THE SQUAD'S SPA RETREAT ON WEATHERTOP [log post] [free-for-all] [modplot]

[wildermods]

THE SQUAD'S SPA RETREAT ON WEATHERTOP
OOC POST
The hills the squad travel through make an undulating ridge, often rising almost to a thousand feet, and here and there there are low clefts or passes leading into the land beyond. In the low-lying areas there are the ruins of walls and other buildings, and on some of the hills lie the ruins of different forts and watchtowers.

The highest hill in the area is Weathertop and this is where the squad will make camp on the fifth night of travel. This hill will provide them refuge but no refuge can truly keep them safe. As the crows said, they are the ones that were Chosen by the Green and the darker forces of this world have already found out about their existence.

However, the night starts normally. They make camp and set up watch and the hours pass without much reason for worry. A waxing moon rises into the sky, casting a gentle glow on the world. There is a light chill but nothing insurmountable due to their campfires. All is calm and peaceful.

That's why what happens next probably seems strange at first. Even those who aren't on watch may find themselves suddenly jerking out of sleep due to strange feelings of dread seemingly coming from nowhere. Those with holy magics, blessed weapons, or banked holy spells will find themselves feeling some kind of evil approaching. Those with cursed weapons or unholy powers will feel a sick sort of welcoming feeling, like something dark is approaching, yes - but that they should be glad.

Then the feeling of dread reaches them all, regardless of powers or weapons, clutching at every heart. Even those normally immune to fear may find themselves feeling the cold reaching its way inside them with prying fingers.

That's when the calm, misty night is shredded by the first screech, something inhuman, half-animalistic, half metal scraping over concrete. Another screech answers it from a different side of the hill, like the sources of the screeches are pack hunting and slowly closing in. More cold rolls in and the feeling of despair deepens as the sky starts to blot out with floating shadow shapes. The dementors aren't the source of the screeches but they're being spurred on by them, as if the unearthly shrills are calling out orders of some kind. The cold that sets in makes those that can feel cold feel as if they'll never be warm again.

But that isn't the worst of it. There are loud pops as living human figures pop in around the hilltop and its various trails downward. The ceramic and metal masks of dark wizards glint in the moonlight and spells start sparking from their wands as they start firing at the group - and at the dementors and approaching Nazgul. Cackles and sadistic laughter fill the air. Their leader is a woman with a cackle that sounds more mad and more sadistic than the others.

As the first of the cloaked Nazgul approaches from beyond the ring of stones, practically exuding darkness, one of the Death Eaters steps forward. She is shaking and though she pretends it's all rage and the thrill of potentially killing, at least some of it is fear. Even the Death Eaters can feel the chill from the Nazgul and dementors. Lestrange tries to cover that up with her usual sadistic glee.

"Naughty naughty, trying to steal my mistress' prisoners out from under her nose," she crows, flinging curses. "They're not your toys to play with and we'll send you back to your pathetic formless master with your tails between your legs. You may not be able to die for good but we'll make you wish you have!"

She cackles with shrill laughter and the fight begins in earnest. The Nazgul and dementors descend on the group and the Death Eaters do as well - and both sides attack each other, too, not caring who's in the middle. In the space of minutes, the Squad is in the middle of a deadly battleground.

Fortunately, the hill isn't the worst place to make a stand with its ruins providing cover and good vantage points and there are woods to escape to in the lands below if they make a run for it. Maybe, if they're very, very lucky, they might survive the night.

But their odds aren't great. The Death Eaters are a sadistic force to be reckoned with, and the dementors are no less horrifying for having changed sides to work with Sauron. If anything, they're even worse now, and their orders are that only a few need to be captured for Sauron and the Nazgul - the rest can be killed or have their souls sucked.

And many have fallen at the hands of the Nazgul and all flee before their faces - save the one who desires to have the Nine deliver the Squad into his hands, where they can be broken in the deep dungeons of Barad-dûr, where no light has ever touched.

---

NOTES
✦ Post in actionspam format. Plots and mod-run events in the game are meant to be in actionspam format to keep a brisk pace.

✦ Free-for-all Post. This event will be in "free-for-all" format, meaning that threadhopping is encouraged and that threading should be treated in the same conversational way as network posts.

✦ NPCing. Players can feel free to godmode the Nazgul and dementors in their own threads, as these npcs don't talk, and have very little personality beyond being pure evil. Please just make them realistically difficult to drive back as they're very powerful, unkillable enemies. However, the mods will npc the Death Eaters since they're intelligent speaking people. A thread will be available in the OOC post where players can link to their threads to request a Death Eater npc to participate.

✦ Fairy Swaps. Now that the fairy swap mechanism will be in place, players can make their quest characters and Brugh characters magically swap places whenever they want, including during the event itself.

✦ When it Takes Place: ICly this is 5 days into the Squad's journey through the hills.

Comments

dementor

[konman]

[Being dumped into the middle of a fight because the magic of this place is playing musical chairs is bad enough, but discovering that the people he cares about are in trouble? Not a good time.]

Kal!

[He sees him from across the fray with those...things descending on him and it doesn't look good. Kal's already on his knees and doesn't seem like he's able to fight back.]

[Kon frantically fights his way towards him, trying to do it with fists and grit and rusty skill, but his slow progress makes his resolve to not to use his creepy-ass magic dissolve almost instantly. Even with his past training by Guardian he's not good enough to flip his way through this throwdown like one of the Bats. He's too used to brute-forcing it.]

[He decides that it doesn't matter. Maybe the magic will eat up his soul and turn him into something terrible, but he can't hold back when people need help.]

[He can't hold back when the people he loves need his help.]

[Kon's eyes cloud over black, and he starts casting spells. Grabby shadow vines here and there, pinning down Death Eaters, clearing his way. One of the Death Eaters fights them, casting a spell to free herself, so Kon breathes in, drawing away her life energy so she drops on the ground, alive but too weak to fight.]

[Then he surges forward towards Kal, hoping against hope he can reach him in time. Just a little bit further...]

Kal! Kal, hang on!

[He'd nearly lost Kal once, when he'd almost been beaten to death by Gog. Kon'd wept then, holding his mentor in his arms, thinking he was dead. Kal'd had to be resuscitated at STAR Labs.]

[He's not dealing with that again. No way, no how.]

[andaway]

Kon...?

[It's all but a whisper. As soon as he hears his voice, as quickly as the memories of all the good moments they have spent together start coming to him they are being siphoned away and all Kal is left with is... regret.

Regret for how he treated Kon, regret at all the mistakes he's commited with the poor kid who just wanted a family. Regret because he was so selfish, too self-absorbed to think about what Kon needed and all he focused was on how he felt about the entire situation and he put Kon against the wall to the point where he felt he had to keep the Luthor thing to himself for fear of being judged. Kal blames himself for that, not Kon. Never Kon.

And he'll definitely blame himself if he gets hurt now. He's coming right towards him, his eyes black and obviously using his magic. A magic he'd told Kal he was terrified of using. And the dementor... the dementor is looking right at him, not looking at Kal anymore.]

No. No...

[He drops on his hand. He hasn't been kissed yet, but the grief is still heavy as it gets around his chest. When he speaks it's barely above a whisper.]

Kon. Kon, don't get hurt.

Please.

[konman]

[Too slow. He's too slow. He hates this, hates not being himself. And he hates that his only way of helping at all is something toxic and caustic that he can feel eating away his insides. But it's all he's got and without his normal superspeed, he knows he doesn't have a chance here.]

[Kon gets to Kal just as the nearest dementor starts sucking out Kal's soul. Kon knows it's Kal's soul because it's a little twinkling, glowing sphere that looks just like Kon's own soul had looked when Raven showed him it.]

NO!

[After bashing one last Death Eater away with his bare hands, he leaps forward towards Kal, his hand extending. Whatever it was that let him grab onto Tim's soul kicks in again here, and he feels it tugging Kal's soul away from the monster's grasp. It turns into a game of tug of war, as he tries to fight the creature and pull it away, and it's one he starts losing because the dementors start affecting him, too.]

[The good memories start leeching away and he sees memories he's tried to bury.]

[The common room of Titans Tower exploding in scorching arcs of heatvision, as his friends are thrown around like rag dolls. Vic in pieces. The bones of Tim's arm crumbling like chalk in his hand. The horrible krraatch as he'd punched Cassie out.]

No. You can't - you can't use all that against me. I know - I know who I am. I know that wasn't me. It was him.

[A small explosive sound, crackling fire, the sizzling sound of hair burning and the smell - a smell that had put him off bacon for a while. He hears himself screaming her name.]

["Tana!"]

And you can't use that against me either. [Tears trickle down his face.] I know she'd forgive me. I know she loved me.

[What happened to him, Lex taking over him, using him as a weapon, making him hurt his friends, making him ashamed and afraid that he was just a monster, a weapon created to hurt someone he'd come to love... that was pretty much a master class in working through absolute abject despair.]

[They're good at leeching away positive feelings but stubbornness and indignant anger are apparently immune. So even with the good memories and feelings ripped out of him, the How dare they? that's left, the outrage over them trying to hurt Superman of all people, is strong enough for him to work with. Beings this foul aren't worthy of even giving a soul like Kal's a wedgie like they're doing, let alone being worthy of taking it.]

You actually think you can - you can beat me down enough I'll just let you do this to him? [He grits his teeth]. Like hell.

[They're not the only ones that can hoover life energy out of people. Kon focuses on the dementor nearest Kal's soul and breathes in, drawing in the life energy that makes the thing work. It's...foul. It's not like it was with the Wheelers, where it made him feel like he'd taken a hit of crystal meth or something. It feels like drinking poison or sucking air right out of a car exhaust. But he doesn't stop, he keeps drawing it out until the being finally falls back weakened.]

[Now that the creature is no longer tugging at it, Kon lets go of Kal's soul, dropping the hold of his power and it snaps back into Kal's body through his mouth, safe at last. Then as the other dementors press in he breathes in again, focusing on them one at a time, sucking out their life energy just like the first one. One by one they fall back, weakened, hovering closer to the ground. He lifts his hand and causes shadow tentacles to grab them, ensnaring each of them one by one, pinning them down. The effect they had on them both, the despair, it fades. With so much energy drawn away from them, the dementors have become too weak to draw away memories or good feelings from their victims.]

[But this has come at a price. Kon kneels unsteadily next to Kal, looking like he's about to collapse. The black in his eyes is refusing to fade, even though he's stopped casting spells, just like the times he went inside Melai temple. But it's worse this time. The darkness in his veins has spread out from around his eyes all over his face and down his neck. They've even spread over his bare arms. His lips have turned a pale grey that's starting to tinge with black.]

[The sparse grass on the ground around them starts withering and dying, a circular wave of death spreading out from Kon, claiming the lives of all the nearby plants. The dementors are not so much alive as unalive. They're unnatural and the life that drives them is something sick and unhealthy, borne of dark magic. It won't kill him, but it wasn't a healthy thing he drew into himself and it's going to take time for the poison to work out of his system.]

Are you - are you okay?

[He asks it despite looking very not okay himself.]

[andaway]

[It’s a weird feeling, to say the least. It’s weird enough to feel his own soul, his own sense of self, all his hopes and dreams slip away and leaving just… nothingness behind. He’s been depressed before, he’s even had to seek help for it so he’s not a stranger to it but this is absolutely unlike anything he’s ever felt. Or not-felt, as is the case. It’s turning every little thought of his into something dark, painful, dirty like it’s going through a filter and taking out all the color and life out of it.

Meeting Lois, their wedding, meeting Chris, every happy moment he spent with his father- all gone, all forgotten in favour of seeing Lois tortured, near-dead because of him. Of losing Chris, having to leave him behind. Of Jonathan’s death and how he was too busy listening to New Krypton to even hear it. But Kon didn’t just get stubbornness from one part of his DNA, and so he holds onto it. Holds onto hope.

And feeling Kon... fight for it back? Feeling how Kon is pulling his soul in the opposite direction (however that may work) is just… something else. But it does give him some will to fight, it does make the static in his brain telling him to give up and just let go quiet down, it does give him something to fight for.

Kon may have his stubbornness to latch onto, may have his determination and he’s been through so much, so much of course a Dementor will need more than this to defeat him. But right now, all Kal’s got to hold onto is how absolute proud he is of the kid.]

You did it.

[Is all he can manage to say once Kon comes close, once Kon is finished with the Dementor. Because it may be gone now but the memories, the whispers are all still all too real in his head and while Kal is naturally hopeful (he wouldn’t be able to call himself an El if he weren’t) it will still take a while to completely shake those thoughts out, to get joy back.]

You used… you just used your powers, didn’t you? You were so worried, but right now you were so brave, Kon.

[He reaches to squeeze his shoulder, looking at him right in his black eyes. Ignoring the darkness in them, ignoring the changes he sees because he wants Kon to know that nothing’s changed, that he truly doesn’t have to hide this from him anymore. He’ll never, ever forget the worried look in Kon’s eyes as he tried to hide what this place had done to him, as he compared it to when he lied to Kal about Luthor. And even though a lot of Kon’s issues are his own fault he’s not letting him think he has to hide himself from Kal ever again.

If anything, being reminded of every moment he failed, of every little thing he did wrong with Kon is only making his resolve stronger.]

Are you okay?