⏳ 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

ii

[cutlery]

[ It’s probably near the end of the maze for Sebastian at this point. He’s wandered through, seen shadows of memories he ignored, fought a mirror reflection that showed what’s perhaps more true of him, and he’s tired at this point, honestly. Fighting himself isn’t an easy task, especially not with the weight imposed by his Aspect. It’s the sort of thing he’d never admit, but he was grateful for the help he was given because of that.

Sebastian hears a fight and lightly clicks his tongue. His first instinct is to retreat and not bother, for his energy was a precious thing. There’s a half step back, but it’s just in time for both Amoses to crash down the hall and into his line of sight. And that does change things a bit. Practically speaking, he’s likely to be seen, and even a tactical retreat is something he doesn’t want to justify. But slightly more than that, Amos is an ally and one that Sebastian holds a positive opinion of.

(Though the fact that he’s reasonably sure that this won’t expend all his remaining energy doesn’t hurt.)

He starts to run towards Amos, and it catches his attention. Sebastian’s eyes are quick to light up red in a literal way as he gives Amos—the real one—an encouraging nod. That light lets him see just a bit more, after all. One Amos has a soul, the other doesn’t. It’s as simple as that to keep them separate.

It’s just a few moments after Amos gets tackled that Sebastian is there to intercept. There’s a swift kick delivered to the doppelganger’s ribs first that’s precise and strong, but it’s mostly to try and wind him. He slips down after to loop an arm underneath its arm on the side that’s hold Amos down more. Sebastian pulls back to try and pull him up and off the real Amos, and he’s definitely far stronger than his frame would imply. But as the blood and tears in his clothes also imply, this isn’t his first fight in the maze. ]

[baltimores]

[ Amos does indeed lift his head back up at the sound of Sebastian's approach. His eyes are... huh. It'd give Amos pause if he didn't already know that Sebastian was a demon; since he does know that, though, he doesn't think anything of it. It probably only means something good for him.

That much is confirmed as his arm is freed, and Amos wrenches it back towards himself, scrambling away from his doppelganger's body. But he doesn't have time to thank Sebastian — not without an active threat literally in between them; not without the way that Sebastian is very clearly not at one hundred percent.

And who better than him to know the ferocity his doppelganger will fight with?

His doppelganger was indeed winded, but Amos knows what it is to have to recover pretty much immediately, and so does his doppelganger. As it is, the doppelganger aims to close its arm around Sebastian's and bend something backwards, going for a break, a way to render one of his limbs useless. As far as both Amos and his doppelganger know, it should work — which is why Amos darts back forward to force his doppelganger's arm open, pinning its hand to the ground and giving Sebastian ample time to slip away. ]

Go! I can handle this!

[ The yell is directed towards Sebastian, though he doesn't take his eyes off of his doppelganger. He appreciates the save, but the fact of the matter is Sebastian is a friend dealing with injuries, so it's Amos' responsibility to take care of this thing. Amos' responsibility to protect others from it. Nobody else's.

It just happens to require both of his hands to effectively make sure his doppelganger's is pinned down, which leaves it with one hand free — one that snaps Amos' head back with a well-placed punch, though his grip doesn't falter. ]

[cutlery]

[ Sebastian is steadfast in holding the doppelganger in place, and even as one arm comes to try and capture his, he doesn’t move back from it. It’s a grapple he feels he can hold against, because even weakened, he’s still far stronger and more durable than a human. Just maybe not for a long fight. It’s why he’s surprised when Amos steps in and stops the hold. Sebastian similarly won’t complain and takes a quick step back to get out of its immediate range, but he’s also surprised at Amos’s direction. ]

We will handle it more quickly together—

[ He’s about to add some more niceties to it since even in a fight he’s overly wordy, but the punch also makes Sebastian cut himself off. He considers drawing his knife, but with the actual Amos so close, he decides against it. An old-fashioned brawl it is. He slips back in to grab the doppelganger’s arm that had just thrown a punch, and he has roughly the same intentions as it had for him. He tries to grab the upper portion of the arm and twists in such a way as to dislocate it from the shoulder. But regardless of how successful that is, he does have a (thankfully direct, this time) question. ]

May we kill it?

[ Which is perhaps an odd thing to ask, considering it’s definitely not playing nice with them, but. It’s a question he asks more to know how far he should go. ]

[baltimores]

[ The doppelganger's shoulder does indeed end up dislocated; it offers up a pained grunt in response, teeth bared as it twists around to get a better look at Sebastian, as it attempts to free its still-useful arm from Amos' grip. He still has a tight hold on it, though. There's going to be a nasty bruise forming on his face from its earlier punch, but he isn't going to let go.

The two of them answer Sebastian at the same time, both facing him, though the doppelganger has more to say. ]

Yes!

[ Kind of a weird question, from Amos' perspective. That was his plan. ]

He's the one you should be killing. He's a fuckup. Life'll be better for everyone else if he's gone.

[ Which is... not something Amos can exactly argue with, so he just tightens his grip on his doppelganger's arm to keep it in place, his own teeth bared at it.

His concentration is so rooted there that it takes him a moment to notice he's gone weightless, his legs rising up in the air, followed by his torso, the only thing anchoring him to the ground in any way being his grip on his doppelganger's arm. A similar affliction should be hitting Sebastian, too — an imposed upon weightlessness to get them away from the doppelganger, let it pop its fuckin' arm back in or something so it can properly take care of them.

It can take on the two of them at once, sure, just as confident as Amos that he could handle it on his own. Just needs to reset the playing field is all, which it's trying to do now. ]

[cutlery]

[ His own doppelganger hadn’t been chatty at all since it was reflecting that brutal, alien part of Sebastian, so the double answer almost gets him to laugh. Almost. It’s still a serious situation, especially when he’s given permission (twice over, technically) to be viciously precise. Though he can’t help the little quirk of a smile.

It’s short-lived, though. The success he feels from expertly dislocating the shoulder evaporates as his feet rather suddenly leave the ground and he feels… lighter? The weightlessness is an odd sensation to Sebastian that throws him off slightly. His grip on the copy’s arm loosens, though he doesn’t think much of it since the dislocation makes it suitably less dangerous. He stretches his legs to try and re-anchor them to the ground, but it’s quickly only the tips of his dress shoes that can brush that ground.

With an annoyed click of his tongue, he changes tactics. His left hand changes in appearance completely as it shifts into a hand that’s pitch black and looks hardened like a carapace. Most important are the sharp claws, though. He digs those into the copy’s arm at the shoulder to both anchor himself and pull back closer rather than drift away. It may be harder for him to give punches and kicks this way, but he’s still perfectly capable of slicing into flesh with claws. If he can rip open the copy's neck, that'll solve the problem easily. ]

[baltimores]

[ The doppelganger is still trying to free its good arm from Amos' grasp when Sebastian's claw digs into it. With a roar of furious pain it whips its gaze over in his direction, trying to angle its body to throw Sebastian out, but, nope, the demon has firmly dug himself in. He'll also be met with wide, incensed eyes, pools of nothing but fury as teeth start to elongate into fangs, hands sharpen into claws. ]

Oh, fuck me.

[ Amos' voice comes out muttered to himself, a hint of unease to his tone. It's his first time watching himself — a version of himself — start to slide into a berserk state, and there's a part of him that just wants to watch, see if he can learn anything from this, apply it to himself for later. Keep himself under control the next time it happens to him.

Then there's the more realistic part of himself that actually does not want to die. He starts trying to wrench the good arm backwards but to no avail as the doppelganger's weight and bodily structure become too solid, Amos starting to find himself the weaker party here. On the plus side, the doppelganger is losing its faculties to keep them weightless; on the minus side, it has enough strength to dislodge Amos from its good arm and use it to dig its own claw into Sebastian's arm. Try to forcibly remove him, throw him away, chase him down after if he's still in sight to rip him limb from limb, because that's the only thing it can think to do.

It's a mindset Amos can comprehend perfectly, and he doesn't like it. He's sent skidding backwards a short distance away from the scene as the doppelganger's focus narrows in on Sebastian, making him the sole target of all of its increasing rage. ]

If you have a shot take it now!

[ There's a sharp urgency to Amos' voice, a barked out order as he prepares to try to help out by making his doppelganger heavy enough to be immobile — but with it trying to find purchase into Sebastian's very being and the distance now between them, there's only so much he can do at the moment but hope for the immediate best. ]