ph_logs | August Event - Seemingly's Revenge (Reply)

SEEMINGLY'S REVENGE

Places, places, everyone

There is always a tension that lingers over the town when there’s been a long period of peace. A cursed island never truly is peaceful, of course. Horrors will always lurk in hidden corners, hiding in the darkness, waiting for easy prey. But it’s been too long since something truly dreadful has happened. The fae circus hardly counts --- with its games and treats and displays of wonder, having a few wicked frights and cruel illusions was just balance. No, the eerie silence from the Infernal Realm since the fall of Efrain cannot mean anything good. Soon, something will have to give.

And at last, one day, it does.

{ Canonically, this event is four weeks long, with a new part launching each Saturday. Each will have separate rules and content warnings. Please consider your thread count appropriately and read each rule set carefully. }
{ Stay safe out there. }

Thank You, Places

It’d be hard to notice, at first. Little brass pieces of clockwork mechanisms appear throughout the town, lying on the cobblestone in the summer sun. Sometimes they clink along the pavement as they roll, subtly at first, towards the center of Pumpkin Hollow. Then they begin to skitter, as if pulled by invisible strings. Maybe you can even see them, if you tilt your head and squint… They gather, at last, in the center of town. From broken fragments, they assemble themselves, erecting a large mechanism in the center of town. Something round, on a rotating plate, like a carousel but tiny, as if it is only intended for two. An aggressor, and its prey. Finally, the device is assembled. Large metal plates melt their way out of the ground and fold upwards to close up the decorative outer shell. Five panels and a dome top in reddish brown, painted with uncanny cherubs and golden filigree. Four of them have keyholes. The fifth has a center of clear glass, and several rotating rings within with metal decorations attached, to create a diorama. At the forefront, a golden mask, shaped into a harsh frown, surrounded by rays of gilded sunlight. It begins to play a little music box tune and tick softly, and the rings rotate along with it, extremely slowly. Upon closer examination, one might be able to spot the sliver of another mask waiting in the wings.

Despite its ominous presence, the curious music box seems to do little else, and experimentation will reveal that the music box is quite indestructible. This leaves the denizens of the town with little choice but to go about their day. They regard it with suspicion, feeling a sense of dread quietly begin to rise…

Hey, does it feel like it’s getting hotter out?

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Seemingly, a member of the now-fallen Court of Fools, is one of the demon nobles that once served under Prince Mendel and who escaped after his death last September. For those unfamiliar, Seemingly is a clockwork doll with a rotating head that bears four masks (pictured above). Because Seemingly represents (in part) the concept of disguise and false identity, each of these masks has its own name, voice, pronouns, and mood. They are as follows:

WRATH | pictured on the left, enraged and violent, distorted androgynous voice, they/them
TWIST | pictured in the center, coy and teasing, low feminine voice, she/her
GLEE | pictured on right, giddy and joyfully malicious, high masculine voice, he/him
HOLLOW |

Each week, a new prompt will be added to this post, with a weather event modeled after one of these four masks. Every new installment will include terrifying surprises--- the natural disasters all feature supernatural additions based on the tenants of the Court of Fools. Trickery, madness, unreality, and deception.

Seemingly has longstanding beef with Jonathan Sims, one of our long-time player characters. Jon also has the ability to see through illusions, making him the perfect candidate to lead the charge! Check out Harvey's plotting post toplevel to get involved with the efforts to defeat this demon menace! This will involve finding the four keys that unlock the panels on the music box.

We recommend that, in order to keep things organized as the event updates, you post a blank header TL and then add new prompts beneath it each time a new part becomes available. However, you can do it however you'd like. Backdating, as always, is perfectly fine and encouraged. Please label questions with the part of the event they pertain to. Have fun!

Burning Wrath

August 9th - August 15th | Content Warnings: extreme body horror, exposed organs, delirium and difficulty perceiving reality

Warm summer days are no surprise to Marrow Isle, nor the greater Emerald Isles; the blazing sun above warms the earth below, drying out any of the dampness in the land from the stormy seasons just before and driving Hollowites down the sandy shores and to their local beaches.

Since the arrival of the strange music box, however, the sunshine bearing down upon the island seems to have become... relentless.

The temperatures continue to rise without any sign of stopping. The sound of thermometers snapping and popping as they reach their limits only becomes more and more common as the first round of oppressive heat chokes the air of Pumpkin Hollow; the crunching of dried, dead grass beneath shoes quickly joins the chorus of ceaseless drought. Dust, no longer tethered to the ground with moisture, kicks off the ground at the slightest disturbance. The forest grows brittle, and animals begin to hide away, in hopes that dark holes in the earth will make the heat even a bit more bearable. Wide, sprawling, cloudless skies stretch on, and no meaningful breezes carry through the town, offering no temporary respite from the sun's wrath.

For anyone brave enough to venture outside, to try to continue their daily motions in spite of the scorching temperatures, skin burns quickly, and metal becomes untouchable just as fast.

If only the town could be so lucky as simply enduring that much; the Infernal never do allow these things to be too easy to ride out.

With the addition of dreadful humidity that clings to one's skin those who venture outside will feel like they're practically wading through the air around them -- yet the worsening stickiness will seem like the least of their worries as delirium sets in. With so much focus having to go into remembering how to move one foot in front of the other, to recall where they're going, flesh and muscle slipping away from bones, melting like wax down a forgotten candle, becomes a trivial matter.

Even when the heat-afflicted are left as nothing but ambling skeletons--- their hearts standing alone in their pursuit to keep their owners alive, arteries magically inclined to tangle bones together and propel them along like muscles--- all they may be aware of is that they aren't feeling well, and that something is very, very wrong.

Delirous from the heat and only really aware that they're feeling under the weather, the shambling skeletal remains of your neighbors may try to find their way into familiar places; shared homes, local businesses, anywhere they might find loved ones, all with the intention of reaching out to find a helping hand. Should they continue to trudge through the blazing heat for too long, their hearts are no safer from the heat than the rest of their bodies were, and will easily cook and cease being able to propel them along, leaving their bones to bleach in the sun. If they are able to find their way inside to get "help", this is no more survivable - but it will grant them a short time to be reassured by (or to traumatize) those they've managed to find in their death throes. However, slender veins were never meant to hold a person together, and eventually the lingering terrible magic runs its course. What remains of the victim will begin to collapse, dropping limb by limb until at last their cursed heart gives up as well. Additionally, the bones do not vanish when unsupervised as they normally would, which can only mean that something, somewhere, is still watching.

Pumpkin Hollow's non-organic denizens are not spared from the cruelty of the burning heat, either - bolts, screws, connective wire, and other materials will begin to melt away first, causing machinery to collapse and fall apart. The invisible inferno seeks to consume what it can, and even if the approach differs from drawing organic material into the ground, it will find any weak point it can get to burn away those in the heat, bit by bit.

There are small mercies, however - though the heat bleeds through buildings, the danger of melting seems to fade in the darkness and shade of slightly-more-tolerable temperatures. The basements of homes, so often colder than might be pleasant, offer a wonderful respite from the uncomfortable outdoors. Additionally, the heat doesn't bear down consistently; one may find a break in the suffocation to be more like standard-fare summer temperatures, and may find a good opportunity to seek cooling activities, or even just a brief splash in Jack's Marina to take the edge off.

Be mindful, though. All it takes is a moment just a bit too far from home, just enough off guard, for the heatwave to see its opportunity to strike once more.

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Over the course of the week, the heatwave will have a range of temperatures from a standardly-hot 85F/29C to an unbearable 215F/102C, with intermittent periods of both humid and dry heat. While it's impossible to count exact minutes in a thread (and we wouldn't expect you to try to!), here's some vague approximations for tolerance to the extreme heat before the melting process begins:

Standard time before melting (organic beings): 30-45 minutes
Standard time before melting (inorganic beings): 45 minutes - 1 hour
Faster time due to weakness to heat (ice resistance, poor temperature control, etc): 10-15 minutes
Slower time due to resistance to heat (fire resistance, immortality, etc): 1 hour 30 minutes - 2 hours
General melting time from start to finish: approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour for the standard human. Resistances to heat/fire would slow this process. Survivability of melting depends on progress.

Those indoors or in shaded areas, even if miserably hot, are fully immune to any effects of melting.

Any organic beings who made it inside in the midst of the process of melting (such as being ushered in by someone they're with) will suffer mortal wounds as well, due to the failure of half-melted organs and irreversible damage. Any non-organic beings who had bolts or fastenings melt can survive this, and will simply need to be rebuilt/have their fastenings fixed!

Bones left outside of those who succumb to the sun do not disappear for the duration of Seemingly's Revenge, and have a waxy residue left on them. The heart will eventually be reduced to ash, and cannot be kept intact. (Theoretically you could gather the ashes, but they, too, would disappear after the event ends.)

Twisting Wind

August 16th - August 22nd | Content Warnings: tornadoes, dust storms, home loss, hypnosis

Throughout the hottest week in Pumpkin Hollow on record, the angry golden mask has ticked slowly, slowly out of the glass panel on the front of the music box. Slowly, slowly, a new mask comes into view. This one is half white, half gold, as if the mask itself is wearing a mask of its own, lips painted into a ghost of a wry smile. Along with it, the rays of sunlight framing the first mask are replaced by coiling silver lines that look like gusts of air.

Finally, on the eighth day, the new mask clicks into place. And the heat breaks. Overnight, the grueling temperatures fade to a comfortable range, even reaching a point that one might ostensibly call “cool” for mid-August. The relief is palpable. Most people in Pumpkin Hollow sleep better than they have all week, maybe in months, the night the heatwave finally dies. But it is far too soon to rejoice.

At first, the wind is just a little bit strong. Enough to bluster you around while you walk, trying to return to your business. It can almost be explained. A sudden drop in temperature would surely cause air currents to act strangely, right? But the music box is still there, still playing, and its tune has changed. Something terrible is brewing.

Soon, cloud cover bathes the entire island in a strange, yellow-green light, and the wind begins to howl mightily through the streets of town. Dust from the sun-baked earth picks up in some places, shifting the landscape of the town or caking structures in dirt, as small dust storms kick up in places without foliage or grass to pin it down.

There are many times when it isn’t too bad, where a person can walk from place to place and, with a bit of effort, get from one place to another without getting a mouthful of dust or a hunk of debris to the head. But there’s always a risk, isn’t there? Always a risk that any moment, the weather might grow just a bit more foul. Unlike the heat, not even the night offers any salvation. And in the distance, it sometimes feels like the wind is calling to you… Maybe if you listen, you can make out what it says. Even from indoors.

Every so often, the clouds above will begin to churn, and the wind will turn from a howl to a roar. Look above! The hungry sky stirs like some brew in a witch’s cauldron. The hairs on your arms begin to stand on end as you can feel that something is changing, something awe-inspiring and terrible, something that sinks your gut into your shoes as just the finest little funnel, like spun sugar forming little threads on a paper cone, reaches for the ground.

It’s growing. It’s hunting. It’s singing. It sings of deliverance, of freedom, of calling your soul up into the sky. You almost can’t hear it roar like a speeding train over the beautiful song.

Will you sing too?

And all the while, the music box stands stalwart, ticking away, a new scene slowly inching its way into the frame.

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This week, there will be strong winds ranging from roughly 50MPH to a whopping 200MPH. Compared to the heatwave, this week’s weather will be much less consistently dangerous, but will be more prone to turning abruptly destructive and deadly at a moment’s notice. And, as before, it will feature some delightfully maddening paranormal aspects!

On a mundane level, the wind will be capable of causing minor to severe structural damage. This will not create a financial expense for characters to repair on an OOC level, just a task, so feel free to have your shit get wrecked if you’d like to for the drama or if you’d like a half-price full home reno after the event! (This is only available to characters whose homes faced extreme destruction.) Dust storms, flying debris, and other hazards are also available to encounter.

However, you will also be able to hear voices in the wind, including from indoors. These voices may belong to strangers, friends, locals, or people from your homeworld. They will whisper intrusive thoughts, guilty consciences, or dark secrets (which may be false), or they may simply attempt to lure you into danger. Full-sized tornadoes, in addition to all the mundane dangers of a proper tornado, will also call out to you in a chorus of voices, hypnotically offering you freedom, paradise, unconditional love, and salvation, if only you join them. (Get it? Tornado sirens. Haha.) However, contrary to what the tornado claims, this will certainly kill you.

Safest locations are going to be basements and other underground, as before. Leeds Estate is particularly protected due to elevation and will continue to serve as an opt out, but Dahlia herself will be less available for rescue because it’s hard to fly like this. Baker Ranch’s protection from demonic forces via Serranai will also make it safe from damage, but challenging to reach due to its location in open farmland. Neil will also be leading efforts to reach Paradesium, which is completely wind-proof and still has Action Park.

Good luck, everybody!

Gleeful Tidings

August 23rd - August 29th | Content Warnings: flash flooding, entrapment, drowning, suffocation, rip currents

Screaming winds do nothing to slow the ticking of the massive music box, the turning of the mask, and by the morning of the next week, the wry smile of the former mask is replaced. Pure gold is framed by sapphire waves, lining playful eyes and wicked grin. And, at last, the raging gale settles into a slow, stirring breeze, before it finally draws to a halt altogether. For a moment, Marrow Isle is allowed to take its reprieve, assess the damage, and reach out to neighbors.

The thick clouds over the island roll along the horizon, but no blue of the sky above ever peeks through. Instead, they seem to only grow darker and darker. The burning sun that scorched the island couldn't feel further away; the gentle breezes seem to even carry a chill now. After the first false moment of seeming relief, the town knows better than to take it for granted that the weather has calmed at last.

For just a few mere hours, it feels as though the entire world is holding its breath.

And then, all at once, it exhales, and the sky opens up.

The rain that falls is little more than a regular summer shower at first, but you've learned by now. This is no normal rain. You can feel it in the ache in your joints, the shortness of breath that comes with watching the downpour. Drizzle turns to pour turns to torrential downpour, gutters quickly overflowing, pouring small waterfalls onto the drenched cobblestone below. Dark puddles, like black glass, form in the grooves of the roads, in any divot of the earth; it is no darkness of mud or debris, but it almost looks like depth. Like a puddle that is no greater than the width of someone's leg could drop them into unseen darkness at a moment's notice.

Puddles and flooding streets, for a short time, seem a trifling concern compared to the leaky roofs and water getting into homes damaged by the windstorms. Panicked calls from the homes along the Paring River begin to pour into Town Hall, the radio station, to anyone they can think to tell as dark water fills their basements and covers their floors.

The river, placid until one reaches its falls, has begun to race. And worse than that, at a slow-yet-unwavering pace, it has begun to rise.

There's little time to prepare before the river breaches its banks, spilling over the shores, rising ever-further while sweeping away whatever it can snare in the rapids. Farmlands are swallowed first, and with each passing minute, more and more of Downtown Hollow disappears beneath the rushing water. People are pulled beneath the vicious tide in what almost looks like an instant: there one moment, in the waist-deep waters, gone the next, lost beneath the glassy surface of the water. Paradesium is worse, flooding nearly to the ceiling of the caverns in some places. Stalactites, air pocket, and raised caves provide some reprieve to those trapped there, but getting completely out will prove dangerous and challenging for all but the most accomplished of cavers.

Eventually, the rains do slow, and with it, the raging path of the water ceases its motion. But with one problem eliminated for a time, there always comes another.

Any who dare to try to step into the still water, to push through the shallows and try to navigate the town, may find themselves falling deeper than the puddle should seem to go. Shallow puddles will suddenly drop someone stepping across them in waist-deep water, and deeper stretches of water may seem to swallow someone whole, vanishing them into impossibly dark, cold water. Sometimes, the standing water will be exactly as deep as it appears, but with a different secret beneath the surface: the second travelers set foot into it, they are dragged beneath the surface by invisible, clutching hands, dragging them further and further below the surface.

The rain does not slow for long, coming and going and making the floods surge in at staggering speeds. Whether the waters are moving or still, they risk being dangerous, but it is impossible to tell just how dangerous by sight alone. If you’re looking to get around town, you had better be a strong swimmer. Or a good climber. It’s going to be a tough week. And all the while, the half-sunk music box in the center of town tick-tick-ticks away to your next fate…

-----

This week’s weather features torrential downpours and flash flooding! Daily heavy rains in various lengths and volumes will cause the Paring River, which separates town from the forest, to overflow and rush through town towards Tawny Beach. The rain will never completely stop, but will fluctuate between extreme downpours and heavy thunderstorms down to light drizzles. During the heavier rain periods, flood waters will be fast-moving and have rip currents hiding under the surface. These high-speed waters won’t be destructive on their own, necessarily, but will take advantage of damage caused by the wind or plain bad luck to flood buildings, especially the basements you’ve all gotten used to taking refuge in!

When the water is standing still, it plays tricks on you. It’s very dark and could be deceptively deep or deceptively shallow. It could contain anything from slashing claws, grasping hands, rip currents, lurking predators, visions of underwater cities, and more. Rafts are by and large an effective way to move around town, but there can be large marine creatures in the water, so it’s not a completely safe option.

Paradesium is also fully flooded, with only pockets of air up towards the top of the cave roof. Escaping will involve reaching some of the uppermost mine tunnels, which will be extremely challenging, but the top of Crane’s Ridge is probably one of the safest places on the island. Additionally, Leeds Estate is elevated enough that it avoids a lot of the rain damage, so Dahlia’s home (and toplevel) continue to be a viable opt-out. However, her wine cellar is a bit damp, so you’ll want to come upstairs now. Additionally, after the flood last year, the Greymare Library has been heavily waterproofed, so while you will likely be stuck there (opening the door would not be wise), it is safe.

Hollow Chill

August 30th - September 5th | Content Warnings: freezing, entrapment, loss of autonomy, famine.

When the rain stops, it is more terrifying than a relief. It goes from violent pouring to fully stopped on a dime. Abrupt silence, warning of what will come next.

The town exhales rainwater. Much of it gradually drains away, until the wet cobblestone and sodden plant life below can be seen once more. Everything is soaked, but at least it’s possible to get around without wings or a boat. The music box remains undamaged, ticking away and playing a quiet tune as if nothing is amiss.

Four keyholes. Three weeks. Three changes in weather. This must be the last one. And sure enough, a mask of a cold, disinterested face centers itself on the glass panel, surrounded by an array of snowflakes. And just as surely, as the next week begins, a strange cold begins to overtake the island. Frost begins to creep up window panes like climbing ivy, icy fingers finding their way into any crack or crevice to bring a shiver to your spine. And then, where once there was rain, there is snow. Piles of it. Not enough to snow anyone in, at least not at first, but enough to make travelling hard. Those who arrived to the island in warmer months will find themselves ill-prepared, with town hall buying up winter jackets and cold weather clothes in bulk. They’re distributed to anyone who needs one without cost, though Mayor Poe does request voluntary donations of firewood or help with shovelling from anyone who is able.

Thanks to farmers with greenhouses, dedicated ranchers, and those with plant-growing magic, it will be possible to restore crops enough once this is over that townsfolk won’t starve when winter truly comes around. But in the meantime, the rapid changes in weather have been disastrous for farmers, and food will be especially lean this week.

For a good while, one might be convinced that this, for once, is all there is to the week. It would certainly be enough all on its own, wouldn’t it? Freezing temperatures and intermittent snow right in the final days of summer, turning the remaining water on the ground to slick, dangerous black ice. But as temperatures continue to drop, it becomes clear within a few days that this is far from the only trick up Seemingly’s sleeve.

The landscape is hardly a winter wonderland, bleak and terrifying under a constantly slate-grey sky. It’s coldest late at night, and in the early morning, but sometimes temperatures will plummet even lower throughout the day. And it’s in these moments of extreme cold that you may begin to feel your limbs lock up. It’s almost funny, how it mirrors the melting during that week of horrible heat, which now feels a lifetime away. You feel icy tendrils crawling up your veins, holding you in place, starting with your legs and then climbing up slowly until no muscle can move… except your eyes. You find yourself slowly encased in a tomb of ice, awake and aware, unable to move, to sleep, to die. All you can do is watch, eyes wide open. And then, you see yourself, returning your gaze.

Free from the ice and looking back at you smugly, your own face stands before you. A doppelganger. One with sinister intent. To kill, to lure, to sabotage? It varies from copy to copy, but none of them want anything good. They may even hide you or obscure your frozen form to aid in their illusion before they run off to torment your loved ones. You remain aware and able to see as they go, however. Through your own eyes, yes, at times. But also through theirs.

The week creeps by, with one more key to be found, the music box standing vigil in town square as always. It ticks along, playing its little tune, and as the week goes on you start to see a familiar mask peek out of the corner, framed by rays of sun that make your stomach sink with dread. It is as if the demon within is taunting you. ”I can do this forever. Over, and over, and over. As many times as it takes. The question is…”

“Can you?”

-----

Welcome to the final week of Seemingly’s Revenge! At the end of this week, I’ll be posting a simple epilogue that doesn’t necessarily need any threading unless you want to, but for now let’s focus on our grand finale! This week features temperature drops well into the Fahrenheit negatives, heavy snow, famine, and more. Roads will be extremely slippery, even when they’re shovelled. Snow will be intermittent, and it is possible to get around in it, but by late in the week it will be likely that some homes in Northwest Hollow will be snowed in. And of course, during periods of extreme cold (which are not terribly frequent but tend to be very sudden), those caught outside will be encased in ice and replaced by a doppelganger. (Let it be known that sometimes you can also just freeze to death the regular way.)

As stated above, characters may be forced to watch their copy’s actions through said copy’s eyes rather than their own. In this experience, they are passive, watching something with their face and voice manipulate or harm their neighbors like it’s a movie. Players, of course, have full control over the copycats, so please feel free to get evil with it.

So how does one get their character out of the ice if they cannot move, speak, or die? There are a few ways. The first and most straightforward way is to have someone else kill your doppelganger for you. This also kills your own character, however, so that is something to be aware of.

The second method is for someone to find the original and break them out of the ice, which will cause the copy to make a break for it or allow the original to kill the copy themselves, neither of which harms the original. However, your assistant in this scenario risks being killed by the discovered doppelganger or worse--- frozen themselves. High risk, high reward.

And lastly, the body cannot remain this way extensively even under magical circumstances, and the frozen person will eventually die on their own after 24 hours and respawn as normal. However, this will leave the copy intact until the original returns, meaning that your doppelganger will be unattended during the interim.

While the music box does threaten the cast with another week of heat, which should definitely inspire IC terror, we will OOCly handwave that all four keys are located and ready to use by next Saturday, regardless of where the key groups are in their threads. The event will end on schedule. My advice would be that all groups try to get as far as they can with these threads before the gala event launches at the middle-end of the month, as that’ll be another busy one for very different reasons!

Have fun, and stay frosty!

Aftermath

September 6th and onward

The keys find their way into the frozen music box, just before the Wrath mask clicks back into place. A final standoff between old enemies is at last resolved. The Court of Fools draws its final breath as both the music box and Seemingly itself fall to clockwork pieces on the pavement.

It takes some time for the ice to melt. Maybe an afternoon. But what is left behind is a beautiful, warm September day, with skies so clear and spotless blue that you can gaze in any direction and never see a single cloud. Summer is on her way to bed, but passes her baton gracefully to Autumn, even if the trees are a little confused by the rapid weather change and turning golden at the bottom a little bit early. Thanks to the help of your brave neighbors (and perhaps you as well!), you are just in time to enjoy it.

Reconstruction won't be easy, but it will be more bearable with the help of your community. The handful of druids around town can give new crops a boost to catch up in time for true winter, and a little love from Celestine will help as well. Life slowly returns to normal, and good weather awaits.

Speaking of which, for those whose radios are still on after serving them dutifully these four weeks, a pair of familiar voices can be heard finally ending their long broadcast.

"I'm Melanie King..."
"And I'm Phil Connors..."
"And we’re your hosts, bringing you the latest of Pumpkin Hollow."
"Thank you, everybody, for your service and diligence, and in case we don’t see ya— good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.”

[ Each piece will become available for viewing on the date it ICly begins! ]

August Event - Seemingly's Revenge

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