epidemiology | EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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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

[ He doesn't know what he expected. The pool of ALASTAIR recruits is simply not that deep, and chances were likely that he'd encounter someone he didn't want to see. Someone, he felt sure, who was not keen to see him, either. But dangling from a chasm doesn't seem like the best time to negotiate the terms of their interaction.

Koltira makes a 'grnnhh' noise in his throat by way of response. He takes her hand, hesitating only for a moment (her wrist is so small, so thin; the veins so close to the surface). With a burst of his own strength, he heaves himself upwards, trying to clear the edge of the pit. ]

[it doesn't, and it isn't, and this is why rin isn't talking about anything of the sort. it may be astoundingly clear that whatever her feelings are regarding what happened between them, it obviously isn't enough for rin to abandon him to fall to his death.

perhaps that's because archer is waiting to kill him just over the ledge, or rin herself is going to kick him back into the giant crack in the earth at the moment he least expects it. but, she's saving him now.]

Stop grunting and just do... [she complains, cutting it off midway as he does grab on.] it...

[then rin disappears, funneling a great amount of charge through her thin arm so that she can not only support his weight, but also apply force to tug him over. his burst of strength meets hers and it should be enough; she's pulling with all her might, grunting softly but noticeably.]

Come on, you idiot.

[ He manages it, with her help, successfully pitching himself over the edge of the chasm and onto solid ground. He jumps up immediately, now that he's now longer in mortal danger, and then stops. It's his instinct to take off, but even he's aware that etiquette demands a little more from him right now. So he mutters, hoarsely. ]

Thank you, Rin.

[if he ran off, she really would kill him.

rin's bent over once he successfully accomplishes the landing, hunched to her knees, gasping and sucking in breath to recover while her magic circuits return to normal.

he says thank you and she rises, silently, edging closer to him and standing beneath his gigantic frame like it's nothing. cold blue eyes prickle into him.

she... strangely, offers nothing in response.

but the look of her already declares he ought to think twice about even moving a finger.]

Edited (rephrasing) 2016-02-16 16:57 (UTC)

[no, wait. she will say something.]

Lean down.

[ It's not anxiety he feels as he obeys, but there is definitely a sense that something's about to happen. Something he is not likely to enjoy.

He murmurs, eyes on hers. ]

As you wish.

[he obeys, he leans down, and it's a good choice—the best choice he could make in this situation—but maybe he won't feel like it in the next second.

rin raises a hand, hovering it threateningly near his face. it glows blue-green with ethereal energy. without hesitation, she slaps koltira across the cheek as hard as she possibly can. the sound is so loud it echoes for miles.]

[ He winces, gritting his teeth, but otherwise makes no sound. Black blood wells on his lower lip. His ears curl. If she were anyone else, or this were any other circumstance, he would have reacted automatically. Broken her neck. But he doesn't do that anymore.

He doesn't say anything. Just looks up at her, eyes like lanterns, blood trickling down his lip. ]

[she knew he wouldn't.

if he's searching for rin again, however, she's huddled up on herself, currently nursing her slapping hand. the arm in question is shaking, and her fingers are apparently finding it difficult to flex; not from breaking any bones, but, well, someone overdid it.

koltira's looming over her, bleeding, and she's complaining in a screechy voice as if she just earned a paper cut.]

Aw, damn it! Are you serious?! Ow! Ow, ow, ow!

[ His long eyebrows furrow in consternation. ]

Did you injure yourself?

[instantly, rin's head snaps to him and she shouts, still full of irritation at her owie.]

No!

[her owie that doesn't exist.]

[ Yeah, okay. There's nothing Koltira can do for her, regardless, so he supposes denial is her prerogative. ]

If you insist.

[good ~~dog~~ elf, koltira. it's back to attending to her sprained hand, then...

eventually, rin regains her composure. her arm stops shaking with a whispered spell, she breathes in and out, and she turns to face him this time with far more composure to it, her eyes open as if curious, appraising. (she's totally staring down her nose at him, which is kind of amazing when he considers she's a foot shorter.)]

... You can apologize, now.

[ He waits patiently for her to finish dealing with herself. He says nothing, moves no muscles, and behaves, for all intents and purposes, like a statue. A statue crouched precariously on the edge of a gaping chasm in the earth, both hands open flat on the dirt, expression inscrutable.

When Rin addresses him, his ears twitch slightly, and it's like marble coming to life. ]

I am sorry, Rin. More than I have the words to express.

[she produces a twirling gesture with one of her hands. has koltira ever encountered snooty upper class royals? she might reek of them, right now.]

Go on. You can try to express it.

[ Hey, he wasn't being figurative! His ears twitch. ]

I will bear the guilt for as long as I walk the earth.

[i see how thirsty you are for her to touch them, lyn]

H-Hey, that's a little much... isn't it?

[and yet it doesn't take long for her to drop the act, either, gazing blankly at him with her lips closed and her eyes big—blushing almost as if in humiliation.]

[ never-ending ]

I only did as you asked.

[understood]

You're too... gung ho. You go at everything a bit too hard. [except trying to have fun, that is. still, rin is embarrassed, ducking her head. she lowers her voice like she doesn't want to be heard, but she speaks loud enough.

and yet she decides on a solution quickly.]

Bow to me, on your knees, and that settles it.

[it's a fitting request, given the instability of the ground beneath them and the submission evident in the gesture.]

[ Such is his way. He bristles at the command, though. Bow. He's spent most of his undeath subservient, forced to carry out someone else's terrible will. On his knees, literally and figuratively.

He grinds his teeth, hesitating.

But Rin is not commanding him. There is no real consequence if he refuses; if he simply walks away. Her will is not irresistible, and she is no Arthas.

After another moment of deliberation, he obeys. He presses his forehead to the dirt, his long, pale hair spilling around his head like a cold halo. ]

[a fitting request... if he wasn't a slave previously in his life, and arguably still a slave, now...]

N-No! Get up! Get up, get up, get up!

[koltira's own disdain sinks in belatedly, while rin is absorbed in panic, waving her hands and—ultimately not able to think of anything different—dropping right to the dirt herself in her desperation.]

I wasn't thinking! Oh, get up, already!

[she'll just help him.

rin reaches out with two hands, cupping them around his head and more precisely, his ears, as she tries to physically lift him up. because the bowing wasn't humiliating on its own.]

[ He's about to lift his head, and then--she grabs his ears. He outright gasps, just barely managing to stifle a moan, and then jerks his head away violently. Eyes wide, he sits up on his haunches, staring at her.

Slowly, his ears twitching, his voice rough. ]

You are a curious girl, Rin.

[that was...

interesting.

a bit blown away by whatever she'd done, rin appropriately pulls her hands back, staring at him. she does, of course, realize enough what those sounds had signified. it's either the fact that it's a little too unbelievable so she thinks it isn't true, or she's curious to the point of it being to her own detriment, that leads rin to approach him anew with extended fingers.]

Are you all right? Did I hurt you? ... Let me see, I'll heal it.

[heal his ears.]

[ He rcoils, shaking his head, 'No.'

Covering his ears. ]

I am unhurt! Keep back.

[ All right, that was a little more intense than necessary. He groans. ]

Please--do not touch my ears. They are--sensitive.

[he certainly had another reaction. to a woman coming closer to him, too— hmm, how intriguing. rin doesn't necessarily retreat, but raises her eyebrows with renewed confusion.]

—Oh. [does she really understand what she'd caused? apparently so.] Koltira is a man with weaknesses. Would it be unbearable if I rubbed them all down the length, with my fingers, up and down?

[completely with her normal face and voice—but this is not normal, is it?!—rin appraises matter-of-factly:]

Noted for later.

EVENT ★ OSKA BURNING

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2/2 i'm sorry, but i'm done now

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