Event Log: April, Tangled Terrors Part 1

[faileas]

Event Log: April, Tangled Terrors Part One

I. A Spreading Problem The request for help from the nameless city Underground comes at the beginning of the month through intermediaries - characters who have maintained good relationships with the city and its leader, or Wilders posted at the Northern Outpost. They have good reason to speak up. It starts within the herds of velvet wormipedes, horse-sized or larger worms that serve as food, pets, and mounts, making them an important part of survival underground. It was the farmers who first noticed it, and they theorized that it was caught and started to spread when they took the worm herds out to graze in an outer cavern. What seemed to be a new disease causing oily blackened skin and various mutations has been confirmed to be Cwyld, but the veil of protective moss that surrounds and protects the city did not react the way it normally does to the infected (by gobbling them up upon entry), letting them pass with little more than a shudder of recoiling movement. By now, they’ve isolated any infected members of the herd to the grazing cavern outside the city or put them down outright and burned the bodies, but as the days pass, the phenomenon grows only more worrying. Some proactive Mirrorbound who answered the initial call to investigate will have a head-start on the information, but the Arachne leader of the Underground, the Matriarch, is upfront about what they know so far. She holds a small meeting with would-be helpers where she lets them know that her Witches from the Academy were out in the tunnels branching off the grazing cavern within the last couple of weeks, practicing the method of leyline clearing that the Mirrorbound taught them some time ago to try and drive the Cwyld back. Their efforts were abandoned when the Witches’ magic malfunctioned and caused backlash, and their Monster guards with keener hearing started to pick up on a peculiar throbbing or pulsing sound from distantly within the walls. Any who are willing to lend a hand and investigate are offered whatever supplies they request, shelter within the City when they need to return to rest, and the assistance of any of their Witches and warriors as needed. The Matriarch thinks that whatever they find out there may be useful - or dreadful - knowledge for both their peoples. They want to know what was preventing the leyline from being cleared, and what this infection or disease is that is affecting wildlife and their own herds - curing it will eventually be a priority, but fact-finding has to come first.

II. Danger in the Deep (Underground) Branching out from the place that the worm herd were grazing when the infection set in, it becomes more clear that the situation is dire. This is not a normal, relatively slow-moving Cwyld infection, but something stronger and more sinister that has sunk its claws deep into the branching leylines. An oily black substance runs through the stone walls and floor of the tunnels in thick veins, dripping slowly in dark streaks, and the air in the tunnels feels heavier than usual. Far from showing any signs of the Matriarch’s people trying to clear the leyline, it feels even worse, more severely tainted. This only seems more likely when you start to encounter wildlife bearing the same kind of infection as the worms, oily black patches on their skin, aggression that exceeds the norm for their species. Bats and blind, white wasps and huge, glittering beetles have grown even bigger, and begun to mutate in unusual, grotesque ways. They’ll need to be put down - there is no getting past them peacefully, and no saving these creatures. Even if you don’t kill them, the infection will, as you’ll find - farther along, you start to find mutated, infected corpses as well, like oily smears on the stone and barely recognizable. And then there’s the sound, discordant in the quiet of the Underground. It’s difficult to hear at first, faint, but farther along when you get close to the walls, a distant, steady pulsing sound seems to chill you right down to your bones, as if the walls have a heartbeat of their own. None of the natives have ever heard it before, and if you have any citizens of the Underground in your search party, many of them with stronger senses are visibly scared, growing paranoid and agitated as time passes. Tracking the leylines, or the sound of the pulsing in the walls, will take several days of exploration, deeper into the tunnels than the natives remember venturing before, and those days will be plagued with danger and unrest. Keep in touch with your fellows in town as well, though Watch reception will be spotty - it will become clear that this is no longer just an Underground problem. a. Leyline Clearing It seems like a good idea at first to try and clear some part of the infected leylines, if only to cut the infection off from traveling further, as it uses the pathways of natural magic that cut through the earth like a highway to cover more ground quicker. It seems to move with each pulse in the walls, creeping a little farther along. The leyline in the Silent Forest outside the Northern Outpost, set on a path to healing last year, seems like child’s play in comparison to this herculean effort, though. Be careful, Witches. Even just one push of your magic into this infected leyline triggers a backlash that rings in your ears and wracks your body with soul-deep pain. Those who are un-Bonded, who have no Monster partner to help cushion the impact, feel it worse than those who are Bonded. But those who are Bonded, their partners can feel the pain too - lessened, more spread out over the two or three or four of you, but still intense. Even without touching the walls or the floor, the infection can spread through your magic, into you, your Bonded, and those around you if you cast the spell as a group. b. Infection Rather than settling into the body at first, this Cwyld settles into your magic, your soul, your innate connection with the world, whether you’re Witch or Monster. It’s harder to guard against it, even by taking the usual precautions. The side-effects are terrible; while the Mirrorbound in Aefenglom feel it too, all those symptoms are much stronger down here closer to the source. Trying to use your magic as a Witch (and sometimes your less physical abilities as a Monster) results in backlash, misfiring, or even a dangerous drain in energy. Reaching for one’s magic might be as natural as breathing for most Witches, but now it feels like trying to reach through a thick fog, sticky and cloying. Spells go awry, coming out as the opposite effect from the caster’s intention, or a completely different, unforeseen result (think: Wild Magic in D&D). Sometimes you can’t pull on your magic or abilities at all, and sometimes you wildly misjudge how much force to use, resulting in danger for those around you, especially in these tight, underground spaces. Interacting too much or too often with the tainted magic causes pain and fatigue at the very least, and for some even more uncomfortable effects, such as numbness of the extremities, temporary blindness, nausea or full unconsciousness. These effects are much more prominent in Witches, especially those un-Bonded, though some Monsters may feel similar, lesser effects on some of their abilities. Monsters are not immune, especially growing closer to the sinister source. Those who are Bonded to Witches can feel the strain the tainted magic puts on them, and those who aren’t, or whose Bonds aren’t strong, find that they feel the tainted pulse of the heartbeat in the walls acutely, driving them to paranoia, fear, rage, or even ferality. All Monsters on this mission will find that they’re prone to nightmares when they do try to catch some rest - the content of the nightmares varies depending on the person, but they’re all unsettling, and they all feature prominently the image of a blackened tree, the trunk bearing faces frozen in masks of horror, and the picture of gnarled roots reaching down, down, down. c. Tangled Ties As the Cwyld in the walls grows more prominent, taking on an appearance like thick, oily, veiny roots, tangled and twisted, so too does the Cwyld work to tangle the ties that bind you. Those who don’t, or can’t, keep their Bonded in close physical proximity may find that their Bond feels weaker, or perhaps it begins to only transmit negative emotions like pain or fear. They may find their Bonds shifting, or even snapping, tangling or twisting in ways they shouldn’t. All of a sudden, you might even find yourself with a completely different Bond, being drawn to a stranger or an acquaintance you certainly weren’t Bonded to before. If you didn’t have a Bond already, you might find yourself with one (or more) now - or a twisted approximation of one, as anyone who experiences this will soon find out that the magic isn’t quite what it’s supposed to be. It can’t be nullified as usual, broken off or switched back intentionally (though some days it might end up snapping to someone else instead), and down here, you only have each other, your Underground hosts, and a spotty Watch connection for help. All the infected wildlife seems to die out, as days later, your parties find their way close to the source of the pulsing in the walls. An entrance hewn out of the stone opens into what feels like a truly massive cavern, judging from the change in the airflow. The Cwyld is thick here, concentrated in what seem to be rough, blackened roots all in a tangle like a thick curtain. You can hear the heartbeat-like sound louder now, a steady thump-thump, thump-thump. Whatever lies in wait past that curtain of roots, you know in your gut that once you enter, you won’t be able to leave until the problem is dealt with. Resupply, recruit help, try to sort the snarled threads of your Bonds - it’s going to be rough from here.

III. Reaching Tendrils (Aefenglom, Northern Outpost) The Matriarch’s briefing is, soon after it’s given, relayed to the Coven and then to the rest of the Mirrorbound, through some of the Wilders or perhaps through other characters themselves. That, at least, is a good thing, to provide some kind of warning for what happens next. In far worse news, the effects of the malaffected leylines are not limited to the tunnels of the Underground, or even the nearby Northern Outpost. Somehow, just a few days after things take a worse turn down below and surrounding the Outpost, they reach as far as the city. The effects of the infected leyline overflow like a burst dam, tainted magic spilling out from the Cwyld-strangled Underground caverns and through their connected, invisible tributaries beneath the earth, stretching miles outward with each passing day. The Northern Outpost and the Wilde around it, being closest, are affected first, and it hits the northernmost parts of Aefenglom by the 10th of the month - proving just how interconnected completely unrelated places can be on Geardagas. a. Snarled Magics Wilder, Coven, and Mirrorbound Witches alike, anyone who needs to draw on the power of the world’s magic, find it feeling increasingly resistant and… unpleasant. Here too, Witches find that reaching for their magic is like battling through sticky, dark fog. It becomes more and more difficult to gauge how much magic is needed even for the simplest of spells: sometimes, you might try to cast only to have nothing at all happen, and other times, the magic bursts forth many times more powerful than intended, causing a dangerous drain on the caster and all sorts of hazards for people and property caught in the unpredictable outburst. Spells go awry, coming out as the opposite effect from the caster’s intention, or a completely different, unforeseen result (think: Wild Magic in D&D). Those with more experience or inordinate willpower may be able to push through, especially if they work together to cast group spells instead, but not without consequence; interacting too much or too often with the tainted magic causes pain and fatigue at the very least, and for some even more uncomfortable effects, such as numbness of the extremities, temporary blindness, nausea or full unconsciousness. Of course, one could simply choose not to use any magic, but how long can a Witch last without casting even a little bit? For those with Bonds, matters are even worse; a Witch is always expending some minor magical power toward their Bonded, after all. In some cases, the connection doesn’t respond well, causing paranoid and unhappy feelings, vivid shared nightmares or increased agitation, among other similar emotional side effects. b. Twisted Bonds Bonded pairs from the Underground all the way to Aefenglom will also feel the instability in their Bond increasing over the next couple of weeks, making it difficult to feel one another’s presence as normal. If the Bond isn’t treated with care and partners aren’t in close physical proximity often enough, the strain is even greater. In some rare cases, it might even… snap and shift, suddenly getting tangled up or twisted, your strings all snarled in the wrong ways. All of a sudden, you might even find yourself with a completely different Bond, being drawn to a stranger or an acquaintance you certainly weren’t Bonded to before. If you didn’t have a Bond already, you might find yourself with one (or more) now - or a twisted approximation of one, as anyone who experiences this will soon find out that the magic isn’t quite what it’s supposed to be. It can’t be nullified as usual, broken off or switched back intentionally (though some days it might end up snapping to someone else instead), and even the Coven’s most experienced Witches have no answers as to why. While use of magic is unpredictable for most, if not all, Witches, the Bond problems, however, seem to be affecting only the Mirrorbound. Seek out your new Bonded and make the best of it for now: you’re going to need each other’s support, especially if you’re a Witch unable to cast normally while the groups of volunteers in the Underground work tirelessly to make things right. Despite the onslaught of unstable magic and unstable Bonds, of unsettling feeling and a pervasive sense of wrongness, it's up to you to hold down the home front, helping where you can as the magical mishaps rack up and raiding the libraries of the Coven and Undermael College for research, no matter how it all starts to wear on you.

Welcome to Tangled Terrors, Part One! Proving that the settlements of Geardagas are a little more connected than they seem on the surface... This is just the first half of the event, but the negative effects on using magic and on Bonds will be present until after Part Two, when the problem is dealt with. These are optional, opt-in effects except for the difficulty in using magic if you're a Witch - and you can go more mild with that if you'd like, but it will be part of life for most of the month.

If you'd like to find some tainted Bonds to tangle with, we've provided a plotting header here! You can change up Bonds as often and as unexpectedly as you'd like. As always, direct your event-related questions here! And finally, the event plotting post is over here!

Part Two of this event will go up on the 17th, and will be an Underground locale-only event (meaning there will not be an Aef-focused prompt), dealing with the root of the newly-woken issue that plagues the leyline running between the Underground and Aefenglom.

Comments

[noblegarnet]

[There's a coppery smell in the air as she steps closer, and the colors of his wings shift constantly with the rest of him, with no apparent rhyme or reason—until she speaks. Giant red irises appear within their membranes, staring directly at the princess in lieu of the Fae's true eyes, which he keeps hidden behind both hands and shifting glamors.

There's a quiet hiss to the voices that call out a warning:]

Turn away.

[darkestbefore]

[ She hesitates, because that's more than one voice and she has to stop and wonder how much of this is still Ferran and how much might be... something else. After days spent down in the tunnels now, she's become more than a little paranoid and wary, because everything they encounter seems twisted and wrong somehow, and now she's worried she's just dreaming more of the same.

...Or is she somehow sending that wrongness back along her Bond to him? She hopes not.

So she takes another slow step forward, her eyes still on him, not flinching away from those vibrant red eyes. She's been stared down by far stranger in her life. ]

I'm not afraid of you, Ferran. I'm worried about you. What is wrong? What's happening to you here?

[noblegarnet]

[The voices have no words to answer her question, instead reprimanding her for her choice of trusting him:]

You should be.

[The unblinking irises continue to focus on Yona as the space shifts around them, changing not the buildings or the path, but revealing the shredded forms of corpses around them, dark red pools reflecting the light of two bright moons. Although these people seemingly died at each others' hands, their proximity to the Fae may hint towards the true reason for their demise.]

[darkestbefore]

No. I shouldn't.

[ Her voice is firm as she answers him.

And then her surroundings change and her breath hitches in surprise as she takes in the bloodshed. For a moment, it's so terrifyingly familiar that it steals her breath away. Not of him, but of old memories that still haunt her, even after all this time. She takes a breath, closes her eyes to try and push those old wounds away, not wanting them to color this moment here and now.

Steadier after she takes a few breaths, she starts moving towards him once more, her expression solemn but unwavering as she takes him in. How he's still curled in on himself. He might be trying to terrify her away, but she can recognize the defensiveness of that pose. ]

Ferran. Look at me. Let me see your face.

[noblegarnet]

[The form of a Shade flickers among the rest as she approaches, black and twisted, and every step she takes reveals another victim, layers of the apparent concealing illusion peeling away.]

No.

[The Fae's posture grows more rigid, fingers-claws-talons digging into the skin as the edges of his wings and their pupils' gaze grow sharper with each shift.]

Leave... before it's too late.

[darkestbefore]

I'm not going to leave you alone, Ferran.

[ Her voice is soft but fervent as she takes another step. She sees the flickering shape of something moving at the edge of her vision, but for the moment she keeps her eyes on the curled form in front of her.

Reaching for the Bond, she tries to open it enough to send warmth and reassurance down it to him, but she doesn't know if it works. She's so far away right now and her magic hasn't been working at all as it should.

She takes in the way his talons dig into flesh and sorrow flickers across her gaze as he grows even more tense. ] I'm not going to hurt you, Ferran. And I'm not going to let anything here hurt me. Please, lift your head. Look at me?

[noblegarnet]

[He does not do as requested in spite of feeling the faintest touch of that warmth—in return, his side only offers icy hate. Each shifting glamor grits their teeth, frustration building.]

You think it's up to you?

[He knows what's best, his instincts screech. If she won't listen, then she will just have to see. It's what has to be done. It's for her own good.

Yona gets the briefest glimpse of the longer, sharper features and too-large eyes of the monstrous Fae before she's beset by the sensation of falling, all of her mundane senses telling her she's falling into a deep pit cushioned only by dead leaves and twisted roots.]

You'll regret not listening.

[darkestbefore]

[ There's a startled yelp as it feels as if the ground gives out beneath her, heart racing in sudden panic as she falls.

More terrifying are the memories it brings with it, because this is not the first time... and even now she can see Hak's limp, bloodied body tumbling with her, falling from that high cliff on the mountainside. She reaches for it, even as her mind snaps out of the memory, reminding her this isn't real.

It's not Hak she has to worry for here. It's Ferran.

Though there's still panic racing in her veins, the feel of falling already leaving her flinching and bracing for the remembered pain of impact - she does the only thing she can think of.

She throws the bond between them wide open, as far as she can, and sends her emotions, her strength, her magic through to him.

And with it comes one, softly whispered sentence. ]

I trust you.

[ It might be foolish of her, but she chooses to do it all the same. She's not sure her belief in him will mean anything to him, but she offers it anyway. ]

[noblegarnet]

[In the real world, if he even had lost himself to his monstrous instincts, his bonds likely would have been enough to bring him back from the brink, especially with the way she pours her entire being into it. And even now, it reaches the Fae to some extent—

But the nightmare has turned his fear into a yawning void of hopelessness, and his side of their connection opens to meet hers as if to challenge it. For every hint of affection he feels towards her, there's a feral rage to burn it away, for every concern, a distinctly Fae sort of apathy to drown it out.

Ferran is there, at the bond's core. But it's more than just him. And the thing that's there with him only fuels the downward spiral he's fallen into.

Her landing isn't pleasant, but not quite enough to break anything. The voices scream from above, echoing through the "pit."]

STOP IT.

[Spikes jut through the walls with a scraping sound, not near enough to harm her, but near enough for her to see the corpses of familiar faces impaled there—their forms that of distant friends and acquaintances, rather than those more beloved. It's almost a warning, though there's no real indication as to what she should be avoiding to be found, externally or within the bond.]

YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?

[darkestbefore]

[ The landing is uncomfortable all the same, knocking the air from her lungs and leaving her aching and dazed in the darkness of the pit. She hears the slide of those spikes, jolts back from the slack, lifeless features of the figure impaled on it, and slams her eyes shut, as if that will help her unsee it.

She shudders, trying to drag air back into her lungs. ]

I want to.

[ Her voice is still a whisper, but more strained now as his scream echoes from above her, her heart aching for him. For whatever he's caught in right now that has locked him into... whatever this is. ]

What can I do, Ferran? What do you need?

[noblegarnet]

[The question prompts no pleasant response; the Fae's desires were already plain, spoken clearly despite the myriad voices relaying them. Only spite comes to the surface.]

Now you want to listen?

[Desperate shrieks of laughter meld with deep rumbling chuckles in a cacophony that can nearly be felt as much as heard.]

I told you already. But you wanted to look—so now you get to look.

[A long, bony hand grasps Yona's chin, pointed nails almost like claws threatening to break skin. Should she open her eyes, she'll see her bonded there—standing in front of those bodies, his features sharpened almost beyond recognition, giant red eyes glowing with magic and nothing resembling kindness.]

[darkestbefore]

[ She doesn't flinch away from that touch, even though she feels the sharpness of claws against her skin. She's not afraid of him, even now. Even if maybe she should be.

Her eyes are open and lock onto his face the moment that hand fastens onto her chin. She searches those features and his eyes are cold. So far from the Ferran she knows and loves, but she knows he's still in there - even if he's trying to convince her otherwise. She had felt all that pain and rage and fear down the bond when she'd flung it open. To be so deeply trapped and ensnared by that...

She only wanted to reach him.

So for now, she reached for what she could. Her hand comes up, resting over where his fingers clasp her jaw, brushing her own much smaller grip against his hand - not pulling away, but holding him there as she holds his gaze. ]

If you thought you'd send me screaming into the shadows, Ferran, you're going to be disappointed. I am looking. I still see you. I can feel you. I'm not going anywhere. Not without you.

SHAKES BRAIN UNTIL WORDS FALL OUT

[noblegarnet]

[The Fae's grip tightens as he lifts her to an uncomfortable height between kneeling and standing, his strength enhanced just as his magic is.]

I'm not done.

[With little warning, he tosses her several feet away, and ice begins to build under her, frosting over the ground and up her legs to keep her apparently immobilized. Voices call out for her from above—those of her other Bonded.]

Everything you care about... is mine to play with.

[The two Heroic Spirits descend into the pit, but once they make it there, they seem to mistake the other for an aggressor, as if Ferran isn't there at all. With the Fae's magic drawing from Yona's memories of the pair, the illusion of the scene is difficult to discern from reality, and it's clear to turn violent soon...]