[Cult Follow-Up] Well, That Was Weird

[pumpkinhollow]

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Violence with religious overtones, cult activities, gore featuring eye trauma and glass shards.

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Well, That Was Weird

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Once the chaos of combat ends, the members of the Cult of Nyarlathotep stand tense for a long moment before letting out sighs of relief. The dead are dragged aside and piled against the wall while Chloe sits on the stairs and picks glass out of her wounded face with her bare fingers. Nora Winterbottom brings her a few towels from Larkin's bathroom, much to the mayor's dismay.

"What a waste of blood," Lucy muses, tutting.

Pirnach moves toward the center of the room, rubbing his hands together, eyebrows raised, releasing a stressed breath loosely. "What a way to end a party, huh? Well, it's a shame our initiation ceremony went that way, but we appreciate the patience for the rest of you. Now that we're done dealing with those interlopers, let's say we get this show on the road for real, eh?" Looking back to Chloe, Pirnach arches a brow and gestures vaguely and broadly at the room. She waves him off.

"Yes, fine, you do it." Another chunk of crystal glass hits the floor with a clink.

Ingmar brings Pirnach the book from the altar. The thinner, paler man is now shirtless, revealing a massive web of tattoos forming a collar around his neck and extending down over his shoulders, back and chest. He is covered in ceremonial designs, runes and sigils. He wears the locket brought here by Archie and Maude Brenning, the wedding locket which belongs to Linette, and stands in the center of the circle while the rest of the cultists go around to the new initiates. Pirnach speaks once more, clearly able to translate the alien text on the page with little trouble.

"O Bloody Tongue and Caliban Storm, we summon you. Up from the ageless depths of the starless void, we call upon you. We speak the words with blood on our tongues, O Soul and Messenger, that you might bear your Message unto these bodies yet uncorrupted by the vile divine. As they offer their minds and their flesh to you, Dark King, may your greatness unfurl within them, crawling up their veins like venom and spilling forth from their mouths as black bile and red death, as foul as your creeping mist upon the minds of the unworthy. Welcome them into your many obsidian and splendid arms, let their bones decorate your wicked teeth, their meat hot on your fetid breath, and let us be venerated one and all for this feast which shall empower you to wrap your broken lips around this blighted land."

As the words carry on, the final confirmation that this was never an initiation clicks into place. But there is nowhere to run now. Your body feels frozen, your feet rooted to the spot. You feel as stiff as a body in a casket, and can almost feel invisible vines coiling around you from below, immobilizing you in their embrace. Against your will, your eyes train on the circle below as one by one the cultists come around the room with blades and slice the throats of everyone who remains.

As you bleed out, you manage to have enough awareness about you to witness the last bit of the ritual. Sacrifices exsanguinating, blood flows to the center of the room in uncanny little rivers not guided by gravity and soak into the stone circle like a sponge, flowing through its carvings and up around Ingmar's bare feet. He is breathing heavily, almost panicking, as the blood climbs up his chest and neck and into his mouth. By the time he feels the desire to scream, he no longer can.

"Father of Bats, let the blood of these sacrifices serve as a vehicle for your corruption as we create an anchor with which to prepare your greatest sacrifice," Pirnach continues reading. "Once your venom permeates her pitiable flesh, her tears and her screams will stain the ground and claim this rock in your name! We name her conduit, we name her Linette! Ia, Nyarlathotep!"

Your vision swims as your own choked gurgles drown out any further words. You are left with a blurry vision of the stone hoop in the center of the room filling with black pooling liquid from which dark tendrils reach out for Ingmar... before everything fades away.

When you come to, you are back in the forest where the cabins are now dilapidated once more. You are a ghost now, with a day to discuss with your companions what you just witnessed. Once dawn comes the following morning, you will wake in the woods, strewn about the perimeter of the cabins, and you will be able to return home with a vision of the strange and morbid events which helped to put the barrier into place.

Comments

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS

[pumpkinhollow]

HANDWAVED INFO EXCHANGE

[pumpkinhollow]

Feel free to OOCly dump any lore information you have here and discuss how your characters circulated it. If you'd like to discuss it ICly, feel free to make a toplevel instead! You are welcome to do one, the other, or both as desired.

OOC info exchange

[witheredpeonies]

In general, Annabel Lee is not ashamed to spread word of the happenings at the Larkin estate:

The Ocularum will receive a handwritten report on her experience, including what Mayor Larkin said about Japhet's deal with Aster and a sketch of the ritual chamber (loose, as she wasn't intent on memorizing it at that moment).

That said, in more subtle ways, she'll seed rumors about the whole affair. Leak comments about Linette Brenning's disappearance and red robes and such, and anyone who asks about the matter can assume they get a full plot download from her. While she didn't really understand much about Nyarly (she's from a different gothic horror), she did get a sense of the people involved and found the whole matter in quite poor taste. The details she learned about the Aster deal are not being spread to anyone she doesn't know personally.

So if you just want to handwave 'somebody told me' or 'word got around' about the event as a whole, here's a source for it.

[lovethyneighb_or]

At the moment (I have two unfinished threads that I've been slacking on) (or maybe he just forgot) Mulcahy has info about two things of interest that he'll be circulating to his fellow attendees while they're ghosts:

First, Lucy Calloway made a blood sacrifice of Emily Leeds to Nyarly to "jailbreak" a Crystallizer of Dreams--a device normally used to bring a single item on one's person to and from the Realm of Dreams, where the gods reside. However, this one has allowed her husband, Gil Calloway, to just start dragging back all kinds of weird shit from other dimensions. His curio shop was mostly weird goodies from abroad, but also featured items from the Crystallizer. Since the barrier is up now, it can be assumed his shop contents are solely from the Crystallizer.

Second, he will describe the things he saw in the ritual book and scrolls: images of Nyarly, ritual circles and sigils of alchemy, and a language he didn't recognize. There's also a symbol that he'll be willing to draw a picture of when they can start interacting with objects, but in the meanwhile he'll pantomime it in the air. It'll roughly do the job, but it's really important to him that he gets it across immediately, because he doesn't trust himself to remember the details after a while.

This info is otherwise not going to the general populace, but if nobody convinces him otherwise, there's a likelihood he'll start spreading it to key NPCs once he processes things a little more (and I get a handle on my threads, lol).

OOC info exchange

[not_the_last]

Cassandra may yet find out more from her pre-ritual thread with Chloe, but to begin with she's going to see who else heard the revelation Japhet's deal with Aster (including Dahlia's parentage). She will stress that the cultists may not have been told the truth about it, and ask if anyone is aware of any corroborating sources for this information.

[theydrewfirstblood]

TBH, John didn't learn much--but when he returns to life, he'll find that something he was given at the party physically came back with him! It's a small, metal leaf, either gold or brass, passed to him by Nora Winterbottom.

He will, however, not be discussing it in the immediate follow up. If those among the cult group find him in the following days, he'll make mention of it (already has mentioned/shown it to Sigma) but he has no idea what this means, and while trying to figure that out? He'll be keeping it mostly to himself--call it a containment measure.

So basically, not hiding his find, but only sharing it passively with those who were there...and he might, at some point, call on Dr. Winterbottom to ask her about Nora. >.>

Info Exchange

[mindflayed]

Imbros will tell anything if asked. Anything. Like anything anything, so be sure you want those answers.

But he'll be forthcoming with the little bit of info he has that's not tied to being there for a good time not a long time: Chloe is Nyarlathotep's most trusted servant and Linette will be the sacrifice to let Nyarly claim the island, but there had also been something about this being a conduit ritual which means Nyarly might be taking a host body. Which Imbros had thought was Linette, but after seeing the ritual might actually be Ingmar.

And if so: good for him.

ooc info exchange

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton didn't pick up many extra tidbits from snooping, but he will be more than happy to give a complete run-down of events including very detailed descriptions of everyone involved that night. This will include bragging about breaking Archie's glasses.

Ghost Afterparty (IC discussion)

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, among the first to die, settles to wait for the others that she's certain will arrive.

She has enough time for it to occur to her that she'll feel a great fool if none of the others are killed after all, and she's alone here until she revives.

[theydrewfirstblood]

...well that was bullshit.

Dying is--well, it's horrifying. Not what he imagined--getting shot in the head felt like getting hit with a brick: hurt, sudden, shocking, but now it's gone and he's fine.

He's also not alone.

Moving towards the other specter, John tilts his head curiously.

"...you were there, weren't you? One of us, from the present."

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton, ironically, feels a little like a fool for not going out the way Cass did, fighting. His one consolation is that he can tell her how it ended now. Which is about how he expected it to go.

"Hey, Princess..." he says, with a subdued smile. "Long time no see?"

At least they are all here together again now, even if it isn't quite in the flesh yet.

After Party - OTA

[ss_buttcrack]

"Well, that was one hell of a shindig, huh? This is why I hate fancy parties."

He may be speaking blithely but the look in his eyes is more haunted than this forest is right now. He can run his mouth all he likes, but these baby blues suck at lying. When he got here he was mostly thinking of how he could get Cassandra and Okie (if he wants it) back to Whitestone safely, but now? Now, it's frelling personal. These people need to be taken down.

[mindflayed]

"I told you to shut up and let them monologue, we probably could have learned a lot more if you hadn't started punching people needlessly."

Sure the ceremony was cool, but how much cooler would it have been done properly???

Afterparty OTA

[liesdontfindyou]

It's not the first time CT's felt herself bleed out. Maybe that should mean feeling worse than she does, in the aftermath, but sometimes it pays to be very good at compartmentalizing.

"Something wasn't right about that Chloe Albright. Which," she scoffs a little, "obviously. But she knew, somehow. When we weren't being genuine. Details she shouldn't have known. She saw through me like glass. I was almost surprised she didn't have be removed or killed for it, but... I think we know why."

What threat is a spy when you know they'll be dead by the end of the evening, anyway?

[not_the_last]

"She did seem perceptive," Cassandra agrees, and frowns slightly. "I more than half expected her to see my attack coming."

Re: Afterparty OTA

[ss_buttcrack]

"You think she had some kind'a psychic power?" Because, yeah, they all saw how much of a creepshow that bitch was but he trusts CT's judgement if she says there was more to it.

"What did she say to you?"

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta's right there with you, CT. If he had a nickel for every time he got his throat cut since stepping off the ferry -- well, you know.

"I noticed that, too," he says, then shrugs, equivocating slightly. "Well -- similar. When I gave them my real name after so many other people gave an alias, it almost seemed like they could tell."

He frowns.

"I wonder why they picked up on that and not that we were from the future."

[For Valdis]

[ss_buttcrack]

After talking to some of the other ghosts that popped up next to him in the woods, Crichton decides this information is too important to wait on. There is someone he desperately wants to see right now, who he thinks will be able to see him. So, he races to the edge of town and comes to Valdis's door. Unsure if knocking would work, he calls out to her instead.

"Valdis? It's Crichton. I'm, uh, dead right now."

[redlightgreenlight]

Luckily for him, she has good hearing and comes to the door before she even realizes that he doesn't feel normal.

Still, the instant she realizes she cannot see him with this sight, she sinks into the soul plane to see him there, nothing but a soul.

"Crichton? What happened?"

Surely even he didn't piss someone off this quickly...

Afterparty OTA

[mindflayed]

Imbros might be the only person who had a good time at the murder ritual, and he has no shame about that. In fact he'd do the whole ritual again if asked, preferably with his satchel and journals so he can take furious notes the whole time.

"I should have stood closer to the center," He sighs, curse his lack of forethought, "aesthetically the color of my blood muddied the sigils."

Ghost Afterparty - John Rambo

[theydrewfirstblood]

After hooking up with Cassandra, John lingers for a short while--to check in on those he can, reassure those he's able to.

That, and...well, he's not sure where to go from here. Best to stay amongst familiar faces.

[For anyone who wants to have a ghostly chat with John!]

[mindflayed]

"You missed the main event."

Like he almost did, but for totally different reasons.

afterparty - ota

[upshore]

Miles sighs and massages his throat. It's not injured now, being that he is a ghost, but man, the feeling of having your throat cut sure is a thing.

Kinda itchy.

But that may have been the Walrider trying to knit his skin back together, like a really fast scab. Why hadn't it reacted like it was supposed to - namely, going apeshit ham on his attackers? Maybe something that Nyan Cat or whatever it was called was doing had suppressed it. If he has to have that thing bonded to his every cell, at least it should pay its fucking rent.

"That could have gone better," he says, and rubs at his throat again.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Have to say I agree," Crichton answers. He's got his fingers around his own throat too, still buzzing from the phantom sensation of the knife.

"That was a first for me. The method, anyway. You okay?"

Afterparty OTA

[spaghettification]

Siebren is oddly still when he first appears. His ghost, as his corporeal body does, floats a few inches off the ground, but there's no bob, no playfulness in how he's floating right now. There's this vague feeling in his head as if the inside of it has been stretched or bruised or sunburned, from the communion with Nyarlathotep, but beyond that, he's sort of just...stunned, still.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT's distracted at first, conferring with some of the others, but she takes note of him once she's less so. She approaches somewhat slowly, wary of startling him. "Sigma?"

It's the only name she has to reach for, right now.

Sacrifice and Afterparty OTA (CW: descriptions of bleeding, self-wounding, autocannibalism)

[misbegottendreamer]

The Ritual

When her blood makes contact with the air, it lets off a sickly sweet smell, and for a moment, she is back in the Sixth House, back at the banquet table, back in that first time she was chosen to assist the ash priests in preparing the sacraments. She can feel the ritual daggers slicing lengthwise along her arm, parting tender flesh from bone as the blood-wine flows, while all the while she is filled with euphoria, and a light bursting from her eyes from within. The Sixth House has risen, and Lord Dagoth Ur is its glory...

Then the vision fades to black again, and she can feel her fire ebbing, her strength fading, her whole body shaking, until a deeper darkness rises up to swallow her whole.


The Afterparty

She's died here before, but she'd awoken alone then, and paid no mind to her ghostly form. This time, however, she has company, and they might wonder who this Dunmer woman is, and where she came from. There's a faint glow, akin to a halo, around her head, and a small scar(?) in the center of her forehead. Otherwise, she looks very much like any Dunmer woman in the later years of middle age, her shoulder-length hair billowing softly as she drifts about.

[spaghettification]

Siebren doesn't recognize her like this, so there's confusion; no one who looked like that had been at the party. The cultists were all human and wouldn't be ghosts, and she's no one he's seen around the island.

It makes him wary, but his head isn't exactly at full capacity after talking directly to the Elder God.