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

[awfulcer]

[Right before everything turns into a chaotic myopia of blocking blows, throwing blows, trying his best to get out in a single piece, he throws Sariatu am indignant look, as if to say: "who the fuck cares about honor?" It only lasts a second, because at the end of that moment a wraith collides into his shield, and the bloodbath really begins.

The cursed magic flowing through him grants him a level of skill with the shield that he couldn't ever manage in a decade of training. It isn't as effective as it was against the Wheelers, but it's enough to keep him from getting stabbed or slashed. At least for now.

The Nazgul's scream makes him pause - roots him in place - for a second. It's like the sound has frozen his skeleton, locked his brain in a loop. And then he snaps out of it.]

Monkey! [He knows she has a name, he even practiced pronouncing it right, but in the heat of stress his memory of it evaporates. He shoves his way towards her, throwing the Nazgul aside not from any kind of real combat skill but just from the sheer force of a grown man slamming himself against something with no effort to lessen the blow. He swings the razor-sharp edge of his shield at the Nazgul's head as hard as he can, looking to straight-up decapitate.]

[astrarche]

[The Nazgul is forced to dodge, and Sariatu takes the space to press her attack. With another scream, the Nazgul, possibly injured, backs into shadow at the edge of Weathertop.]

I have a name!

[Determined not to let the Ringwraith get away, Sariatu presses the attack, slashing at the fluttering blackness at the edge of the darkness, but when the cloaked figure emerges from the shadows, it's not a Nazgul, and the emptiness that touches her soul is instantaneous.

In her long, long life, she had one year of pure happiness. Even the joy she took watching Kubo grow was already half-forgotten, pocketed with interruptions. With such a vast amount of cold, heartless living to outweigh it, the dementor disperses her happy memories in an instant.

But she doesn't need happiness to fight. With a simian cry she jumps forward, and the dementor inhales.

Her cry falls short, along with her sword.]

[awfulcer]

[He follows her towards the shadows, light on his feet thanks to the power of his weapon, at first to help her track down her target and then, rather suddenly, to watch her back as he realizes that she's pushing into dangerous territory with her persistence.

He's not shocked when something jumps out of the blackness at her. He is, however, stricken by the way she just seems to collapse mid-air, going from a lithe, powerful, terrifying creature into a pained thing on the ground. He's stunned enough for a moment that he forgets to move.

Then it snaps back into place and he does, getting in between her and the Dementor and slamming the shield down into the earth to stand as a physical barrier while he tries to get her to her feet. He grabs her sword and swings it over the top of the makeshift wall, warning the dementor back for just a moment.

Strong enough negative emotions are a sort of buffer against the immediate effects. Thankfully, Dixon's got a lot of those, and all his happy memories find shelter from evil under anger, shame, grief, hopelessness. And, luckily for him at least, the dementor is much more focused on the new prey it's trying to reel up than it is on him, an untasty nuisance.]

Sariatu. [Figures he remembers her name now.] Now would be a great time to pull it together.