⏳ 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

IIb!

[gravings]

[ Even though they're in opposing factions now, they still share the same Aspect, so Gray has a clue to the state of Caren before she even steps into the room. Gray herself is calm, if a bit wary; she understands that they've all landed in a contentious position, but she isn't yet so invested in the Meridian cause that she's leaping to attack Zenites on sight. ]

It's okay. I won't hurt you.

[ It may not be much comfort to say that, but maybe Caren can feel that Gray means it. In any case, she won't try to get too close, instead hanging back at a healthy distance. She doesn't need to be close to get a good look at Caren's injuries thanks to magical strengthening, but also because Caren's wounds are visible enough from afar. Gray looks with curiosity and a bit of concern... though she assumes as well that Caren is tough, as Church members seem to be. ]

What happened?

[consolation]

[She's used to the gentle undulation of their empathetic bond, having grown more accustomed to the way it works between those of them that share an Aspect, regardless of what city they've chosen to follow. Given the connection they shared shortly after their arrival, however brief it was, she recognizes Gray's particular frequency a little earlier than any other.

She lifts her head, bare back still turned toward the other girl in amnesty. It's okay is perhaps the least soothing of placations. For that to be true would require either of them to have more control over reality than either of them could hope to achieve. Still, if Gray intended to harm her without further intent she already would have done so: Caren's already determined that she is capable of great feats of violence but that her parameters for acting on them are strict.]

I fought with a powerful demon. [Her words are true, though the exact sequence of events is hidden within their ambiguity. In this case, to have fought with a powerful demon means to have fought alongside it. Though, in some regard, it had felt like fighting against him as well, against the Siren, against the limits imposed by her own body that threatened to lapse into the oblivion trying to shred it.] This is a consequence of my condition.

[gravings]

[ If Caren makes it sound like she fought against a demon, then Gray believes it completely. That's the Church's whole M.O. after all, fighting mages, the undead, and other unholy things. She wonders if she should take this as confirmation that Caren is an Executioner... ]

A demon? Who was it?

[ Should she be worried... ]

[consolation]

You're concerned for me? Or you'd like to know if such a beast is on your side so you can act accordingly?

[It's presented as a question, purposefully, infuriatingly, given that their shared Aspect grants enough connection for Caren to feel her concern - and her apprehension that goes beyond that. She's clearly asking with an answer already in mind.]

There's no need. We were able to succeed in the end.

[She's methodical as she continues her work, but there's a noticeable weakness in her limbs, an exhaustion that slurs her movements.] Have you ever seen an individual under the effects of spiritual possession?

[gravings]

[ Gray earnestly has no idea how to reply to Caren's second question, the insinuation blindsiding her completely. But luckily, it seems to be more of a hypothetical question because Caren continues on, sparing Gray the formulation of an answer. Gray has dealt with a fair number of strange characters, but she frequently doesn't know how to respond to Caren. Even if Caren seems content with being herself at Gray's expense, it leaves Gray feeling like she's got two back feet.

Nonplussed, she continues to simply watch on as Caren tends to her wounds. ]

Um, yes. [ Maybe. It's always Gray herself being possessed. ] Were you possessed?

[consolation]

[She's kept the conversation going, but perhaps next time she should let it breathe a little before continuing, hm? It seems this young woman needs more time to hold a thought in her head rather than letting it seed in the background or bursting out immediately.]

Not exactly.

But, you should know. If you ask a possessed person if they're possessed, most of them won't be able to answer truthfully.

[She isn't quite finished yet, but she turns now more or less fully to look directly at Gray, pulling hair from her shoulder.]

That's why it's important to have means of detecting such spiritual anomalies. [She does pause instead of continuing this time, giving gray time to interpret. Does she understand what those means are?]

[gravings]

[ While Gray has been possessed before, those were incidents that came and went as a matter of course, not serving any greater purpose. What Caren speaks of sounds more methodical — which makes sense coming from a Church member. Surely, Gray thinks, the Church had more ways to detect spirits than by chucking young girls like herself and Caren at them??

Like a dutiful student, Gray nods. ]

I know that some people are much more sensitive to the presence of spirits than others. In my case, it's why I was chosen to become a gravekeeper. But I don't know how to tell if someone has been possessed other than by just asking them...

[ What are Caren's deep Church secrets... ]

[consolation]

["The Church had more ways to detect spirits than by chucking young girls like herself and Caren at them" ok sure gray]

Very rarely, one is born with a condition that reveals the presence of a demon, reflecting the side effects of the possession in their own body. It's a useful and praiseworthy tool for the Church to possess.

[Caren flinches, an involuntary reaction from her body, when she grazes a sore tear, a laceration seamed into the skin where her elbow joint bends. Pain is an indistinguishable and familiar constant; even exacerbating the wound in order to treat it comes across as a routine and necessary behavior.]

As is someone who's sensitive enough to conduct spirits. But I figure you didn't do much with them beyond that.

[Framed like that, she's counting on it being easy for Gray to realize that her skill lies in detection and observation, the canary at the mouth of the mine. Like her, she thinks this girl might understand what it means to be primarily useful for being useful. Caren may have called Gray a little mage, but she said she wasn't really one, and her knowledge of the Church seemed equally glancing.]

[gravings]

[ Even if Caren calls it a praiseworthy trait, and Gray understands that it's useful to the people around her, Gray can attribute no glory to it. Looking at Caren's wounds and pain, Gray can only recall nightmares, terror, and misery, fanaticism and morphed expressions. Caren seems like she's embraced her duty with stoicism, but Gray still can't help feeling pity for her as a fellow recipient of truly mixed blessings. ]

In my case, I only used my sensitivity to fight spirits. The people of my village intended for me to become... a permanent conduit for an old spirit, but that plan didn't end well.

[ Gray might well have submitted to that fate otherwise, though she probably wouldn't have faced it with any amount of grace. ]

If you were in my position, would you have been okay with that?

this thread will get funnier the longer the event goes on btw

[consolation]

[The empathetic thread binding their shared aspect flares a little - defensive, however unconsciously, at being pitied when the sympathy is wasted.]

Depending on the spirit, some would hold that fate in high regard. It would surely grant meaning to a formerly insignificant life.

[She has to imagine that Gray heard similar proclamations when it was her body on the proverbial altar. It would be a great honor for her quotidian existence to suddenly become so extraordinary. This would pale, of course, in comparison to the honor and power then bestowed on the village itself, grown famous and gleaming on the sweat of her sacrifice.

The role of an exorcist is to banish things outside the realm of natural existence. In her book, many spirits who would need such a conduit are equally extraplanar, but no small amounts of saints have had their own rapturous embodiments of the Spirit. Caren cannot compare herself to saints, and maybe that's why she looks to be giving the question some real thought.]

It's possible. I suppose you can also say that my body has never really been just my own to begin with. Sure, it'd be an ecstatic experience, but someone like me would probably die from it, so there'd be no vessel left. What a waste.

truly the timing....

[gravings]

[ "It would surely grant meaning to a formerly insignificant life." Gray was snared by that thought many a time in her childhood, and following the collapse of her planned sacrifice, that thought has continued to haunt her. Was this tiny life of hers really worth saving at the cost of someone as revered as King Arthur? What kind of life could she possibly lead from now on that could match the potential contributions of Britain's most famous legend?

Puzzlement bubbles up in Gray at Caren's description of a potential possession being an "ecstatic experience." It certainly wouldn't be Gray's word choice... especially seeing Caren's current state of injury. She's starting to feel that Caren is fundamentally different from her, though the exact nature of that difference remains baffling.

Gray considers for a moment, decides that there isn't really any reason why she needs to keep things secret anymore. She isn't some Servant who needs to protect her identity so that she can guard her weaknesses. ]

The spirit intended for me was King Arthur, so it would have been... a well-regarded fate. My village was very devoted to reviving him.