balance mod (
balancemod) wrote in
balance_logs2019-09-02 04:13 pm
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Entry tags:
- ace attorney: maya fey,
- ace attorney: mia fey,
- carmen sandiego: carmen sandiego,
- danganronpa: kaede akamatsu,
- danganronpa: kokichi oma,
- danganronpa: shuichi saihara,
- doki doki literature club: sayori,
- final destination: alex browning,
- good omens: aziraphale,
- jjba: guido mista,
- original: ferran gallagher,
- overwatch: jesse mccree,
- overwatch: soldier 76,
- persona: minato arisato,
- red vs blue: agent washington,
- sailor moon: minako aino,
- umineko: lion ushiromiya,
- umineko: willard wright,
- undertale: sans
Field Mission 5: Il Prigioniero, Part 1
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![]() 1. IL PRIGIONIERO: WELCOME TO CORMANTHORA. A CRASH BETWEEN TWO FERNS Lucretia has given the orders and locale for the next Grand Relic to be reclaimed and destroyed, a task that will present itself with many new and weird dangers that the Reclaimers haven't come across before. For anyone looking to brush up on their history of Myth Drannor, the Netheril, and the forest of Cormanthor, some of you have already learned a great deal of what occurred here, in bits and pieces. Leon, the Artificer of the Bureau of Balance, had described the tale of a very unfortunate city facing a major energy crisis that was bleeding out the land. You've already met the culprit behind one of the worst decisions humanity has ever made (Spoiler: it's Karsus, a god-tier shit wizard who sacrificed himself to get some of you out of dodge back in Lyrabar), and seen the destruction, first hand, of what happened to the Netheril via the events of Vista Virs. Phew, that's a lot of lore to take in all at once. ![]() But that's all ancient history at this point. No one's been able to make it deep enough into the woods to find out what really happened. Most often, they find the city of Shadowdale instead, and with that... Wonderland. Speaking of which, you'll be blasted down to the outskirts of the forest. The entire balance of magic in this area is highly off kilter, which isn't entirely new to some of you veteran Reclaimers. When a Grand Relic is used, it often leaves behind a very distinct path of destruction that makes even the most learned scholars scratch their head. Magical interference runs nigh high throughout all of Cormanthor, which makes this mission particularly dangerous. Bubbles are not able to penetrate the canopy of Cormanthor or land directly at Wonderland. As Lucretia had said a few months ago, these missions are going to get harder and come with higher consequences. She has faith in all of you to make better decisions. You're the most amazing and stalwart people she's ever met, after all. Blasted down to Cormanthor in parties no more than 4, you land somewhere near the outskirts of the forest. Look behind you, and you can see the yellow-hued mountains of the Netheril behind you, boasting a land of pure desert and its own uniquely cursed roster of flora and fauna. Pitter patter, Reclaimers.
2. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASSB. EMPTY WOODS The woods of Cormanthor were stunningly beautiful once. Before most people who walk among these trees were born, sure — but once upon a time, this was a beautiful place. A living, thriving forest, like any other great wood. When the Reclaimers enter, however, the first thing they'll notice is the silence. Unnatural, ubiquitous, and oppressive, silence is the single unifying factor throughout these woods. The trees themselves shift, first sparse pines, then white ash and beech, and finally towering oaks, maples, and hickory. The silence doesn't change. There is no noise but the wind rustling the leaves on the trees — and as you get further in, even that begins to fall away. It will become quickly apparent that there's no animal life here. This is a forest in stasis, certainly, but it's utterly devoid of birds flying overhead, four-legged creatures scurrying through the leaf debris. No deer, no wolves, no bears. No monsters. No insects, even, if you're paying attention. Those with the ability to speak with animals will notice very quickly that life simply doesn't seem to exist here. Those with the ability to speak to plants may be even more alarmed, because while the trees and other plants do respond, their replies are sluggish and distant, somewhat reminiscent of speaking to someone suffering with a severe fever, drifting in and out of consciousness. Travel through Cormanthor's forest takes a few days' time, and so much time spent in silence begins to take a toll. Never mind the fact that no matter your Boy Scout badges, you can't forage for anything useful out here: nothing from the forest that is eaten provides any sustenance. Eat a bucket full of berries, and you'll still be as hungry as if you hadn't eaten a thing. The trees press in on all sides, and you know each one is different from the last, but after a while they all start to look the same. Some will be more affected than others. Those with a madness effect (RNG'd or chosen from the list on this mission's dossier) will begin to feel it by the end of the second day. There are infinite options of how to play with this in the frozen forest, but here are a few possibilities: ○ If you have forgotten something important to you (1), it can happen quickly or slowly. Perhaps you're camping with your bubblemates, talking about someone from home. That Greg Grimaldis, was he really that bad? the Reclaimer to your right asks. Who, you ask, perplexed, brow furrowing, is Greg Grimaldis? C. EMPTY CITY ![]() Then you look up. You can't help but look up. Stretching so high you've got to crane your neck to see to the top is a great gold tree sprung from the center of town. You couldn't see any of it from outside of Shadowdale's borders, but the town, it seems, wants you here. It wants you to see Wonderland. This could be paradise for a while, a place to stay safe from prying eyes and protected by the vastness of the forest as the Reclaimers track down this latest relic. Except, not to put too fine a point on it, it's kind of creepy here. The whole place is empty — not everyone-got-up-and-left-in-a-rush empty, but ghost-town empty. Nobody wants to stay here, it seems. Maybe there's somewhere else they'd rather be. Regardless, it leaves you with plenty of lodgings to choose from. If you don't mind making your own fun, there's plenty to do, too: bookshops to visit, bakeries to use, butcher shops to — okay, maybe not that one. There's a courthouse, though. Who wants to play Judge Judy? Consider any shop or government building one might find in a small town to be fair game. After a few hours, though, it becomes clear that this place isn't quite empty after all. You aren't the only ones investigating. D. A FAMILIAR FACE (OR TWO) ○ The first face you see is a friendly one. Upon seeing the bracer on your wrist, Matthew Hollyweather walks right up to you, all the more readily if he remembers your face from New New Aspen. Despite the setting, he's clearly and genuinely pleased to see Reclaimers here. To those he's met before, he's eager to share all the positive change going on in New New Aspen: the newfound peace, the booming economy, pictures of one bajillion bouncing new spider-nieces-and-nephews. To those new to him, he introduces himself as Mayor Hollyweather of New New Aspen with just enough good-natured self-derision in his tone that he comes off as authoritative but kind of embarrassed about it. Of course, you can't stay in Shadowdale forever. Literally: you can't. Every Reclaimer's feet are inexorably pulled to the entrance to Wonderland after not very long at all. The golden tree at the center of town is impossible to ignore. Step into the elevator at its base, and you might very well find yourself elbow-to-elbow with Matthew or Angus, staring as the numbers tick up . . . up . . . Carrying you to Wonderland. 3. WELCOME TO WONDERLANDE. A BEARY GOOD TIME ![]() Yeah. You know what this guy is all about. Chutes and ladders will take you all over the various places of the park, all branching out from Terminal Square. The entirety of the complex is, at scale, ridiculously large. All throughout Wonderland, you'll be treated like a king if you let yourself be pampered. The sheer amount of gilded perfection that went into crafting this place is at a scale even larger than the Moon Base. Gorgeous fountains spouting golden water are not infrequent, stands selling food of every type imaginable pepper anywhere there's space, and often as you pass by, you can hear people having the time of their lives here. F. PLAY WITH ME IN THE SPACE! There's so much to do in Wonderland. So much. Honestly, you wouldn't be the first to say it's overwhelming. That's part of the fun! Wonderland sweeps you away with all of the fun it brings. We could fill pages with the wonders in Wonderland, but why don't we stick with a few highlights and let you fill in the rest? ○ Wonder Square: When you first enter the confines of Wonder Square, you'll notice it looks and feels sort of like a casino... minus the strong and pungent smells that usually accompany those types of areas, typically. The wide birth of the room overlooks a beautiful vantage point of the top of Cormanthor's forest; pale greens look out into a sea of leaves for miles on end, as if the rest of the world doesn't exist outside of Wonderland itself. And why would you think it does, when you're here? Everyone gets in on the fun here in Wonderland. No matter how reticent one might normally be to do so, something about this place just puts pep in everyone's step. Nine times out of ten you might be the kind of person who finds rides, games, and having fun to be childish or beneath you, but guess what? Here in Wonderland, you're at least a little into it. So are the few non-natives you see. Angus is here, trying to figure out the rules of all these arcade games. Matthew is here, getting lost in Ghost Square and wandering the food court. A couple of other faces, too. Anything in the dossier is fair game for your use. But keep in mind, Reclaimers: those madness effects? They're still very much in effect. You're still in Cormanthor forest, after all. The longer you stay, the more you play, the worse it gets. Little by little, hour by hour, day by day. Have fun, kids. Be yourselves. Don't do anything Lucretia wouldn't do. ![]() ![]() ![]() 4. OOCIn order to keep to our goal of providing the most personalized Wonderland experience for all of you, we're setting a limit of 3 RNG attempts per character this log. Additionally, please be aware that while more mundane rolls will have standard-level DCs (for this log, anyway), any RNG with the potential to uncover plot information is high-risk high-reward and will have a very high DC along with steep penalties for failure. As always, we will let you know of this before we roll, and you have the option to decline any roll at any time. Other than that, this is your story to write and your setting to play with! Anything on the OOC post is fair game, and if there's something you'd like to try, please don't hesitate to let us know on the RNG thread. blurb code by photosynthesis |
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WHO: Lion (oocly paying the roll), Will, Mia, Maya (+Sans distantly as an extra precaution)
WHAT: Casino raid, y'all.
WHERE: Maya+Sans are hiding in Shadowdale somewhere, Lion+Will+Mia are heading into the casino for the Night Show like the foolhardy geniuses they are.
THE PLAN: First things first. Lion is going to be casting Ceremony on themself and Maya, before leaving Maya in the babysitting care of Sans, as he knows what the general fuckery from the Casino looks like (.... mostly) and thus can tell if something went wrong.
Maya is going to be juggling both Ceremony's feedback and her pre-existing Contract with Will (his canon skill, tl;dr a permanently-on mix of Ceremony and Perform Oath meets consensual brain highjacking) to keep track of what's going on. Per Sipp's question over here, she'll be actively watching through Will's eyes during the show itself, and attempting to write it down if she passes - Ceremony's there as a redundancy in case she passes and he doesn't. (Kat would also like me to specify here that there will be a standing Order from Maya that if everyone fails, he's to drag them out by any means necessary.)
Meanwhile, the other three are going to settle in for the night show. Mia will be carrying the folder she found about the drunk husband, with a new sheet of paper clipped inside detailing the things she heard from Kokichi about Niel's possibly-dead mother. (EDIT: This is excluding the name and profession of the husband, as Kokichi has said he wouldn't share that with Mia.)
Right before the show starts (say, when the lights start to dim) Will is going to cast Shield of Faith on Mia, and Lion's going to try to angle Silence to specifically only hit Mia, both trying to give her an extra layer of protection against the... whatever the hell goes on when the show starts. Mia will also have Tranquility casted/prepped just in case that helps in any way. Because you never know!!!
Once the show starts, when (hopefully!) one of them succeeds at not losing their shit, that person is going to take the Folder of Asshole off of Mia and show it to the Maria at their table. It's proof that someone remembers her. That her son remembers her. (If this person is Mia, Mia will explicitly wait until the first song ends and people start moving around before stepping out of the Silence bubble, just in case)
Failing that, if Maya passes and the other three fail, she'll activate the Order she gave Will via the Contract to drag them all outside before anyone goes for the betting tables. Hopefully that still works.
ALSO as a note at the end where I'd normally put the DC disclaimer: because this is potentially a Big Deal, if I'm reading the room right, all four/five of us are okay with this occuring on whatever day/part of the week makes the most sense for the mods. Because holy shit.
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Lord... You guys!!! This is all sorts of dangerous. You're going to give Lucretia a reason to take omeprazole.
We're going to have to roll d20's on all listeners. We need an 18 to pass, and we'll give selective some +2's seeing as you're doing this buffed.
We're also requesting a roll on ceremony, to see if this goes off without a hitch. Wait, you guys are technically spirit married for 24 hours, so... if it goes off unhitched? This is not the Vegas wedding we were expecting.
Then, barring that, failures will indicate some form of madness, according to your homeworks. Depending on the margin of error that occurs, the effect will be severe. We'll be using the homework to guide on this, so please let us know if anything's changed between now and then. Also, please let us know if everyone is opting out of indefinite madness. You know, the one that doesn't quite go away? That might be on the table with a roll greater than 10 in failure.
Or, you know- you all pass and we unleash some sweet, sweet plot deets to you. Who knows how this will go. We'll ask our mod with the penchant for 2's to stay out of it though. At least we're giving you a small buff.
From there, we'll tell you what happens.
Are we good?
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That said, we're all on board for the high DC and the rampant craziness. Fuck us up, mods.
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Mia, Will, and Lion take their places with no issues. Maria is Aware of them. They have nothing to compare this Awareness to, but it prickles on the backs of their necks. No matter where she or they stand in this room, her eyes are always on them. Always. Even when, a moment ago, she was facing the other direction. Maria is Aware of them. All of them, at the same time.
The lights dim. With a 13, Ceremony is successful; Maya and Lion are connected for the next 24 hours. Will casts Shield of Faith on Mia, and it has no effect. Mia’s Tranquility has no effect. Lion casts Silence, which muffles the song as it begins, one long sharp grating endless bottomless note of PAIN—
It isn’t good enough.
With a +2 from Silence, Mia still rolls a 9. Will rolls a 2. Maya, safe from madness at her distance, nonetheless loses all awareness at the bone-crushing soul-sense-feel of that first note with a 16. There is no hope for any of them. Any of them. They’re lost.
Lion rolls a 17. Not good enough, but — oh? Something keeps them on the edge, Something’s fingernails digging in at the edge of this yawning void chasm of endless bottomless madness, Something that doesn’t know how to give up. Lion isn’t lost, not yet, but they’re close. They’re very close. Limbo, between one thing and another, as the song drags out, screeching violin and bristling vocals, piano like someone coming into their chest and ripping tearing making string cheese of veins and meatloaf of brain matter. It’s angry, it’s lonely, it’s mad, and it’s dragging you with it.
Let’s play a game, Maria says from just behind your shoulders (all of your shoulders at once, everywhere, in the forever that this night stretches into); Show me what you’ve got.
Eyes gone blacker than a moonless night, Mia bets her Identity, puts all of her money on red, and, upon losing, remembers that it doesn’t exist. Until she leaves Wonderland, she edges towards someone else she knows, in dress and mannerisms and even name; the line between Her and Them is blurry, then blurrier, and in the end perhaps it will be erased entirely.
Will stumbles to a table that he thinks holds Balut. When his shaking hands grip the edge of the table, he finds that the five dice he expected have three sides with words on each: BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT. Maria wraps her hands around his in a crushing grip, and together they roll 5 of a kind: all BODY. The glass wings creeping over his shoulders lengthen and strengthen and wrap around him tight like a cocoon, smother every inch of him, dive into his skin and become him, they are him, he shines with color and you can see straight through him and he is so, so, so — fragile. Handle with care.
Lion, file in hand, approaches the craps table. Present, but barely. Hanging on, but losing strength. Maria is across the table from them, appearing like nothing alive has ever moved, an impossible thing with a knife smile and more limbs than she ought to have, suddenly, how how how — Maria singing now on a plane that no one else can access, a plane that doesn’t exist, a plane that cannot be, pushing and pushing at Lion’s mind until they finally, finally fracture.
The umbrella under Lion’s arm, long forgotten in the agony of the Night Show, spasms. Handle hooking onto the edge of the table, it lunges forward and shoots an enormous fireball across the table at Maria. The bottomlessness that is Maria feels nothing, knife-smile in a sudden black void space, sucking sharp at the gravity of the room so that everything begins to slide towards it. A failure, except it isn’t: as the fireball ricochets off Maria’s nothing-everything-self it slaps Lion sharp across the shoulder, singing and burning and oh so real in its sharp searing pain.
That’s a +1, champ. For a total of 18. Lion snaps back.
The black silhouette of Maria smokes off endless nonsense space. There is something there. Something, it’s — hard to make out, impossible, strange, spatially uncertain and even more unreal than this. There is a sense of dread that ekes out of her, a certainty that as bad as things have been, they are about to get much, much worse. This is not a fear: this is a certainty. Lion knows. There are stars in the smoking edge of Maria’s face, just above the white emptiness of her eyes, purple and endless. Not your stars, Lion. Not the stars of Faerun. These stars have five points, perfect like in a storybook. Perfect like in a child’s imagination.
Lunging across the table, Lion pushes the file into Maria’s hands. Opens it up and shakes the papers into her face, shoves fistfuls of remembrance into all ∞ of her hands, screams at her to look, look, her son remembers her, they remember her, they know what happened and they won’t forget.
Maria stares. The knife-smile droops, slightly, softly. Uncertain. Her empty white eyes go wide in her door of a face.
She screams, sorrow and pain and loneliness and wrath and gratitude as powerful as a dying sun.
And she implodes.
And the Night Show is sucked into the void of her.
And the umbrella inverts and swallows her into its depths. The Night Show disappears. Everything disappears. Wonderland is gone. You’ve saved the day.
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Because we are a bundle of idiots, we have a few questions!
1) What the fuck.
2) See 1.
3) Did Kaede make it out of the Night Show okay?
4) What did Maya get/see from her end, or did she just straight up fall unconscious like a goober? (Similarly, what did she feel? Sipp wants to know for Maya trauma reasons.)
5) Luc wants to know how far gone Mia's identity is immediately? Like to the point where she won't even respond to her name, or is it a slow degredation?
6) Similarly, for Kat, how much can Will move? Is he perma-statue or like. playing up glass-being-a-slow-moving-liquid meme?
7) What do the four of them remember, if anything?
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3&7. I'm actually going to smush these two questions together, because the answers are kind of related! Everyone who was in the Night Show at the time of the Voring made it out okay (other than, of course, Maria). Everyone who was in this last Night Show also will remember everything, because the final song of the night never had a chance to play.
4. Maya did fall unconscious like a goober! However, she will remember all of the feelings transmitted through Will et al. So she's gonna feel pretty psychologically yucky in the aftermath just like Sans did, although no madness.
5. It isn't gone immediately! This will be a slow process, and you're welcome to play it how you like for the most part, but it wouldn't be fun without the slow and creeping realization from Mia's friends and loved ones that something is going very wrong. :)
6. Will can move For Now. He will be able to move Less as time goes on until, by the end of the mission, he will be largely immobile. Again, play this as is most enjoyable for you. We just want you to suffer. That's the name of the game.
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What happens if the glass is damaged/broken in any way? Can we just like. Superglue it back together?
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2/2
WELCOME TO PART 2.