lifeaftr | October Event: Crystal Clear

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes, I put it away for the time being. [ Since she wasn't using it. ]

[ As fine as anyone can be... so... he's fine! Good! ]

I.. I see. [ Kind of. ]

Have you found anything here yet? Those.. sigils and things. I only saw a few back the way I came.

[...Well. She seems to be of sound-enough mind, though McCree still gets the feeling they're reading entirely different books right now, much less on the same page.

Ah, well. If there are talking spiders and skeletons and blind men who've never heard of monkeys before, stands to reason that the disconnect is from this whole other world nonsense.]

This place is absolutely littered with 'em, but I reckon that's why the Storyteller seems so insist on gettin' 'em all cleared out.

[He gestures further down the tunnel.]

There's a handful right down the bend there. Been keepin' as good a track as I can.

[ Hey it's not just the blind men that haven't heard of monkeys! It's the amnesiac espers too! ... that's probably not something to be proud of. ]

Okay. [ She'd go investigate, but he was the first person she's run into for a bit, and there was something that bothered her about the caverns. ]

Um... if I may ask...what do you make of these caves? [ And the old buildings and such. ]

[At this rate he's going to know more people who don't know monkeys than people that do, but that's...Probably okay.]

There somethin' that ain't right about all this. [It's a whole...abandoned civilization with weird glowing crystals. They're one giant monster away from a bad horror movie.] Seems like folks used to live here but they've been gone for a while now, and what with the Storyteller not seemin' to know nothin' 'bout this place...

Don't reckon I'd let my guard down here.

[Or you could lose something important. Like your life! Or limbs!]

[ A nod nod. ]

I feel the same way. I wonder... the people that aren't here anymore, if they were people who were pulled to this island the same way as we were. And.. if they were the ones that made the seals in the first place.

[ It's bad enough they have a God who doesn't act like he cares, but there was a power even stronger than his.. what if it wasn't friendly? ]

No I... um. Reckon..? You shouldn't. And not just down here.

October Event: Crystal Clear

With your faith in me I can! T_T

o9

<3

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