INTO THE WOODS ※ GAME EVENT

[wildestmods]

INTO THE WOODS

The faerie faire goes on into the evening, the faire filled with the sounds of revelry. For those who've spent the day there, the cool evening air is welcome respite from the bright sun that's shined all day. Those who still have some faerie gold might even want to invest in a cloak if they haven't gotten one yet, because it may get chillier as night falls.

As evening descends and various floating flowers start to glow to provide light, the spring faeries start to bring out night-time merchandise and amusements, like brightly-colored phosphorescent flower jewelry. Fireflies are charmed to blink in different colors and magical fireworks paint the sky in vibrant light. They're quieter than normal fireworks, but there are still satisfying snaps and hisses.

It seems like it'll be a pleasant night at the fair and those only just arriving in the evening will find a charming scene opening up before them.

But one thing that isn't noticed as evening begins to fall is the way the winter faeries suddenly slink away into the rising dark. Or at least it isn't noticed until it's too late. Some of the summer faeries start to react to it with alarm.

"Where did they go? The winter faeries are supposed to provide security, they signed an agreement. Go tell Ponto and get some faeries with warding magic to shore up the wards." Faeries start flying with purpose to speak to others that need to be put on security. "We can handle it ourselves but we need to get enough people out to the borders."

"Should we disperse the faire?"

"No, there's no sign of any threats and if we re-ward it, they'll be safer here than people scattering in the woods at night. Even if we had the bad luck to be attacked before the wards are re-done we can defend them with our magic - and we're contracted to."

Unfortunately that bad luck hits too soon. While the faeries scramble to re-do the defense wards, an unearthly fog rolls in. Terrible screeches start to rend the air, sounding similar to the screams of foxes. Warning bells ring from warning wards placed in certain areas of the woods.

"Nightrenders!" someone calls out and people in the crowd start screaming, gathering their loved ones closer. Horrifying beings start to pour into the faire and the hand stamps of all the people who bought tickets ahead of time start to glow. Faeries rally around those people, casting powerful defensive spells. Due to the panic, several stalls start to go up in flames due to knocked over cooking fires. Fortunately the stalls are small enough for people to escape them easily and spread far enough apart that they can be avoided, but smoke joins the fog in the air.

If a faerie sees one of the squad of otherworlders, and their lack of glowing hand stamp they're quick to offer a warning. "You have to run! The people who bought tickets ahead of time entered into a magical agreement of protection. The warding takes time to charge. We can do nothing for you, without slow-charge wards we're not powerful enough to protect you. The Nightrenders will devour your brain, or your soul."

Apparently that little disclaimer about not being fully protected that some of them read while coming in (for those that had arrived earlier in the day) was more important than it seemed.

The faeries always point the same way, still trying to help the people without tickets. "To the north! There's a place in a canyon with a large, glowing crystal. It looks like an abandoned market and dwellings. You'll be safe there, the magic of the Heartstone will protect you."

USEFUL LINKS

Setting Background/FAQ | Major NPCs


NIGHTRENDERS

The beings known as Nightrenders start amassing on the faire. Their movements are quick but clumsy, as if every one of their movements is made up of a hundred janky, smaller fits and starts, like they're made of clockwork. The faerie magic summer faeries use seems to do no more than stagger them back or temporarily knock them over, but at least makes it clear to the squad that they at least can be knocked over and slowed down. At the very least it seems to take them some time to get off the ground and back to their feet.

Attacks

They attack anyone they see in different ways. Some they wound with massive claws. Or they squeeze someone's torso and nearly suffocate them to give them a chance at possibly chomping into the heads of their victims to get at the brains. Most dangerously of all, they breathe in with a loud sucking noise, clawed hands guiding the magic that lets them drawn out someone's soul to devour it. It looks like a small delicate thing, sometimes in the form of a glittering star or a flower, as its drawn out of the victim's mouth.

This process can fortunately be interrupted if the Nightrender is attacked. As long as the soul hasn't been sucked into their mouths, it goes back into the victim.

Cursed Aura

But the whole thing is complicated by the magical aura caused by the Nightrenders. When they draw close, everyone around them is choked with fear, grief, and dread. Some succumb to visions of their worse memories playing out in their heads over and over. Some might be able to still stagger away in this state, trying to see through the visions, especially if someone helps them along, but others will find it nearly impossible to do anything other than curl on the ground. It is unknown why some don't have the flashbacks or can power through them more than others, though it's thought that those that repress their bad memories or negative emotions struggle more.

Anyone that helps someone who's having visions may get a glimpse of their memories - and empathically feel a flash of the pain, fear, rage, or grief they felt during the memory. If two people try to help each other move forward when both are having visions, they may transmit glimpses back and forth.

Weaknesses

The Nightrenders cannot be destroyed, only knocked down, or slowed down. However, those with "holy" weapons, spells, or powers, or those who have weapons, spells, or powers that can hurt "ethereal" beings or evil spirits will find they can cause them enough pain that sometimes they run away. Spells and abilities that create magical manifestations of good will and happiness, as well as spells of light, or purification can also harm them and drive them away.

THE SISTERS

The Nightrenders don't speak, but some have the misfortune of hearing two voices echo out of the fog. The come in stereo, only just slightly out of sync.

"Chosen Ones, you must be so confused. You've become lost in the forest, and the Dark Lord's nightmares already pursue you. Fortunately for you, our mistress desires your company. You'll adore obeying her will. Don't run, embrace a better destiny."

Two woman in white masks and straw hats, with cloaks made from the feathers of ravens, come out of the fog, body language almost identical. No eyes can be seen through the eyeholes of their masks, just darkness.

They start attacking, and when they beset their victims they stop speaking, refusing to talk or answer questions, instead filling the air with wild, mocking laughter. One wields twin katanas, the other a kusarigama with a painful claw at the end of the chain that closes down when it hits something.

Nets

While they're extremely willing to injure the squad they seem to be trying to capture them instead of killing (albeit capturing them after they're maimed), occasionally tossing out nets of glowing silver of moonlight. Being caught in the nets renders someone paralyzed and weak, a deep cold settling into the marrow of their bones. Some may even hear the shrieks of dying loved ones, whether they've actually died in reality or not. The Sisters apparently have the strength to carry even the largest of the squad in the air and will attempt to fly away when someone is ensnared.

The nets are difficult to destroy, but can be with great force of some kind. It has to be aimed at the part closest to the Sisters' hands, because the force required to break the nets would also injure those trapped inside them. The cold and paralysis fades when the victims are free, but some of the rescued may feel weak and need help staying on their feet. Unfortunately, even when they're broken, the nets of moonlight seem to be something they can recreate within several minutes.

Smoke Monsters

For some, they don't attack directly. Instead, one of the sisters pulls out a pipe and smoke monsters pour out of it. They try to drag their victims closer to the sisters so they can be caught in their nets. Fortunately, they can be destroyed with enough force.

While the Sisters seem impossible to injure, they can at least be caused pain with extreme enough attacks, something that makes them teleport away before risking any further injury.

PROMPTS

a) RENT
Uh oh, a Nightrender has you. Either it's squeezing you so hard you're suffocating and about to chomp into some juicy brains, or it's in the process of sucking your soul out through your mouth. In either case, you're likely broadcasting visions of your worst memories in small flashes to whoever is near. You're in desperate need of rescue and the summer faeries can't help - their magic is all but useless on the Nightrenders if it didn't have time to build by a covenant. Only others that fell into the Wilderlands like you did can save you.

(Feel free to provide multiple memory options ala a memshare, but keep in mind they'd only be flashes instead of a full memory!)

b) NABBED
The Sisters have got you, their smoke monsters are trying to drag you away, or you're still trying to fight them to avoid being caught. It'll be a lot easier if you have help - otherwise you're outnumbered and possibly outclassed. The only way to stop them is fight back hard enough that they feel you're not worth the effort and teleport off.

c) RESCUE
Perhaps you're not affected by the Nightrenders or are just good at powering through the haze of painful magic they're inflicting on the area. Either way, you're out to help the people around you. Perhaps you run into another member of the otherworlder squad that needs saving - or maybe they join you to protect a third otherworlder, or a denizen of the Wilderlands that also forewent a ticket and is therefore at risk. Unlike many of the people from other universes, many of the denizens of the Wilderlands are powerless and thought they were in for a day and night of safe fun.

There are also other hazards to rescue people from. Maybe a small child has been separated from their parents and is disoriented by smoke, in need of rescued from some flaming tents. Or maybe an elderly person has fallen and is at risk of being trampled. There are lots of reasons people might need help, due to fires, panicked horses, collapsing tents, and panicking crowds.

d) RUN
It's time to run! Perhaps, after some screaming and confusion - and teleportation - you finally grab a buddy and bolt through the woods. You better run fast because the Nightrenders and the Sisters may give up chase at some point but it may take time and moving through difficult terrain in the fog to lose them. Perhaps you and a partner have to help a third, injured otherworlder because they're having trouble walking.

Better head north like the faeries said. The faeries were right that this Heartstone to the north may be your only hope - and you'll have to reach it despite the fading evening light, skies overcast with dark clouds, and fog.

It may be easier navigating in the dark with a partner or two.

e) WILDCARD
Maybe you decide to do none of the above. Go nuts!

OOC DETAILS
❧ Quest magic: Players can handwave that the quest bond magic is tugging the group northward to the safe place, with the mysterious Heartstone. They can also use the quest magic as an excuse for many different threads. As the group tries to run, their scattering movements will affect the magic and cause people to teleport at random, allowing for many different encounters with many other characters. This can explain why two characters that might otherwise stay together through the whole thing might get separated.

❧ Network: The network can now be used. Mirrors can and do float if someone is trying to talk through one and running, and can follow someone as they move, allowing people to communicate on the go or during action. Feel free to start using the network in parallel with the log events.

❧ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc the actions of bystanders, the Nightrenders, and the Sisters. The Sisters won't speak, just continue laughing, and players can npc their specific attacks, capture attempts, and teleportation. Please just don't have them talk or godmode them dying - they're currently a little too sturdy for that. If you have a question about whether/how something will affect them feel free to ask the mods in the first comment below.

❧ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are things left over from the faire people can work with like bow and arrow sets from the competition, horses (which can be temporarily stolen, though we'd like to limit any that are permanently stolen to the (1) horse another player already requested), and even explosive faerie fireworks (they're quieter than the normal thing but still create a big bang). Abandoned stalls also have weapons and supplies to grab as people run for it. If they didn't think to steal or buy useful things during the day, please limit this to only grabbing one or two items as they run, like a cloak or sword. They won't have time to loot for more.

❧ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding to rescuing a 3rd. Players are also encouraged to set limitations if they think it'd be more interesting, like locking their final escape prompt from the faire grounds to a single thread partner and playing out the drama of a full escape.

[OOC: Plot is visible so people can see and start plotting together but not open until Nov. 1. The mods will enable comments then.]

Comments

[millenyal_pink]

CW: depictions of violence, body horror, dead children

The sound of a window breaking.

Pain wracks through Elle's body as she tries to get upright.

A strange man is in their house. His bones break and reform, his skin tears and heals, and he transforms into a grotesque wolf-like creature. He whips his head around and looks directly at Elle and a teenage boy who looks just like her.

Someone grabs her and she flinches away.

Elle and her brother scream and begin run. Her brother pushes her away as the creature, impossibly fast, catches up to them. She stumbles, falls, and tries to twist to see what's happening behind her.

She can hear someone talking, feel someone touching her, but she can't understand what they're saying.

Elle can only watch as her brother's blood splatters over the white marble floor. She's completely paralyzed by fear as the monster keeps biting and ripping into him. She screams.

She screams.
"ADAM!"

Adam's blood warm on her face. Teeth tearing into flesh. A horrible cackling as her brother is torn apart in front of her.

She's vaguely aware of someone trying to lift her up. She begins to fight against them. She can't leave her brother behind.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan wants to keep saying it's not real, that what's real is the violence in front of Elle, not in her mind. But he knows as well as anyone that just because something isn't current doesn't mean it isn't real; her brother's death is real. His family's death is real. It lives with them as if it weren't even in the past - he knows instantaneously that it's the same for her as it is for him.

So he changes what he's telling her, trying to keep her from fighting him by restraining her arms, using his most calming tone of voice as his head is swimming. "You're not there. You ain't there anymore."

What happened to her, to her brother, happened. It remains as real as the day it happened. It's just somewhere, sometime, somewhen else.

Dan wants to be gentler, but the nightrender is freeing itself of its pins, and so he has to choose between being kind and being effective. He hauls her to her feet, letting her hit him if she's still trying to, and starts to drag her towards the horse.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle gets a few good swings in; she's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks. Dan have a few extra bruises when this is all over.

She sees flashes of memories that don't belong to her interspersed with her own, people she's never met getting hurt or killed. They all resonate deeply with her own loss.

She sobs in his arms as she is dragged away- that is, until the pain sets in. It pulls at her gash in a way that hurts like hell, but allows her to register the burning in her back and shoulders. It manages to ground her in reality just enough to stop fighting.

Just enough to start getting angry.

As they get approach the horse, it becomes skittish. It can sense her Rage; her true nature. Like nearly all creatures, the closer she gets, the further it backs away. Elle isn't aware enough of her surroundings to tell yet, but it's beginning to look like it's going to bolt if she gets any closer.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan takes the beating; it isn't the first time he's absorbed someone else's violence because he's giving, accommodating, willing to self-sacrifice if it means getting someone else to safety. He's bleeding from his nose and lip, and his ears are ringing from where Elle clocked him in the head.

But he isn't letting her go. The pain is something to ground him here, instead of in that death-soaked van that he spent his young adulthood in, instead of watching his little brothers and sisters writhe in bloody pain, instead of finding his mom pinned with her own bones to the wall, instead of watching his kid die. He's here. He has a bloody nose to prove it.

"Whoa, girl," he says to both Elle and to the horse, because he's savvy enough with horses to tell that Concrete Blonde is about to bolt. He starts to drag Elle in another direction, towards an upturned cart of pies so they can shelter from the nightrender, which is coming towards them again.

"Get down, get down," Dan says, trying to push Elle to the flimsy shelter so he can get his bow off his back and try and pin down the nightrender again. "You're okay. You're here."

[millenyal_pink]

"Fuck," she swears as her vision finally begins to focus on her surroundings.

God, how fucking pathetic is she, needing to be rescued like this? She was almost out of the fight in one fell swoop. She's supposed to be past her days of relying on others to save her ass from the fire. She's supposed to be better than this.

The memories begin to overwhelm her again, so she does the only thing she can think of and slams her head and shoulders against the cart as hard as possible. It cracks under her strength.

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" she chants. There are definitely splinters in her back now.

She opens her eyes again and for a moment-- just a split second-- she sees Adam crouching in front of her.

She blinks and he's gone, replaced with her rescuer: a guy with a bloody nose and a bow strapped to his back. She blames the concussion that she probably just gave herself for what she says next.

"What're you supposed to be, Cupid or something?"

[hallelujahjunction]

"It's okay, it's okay."

Dan snorts, which is a bit of a bad look, because his nose is so clogged with blood that it really just sprays a little down across his upper lip and makes him hiccup. His voice sounds a little like putting a bunch of ball bearings in a blender. He raises an eyebrow at the cracked cart.

"Folks have called me worse. I'm Dan."

But, while formalities are comforting, the most important thing right now is safety, which means Dan leans out from behind the cart and nails a nightrender through the neck with an arrow, knocking it down.

"These things do something that make you relive shitty memories. It happened to me too. I don't think we can beat them, just run away with minimal casualties. Can you run?"

[millenyal_pink]

Elle gives him a weary smile as she catches her breath.

"I'm Elle. Sorry about the-" she gestures to her nose, then to his.

She looks around to see people fleeing, fighting, and hiding. There are still people cornered, trapped, or being attacked.

"I'm not leaving yet. People still need help."

She uses the cart to stand up, ignoring the aching in her head and the burning in her back.

"Thanks for saving my ass," she hopes that her expression comes across as a cocky grin and not a pained grimace. "You probably wanna back up a bit, this might get messy."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Yeah, you're right. If you can help, we need it." Dan doesn't plan on leaving until every person's out or he becomes injured enough to be more of a liability on the field than an asset. He gestures to his nose. "Don't worry about it. Had worse than this, too."

He steps back to give her space, a good idea of what's about to happen. He nocks another arrow to give her cover and buy her time if she needs it.

"Perfect. I love a good shapeshifter." Not only is Dan quite fond of werewolves, but he married a man who changes form between human and rabbit regularly. "Hope it heals you up, but if it don't, find me when the dust settles. I'm handy doing stitches."

[millenyal_pink]

Elle laughs a little bit, mostly out of the absurdity of the situation.

"Same goes to you, dude. Don't die."

It's not exactly poetry, but it gets her point across.

Elle reaches into the deep well of Rage that sits inside her gut and tugs at it, letting it rise to the surface and transform her.

As a were-cat Elle is more lithe than the transformed werewolves; she's a weapon of precision rather than an outright death machine. Her war-form maintains a grace and agility that the werewolves lack.

It doesn't make her any less dangerous.

She may not howl like wolves do, but Elle's battle cry is a bone-chilling scream (warning: loud, sudden noise) that pierces the air and reverberates across the faire grounds.

Then she gets to work.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Can't make no promises," Dan says with a laugh, giving her space to change by heading back to Concrete Blonde and getting on her before she can bolt away. Maybe he and Elle will meet again. They probably will.

He doesn't think anything's amiss with her turning into a danger battle-cat. He just assumes she's recovered enough for now that he can move on to the next problem, so he rides back into the fray.