October Event: Crystal Clear

[lifeaftr_mods]

OCTOBER EVENT: CRYSTAL CLEAR

Who: Everyone!
What: Your exploration takes a turn.
When: October 20th - 26th
Where: The caverns situated underneath Ensō
Warnings: Character death, body horror, descriptions of illness. Please mark any additional warnings as needed!

Part I: Attack, Attack!
Congratulations! You've successfully gone where no Storyteller has gone or can go, and woken up in the network of subterranean caves buried beneath the island's mass, along with your designated supplies: a miner's cap, a week's worth of food, and both your knapsacks and their collective contents. And the further along you go, the vaster and more sprawling these almost labyrinthian tunnels seem to get. There’s certainly evidence that civilization once thrived here - old buildings hewed from the rock of the cave walls may very well contain old tools, or even salvageable supplies. Careful examination of structures and cavern walls alike will reveal sigils resembling those carved on the doors, each of which will need to be destroyed entirely at the Storyteller's behest. Whatever was down here was advanced enough to dwell without sunlight. But that raises a rather pertinent question...

If there were once people here, where did they all go?

Fortunately, one will soon discover that there's plenty of natural light underground, exhibited by the crystalline growths on the walls. None of them appear to be dangerous, and those attracted to shiny things might even find them useful for picking up or chipping away in order to better light their way. The crystal has about the thickness and hardness of quartz, and bathes its surroundings in a luminous green glow.

The closer you come to the center of the mass, however, the denser the crystalline growths seem to become, until one has to be quite ingenious in navigating them. Eventually, they'll simply be too dense to be squeezed through, even by the smallest and most agile of your number.

That’s when they it will start to become apparent.
Something in the crystal is moving.

Huge chunks of crystal are starting to detach from the center and move slowly, inexorably, toward those unfortunate enough to have explored the caverns. Unmistakably humanoid silhouettes, distorted by awful crystalline growths, most of which have completely swallowed any recognizable features.

...most.

The good news is that the creatures can be shattered, and beaten back. The bad news? Well...

Part II: Retreat, Retreat!
Those who get close enough to the crystalized beasts to get a good look at them will soon make a horrifying discovery - the fact that, underneath those thick layers of luminescent quartz, there was once something that might have been recognizable as human. These quartz monsters aren't native to this region, or indeed, to any region of the island at all. They were formed.

Formed out of the very crystal that you explorers have been touching, picking up, sleeping on, and just generally remaining in prolonged contact with ever since you set foot down here.

Indeed, anyone who has been in contact with the crystal for extended periods of time - sleeping on it or getting dealt a swipe from one of the crystalized monsters, for example - will find that tiny, quartz-like growths have started to sprout on their skin as well. Once the virus has taken root, it will spread rapidly until it has swallowed you whole. Indeed, the unpleasant symptoms will reveal themselves within twenty-four hours of the initial exposure: in addition to clusters of crystalline growths pocking the affected areas, the inflicted will begin to experience intense stabbing pains all over as the crystal begins to grow - both inside and out. The transformation is slow and arduous and painful, and vocalization tends to be one of the first things to go once the crystals sprout in the mouth and throat. Within the span of about three days since the initial exposure, the transformation will have sheathed most of the physical body in crystal entirely, sealing the victim in a humanoid cast of glasslike green.

It has not been confirmed if the inflicted are sentient and aware of their state of being once they are completely consumed. Whatever their intentions, those are easily overridden by the virus's innate desire to spread to as many organisms as possible.

As this is an event with a high risk of death, the Storyteller will impose death penalties for one week only. Additionally, deaths succumbed during the event count towards the character's total. There is no known cure to the virus, but that doesn't mean characters can't or shouldn't try!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] October 20th: Spelunking begins. Points of interest will be provided.
[ ♆ ] October 22nd: The Quartzalcoatl make their presence known.
[ ♆ ] October 24th: The final sigils are broken, and the Storyteller will return all uninfected to the Islets.
[ ♆ ] October 26th: All deceased will be returned at midday, suffering from a reduced death penalty.

Event Specifics

[ ♆ ] If your character perishes in this event, please let us know!
[ ♆ ] For those who opted out, please see the top-level below!
[ ♆ ] Item claims can be found on the OOC plotting post here!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Hey, she has fewer problems with sunlight than you do.]

Well, that raises questions. To start with: exactly how do these runes guard against them? Do they form an impenetrable barrier, or cause them pain if they approach...?

[scourgingstars]

[fair nuff]

Think of it as something like a strong repellent. If they touch it, it causes them pain; so they know enough not to draw near in the first place. One most commonly finds runes like that on safe havens out in the wilderness, meant for wandering travelers.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She nods thoughtfully.]

That makes sense. I'm assuming that larger, permanent dwellings like cities have their own types of protections?

[scourgingstars]

Oh, they stopped using runes within city and settlement limits some thousand years or so ago once proper lighting was a bit easier to establish.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Ah, it's the light specifically that hurts them. I do realize you mentioned that they 'manifest in darkness', but I didn't realize they were actively repelled by light, as opposed to merely being a nocturnal predator.

[In her defense, she lived most of her life in an underground kingdom where the idea of a day-night cycle was largely theoretical.]

[scourgingstars]

Right--daemons can't manifest in daylight, and light itself causes them pain. It's simple enough to repel them, yet they are prolific enough that stepping outside such protective boundaries is near certain death.

[Or 'were' prolific, but semantics.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

My, that sounds like a hazardous world to live in. These daemons, does anyone know where they came from? Are they thinking beings, or some sort of animal?

[scourgingstars]

It's...rather complex.

[Ardyn shrugged, looking for a moment as though he was debating on whether or not to explain the particulars of it.]

In short--my world is plagued by a curse which corrupts living creatures, making them fall terribly ill and turning them to daemons. Their sentience tends to vary, but in a general sense they are more animalistic than intelligent.

[prettypurpleparlor]

A sickness?

[Muffet looks solemn.]

My condolences to your people. Is there no cure for the afflicted?

[scourgingstars]

...

[Ardyn turned abruptly quiet, the smile on his face faltering for just a second.]

No. It's entirely fatal, I'm afraid.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet notices the change of expression but doesn't say anything about it- clearly a private matter, she has no right to pry. Instead her reply is a simple, but genuine:]

I'm sorry.

[She moves on to another topic briskly, suspecting that Ardyn would rather discuss something else.]

So, do the runes themselves glow, or do they produce light some other way? Or is it that they merely produce the same result as light does, without being a source of light themselves?

[scourgingstars]

They glow very faintly, but it's more the runes' existence that acts as a repellent. Rather like a curse driven back by sacred ground, so more the latter option.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Hmm. Does anyone know exactly what it is about the runes that causes this? How are they powered?

[Magic frequently glows, but she can't think of anything from home that would have the repelling effect he describes- she could bind something to an area, certainly, or bind a door tightly shut against it, but not make the area itself intolerable to stay within.]

[scourgingstars]

Hm...can't say that I know myself, no.

[If he did, it wasn't something Ardyn remembered offhand; he tended to avoid havens with those runes himself. Probably the Crystal's magic same as anything else, but that wasn't something he was getting into here.]

What do you make of the ones here, dear girl? I don't know of anything able to repel a god, easy as it is to do the same to daemons.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She accepts his answer as reasonable- after all, it's not as though she knows all the fine details about how her own magic works. She's had a decent education, but it was never her particular area of study. Ask her about business or baking, then she can give you answers.]

I can't feel any magic coming from these- they just seem like ordinary carvings- but I've seen other people use completely different kinds of magic on this island, so it could be that it's just too foreign for me to sense anything. I suppose it's reasonable: as far as I know they aren't meant to repel me, so why would I even notice whatever effect they have?

I confess, in my world we tended to think of gods in a much more abstract sense. Plenty of people have religious beliefs, of course, but I've never heard of anyone actually meeting a deity outside of ancient legends- none of which we can conclusively prove happened, despite the efforts of quite a few holy scholars.

[Muffet has never been one to dismiss something out of hand- it's certainly not impossible that her world has a god or gods- but she's never felt drawn to either strong belief or firm denial, personally, for all that she still swears by the angels out of habit.]

[Although she will admit that, in regards to the angels in particular, the recent success of the Delta Rune Prophecy is definitely a point in their favor.]

That said, I do recall someone from a more... theologically direct world suggesting that they might be the sigil of another deity, one the Storyteller is opposed to. Which sounds more plausible than anything else I can come up with, under the circumstances.

[scourgingstars]

I can't sense anything either, but I've no doubt my magic is vastly different from others I've seen here.

And speaking as someone that has known a deity or two...that's not an impossible idea. [Ardyn frowned slightly, giving the concept some thought.] Ours don't have anything like specific symbols or anything like that, but it is plausible. Perhaps there's another with a particular distaste for our narrative host.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Do you mind if I ask what those encounters were like? I can't help but wonder how much, if anything, your world's deities and the Storyteller have in common.

[She adds, thoughtfully:]

I recall someone mentioned that the Storyteller expressed a strong distaste for water, as a concept. Which, given that I can think of plenty of cultures that have ocean gods... Hm. I wonder if this cave goes down below sea level?

[scourgingstars]

In a word? Unpleasant. My world's gods and I had quite a troubling falling-out, and I'm afraid I'm no longer on speaking terms with most.

[Which came out in, naturally, a light tone usually reserved for minor scuffles with childhood acquaintances. Whatever the issue had been, either it didn't bother Ardyn in the slightest...or he simply didn't think it worth the acknowledgment.]

On that subject, we have one as well--Leviathan, the Hydraean. [Ardyn glanced around the cave thoughtfully, folding his arms.] I can't quite picture her in close quarters such as this, but if all this world's gods change forms as easily as the Storyteller I suppose that size is a nebulous concept.

...But that does lead me to wonder why he dislikes water of all things. Particularly considering we're surrounded by it.

[prettypurpleparlor]

That raises questions, but I suppose it's rude to gossip about other people's arguments.

[Hydraen, huh? That's... descriptive.]

I have a sneaking suspicion that being surrounded by it might be why the Storyteller isn't fond of water in the first place. They apparently said that they weren't trapped here, but it might still be limiting them somehow, keeping them from expanding their domain as they please.

Although they didn't seem to have much trouble coming up with the islets...

[scourgingstars]

Hm...an interesting concept. Although even if he claims not to be trapped, I hesitate to take him at his word.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Mm, point taken, but there's really only so much we can do with that doubt- lacking other sources of information as we do, at least considering what the Storyteller says is something of a necessity if we want to get anything done in the near future.

[scourgingstars]

Unfortunately, I find I have to agree with that. Annoying as it is to admit...I scarcely have evidence he's actively lying past my own suspicions.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Isn't there some quote about how someone who always assumes what they hear is a lie winds up being wrong just about as often as someone who always assumes what they hear is the truth? In the end, I think it all comes down to people being... complicated. Regardless of what kind of being they are.