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SETTING & PLOT UPDATES:

“Hey mods, why is this section combined this month?” Haha. You are not speaking to mods you are speaking to Wolfie. Amity did not have a hand in these war crimes.
This event’s trigger warnings will be numerous, so before we continue, the following triggers apply to the plotting post and more importantly the log itself: cosmic horror, body horror, disease/illness horror, insect-related horror, gore, and lighter eye horror and god I hope that’s all that I had to list (I did not write them all down in my initial notes).
- Your opt out for this event per usual is in the Inn, which will be safe from all of the horrors outside. I cannot stress enough that I’m trying to make this event rough on purpose, so if you want to disengage there is the inn and backdating threads back to whatever you want before this happens. This is going to be the most hard-horror event we’ve ever done, take care of yourselves etc.
- This is also a TDM; in lieu of a “wake up” prompt, it will instead have a regular title so it’s more obvious that this affects the entire setting and not just TDMers.
Speaking of affecting the entire setting: to up the stakes, powers will be nerfed for the duration of this event. This has nothing to do with physical powers (if you can lift a car, you can still lift that car) and everything to do with more superhuman/magical ones (no Fireball spells, no healing). This is also to even the playing field between characters who are obnoxiously powerful and could more easily survive, and those who are just Guys, i.e. the difference between Ras and Ryan.
- Magic items that give a combat edge will also be nerfed; items such as the Spirit Lantern or the cloak that makes you invisible in the dark will Not be nerfed. If you’re unsure, ask a mod. AKA Wolfie. Ask a Wolfie.
- Non-magic items with charges (such as Wolfwood’s Punisher) will be unaffected.
- The Guardians & Heimr/Ydalir will be nerfed as well, to a point that doesn’t make the setting inoperable entirely (BAC still works); Suri/Zonari are nerfed to a point, as are Beiwe/Ourania and any lingering Spirits/Stars that might also be out there. Again, the setting is still operable, but only to a point. The Goddesses will be uncontactable due to their nerfing, just like in Y1 of the game. Ourania is quite busy dealing with the wounded moons (elaboration below).
Per the end of December’s event: You are plopped back down into the Grove after spending the month with the Goddesses, the ever-changing moons have an open wound on each of them, and there is a new celestial object in the sky - the Iris, which normally looks like a reddish moon but sometimes does. That thing where it looks like an eye. The Iris is the source of your grief for Jan-Feb, and has nothing to do with Suri who is still sleeping because Winter. Despite the snows continuing to fall, though, the forest itself may feel more active than usual with the fog wall still gone…
The Iris brings with it (in a beam of light cast through the wounded moon) new Horrors and Creatures and Threats! It also uses the moon as a gateway thus the wound. Here are the New Threats:
- Woodcrawlers: These are large insectoid creatures. You will never be able to see their full appearance as the sight of them distorts your vision, but you can make out that they have a single glowing eye (or perhaps head) and insectoid legs, and a proboscis. They are here to hunt you and become you. They will do so by entering your throat via proboscis. :) If they manage to pierce your skin but do not. Enter you. They will give you Deep Root Disease (elaboration below). They will try to invade your homes/businesses (breaking windows, burrowing under the ground and into the foundation, through the roof, etc) — the inn, being plot-irrelevant sacred ground, is completely immune to them, though they will try to crawl on the building. If you’re cold, they’re cold, let them in (they can’t come in) (to the inn).
  - Woodcrawlers that take over animals in the forest will be active and aggressive. Think like rabies but it gives them extra branching limbs.
- Fake People: This is the end result of being taken over by a Woodcrawler. You will die from this. Your body will be taken over. The Fake People will wander around outside, sometimes hovering or A-posing and jerking their heads and limbs about, often shouting phrases to get others to come outside so they can be attacked. There will be additional NPC Fake People outside during the duration of the event :) congrats the Grove is less empty! They know your names. :)
- Nature’s Mockery: These are amalgamations of flesh, unmoving and shaped like a small spire, out in the forest and Grove. Sometimes they have faces or human limbs embedded in them. If you touch the Nature’s Mockery, you get Deep Root Disease! Causes hallucinations, sudden muscular paralysis, body disfigurement, and flesh decay.
- Deep Root Disease: This is comparable to a more virulent Corruption; whereas our Corruption mechanic has always been a slow burn, DRD will just straight up ruin your life in a matter of hours. Luckily, it’s easy to spot, starting as a growth/bump on the skin that looks reddish and hollow for the first few hours — the solution during this stage is to forcibly rip it out. If someone fails to rip it out within about 3 hours, the root inside the person will fuse with their skeleton, and then the prognosis becomes “better mercy kill them before they get worse”.
  - The end result of DRD is. And there is an image of this out there but I will not link it because it will frighten several of you… but do you know how the central nervous system looks? It’s that, but made up of red roots.
  - You do not die from DRD. You are still alive, you are simply rooted to the spot. Your eyes can still move. You can still think, though your memories might be missing. You cannot speak or move otherwise. You can only hope your peers will set you on fire.
Note that it is safer to go outside during the daylight (but not ENTIRELY safe) than the nighttime, as Woodcrawlers are largely active at night. Fake People and the rest of this are active always. The Iris is always watching.
Death does not yield a garden trip, BUT: people who die to Fake People and Woodcrawlers will find that they have "lost their voice" temporarily, for about 72 hours. People who die to/are killed because they contracted DRD will temporarily find it more difficult to move (incredibly stiff limbs etc) for 72 hours. Resurrection time is also 72 hours.
Anyway, the goal of this event is to live. Luckily things can be killed, so get creative. Chop em, boil em, put em in a stew (???) Set them on fire, poison them, shoot them, whatever you want to do. This is your apocalypse except I made it very difficult.

OOC UPDATES:

For those who are wondering: Yes, this concept is based on a thing, specifically the lore of Gemini Home Entertainment which is my favourite analogue horror series ever. You may watch this if you want, it’s free on YouTube (do not watch Nexpo's coverage of it that man is a vulture and an AI bro). I will warn you that this is one of those “keep the lights on” series, I am unflappable normally but some of the shit in there man…
I promised to release my insane fucking notes to the crowd so here they are if you want to see my brain going fucking nuts. They will not make sense.
Re: the poll I put up last month-ish about volunteering to die, that will be for February. :) Don’t worry :) It will NOT involve Woodcrawlers I PROMISE it’ll involve something else and none of it has anything to do with Woodcrawlers UNLESS YOU WANT IT TO I GUESS.
Regular AC resumes in January! Please do your Check-In AC for December if you haven’t! We will sweep you if you don’t!!!!

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

Joshua Rosfield

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OOC PLOTTING: FLESH MINECRAFT JANUARY

ZOOMIES

You better watch out, you better watch out- [OPEN]