EVENT #23: CROSSROADS - IC LOG

[abraxasmods]

Event #23 - Crossroads

OOC Event Log

For the past few weeks, you've been stranded in a foreign territory or have had others stranded with you. Officials have assured everyone that the situation is temporary. They've been working hard to secure negotiations that would return everyone home...if that's what you want, of course. For anybody who wishes to stay in their new territory, authorities have promised that this is entirely possible. No one will be forced to go back if they don't want to.

The letter that arrives in the second week of February will say as much. It'll also emphasize that you must go to the exchange and that every Summoned has to be accounted for, or else the exchange may fall through. Even if you don't plan on returning - or you were never sent somewhere else to begin with - you'll still have to come.

The meeting will be held on neutral ground near the Singularity's now expanded crater but at a safe enough distance away. On FEBRUARY 18, portals will open to take you there.

While we will detail the incident leading up to characters fleeing, the majority of the event will be focused on characters surviving in their respective scenarios.

Remember: once you've chosen a SCENARIO for your character, they'll be rescued by the minor territory assigned to that scenario and will stay in that territory for the duration of March.

At the Exchange

The air of late winter is crisp even in the barren landscape around the crater. The Singularity stands tall and silent to the natives, but the Summoned will feel an electricity in the air. It might be magic seeping out from the cracked ground or it might be the tension that weaves the three mightiest nations closer together. The last time all three met here was for the Peace Summit three years ago. Now they meet again on the brink of war.

The territories have assured you that they anticipate everything to go smoothly. As you arrive, there is an attempt to cultivate a friendly atmosphere: Thorne has brought warm fur cloaks for anyone accidentally in the Free Cities who may be without, the Free Cities steps forward to announce compensation for any Summoned who were employed and could not attend to their job or business under the circumstances, and Solvunn declares it will be hosting an evening feast once all the Summoned have been returned to their rightful places. You even see Thornean mages and Free Cities officials chatting diplomatically, if superficially.

But as the exchange gets underway, the atmosphere begins to shift...and suddenly, nothing is as it seems.

Chaos Erupts

As a Summoned, you feel an electricity in the air. It might be magic seeping out from the cracked ground or it might be the tension that weaves the three mightiest nations.

Stillness falls across the gathering as each side waits for the other to make the first offering. An introduction that necessitates negotiation.

It never comes.

A flash from the north blinds you. Thunder drowns out all sound. The sharp scent of practiced magic rises into the air. Gunfire cracks in response. As explosions erupt around you, the facsimile of diplomacy tears like wet paper. Shouts are barely audible as soldiers, guards, and village elders rush forward.

You find yourself pulled between forces. Are they trying to hurt you, save you, or something else? A Thornean guard pushes you to the side. You can't tell if you were deliberately shoved into the line of fire or if it was an accident in the chaos. Someone else grabs you: a hooded Elder bearing the symbols of the Old Gods and urging you to come with them to safety. They can protect you from these dangerous nations, the Elder insists. The Gods have spoken.

As mayhem bleeds into the ground, the crater begins to shift and grow, reaching out to feed. The earth trembles. The soldiers, guards, and Elders notice too late as the crater expands far quicker than anyone could expect. It shatters stone, uproots trees, and swallows whole the natives who cannot withstand its powerful energy. They disintegrate in front of your eyes. Others cry out warnings and begin to flee - but they can't outrun the Singularity.

You are different. If you are one of the older Summoned, you'll remember being able to enter the Singularity's crater. In the past, it's dragged you into the Horizon...but not this time. Instead, you feel lulled by the crater's encroaching borders. You wonder if your best chance at surviving is to step into the crater where no native of Abraxas can reach you. Some of you might run toward it as a result of this conclusion. But, you may also have your doubts. If you try to flee with the rest, you'll find that you, too, cannot outrun the Singularity. As its reach extends across the entire swathe of neutral territory, you are inevitably sucked into its embrace and flung into a whirlwind.

On the Run

As you are teleported through a whirling vortex, you glimpse flashes of your domain in the Horizon. Indeed, for a few moments, it appears as though the domain itself has emerged and is now in the real world with you. Then you blink, and the sight vanishes, leaving you discombobulated.

Once you've gathered your wits, you realize you're nowhere near the original exchange site. If you attempt to use your powers, the effects are unintended: your fire spell causes rain to fall instead, or perhaps you accidentally summon a broomstick instead of your sword. It might last for a couple of hours or it might last for longer. The more powerful the ability, the longer it seems to take for it to start working correctly.

Regardless, you'll need to find each other somehow. Luckily, the Network is still working, so you can communicate with one another at a distance.

Northern Mountains

Though spring is on its way, the mountains are a tundra. Temperatures are frosty, but not as icy as they would've been a month ago. Maybe you've brought some warm clothes with you or the others have a spare cloak they've packed. You might've even brought a snack or some warming potions. Anything will help as you gather your bearings and try to determine where to go next.

If you were unlucky enough to have been one of the victims of Josselyn Creed's cult, you may recognize these ridges. Of course, everything rather looks the same when it's snowy and full of trees, but it's certainly possible to discern that you've been in these mountains before.

Characters in this scenario will go to NOCWICH.

Threats

◎ Revenant

A hoarfrost revenant has lived on these peaks for centuries. He cannot be killed. You can only run or chase him away, but he'll soon return. Take care not to stay in one place too long. A rattling chain and blue-flamed lantern announce his coming. His touch brings instant death, made clear by the frozen carcasses of animals left in his path.

With your arrival, he is now prowling in search of you...but if you encountered him before on these mountains, you'll notice that something's different this time: he does not attack. Instead, he will stand and watch - and if you, too, watch him for too long, you'll begin to grow warm. You'll then subsequently be overcome with the urge to remove your stifling layers of clothing despite the plummeting temperatures. Best hope someone not under his sway snaps you out of it.

◎ Whiteout

In the morning, you might be eager to get moving again. Perhaps you've been assigned foraging duties or you need to search for more firewood. As you leave your makeshift shelter, you realize the wind is whipping. Soon, a thick blizzard swirls around you, blanketing your surroundings in white. In the distance, you hear eerie howls...and you're not sure where you are anymore.

Be careful you don't trip and fall. With some concentration, you should still be able to find your way back home with the limited visibility...or, you might get lucky and somebody will come to your aid.

Resources

Though the mountains are dangerous, they also have what you need - if you know where to look. Snow hares can be hunted for food and any rations you might've had on your person can be shared among each other. Thick evergreen branches can be used for roofing. Alternatively, you can hunker down in a cave instead.

Most significantly, you can trek to an abandoned cabin containing some prechopped firewood that you can take, as well as an iron pot hanging over the cold hearth. Don't linger in the cabin too long, however. The more you stay, the more it feels like something is watching you. In the shadows, you spot two red eyes flickering in and out. You can't tell what this strange creature is, nor will it stop you from retrieving the few things you need, but eventually, the cabin's door will slowly open on its own, sending a clear message: it's time to leave.

Living Forest

Contrary to its name, the Living Forest is filled with seemingly dead trees. Like the Duskwoods, not much light penetrates, casting your surroundings in a dark gloom. Unlike the Duskwoods, it contains no giant mushrooms. Instead, the ground itself is covered in a thick moss, making every step you take feel as though you're walking upon a layer of marshmallows. Hidden in the moss itself are small vipers waiting to strike, each bite containing a venom that numbs the affected limb for several hours. Hazards are made all the more difficult to see due to the lack of light. While not pitch-black, the forest is gloomy and shrouded in a dark haze.

Those who've been to the Feywilds might not recognize where they are at first, but as you travel, you might notice something familiar: bright green and blue pear-shaped cocoons. Dozens of them hang from branches above you and will soon give birth to the aggressive spindled pear moths. As you study them, they begin to twitch, as if close to hatching. Maybe you shouldn't stay in this area too long...

Characters in this scenario will go to THE FEYWILDS.

Threats

◎ Strange Travelers

As you explore the murky woods, some of the trees shift oddly. You realize they aren't trees at all. Instead, they are figures on stilts, wandering in an endless circle. They do not speak. They are utterly silent.

One of them is holding a human-like infant. The child is also silent. While they won't actively threaten you, they have defended their territory with blinking mines stuck to trees and laid along the ground. The smooth steel and oddly modern lights imply a technology that far exceeds what should exist in Abraxas. Further, the mines don't seem to be powered by any magic at all.

Walk too close to a mine and you'll set it off, releasing a gas that knocks you unconscious. When you wake up, you'll have been dumped someplace far from where you were and must reorient yourself - if you can. Your belongings are untouched and you have no injuries beyond a few bruises or scrapes. It seems these Travelers aren't seeking to harm anyone unnecessarily, but they clearly want to be left alone.

◎ Flytraps

Massive Venus flytrap plants are one of the few plants that appear to flourish in these forests. The plant is difficult to spot in the dim light. Its vines will lash your ankles and trip you, then drag you toward its gaping maw. Its mouth is lined with sharp teeth and a corrosive spit that will burn your skin, eventually dissolving you into a paste. They're most prone to attack if you're carrying something that smells tasty: rations, freshly hunted meat, or foraged mushrooms.

Fortunately, the plants aren't too difficult to kill. A burst of magic or a few slashes from a sharp blade will release you. Still, in a situation such as this, even a twisted ankle or an infected cut could make a difference in your survival. Try to avoid the plants where possible.

Resources

As you explore the Living Forest, you might stumble across an abandoned garden that hasn't been harvested and is in full bloom as if it's spring. A variety of vegetables such as carrots, onions, and cabbages can be found, as well as some herbs for wounds and potions. The area shimmers with Seelie Magic. When you examine the crops closer, you realize that some of the garden is beginning to wilt and rot as the magic fades before your very eyes. A sign of what lies in the Feywilds, it would seem that all things Fey have left this realm altogether, leaving behind only remnants of their diminishing spells.

You can freely harvest the garden. None of the crops appear to be dangerous and the garden looks truly abandoned. However, you'll need to work quickly. The magic won't last until sunrise, so take what you can - you won't have the opportunity to return. Of course, don't overburden yourself, either, or attract predators with what you're carrying.

Open Ocean

Your arrival in the ocean will be more of a shock than the others as you splash into the water. Curiously, though it's still winter, the water isn't as cold as you might expect. It's almost unnaturally warm. As you struggle to stay afloat, the current begins to push you toward something floating in the distance: a large raft covered in moss. It resembles a small land mass, floating in the open sea, with a small curve like a hill or a hump...or the shell of a turtle.

It's possible a few of your fellow Summoned have already found refuge atop the creature's back or you might be among the first. Regardless, you'll want to help search for the others...and the island itself appears to be searching with you. Summoned who have been around a while might remember the Sea Giants who have come to your aid more than once. This may be yet another friendly Sea Giant - not quite the turtle some of you previously met, but perhaps a relative or a friend.

While the creature will try its best to keep you afloat, stormy winds and tall waves will still violently rock the living raft and may sweep away those who aren't careful. Make sure you hang on tight to the vines growing along the surface.

Characters in this scenario will go to THE NETHER.

Threats

◎ Leviathan Attack

Though leviathans are a predictable threat in the ocean, it doesn't make them any less dangerous. Appearing in all shapes and sizes, the one that rises from the water in the dead of night is difficult to discern: you glimpse massive teeth and glowing yellow eyes that, from a distance, resembles the blinking signal of a lighthouse. The leviathan will attack the creature who serves as your raft, who will struggle to defend itself.

You can help in any manner you wish. Attacking the leviathan or casting wards will aid the friendly turtle. While the leviathan is not easy to deter, it can be driven away if faced with enough aggression and will eventually leave in search of easier prey. Don't lose anyone overboard. Any Summoned who falls into the water while the leviathan is attacking will be swallowed up. Avoid its thrashing tail spikes, too.

◎ Aggressive Seabirds

More of a nuisance than a threat, seabirds are a constant menace, squawking day and night and attempting to steal rations, clothes, and other supplies that might be left unattended on the raft. These birds are quick and massive, swooping in and disappearing in an instant. They won't attack without provocation, but anyone trying to take back their belongings will find themselves assaulted by beating wings and sharp talons.

You can chase them off with rocks, sharp objects, or small spells. Supplies can also be warded, but with many people's magic working oddly, the wards might not last as long as they should or may backfire if struck too often by the birds. It may be a good idea to touch up the wards or assign someone to guard your things the old-fashioned way.

Resources

After a rough night, you'll awaken to discover that your raft has brought you to a small island. It's unclear where this island is from or whether anyone has ever mapped it, but nonetheless, the island exists. More importantly, it contains crabs and mussels that can be dug up. You can also find, inexplicably, some coconuts. Possibly bespelled by a Thornean mage who washed ashore in the past, these coconut trees have continued to flourish for decades, if not centuries.

You won't be able to spend long on the island. As the tide rises, more and more of the island begins to disappear. Soon, the water will swallow it up altogether and you'll be forced to board the creature's back again with your findings. Don't get greedy. If you linger too long, your efforts might be washed away with the tide.

Rescue

As your resources dwindle and your situation grows more dire, a glimmer will shine in the distance. You peer at it, curious and, perhaps, a bit anxious. Is it another threat? Is it a rescue? Or is it something else altogether?

Please wait for the WRAP-UP before proceeding to write your character being rescued. Full details will be provided on the Wrap-Up that will help inform what your character will be doing in March, including which NPCs your character will be seeing and the exact manner in which your character will be rescued.

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Comments

jesper / closed

[godshattering]

They may not entirely know where they are right at this moment, and they might be within a forest which has plenty of secrets and traps the Summoned have stumbled across both individually and together while finding somewhere to set up something like camp, and there might be an unknown number of challenges yet to come. There's also the absence now of those he'd spent time with in Thorne, and worry for where they are that isn't here when he'd much prefer to keep everyone in one place if they can't return home. All of it stays present in Claude's mind the longer he's here in the forest.

But at the same time: none of that removes the sense of relief of seeing faces he hasn't seen for what feels like much longer than only a month, especially when he'd become used to seeing them either every day or close enough to it. There'd been no substitute for the relief he'd felt upon seeing Jesper again, and no hiding how his face lit up with it. And despite his longstanding habit of hiding his true feelings about something to keep them to himself, there'd been none of that here.

The two of them having plenty of restless energy was all Claude needed to recruit Jesper to assist in looking for whatever supplies they can gather to bring back to supplement what's at the camp slowly forming. His own strengths absolutely aren't in the assembly of any campsite what with admittedly having little experience with that part of it since he'd been more focused on other things, so looking for food or water it is.

"Now I'm wishing I'd brought my other notebook with my notes on Nocwich's plants with me," is what he grumbles just slightly while using the tip of an arrow to lift some foliage to check beneath it, as if any of them could've planned for what to bring here or when the portals malfunctioned. As it was he'd been too focused on asking Sylvain to bring some of his antidotes in an abundance of wariness, but now he's relieved he had as he glances over to where Jesper might be. "Maybe it'd give us some clues since this forest reminds me of the one there with what grows in the dark, but we'll have to do our best to guess. Have you found anything yet?"

[itookashot]

Jesper and Kaz were luckily teleported here together so he was able to cling to him until they found other people. It took some time for people to group up and Jesper spent hours that first day wandering the forest looking for anyone else who might have wound up here and was lost. Due to having his weapons and a killer instinct, he felt more comfortable going into potential danger to rescue others.

Upon seeing Claude he embraced and kissed him, just relieved whenever someone came safely into view, and then agreed to separate with him for missions. It's better than having to pistol whip some plants, finding supplies is less frustrating. Although just as difficult.

Shrewd gray eyes look around them. "No, it's not Nocwich. I've been in their woods enough, this isn't the same. It feels different. Wilder." This is a mix of Jesper having natural instincts but also him having an underlining magical sense of place. He knows Nocwich well now, and everything in him is saying this isn't Nocwich.

There are parts of the map they haven't been to. For all they know they're in an entire different plane of existence. "Unless it's deeper into Luna, which is possible, I guess." But he doesn't sound convinced.

[godshattering]

"Maybe we're on the edge of Luna? Closer to... Ikorr," which is half a statement and half a question as he narrows his eyes in thought. Unsurprisingly, that action doesn't summon forth the map he's trying to picture or any of his many scribbled ones across many a journal page after arriving. And while Claude could pull one of his notebooks crammed into the bag with seemingly endless storage which hangs at his side, why not try something else first?

Instead of rummaging around in the bag it's into his pockets he goes to withdraw a compact mirror. "I've shown you this before, I think," he says to Jesper after dropping the arrow back into the quiver on his back. "It should show us where we are since it's saved me out in the desert a few times."

What it turns out he's failed to consider is that while he's overheard some of the Summoned talking about their magic not being exactly right is that this is also magic - not his own like the spells he'd brought knowledge of from Fodlan, but one gifted to him. One which suffers the same fate as the night sky projection above them is... decidedly not right as he looks at it with a slight furrow of concentration. "Do those constellations look familiar to you at all?"

[itookashot]

"Possibly. I've never gone deep into Luna or Ikorr's specific wildness." The Nocwich options are near the square and he's done a lot of hunting there, and he thought perhaps the animals would be the same in other locations. But it could be something else. It's not Thorne's mountains though, he knows what those were. He hasn't seen the creatures yet that would make it very clear to him they were in the Feywilds.

"You have." Jesper steps closer to look at it, suspecting it could give them some useful ideas. In truth, he doesn't pay that close attention to the constellations he's not as smart about those things as Claude. But he's looking for any clues at the moment, and maybe bouncing ideas off him could clarify it to Claude.

He does know that magic has gone wrong but hasn't considered it would extend to items. His bag still has its constant space within it, he'd be damned upset if that wasn't the truth, although he hasn't tried to use his other magical items since arriving. "Darling, I am not you. I don't even know my own world's constellations." He runs his fingers along Claude's back. "Could be magic in this place is seeping in, making it all look different."

[godshattering]

"No? Then I've been failing you in our leisure time together," he quips back, as if this is a Serious Failing under the guise of some light-heartedness meant for a little levity. A habit he's never quite let go of from both the war and leadership before it to maintain something close to normal when things were anything but. Not that Jesper ever seems particularly keen to panic in the first place - because if anything, Claude knows the other man will keep an eye on everything around just as much as he is to figure out what needs to be done.

And if he wasn't busy staring up at the sky still trying to make any sense of it at all, this might also be where he adds another remark that it's probably due to spending their leisure time doing any number of other things. Instead Claude's busy tilting the mirror this way and that and watching the image flip, spin... do just about anything except serve as the steady navigation he's known it to be. "Must be," he murmurs, a placeholder at first before shutting the mirror with a sigh. "Ever since I accidentally found out I have... whatever this is," with the vague wave of one hand to where the projection was a few seconds ago, "while cleaning a mirror at the inn, it's been consistent in what it's shown. It changes here and there if my location has, but even when we've been somewhere new there's usually something still familiar enough."

Not now, which is frustrating, but something Claude pushes to a corner of his mind to puzzle over later as he turns to look up at Jesper. "Any chance you can make something so we can leave a trail back to here? It wouldn't hurt to keep looking for anything else can find for supplies, but making it back to camp would also be nice."