aftr_ooc | January Event: Setting Fire to the Sky

JANUARY EVENT: SETTING FIRE TO THE SKY

For islanders both old and new, an important task has settled upon your doorstep, this one not issued by neither god nor beast, but rather by fellow travelers. Those who have set up their rudimentary encampments on Chol have made their intentions quite clear: they intend to make their stand on the island of Chol and defend LifeAftr's sun when it undergoes its semi-regular cycle of death and rebirth, so that the archipelago may continue.

You will be neither expected nor required to fight this fight, if you do not wish it. But the darkness will close over the islands while the sun regenerates, and like it or not, you will be at risk. At the very least, it's in your best interest to defend yourself if nothing else.

Strike a Match and I'll Burn You to the Ground

The night of January 21st, the sun hanging over every island on the archipelago will begin to dim and fade. Over the course of about thirty minutes, the sky will go from the shaded dark of a partial eclipse to the pitch black of total night. One by one, the stars will pop into existence just above your heads.

The sun will appear to shrink and fall, like a comet, until it comes to rest in the fertile center of Chol. It will look, from a distance, like a smoldering ember, or a lump of rapidly cooling coal. In fact, it almost looks like a very large egg. The Jormun staying on the island will take up their arms in preparation to fight. All their fortifications and defenses have been clustered around that central position: the glowing "egg" of the sleeping sun.

Because soon, the shadows will appear.

Crossed Hearts and Hope-to-Dies

From the morning of January 21st to the evening of January 28th, a perpetual night will descend. Every island currently available - Ensō, Monsun, Chol, and the islets - will be affected. All natural light, save for that of the stars, will be extinguished; characters must navigate through their own wits or with whatever light sources they have on hand, be they torches or lanterns. The temperature will also drop to dangerously low degree. Temperatures will average at 32ºF, or 0ºC, meaning that most standing water will start to ice over.

But even more pressing than those natural dangers are the unnatural ones, for without the presence of the sun glowering overhead, all manner of strange and terrible beasts will start to crawl out from the water's inky depths, breaking through the crusted rime as they surface, dripping, and start to clamor across all three islands, islets included. These creatures, tired of living in the dark of the seafloor, will take any opportunity to exert their will upon the surface world. They are all hostile and will attack on sight, but their target and ultimate goal is to reach the island of Chol by any means necessary, and destroy the sleeping sun while it is still vulnerable.

These creatures are unique to this event, and therefore will not be added to the bestiary. However, for an idea of some the standard fare you'll be up against...

	GAHAR	Gahar happen to be the largest of the night creatures and prefer to float like ghastly clouds in the sky. Their great long limbs that propel them through the air like a jellyfish, ready to descend upon unwitting victims. They tend to locate those who are isolated from their fellows. Upon narrowing in on a victim, Gahar will wrap their tendrils around them and hoist them into the air. They like to devour them slowly by absorbing them through their porous, wispy skin, but the threat is twofold: should you struggle and try to escape the Gahar's clutches, you have nothing to look forward to but a very long drop down...and it will be happy to pick over your body, once you land.
	GRIMLING	A black-furred, quadrupedal beast with a ropy, greasy coat that gives it a seaweed-like appearance, and a pair of glowing-coal eyes to boot. The creature resembles a dog superficially, but the proportions are nightmarishly wrong, as though certain parts of it were swollen and others atrophied beyond all use. No two Grimlings have the same general look, but all tend to travel in gurgling, snarling packs. They tend to surround their targets and swiftly overwhelm them, but they have one simple weakness: pack mentality. If one of their number grows too injured or overcome, Grimlings will quickly set upon their weakest member and tear it hungrily to pieces.
	LUFKIN	Lufkin are only about three feet tall, shapeless masses of mossy-looking dark with a pair of gleaming white eyes, but they're more than capable of being a bother if they will it. They excel at overwhelming you with sheer numbers, effortlessly swarming up and around any living thing unfortunate enough to be in their way. Some can be smothered by their collective dense, furry mass, but many others are trampled. Far more dangerous, however, is what they are capable of when threatened: enough lufkin can gel together to form a much larger, much more powerful conglomeration on par with a golem in terms of how difficult it can be to destroy.
	MR. SKITTLES	Assuming you don't attack this charming gentleman on sight, his somewhat tattered Victorian-era attire and battered top hat might give off the impression of someone a tad unhinged. Nonetheless, he is nothing short of unfailingly polite and complimentary should you let him sit near your fire. His charismatic air is enough to win over even the most skeptical, no matter how off-putting he might seem. His camaraderie only lasts until the next person or group happens along, for they'll see him as he truly is: a decrepit, horrifying figure that needs to be put down. If you can't fight off the prevailing sense that Mr. Skittles is a true and earnest friend of yours, he may very well end up turning you against your fellows and reveling in the chaos he can cause.
	MURK	The Murk look to be little more than shadowy humanoids, indistinct silhouettes that cry and moan almost incessantly. However, unlike most of their fellows, Murk seem to remember being something other than what they were, and are thus under the impression that they can do something to reverse their plight. That "something," unfortunately, is a single-minded desire to trade your life for theirs. If allowed to get close enough, a Murk will try and grab at your bare skin and hold onto it; nothing short of severing the limb from their formless bodies will cause them to let go. The longer they keep their hold on you, the more they start to resemble someone living, perhaps something even recognizably human...and the less you will resemble yourself. Killing the Murk in question is enough to reverse the process, but being caught between two veils such as that is both unpleasant and incredibly painful.
	NIGHTHOOK	A spindly silhouette of a hand that stretches out across the ground. While unable to physically harm you, Nighthooks have a nasty habit of creeping out of the dark in search of a source of light to snuff out. When a Nighthook closes around a light source, whatever it may be, it will extinguish it utterly and leave you stranded in utter blackness until you can relight it. Nighthooks cannot be killed, as they lack a physical body of any sort, but they can be spooked away with a swipe of a weapon or a loud enough noise, but take caution - such things can easily attract the attention of many of its fellows.
	OOLICK	A fat, hairy tick formed entirely from shadows, with a morass of stubby, waving limbs. It covers ground slowly but efficiently, oozing across the ground at a steady creep. Oolicks secrete an oily black trail behind them that is dangerously toxic when exposed to oxygen, akin to acid with how quickly it can burn through skin and clothing. And if they surround you, even attempting to fight them off might not save you, as their blood is just as corrosive. But the true danger comes from what happens when they manage to close in, for at that point, they seek to engulf you entirely. Being trapped inside an oolick is not painful, per se, but that does not mean it is pleasant; an oolick's interior locks you in a perpetual state of utter sensory deprivation that grows harder to recover from the longer you remain mired within. It's possible to free you, of course, by cutting you free from the oolick's mass, but the aftereffects of being trapped in a total sensory vacuum can plague you for weeks after.
	RATHM	A hunched, bony silhouette of a creature of indistinct appearance, save for the straggling mass of stringy hair that conceals all but the tiny pinpricks of its eyes. If you get close enough, you might see the unnaturally wide crescent of wickedly pointed, needlelike teeth set in a mouth far too big for its thin face, but if you get that close, that probably means you're not in much of a state to admire its dentist. The Rathm are generally placid unless disturbed, content to sit in trees or isolated patches of ground, rocking back and forth with small piping wails that sound eerily like a young child in distress. Once bothered, however, the Rathm will set upon you with a vengeance, tearing at you with webbed claws and hungry jaws. Once enraged, there is no stopping it; a Rathm only stops when it is dead.
	THELESH	Demented shapeshifters with a disturbingly blank default appearance, Theleshes attempt to assume the shape of someone recognizable and use the guise to grow close to another. They manage this through little more than the careful hobby of observation of the behavior of their victims. Their intention is to lure their targets into a state where they feel safe enough to allow them to draw physically close, at which point the thelesh will promptly sting them with a paralyzing toxin they secrete from a retractable spine in their wrist. This toxin won't kill you, but it will petrify you for several hours. And unless you have someone looking out for you, the thelesh plans to eat you alive in that state. Slowly.
	TURSA	The most intelligent of the undersea beasts, the Tursa are the only of their kind to be sophisticated enough to use tools, albeit of a crude variety - most are fashioned from sharp spines of coral, pointed shells, and chunks of driftwood. Bipedal and thick-furred in appearance, their large tusks and bulbous girth almost cause them to resemble walruses. They hunt in groups, favoring the casting of large nets woven from thick lines of seaweed to trap their prey so that they may close in for the kill.
	USKAL	Those familiar with the stories of water-horses or kelpies may find this creature familiar in some respects, though their function is far more similar to that of a siren. With a tall, powerful stature, Uskal resemble ordinary horses but for their size and the webbed, water-slick quality of their glossy coats. Those who grow too close may be caught in the strange aura of the Uskal's ululating cry, which invites one to come close enough to touch its silky, beautiful coat. Provided you cannot resist the lure of the Uskal's song, physical contact with its coat will reveal it to be quite adhesive. Those who do not manage to cut, burn, or tear themselves free are dragged into deep waters and drowned for the Uskal's next meal.
	WENDEL	These creatures are large and almost spidery, with far too many bony limbs and some stunningly agile reflexes. Carnivorous in nature, they seek to devour and destroy whatever crosses their path. Wendel are nonetheless wily and cunning; their multitudes of limbs bear an abundance of adhesive suckers, much like those of an octopi's, that allow them to climb up trees and cling to walls until they can drop down on top of an unsuspecting traveler and bind them into place with their many sticky, lanky appendages before eagerly tucking in.

Most creatures can be beaten off or killed through ordinary means, and as always, there is safety to be had in numbers. Most are especially vulnerable to light and heat due to their affinity for the shadows. As this period of time is dangerous for all characters, regardless of personal involvement, the Storyteller will reduce death penalties to the span of one week, just like what happened last time characters were caught up in a massive, involuntary struggle.

However, there is hope! Not only will characters have the assistance of those on Chol, but the Storyteller can be found in the fray, fighting alongside the rest to protect LifeAftr's sun and the adventurers both. Furthermore, they can guarantee that the Storyteller's temple can serve as a safehouse. Those who remain inside during the calamity will be shielded from the dangers of the night beasts, who will not venture within, though they'll still have to contend with hunger and cold until the event is over.

Despite the reduced death penalties, we ask that any characters that do perish in the duration of the event let us know!

I'm Gonna Change You Like a Remix

Come the 28th, the night will finally see its end. The war will be done and the white flag will be raised, and the glowing ball in the center of Chol will unfurl, having been successfully reborn. The lush center of the island will blacken and char as the heat abruptly withers all the surrounding flora until it resembles the red-baked stone of the much of the island's canyons.

Wings streaming behind it in glowing trails of orange and red, the freshly hatched sun will launch itself into the air with a triumphant cry and bring back light to the world, revealing itself to be what LifeAftr's sun has been all along: a phoenix.

When the sun rises again, so too will the temperature, the perpetual dark will cease, and the regular day-night cycle of LifeAftr will be restored. Many of the undersea creatures and shadows of the night will flee as the phoenix climbs higher and higher...but this does not mean they are gone for good.

As the sun assumes its position high in the sky once more, the Jormun stationed on Chol will be happy to thank any adventurers for their help, relieved that they were successful in staving off the sun's destruction for another cycle.

The islands of Chol and Monsun will remain until February 10th. At that point, a great fog will obscure both islands' entirety, and the surrounding waters will froth as though boiling. When the fog clears, the islands will have disappeared entirely, as though they were never there.

And there you have it! In the meantime, feel free to use this post to plot and plan, as you would for any other event!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs as usual
[ ♆ ] January 21st: The dark arrives, the temperature drops further, and the first hostile creatures begin their assault
[ ♆ ] January 28th: The dark ends and the sun rises
[ ♆ ] January 30th: Those who perished are revived with a reduced death penalty
[ ♆ ] February 10th: The islands of Chol and Monsun disappear