⏳ 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

[gravings]

[ Gray will surely thank Eustace for the shower of blood and bits she gets when Doppeleustace's head blows up right in front of her...... though for her sake I'm going to say that it's less meaty and more shadowy essence that dissipates back into the ether as the doppelganger's body swiftly crumbles away.

With those seconds passed, it's enough time for Doppelgray to come rocketing back over. OG Gray only has time to raise her weapon defensively before her doppelganger charges into her, blowing her back a distance with her boots scraping the polished floor. In the short span of Gray's inaction, her doppelganger makes a calculation much like Gray herself did before: get rid of Eustace first.

Gray Alter turns to Eustace, expression cold as she rushes him without missing a beat, her scythe already drawn back to strike. ]

[lockedon]

[ You're welcome, Gray. Nothing like a little bit of blood and guts oozing shadowy essence to further acclimate a girl to the battlefield. There's probably more of where this came from in their futures...

Not that anyone here is really thinking more than three seconds into the future, too busy fighting for their lives in the immediate present to daydream about time periods after that. Gray Prime goes skidding across the smooth floor, Gray the Second makes an absurdly quick dash towards Eustace the Remaining, and Eustace has just enough time to shift the angle of his gun so that it gets knocked out of his hands rather than his head getting separated from his body. Unfortunately, the arc of the scythe also means it cuts a deep gash in his arm, the sudden blossom of pain enough to elicit a grunt of pain. Without his knife or his gun, all that he has left is—

One hand reaches for his shard, acting on instinct in order to protect his life and Gray's without any thought to the consequences he might suffer.

The memory that erupts forth is one he's always cherished, the one he always turns to when his thoughts settle for the night or when he wonders if he's doing the right thing. A girl with blonde hair and a ready smile, and the girl in blue next to her. They nod at each other before the girl in blue clasps her hand together as if in prayer, eyes closing and voice murmuring quietly. Behind her, a shadowy form coalesces, taking on the shape of a giant dragon, it's maw opening to unleash a torrent of fire onto the grounds below in the direction of Gray Alter.

Maybe not enough to destroy, but enough to distract and give OG Gray time to recover while Eustace makes a dash for his fallen gun. ]

[gravings]

[ As sturdy as Gray (and her Alter) is, dragons are creatures of a different order. Doppelgray comes to an urgent halt as she senses the massive power of the creature that manifests and immediately forfeits the shape of her scythe so that it can shift to an oversized shield instead. The dragon's maelstrom of fire descends upon her, but the shield manages to keep her from burning to ashes — even as the force of the dragon's power drives her to her knees and the conflagration rips at the edges of her existence.

Meanwhile, the dragon's interference gives OG Gray more than enough time to rejoin the fight. She pauses at the edge of the flaming downpour, putting her confusion to the wayside so that she can shift her own scythe into an elaborate longbow and arrow. Knowing her own durability, she pours as much magical energy as she can into her arrow, to preserve its journey through the hellfire.

She lets the arrow fly and it strikes true, burying itself into her doppelganger's chest, forcing Gray Alter's hold on her shield to falter sideways. Yet still Doppelgray persists, her body propped up entirely on her magical energy's ability to puppeteer her limbs and bodily functions. ]

apparently i needed a week to sleep on this

[lockedon]

[ For a moment, despite the chaos that rages around them, all he can do is stare at the two figures shimmering nearby, their mere presence enough to cause his heart to squeeze painfully. How long as it been since he's seen them last? Too long and at the same time not even remotely long enough, because the destruction of their worlds means the only place they exist now is within the confines of his memory. (And even that will be lost soon enough, the usage of his Sand enough to extinguish those last traces for awhile.)

The thud of an arrow embedding itself into flesh snaps his attention back to the fight at hand, his muscles instinctively moving forward once again, this time towards where his gun lies on the ground. There's still a battle left to finish and an opponent left to be eliminated, though as he grabs his gun and lifts it back up to where Gray Alter still stands, his heart gives a different kind of squeeze. It isn't actually Gray he's pointing at, but the connection between his mind and heart has always been more volatile than he'd like to admit, and it's hard to completely sever the lingering fear that he might be aiming at the one of the most important people in life.

In the end, it's not enough to stop him from firing, a single shot to mirror the path of OG Gray's arrow. ]

some naps are longer than others...

[gravings]

[ In the aftermath of one arrow, one bullet, and one dragon conflagration, even the body of King Arthur must yield. Gray's doppelganger finally collapses in a soggy tatter, bleeding the same shadowy tendrils as Eustace's. Yet still it clings to life, magical energy holding its existence together by threads. Gray approaches it without thinking, magnetized.

The doppelganger is a pitiful thing. Gray watches as it struggles to breathe, fending off the inevitable, and she imagines that it fights not because it has the strength to live, but because it's afraid to die. But she quickly realizes she's mistaken; the doppelganger gathers the last of its energy so that it can settle an eye still vibrant with hatred on her. It lives by its loathing, a bundle of emotion not unlike a ghost.

Its face — her face — shoots through Gray like a bullet from Eustace's gun. In equal measure, it suffuses her with dread and satisfaction. Dread at that face so nakedly bared at her. Satisfaction that it should recognize what there is to be hated.

Without knowing it, she's raised Add in his scythe form. The giant, gleaming blade hangs like a guillotine over the doppelganger's head. And then it falls slowly like a blanket laid to rest. The doppelganger goes without complaint, its bright green eyes baleful on Gray until they dissolve to black and then to nothingness along with the rest of its body, leaving behind a bullet and arrow to clatter quietly on the floor. ]