lifeaftr | December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

DECEMBER EVENT: NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: Your trials by fire
When: December 15th - 18th
Where: On Maati and Ensō
Warnings: Character deaths and violence are both likely - please mark as you go!

The Trials: Only Then Can We Begin

As noted in the OOC info post, your Trials will all begin on December 15th. As many of you will not be deposited into your trials with food and water (or any items of your own at all, in most cases), the Trials will last only as long as December 18th. If you've failed to complete your Trial by this deadline but have not used up all the deaths allotted to you, you will awaken by Maati's mana pool at the event's conclusion. If you have not failed your Trial by using up all your deaths, this will not count as a character death, and you will not need to submit for a penalty; you simply won't be able to obtain the reward you would get if you had succeeded!

When your character wakes in their allotted Trial, they will discover that their starting chamber has been inscribed with the name of the Trial, the names of those participating, and the number of deaths they have remaining - though the latter aren't labeled in any way. You'll simply have to learn it the hard way; every time your character suffers a death, the number will go down by one. If it wasn't obvious what those numbers stood for at first, by the time the dying starts properly, it certainly will be. And you probably don't want to see it go all the way down to zero...

Should you reach the end of your Trial, you will step out onto the rocky cliffs of Maati, exiting from one of the seven doors set into the cliffs at the seven points of the island's star shape. You see, those doors you discovered earlier weren't the entrances to the Trials at all. They were the exits. And set into the towering cliffs...why, those house the winding mazes that comprise the Trials themselves.

There will be a top-level below for each Trial. Remember to plan with your groups and communicate with your thread partners! Whether you choose to do mingle-style threads or lengthier group threads is up to you.

Once you know the outcome of your Trial, success OR failure, please do let us know so that we can ensure your character gets the reward that befits their triumph...or lackthereof.

Remember also to let us know if your character uses up ALL their deaths during this event. While death penalties will not be inflicted during Trial deaths, if you use up all the deaths allotted to you and die for real, your death penalty will NOT be reduced.

The Water: Don't Let Them Get Away

The rest of you have plenty to contend with as well, of course. If you've opted out of this month's event, be advise that the waters creeping across shores of Ensō, along with the rest of the island, aren't going to take evasion kindly. They'll seek you out, spread along every inch of the island if they can, until they can find you.

There is a top-level below, if you're intrigued! Though if you end up top-leveling yourself, we may very well reach out and find you anyway...

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 15th: The Trials on Maati begin, and the water begins to rise.
[ ♆ ] December 18th: The Trials reach their end.
[ ♆ ] December 19th: Those who have "perma"-died in their Trials are revived.
[ ♆ ] December 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The second the group steps forward into this room, Muffet's voice cracks out like a whip:]

Don't touch the crystals!

[She's looking at the walls around them with evident horror, all five of her eyes wide as she frantically tries to see a way out.]

[The cavern is... almost beautiful, in a strange way. The place is covered floor to ceiling with heavy growths of a strange, pale green crystal substance, glowing with its' own inner light. There doesn't appear to be any obvious entrance or exit, just a lot of splitting, winding paths leading off in various directions. With the short distance you can see down the tunnels from here, it's clear that this place is essentially a natural maze.]

[Beyond the light of the crystals, there's nothing to dispel the utter darkness of the cave. The end result is a disorienting contrast of light and shadows, casting strange shapes on the walls and making everything look distant and unearthly. Something about this place feels... wrong.]

[It's nothing concrete, yet- just an itching at the back of the mind, a faint sense of unease. A simple, quiet certainty. There's something here.]

[Something that doesn't like you.]

Whatever you do, you cannot let the crystals touch you. They aren't stone, they're an infection. Clothing can be a safe barrier, if you're very careful, but if it touches any part of you directly, you will contract the infection.

It will convert you into a crystalline creature, mindless and aggressive. They seek to infect others.

You can sometimes cut away the infected parts, but it often-

[She breaks off midsentence, lips pressed together in a thin line, fists clenching. There's tension in every line of her posture, poised as though she desperately wants to flee or fight and doesn't yet think it safe to try either.]

[She shakes her head, and finishes in a mumble:]

...just don't let it touch you.

December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

Trial Room: Crystalline Maze