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

[magicalarchaeologist]

You're not wrong. We'll have to keep asking in the conclave. It's not much, but we have gotten what we've asked for ... so far.

[ Istredd knows that part of why is because they've been pretty subdued in their requests. They didn't get the Hayle portal, they had to accept Borrel. They got this. They will get more down the road. He knows in some ways it's Thorne just placating them by pretending to be magnanimous, but he's going to take advantage as much as possible regardless. Jayden's right. They're not going to just do these things on their own. They'll have to press.

As for the corruption, well, he considers. ]

Dark magic where I'm from, and apparently here, warps the natural order. We can control fire, for example, or create light, but those are things that already exist in the nature around us.

[ It's why in his sphere, if you try to create something out of nothing, it backfires onto the mage. It all has to be in balance. ]

My guess is the magic they used to create those portals and modify the earth here, it was making something where there was nothing. It corrupted what was here by forcing it to be something else. [ He doesn't know a better way to explain the difference. ] I don't know if they did it on purpose. They didn't seem to think much about the consequences of anything.

[takeatrip]

[Although Jayden has recently discovered that he's talented at magic, he's still not nearly experienced enough with it to be able to do more than nod at Istredd's theory. He can feel the effects of the corruption in the air, but aside from that, he has no particular understanding of how it might've come to be or what it means, so as far as he's concerned Istredd's idea is as good as any other.]

Yeah, they didn't seem like they knew what they were doin'. At all.

[It might've been almost funny if it hadn't had such horrific consequences.]

I've said before that there's no magic in my world, so it's not exactly a one-to-one comparison, but sounds kind of like playin' with radiation. Use it carefully and it can have some real positive applications, but too much or the wrong kind and it'll damage or mutate your cells. Really fuck up and it can contaminate the whole environment.

[Maybe it's more of an apt comparison than he'd initially thought.]

[magicalarchaeologist]

Josselyn told me that much of what they were doing came from her studying ancient texts that said you could achieve divinity through metamorphosis. She was combining that with knowledge about the plants and hallucinogens to see what worked. Most of it was pure guesswork.

[ Istredd found her mind fascinating, truth be told. An evil person, perhaps, but her certainty of purpose was unshakeable. She believed it until the moment she died. Faith like that is unknown to him personally, but she and the cult were very serious. She said there were people who believed. Members of her cult - to her knowledge - were taken, but it's possible they aren't the only ones left. Or other sects may go off what she did.

They can't trust their safety, they never could. Thorne's tried to remove their connection to the Singularity, it failed. For all they know, the Free Cities already has tried or will, though they care less about the Singularity as a whole. Any safety they feel here is an illusion, the Pit taught him that much. ]

Yes, that sounds like the same concept. [ He's heard that magic and technology can seem like each other, so it makes sense. ] I don't know if this place was a normal island once upon a time, but some of these plants were grown naturally here.

[ It's in the middle of no where, it's a smart choice, but it would make sense if they knew hallucinogens were here too. The shrines had always been there. It was a perfect place for this. ]

There are places in my sphere when the land is just wrong. Warped. I think that's what happened here.

[takeatrip]

'Course she wouldn't have just tested on herself and people who volunteered.

[Because Josselyn was a terrible person who only cared about her own wants and desired, and any cost was acceptable to her. As far as Jayden's concerned, that brings her motives out of being purely faith-based, because if she'd truly believed and belief was the central point then she would've risked herself. But here, the goal--and what it meant in terms of benefiting her--was that divinity. This was all about power, and so of course she felt no remorse in abusing the power she already had.

He's willing to bet it's the same with the faction leadership. It's the same so often.

But it's easier to focus on the island itself, on theorizing about why it's in the state it's in, than dwell on the resignation that threatens to creep in when it comes to the other topics. So he's quiet a few moments, thinking over what he's learned about magic here, before adding--]

Emotions and intent affect magic, right? Here, anyway. I wonder if that has anythin' to do with the state of this place.

[Maybe it's literal evil. Maybe it's warped, as Istredd put it, because of the horrors that happened in themselves.]

[magicalarchaeologist]

Oh no, they needed many more victims than they probably had available in the cult itself. I don't know how long they were experimenting on natives before they had everything in place to take us. She said most of it was organized and done over a year.

[ Josselyn, he's pretty certain, always intended to aim for the Summoned. It was their connection she wanted, that they needed to reach the gods/Singularity for. So everything before that was practice. He was skeptical when she said it had only been about a year, because cults typically have to be established longer, and the connections and planning they had was higher than he'd expect. Still, where there's a will there's a way.

Perhaps the cult itself was put together in a year, but she'd been working on the idea for years with a few key people. That is more likely. Regardless, she's dead and the experiments are over, but it's unsurprising the woman might keep space in people's heads for longer than any of them would like. Trauma is like that. ]

Not exactly, with Academic Magic at least. I suppose the intent for when the spells were all perfected matters, but it's very by the book as a magical organization. High Magic, what they were using, very much so that matters. And no doubt they had some Wild Magic happening as well.

[ Istredd has utilized several of the magics of this world himself, the exception being high magic because he has no access to the gods and they do not seem interested in visiting up to Thorne. ]

The gods power High Magic, and we've seen how their corruption can spread.

[ Their magic is something complete in itself. He doesn't know if Jayden was around when the heralds tore through this world and damaged people in the process, but it is fairly well known that it happened. Any time the gods get involved in the world, they seem to twist it all around. ]

If this is divine corruption, we certainly won't be able to fix it.

[takeatrip]

They didn't need anything.

[It's a little harsher than he means it, the flash of temper not really meant for Istredd, more the situation and Josselyn's whole little 'experiment'. They could have stuck just to themselves and willing volunteers. They chose to do otherwise to make things easier and faster, and if their goal absolutely required the Summoned, they could've just not done it at all.

Jayden wasn't around for the heralds and hasn't been filled in, or really run across any talk about it, so it's a mostly blank space in his knowledge. But even if he were aware he was missing it, he might not actually want to know; he's gotten past the general aversion to magic that this experience had caused him, but he still wants nothing to do with high magic in any form and so his already waning patience only drains faster at the idea of this corruption being specifically connected to it. Still, he has to ask--]

Did we ever find out which god or gods she was workin' with?

[He feels like someone might've mentioned something about that shortly after it all happened, but his memories of that time are somewhat hazy.]

Let's wrap on this one, maybe do something new! :)

[magicalarchaeologist]

[ Istredd understands the anger isn't at him so he just nods his head to show he understands, he hears Jayden. Josselyn destroyed so many lives and while she's dead, it'll never take back what happened. If they had just hurt themselves, it would've been bad, but their own choice. But they couldn't do what they actually wanted that way. They did need the Summoned. ]

Nikodaemus. One of the newer gods, they're called Cardinals.

[ The gods that a few people, Istredd included, believe used to be Summoned themselves. They have no proof of that but he thinks it would be interesting, if the god who answered her was one closer to them than not. It's hard to say if the gods really did answer her, but the magic they were doing ... it seems likely. To what end, they might not know, outside of worship. ]

Come on. We should get back.

[ They took a break outside of the group, but this place isn't going to fix itself. And closure is far from gotten. ]

We can do this.