buttrinthum | TDM #11

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TDM #11

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 nearby, being picked and torn at by a bird- is that a potoo? As soon as the bird sees you approach, it flies off. It leaves behind mangled scraps of bread, a smashed glass vial that seems to have spilled water all over the pack, 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 are scraps of torn, damp parchment, some of which have scrawling, jagged handwriting you can still barely make out:

“Welc” “aby” “r CONTRACT”

You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which are mundane, some you cannot identify. However, there are two that stick out: Faerie rings and Rafflesia.

The Rafflesia is easy enough to avoid, its horrid smell easily warning away anybody with a working nose. If for some reason you opt to approach, the only unusual thing you’ll see is that they seem to have attracted swarms of rats. The rats seem territorial and aggressive, but are otherwise unremarkable. The flowers seem similarly mundane. However, anybody who smells the Rafflesia begins to experience an odd fixation- the corpse-like smell of the flower makes you think about your own death. The more you were exposed to the smell, the longer and more intense this preoccupation becomes, from a mild distraction for an hour or so up to full-blown nightmares for the next week.

The Faerie Rings can be seen in the grass scattered throughout the garden, and they’re unfortunately a lot easier to miss. These, it seems, have been planted by the faeries infesting the garden this month, and anybody who crosses through them will catch the attention of the fae. Usually, this will be simple enough; teleporting you elsewhere in the garden, into the labyrinth, or somewhere in the village. However, those who are particularly disrespectful or unsavory might find themselves targeted for more malicious retribution.

Ill Wills and Omens

The tone in the village has changed since Vaeros retreated into his castle. The villagers seem anxious and paranoid, somewhat hostile to the Dreamers- even the newcomers will face their cold shoulder, despite having just arrived- and they’re spending most of their time indoors, except to angrily shoo out an over-curious potoo. They’ve also raided the garden and any shops and stores for all the pumpkins they can get, and overnight they’ve set up a variety of jack-o-lanterns outside their homes and shops. These seem to be intended to ward out evil, and notably, any Dreamer who approaches a warded home will briefly feel a sense that they’re unwelcome, though it’s easy enough to ignore.

Anybody who crosses through the warning zone of a jack-o-lantern and ignores it, however, might find themselves subjected to strange effects.

Jack-o-Lantern Faces
Scary: Jack-o-lanterns designed to look scary will make you indecisive. You’ll be compelled to overthink every decision, no matter how trivial. The worst-case scenario will constantly weigh on your mind, and it will be difficult to accomplish anything.
Funny: Jack-o-lanterns designed to look funny or cute will make you impulsive. Whims and emotions will pass through you extremely quickly, and it may be difficult to focus or stick to plans.
Creative: Jack-o-lanterns with more unique, abstract, or artful designs will make you obsessive. What the obsession may be is dependent on the person; it could be something they already care about, or something that happens to occur to them after they encounter the effect. Either way, it will be all-consuming.
Blank: Pumpkins that haven’t been carved at all do… nothing. Really. Nothing. We promise. Well, nothing internal. But after you get a glimpse of one, you’ve been marked, and the pumpkins will know. You may feel like you’re being watched. You may feel like you’re being followed. You may see a glimpse of orange movement. One thing is certain: The pumpkins are following you. They’re masters of stealth, but you know the truth. You know.

Regardless of which effect you experience, it should wear off after a few hours, a day at most- except for the blank pumpkins. They’re quite persistent, and may stalk you for days or even weeks; the pumpkins are patient and ever-vigilant.

Twinkling in the Darkness

Those who were in Somnius in spring of the previous year may remember- with no small degree of dread- the faeries who invaded Somnius briefly. Last time, they were in a good humor, and their jokes were playful. This time, something seems to have them in a bad mood. There’s no attempt to ask for favors, no negotiation… anybody who crosses the Faerie Rings in the garden might catch their attention, but you might just as easily catch their interest because they didn’t like your attitude or just objected to the look of you. They may simply try to lure you into the labyrinth until you’re hopelessly lost, trick you into more Faerie Rings until they’ve had their fill of you, or simply lay a curse on you.

The curses aren’t nearly so playful this time, either- they’re malevolent. Instead of petty inconveniences, these curses seem targeted to be personal. Somebody with a physical insecurity will find it magnified to draw attention to it. If you fear something about yourself, you may find it magnified and reinforced. If you’re desperate to keep something hidden, it will inevitably be revealed. It’s not clear if they somehow know what will hurt your character, or the curse simply finds it automatically, but it is vindictive and it knows how to hit home.

Fortunately, they mostly keep to the garden and the labyrinth, even when the potoo's around. These curses wear off after a day or so, but by then the damage may well be done.

The Times They Are A-Changing

There are many smaller side effects of Vaeros losing control of Somnius, changes that will last for the foreseeable future. Chief among them is that the labyrinth is no longer magical; it’s a mundane structure, albeit one that seems to have immediately attracted the same hostile fae and oddly-aggressive rats that infest the garden. Best not to meddle too much. Some other changes include:

The Network Devices were powered by Vaeros’s magic. Without him, they’ve depleted to much more limited forms. Around the first day of October, the eye adorning them closes as the magic becomes dormant. Among other things, this means that Network posts will not be available for the time being. Sleepr will also not be taking place. Personal one-on-one or small group communication is still possible via text, voice, or video, as per usual, and old posts are still available to be perused, but mass broadcasts will not be available without Vaeros.
The Crystal can still grant wishes, but Myrta seems to be the one granting them now; she’s trying to work out how to take full control of the thing and undo all the damage Vaeros has done. However, especially now that new arrivals are coming to Somnius again, she’s willing to do her best to grant stolen powers and objects; it only seems fair. Potion powers are also still granted to newcomers. [[The OOC reward mechanic has not changed, only the IC flavor and possibly the tenor of some of the results.]]
Speaking of Myrta, she’s still asking the Dreamers for help in her work. She may send you on missions asking for all sorts of odd things. They might be extremely trivial mundane items that belong to random Dreamers, arbitrary bits and pieces of the setting, or even debris from the labyrinth itself, once the Dreamers start wrecking parts of it. Don’t worry, she won’t ask for anything suspect. (She might become indignant at the suggestion.) Occasionally, she'll pine over her missing bird, almost exclusively when you spot the potoo out of the corner of your eye. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
The Library now has more books on the world and history of the village before Vaeros took over, now that he’s not actively censoring them. [[Feel free to ask us any questions you may want answers to in our game FAQs!]]

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 the bubble of magic surrounding 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, which is no longer enchanted and will not move or shift to hinder them anymore.

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

"Watch this!" King turned his head so he wasn't facing Luz and cleared his throat a couple of times. He paused for dramatic effect... then let out a "Weh!"

... Nothing happened.

"What?? Hold on, I'm still getting the hang of this... Aaaaand..."

He tried again, letting out another "Weeeeeeh!" This time, a little burst of flame shot forth from his mouth. King giggled happily and did a couple alternating fist pumps of victory. "Look, look, see?? I'm - " He had to pause to cough a couple times, a little wisp of smoke rising up from his mouth but then he happily carried on. "I'm on fire!!! Get it? Because I'm so awesome AND I have fire breath!!!"

"Whoa!"

Luz was pretty sure she hadn't ever seen King do something like that! Normally he would let out a "WEH" and it would only be some kind of energy beam!

Unless...

"Wait. Did you drink one of the potions?"

He had tried to use his ultrasonic yell on the pumpkins following him earlier, but that hadn't worked. Flames had come out instead which is how he discovered this little trick!

"Potion? Yeah, it was red. What does that have to do with my fire breath?"

Really King, you ought to know it was strange that he was blowing fire! He didn't usually!

"The potions each do something specific. The red ones are elemental magic ones: they allow you to use magic you normally wouldn't be able to. I drank the yellow one, and now I can turn into most animals."

"Ooooooh... Yeah, that makes sense." He had thought it was a little strange he could suddenly breathe fire but... the discovery of his ultrasonic yell had been a surprise too so he hadn't thought it was that much of a difference. He'd been hoping it was some new natural power of his... and he looked a little sad finding out that wasn't the cause... but he looked more excited when Luz explained she could shapeshift into animals now.

"How big?? Can you change into some ferocious looking monster big enough to carry me? I can ride on your back and we can strike fear into the hearts of our enemies! Nobody would dare mess with us!"

Wow. Luz was starting to wonder when King had been brought here. Luz remembered what King used to be like when it came to looking big and imposing, and how that had lessened considerably when he learned who he actually was. Still, Luz was absolutely not going to begrudge him this. Shapeshifting was a pretty fun activity for her.

"Well, want to find out?"

Luz gestured toward her back, having an idea of exactly which animal to turn into.

"Hop on!"

King had matured quite a bit from when Luz first met him! But he still talked a big game at times even if he didn't truly want to conquer and rule over anything anymore. But helping to defend the people he cared about from the people who threatened to harm them he was one hundred percent on board with! So he fully meant that warning to any potential enemies! They'd kick their butts just like they did every time before!

Or talk to them and try to resolve things peacefully, as King had been starting to learn with the Collector.

"Yes!!! I want to find out!!!" King happily scrambled up onto Luz's back!

Poor Luz was eventually going to have to explain to King that she had matured a bit as well, and was pretty dedicated to fixing some of the things that had happened in this world, even if it seemed like things were changing pretty fast!

For right now though, she was content to showing her little brother what she could do!

Luz waited until King had scrambled onto her, then nodded. She closed her eyes and now her skin was getting somehow rougher and a little hairy, not to mention she was growing exponentially. A minute later, King was up pretty high atop Luz, who had turned into a rather impressive elephant.

King was surprised when Luz started physically changing shape, even if he knew it was coming. She'd never been able to do that before! He hung on and did his best to keep his balance so he didn't fall off while she got bigger and bigger.

When she stopped growing, King let out a happy cheer and wiggled his feet in excitement while he pumped his fists into the air. "This! Is! Awesome! You could break into so many places with this!" And maybe break a few places too... "How fast can you go? Run run run!"

Nope, this was totally a new thing! It was a fun thing too, depending on the situation, but here Luz was actually pretty eager to show off a little to her favorite buddy!

She had her trunk handy to grab him in case he fell off, but at his urging, Luz nodded, let out a deafening roar with her trunk and started to run! It was slow at first, but once she started to pick up speed, they were actually making good ground!

Luz would just have to ignore a lot of the shocked looks from the locals and Dreamers alike.

King cheered with glee as Luz ran around, probably drawing even more attention with his hooting and hollering. It was too much fun to stay quiet! He wondered if he could use her trunk as a slide later...

He was glad she had some magical ability here since the time he was from she wasn't able to use glyph magic anymore. He was going to be in for a happy surprise when he saw she could still use glyphs here...!

Luz was doing her best to both give King a heck of a ride (and view) while also not trying to trample on anything too important. After all, she didn't want to upset too many people who might come across them.

Once they got to the beach though, Luz made sure to bring King to a spot close to sure, and settled down so that he could hop off. Once he was safely down, she shrunk down to her otter form and scampered into the water to play a moment before coming out in her human form, bare up to the shins.

"How was that?"

He happily slid off with a "Wheeee!" of excitement, landing a bit unceremoniously in a clump of sand and getting half buried in it. Oops... He popped up out of the sand and shook himself off like a dog would. "Oooh, what's that creature called?" he asked about the otter, liking that one because it was more his size.

But when she went for the water, King immediately grew worried and ran after her, calling out. "Luz, wait, no...!"

He skidded to a stop when he saw... she was just in standing there. "Huh...?" He tentatively scooted forward up to the water's edge and dipped a toe in once then twice then put his whole foot in. "... It's not boiling!" He looked amazed by this and put his other foot in, then stamped around in a circle to make some splashes. "Hehehe! It's like a giant bathtub!"

Luz was already in the water, having a small little swim before scampering back, then shaking the water off as well as the form, so she was human again.

"That's an elephant," Luz said, then watched as King slowly walk into the water, curious to see how he took to it. She knew that Eda had at least visited the human world before, so she was used to water, but King? That should be something new.

Luz laughed, nodding. "In my world, a lot of it is made up of water like this. In fact, there are a lot of aquatic creatures that make up the animals in there! There are some that we don't even know that much about!"

"And all of it's like that? Cool instead of boiling?" King was amazed that there could be a whole place with wide amounts of water you could actually get in and not be scalded. "How far does it stretch? What else is out there?" He waved a hand at the horizon, wondering what else there could be. "No islands where they sacrifice Titans, right...?" He was half joking about that one.

Luz nodded. "Almost of it is cold. The only way you get water that is naturally boiling are geysers and hot springs. And water literally covers most of the Earth! We just tend to not think about it that much."

Luz shrugged. "I mean, there is land and other countries, but even I don't know about all of them, or even everything about the ocean."

Oh, that was right. She nearly forgot!

"When you talk about being a titan, make sure you let them know that YOU are what you're talking about. Titan means something totally different to other people, and are apparently super dangerous."

"You come from a really strange land. I want to see it one day!"

That makes him a little concerned... "Dangerous to the point I... shouldn't tell anyone I'm a Titan...? What other kinds of Titans are there?"

"You might, one day! It'll probably be in a way where you'd have to be careful about who saw you though!"

Maybe that whole "deranged cat" excuse would work?

That was a good question. "More like you should specifically say you're a titan from the Boiling Isles, so they know. The titans I've heard about are nothing like you. They're more like...ok. You remember that Basilisk that attacked Hexside that one time? Imagine something like that, but looking more like a human that's not finished. And huge. And willing to eat anything that moves."

"Right, no Titans in your world..."

He tried to picture that in his head. "Some similar things... Huge? Not yet, still a growing boy! And I do like to eat almost anything! But not everything!"

Luz shook her head.

"They're nothing like you. And make sure that anyone asking knows that. The thing they're describing sounds more like a nightmare. And you are anything but that."

He could make a joke about he could be a nightmare too sometimes if he wanted! But he picked up on the seriousness of it so he just nodded to show he understood. "Got it!"

Luz looked at King with a smile.

"I want them to see you as YOU are: the lovable, adorable and somewhat cantankerous little guy I met at the Owl house. When they see you for who you are, they'll call you King and not 'titan.' That's the way it should be."

"Yeah! That's the way I want it to be too!" He completely agreed!

"Although," Luz was looking him over, "I feel like now that you're here, maybe you should have something here to make you look more distinct? Not sure what yet, but maybe it'll come to you."

A hat maybe?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TDM #11

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