lunaecalamitas | thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

NEW MOON ADAGIO

Between the constant requests from the North and the sense of tension that pervades the manor, Sage Tatara makes an executive decision: we're going North, baby.

Of all the things that have happened thus far, let this be the ultimate test of your magic. Even as we near summer, it's frigid. Protect yourselves and your allies from the cold. Protect yourselves while also fighting off monsters (or other territorial wizards, should you make the terrible mistake of wandering into another's territory), flying through the vast wilderness, or protecting the poor humans who need your help to survive. Time to blow off some of your steam. Just be sure to obey Tatara's one rule: don't kill each other.

One particular problem of note is in the Forest of Dreams. Without its guardian, many of these rogue monsters and dangerous predators, displaced from their normal habitats, have found their way into the forest. Many of them, however, are unable to survive against the fatal toxin, and there are plenty of animal corpses and mana stones that litter the forest. It might be best to clean these up before the forest guardian returns...

That said, the toxin is yet another thing you must protect yourself against in addition to the cold. While you can likely keep yourself from dying from the toxins, you may not be immune to its effects. This deadly toxin causes anyone who breathes it in to dream and hallucinate vividly, be it images of the past, imagined futures, thoughts of the present processed and warped...

Strangely enough, those nearby may end up sharing in your dreams... Did you want the darkest recesses of your thoughts, hopes, and fears unearthed for others to see?

Those who decide to venture far past the more populated (in relative terms) parts of the North may find themselves stumbling upon what looks to be an abandoned bandit hideout. It seems it's been abandoned for quite a while—nothing to loot here, sorry!—but there sure are a whole lot of monsters that have decided to make this hidden corner of the North their home.

While you're at it, you may find a nearby cave. Beautiful crystals dot the walls and the floors, and there are small pools of hot spring water free for relaxing. It seems to be relatively free of monsters, too. So maybe this wouldn't be a bad spot to relax, away from everything else?

However, there's one thing that makes this cave truly unique, and it isn't the vistas or the springs—it's the bats. These bats hear echoes of the past and replay them for visitors. Should you stay a while and listen, a bat may pay you a visit. And when it does, it may play for you the voices from the memories of visitors past, whose stories may hold a clue or two to your circumstances...

While the Forest of Dreams is a memory/dreamshare free for all, the aural memories replayed by the bats in the Cave of Time will come from one of the original wizards only. If you'd like an audio replay of a perhaps significant moment either in their personal life or a clue as to what happened to them (it will be randomized), then please reply to this comment!

JOB BOARD

Clean-up and repairs. While thanks to the hard work of your Eastern friends the worst was prevented, the City of Rain emerged from their short ordeal a little worse for wear.

Buildings need repair, blood needs to be cleaned off the streets, the injured need help. This is, perhaps, the only time you will be allowed to use magic openly in the city (you've been given permits and everything!), but you still are not allowed to talk outside of designated zones. Please, please don't get arrested...

As for the scrap that litters the streets? Unfortunately, you'll have to take it back to the scrapyard. But this time, there's a big, roaring bonfire out there. Just chuck all the scrap and debris in the fire. The city isn't taking any second chances—extreme situations call for extreme measures.

Reverence. Several Northern villages are currently outside the protection of a wizard, and have requested the sage's wizards' presence. They're terrified of the monsters and worried the barriers for their villages will fail sooner than later. They don't simply ask for help for free, however, and these smaller villages are steeped in their tradition—they'll pay you their respects, praying to you, offering you gifts, groveling at your feet, in hopes for a modicum of your time and protection. Do their offerings please you? Then assist them with what you deem appropriate for their worship to you: kill a few monsters for them, or a lot if you're pleased. Strengthen the barrier a lot, or not at all if you're displeased. It's up to you! You have the power here. What's it like to be a god for a day?

Ladies' night. The monthly lady officers' gathering is coming up in the City of Affluence—it's an exclusive meetup for the women involved in and related to Western military and bureaucratic affairs. Anyone is welcome, so long as they meet two requirements: they are outwardly presenting feminine, and they have an invitation to the gathering. Here's your chance to flex your transformation and glamour spells! Infiltrate the meetup with a disguise and a fake invitation, mingle, enjoy the drinks, the jazz, the entertainment, and find out what you can... What's the Western army up to? Be careful, though—don't get caught and kicked out!

The attendees seem to be excited about the new phantasmagoria technology and the upcoming display, and many whisper about the upcoming Venator meteor shower...

G'RAHA TASKS

Greetings, new friends! I am G'raha Tia, and while I hesitate to call myself a mentor or a replacement for the one you had, I am eternally grateful for the assistance I received and will do my best to help your cause in any way I can. To that end, I feel I may need to be caught up to speed on the events and get to know all of you.

We can have some tea and sandwiches and have a discussion! That's the best way to learn, sometimes.

TATARA ACTIVITIES

Even if we're not here for very long, I think we should leave our mark (not literally! Don't paint on the walls!). I got paint and big paper in the dining hall, but no brushes... Do you know what that means? Finger paint! Finger paint a portrait of yourself with your name and I'll hang it up in the library when they're all done!

Thanks to Cid and Khun, my camcorder works now. The thing is, what's the point of filming anything if we have no way to watch the film?! Could you guys work together to make some kind of projector? Or like...VHS player? We could have a movie night together!

OOC NOTES

🌙 Welcome to your fourth event! It's your dreamshare and memshare event! Ready to open up with your deepest and darkest secrets?
🌙 We're halfway through the game. How do you feel?
🌙 Back at the manor, Kurapika and Maya have set up a bulletin board! Leave comments, argue with your neighbors, have fun. Be nice. Don't set it on fire.
🌙 On the admin side of things, Lav has swapped out Wanderer for G'raha! Please say hello to your new mentor NPC.
🌙 Your OOC plotting post is here! Remember to keep all wider plotting to the post, and remember to check back frequently, since not everyone checks plurk or discord all the time.
🌙 The next country to go on their mission is North. Do you think a PVP-enabled mission will go well?

» NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If precedent holds, it'll be either us or the western wizards next, isn't it? And we're already here in the north, so...

[ yeah, it's probably their turn to go on some misadventure that possibly brings some of their predecessors back. now that he's not holding court for the villagers any longer, a bit of his usual temper has leeched back into his tone,

but overall his odd mood persists. ]

... I don't understand why they stay here, truly.

Would the other countries even take them, if they decided to leave?

Correction: I don't understand why they wanted to settle up here in the first place.

[ if life here is only really sustainable by the graces and good favor of the wizards here, then it doesn't sound likely that humans lived here first. emigration from the other countries, then, is a possibility, but...

or who knows, maybe the north wasn't always so inhospitable, and then they all got stuck here when the climate shifted or something. there's several possibilities for how they ended up here, some more or less likely than the others. ]

But perhaps you're right. Hard to say when we still know basically nothing about the political intricacies of this world.

[ though frankly, it seems like central, west, and east are the real powers here. the north doesn't even have a central unified government, he's pretty sure? ]

Yeah... I know East and West are at it, but it seems like South and North are beneath the others' notice.

Maybe this is just where the undesirables end up.

Ah, yes, an entire nation of undesirables. And may all their children now and henceforth be the same. Though 'nation' might perhaps be stretching it, all things considered.

[ still, if that's really the case, his distaste of the other countries bordering the north can only grow. ]

One of the representatives at the ball some weeks ago relayed to me his concerns about being able to take care of the children his village found themselves suddenly taking in. What must it be like, to know that you would rather petition unknown wizards that you are clearly terrified of for aid rather than any of the other countries in the world?

[ it doesn't exactly paint a good picture of the other nations. beneath the others' notice sounds about right, if they're putting it lightly. ]

Did he mention where the kids came from? Orphans? Runaways?

[Either way it's easy to imagine, Ahito's own country is still pretty fresh from a war. War orphans or even just children who were one too many mouths to feed line the streets, unfortunately.]

He didn't. I imagine I may have terrified him a bit much on accident.

[ this is icspeak for 'thread was ongoing, oops'. ]

For all I know, one of the wizards who disappeared ran an orphanage, or something. All I can confirm is that if any of the other settlements or villages fell, it wasn't anything he knew about.

[ so that's maybe one thing crossed off the list of where these kids could have come from? still a mystery otherwise. ]

Still sounds a lot like the people who end up here are the ones the other countries didn't want around.

[He doesn't like it...]

It does, doesn't it.

I imagine for the Northern Wizards, it should be fairly self-explanatory, given even the examples we make ... but what the humans living here have done to make themselves so supposedly undesirable might still be a mystery.

[ they are so eager to throw themselves at the feet of those who could better their circumstances. surely there are ways in which the other countries might be able to take advantage of such a populace?

ah, but perhaps he is simply too cynical about such things. or perhaps this, too, is a protection the northern wizards afford them: both from the harshness of the land, and from exploitation by the other countries. still ... ]

Either way, their last chance at survival anywhere ends up with them groveling at the feet of Wizards. What a rotten life.

There's nothing we can do about it, though. Not in the time that we have here. We cannot pity them; it's a self-serving sentiment meant only to comfort the one feeling it.

[ pity never helped anyone. ]

Rather than just pity, I'm more annoyed we've been brought here to see what a crappy job the original Norths did just so we can hand it off to them again.

Nothing we can do about that, either.

[ it's unfortunate, but... ]

Unless you've intent to stay here and work on systematically changing things?

Nope. I have my own matters to attend to.

It just sucks to see.

People are ugly beings, sometimes. We may wish for that not to be the case, but...

It might be best for us to return our attentions to the barriers. Sooner it's dealt with, the sooner we can leave this sad sight behind.

And when they have plenty of magic to throw around, they can become the worst of the worst.

[Ahito, your bias is showing...]

...You're right, though. Let's get this over with.

[ a thin smile. ]

You are correct, but saying that it's just magic limits the scope. It's power, plain and simple. You put a man in a position where he can lord over others. See how he chooses to carry on afterwards.

Magic is just one of the more unfortunate ways that this sort of dynamic is facilited by.

"Magic is power" is a saying in my country for a reason.

[So, still worth calling out as far as he's concerned.]

thousand dreams, lotus boats upon the waters

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