⏳ 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

i think i flipped tenses on you in my last tag PLEASE FORGIVE

[consolation]

That's what I said. Do you plan on chasing after it yourself? That would be an unexpectedly heroic endeavor.

[She did not know him well, beyond the curious tenor of his voice, the probing curl of his smoke, and their current shared position within Zenith. He would have struck down a woman tending her own wounds if they were not, however tenuously, aligned to the same cause.]

I wouldn't say it was a person. Nor would he. True demons would obviously be slighted by the insult.

[She assumes. Exorcisms were intended to expel the darkness rather than focused on the life of the possessed, but it still held that most were still needed for individuals who had some small chance of being saved. Of true demons who had not hid themselves in human hearts, behind humans at all, but the abominations themselves? She shouldn't make a habit of talking to them about their preferences. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, pausing, a bandage faintly seeped with blood about he forearm.]

But that demon, he hasn't turned on Zenith. [Caren had hesitated to protect Sebastian from the misunderstanding of being seen as a traitor, but in the end, provided that excuse for him all the same.] You can call this collateral damage.

[zauneyete]

[ Demon, huh?

Silco paused, his cigar in his mouth, and he mulled over his response. There was only one demon he knew of, and they were also Zenith aligned. Although Silco's relationship toward Sebastian was secret, the fact that he may have caused an issue meant he would have to be a touch more careful than usual in his words. ]

I only know of one demon on our side. [ He said, and looked down the hall, as if he were making sure he wasn't nearby to hear him. Of course, the demon wouldn't be nearby -- he and Sebastian had taken careful precautions -- they didn't tend to be around each other for the most part, and certainly not where others could see. He may be Sebastian's... contracted master, but neither of them were advertising that.

Still, the brand on his hand itched, subconsciously. ]

How did you get caught in it?

[ And how could he use that against others? He asked, feigning concern. ]

please forgive me for this i'm pretty sure this notif was a victim of me doing ac stupidly

[consolation]

You don't need to worry. [She caught on to his sideways glance, and though he showed concern, Caren had to assume that most of it was for himself. Self-preservation was held in high regard by many members of their faction.

Here surrounded by all the frost and decay, tending to the tooth-ripped frays in her skin, the fragility of her body was obvious. It was second nature to her; even if a dangerous scenario there wasn't any use in pretending]

It's my constitution that exposed me to the side effects. Unless you have a miraculously undiscovered spiritual sensitivity, you're unlikely to be so affected.

[This did not rule out unexpected circumstances: There was always the likelihood that some things functioned in a way she was unfamiliar with - for example, that he was so sensitive to such energies and had still managed to survive mostly intact this long, that he originated from a world that somehow did not have demons. It could have meant any number of things.]

Though, I'd be remiss if I didn't caution you to remember that a demon poses some level of danger, regardless, at all times. Even the flame from a candle can burn you, right?

it's all good!

[zauneyete]

Hm, and you think of him as a mere candle?

[ He asked, curious. As opposed to the raw inferno, burning everything up around him -- Sebastian was dangerous, that Silco knew -- the demon was raw power and danger, and a cruelty to match his power. There were those who were...fond of him, thought of him as polite, and even kind. Perhaps even a kind demon, and not the cruel, wild beast that lingered under the flesh of a man.

Silco had seen it more than once, flashes of his true form, and more than that -- he was banking on that power.

It was why he had taken the deal, after all. ]

So I have heard, though. He may be an ally within Zenith, but I have found little reason to trust... well. Anybody amongst us.

[ Still, curiously, he leaned against the doorframe, more than curious. ]

Was it simply being in his presence, that did this to you? We don't have demons where I am from, so the maladies that would come with them are... alien to me.

[consolation]

A cow kicking a lantern burned a city down, according to popular rumor. [She'd never visited the backwards, obsolete nation that originated that particular tall tale, though she knew the historical account was likely urban legend.

There wasn't any small dismissal in the comparison drawn between bovine and demon. Sebastian was not a man possessed, fighting for what remained of his soul, but a true demon, and whatever principles he lived by were obscured and inhuman. Whatever intrigue that might captivate her attention regarding his true nature and what he stood to gain from allying himself with Zenith, that did nothing to obscure the reality.

Most of her wounds now covered, Caren shrugged her shoulders back into their sleeves. Though she continued to carry herself with some tenderness, it seemed as natural as breathing.]

Are you so sure you don't have demons? They don't usually make a habit of announcing themselves aloud. [Unless they knew they were untouchable and making some kind of move.] If it were that simple, it would be much easier to protect against possessions.

We were trapped in a room with an inhabitant of this shard who I believe meant to make us permanent fixtures. Some violence was inevitable.

[zauneyete]

[ Silco shrugged at her query. ] I'm afraid that I'm not from a place that lent much credence to...magic. That was for our... [ He spat the next word out. ] betters.

[ Anything to get a dig at Piltover, right? His hands spread, though, because whether or not he was familiar with demons wasn't really of import. That Caren was so affected by Sebastian's power was of interest, more than anything else. A curiosity that made him want to examine what led to it.

If it was merely a facet of her... "soul" was a little more inconvenient. He would have preferred it be something that they could replicate, but... well. It's not like Sebastian needed help in destroying things. ]

I can only imagine so. Did he know you would suffer such effects? [ Faux concern to obscure his curiosity. ] Or was this a surprise to him, when you were harmed in such a way?

itp caren threatens to flash a man. welcome back jill

[consolation]

[She froze a little, considering what he had said. Most people remained ignorant of these things where they did exist: That was the point. The Church itself was instrumental in enforcing those boundaries. As far as his experience went... he would have been looked at much the same by those mages who long ago divorced knowledge from humanity. She could not see much reason for maintaining the veil here beyond what was needed for protection, especially not when magic flowed into the least capable hands upon the utterance of the vow and gods and monsters alike proclaimed their power for all.

But his disdain didn't make much of an impression on her, either. It was not particularly unusual.]

I imagine that once you've experienced enough, very little surprises you, though I doubt this has happened before.

[She sighed, predicting there was yet more to come. Caren had only just pulled her shirt back over her pale, torn shoulders, but - ]

Should I show you my injuries, as well? If you want to see you might as well ask me to disrobe directly. I'd like to know before I'm fully dressed.

[It was a little short. Her outfit for this escapade may have foregone pants, but that didn't mean that dressing again was an easy matter, especially when her limbs felt too cold and too sore to easily maneuver.

And he was asking questions that telegraphed, but he was also asking a great deal of them - and perhaps a little squeezing would be helpful. If he really worried about what danger could befall her or others, he might as well get to questions about preventing said danger. If he wanted to taste the spectacle with his own senses, he was doing a disservice by not embracing his own desire.]

i feel so welcomed 😳 silco screamin' tho

[zauneyete]

[ Silco appraised her with one unblinking eye, and a curl of his lip. ]

That was not what I asked, so don't bother.

[ It's short, and obvious from the way he looked, that he absolutely did not want that. Silco lives in a place like Zaun, reveled in it, and has crossed by -- and done (official, he's not Sevika) business with the Brothels -- but that's not the source of his disgust. (Well, not all. Let's be real, he wouldn't anyway.) No, it's the assumption of it.

He gestured, and tipped his head away, as if to indicate that she should continue, if she intends, and that he doesn't have an interest in letting her "show off" her injuries in full. ]

I'm merely curious about the nature of the injuries. I do not have much martial prowess, and must spend much of my attention on strategizing. If this is something that can happen again, it is best to know before two people are directed to work together in the future, yes?

Or is that too direct of a question for you?