A CRY FOR HELP, catch-all( MARCH 10th - ??? )
march 10-11 ↴ PRE-DEPARTURE.Asgard is buzzing with rumours.
Three young half-orcs, it is said, approached Sentinels on the 10th. They were taken into Tyr’s temple, spoke with more Wanderers. Is it true? What do they want here? Where have they come from? How many more are there? Is it safe?
These questions, and many others, are not answered immediately. The discussions on the 10th are closed, kept away from prying eyes, and only on the 11th does it become clear. For the second time this month, an address is broadcast from the council rooms. This time, though, it is led by Odin himself -- although Njord, Heimdall and Tyr are sat in the background in quiet discussion. His expression is it’s typical flat, neutral self -- but the content of his short address? Now that is interesting.
▒█ Wanderers. I am sure you have all heard of our visitors by now. They claim to have witnessed a blighted source of magic. Such a thing may not be unprecedented, but it's most certainly concerning. . If it exists, we must understand it and find what can be done to stop it. Those who wish to help these visitors should meet in the palace grounds tomorrow morning. Learn all you can. █▒
That is all. Those who wish for more details would probably do better to ask the Ambassadors who spoke with them. Before the address ends however, Njord pushes to his feet to add one thing he thinks people might just find relevant -- as irrelevant as it is to Odin.
▒█ They claim to have friends and family trapped in the cave. Do be careful, Wanderers. Magic beyond Asgard's borders is as strong as it is unpredictable. We can’t come with you, but we’ll send you with the means to contact us in case of emergency. Use it wisely, if you must use it at all. It will only work once. █▒
Will you brave the danger? Do you need to understand more first, speak with the gods or perhaps these Ambassadors and Sentinels who met the visitors? There is only a short amount of time, either way, until they ride out. If you’re planning to go, you might need to start packing. march 12-13 ↴ DEPARTURE & JOURNEY. As the sun rises on the 12th a party is forming in the palace grounds, met by the three half-orcs ( 1, 2, 3 ) and their unusual mounts. The gods are there to see them off, offering their followers thin runed cuffs to fix next to their normal bracelets. These, then, are what Njord spoke of -- a way to contact them in case of emergency. Something that hopefully won’t be necessary.
The party sets off as quickly as they can, lead with assurance in the mysterious tangle of forest beyond Asgard. This cave, the cave their friends are trapped in, is no more than a day outside Asgard. They must hasten, for The forest has already begun behaving strangely of late, something scouts have been investigating, and today is no different. The strange visitors begin assured of their path, but quickly begin to lose it. The same tree is passed more than once, directions seem meaningless, and the forest leads on a lengthy journey. At first it might feel as if the visitors are lost, or that they do not know this path as well as they believe. Yet it quickly becomes obvious: no, these turns do not make sense.
The forest itself is against you, it is determined to hinder your journey.
The frustration builds, and soon the group falls to in-fighting. Blame is placed -- the turning should have been west not east, and so on. Yet the longer it goes on the worse it seems to get.
Cooler heads must prevail.
Once the team has regrouped, and along with some scouts made a more careful track of exactly where they are coming from (for how else are fairy tale forests managed?) some progress is made. It gives away, and beyond the treeline the landscape finally opens up. Wide, grassy plains seem to spread out endlessly until, at a distant horizon, the faint smudge of red mountains is visible.
The mountains are your goal, and too much time was wasted in the woods. The light is already beginning to fail.
Your guides, grim-faced, admit there is still some way to travel. It is safer to make camp here, then carry on tomorrow. The endless sea of grassland ahead, the forest at your backs -- it may seem unnerving but they assure you the plains are safe. Will you take watch, or just sleep until morning? Here’s hoping the patch of ground you pitch in is comfortable.
Come morning, the long trip across the grasslands begins. After hours of riding the red mountains draw closer, the grass fading away to rough red landscape and a mountain pass lead through with a winding river.
There’s only a few hours of daylight left, but you’re nearly there. march 14 - 19 ↴ THE CAVE The animals don’t like the cave.
You arrive as the light begins to fail, crossing the short distance the beasts won’t make on foot and peering into the darkness within. There are, according to your guides, five people trapped in this cave. Whatever this blighted aether is, they certainly consider it too dangerous for them to enter themselves. You, however, they believe can do something. You are touched by the gods, are you not? Surely you, of all people, must know what to do!
So, will you brave the darkness of the cave? Will you investigate the area outside? Or are you just here to support the others, to set up camp and watch what they choose to do?
For those who are brave enough, the inside of the cave is... interesting. Those sensitive to magic can feel why the animals shied away once they enter the dark, damp space. After all, there is magic here. The whole cave feels alive with it -- and alive is the operative word. It’s a dull, yet constant force. A pressure that builds with rhythm that can only be organic.
Like a heartbeat, perhaps, were one to prone to projecting such things.
Beyond the narrow mouth the cave opens up into a wider space, a natural chamber that appears to have been, at the very least, utilized by man. The only light here is the faint, flickering glow from deeper within but it’s enough to see by. Here, the runes on the walls feel familiar to Asgardian ones yet different, perhaps related. The ground is smoothed as if from a constant stream of footfall, and a quick glance around shows that although there are several other branches the rest are dark. A brief check around shows they end in nothing, and only the one light from within seems to continue on. This one seems different, a more roughly shapen tunnel perhaps not worn naturally into existence by time -- rather one violently formed by pressuring bursting outward. Is this recent, or is this older? There is still some debris around.
Should you carry on?
As it turns out, it might be your only option. If you try to emerge from the cave, you find that you're unable to leave. Some invisible force spans the narrow mouth of the cave, trapping you inside. A barrier, one which shimmers with a vague sort of magic on contact - and only mildly more so if you try to break free using nothing but physical force. Luckily, communication only seems to be mildly impeded by the barrier, a slight muffle to otherwise completely audible words.
DEEPER IN THE CAVE For those who continue on beyond the first chamber, they find that the second appears to hold the missing natives. The five of them certainly don’t appear to be overjoyed by your company, but it quickly becomes obvious why --
You’ve managed to walk into a quarantine zone.
You shouldn’t be here, they protest, and that immediately feels true.
It’s a dismal, as might be expected. People hunched around their fireplace, tired. Some resigned to their fate, some less so -- but all of them trapped and all of them feeling what you will soon begin to feel.
It only takes about an hour or so before the sensation creeps over you, an odd burning through your veins. That crackling, stuttery magic alight within you. Magic should feel empowering, something that follows your whims. This? This is something else. Something that feels wrong.
The natives will, despite their reservations, talk and share their campfire. They can guess immediately who sent you, after all, and feel indirectly responsible for the way that you've joined them in this whole mess. If you are willing to sit and listen, they’ll explain that they have been quarantined by the Elders. Whatever they have been exposed to, here in this cave, it appears to be infectious and it seems as if they believe that a dark blood spot within this cave may be connected.
Could that be the cause of this 'blighted aether'? What happened in this cave? Are you willing to let it consume you, as they believe it will? The symptoms sound unpleasant -- although as a Wanderer, chosen of the gods, there's a chance that it might not be as bad…
Perhaps some of you, even, may be inventive enough to begin thinking of ways to get through this. Supplies, things to use to mitigate it all -- or even to begin working to try and counter it.
Will you sit and accept your fate? Will you investigate? Or do you, perhaps, have a plan? OUTSIDE OF THE CAVE For Wanderers outside, the news is dire -- yet your guides seem unsurprised. They knew their friends and family were trapped.
They just hoped you would break them free, and they do seem sure that you are capable.
So, will you?
Communication with your friends inside is more than possible, as is the one-way exchange of touch or supplies. How long do they have? You can’t be sure, although the longer you leave it the worse it will be.
Will you work on collecting and sending more supplies through the barrier? Are you considering joining your friends inside it? Do you want to learn more about this magic, if you can, and what might be causing this sickness? Or are you planning to learn about the barrier, to see if you can bring it down and free your friends as well as the natives inside? That’s certainly what Gorza, Sil and Otto seem to hope. march 19 - 22 ↴ THE QUARANTINE IS MAINTAINED For those waiting inside the cave, they’ll soon learn that Heimdall, Honir, and Sigyn have responded to the call for help. Perhaps to the surprise of some, who may have been hoping for rescue, they are firm on their stance: they have been called to maintain this quarantine, and they will. Who knows what might happen were this to spread? Nothing good, that’s for sure.
Still, there is some solace. For those suffering, Sigyn offers the chance to peacefully bring that suffering to an end -- she offers her hand through the barrier, and those who take it painlessly slip away. Once the party is returned to Asgard, those wanderers who take this option will awaken in the palace whole and free of sickness once more. They will, however, have died.
Are you afraid? Angry? Will you take this chance? Will you question why the half-orcs cannot be returned the same way, or perhaps try to wait this all out? Wait and hope there might be some other way? If you choose to wait, Honir at least will stay with you.
No other way, however, will materialise.
For those outside, it’s a different story.
Sil, Otto and Gorza do not take the news well -- Gorza especially. She flees the scene in a desperate fury, and just before dusk more half-orcs are drawn in from the village nearby. This time, at least, it seems they agree with you.
The Quarantine has been maintained, you are assured you have done well, and now… Now you can return to Asgard.
Perhaps, given time, you will even come to be at peace with what has happened here.
The ride is uneventful, now flanked by the gods as you are, and in a day and a half you are returned.
Then, on the 22nd, your companions from the cave will awaken and be with you once more.
Will they feel the same? Strange, perhaps? Will the contagion truly be gone? For that matter, what did cause it -- and is keeping the cave off limits enough to stop it? The village elders had implied it might still need to be cleansed, and that they would allow study of it. What might such study bring?
MOD NOTES This is the March event log for A Cry for Help! It serves as a catch-all for the entire event. For further details, don't hesitate to consult infopost #1, infopost #2, and infopost #3, or ask questions on the Mod Questions top-level! This event is OPT IN. It also contains content warnings for possible character death, blood magic, and trauma (now detailed in infopost #2). The majority of these things will impact characters who choose to enter the cave, but will likely also be referenced throughout the rest of the plot! |
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asgardchrysalis2020-03-07 01:39 am
no subject
Waiting out here will not do anyone any good, especially not if no one on the inside of the cave is willing to come back to the barrier to give them any word of what may be happening on the inside. Which is really what they do need. And he's not about to suggest that Jim need to go himself...
Slowing his hand and gathering his resolve, he glances aside at the other man before announcing, "I'll go."
no subject
"On your own?" He turns to John, his other hand moving to his shoulder. "No. John... what if you can't get out of there, too? I can't let you do that."
no subject
"My dear," he says, his voice equally soft and gentle. "You said it yourself. We have come this far as it is. And if we are to make a difference, we must know what has happened beyond that barrier."
He turns to cast a glance over his shoulder at the barrier in question.
"I promise you that whatever I find, I will return to tell you of myself," he says, looking back to Jim. "I cannot speak for those who have entered the barrier thus far, but I am a soldier, James. I do know how to defend myself."
no subject
Reaching out without a word, he holds John in a tight hug, shutting his eyes and staying like that for a few good seconds. Then he eases his hold again and pulls back, hands still on John's shoulders.
"Alright," he swallows thickly, nodding again. "But I'm holding you to that. I'll be waiting for you to come back out and tell me what you find."
no subject
He offers Jim a soft little smile once he pulls back, squeezing his arms in the effort to reassure him once more as he does.
"I will not leave you here to wonder after me any longer than you must, my dear," he promises, gently. Hoping that it will be enough.
no subject
"I'll be waiting," he says, finally releasing John and letting him go into the cave. Then, he does the thing he hates most: he waits. Still at first, but eventually pacing, trying to look past the narrow entrance, using his powers to light up a torch but unable to shed any light onto the corridor.
no subject
The situation in the cave is... More dire than he could have imagined. A pestilence in the air itself. The discomfort of it starts slow, a light ache, burning in his veins. An aching in his head. He stays long enough at the fire side to gather what information he can, but he had made Jim a promise, and anyway. He doesn't need much more than the basics.
The cave is killing them. And now, he supposes, killing him as well.
"James?" he calls out, making his way back to the edge of the barrier. He feels lightheaded, unsteady, and he reaches out to keep a hand on the wall. Using it as much to keep himself upright as to guide himself back towards the mouth of the cave.
no subject
He paces for the better part of the wait. When there's finally movement, or rather, the distant sound of John's voice, he's about readying himself to just go in there and find him. He stops in his pacing, turning to the cave entrance and waiting.
"John," he heaves in relief when finally the other man emerges. There's a faint smile.
"You had me worried for a moment there," he says, trying to make his tone come across as light even if John doesn't look too great. Apprehension is just as quick to set in. "What's happening in there?"
no subject
Glancing back over his shoulder toward the cavern behind himself, John shakes his head before lowering himself to take a seat against the wall. His hands and feet are burning, and he crosses his arms about his chest, tucking his fingers underneath his elbows. A warning sign.
"It is not good, my dear," he says, honestly, his brows furrowing as he turns his gaze back up to Jim himself. "They did not tell us the truth, our new-found friends, in leading us on this rescue mission of theirs. Perhaps we might not have volunteered ourselves so readily if we had known we were walking into a death trap."
no subject
He looks back to the rest of the group, where the orcs are. Then back to John. His chest clenches painfully, and he steps closer to the barrier, evidently struggling to keep himself from simply stepping through it.
"What kind of death trap? Tell me," he says in a grave, sharp tone, just in case John tries to tone it down just to stop Jim from going in. At this point it's probably getting obvious that's on his mind already.
no subject
"The cave is meant to bestow some sort of blessing upon those who enter it," John elaborates. "It's why they had come here in the first. The original group back inside the cave. But something went wrong. There was -- a corruption?"
John swallows hard, shaking his head before amending. "There is a corruption. It's why they're shut in here. Their own people sealed them in. A quarantine. To keep the plague from spreading."
no subject
"A plague? So it's like a disease? John," he starts, voice faltering. "Is everyone in there sick, too? Are you sick? I can't leave you here. There has to-- has to be a way."
There have to be doctors among the Wanderers, he's sure. Or healers. Anyone, anyone at all who can cure them all.
no subject
"James," he says softly, doing his best to attempt to be placatory. "Their own people shut them in here for a reason. This -- disease. Whatever is causing it. Exists solely inside this cave. And it is killing them. We cannot under any circumstances let it spread beyond these walls."
It happens to be killing him too, but he isn't certain he wants to admit to that fact aloud just yet. He's not certain it will help his circumstances one way or the other.
no subject
"What about you? Are you supposed to just die in there? And I'm supposed to just let that happen?" He lets out a broken breath, shaking his head. "You have to know me well enough to know I can't let that happen."
no subject
"My dear," John says, shakily. "I do appreciate your concern. But what else do you propose that I should do? While I stay within this barrier, the corruption is still contained. So long as the quarantine is maintained, no others outside of this cave will need to suffer. The city..."
He shakes his head at the other man. "We cannot allow it to reach the city, James. We cannot."
no subject
But sitting out here to watch John wither away and die right in front of his eyes isn't an option either. Tears well in his eyes, and he lets out a shuddered breath, with it leaving all the fear and anxiety he was feeling before.
"Fine, then. Screw that," he swallows thickly, then crosses the barrier and steps into the cave, immediately going for John to help him up. Just trying really hard not to think that he's probably just signed his own (yet another) death sentence with that. "Then I'm staying with you."