stumble.]

Uh-- I'm sure it has been. [Between that and Dimitri being around at all and in his right mind, they make quite the offputting pair.] But I'm glad I ran into you both, because I wanted to pick your brains about everything going on. Is now a good time?

[fishfearme]

[The air was slightly awkward, but Byleth was immune to it (he was used to awkward airs). He glanced between Dimitri's strained smile and Claude's less strained but still carrying some sort of tension smile and frowned minutely in confusion.

Were they not allies in their strange alternative timeline? Last he recalled, King Dimitri and the leader of the Leicester Alliance had built a very friendly rapport, even if they didn't quite fully trust each other. Here, it was... tense. Awkward. Byleth fidgeted with his gloves anxiously.]

I'm free to discuss our situation. [he hesitated before cautiously continuing:] While we may come from alternative timelines, we are the closest to what we can call allies in this land. It would serve us well to freely exchange information and work together to achieve our mission objective.

[hauntedking]

That... [ Dimitri takes a slow, deep breath and tries to let the tension bleed out of him. His mind is still racing with the knowledge that this isn't "his" Byleth. That he's still alone in some regards, even if the man he cared for is here - just different. It's distracting and he tries to shut the thought out of his mind. ]

...That is something I wholeheartedly agree with. Claude - do you have an opinion on the situation? Or thoughts on what we're doing here?

[ And the whole faction thing. ]

[leicesters]

Ah, so you're both seeking the counsel of the wise veteran who survived the previous conflict, are you? [He puffs himself up with a smile as if they've pandered to his ego, but the joke doesn't really last, and his expression becomes more grim and thoughtful. He glances over his shoulder to make sure there aren't any (other, besides him) eavesdroppers, before looking back to them both.]

Listen, the whole premise of this situation bothers me. Our dashing Tribune tells us an Oracle is here and it'll help us somehow, but that it's somehow as mysterious and unknowable as the Goddess herself. [He scoffs.] Doesn't that seem kind of convenient?

[fishfearme]

Yes. There's a distinct lack of concrete information about the Oracles and how, exactly, they will achieve our overall desire: that being the return of our worlds.

[There was enough information to get them to latch desperately at the helping hand the Meridian faction extended - which was precisely why Byleth didn't trust them in the slightest. While he was willing to cooperate for the moment, Jeralt hadn't raised a gullible fool. This contract was weighted so poorly against him it left a bad taste in his mouth.]

We're obviously being manipulated. Meridian and Zenith both are untrustworthy. However, as we are, there's little we can do about it but play along.

[hauntedking]

Meridian seems to get us the closest to what we want... even if they aren't trustworthy.

[ Dimitri folds his arms with a frown. ]

There's something to be said for following their objectives... at least for now. I cannot allow my kingdom to vanish with out a fight. Nor all of Fodlan.

[leicesters]

That goes without saying, of course. I don't want even a single piece of our world to disappear, not just Fódlan. But I also think Cyrus is banking on that kind of desperation, because he wants us to just have blind faith that this Oracle is going to make a difference... or at least to make us feel like we have no alternative. I think we should keep that in mind.

[He scratches his beard, thoughtful.] That said... Yima's gonna have people that are dedicated to her cause. We need to be prepared to defend ourselves against them, but also try to find a way to have a dialogue with the more sceptical of the bunch.

[Dimitri had expressed an interest in a diplomatic approach before, at least, and perhaps that's still a possibility, however small.]

[fishfearme]

Desperation is a reliable tool in controlling those who would otherwise be resistant to cooperating with such... mysterious factions. In light of that, we have to acknowledge the possibility that Meridian is- is lying about helping us.

[Despite saying that, however, Byleth didn't want to acknowledge the possibility. He felt a very intense, unpleasant emotion at the mere thought: that his world was gone, that the few friends he had made were gone, that Jeralt was gone - the last one was unacceptable. Unthinkable. So Byleth compartmentalised that into a corner to think about never (or until it festered into something uncontrollable, either or).

He was only maintaining his cool because he had a goal and was told a means to achieve it. If it turned out to all be a lie...]

By that extension, Zenith could also be lying. Fighting each other over something that may not even be true is... pointless. I would be open to attempting diplomacy with the more reasonable Zenith followers, if possible.

[hauntedking]

Yes. I don't like to think that they would lie to us, but I cannot discount the possibility. After all - we only really have their word that our worlds are truly gone. Perhaps they're not and we're merely being tricked into doing their bidding...

[ He sighs. ]

Despite that... I have met those who are Zenith. They're doing what they think is best, too. Speaking with them... finding common ground of some sort... I have to believe it's possible. We are all dealing with loss, are we not?

[leicesters]

Yeah. But even with all that to consider, then there's the Atirat. If no one does anything, they're going to wind up as collateral damage in all this. At worst, all their lands could be stolen while they're left to die, so we have to weigh self-interest with the lives of ordinary people.

[Well. Ordinary is relative here, but he's sure they both know what he means.]

Neither of you would be willing to just stand by and sacrifice them, right...? [But they're still not quite the people he knows from home, so he can't be sure.]

[fishfearme]

I have no intention of callously sacrificing innocent lives.

[There was an unspoken 'but' there as Byleth paused, attempting to arrange his thoughts in a way that was palatable. In a perfect world, they would be able to help the Atirat, gain the Oracle, and all without requiring bitter battles to the death over a cause no one truly believed in.

But this world was not perfect.]

However, we must keep in mind our limitations. It's impossible to save everyone, and some situations require sacrifice, or accepting a loss. Our overall goal is the preservation of our homeland... that can only come to pass if at least one of us survives to the end of this.

[He crossed his arms and sighed shortly.]

That isn't to say I think we should ignore their plight. If we are able to help them, then I would like to pursue that possibility... provided it's achievable. Our Sand is a finite resource, after all, even if we pool ours together. If only I could...

[He trailed off and didn't finish. He had attempted before this meeting, obviously, to see if his Divine Pulse was capable of breaking the frozen time on the denizens - but no dice.]

[hauntedking]

...I have killed before. You both know that.

[ Dimitri responds after a long moment of thought, glancing between Byleth and Claude. Although - this Byleth isn't 'his'. So he doesn't know that. Which is strange to think about, but still. He continues. ]

I will sacrifice if needed. But... after everything that has happened to me... I do not believe that I wish to kill needlessly. Not innocent people, caught up in this through no fault of their own. If there is an enemy - someone who opposes us - then I will not hesitate to strike them down.

[ He draws himself a bit more upright. ]

As for our sand... we could try to push it toward freeing this place. But even with three of us combined, I am unsure what result we could get.