⏳ 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

[zauneyete]

Is it your blindness that's really the advantage here?

[ He asked, as he took a quick step back, and out of the range of that cane, after it whipped at his shin. That hurt, and he was quite certain it would leave a bruise, but he wasn't going to cop to it, even if he winced, and a swift breath of air released from his teeth. ]

Nice reflexes.

[ The compliment was... a little terse, but it was a compliment. ]

[prizeneck]

I have some experience dealing with opponents I can't see.

[The dark is his domain, after all. He tilts his head in a mock bow of thanks, feeling the limp on the walk, the hissing sound of his breath reaching very subtly at the skin below his ears. Mamoru's lip is quirking, but he hasn't unsheathed his sword yet.]

So you saw a blind person walking around and thought I was an easy target, is that it?

[zauneyete]

[ A roll of his eyes, then. He was going to stay out of shin range, for sure. ]

I saw a Meridian.

[ He said, bluntly. That Mamoru was blind was... well. Yeah, alright, an easy target, but that wasn't what drew him in. ]

If you think I'd come after only an easy target, then you haven't spoken to many of your compatriots. It's not personal, you know.

[ Well, other than the whole destroying reality thing. ]

[prizeneck]

[A scoff. Mamoru focuses on Silco's breathing in between those words, the way he weaves them to wager his intent for another strike. Cane slowly lowering to a seemingly loose grip, he's allowing himself to even look slightly at ease to see what else this guy can come up with.]

That's what they all say. [It always is one way or another. Even if it's not personal towards Mamoru himself, it's because he embodies something, somewhere, sometime, that Silco is sic'ed against.] The benefits on Zenith's side are that good?

[zauneyete]

[ Silco may be no warrior, but he grew up a street kid from one of the meanest cities on Runeterra. He only flipped a glance toward the loosened grip. The man had heard him coming and reacted accordingly. He's trying to play on Silco's over-confidence. Thankfully, he's cautious, and he straightened, his knife still in hand, but he played with it, instead of circling. ]

I don't really care about the benefits.

[ He admitted, bluntly. ]

The place I came from is gone, and recreating it would be an insult. They would rather stay dead, than recreate the world around them. What purpose is better than sealing the deal?

[ After all, Silco wouldn't be caught dead recreating Piltover along with Zaun, even if he is putting words in their mouths. ]

Besides, what interests me isn't Highstorm, here.

[ It's Kowloon, obviously. ]

[prizeneck]

[He recognizes the motion, the playfulness and ease with which someone holds a blade, the choice of not moving, in fear of betraying their next move as something predictable.

A thug, then.

His specialty. His cane latches, a click with a slight wrist jerk on the handle.

And really, Mamoru's eyes behind the red lenses narrow. Not in an evaluating squint, though he's that hypocritical, considering, but in thought. Something coils in his chest that reminds him of how he had taken in the outline and surface of a frozen being towering in one of the rooms, face contorted in shock and sudden despair. Considering resources, practicality and tacticality alike, but the possibility that perhaps these people didn't want to be unfrozen.

Still, no way of telling. The moment tasted like copper in his mouth as he recalled the sand seeping under his fingernails into a wound in his chest as he screamed.] Why an insult? Wouldn't you want to decide how to die?

[zauneyete]

[ Silco was a thug, of course. Emphasis on was. He shrugged, in response, and didn't even wonder if the man saw him or not.

He was starting to think that even the way he shifted, would be enough for the man to get an idea of his motions. Instead, he started to fish into his coat, for a cigar. Well, if the man was going to talk, he'd look for one. He even pulled one out, and sliced the end off with his knife, before he set it between his teeth.

Had he heard the soft click? Yes, of course, he had, but what fight didn't involve posturing? ]

Of course I would. [ Too bad he'd never get that chance, huh? ] But they're already dead, and if there's one thing we Zaunites know, it's how to deal with tragedy.

[ He pressed a finger to the end of his cigar, and lit it. It filled the area -- particularly around Silco -- with a foul stench. He clearly didn't smoke nice cigars. ]

[prizeneck]

[There was no click of a lighter, not a snap of a match. The flare of the smoke's scent reached his nostrils easily, the stench as easy to spot as it was easy to dissipate and get his own senses into overdrive.

Spells. Of course, this guy would already have some of those in his back pocket. It's all very new to Mamoru himself, but he's nothing if not adaptable.

Zaunites. The name didn't ring a bell, but this wouldn't be the first time someone would hold a full concept of a purpose behind a collective like this. He guessed that even in different worlds, universes, dimensions—whatever anyone wanted to call those— people were wired similarly.

Well. Beings. There was a talking otter floating about, after all.]

What makes you believe your matron is telling you the truth?

[zauneyete]

What makes you think I Do believe it?

[ He asked, as if the answer was obvious. ]

Simple -- I don't.

Why do the lot of you always ask if I Trust her? [ He asked, a touch of annoyance filtering into his voice. ]

Do you trust Cyrus -- or that he'll hold out and bring your worlds back, free of charge?

[prizeneck]

[Well, ain't that interesting. Mamoru concluded two things about Silco out of those words. One, about everyone else in this place and how they have been facing the "promises" their leadership has been holding over their heads, the expectations they'd hold over someone like Silco. And two, one about Silco himself.

But he'll reply to that last question instead.] Aren't we already paying him back?

[zauneyete]

What, by getting the oracles?

[ He scoffed. ]

No. You must know that it's only a piece of the puzzle, right? [ Silco doesn't actually know this, but he certainly suspects it. He's a... naturally suspicious man, after all, and it's obvious from the way he was talking about it, that he expected that Mamoru was too. ]

Do you really think he'll use their power to bring back your worlds?

[prizeneck]

By our allegiance to a side. [That tree sure seems to drink from people's belief systems too much.

Though Silco does pose good questions through that smoke.]

Think she'll build you something new? Ain't that what you already have?

[After all, isn't this place where both sides are living in already something new? And why would the return of a world gone impede the possibility of a new one? There are plenty of questions that Mamoru still hasn't seen the answer to, and he doubts those lie in the hands of their leaders.]

[zauneyete]

I don't really care what happens.

[ He said, frankly. It's probably alien to most of them, so Determined to survive and find their little havens afterward, whether they are Meridian or Zenith, but Silco is used to having everything taken away from him. He expected it. If Yima were to tell him tomorrow that it wasn't possible to have his daughter again at the end of this, what would it change? He couldn't return, he couldn't really bring her back, but he could lay waste to everything in his path.

That, after all, was more important than this promised utopia in the end, where everything was nice, and families were "together". Yima's promises fell short of what was "attainable" to Silco, and that was perfectly fine. He didn't need her promises to get what he wanted. ]

I only care that this world, and the rest of them are gone. Whatever happens afterward doesn't matter.

[prizeneck]

[His spine coils.

Mamoru's chin tips forward, lower, and the hinge of his jaw grits something in the enamel into his ears.

It shouldn't feel familiar, that type of mindset. And yet, he knows his own, part of it at least, holds a certain similarity to the point that it feels right and he's inclined to agree. The part of him that granted the infernal title of Demonic Swordsman and revels in the reputation it brings, in the doors of possibilities it opens for him.

Still, the swordsman takes a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the outline projected into his retinas.] You just want something to burn.

[zauneyete]

Mine did.

[ He said, simply, as if that would answer it. ] Why should I care about the rest of these?

[ Silco didn't care if people thought that was wrong. He didn't care if the Meridian disagreed. Hell, he didn't even care if they thought him vile, or wrong, or evil. All that mattered was lashing out, at those last worlds remaining, and then lashing out at these worlds.

If he couldn't have Jinx here, then what else was there to do, with this existence? ]