look at me, i'm the wound you tried to hide

[promittere]

ANDANTE ALLA WANING CRESCENT

Another day dawns for the Sage's wizards. It's been a month, now, since arriving in this world and being given a task nobody seems to fully understand—though after the jobs the Southern and Central wizards have taken on, it seems like it might just be possible after all.

And it seems like there's another task for the wizards, from the Eastern nation. However, unlike the other requests the Sage has been fielding, this task is far too big for five wizards alone. This is a task everyone will need to help tackle, whether they like it or not. Those that aren't particularly altruistic will still be whisked together by Tatara and Lazuli both, and they may still find the journey...illuminating. Answers to what happened to the original wizards may be just within reach.

Traveling via the elevator at the manor is familiar to some of you, at least, Lazuli setting a mana stone into the control not a surprise in a the slightest. The fact all of you can, somehow, fit in the elevator comfortably may be a surprise, but it's best not to dwell on it too much. You'll be staying at the City of Rain, Lazuli tells you with the air of someone reading you a court sentence, but you've been tasked with clearing up the site of some sort of disaster. He doesn't have much information beyond that—a fact that seems to greatly annoy him—and he warns you not to break any of the City of Rain's laws well before you're out of the elevator.

Which that shouldn't be too difficult, right? Right...?

Perhaps not, as the rules of the city are extreme. There are certain areas which forbid socialization and talking entirely, some areas where only talking to strangers is forbidden, only a handful of businesses allow chatter of any sort, and the list goes on. The most pressing law of all, though, is very simple: no use of any sort of magic within city limits. Do your best to follow the rules because breaking them will result in an arrest, and do you really want Lazuli and Tatara bailing you out? With the rules laid out and lodging sorted, Lazuli ushers you to the site you're tasked with dealing with. You will have downtime to explore the city, though, as it's expected to take several days to clear things up.

The site is a terrible, terrible mess. In what must have once been a peaceful patch of wilderness, there now sits a terrible gouge in the earth, several meters deep and twice as wide across, hollowed by what must have been a powerful force. The dirt is gray and sandy, dead in the manner the Southern wizards will recognize. Plants on the edges of the crater are dry and withered and splintered and broken. Permeating the air is a lingering dread, one both Southern and Central wizards will immediately recognize...

But it is clear now, now that your magic is considerably stronger, that the spirits are agitated by the disturbance in the fabric of magic. Dark clouds hang low over the site, and low thunder rumbles in the constant threat of a storm that will never come. The spirits' agitation, coupled with the dread hanging in the air, will feel uncomfortable, and perhaps leave the more sensitive of the bunch feeling on edge. This is not something that can will resolve on its own, so your most important task is to calm the spirits. That means doing the things they like: playing music, dancing, praying, telling stories, wearing fanciful and whimsical clothes to soothe their temperaments.

Your second most important task is to clear out monsters. The unusual energy in the air is attractive to beasts magical in nature—they slink out of their hiding places in the deep wilderness to the area, and their presence is threatening the humans who regularly use the nearby routes for trade and to commute. Kill them, take their mana stones for yourself. Win-win.

The third task is general clean-up. Remove the dead plants from the earth, remove the broken trees and any natural debris that might prove to be a hindrance. Characters are more than welcome to search inside the crater for any hint or clue as to what might have caused this strange explosion, but they'll find the site picked clean, earth having fallen into cavities where there might have been larger objects present at one point...like someone was here to clear out any evidence.

JOB BOARD

Reinforcement. Peace in Granvelle Castle has been restored. A liveliness and energy has returned to the castle and the surrounding parts of the city that hasn't been seen in nearly a month. Thank your Central friends for their hard work!

Their issues aren't quite resolved, however. The castle is asking for help in creating and then reinforcing a magical barrier around the castle. The barrier is a bit bigger than what one wizard alone is capable of at this point, so band together to create and reinforce what parts you can. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to use your own hair or blood as a conduit.

The type of barrier is specific, however—they want one that masks magical signatures. If you step inside, you'll feel a faint, but powerful presence within... What are they guarding?

Recycling. The Eastern country is known for its expertise in all things mechanical, particularly when it comes to clockwork. While not as bombastic or flashy as Western technology, the use of magic and mana stones being deeply frowned upon and rejected, Eastern artisans can create truly fantastical things just with gears and cogs and a bit of know-how... But, of course, sometimes it's better to scrap something and create something new than let the old items waste away, so some Eastern craftsman have asked for help gathering clockwork automatons and other creations in order to melt it all back down. Some of them seem a bit nervous and harried, but it's an easy enough job to scrap automatons and cart junk around.

Monster hunting. The few settlements in the North have been sending in frantic request after frantic request. There has been a disturbing increase in monster activity in the North, and the native Northern wizards are as unreliable as ever. They need your help in thinning the numbers, and that's all they really ask for—you can keep all the mana stones you earn.

For those of you who haven't been to the North yet, the weather is harsh, no matter the season. Protection on oneself to survive the negative degrees is crucial; make sure your magic is up to snuff enough to keep yourself at least room temperature. And using your magic to battle on top of that? This isn't going to be an easy job, not at your level. Be cautious, and good luck.

Mana areas & amulets. You've been here for a month now, and living in an unfamiliar place, alongside unfamiliar people, using unfamiliar magic must be wearing you down. Isn't it? In that case, it's time for the last piece of your wizardhood puzzle: your mana area.

Mana areas are spots where wizards feel most at peace with themselves, most whole, and a place where they can refill on the emotional load they've been chipping away at for their magic. It can be a specific location, or a conditional circumstance. Find more detail on the magic page. Your task—given to you by your sage and your mentor—is to traverse the continent, find your mana area, and recharge your batteries, so to speak. While there, make an amulet to take back with you, like a portable battery.

WANDERER TASKS

Listen to the spirits.

You've been here long enough that it's time to see if you can actually communicate with the spirits who've laid claim on you and have been empowering your spells. Try your listen and see if you can hear what they have to say to you.

OOC Note: For those attempting this task, ping one of the mods and roll a dice! Based on the dice roll, your character will get a little tidbit from the spirits... Or they might not hear anything yet, but they can always dedicate themselves to their studies and try again after leveling up!

TATARA ACTIVITIES

Don't make promises.

If you've made a promise, don't break it.

If you break a promise, you'll lose your magic. And I don't know if I can help you anymore or send you home if that happens. I'm sorry this is so late. But please...be careful.

OOC NOTES

🌙 Welcome to your third event! Everyone's lasted a month, congratulations! Keep working on your magic, keep forging those bonds.
🌙 As your characters settle into the world, they might find themselves irresistibly drawn to crowds, to music, to dancing. It's hard to resist the allure of a gathering, and it's hard to keep yourself from swaying to music when it fills your ears, no matter what sort of person you used to be. You're changing...
🌙 As we enter the second month, we are announcing a deadline for finding your pairs. This will be Friday, June 14 at 11:59 PM EDT. Remember, you may submit a guess at any time, and there is no penalty for getting a guess wrong, so long as you have a thread to back up your guess and consent from your partner. The pair page is here.
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Remember to keep all wider plotting on this post, as not everyone checks plurk or discord frequently.
🌙 Next up for missions is East. Let's hope they don't have to talk to anyone for this one.

» NAVIGATION

Comments

[shadowkin]

Okay, okay. That's enough of that.

[Cid, having missed every single heartrending moment of exposition, negotiation, and whatnot (though he didn't miss all the violence, which may be the important part, or might not -- since that really doesn't factor into his overall course of action), has nevertheless snuck over sometime during the proceedings to properly rubberneck the exorcisms.

That's the most interesting part, really -- it's a pity he can't do much as Shadow around here, because it really would have been exciting to get a new guinea pig-- er, a chance to try out some modified techniques. But maybe it's not the end of the road!

After all, there's a ghost out there free for the taking?? He thinks??

Rummaging around in his coat produces: a firework, three wallets, a pack of biscuits, in that order, and a chair that accidentally expands to full size. Whoops. But most importantly: there's a nice little empty milk bottle for no real reason. It's a good companion for long baths.]

Thanks for waiting! Not that you have anywhere to go, huh?

[POP!

He snatches the floaty thing out of the air like a particularly pathetic firefly. By the way, the milk bottle has been enchanted to be self-chilling, so not only do you now have a bottleghost, you have a fridged one. Huzzah...?]

[chronosynthesis]

... Huh. [Well this exorcism has been. Interesting. Syrlya looks at the bottle curiously.]

You've really got him trapped in there. I think it's best to keep him contained until we can force his spirit to pass on properly... perhaps Tatara has ideas?

[If not, there's always hope and pray going through the library.]

[shadowkin]

[Isn't it an interesting exorcism???? Cid looks very self-satisfied, but whether that's because he now has a bottleghost or because he got to enjoy the exorcisms, or because the PTSD wind thingy that I totally didn't forget to write about in the heat of the moment just sort of knocked on his skull, found an echo and waltzed off...... maybe all of the above?

(It is surprisingly difficult to remember the last nightmare-like nightmare, must have been years ago? To tell the truth, the sleep paralysis demons are way scarier.)

He holds up the bottle and just sort of rattles it around. Lord help this poor ghostie, it is well on its way to becoming a particularly unfortunate milkshake.]

I wasn't planning on using this bottle for this... but I guess what's done is done. [is he really complaining about being out of a bottle] If all the... yelling and the sword stuff didn't do anything to make this guy pass on, does Cult Leader really have what it takes? Is he an underground exorcist?

[chronosynthesis]

Well we're a bit lacking in more experienced wizards. [Syrlya shrugs, helpless.] But I think it's unwise to release him when he's capable of possession. Wouldn't want a repeat of all of this.

[shadowkin]

Well, obviously we wouldn't just release him now that we've got him.





Who is this, anyway??

[chronosynthesis]

He refused to say. [And honestly Syrlya didn't really care that much in the moment when there was a much bigger problem at hand.] But it seems he was a spirit that was originally in the castle, so he was likely someone who lived and died there.

[shadowkin]

Eh, maybe he forgot? That's a ghost thing, right?

[Like, ghosts that get to the point of possessing people to do crazy bullshit probably forgot how to be people, yadayada... That's pretty common, and it seems like it's an even bigger pain in the neck here than he remembers it being from all the ghost stories of his various youths.

Cid hums, pokes the bottle a little with magic. He's not really doing much of anything, just playing around. It's a sturdy enchanted bottle, so he's allowed.]

By the castle, I guess you mean that big ol' castle we all went dancing in a while ago. Was it really hiding a dark secret...

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya hums.] That's the one. They had a piece of the moon in their vault that was agitating human spirits, but it's possible that this one was lingering before that. If it is the same as in Tyria, then a ghost can refuse to move on by their grief alone.

[shadowkin]

Moon rocks, again? This is starting to sound like way more trouble than it's worth, and on top of that it powers up ghosts, too?

[He is definitely complaining, but under all the complaining he's absolutely filing this away, what sort of all-powerful Moon MacGuffin hell is this!! For looking almost normal and definitely without any weird faces or cannibalistic moon bunnies, this moon sure packs a punch.

Or at least that seems to be the general consensus given the. Everything around them. Well, you can't expect too much from a minimalistic moon.

What were they talking about again? Right, ghosts.]

... Well, ghosts with grudges are pretty common anywhere. But castles are pretty much like a giant meeting place for spirits. Tyria is...?

[chronosynthesis]

Well, it is a moon that nearly destroys the world every year. [It's certainly trouble, although most people would probably consider not dying to be worth the effort.]

Tyria is my home world. [Those places they were all at a month ago.]

[shadowkin]

It sure is energetic... Apocalypses are usually once in a lifetime or once in a generation or once in a millennium things.

[At this rate, these people don't even have the excuse that they forgot how fucked up the moon was to be keeping moon rocks floating around, like??? Maybe these rocks have been there for a while but it's still very. What did you think would happen.......

Cid shakes his head slowly to himself. He'll judge the inhabitants a bit more later. Technically it's not really that out-of-character for nobility or royalty to just do this sort of thing.]

...... Plant ghosts.....

[chronosynthesis]

... lingering ghosts are usually of the other races, not us. Most people in Tyria are fauna rather than flora.

[And there are... probably reasons why Sylvari just rarely end up as haunting ghosts despite their souls still finding a way through the afterlife. And existing at all. But that's neither here nor there.]

We're guessing at where this particular spirit came from either way, but I'm not inclined to let him out and communicate right now. I think we should pass him over to Tatara for safekeeping.

[shadowkin]

Huhhh... So it's just 'cause there's less of you and not plants being less haunted??

[I mean, they've already seen (or heard of) haunted plants on the first mission, so plants here would be haunted regardless -- but actual sentient plant people is probably a little different. Maybe.

He does not have a point of comparison, so Cid will be left to wonder and contemplate his future salads with some suspicion.]

I bet we could get some answers even with a bottle. But I guess I can check in with those guys about the castle before we got here... or something.

[fellheart]

[ guess who's also slipped off of his high ground, probably not long after cid did. how? who knows, but the edges of his coat still possesses some traces of fading feathers. ]

It appears ... that an actual debrief for what happened on this excursion might be well advised, at this point. Perhaps not immediately, but when the others are somewhat more...

[ not dead on their feet? or off their feet, as it happens to be in some cases. he's not going to call out anyone in specific. there's no joy in kicking those that are already down, so he keeps his gaze fixed on syrlya. ]

... You might not have known, but from the sounds of things, someone else seems to have.

[chronosynthesis]

You're right. [Syrlya rubs his forehead with a sigh.] Most of us came back injured, so it was put off a little longer. And it sounds as though all of us on the mission need to discuss with each other just what we missed.

[He drops his hand as he looks back at Robin.] Someone else?

[fellheart]

Hm. I cannot say for certain, but from what I overheard of certain conversations...

[ since all he did was sit and watch like a hawk, ]

I believe Solomon might have been met with our little interloper before any of the rest of us were.

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya glances around, trying to catch sight of him.] I see. I'll speak to him later.

[He obviously wasn't on their mission, so he must have noticed something after the fact.]

[fellheart]

[ he'll glance in solomon's direction too, but there's no more reaction from him on that matter. sorry not sorry for tattling. might as well get the ball rolling on getting the events of whatever happened to come to light.

he's quiet for a moment longer. ]

... was it truly so arduous, what you were sent to do?

[ not asking for the full debrief, just an answer to a single question. ]

[1145pm]

[ Phew, it's over...

Though Tatara is normally pretty flighty and detached, that seems to be working in his favor in this particular moment. He watches Cid catch the spirit from across the courtyard, then strides through the carnage, level headed and unshaken. ]

Cid.

[ He holds out his hand. ]

Thank you. I'll hold onto it, if you don't mind.

[shadowkin]

[They should start a flighty & detached club, population: like 3.

Cid blinks when he sees Tatara come gliding in like some sort of minor Buddhist deity in a hell painting. Nice! He almost looked sagely for five minutes, Cid makes a mental note that sometimes you can look totally cool as a cucumber in civvies if everyone else is dressed and acting like crazy people.

He also looks from the outstretched hand to his own hand with the milk bottle.... somewhat reluctant but not recalcitrant. Mostly it's like:]

Nobody told me you were an underground exorcist. Did you have something in mind for it?

[1145pm]

[ Tatara gives a quiet chuckle at that. ]

I wish, but I'm not.

[ He looks at the the bottle, then clenches his fingers around it.

He looks back up at Cid, and nods. ]

I think I know who the spirit was. I'll do some asking around, and depending what I learn, I have a few ideas.

[shadowkin]

Well... as long as you don't drop it, I guess.

[Wow, how clumsy does he think Tatara is...... really, Cid just wants to keep the ghost around to poke and prod at it, so it's perhaps a mercy that it gets to unlive with Tatara for the time being. And if they know where it is, they can watch for Sages going off the rails...?

Either way, he probably can't keep a key quest item..... otherwise it'll hold up the whole story. Alas.

His eyes still follow the bottle, though, greedily.]

You'll let us know who it is? I kind of want to visit it, too. It's not everyday I get to see a ghost, so I've gotta get some experience in while I can.

[1145pm]

[ He won't! And to show Cid that he won't, he puts his other hand on the bottle. ]

Sure, if you want to know! It might take a little while to get confirmation, if you don't mind the wait.

[ At last he smiles, though it's a small one. ]

Are you okay, Cid? You didn't get hurt, did you?

[shadowkin]

[Always use two hands when transporting dangerous substances!! Lab Safety 101: Haunted Glassware Edition.]

Well, it's not like it's going to grow legs and run away. Is it?

[Just checking. He also does not give a guarantee that he himself will not run away, on account of having legs and doing just that on a number of occasions. The actual question gets a tilt of the head, like, why? or maybe hang on, I forgot what I was doing five minutes ago.]

I got here late, actually. Had to take a late-night dump and then the whole manor started freaking out. [definitely 100% truthful, it's so useful that wizards still have to hit the shits] You're looking pretty spry yourself for a non-magic guy.

[1145pm]

[ drops the glass and unleashes the ghost again—

That, nope. Tatara shakes his head. And once he and Lazuli are done sealing it up, it won't be going anywhere.

He does laugh at that though. ] I'm glad you're healthy.

[ congrats on the shit, cid??? ]

I guess I am. [ He glances down. From his pocket peeks out what looks like a little panther, and it peers up at Cid. If Cid's paying attention, that's Khun's magic. ] I had protection, but, ahh—! [ He sighs, dramatically. ] It was so stressful, though! At some point, I was almost sure this was going to be the day I was going to see a wizard turn to stone for the first time...