⏳ 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

[glowup]

[That is some top-tier guilty sulking, and yet it somehow wins a point with Anders; he's had his fair share of caught-but-still-mad-about-it sulks in his life, he knows how this one feels. Not that it changes his opinions about how to treat these frozen people, but it's with less biting accusation that he speaks next,]

A man who's lost his home will still suffer when you steal his coin purse. "Suffering" doesn't get easier because it's happened before.

[So maybe just don't shove at all, that could be an option. But he relents from his soapboxing to come over and look at the frozen person on the floor, crouching down and reaching out to gently survey them for any signs of Blight, first. He doesn't plan on unfreezing any more people, after the first one simply stared at him in vague terror and articulated nothing; it seems kind of cruel to do, without the means to actually provide for them beyond a corner in the library to sit in.

But Gen and his sulking probably don't need any Blight, so it's best to be careful. He glances over his shoulder.]

No one is asking you to worry about them. [Not... directly...? Who knows what that otter actually wants them to do, what the arbitrary "correct" choices are in this place. Still: no one has asked them to do a rescue. That much is true.

...But, you know, what about these people? Anders doesn't know how to advocate for people who are literally frozen solid, like this poor bastard in a fetal position he's arduously trying to move without hauling them like furniture. If it were up to him (and he had unlimited Sand, but details) he would bring back as many people as possible and give them a fighting chance— but without that means, it's only frustrating.] But if we can't better their situation, we may as well leave things as close as we can to how we found them.

[epiprocta]

[ ... is this guy the type to nag at everyone he runs into.

Gen simply gives Anders a dirty look throughout that little lecture(?), managing to muster up an impressive amount of annoyance in a single dead-eyed stare. He is, after all, an irritated teenager, and there is truly no other demographic more skilled at looking irate over (relatively) nothing.

He barely lets that last word leave Anders' lips before snapping, ]

You're asking me to worry about them. You just told me to.

[ Technically, Anders didn't, but that's how it had sounded to him, and so he gripes.

But as he does, Gen gives an irate click of the tongue and steps forward to grab up the frozen person by the back of their shirt ... assisting in Anders' attempts to move them aside. He helps only because Anders looks like he'd take ages with the task by himself, and he's not in the mood to tolerate all that fussing.

Moving a person with one hand isn't an easy task, but he at least manages to help Anders in relocating the poor sucker before pulling away with a hard huff. He's limping a little as he goes back to rummaging around the closet in search of something useful, and there's a slightly breathless and strained quality to his voice as he continue mumbling irritably. ]

'Can't better their situation.' You must be in a real cushy spot to be spending all that time and energy on those people. Good for you, but we can't all be so lucky.

[glowup]

[Yes he is, well-spotted, he's a professional nag!! As such he takes the look in stride, considering it for what it is: a sign that Gen is listening to him, even if he doesn't like it.]

I didn't tell you to do anything.

[Kids... He's mildly surprised Gen steps in to help with moving the frozen person, and generously, he takes this as a good sign and not a silent criticism of how fussy and slow he's going at it. It's fine; surely, Gen is a sweet boy somewhere in there after all.

You know, besides the complaining. He shuts his eyes for a moment, holding back a frustrated sigh. Kids.]

Do you really think you're the only person who's ever suffered? That a person has no time to think about themselves and others at the same time?

[It's not an unfamiliar take, is the thing. Anders remembers the compulsion to focus only on himself, to be content that his own affairs were at least somewhat in order and disregard those others who couldn't save themselves. He didn't even have the excuse of being a teenager back then, so, well. He gets it.

But come on, dude. No second lecture, at least; he'll let it go, for now.]

Is your leg injured?

[epiprocta]

[ Gen easily ignores the first bit, instead focusing on yanking a few frilly, ceremonial robes out of the way and dumping them on the floor so he can more easily look through the other garments. There isn't much that looks promising, and he gives an irritable huff as he digs himself deeper into the stacks of clothes, looking for anything that might be useful.

But he does stiffen visibly at what Anders says next, shooting the man a death glare over his shoulder. While he'd previously seemed grumpy and irate, it's clear that Anders has actually struck a nerve this time, and Gen bristles with silent rage for a moment, hand curling into the robe he'd been tugging aside until the fabric scrunches up in his fist.

-- why should he give a shit about other people's suffering, when he's always had to endure alone? What the hell does he owe other people? Who the hell does this sanctimonious bastard think he is, giving him this holier-than-thou bullshit?

The mention of his injured leg doesn't help matters. ]

And what of it?

[ The garment and its hanger hit the floor with a soft flump as Gen promptly whirls around to face Anders, bristling with caution even as he obviously favors one leg over the other; his hand's immediately come to rest at the handle of the mace hanging at his belt. ]

I've cave your face in if you think I'm an easy mark just 'cause I'm injured.

[glowup]

[For his part, Anders has taken to looking over the frozen body they've just moved, checking for any overt signs of... anything, he supposes. That blight. Some injury. Maybe a secret mage staff clutched in their arms that he can just steal, goddamn, it's getting so anonying—

It's all unproductive, but it's something to keep his hands busy, and he looks up only when the hanger hits the floor, mild surprise on his features. Ah-]

What are you talking about? If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it when I walked in.

[He could still do it now, he supposes, if he wanted both of these frozen people to go up in a fireball at the same time. He generously does not voice that, ah, fun idea.]

I'm a healer. I am attempting, despite all odds, to offer you help with it. You're welcome to refuse, but I will find myself uncontrollably rolling my eyes about it if you do. Fair warning.

[epiprocta]

[ To his (incredibly meager) credit, Gen doesn't immediately refuse Anders' offer of help. He'd promptly stiffened upon hearing that word, 'healer,' and though his hand remains at his belt, his eyes narrow in consideration. It'd be a bald-faced lie if he said he doesn't want his damanged leg healed up.

But. ]

... what're you gonna ask for in return.

[ Because this guy wouldn't mention it without plans of making it some sort of give-and-take, right? It's less overtly aggressive and more cagey when Gen continues at a low growl, ]

I'm not giving you my Sand.

[glowup]

[Why are you all like this. Or, no, not really, because Anders understands why people would be surprised by kindness offered freely - he's had his fair share of that himself - but in all his years assuring people that, no, this is free, he needs nothing, it's completely without strings, he's never gotten used to the pang of empathy that comes with it.

He tries to keep it off his face, though, when they're as angry and walled-up as Gen is. He shrugs.]

I'd ask you not to cave my face in, if that's alright with you. I don't want your sand. And I don't expect you to believe that, but it's true. This whole thing is a farce.

[He waves a hand at the room, the people, the castle, all of it. He's just not into it, and maybe that will come back with some consequences for him to handle later, but he's absolutely had worse than whatever a talking otter can do to him for refusing to play a game.]

It's up to you— but that leg does look like it hurts.