Wilderlands Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildermods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wilderlogs2018-04-27 01:28 am
wildermods) wrote in wilderlogs2018-04-27 01:28 am
Entry tags:
THE SQUAD'S SPA RETREAT ON WEATHERTOP [log post] [free-for-all] [modplot]
THE SQUAD'S SPA RETREAT ON WEATHERTOP
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.
✦ 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.
no subject
[Sometimes he's an even worse liar than she is. Her lips press together unhappily, and she's not even pretending to believe him this time. Maybe she doesn't do so great with human expressions sometimes (all the time) but she knows Harper and she knows his sense of humor and if there were an Earth expression about tails, she's absolutely sure he'd have found a reason to use it by now.
So if he's lying, then something bad has happened to her tail in the timeline he's from. Which either means it's very different, or he's from her future. She really hopes he's not from her future, but that probably won't matter either way until they finish saving everything there is to save and get to go home. If they go home.]
Humans don't have tails. Why would they make up an expression about it?
[But she'll maybe let it go. For now. If only because there is probably a lot they should talk about before they have to run for their lives some more. The sounds of fighting are starting to grow a little fainter as they move away, but as much of an optimist as she eternally is, she still knows how outings with Harper always turn out. It's as comforting as it is scary.
Besides, she could have just told him there was a 'time travel kerfluffle' if he'd bothered to ask, and she shoots him a look to say as much. And a lot more. It's a very loud look, full of the usual mix of fondness, disbelief, and amusement that Harper usually gets when he tries to be sneaky.]
Maybe later. Shouldn't we talk about the giraffe in the room first? Time travel's really not the weirdest thing to happen to us. But I'm pretty sure this isn't the Andromeda, and those invisible voices weren't Rommie. And you've never had a... trash panda... before.
[She's taking a wild guess here that if Harper has been here long enough to get attached and try to help (she's not surprised by that part, actually, because she sees a lot more in Harper than he sees in himself) not to mention figuring out the panda thing, then he's probably been here long enough to figure out other things, too. Or at least guess, and Harper's guesses are way better than his lies.
And okay, maybe she doesn't really want to talk about the differences in their timelines. Not yet. Soon, because he's right, they really should know where each other is coming from, but... she just kind of wants to enjoy having him back first.]
no subject
That? [He talks brightly, like he has all the answers.] I can tell you everything I know about it.
[Pure crankiness.]
Which is squat. All I know is I was back on the ship in the middle of - [He self-checks, but hesitates just a second] - something in the machine shop. Then the next I was falling down one hell of a rabbit hole, hearing those weird voices. I woke up not far from here, further back in the hills, a few hours ago.
No clue how I got here. Even worse: my gauss gun wasn't firing - and I wound up losing it fighting a ghost...zombie thing. Lucky me. [Of course he'd run into one of those.]
As for suddenly having superpowers, I figured that out after we - [Crap, should've kept it at 'I.'] - got caught by the previously mentioned ghost of Nightmares Present, knocked out, and taken to this creepy tomb.
[He's hesitant to elaborate on the 'we' part but doesn't want her thinking Beka or one of the others was with him.]
It was me and this little kid I ran into; he'd been pulled here the same way, heard the voices in that tunnel, too. We figured out we had the powers while fighting our way out - his were different from mine, for some reason. Then we saw the campfires up on the hill and moved in closer to see if we could find any other people. We saw the fighting start before we could even reach it or warn anyone. He went running up to play hero and there was this weird...force teleporting me back and forth between all this and some random-ass castle.
I lost track of him.
[The unspoken part is that Harper hadn't helped these people out of a generalized sense of good will or fuzzy warm feelings in his heart. He'd liked the kid after them looking out for each other, felt responsible, and in the process of looking for him, had seen enough desperate people that he would've felt guilty over not trying to help at least a little bit before running.]
I got a good enough look around to know he probably made a run for the woods.
[Probably.]
[Half-visible in the moonlight, he frowns that vague frown he does when he doesn't want to think about about something bothering him: like the idea of a ten-year-old wandering around a dark fantasy world alone at night.]
[Or worse.]
You got the same thing? The voices in the tunnel?
no subject
[She nods but hesitates before speaking any further, thinking about what Harper's told her. It all sounds familiar enough, so it either all happened to both of them or it happened to neither of them and this is just the most vivid hallucination ever. She's leaning toward the former. The way she's felt ever since she, well, landed... no way even a hallucination could cut her off from everything like this.]
I was in medical in the middle of... you know, something, and it was just like you said. Talking about how we have to save someplace, and we'd have power to do it, and I do feel different, but... [She frowns down at herself.] I don't think I have a trash panda.
[She's not sure how you know if you have a trash panda or not, but if Harper figured it out in a matter of hours, there's probably some sort of hint, and all the hints she's getting don't seem to be saying anything like that.]
I don't know what I have. Anyway, I ended up at the bottom of a big hill and a hunch that maybe I should get to the top, and you know, my hunches are usually pretty good. [Even if this wasn't her usual sort of hunch. Close enough.] So I climbed it, and then someone shot a glowy thing at me; and that just seemed really dangerous, so I ran away, and then I heard you screaming. And now I'm here.
I'm sure your new friend made it out okay, though. It seems like a lot of work to kidnap someone only to let them get killed right away, and besides, think of Dylan. The people that are most determined to run toward fights usually are pretty good at getting out of them, too.
no subject
[That actually is a really reassuring thought. Hell, the kid claimed to be Superboy, after all. Like Superman was real. Said he was even a superhero. Harper's still having trouble believing that, but this world is doing a good job of slapping him in the face and making him acknowledge weird fictional shit might maybe, possibly be real.]
You know the craziest part of all, though? He claimed he was Superboy. As in like Superman, as in one of the greatest classical Earth heroes ever created, as in the fictional character. Which I thought was some kind of delusional thing or him getting way too into playing pretend at first.
[They've made the tree line now, thank god. Fortunately there are many paths through the forest, which means it'll be difficult for the bad guys to find the right one and follow them. The light of the moon through the gaps in the trees is enough for them to see where to step. Just barely.]
But those things back there? I didn't recognize the ones in the masks or the flying ones but the ones on the ground that didn't seem to have masks, that were just hooded and cloaked?
Trance, those are right out of ancient Earth lit, too. There's an old, old set of novels about this megalomaniacal dark lord trying to conquer all life in a magical fantasy-land, and a quest by the good guys to throw a magical ring tied to his life essence into a volcano to defeat him.
In the story, he had nine shadowy agents of evil at his beck and call, inhuman ghostly monsters who obeyed his every whim and they chased the good guys and the magic ring. At one point in the story, they ambushed the good guys in the dark of night. Guess where. [He adds quickly.] If your guess was 'on a big damn hill,' you guessed right.
[He shakes his head.]
How can this be happening? Us getting dumped into ancient Earth stories that are becoming real? Do you think we got kidnapped and dumped into some kinda crazy VR thing without realizing it?
no subject
[But it makes her perk up, hearing him less worried. It's a lot easier to pretend you're pretending you know what's going on when you don't know what's going on but you actually do know what's going on than it is to just pretend you know what's going on when you don't. She hadn't been aware of that until just now, but it is very true.
She also isn't the guru of useless Earth trivia that Harper is, so she just sort of nods along with his explanation. Maybe not so useless, after all. If they ever get back, she will definitely suggest Beka maybe lay off a little.]
I don't know. They seemed pretty real to me. I guess if the universe really is infinite, then we're probably fictional to someone somewhere, right? But I'm pretty sure this is reality. I just don't know which reality. Probably not ours, but definitely a reality.
[Pretending again, although this would be more like pretending to not know what's going on while knowing what's going on except not really knowing what's going on but pretending to not really know and just kinda know. Sometimes these things got super complicated.]
Don't you think a dark lord sounds awfully bad in any reality, though? Do you think he's here, too? Maybe the voices were right and we really do need to help save something here.
And why is it always dark lords? Couldn't there be a light lord, or maybe a shades of gray lord once in a while? If-
[This would usually be the part where she has 'a feeling' and they solve the problem and fix everything and go home as triumphant, conquering heroes. Except she can't and they... probably won't. At least not right now. The idea of not being able to fix things sets her rambling which distracts her from the problem at hand but also... everything else.
The light of the moon is just barely enough to watch their steps, yes, but some people are used to not having to do that. Some people haven't adjusted to having to deal with the little variable probabilities of the world like a normal person yet.
Trance's foot catches on a bit of root or stick or something sticking out of the ground, and whatever she'd been about to say cuts off with a startled yell as she tips headfirst down the hill.]
no subject
[Whoops, apparently the ground is pretty unsteady there. She tips over, taking down some roots and shrubs with her and the roots being ripped out make some of the rocky scree slip out from under Harper's feet.]
Oh crap!
[That's all he gets as his feet slip out from under him and down he goes as well. He manages to tuck into something like a roll but it doesn't help much. The branches of shrubs and fallen tree boughs tug at his clothes and one of the two necklaces at his neck snags on something and since the chain doesn't break it's just painfully pulled over his head, hurting his ear.]
[At one point his head also hits something - a stick or a stone. Fortunately it's not enough to knock him out, but it hurts, and when he finally slides to a stop at the bottom, blood is already starting to stream down his face.]
[After their Jack and Jill routine is finally over, he lays there groaning for a second.]
Ow.
no subject
With a little moan, she reaches for her tail, checking it carefully for damage, but... no, it feels okay. Most of her feels okay, just bruised and sore. She's had worse.]
Definitely ow. Sorry.
[She turns to check on Harper once she's sure she won't just tip over and mess anything up even worse.]
Harper? Are you-
[The trees aren't any thinner down here than they were up above, but the sight of dim light glinting off blood isn't one she'll ever forget. It makes the breath catch in her throat, a look of panic crossing her face before she clamps down on it and crawls to Harper's side. If she'd nearly gotten her best friend killed only to get tossed into a different universe to do the exact same thing in a different way...]
Harper? Can you hear me?
no subject
I formally renounce my mudfoot ways and take back every positive thing I've ever said about being planetside.
[He sits up.]
Unfiltered fresh air aside, being planetside sucks. Nature is gross and muddy and has lots of pointy stuff in it.
[He presses his fingers against his head and they come back sticky. Yep, that's blood.]
You okay? I'm okay. Just must've hit my head on something on the way do - aah!
[There's a sharp intake of breath and he holds a hand to his stomach, waiting to see if he feels - yes. He feels it again. A familiar squirming. Then pain. Lots of pain.]
No. Nononono!
[His hand goes to his neck and he tugs at the necklace and - it's only the medication necklace, which is useless now. The rabbit's foot is gone. That had to have been the tugging he'd felt at his neck, the feeling of something sliding painfully over his face - ]
[He climbs to his feet, staggering towards the slope, trying to spot it, hand held to his stomach.]
My necklace! I had my rabbit's foot on a necklace and it got ripped off. I need to find it - it's the only thing -- AAGH!
[He hunches over. That time hurt almost enough to make him drop back down to his knees.]
I know this sounds crazy, but if we don't find it, I'm dead. And I don't know how much time I have.
no subject
She pushes herself to her feet as quickly as she can, realizing she'd been staring for a second too long. At least their path down the hill is clear enough, with the broken underbrush and disturbed rocks.] Right. Okay. Rabbit's foot. I'll find it. Try to relax, okay?
[Except it isn't until she's half a dozen steps up the slope that she realizes... she can't find it. Not the way she should be able to. It freezes her in her tracks again, for much longer than a moment this time. It's even worse than on the bridge with Dylan and Beka. Not only can she not see the perfect future, here, she can't see any future. She can't even see one little necklace, something so easy to find she should have been able to do it blindfolded.
But if she doesn't, her best friend really could die this time, and it would be her fault. Again.]
You can do this. [Her words are quiet and not very reassuring even to herself.]
no subject
[He tries climbing himself, because it's not that steep or that much of a slope (it only was a problem because it caught them by surprise) but the larvae shift again and he cries out and drops to the ground, curled on his side.]
I don't think I've got much time before I've got a bouncing bundle of baby Magog instead of a pulse.
[After all the craziness of today he's practically basting in stress hormones and that means he has less time that he might have had.]
no subject
[Time for self-doubt later, Trance. She hurries back up the hill as well as she can, slipping here and there but managing to catch herself now that she knows how treacherous the footing can be.
She knows what the rabbit's foot looks like, of course. She's only seen it practically every day since she met Harper. If she'd known there'd be a quiz, though, she'd have paid better attention all that time.
About halfway up, she slows, scanning back and forth along their path, looking for the necklace or anything it could have gotten caught on. It feels like an eternity but is probably only a few minutes before the glint of something not a plant just barely catches her attention: the metal base of the rabbit's foot.
She stares at it for an embarrassing extra five seconds before lunging to grab it. It's real in her hand, and she clutches it to her chest to keep it safe on the way back down the hill. It doesn't occur to her even once to question how a rabbit's foot is supposed to help. Harper doesn't joke about things like this, not with her. She yells for him when she's still about ten feet up.]
I found it! I really found it!
no subject
Give it! Quick!
no subject
Well?
no subject
[The squirming in his gut stops and the feeling like there are prickly little claws gripping his organs fades away.]
[He breathes out a sigh of relief.]
It stopped.
[He slowly sits upright next to her and then his expression goes furtive. He's not sure what to say because this makes it clear the medicine isn't working and she doesn't seem to know.]
[She's still purple, after all.]
no subject
I'm so glad you're okay!
[And that wish, that complete and utter desire that he be okay, that she be able to protect him just once, for a moment it's overwhelming. And then the next thing she knows, her hands are glowing softly like dim sunlight. The light seems to sink into Harper and any cuts and bruises start to close up a bit.
She jerks away, eyes wide, and the light fades out.]