EVENT #16: THE ISLAND - IC INVESTIGATION LOG

[abraxasmods]

Event #16 - The Island

OOC event plotting | wintertide event log

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As requested, the Summoned from all three nations will be allowed to revisit the island where the abductions, experiments, and subsquent escape occurred nearly one year ago. Officials will send representatives on this trip: Jolene Sybell of Thorne, Reva Hym of the Free Cities, and Isar Hart of Solvunn. Although they won't be available for private conversations, they're there to lead the expedition and answer any questions you have.

The excursion will take place on DECEMBER 29, after the Singularity and all magic has returned to full strength. A portal will take you directly to the island, where you'll have 48 hours to accomplish what you need. Tents will be set up on the surface for resting.

For the main Wintertide Event Log, click HERE.

The Expedition

CW: Disturbing imagery (text and visual), death, folk and body horror, other dark themes.

At the start of December, officials will inform each Summoned Conclave that their request has been granted. You'll receive a letter detailing the date and time, as well as instructions on where to take the portal. When you step through the portal, you'll land directly on the island.

The expedition carries risks. Representatives have scouted the area beforehand to ensure its relative safety, but considering the cave's collapse and its flooded areas, they can't make promises. You're advised to bring personal weapons and protective equipment and are told to dress warmly. Be sure you can handle some hiking.

You'll see an unusual figure join the expedition. She'll introduce herself as Lorelai. If you're from Solvunn or were one of the Lost, you might recognize her.

◎ All characters are welcome to participate, including new arrivals. You do not need to have taken part in Event 12 to make this trip. However, if your character was not part of Event 12, they'll need to tell officials why they want to join. As long as the explanation is reasonable, such as wanting to help recover bodies, they'll be allowed to go.

◎ To learn more about Lorelai and interact with her, see the Investigations section.

Exploration

Island Surface

Above ground, the island is muddy and wet, and the temperature is cold. Where the ground hasn't turned to a bog, the dirt has hardened from frost. Trees show signs of the same blackened rot that was present during former investigations. The air is thick with a dark presence that leaves a strange grimy sensation over your skin. The more sensitive you are to magic or the Singularity, the stronger the feeling.

Desiccated corpses drained of life, both animal and human, litter the ground. Some animal carcasses - especially birds - are fresher than others, suggesting they died recently. Although many months have passed, it seems time has not been enough to help the island recover.

Follow the faction representatives. After a short trek, you reach the mouth of the cave. Here, a mangled mass of crushed bats and birds lay at the tunnel's mouth. A dried, bloodied residue sticks to the surrounding rock walls with bits of bone on the ground, as if a body was spread into a paste around the area.

Collapsed Cavern (Pit)

To descend into the cave, you'll need to navigate the tunnels. Some of them have collapsed, so be careful of potential rockslides and falling boulders. The worst of the blockage has been removed, but some areas still need you to clear the way by hauling off the rocks. Make sure you don't slip or fall - or worse, cause another collapse.

When you finally reach the pit deep beneath the earth, remnants of the horrors within confront you. The smell of death, rot, and unidentifiable herbs is overwhelming. Scattered at your feet are what's left of the blackened corn that some of you subsisted on. Fungal growths have sprouted in their place, pulsing and glowing.

The bulbous organic growths that once confined its captives have deflated into a gelatinous mass, its digestive fluids having eaten itself from the inside out. Dissolved corpses can be found still trapped under the mass, their skeletal remains rubbery to the touch. Other bodies appear to have succumbed to terrible lesions. Some were consumed so thoroughly that they became bizarre humanoid roots. Others still show signs of having been crushed under a massive beast.

Four disturbing statues are spread out across the area. The melted wax candles - now unlit - suggest they're shrines of some kind. All four shrines are severely damaged. The intestinal mace carried by one is curiously missing.

You might remember exactly what happened here or you can ask a Summoned who was there for details - if they're willing to talk about it.

Underwater

The western end of the island suddenly ends in a series of fresh jagged cliffs, so new that the erosion of water has yet to smooth the edges. A swirling whirlpool appears to have torn a large section of the island into the depths, washing away sins and secrets both...or most of them. Barnacles have formed on the rocky ledges. More disconcerting are the bloated bodies in various states of decay and mutilation that have risen to the surface.

You'll be able to help gather those remains or dive into the water to investigate what lies beneath. Officials - and the Summoned who were here - will be able to tell you that an altar once sat in this area where the terrible rituals took place.

Key Tasks

Hidden Threats

Two major threats have survived the island's collapse:

• The bone serpent, a creature whose sharp-spiked legs grabbed many unfortunate victims from the pit. With a substantially decreased territory, the bone serpent has become more aggressive and territorial. It's missing one limb while its other legs show signs of damage or scarring. It attacks wildly, relying on its massive size and strength to overcome its opponents, and hides within the dark depths above. The only warning signs it leaves are the carcasses of its prey. It'll require multiple people to take it down.


• The ceiling monster. Its claws and blood are corrosive, and removing its head will disturb the swollen sack on its neck to cause a similar explosion. Due to its ability to respawn when killed, the captive Summoned trapped the beast in a narrow tunnel. With the cave's collapse, it's now loose once more. You're advised to lure it into a trap designed by Free Cities scientists, where the creature can be set ablaze to prevent it from regenerating, ending its reign of terror for good.

Mages have set up a protective barrier to keep the creatures out, but it won't hold forever. Guttural screams and explosions of magic rumble the ground and air after each attempt to break through. You should act quickly to make sure the situation doesn't worsen.

For a general sense of timing, players can assume both threats are properly dispatched 24 hours into the excursion.

Uncovering Remains

Due to the haste of the rescue mission, exacerbated by the rapidly flooding cave, only the living could be extracted at the time. Now, you've returned for the dead. Many of the bodies are in a disturbing state as described above under Collapsed Covern - not just from decay but from something that appears to have been done to them before their deaths.

Few of the bodies can be easily identified and not all of them are on the ground, either. Some are up on the high ledges, which you can reach by climbing up using climbing rope that's provided. Scattered bones or limbs may need reconstruction or to be matched upon return. You can also recover small objects such as jewelry or other innocuous possessions that weren't taken from the captives.

Your task is to collect everything you can. Luckily, you won't need to handle the corpses themselves. Officials will send along attendants who will do the job for you to ensure everything is properly contained. You simply need to direct them to the area.

Purification

Each faction is focused on one of three hazards on the island. Thorne wants to dispel all traces of corrupted magic, Solvunn wishes to cleanse the destroyed shrines to ensure no other dangerous entities remain within, and the Free Cities aims to remove all contaminants. Formally, you're charged with helping your faction with their task, but no one will stop you from pitching in elsewhere.

This assignment will occur at the end of the expedition, once all investigations and exploration are completed.

• Dispelling
  Thorne will provide a pouch of small jelly-like orbs the size of marbles. The orbs are clear and pre-enchanted. Your job is to place them around the island where they'll begin absorbing unstable magicks. Once absorbed, the orbs will change into different colors. Collect and sort each orb by color. Additionally, you'll need to guard the orbs from curious or hungry critters on the island. Rodents, lizards, and palm-sized beetles may try to snatch what they believe is a tasty berry. Critters who consume a ball will explode into a gory splatter. It's not dangerous, but it can get a bit gooey, so you'll want to avoid bursting too many lizards or beetles.


• Cleansing
  Solvunn will ask you to perform a cleansing rite used for places of worship fallen under dark forces. You'll be given a pot containing a red substance and brushes made from twigs harvested from the island. You'll paint eye-shaped runes on and around the shrines to call upon the Cardinal God known as Misrklen, Patron of the Unstained. His presence is marked by a distinct fizz or hiss, followed by a popping that grows louder and louder. Solvunn's Elders will perform a chant until the ritual is complete and all of the red substance is absorbed into the ground.


• Decontamination
  The Free Cities has determined the most thorough way of removing hazards is to burn them. You'll be given a pistol-sized flamethrower and a thick gel to spread on each item to ensure the flames don't spread out of control. Once the gel is consumed, the fire will naturally go out. Main hazards to burn are the deflated organic bulbs, the rotted corn, any odd fungal growths, and parts belonging to defeated monsters. The flamethrowers are prone to overheating, so be sure to give it a few minutes to cool down every once in awhile. Otherwise, you might risk minor burns to your hands.

Investigations

As you explore the cave and its submerged sections, you might be interested in interacting with some of the things in your environment. In particular, the shrines, the mysterious woman named Lorelai, and the submerged altar stands out to you.

Characters can investigate or interact with any of the items provided in whatever way you want: poke it, smash it, try to talk to it or use your abilities on it (within reason!). We'll do our best to make sure every interaction yields something interesting.

See here and here for examples of how investigations and interactions work. The ones available on this log will play out on a smaller scale.

Shrines | Interact

The shrines, as described above, are situated around the pit. Stained with wax and blood, they no longer emit any strange energies or whispering voices. All of the magic contained within is now gone. You might recall that unlocking the shrines unleashed an enormous creature, causing the cave to collapse as it fled. It was last seen disappearing into the ocean, but where is it now? Your answer might lie in the shrines that once trapped it. Though broken and missing pieces, you can attempt to engage with each shrine such as relighting the candles, using magic you possess, or anything you can think of. You can also coordinate with others to test something on all four shrines at the same time.

Lorelai ('Hydnellia') | Interact

Originally called Hydnellia, Lorelai is a former Acolyte who, along with her brother, helped the Summoned escape. The Summoned agreed to let her and her brother return to the Tertiary Settlement where they live in their old home. She is the only non-Summoned survivor of Josselyn's ritual experiments. Lorelai has requested to join the trip to find closure and help recover bodies from her community. She is quiet and polite, and very grateful that she's been given the chance to make a new life. You can speak to her at any point.

The Altar | Interact

Beneath the water lies an altar that's now broken into pieces. To reach it, breathing enchantments will be provided that'll allow you to swim and see beneath the water, as well as protect you from any contaminants. You'll need to dive a distance down, but not too far - about 30 feet. Those held in the room during their captivity might recall a disfigured woman inside the mouth of the altar. What happened to her since is unknown. Perhaps you might try to find out?

A Decision

After the excursion has concluded, the Summoned will be sent home to their respective nations. Conclave representations can call a meeting to discuss the results of their investigations and what steps might be next. They can do this using any method they prefer, whether that be in-person, in the Horizon, or using the Network.

Most importantly, Summoned who were part of the abduction incident, as either the Lost or the Spared, will be asked to decide if they want to raze the island or restore it.

◎ Razing the island will strip it of all growth. This has the benefit of ensuring no corrupted creatures or flora can grow on it again, but will prevent nature from reclaiming it and will leave the area barren for many decades.

◎ Restoring the island will stimulate the regrowth of healthy vegetation and wildlife. This has the benefit of allowing the biome to flourish once more with nature, but may risk the growth of corrupted flora that needs to be removed every so often.

Officials will allow the Summoned affected by this incident to choose, including those who didn't return to the island. You'll be able to accompany officials to execute the decision made. Individuals in each faction can vote to support one of the two choices. The majority vote will be the decision that reflects the Summoned in that faction as a whole. Officials will implement the option with the support of 2 out of 3 factions.

Vote HERE by December 31 at 11:59 ET.

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Comments

[wwrench]

Unlike so many who have made the sojourn back to the island, Wrench has never been here before. he feels no personal connection with this place and knows very little of what happened to the people who were brought here not so long ago. Maybe it's for that reason he looks entirely detached from the chaos and catastrophe. Wrench isn't glad for whatever has clearly taken place here, but there is some relief to be away from the winter festivities back at the commune for a time. If anything, it's this place that feels most natural to him. Almost as though it were deserved, somehow. Like it's his penance to be here.

He's seen plenty of bodies in his lifetime, though few in the advanced forms of decay he's now witnessing. There have been times here and there when he's had to return to the scene of a makeshift gravesite — most often his own creation — to gather a body and move it elsewhere. But mostly, when Wrench has put someone underground, he's expected them to stay. There's no such guarantee here, with bodies coughed up in their fragile and wasted states, lining the cavernous maw and bobbing in the belching pits of water. For a moment it seems like perhaps his subconscious has created all of this.

So much so that when the man nearby stalls over one of the remains, Wrench urges himself forward like he might somehow recognize something. Be able to put a name to what was left rotting here in a place he's never been. The stranger seems to hesitate and says something, but Wrench isn't waiting for an attendant.

How long you figure they've been down here?

[takeatrip]

The person who approaches isn't familiar to Jayden, and he's briefly surprised by the use of the mental network, as he's on edge and hadn't been expecting text to light up on the nearby rocks. There's any number of reasons why this person might be using this method of communication and normally Jayden would be curious to ask, but for the moment he's too focused on the task at hand.

Ten months, give or take a few weeks.

The answer is confident not because Jayden knows how to tell--that's well outside his area of expertise--but simply because he knows when this entire ordeal happened. However, that experience had lasted nearly a month in itself, and he's aware that some of the native Abraxans who had been in the pit were there for longer than the Summoned, including some that had died before their arrival. He still wonders if the leaders of the factions had even begun to notice until Summoned went missing, and if they'd ever really cared, but since it took ten months and the specific request of the Summoned to even return for the bodies, he thinks they probably didn't.

But this isn't the time to dwell on that.

The ring is distinctive. We might get an ID from it if a family's given a description of it.

this tag is as bloated with age as the body it references, i'm v. sorry

[wwrench]

The response isn't a guess; Wrench knows that much for sure. It's too precise, and even without the benefit of emotion the network manages to strip off the handwritten words, he can tell there's something that lingers in the man's explanation. In Wrench's experience, things change fast for a fresh body, and then begin to peel away in slow, translucent layers. (Metaphorically, that is.) There comes a time when the difference between months should be barely discernible, shouldn't it? So either this man knows more about bodies than the average layperson, or he knows more about what's happened here than Wrench is anticipating.

It gives him reason to pause, and to consider. Wrench looks from the nearby words to the stranger. For a moment his gaze seems penetrating. Defiant, almost, though Jayden hasn't issued a challenge. And then the mention of the ring snaps his attention around again, and Wrench exhales. No one he's ever known has worn a ring like that. It sets aside any lingering doubts in his mind about what this place is meant to represent and what's been burped up here. If this is the work of another rift, it hasn't spit out one of his. At least, this one isn't one of them.

Wrench crouches by the remnants and nods.

What's the plan for the bodies? Anyone know? They won't return them to the families in this shape, will they?

no worries I don't have any room to talk myself

[takeatrip]

I'm not sure. Back home in my world it'd depend on the state and if the remains could be identified, and if they can, the family's wishes.

At least in the United States, anyway, but since people are from completely different worlds and times he's not going to bother being that specific. It's always entirely possible this stranger would have no idea what he's talking about.

But maybe here they can do something with magic that gives them more options. Of course if they'd bothered recovering the bodies months ago this wouldn't be as much of a problem.

This is not at all Wrench's fault, and the slightly bitter words aren't directed at him, more just aimless venting of frustration.

[wwrench]

It's typically a losing game to try to read emotion into the words that appear so flatly on a nearby surface, but in this instance, Wrench has the added benefit of Jayden's facial expression to fill in the blanks. He gives the man a sidelong glance, and finds more reason to consider him now. The words speak to some kind of personal knowledge of how this works, and that makes Wrench consider things a little more closely. Maybe it's not an either-or. Perhaps this man has both personal knowledge of this particular instance, and some experience from back home.

Is Jayden a cop? Wrench narrows his eyes, thoughtful.

Any idea why they waited? I wasn't around months ago. Why the delay?

[takeatrip]

No idea. Just a lack of interest, I guess.

He's pretty sure it's that, because nothing else makes sense; it has to just be that the factions' leadership hadn't found recovering the bodies worth the effort until the Summoned made a fuss about it. A frustrating, depressing thought, but not a particularly surprising one considering everything else that had happened.

But again, that is not this guy's problem, and Jayden mentally backs up a little turn looks toward Wrench.

How long have you been here?

Since he wasn't around for this whole thing it must be less than the ten months or so, but that's still a very wide range of time and Jayden knows he should probably be explaining more if this is someone who arrived particularly recently.

[wwrench]

Wrench's grasp on time feels tenuous at best. He can't rightly blame that on the new environment, though. Even before being tugged through the portal, he didn't have much use for days of the week or months of the year. He's been tracking the time since his arrival in much the same way as he did back home: by the shifting weather patterns.

Maybe five months? He recounts uncertainly. And then because he's come to expect it, he adds. I came from earth. The upper Midwest of the states, around 2016. And I'm still not used to explaining that.

By the looks of Jayden he assumes that most of what he said will make some sense to the man, but he's been proven wrong in that assumption before. It's hard to gauge even by sight who might have come from similar circumstances, and even then Wrench knows that the variances can still be astronomical, even in the same world.

[takeatrip]

Jayden understands the difficulty in keeping track. He remembers one time a few months ago when Blake had mentioned how many months they'd been here, and it had felt like a shock to Jayden as he'd realized the number was accurate. It hadn't felt like it, but he hadn't been sure if he'd expected it to have been more or less time.

The additional information is unexpected but helpful, and Jayden glances back over at Wrench again before holding his hand over the remains, a small glowing orb forming under his palm and lighting up the details for a closer look as he responds.

Yeah, that was one of those things I had to get used to too. Seems like we're from similar worlds, though; all those words made sense.

Which is always a nice surprise. Wrench is from further in the future than Jayden is, but only by a few years, so also not too bad on that front.

It's 2011 for me. I'm from Washington DC.

Which isn't exactly true, but he's lived and worked there for several years now, so close enough. But although locations and times are actually more interesting than introductions, those are also necessary, so he adds--

Norman Jayden, by the way.