epidemiology | EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

The scene that greets you after the mist of world hopping fades isn’t a pretty one. You may remember Oska from your first, brief trip here — it was a stately, serene place, a grand castle usually wreathed in low lying clouds or gently sunny. Not so today. The damage done to Chantes by the demons and chimeras pales in comparison to what has been done to Oska.

Only one tower of the formerly impressive castle stands upright, the others have been knocked down and torn to rubble, some of which is still smoldering or in flickering flames. Most of the castle has been flattened, entire rooms torn apart and laid to waste. No exterior wall is without gaping holes, as if some army and their immense battering ram had needed a whole collection of entrances to storm this castle. Nothing is untouched, and worst of all, the underground larder seems to have been completely buried in a fall of rocks from the kitchen’s exterior wall. Even if you were able to dig it up, it’s dubious much of the food is unspoiled or intact.

If there is any up side to all of this destruction, it’s that no bodies can be found amid the mess, human or otherwise. Even the livestock are missing. Personal effects can be dug out of the ruins, and it seems very clear that this castle was populated until recently. There remains not one soul to tell what happened, though.

Well, almost not one soul.

The network that usually connects the jewelry is completely nonfunctional. Attempting to access it only brings up one static message, repeating for as long as you care to listen to it:

Something [ SHHKT ] --rrible has happ-- [ The message cuts out frequently, replaced with static. ] The-- [ shhhhhhkt ] came, they destroyed everything and n--

[ The static fades slightly. ]

We’re trapped. You’re on your own. But please, we ne-- [ shhkt ] your help. They’re still here. There’s worse to come. But when you [ SHKT ] --ind them, you can’t kill them. They need to be questioned. We mus-- [ shhhhkt ] know their motivations.

Some of the new recruits… they’re in the dungeons. You need to he-- [ shkt ] them, please. They can still be saved.

SURVIVAL

The dungeons are, of course, the only part of the castle left intact enough to present a challenge to escape. Some newcomers will find themselves lost in a labyrinth of cell-lined corridors, able to wander for hours before stumbling across any hint of daylight. How that’s even possible with most of the castle destroyed is anyone’s guess. Other newcomers might even be locked into the cells, with keys left nearby but just out of reach — or not. Better hope some sort of escape artist happens across you, if you’re one of those unlucky arrivals.

Food isn’t going to be easy to come across. You might try digging out the larder, but not much food can be salvaged from it. Are you going to put in the work to dig up a single shelf of intact loaves of bread, a cold roast chicken locked in a wood stove, and one barrel of apples? Maybe you try scavenging in the small, abandoned village outside the castle. This will uncover some food, but not much. Most of the food out there is either rotted through or missing entirely. You might find enough to last one person two days on your own, but who knows how long you’ll need it to last?

Wherever you find your food, if you find your food, rationing is highly recommended. Water isn’t so simple to find, either. There is a lake not far outside the castle walls, but the water in it tastes rancid, a sign to any right-thinking person that it’s no good to drink. Anyone brave or stupid enough to push through the taste and drink it anyway will find there aren’t actually any adverse effects, but is it worth the risk? Water can otherwise be found in very small amounts, collected by rainfall in buckets, on indented stones, in mislaid pots. It won’t be much, but if you search diligently it’s enough to keep you going.

Shelter will be a little easier to find… at least, at first. No one is using any of the beds in the village, they’re free to pick from as long as you don’t mind the eerie silence. If your character is particularly awful at scavenging, please see the end of this post.

HELL WEEK

Survival aside, that still leaves the question: just what did happen here? Characters are welcome to dig through the ruins for hints at what fate may have befallen Oska. We have provided a thread here to sign up to find belongings or other little signs of life, and try to piece together the picture. But what about that culprit, mentioned in the broadcast? Some characters will be able to stumble across very, very specific clues — riddles and puzzles, purposefully laid to guide the finders toward… something. Who knows what lies at the end of this oddly deliberate trail? You can sign up to find and solve the puzzles here.

Day one in Oska is easy enough to survive, an almost peaceful acclimation to the dismal scene. Things get a little bit tougher from there, though.

On day two the ground begins to shake. It’s just little tremors at first, easy to miss if you’re not standing still. But by mid morning they’re large quakes, enough to break some structures further. The quakes continue through the night and into day three, when they are large and severe enough to throw someone off their feet, tear apart a house, and even open wide chasms in the ground. They come with unpredictable frequency, anything between five minutes to three hours, but they definitely come more closely together as time passes. The village is safer at this point, without quite so many stones to shift and crush you, although those chasms are still a concern.

Come the evening of day three, the quakes stop entirely. A soft rainfall begins to patter down instead — still thirsty? Now is your chance to find some battered coffee tin and gather your drink. The rainfall continues steadily overnight, and by the morning of the fourth day it is a torrential downpour. It never lets up, not even once, and soon the water is more than the ground can handle. Flooding begins at this point, just a few inches deep in some places, more formidable in others. This also lasts for two days, and by the end of the fifth day in Oska most of the village is washed out. You’ll have better luck among the sturdy stones of the castle. Remember that still-standing castle tower? It’s not exactly the most structurally sound thing, but it is definitely out of the water.

The water stops very suddenly at sundown on the fifth day, affording a pretty peaceful, clear night. Come dawn of the sixth day, however, heavy clouds move to obscure the sunrise. They seem to flame around the edges in the light of it, and then in the middles. That’s clearly not sunlight lighting up those clouds by this point. The clouds flash from within as they build more and more heavily, but no lightning has ever been that flickering golden color. At midmorning the first drops begin to fall: not rain this time, but liquid fire. By noon the firestorm is at full strength. It swings between sheets of fire pelting down, and clearing up only to pelt down great fireballs. The rain-drenched village and castle can only fend off the rain for so long. Eventually the water evaporates and anything that can burn will burn. Time your ventures out into the weather very carefully, because the firefall never lets up for long, and that’s the kind of downpour you don’t want to be caught in.

OOC INFO

Is your character awful at survival? Can’t scavenge to save their life, completely out of food and water and about to expire? Wherever they fall asleep, they’ll wake up with a small, inexplicable wrapped bundle left next to their head. Within will be a half an apple, a single leg of chicken, and a very small canteen of water.

~~This log will last for one week, and there will be new information available on the 17th~~. As per our informal poll, this log will last ICly for one week, and OOCly for two. There will be new information available on the 24th. What the setting will be from here will depend on characters' ability to work together to catch whoever is responsible for these events.

You can sign up to find hints about the people who lived here and what may have happened to them here, and puzzles left by the perpetrator leading to the discovery of them on this post. Please direct any questions here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ there hasn't been a shark tornado yet, either, but anything could still happen...

for once, Melan is not patrolling the skies. Mostly because they're on fire. Water doesn't bother him, but liquid flame certainly does, and the destroyed state of this fief isn't helping much in avoiding it. He's trying his best to stay out of the weather, too, hiding under the same arch, although several dark spots on his armor and skin suggest he hasn't been that successful. ]

Cover you? [ a blink. ] What do you mean?

[Don't even joke, he'd take a shark tornado over fireballs raining from the sky. At least you can attack a shark.]

Exactly what I said. Cover me.

[It's self explanatory, isn't it? Any of the other seraphim he'd travelled with would know what he meant if he asked them to cover him. Then again, this... metal guy seems to have had a couple of run ins with fireballs if those scorch marks are anything to go by. Maybe the concept is new.]

Yell if a fireball hurtles towards me. Let me know if there's one that I haven't seen getting too close to me. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the idea of third degree burns.

[ he's used to the phrase being used in regard to enemy forces, not HOT HAIL. But Dezel's explanation is both satisfactory and sensible, so Melan nods, shifting where he stands with a slight sound of pneumatics. ]

Understood. However, it's unlikely I can warn you away from the smaller flames. Be careful.

[ unless Dezel is really good at dodging. ]

[Actually... he is really good at dodging now that you mention it.

The sound Melan makes when he moves earns him a sideways glance. The fireballs had been drawing most of his attention, so the fact that his companion wasn't made of flesh and bone had escaped him. He'd assumed he was wearing armour or something - full body, sure, but armour was a more probable explanation than full on mechanics. But that was the sound of cogs in a machine, so to speak.

He really should have noticed that. Sloppy of him not to.]

Whatever you can warn me about is good enough.

[He scans the sky again, before taking a step out from his shelter. There doesn't seem to be anything to worry about right this second, so he might as well get out there now and try and pinpoint the next blast from the scent and heat of fire on the wind.]

[ the real answer about what he's made of is somewhere in between. The stares and odd looks are commonplace, and from the beginning, he's pretty much ignored them; he doesn't take any hint to explain his appearance. He merely nods again, red eyes staring out unblinkingly past the arch, following Dezel - and the sky - carefully.

About now is when he realizes that he doesn't actually know what this man's plan is. ]

What are you going to do?

[Ah, that's the big question. He knows what he's going to do, it's just... whether it'll work slash how well it'll work if it does work that's the part he's a little unsure about. He's more used to blasting various wind artes at a target instead of trying to draw it away from the target entirely.]

Starve the fireballs of oxygen. In theory.

You have an ability like that?

[ it seems oddly specific. Then again, there are stranger Monomakia. His question is born of curiosity rather than skepticism; he still stands at the ready under the arch, watching Dezel. ]

Wouldn't have suggested the idea if I didn't.

[Not that it can be seen underneath his hat and hair combination, but Dezel's eyebrow twitches slightly at that.]

I'm a wind seraph. Messing around with wind currents is my thing.

Wind seraph.

[ he repeats the phrase rather slowly. It's unfamiliar to him; he doesn't even think he's ever heard of a seraph before. Maybe there are different kinds of humans like there are different kinds of Monomakia. ]

What is a seraph?

Not a human.

[He's helpful.

The answer is a little off hand, as Dezel has turned his attention to the sky again. There's something different about the heat in the air in the sky again, so it's likely another fireball will appear soon. Probably best to prepare himself for that.

Shifting his stance slightly, he flips out his pendulum and focuses on an arte to cast - one he can easily control to draw the oxygen away from the fireball.]

[ not helpful at all, buddy... but he's not about to argue it. He's seen humanoids that aren't actually human - the Creis being one of them. He himself might count as one, too. No that he sees himself that way. His eyes are drawn to the pendulum when Dezel takes it out, and he watches, curious.

Of course, he's keeping an eye out for any stray fireballs, too. ]

You resemble a human.

Seraphim usually do.

[Look, he's talking and that's a victory in and of itself.]

Although some look like animals.

[He focuses his attention back on the fireball; a pale green circle appears on the ground around him, the glow seeming to reach up and around him. He keeps focused on the forming fireball. As soon as it appears fully in the sky, he fling his arm back, sending an arte flying upwards - instead of hitting the fireball, it seems to form something closer to a vacuum around the fireball, and after a moment it seems to splutter a little. Dezel fires off another arte, and the fireball finally gives up, fizzling out with a puff of smoke.]

EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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