EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

[futurologists]

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.

Comments

Day Six

[historiology]

One word for it.

[Because. Well. This sure has been a fun and not at all dangerous introduction to ALASTAIR's recruitment and all the past almost week. Still, they don't have much choice but to do their best. To try do what they can, to survive. Sorey himself is half considering the options when it starts raining fire rather than water, pausing and distracted from his thoughts when the other mentions having something of an idea.]

Try what? I can cover you, but what'd you have in mind?

[Then again, if anyone is used to simply just acting on impulse without any sort of plan at all, it's Sorey. That Dezel has an idea to roll with, whatever it is, he'll probably play along with it and help where possible.]

[caecius]

[When people refer to "trials by fire", Dezel had always been under the impression it was a figurative expression not a literal one. Maybe ALASTAIR didn't get the memo.]

Starving the fireballs of oxygen. I can't attack them directly, I'd just end up feeding the flames. But if I drew as much air away from them as possible it might make them easier to handle. [If not put them out entirely, but that's a small chance.

He glances over at Sorey. If this were any other time he might suggest armatizing for the sake of hitting a wider area with their combined power... but not only could that backfire spectacularly if they hit a fireball and fed it with more oxygen instead, he's not even sure if Sorey would be able to armatize with him at all now.]

Unless you've got a better plan.

[historiology]

No. That sounds fine. If we take away the oxygen fueling the flames, that might work....it's worth a try at least!

[If it doesn't work, or doesn't work as well as they might hope, well. They can come up with something else then. Sorey is quite willing to roll with it, to let Dezel take the lead on this one. He can concentrate on covering Dezel, attempting to warn him of the fires if any get too close for comfort. Or tell him which direction, if necessary. Since he knows the other's secrets by now, he can take these into account and help accommodate for them to support the wind seraph.]

I'll cover you, like I said. Just let me know if you need a hand.

[If they should armatize, or try to, to make this potentially easier, quicker. Sorey's willing to help however he can in this.]

[caecius]

[That's something of a relief at least. Like it or not, Dezel doesn't have any secrets to hide from Sorey now. Not really. So he'll know what to say and how to say it to make it easier for both of them to get out of this unscathed. But really, the question of to armatize or not to armatize is less one of whether or not Sorey would be willing to dive out into the firestorm himself and more one of... can they still armatize in the first place? Is their pact still valid?]

Sure.

[He steps out into the open, keeping his head tilted up at the sky. There's no telltale pre-emptive sign of a fireball - no heat in the air, but he doubts he'll have very long to wait. Automatically, he folds his arms, still focusing on the sky above. As soon as one of them appears, he'll be ready for it. Keeping at eye out for the heat signature will give him enough time to start casting an arte before the fireball actually forms. In theory.]

[historiology]

[Really, this could probably be worse in a lot of ways. But Sorey and the others, Dezel included, are no strangers to figuring ways around dangerous situations. Making up theories as to what might help on the fly and rolling with it. This is no different, really.

So Sorey keeps an eye out, intending to cover for Dezel and point out any incoming fireballs for him to work on. Even if he's still amazed at what Dezel can do sometimes.]

The right! No, a little more. There!

[caecius]

[By the time Sorey had started shouting directions at Dezel, he's already kicked off the casting of a seraphic arte. Wind based only; he's not about to start messing with two elements when an abundance of one could have this backfiring spectacularly. If he gets this right, he'll have to remember how he went about it - it's the same principle as a normal arte to a point. But rather that concerntrating the flow of air into an attack, Dezel tweaks the casting midway to cause the opposite effect.

Instead of forcing more air at the fireball, he should push it away instead, leaving a brief vacuum around the fireball. Not for more than a split second, but it should be enough to starve it and weaken it. If he casts another immediately he should put it out entirely. Hopefully.

When he fires off the arte, it does have the intended outcome: the fireball splutters in response to the sudden loss of oxygen, and weakens more when Dezel strikes it with another arte, tweaked in the same way as before. It hits the ground, but it does so with a weak hiss instead of a powerful blaze. Something that the impact alone is strong enough to put down, leaving a scotch mark on the ground instead of a burning crater.]

... Not bad.

[Not great, but not bad either. He can work on it.]

[historiology]

Keep at it, Dezel!

[It's doing something at least. More than what Sorey could manage with his Martial Artes alone. It might be more effective to armatize, but for now this is enough. To deal with the worst of it as they try keep things somewhat more under control while making their way somewhere safer.]

We can at least take care of the bigger ones while we figure somewhere safer? I don't think either of us can completely hold this off forever.

[Eventually, they're both going to tire out. Even Sorey can tell that. But in the meantime, they can at least try assist in some small way like this.]

[caecius]

I'm not doing this forever, that's for sure.

[Like fighting, he can handle it for a while but everyone tires eventually. Taking out the bigger fireballs, the ones that would do more damage is definitely the wiser course of action. Looking for a larger heat source as opposed to a small one is no big deal for him, anyway.]

Just yell if you see one you think I should go after. [There's always the chance he might dismiss one heat source only for it to turn out to be a bigger fireball. He couldn't fault a second opinion in that situation.]

[historiology]

I don't expect you too. Even if we armatized, we couldn't.

[It's too much. There's too many balls of fire raining down from the sky for that. But they could at least try help quell the worst of it. So as they start making their way to the castle, Sorey leading the way, he points out some of the bigger fireballs for Dezel to take care of.]

Almost there....

[caecius]

[Dezel casts another arte, catching two in the oxygen void it creates. He's aware of the occasional fireball hitting ground they've covered, but as they've just confirmed, there's only so much he can do alone. At least it's not raining on their heads.]

All right. Just shout when we're close enough to make a dash for it.

[historiology]

Just keep at it....

[Almost. Sorey keeps encouraging Dezel, pointing out more targets in support and directions to dodge any that get a little too close for comfort. Until, finally, there seems to be a break in it ahead of them. He reaches for Dezel's wrist to guide him and pull the other along with him easier as he speeds up suddenly.]

Right ahead! Now! Run for it!

[caecius]

[Dezel doesn't need to be told twice. The hand on his wrist sends a momentary stab of annoyance through him - but he squashes it as quickly as he can. He did ask for help after all. Sorey's just doing exactly what he asked, if to a further level than he was expecting when he asked for it.

Still...]

Hope you're holding tight.

[Because tell a wind seraphim to run, and they'll do just that. With a little added wind-stepping at that. Dezel propels himself forwards, heading for a small, secluded enough area not far from the, and if Sorey was holding on tight enough he may just be dragged along for the ride.]

[historiology]

Of course I a--ah!

[He. Probably should have anticipated this with Dezel. The windstepping. But somehow it still initially takes him a bit by surprise when the seraph does it. Still, he's holding tight enough that he doesn't let go or fall when Dezel windrushes, if anything Sorey instinctively holds even tighter in response, grateful for the increased speed as they attempt to traverse back to the castle.]

Alright, this is quicker. Yeah.

[caecius]

Well it wasn't going to be slower.

[This is more like it. It's just natural for him to move with the force of the wind working with him, not against him. He sidesteps around a couple of obstacles, neatly moving Sorey along with him, until they skid under a sheltered area, which should offer a little more protection. For now.]

This can't keep up forever. Surely. [He tilts his head back to stare at the sky again. He can sense the building heat building up in the distance.]

[historiology]

No. Of course not.

[Not with a wind seraph assisting him. Still, it's easy enough to adapt and hold to Dezel once Sorey gets that reminder and adjusts his position and assists as best that he himself can. Pointing out a couple of things to try keep out the way of in the process.

The shelter is welcome, but still not entirely where they are aiming for.]

Yeah. We'll give it a little before heading back out. I know there's obviously a limit to timing with your windstepping and helping with the flames. You okay though?

[caecius]

[Baby steps, Sorey. Baby steps. They won't get hit by any fireballs for now - until they break through the roof or something.]

Mm. I'm fine.

[He tilts his head slightly, glancing down at Sorey from the side.]

Fighting takes more effort. And that's usually more fast paced.

[But it's true he can't keep it up forever, and these fireballs don't seem to be stopping on a permanent basis.]

This kind of thing might be more Mikleo's thing than mine though. [Water seraphs, right?]

[historiology]

I guess that's true. Fighting is tougher. But this is still a drain. Still tiring, using your artes so much.

[Regardless of how much stamina each individual has. There's still a limit, which Sorey recognizes, even if he is usually the first to run into situations without thinking it through.]

Even for Mikleo, this would probably be too much....

[caecius]

He'd have a natural advantage over the fire, at least.

[But none of them could keep up this kind of damage detail for too long, even if they were working as a group. The fireballs don't seem to be stopping on a permanent basis, after all.]

Let's just hope the fireballs give up before I do, then.

[historiology]

Well, yeah. He would, but even he would have his limits. Even if we armatized.

[Even as reckless as he can be, as much as he wants to help, even Sorey has to admit their limits in some situations. This decidedly being one of them. It's obvious.

But all they need is a brief reprieve, or to simply make a dash for it to the castle. It's not too far now. He considers for a moment, waiting. But it doesn't seem like this is entirely going to let up just yet. So he waits for a quieter moment before turning to Dezel.]

Right ahead. If we dash for it now, we can make it to the castle from here.

[caecius]

We all do.

[Dezel cranes his head back a little more. He can sense some pockets of heat forming above them - if they want to go they will need to go now, and he'll have to step on it. Literally.]

Right. Ready?

[It's a formality more than an actual question - he's already caught Sorey's wrist, and the wind is already swirling around his limbs ready to propel him forwards the second Sorey says yes. Or no, he probably can't stop now.]

[historiology]

I'm ready!

[This time. He does his best to guide Dezel, to hold to the other when he feels that hand around his wrist. He's prepared, unlike before when he might have been taken aback by the sudden speed. He's used to Windstepping by now. He's got this.

He watches ahead, ready when Dezel does speed off.]

how did i miss this skldhgkslhgs

[caecius]

[Annnnnnnnnnnnd they're gone.

It's a little easier now that Sorey is actually prepared this time - he's not lugging behind a proverbial deadweight, he's working with someone. It's easy to dodge and duck their way through rocks and ruins until they find themselves under shelter.

... Which was good timing because as they skid into cover, the sky spits out a couple of fireballs almost petulantly in the areas they'd just covered.]

idk inboxes and notifs man. sometimes I think I tagged something and it turns out. I did not.

[historiology]

That was close.....

[Is all Sorey can really think of to say once they do make it to relative safety and shelter. Yeah. Well, he isn't wrong? There's a pause as he reorients himself - no matter how many times they windrush it still takes him a bit. Still, there's a relief in his voice all the same even as he winces at the sight of the fireballs crashing down.

Because that really could have been them seconds ago.]

notifs... they are an unpredictable foe.

[caecius]

[He is not wrong.]

If it goes on for too long I'll have to do something about them again.

[This shelter is more than good enough for the moment, but they can't stay here forever...

But he's in no rush. Not after taking out one wave and then wind stepping twice in short succession.]

[historiology]

Let's wait in the castle and see. It might die down if we give it time.

[Normal rain does, right? And at least in theory they are reasonably safe if they stay inside and don't head up to the higher floors. Besides, both of them need to recover from that, Dezel moreso in comparison in having used his powers so much in such a short time frame. They can use this as a chance to rest and recuperate before checking on things again, unless they are interrupted.]

For now, let's get some rest.