wildestlogs | INTO THE WOODS ※ GAME EVENT

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Nightrender nearly has Mona's soul out of her mouth when a boomerang hits it hard in the back of its head. The blow doesn't nearly do the damage that the heavy wooden weapon should, but it does make the Nightrender loosen its grasp on Mona, and turn just in time to see the kick Bunny delivers to its head.

That does knock the Nightrender off balance, and the monster drops Mona as Bunny snatches up his boomerang and gets between Mona and the monster. "No worries back there, kiddo. Can you run?"

She was close. He could see the light in her mouth, about to be consumed, flashing in and out of the feeling of deadly thirst and screaming in the darkness. But Bunny breathes deeply against the magical panic and the Nightrender turns its attention to him. For a moment the air around both him and Mona bites with a deadly, and deadly quiet cold.

"Give it up, mate, that's long since done," Bunny says, breaking the temperature back to normal.

It's cold, and there's a horrible sucking sound as if the thing squeezing her is doing all the breathing for both of them. Her vision goes dark, though she can't tell if it's oxygen deprivation or just a remnant of the memories. Or maybe it's just the natural reaction to the light just behind her lips, like the flash of a cell phone ruining her night vision. And then it stops.

She drops to the dirt like a sack of potatoes, gasping for air and the sudden existential dread that comes from knowing that it was very, very important that that light stay in her mouth, whatever it was. Someone speaks-- someone Australian, that's odd, unless it's a renn faire actor who just missed the mark on what a British accent is supposed to sound like-- and she looks up to see and thank her rescuer.

There's a... giant... rabbit standing in front of her. Talking to her. She shivers once, hard, though whether it's in response to the fear or the cold or just her brain's pathetic attempt to shake her out of whatever incomprehensible nonsense is going on, she doesn't know.

Mona looks up at the monster facing off against the giant rabbit holding a boomerang, and she says the only thing she can possibly think of to make sense of it all. "Did that bitch drug me?"

Bunny lets the language slide. "Couldn't tell ya."

This nightrender is determined, lurching forward and adding the smell of rotting flesh to the temperature drop as it lashes out, as Bunny dodges its blows, not getting enough of his own in in time to stop the little spike of adrenaline as he narrowly misses being gutted and - there's the line of graves dug, little shoebox-sized graves and the dirt is wet and muddy and covering his forearms and his feet, clinging all over his fur, but the ice here hasn't totally melted around the bodies. Dead rabbits with human eyes are strewn in the mud, looking like a haunted house version of stuffed children's toys. Their bodies, half-preserved by ice, half decomposed from weeks of exposure where the ice has melted, have filled air that only ever before smelled like flowers and green growing things with an unbearable, almost deadly stench, but he has to stay and do this. He has to break the ice around each one, carefully keep the softening bodies from falling apart in his paws when he carries them, bones and festering meat and rotten fur, in his own paws to their graves. He can barely stand to look at any of them, but over by the boulder he hasn't even glanced at, he's saving his mother for last -

"I said that's enough!"

Bunny drops and hits the Nightrender under its center of gravity, pushing it up and bodily throwing it away from himself and Mona, and again the temperature rises, the stench fades. The Nightrender scrambles to its feet and Bunny stamps the ground, hard. A hole opens up in the ground next to Mona.

"That tunnel opens up in the woods, can you get down it yourself or do you need help?" Bunny asks her, again, his tone near-irritated with urgency.

She has to assume the answer is yes, she's been drugged, because the Australian talking rabbit is not only still talking to her, but fighting the jerky monster while Mona is... experiencing visions about a bunch of dead rabbits, apparently. As if she was the rabbit? God, this situation was bad enough already without gagging over the remembered smell of rotting meat and bunny graves.

"That tun-- the hole?" The hole that the talking rabbit just opened up in the ground in front of her? "You want me to jump into the hole." The hole. To willingly go into the hole in the ground, on the word of a talking hallucination. She's not underground any longer, but she still feels her body lock up at the idea of not only going back-- days in the hole, until she was out of her mind from it, black on black with nothing to do but wonder if this time he wouldn't let her out-- but going in willingly. "I'm-- no." No, she's not going. She'd go back to the monster first.

Shoot, he should have gathered as much. He felt that horror of being in a hole, but it's always hard for him to remember that going underground for some other species is not automatically the comforting, safe option it is for him.

Bunny stamps the tunnel shut, pushes the monster back, and when it stumbles a little, he opens a tunnel beneath it and drops it across the clearing, just to the edge of sight. If he sent it farther away, who knows who it could come up beside and attack instead of them?

"My mistake. Get up and run North. I'll cover you. It won't be as fast as the tunnels, but I'll get you somewhere safer," he promises, as the monster springs across the clearing towards them.

She said no, and it worked. With another stomp of his feet, the hole closes up again as if it was never there, and the monster drops through it instead. If this is a hallucination, it's an encouraging metaphor. In English class she'd write something sappy about standing up for herself and breaking free from the monster. But only if she actually stayed free once this was all over, and she didn't have much hope for that.

For example, going north. With the orders, suggestions, and pleas to go north, Mona knows it's hands down the last place she wants to go. Every fiber of her body is screaming that the only thing to the north is a trap. But if she goes into the trap, she'll stay alive-- she knows A won't try to kill her. That monster was going to. The fire wouldn't care whether she got caught up in it or not. She closes her eyes for a moment, then pushes herself to her feet. If her imaginary rabbit friend wants to hang around and push the monsters away, she should let him. "Okay. That way, right?"

She still points west. Worth a try.

Bunny flicks his ears west, and shakes his head. "More are coming from that direction. C'mon, this way." he tilts his head north, looking away from Mona to keep monitoring the monster as it barrels toward them.

Looks like she has to go north, then. She's vaguely fascinated by the way his ears moved, like little antennae. Like a cartoon character. She has no idea if he's telling the truth-- it's not like she can hear anything in that direction herself-- but what's the worst that could happen? He leads her into the same situation she was just in?

She nods, gathering the skirt of her ridiculous prom dress to get it out of the way. "Thank you," she adds after a moment. "For, you know. All of it."

"No worries. Thank me when we're far enough that you don't need to run anymore," he points out. It's easy to keep pace with her, in her inconvenient dress, but arduous at the same time because unfortunately for Mona she's just - she's just so slow. Bunny resists the urges to shoot ahead, dropping behind only to drop the pursuing nightrender into another backpedaling tunnel, loping easily to catch up as he gently herds Mona north.

INTO THE WOODS ※ GAME EVENT

iii. rescued lines

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cw: dead animals

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