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

[hellawrath]

Look it's not like she's loving having these thoughts either. She's just making sure they're both on the same page here. Also he started it, so. Though she can't help but notice the steep nosedive his chill is now taking and that's not doing her own handle on things any favors, nor does she feel particularly good about doing that to him. What a load of horseshit this all is. Her steps meander a little closer, brushing up against his side. She chuckles weakly at his blamelessness in the ghosts department, even though his murder record isn't really funny, and it's not really lifting any moods.

It had been bad enough, being fucking played with and trapped down here and left to fend for themselves with shitall of a plan or even an idea of what they'll be facing. But now, with this new dread making every shadow leap, every glint of a crystal seem like a threat, she suddenly feels much less okay with leading Taako and Ren further into the labyrinthine caverns to locate those sigils. She has all the firepower anyway, Taako doesn't exactly have slots to waste on Magic Missiles, and Ren, well. Lup glances over her shoulder again, at the kid lagging behind because she's super busy staring at all the shiny rocks with big eyes. For now her natural caution is still holding her back, but it's pretty obvious her desire for treasures is gonna win out sooner rather than later.

"Listen, Taako, why don't you take Ren back up to the entrance before she starts loading up on crystals like it's fucking Black Friday, and I'll go break some sigils."

[ohshitsweetflips]

The surreptitious shoring-up Lup is doing is appreciated, but her attempt at giving him a new assignment is not. The difference between annoyed ears and creeped out ears should be subtle, but Taako jumps on the chance to be dramatic instead of fearful. An argument is always more appealing when there's at least one if not several potential threats, anyway.

"You listen, I'm not chickening out of this one, you think Taako can't handle some, some arcane scavenger hunt?" He flaps a hand, thwacking her shoulder, but it's half-hearted. He's not trying that hard to sell this outrage, it's performative at best. "You just wanna keep any cool shit in this cave for yourself, huh. Typical."

She does have a point about Ren, though. And she probably knows he knows it. But maybe if he's made enough of a fuss she'll be the one who has to tell Ren to leave, he can for damn sure chicken out of that.

[hellawrath]

Dammit Taako, why's he gotta choose this glowing bullshit cave to throw his usually so dependable self-preservation out the window. He's never this down for going exploring with her up in the jungle, but now that there's an actual real chance it might be dangerous, suddenly he won't take the entirely reasonable out she's giving him? Overdramatic bravery is great, she loves it, but not while she's trying to keep him safe, dangit.

"What cool shit? This bitch is probably empty," she declares with a contemptuous flourish of the umbrella that may or may not whack him in the shin a little bit on its way down. "I'm not gonna line my pockets with rocks, ya dingus." Nevermind that that's probably not really the point, here. "What do you wanna do, Shape Water those sigils off the walls? There's not even any water here!"

[ohshitsweetflips]

There was always a real chance it might be dangerous, he's heard about the feral hybrid bullshit infesting pretty much every sub-biome of this trashjuice island. Now they're doing the cave level, there's glowy set dressing, shrug. Same shit, different day. Or, slightly different shit, same overall feeling of being kicked around by circumstance like garbage on a busy sidewalk, maybe. Anyway, point is, it might be ominous due to a heady melange of past experience and common fucking sense but is this really anything new in terms of danger?

Unfortunately, she does have a point about his general uselessness in this effort, though. It's not like he's thrilled about being bumped down to like...what even, level .5? That's a dumb level for the dopest transmutation specializing wizard in this or any planar system to be, but it's where he's at and he hates it. How many good arguments will he have to skillfully sidestep by ignoring them outright? He makes a rude noise but does at least acknowledge the point.

"What, you think I can't take a rock to some sigils if it means we get out of here faster? Nuh uh. You're not getting rid of me, handle it." He tosses his hair, and while he's playing up the drama, the stubbornness is real. There's just something very unchill in his mind about letting her hare off into a stupid glowy sigil cave by herself, is all. "Gimme ten minutes, I'll make a hammer. What if there's a rockslide and an umbrella eats your dumb ghost? I'll have to do double the work I do now, which is already too much. No thanks."