buttrinthum | TDM #9

Arrival / Enchanted Garden

Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see a barn owl that is flying through the darkness, soon sweeping you across the clouded sky. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.

When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water, and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.

Will you drink it or not?

There is a parchment, handwritten in scrawling, jagged lettering that seems a bit... ominous:

“Welcome to my LABYRINTH where your wish, you wish you wish youwishyouwish– Your CONTRACT is SEALED.”

You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which you cannot identify. However, there are a few that you can make out: Larkspur and Anemone You’ll soon find out that being around the Larkspur makes you almost overwhelmingly tired, to the point you might even feel sluggish and in desperate need of a comfy place to rest. Why not lie down right in the garden? Or better yet, find someone to snuggle up with and sleep your worries away. The only truly strange part? You don’t seem to dream. At all. Straying too close to the Anemones, meanwhile, grants an entirely different effect. One second you’ll be walking through the garden and then suddenly you’re twenty feet away and facing the wrong direction. Even worse, whatever those flowers have done to you will sometimes make it so you “glitch” through solid objects – your leg might suddenly be lodged in the ground despite it being perfectly solid a moment before, or your arm could be shoved halfway into a wall that… actually, was that wall even there before? Nevermind that. The effects only last for a few minutes at worst, so at least you’re not stuck there forever, right?

Liminal Spaces and Worn Out Faces

Thanks to the combined efforts of dreamers and dragons, Vaeros is asleep. No one knows for how long. The locals aren’t particularly pleased with this turn of events and the village is a mess, but at least the moon is high in the sky again and everything is back to normal… relatively speaking. Things start to change... morph into something more dreamy, more surreal. It's subtle at first but after a few days…

The aftermath of the overgrowth, animal attacks, and the overall chaos of Vaeros' tantrum has left the village a little worse for wear. While most of the damages are cosmetic and could be fixed by the local's efforts alone, maybe a little help would be appreciated? If nothing else, it might help alleviate a little bit of the tension still lingering in the air after the events at the castle.

That, and the locals seem to be acting kind of strange. Leaving them to their own devices might not be the best idea. The Gelfling you are aiding in repairing a half-broken wall has been hammering for what seems like hours and when you look to see what they're doing, they haven't actually made any progress - they're just hitting the same spot over and over again, potentially making the hole even bigger. Did the goblin you just passed have a completely blank face for a moment? Others might walk into things, off of things (Starlight Cliff might be a hazard zone), or suddenly and inexplicably become aggressive toward dreamers, grabbing anything they can get their hands on (kitchenware, vegetables, a goose??) to use as a weapon. It's a very bizarre scene and the villagers don't seem to notice there is anything wrong with the people around them.

It’s not just the locals either. The animals have been acting equally strange. There's a wolf inside the clothing shop trying on suits, a goat standing (or trying to stand) on its hind legs, bleating out random words like a town crier while jingling a bell around its neck to get everyone's attention. Where you should find the local baker, suddenly they're replaced with a deer holding a paddle in its mouth to stir up a batch of brownies.

To top it all off, there's an eerie sense of deja vu no matter where you go or what you do. Didn't you just help that goblin with the wheelbarrow an hour ago? So why is it halfway across town again? You could have sworn you had to go and grab groceries, but your pantry is full like someone already had.

Up is Down, In is Out

Days pass and the oddities continue to make themselves more and more apparent. The sidewalks seem uneven and wobbly at times, threatening to toss people walking across them to the ground or even fling them into the air with a sudden violent ripple. Walking through the forest sees the leaves of the trees melting into green goo that sticks to your clothes, your hair, and your skin - potentially staining them green and leaving you in dire need of a bath. You can always wash off in the lake, of course, but even that is not free of the strangeness occurring in Visium. The water of Lake Omen has turned to lava, at least in color; although there is no heat radiating from it when one approaches. That, and the locals are still fishing in it without issue, save the fact that they keep pulling up fish with tophats on.

Speaking of fish - they're raining from the sky now (tophats or not) in all sorts of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Good news! They're still edible. Bad news, they're probably trying to sell you something.

If you do decide to try the fish or any other meal in town, especially those served by the locals, you'll find that it doesn't taste like much of anything and most certainly doesn't fill you up, at least not at first. Everything is bland and unappealing until left in the presence of dreamers - and the more you share the meal with, the faster the taste returns.

Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream Within

Even with Vaeros asleep, only a small portion of the labyrinth is still accessible. Those that attempt to explore will find sections made up of pillows and cushions, and no matter what time of day it is elsewhere, this portion of the labyrinth seems to be stuck in perpetual twilight. Explorers will also immediately feel drowsy, then lulled to sleep by the quiet singing whispered through the air like a lullaby. Anyone brave enough to try and rescue those poor souls from their impromptu naps would be wise to plug their noses and cover their ears with earmuffs to block out the sound.

At night, dreamers dream. They will be visited by the same melody heard in the labyrinth, though it is distant. They will also hear a woman telling them to spend more time together, to bond and create things together in order to soothe the effects of Vaeros' magic growing wild in his dreams. Dreamers will also have the ability to visit other's dreams, meeting in a dreamy light liminal space that will not feel so real when they awaken.

OOC

Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! Characters will arrive depowered and with only their clothing, and will be given a satchel with a crystal pendant, a communication device, some water and bread and a magic potion. If they drink the potion, they will manifest an elemental, healing or animal transformation ability.

With the exception of Castle Vaeros, characters are free to go as they please, so feel free to place them in any of the locations available on the map. Yes, this includes the Labyrinth - though characters will not be able to clear the maze.

You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Anna turns as soon as she's spoken to, going from nervous to a cordial smile in a heartbeat. But then her gaze takes in the owl, and the other animal companions. That's... so many...]

Oh! Wait... What? You can talk to animals? Like... for real? Or are you just so in tune with them, you know what they're saying anyway? [That's how Kristoff does it, she's pretty sure.]

I can speak with them just as you and I are conversing. Animals were my only friends while I was growing up so I learned to speak with them, to understand them. [She smiles.] That seems to be a rather rare ability, even here when there are many rare abilities.

I am in tune with them as well, and they come when I sing.

I take it, you are a new arrival, your majesty?

[Gosh, that does sound an awful lot like Kristoff to her. Not that he didn't have friends growing up, but... No human friends, as far as she knows. Just Sven and the trolls.]

Oh... Yes, new arrival seems to be what people are calling it. I suddenly woke up here this morning, but apparently thaaat's... normal? I don't know- did it happen that way for you too?

It did, though, we arrived in the dead of winter, and I thought I was in a nightmare landscape created by the curse I was put under. [You know, like you do.]

I have been here for over a year now. But it sounds like a good deal was explained to you.

[The word "curse" starts echoing around Anna's head, even when Aurora's already moved on to a different topic. Whaaat....]

Yyyyeaaah. A few people were nice enough to try and... help me make sense of things. Ah... [... She has to ask.] I'm sorry, did you say you were cursed?

As a baby, in fact. I was cursed to die when I was sixteen by pricking my finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. The curse was altered since it could not be undone and instead, I would merely fall into an ageless sleep until awoken by true love's kiss. My curse came to fruition and then I arrived here. So, as you can see, I had thought this was a further result of my curse.

[True love's kiss... Anna would say it sounds just like a fairytale, but she already knows about the power true love holds. It's real.]

I can see that, yes. And I'm sorry that you were cursed like that. I mean- who puts a death curse on a baby? That's just evil. But... [She trails off for a second and ducks her head with a wistful smile.] If it helps any, true love does fix that sort of thing. So I'm sure that it'll break your curse too.

Oh, that would be Maleficent, a fae. She is here as well, we arrived together. [Technically, Maleficent was another one of her fairy godmothers considering she HAD gifted Aurora as a baby.] She is the Mistress of All Evil so she would be quite pleased you said as such. [Aurora and Maleficent have a... weird relationship, mostly because they have been in close quarters for a year and Maleficent's own curse said "beloved by all who know her" and well, now they know one another.

At the reassurance, she smiled and inclined her head.]

Oh, thank you for the reassurance, your majesty. I am quite looking forward by being awoken by my betrothed. Phillip has come and gone twice now here but... he's... wonderful, and I hope you will get the chance to meet him. For now, I await the day I awaken and see his face, again.

[Anna falls silent at the notion of 'the Mistress of All Evil, who is a fae, is also here'. This feels like something they should be concerned about. Why is there so little concern? She swallows thickly, then frowns.]

So... Wait. [She gestures to the left with both of her hands.] Back home, you were cursed and fell asleep. And your fiance will come and wake you with true love's kiss in the future. But here- [Both hands gesture to the right now.] you're awake, and your fiance also came here? Twice? And no curse, so no need for true love's kiss?

It does sound like quite a lot. But yes, you explained it about as clearly as the situation is. That was my wish, to be free of my curse. You can see how that might complicate my leaving. A fae cannot undo the curse of another, they can only... alter it. I was originally supposed to die before my aunt stepped in.

Oh... Well, I'm glad you got to escape your curse! Because that's good, right? Even if it means not being home for a while? Because a curse is a curse, and a curse is bad, so...

[This situation is hurting Anna's head a little, honestly.]

I have escaped it here, yes, that is a good thing. [But she is still under it back home.] And I am... grateful for my being here. It allows me to meet all sorts of people, like my best friends, and now, you. I hope we can be friends as well.

TDM #9

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