• Event • A debt is due

[Pegasus]

119th Vhalar, 717

It started out as a trial like any other.

But then, those sorts of trials always did. The weather was cold and the snowstorms which were marking the beginning of winter were becoming a common occurrence. The good (and the bad) citizens of Scalvoris were going about their business. More than once, across the whole island, folks commented that there was a lot of mist to-trial, but then this was Scalvoris and it was more or less usual for the weather to be odd.

Whilst that was undoubtedly true, there was odd and then there was glowing fog odd.

For those souls who were caught in it, that trial, it was a strange glowing fog which billowed towards them. Glowing from within with a strange, almost pulsating glow, it moved with a very real sense of purpose. Which was, certainly, odd. Now, this being Scalvoris, children played in it - teasing each other in games of hide-and-go-seek, daring each other to swallow it and so on.

Except for those it took.

Without reason or rhyme, across the island from Havardr to Scalvoris Town, from Watch to the Tower, there were those who stepped into the fog and were simply swallowed whole by it. Disappearing from in front of friends and family, loved ones and strangers, those were the ones who were chosen.

Or were the victims.

They didn't know. They couldn't know. What they did know was that they stepped into the fog and then they blinked. In that blink, they shifted and changed, moved and somehow, when they opened their eyes from the blink, they were in the graveyard in Almund. Fog swirled around them and, in that first moment, they could see nothing except fog and gravestones, crypts and crosses, tombs and trees.

Welcome to the Vhalar 717 All Hallows Eve Event!

The way it's going to work is:
1. This is a quirky adventure with a spooky theme - it will run for maximum five rounds of posting.
2. I am going to post to it every 2 days ~ so it will last a maximum of ten days.
3. This is an impact thread for Scalvoris.
4. There is both risk and reward in this thread.
5. I am going to run it along the lines of individual goals / achievements unlocked, objectives and so on. Some of these will be ic, some OOC
6. The first round will begin on the 29th October 2017

There is no sign up - just post your arrival, after being swallowed by the fog and deposited in the graveyard here.

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[Tio Silver]

Various aspects of Tio all had different responses to the sight of the glowing fog.

The magician in him wanted to study it to find out if it could do anything special, and if so how to copy that ability for himself. The thief in him wanted to use it as cover to make an extra bit of money picking people's pockets. The mischief-maker wanted to go around telling people that the fog would turn them into badgers if it touched them just to see them panic, and the compassionate part of him wanted to go around stopping people doing things like that. A hundred other parts of him all wanted him to do something different with the strange fog that'd enveloped the island, but in the end only one of them won; his childish side. This part of him just wanted to get a simple joy out of blowing around the shiny fog to see what it'd look like, and so that was what he did as he stepped out into the foggy streets: blow gently into the air and watch the sparkling mist twirl about in front of him.

But of course after breathing out heavily one has to take an equally heavy breath back in, and as the Yludih did so a fair bit of the fog entered his mouth. The next thing he knew he blinked, and the world twisted and turned around him in the instant that his eyes were closed.

Before he knew what was happening Tio was standing in a graveyard, surrounded on all sides by tombstones and barren, leafless trees. He looked around in confusion, searching for any sign of what in the beneath had just happened to him, but nothing presented itself.

"Hello! Is there anyone here?!" He called out into the fog around him, hoping that if anyone did reply they'd have a better idea of what was going on than he did.

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[Victor Amielle]

It had started out as a trial like any other. Victor Amielle, Transmuter, adventurer and occasional mercenary, had spent most of the time in his office at the university, looking for information pertaining to a few rare and valuable plants that could only be found on Scalvoris in an ancient tome. His aim was to catalogue the island’s fauna and flora, with a focus on the animals and plants that had magical properties. He had heard his colleagues mention that there seemed to be a lot of fog that trial, but he did not think much of it.

He only noticed that this was not the kind of mist that he was used to – white and grey and slightly cold – when he stepped outside to take a break. It was glowing, and it almost seemed to billow towards him. Of course. He should have known. Scalvoris did not have normal weather. The question was what he should do about it though. Was it something that warranted investigation or would it be better if went back inside and continued his work?

He decided that the former was the case as he had always been somewhat daring, and his head was aching slightly from all the time spent reading and writing. Without further ado he stepped into the mist – only to find himself in a graveyard a moment later.

Unlike the majority of the people of Idalos he was not afraid of being in a graveyard. He had celebrated his last birthtrial in one and quite enjoyed the experience. He was more surprised than anything else because he had not expected the mist to be that kind of effect. He had expected hallucinations or strange sounds and smells, but not teleportation.

Standing around and being surprised would not help him solve the mystery though, and thus he began to move around and inspect his surroundings a moment later, trying to find clues. He did not call out to anybody. When you were in an unfamiliar place, being loud was not advised since there was no guessing what kind of creatures were nearby.

[Qit'ria]

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"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

Qit stretched and mewed, hearing the cracks in her back as she awoke from an excessively long sleep. Too many nights spent roaming around at night, tracking various creatures, had finally caught up to her. She felt like a moss-rock, having not moved in so long. Hell, she'd managed to get out of her tent without even opening her eyes. Stumbling about she pulled on her trousers, shivering in the cold. She did enjoy the cooler seasons, they were much nicer than the sweltering ones. And something about how the snow turned any landscape into a completely new world always excited Qit. New hunts, new challenges, new strategies.

She pulled on her blouse and her cloak, and began mulling about inside her cave, a bit annoyed by the fog permeating her cave. Fog was such a strange thing, it always made things brighter, but darker too. It was confusing. And it made every aspect of life more difficult. She strapped up her javelins, sword, and even tied her chakram to the waist of her trousers, as she always did, for she never left home without being armed. Only fools did that.

She needed to get a fire going, and her woodpile was outside. Cutting through the thick fog, she made her way to the pile. Picking up several medium sized logs in her arm, she grunted and strained, turning back toward her fire pit. But in the obscurity she stubbed her toe on one of the fire pit's stones, stumbling forward swearing up and down in Xanthean, before falling to the soft dirt. She managed to keep a hold on the logs, and when she looked up, saw an unexpected sight. There was a stone, plain, unadorned, with a name carved into it. Qit couldn't read Common though. She could just barely speak it, reading was not an option.

Struggling to stand upright, logs still in tow, she wondered who would put some weird stone in her campsite. She had some harsh words for whoever it was. Then the fog shifted a bit, and she saw more and more of the stones. Of trees. Of completely different surroundings than her campsite. Turning about, to look back at where her cave should be, she instead found more of these stones. She set down her logs, and crept down behind one of the bigger stones. She was in an unfamiliar place, without any idea as to how she got here.

Quietly she drew a javelin, finding comfort in its grasp, as she peeked over the stone. Stones and barren trees for as far as she could see, which in this fog, was maybe a javelin throw. She didn't like this at all. How did she get here? However it was, she didn't care. She would stay in hiding, for the hairs on her neck, the pit in her stomach, told her that nothing here was to be trusted.

Created by Yolande

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[Kura Wolfsdotter]

Kura had been sitting on her porch enjoying an evening smoke when the fog had rolled in. At first, she hadn't thought anything of it, fog happened on islands all the time. That's what happened when you were that close to the water all over the place. Then she had noticed the odd lights in the fog. Being of a prudent sort, she stayed firmly on her porch, seated in her chair. She had no real need to run into the mysterious this time, no need to risk life and limb without reason. Unfortunately, the fog had other ideas.

The fog swirled around her chair for a moment, then the lights started. Kura took a deep breath and gripped her chair, getting ready to push off. Then she fell back onto her rear with a startled gasp as her chair disappeared out from under her. Letting out a gasp of surprise, Kura reached out for her railing gripped a stone structure. She frowned at that, it was on the wrong side of her and way to short to be her house. She looked over at what her hand was gripping and let out a cry of surprise at the gravestone in her hand. She crawled back away from the tombstone, only to collide with another one.

Lurching to her feet, Kura realized she was in a graveyard. The one in Almund from the looks of things. Letting out a groan, Kura realized she was in a potentially dangerous situation completely unarmed and unarmored. She had her connection to Phelan and Speck, but there was no guarantee they would work, and though she could feel Cally's presence, she knew the ghost wouldn't be able to help. "Well, Cally, looks like we're on just our wits." she said, taking another drag of her pipe. Brilliant, teleported to graveyard by a strange fog and all she had was her pipe. Maybe there was a zombie that wanted a smoke? She laughed a bit and looked around for anything unusual to use as a jumping off point for an investigation.

[Arlo Creede]

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It had been a handful of trials since Arlo had received news of his mother's death, back in Rharne. It had been strange, and still was, the quick dawning sense that she'd been gone nearly eighty trials before his stepfather's letter had arrived, telling him it was the case. Somehow Arlo felt that he should have known already, which had made it all the more difficult to wrap his head around. Arlo knew that Vega was probably worried about him. But he'd reassured her more than once that he was just fine. He was, in a strange way, suspended somewhere in the middle of lingering grief, detachment, and just get on with it.

That was what he was doing that trial. Getting on with it. He'd left their home camp, dropped his hat on his head and headed to town, telling Vega that he wouldn't be long. Off to market to find something interesting for their supper. But he hadn't gotten there yet when a strange fog seemed to drop in from nowhere and getting to his destination would have meant strolling right through it. But even Lyova found herself in a state of befuddlement at the nature of that fog. It glowed and pulsed, not unlike the diri in some ways. But different, in a dozen or more others.

Strange though that no matter which way Arlo chose in order to get around it, it shifted in order to block his way again. Arlo liked mysteries, puzzles and the unknown. Ordinarily he was the type to charge right in, convinced that if he did, all the better a story to relate to Cassion, once he and the Immortal met again. That was the bargain they'd made, after all. Still, this time the young man didn't so much charge in, as he was swallowed up no matter how he tried to avoid it.

And then when he blinked and opened his eyes again? He seemed as far away from where he'd started as it was possible to be. Or at least as far as open markets compared to graveyards. Arlo wasn't the type to be put off by that sort of thing. But there was something especially eerie about this particular cemetery. He could vaguely make out the shapes of the monuments and tombstones, but most of the details were made murky and undecipherable by the low hanging, clinging fog.

Maybe he was put off by graveyards after all. Frowning and pulling his collar up round his jawline, he hadn't taken more than a half dozen steps before he ran afoul of a stone he hadn't seen, and gave his shin a painful whack in the process. Hissing out a curse, he turned round on the spot, hoping to catch some sign of movement. "Anyone here?" he called out.

[Pegasus]

119th Vhalar, 717

And so, they were there, in the graveyard together.

Tio

Tio was giving in to his inner child when he breathed in and then, he found himself in a graveyard. It was a tricky place, since he hadn't been in Almund just minutes before, he was sure. He shouted into the mist and darkness and he heard his words echoing back to him, as though they had hit a wall and the sound just reverberate back to him.
I swallowed it! unlocked. Tio will receive a consequence at the end of the thread!
Echo..echo...echo unlocked. Tio has a new Personal Objective!. In your next post, you must include reference to a walrus, a walnut and a hammer. These must be in context and must make sense. You have 50 extra words to achieve this (see objectives in tabs below). If you achieve this, you will gain additional loot!

Victor

Victor, however, was much more scientific about it - he decided that the thing to do was to explore. The place itself held no fear for him, so it made sense that he approached this logically. This he did, beginning to examine his surrounds. He found that he was in front of a crypt, a large one and the low gothic-style building was beautifully constructed. The family name Maveth was clearly on there. The stone was carved, depicting scenes of rituals surrounding death from, if he took the time to look, all over Idalos.
Stop, look, listen, learn!! unlocked. Victor will receive a consequence at the end of the thread!
A researcher's work is never done unlocked. Victor has a new Personal Objective!. For the next three posts, you must tell someone (a different pc or npc in each post) an obscure and apparently completely unrelated piece of Idalos trivia. Your job is to try and make it make sense, no matter how tenuous the link. You have 50 extra words per post to achieve this (see objectives in tabs below). If you achieve this, you will gain additional loot!

Qit'ria

Having had a difficult morning, the huntress was thoroughly spooked by the situation in hand.She decided that the thing to do was to hide, to wait it out and so she curled up behind one of the gravestones, and decided that this was Not Something For Her! Hopefully, the world felt the same way and no one disturbed her!
I brought logs!! unlocked. Qit'ria will receive a consequence at the end of the thread!
Doolittle unlocked. Qit'ria has a new Personal Situation!. Qit'ria now sees and hears a large ghostly black panther. It is with her, right next to her whatever she does; she can not avoid it, it is always there. It speaks to her, asking her to be its friend and telling her that she is the only friend it has. No one else can see it, but it talks to Qit constantly. You have 50 extra words per post to interact with it (see objectives in tabs below).

Kura

Kura was forced to endure a serious case of pipus-smokus-interruptus as she stumbled out of her chair and landed on her backside in the Almund graveyard. She spoke to her ghostly companion and she felt that Cally's presence was with her, although she couldn't be sure. However, she too decided that investigation was the thing to do!
Stop, look, listen, learn!! unlocked. Kura will receive a consequence at the end of the thread!
Let's (not) split up and search for clues! unlocked. Kura has a new Personal Situation!. Maybe due to Cally's presence or maybe just out of pure luck, Kura is now a magnet for the ghosts and spirits in this graveyard. She can feel their presence and will be assaulted with shivers, twitches, gooseflesh and that feeling of someone walking over her grave constantly. For what it's worth, Cally is not happy about it.

Arlo

There was something almost dream-like about the place that Arlo found himself in. He could be forgiven for thinking that he was dreaming and mixing in his grief with his dreams ~ but he knew better and so did his constant companion. So, he stepped forward and started to explore his surroundings, although his surroundings were soon taking their toll and he, too, called out. Like Tio, as he did it bounced around and echoed back to him.
I got an owie!!! unlocked. Arlo will receive a consequence at the end of the thread!
Echo....echo......echo unlocked. Arlo has a new Personal Objective!. In your next post, you must include reference to a python, a pineapple and a pair of scissors. These must be in context and must make sense. You have 50 extra words to achieve this (see objectives in tabs below). If you achieve this, you will gain additional loot![/align]

All Players

In the few trill where they each were wrapped up in their own things, they neither saw nor heard each other. Then, however, there was a flash of lightening and an enormous boom of thunder and it was as though that light and noise made their senses start to work again. They saw the others there - each one of them. They were within ten or fifteen foot of each other, in a small circle more or less around Qit'ria, who they could all see crouching behind a gravestone.

They had a few moments to get acquainted with each other, to say hi, wonder about how strange it was and so on, when there was another flash of lightening and another boom of thunder

Except, this time, the thunder didn't stop. It continued and they realised that what they were hearing was not thunder but an incredibly loud creaking noise. This was followed by a deep, reverberating bang and the sounds of splintering - these were accompanied by screams and the sounds of death.

Almost certainly, they would look around, but there was nothing there.

Until the ship appeared. A ghostly visage, made from fog and absolutely huge ~ it was flying through the air about ten foot above them and they saw the mist form into the shape of a huge vessel, sails ragged and unfurled. Those sails suddenly burst into flame as lightening flashed again. Then, the enormous ship, named Inferno, splintered apart on the "rocks" above them.

The mist fell down in apparent splinters of wood, they were surrounded by the sounds of death and screams of fear. Then, the mist swirled and reformed into the shape of a skull, looming above them.

Off on a small hill just a little away from them, they all heard a noise. It was a deep laugh, completely mirthless. Should they turn to look, there was a ghostly figure - tall and imposing, glowing red eyes and a snazzy hat. He carried a sword over which fire licked, flames seemed to surround him and he watched them.

They might each notice that their breath misted in front of them as the temperature suddenly plummeted to well below freezing.

Welcome to the Vhalar 717 All Hallows Eve Event!

The way it's going to work is:
1. This is a quirky adventure with a spooky theme - it will run for maximum five rounds of posting.
2. I am going to post to it every 2 days ~ so it will last a maximum of ten days.
3. This is an impact thread for Scalvoris.
4. There is both risk and reward in this thread.
5. I am going to run it along the lines of individual goals / achievements unlocked, objectives and so on. Some of these will be ic, some OOC
6. I will post again on the 31st October 2017. Players may join up until I do, then this thread is closed. If you join now, please assume you were there with the others, have just seen them etc - and you have the same objectives (can-do and must-do) as the others.

Disclaimer

I am really, genuinely, flinging around words like "loot" and "consequences" in a very vague manner. Sometimes. Other times, less so. This is about fun - there is risk, but I'm not planning on killing anyone. There is the potential for long term consequence, though.

Objectives

I'm going to split your objectives into two types. Must-Do (or sometimes, Must-Not Do) and Can-Do. The first type are for all, the second are optional, if you want to.

For your next post: Must Do Objectives 1. Keep your post to between 250 - 300 words.
2. Compliment another pc
Can-Do Objectives 1. Have your pc say the word "confabulation" in context for extra loot
2. Talk like a pirate! (Arrrrrrr)
3. Identify the movie reference........ (pm me)

Thanks!

I have to give thanks to the person who inspired this style of moderation for me. In a different place, he wrote some of the best adventures I ever took part in. Thanks, Stray. <3

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[Tio Silver]

A bolt of lightning darted through the sky above him, creating a roar of thunder and flash of light that overwhelmed Tio’s senses for a moment. He blinked his eyes rapidly to clear them of the spots, but as they readjusted to the darkness the Yludih found that suddenly he seemed to be able to see a little bit further through the fog than he could before. Not only that, but there were now other people nearby he hadn't seen before. He recognised most of them; Kura and Qit’ria he'd been on an adventures with, and Arlo he'd met once before in his Eidisi alias. The last person though was a stranger to him.

"Empress! Sugar Plum! Fancy seeing you two here!” He called to Kura and Qit’ria, a grin breaking out onto his face. Whatever was going on here he at least he had two people who he knew could fight to hide behind if things went pear shaped. “Aren't you both looking radiant today! I don't suppose either of you know how I got here do you? I think I've had some kind of mental confabulation, because I can't quite seem to remember.”

He shut up as another sound, like a bolt of lightning that never ended, filled the air. “What in the world is that noise?! It sounds like a giant walnut being crushed under a hammer!” He shouted. Above them the mist formed into the shape of a terrifying pirate ship, which crashed into phantom rocks and reformed into the shape of a terrifying skull. As if things weren't creepy enough already the sound of haunting laughter rang out from somewhere nearby, and Tio turned to see a ghostly pirate in a really snazzy hat standing atop a hill and looking down on them.

Deciding to try playing along with whatever weirdness was happening here, Tio waved to the phantom. “Ahoy there matey! Nice hat! I be Silver the Swift, Captain of the… umm… Flying Walrus! Ye wouldn't mind telling a fellow seadog what's goin’ on here would ye?”

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[Pegasus]

Ghostly Voice Time!

It was, as luck (or bad luck) would have it, Tio who spoke to him first. The very trill that someone addressed the Dead Dread Pirate, a voice reverberated around them, and it did not stop.

"The debt must be paid. The debt is due"

again and again it repeated..... again and again

[Qit'ria]

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"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

"We'rrrre not hiding verrry well, darrrrling"

Qit looked to her right and saw a panther staring back at her. She snarled defensively and fell backwards in surprise, hand scrambling for a weapon, settled on one of the logs she'd set down earlier. It nuzzled its head against her cheek, "Put down the log love. We'rrrre frrrriends rrrrrrememberrrr? My one and only... Yourrrr frrriends arrrre going to starrrre."

Friends? Qit looked up to realize she'd been hiding in the absolute worst hiding spot. She was surrounded by several people. She stood up quickly, taking in those around her. She knew every single face. There was Tio, Vector, Currydel, and Earlo, and many others. She knew Tio best of them all, so she walked over to him, glaring at him. Sugar Plum?

"You look good health. For soon dead man."

She punched him as hard as she could, which really wasn't saying much, in the arm, before standing next to him. "He looks tasty."

"No want eat him. Give stomach pain." Looking at Tio after his latest string of word vomit, "What mean confabulation?"

But before she could expect an answer, thunder rolled. And kept on rolling. And then screams, splintering, moans, squishing noises of death. Qit immediately hissed and backed away from the group, drawing her javelin and readying it, looking all around her. But saw nothing. Then the ship appeared. And Qit'ria snarled at it, and her panther friend let loose a proper feline scream, hunkering down behind her and swiping at the air.

She heard the laughing and saw the ghost captain. He was out of range of her throwing ability, up on his hill. He kept saying, screaming, the same words repeatedly. And it seemed Tio was trying to use a ruse. After all, spears can't hurt ghosts. Attempting to mimic Tio, she shouted up at the ghost, "Hoya there. I be Panther, first mating of Captain Silver. We no owe debt. You pay us!" She followed it up with a rousing snarl and a pump of her javelin in challenge.

(350 words exactly)

Created by Yolande

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