July Exploration: Ignotum Fatum

[lifeaftr_mods]

JULY EXPLORATION: IGNOTUM FATUM

Those of you interested in exploring the underwater structures discussed in our OOC Event Information may do so here! Instead of linking to our Search Requests page, we've chosen to consolidate all OOC discoveries regarding this particular location into one post.

Che Vibra ed Arde

The opportunity is finally yours to find some answers, dear explorers. The underwater structures are yours to pick apart and study at length...as long as you're not stretching the time limit you have to your underwater shape, of course.

Even from a distance, it's apparent that most of these structures have been through quite a lot. Given that they look very much like they were meant to exist on the surface, it's very likely that they were built there and then subsequently sank. The design of each construct is relatively simple, but sturdiness was an evident priority - many of these structures have retained their basic shapes despite whatever it is they may have been through. Certain arches and pillars and supports may seem reminiscent of an almost Greco-Roman architectural style...though if you've been with us for long enough, these buildings might remind characters of a certain other city. Nothing as utilitarian or simplistic, but there's no doubt about it: this sunken city shares many general structural elements with the city of Ai'tuoh. Bear in mind that the return of this area in the future is not guaranteed. Characters must work together to cover as many of the structures as possible. Planning ahead and searching groups is advised. Also keep in mind the restrictions of the sne'akleriad - characters can only remain in their aquatic form for thirty hours at a time, and the underwater city has no places to rest. Characters may be attacked by predators and other threats, and not every find will be able to be physically transported back to the surface.

So tread wisely!

Vivida Nei Secoli

Below, we have provided the map to the entire area for underwater exploration. As opposed to our standard grid-based exploration system, searchable areas have instead been divided into numbered sections. Each number corresponds to the building or general sub-area that characters may search.

To search any part of the city, respond to our search top-level below. Remember that standard search request restrictions apply, as detailed on our Search Requests page. Make sure to use the event plotting post, as well as any other OOC avenues of communication you might need, to communicate with your fellow players as to who wants to search what!

Hover over a location for its name. Click on the location to read its description, and whatever has been found inside or around it. If a location has not been searched, it will simply read its number, and will not link to anything.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] July 8th: The Jormun and the kaleidoshells return to Ensō's shores
[ ♆ ] July 10th: Underwater exploration begins
[ ♆ ] July 17th: Part Two of our second year anniversary Test Drive Meme goes up
[ ♆ ] July 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs
[ ♆ ] July 22nd: The final island in this voting round appears
[ ♆ ] July 25th: The Jormun return home, and the magic of the sne'akleriad recedes

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[onegreeneye]

Player: Maggie
Character Name/Journal: Ginko (onegreeneye)
Character(s) Accompanying: Epsilon
Area searched: 6
Date of search: 11th
Additional notes: If they run into any plants down there Epsilon may ask them what's up, but that's about it!

6 | INFIRMARY

[lifeaftr_mods]

The Search Below
A building full of hallways lined with small rooms can generally be one of two things: either a school or a hospital. A more intensive look at this particular building will quickly reveal which of those two options it is...or once was, when it still functioned. While there are clusters of smaller, office-like rooms at the head and back of the building, much of its layout is devoted to squarish rooms containing dilapidated bed frames, or wider rooms containing ruined tables and cabinets. Rummaging through said cabinets will reveal ancient, rusted tools that very much resemble rusted scalpels, broken bottles, and old syringes.

From the look of the place, it's an old infirmary. Most of its supplies are utterly beyond salvaging, but it's at least fairly identifiable from its layout alone. One of the offices at the head looks a bit larger and more important than the others - if anyone was in charge here, this is likely where they worked.

It's probably fortunate that there's not a doctor or a dead body to be seen. There are, however, some truly stunning specimens of various aquatic specimens.

Even worse, however, is the presence of several nighthooks that seem to have decided to stake out the surrounding area. Objectively speaking, they're not the most terrifying thing one could potentially confront down here: in terms of appearance, a Nighthook is little more than a spindly silhouette of a hand that stretches out across the ground. And yet, while they may be 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.

And if it manages to snuff out your lights, you might very well be beset by something worse.

♆ The Infirmary has been unlocked on the map of the area! ♆

---

Fire in the Soul
Beneath some of the rubble, the group will find a singular, intact orb. It seems to have escaped the fate seen throughout the buildings, the very center softly shining with a wisp of light. The orb is...peculiarly transparent, almost like glass, but it proves almost rubbery to the touch. This deceptive sturdiness must be what has allowed it to survive the wear and tear of time, and the pressure of the water above.

Taking hold of the orb with bare skin will cause color to bleed out of the world around you, hues of greys and blacks slowly transitioning to a full, endless white.

And then you see something else.

---

"Oh, Hesta." You're quick to take them gently by the shoulder and steer them back to their bed. They allow you to guide them down, unresisting, their pale eyes staring unblinkingly ahead as you sit them back on the mattress, swing their legs underneath the sheets, ease them onto the pillow, and draw the covers back over them. They don't respond to the interference in the slightest. They don't do anything but stare blankly ahead, murmuring the same words that they've uttered since the day of the attack, without break and with barely a pause for breath.

"As we lived on our flowery words, so now shall we choke on them as we lived on our flowery words, so now shall we choke on them as we lived on our flowery words, so now shall we choke on them as we lived on our flowery words, so now shall we choke - "

All the others like them have been going silent, one by one. The guild of medicine's head has made it clear that he doesn't expect a single one of them to last the night. Looking at Hesta as they are now - their eyes bleached white as scalding marble, their hair a whitish, almost silvery shade despite their youth - you would be a fool not to believe it yourself. Their pulse, every time you've checked, has been thready and feeble.

Still, every time you've left them alone, they find a way to wander, despite the fact that they must be in immense pain. They're feverish, sweating, breathing heavily between their long and unbroken litany.

You do your best to smooth their hair back, all the same, careful to avoid the strange, bony growths that have sprouted up and back at the crown of their skull, like tiny horns.

Hesta doesn't quiet. They only shift beneath the infirmary sheets. The heat of their fever feels as though it might crackle the air beside you.

You rise to get them another cold compress. If there is little you can do, at least you can ensure that they do not die in discomfort as they fade from this world. It takes you a moment to reorient once you stand, and you grunt your annoyance to no one in particular. You're too young to feel the way you do, like your joints are creaking and your muscles are aching. You've been on your feet constantly since the attack. The light fever you've picked up, the hacking, the sporadic numbness to your fingers and toes...anyone would be feeling it, after the hell that's been the past day or so.

Another coughing fit arrests you in the doorway, on your way out of Hesta's room. This one doubles you over for several minutes. It feels like something is wrenching its way out of you, gods -

You don't have a handkerchief, so the palm of your hand will have to do as you finally, finally hack out something soft and slippery and warm, cringing as it settles, jellylike, against your skin. You'd better not have hacked up an internal organ, as much as it feels like you have. Is that even possible? Your chest aches. Everything about you aches.

But, no. It's not an internal organ. It's something much worse.

It's a clump of dandelion-yellow petals, stained orange with your own blood.

---

The scene fades away, and color bleeds back into the world around you.

A little experimentation will prove that as long as the orb remains intact, anyone who holds it for long enough will relive the scene detailed above.