but a strange light in the sky was shining right into my eyes

[singmod]

JANUARY 2024 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — THE AURORA: NASCENCE: Following the strange dream at new year, a three-day Aurora takes place. During which, Interlopers discover a possible ally in the mysterious woman heard in the static and heard in the dream — potentially earning new abilities.

PROMPT TWO — ADUST: The Interlopers find out what happened to the owners of long-destroyed Milton House in the form of hauntings.

PROMPT THREE — THE VISITOR: Interlopers find themselves with an unwelcome visitor — a shadow doppelganger here to make everything absolutely worse.

THE AURORA: NASCENCE

WHEN: January 13th - 15th.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: potentially disturbing dreams; dreams of being burned alive; some minor supernatural horror; some minor ‘ghost’ horror/hauntings; death of npcs in various ways including suicide, murder or exposure to elements.


In the middle of the month, it happens. A herald. The noise starts: faint at first, but then growing louder. An ethereal, high-pitched chorus of sounds difficult to place. There’s a kind of electrical buzzing with it all, a low, endless hum punctuated with cracks and pops. The sky is alive with sound, and with it comes the swirling streaking of colour against the inky black of night: The Aurora has come.

Much of what happened previously happens again: Streetlights, illuminating the town’s roads; lights in stores and homes will come alive, buzzing and flickering at times. Previously abandoned cars will turn on, their headlights blaring. Electronics that had previously seemed broken flick on — and whilst there are no broadcasts available on televisions, and the radio waves only drone on in static, both only occasionally blaring standard emergency broadcasts. Any computers and phones will turn on, but will have no internet or reception. Instead, Interlopers may find texts and emails — many of them unsent. The everyday lives of their users stored within, now readable.

There are still some instances of the ‘ghosts’ from the previous Auroras, but they are now only faint outlines, and far fewer in number. However, whilst the Aurora would usually only last until the next morning on sporadic nights over the month — this time it will last for a full three days. The world is plunged into darkness, a seemingly endless night with only the Aurora to light the skies.

On the second night of lights and noise, a voice calls out to you: static-like, and distant — as if someone speaks over a radio. A woman’s voice. It is the same one you’ve been hearing for a few weeks now, but finally it is far stronger than the scant whispers of name and the word ‘help’. She is far clearer now.

“You.” she says. She may whisper your name, too. “I see you.” You’re unable to speak back, the communication is only one way. She sounds upset, but there’s something more… a kind of wonder, perhaps.

”It’s not just a regular aurora borealis, but then you probably worked that out already, haven’t you? It’s so much more than that. Everything is… changing.”

”I don’t know how you can go back. But— but I can help. Maybe. Maybe I can make this place easier, somehow. I need help, but I’m stuck—” There’s frustration in her voice for a moment. ”It took from you. Took you away. It doesn’t always have to take. We can take, too. Sleep. I will help you take back. You will survive this. You will not go into the Dark. This is not the end.”

You have no idea what that means, for the most part. But you might just end up taking the chance and doing as the woman asked, even if it’s difficult with the noise and light with the Aurora. Sleep, and a dream may come to you.

FREE RUNNER: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream you are a magnificent stag, galloping through the snowy woods with ease. You seem to go on and on, never tiring, never slowing. You feel like the wind, or perhaps the very wind itself carries you. Not once do you stumble or fall, even when the snow is thick and deep, or the ground is shaky and uneven beneath you. You feel free.

When you awaken, you feel the most refreshed you’ve ever felt since you first came here. For the final day of the Aurora, you are bursting with energy and even when the lights in the sky fade — that revitalised feeling within you remains. There’s something within you that understands: you are the Free Runner. The ground will yield beneath you, your energy will not desert you, the wind will carry you.

LIGHT BRINGER: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream of sitting by a lonely campfire in the mouth of a cave at night, warming your hands. As you sit, a strange feeling comes over you, a desire to reach out to the flames. And so you do, reaching with both hands into the fire — gripping at the white-hot embers. It burns you, and for a moment there is blinding hot pain as the fire suddenly explodes around you, consuming you whole. But the pain soon stops. The fire doesn’t burn you. No, you have become the blaze — your body warmed. You burn bright enough that the darkness around you turns into day.

When you awaken the next morning, you feel warmed and comfortable. As if even the coldest of winters couldn’t reach your bones. The warmth remains even when the Aurora ends, and you are left with the innate understanding:you are the Light Bringer. The power of flame is at your very fingertips. You master the light, life, warmth.

AURORA CALL: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream you are standing in the very sky itself, at the Aurora’s height. Colour and sound twirls around you, within you — and you feel it curl into your body. Your head fills with noise, a chorus of voices calling out, snippets of conversation echoing within you. A woman’s voice calls to you, it is the same voice that spoke to you before you slept: “Don’t you understand it now? We are all connected. The Aurora connects us.”

And you do, you do understand it.

When you awaken, you feel connected to the world around you. To the very people who live amongst you. You feel less lonely, a kind of kinship with others. You have heard the Aurora’s Call and you have answered it, unlocked a connection with your fellow Interlopers. You will be heard.

NOTHING: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape, but only for a moment. The edges of your vision begin the blur with black, slowly closing in until everything goes dark and you fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. You awaken, and although you feel rested, as if the dreamless darkness has helped you feel a little more ready to take on the day — nothing else about you has changed.

ADUST

WHEN: From mid-month to month end.
WHERE: Milton House.
CONTENT WARNINGS: fire; house fire; death of a child/children; hauntings; ghosts; mental manipulation; illusions of burning/being burned; potential injuries via falling/unstable building collapsing.

There is a reason why it is advised to avoid Milton House other than the simple fact that it’s a miracle the house is still standing. Once one of the largest buildings in the town of Milton, it is now a former shell of what was once a fine and grand house. It has lain in ruin for many years, dilapidated and host to a great deal of fire damage.

While he is in town, Methuselah will not speak of the place, but he often looks sad when it has been brought up in conversation. “A great tragedy.” he will say before falling into a pensive silence. “A blackened mark on the town’s memory.” He does not wish to say much more of what happened: sometimes there are things that are just too painful. He will continue to advise the ruin is left alone, out of respect, and the fact that the place is a danger.

Of course, advice will not stop anyone from attempting to get into the ruins and exploring the house, even if it is in fact highly dangerous.

The sounds of voices and whispers may be enough to pique anyone’s interest. You're sure you heard something, maybe you should go to check it out?

It is true in the fact that the house itself is incredibly dangerous structurally: floors and stairs may give way and you’ll find your foot (and half of you) falling right through the floorboards. Damp and rot that have long since set in, and it will be dangerous to breathe in. But you’ll find that the house itself is pretty ordinary: this was once a family home. Just about the entirety of the house and its contents aren't salvageable, but you’ll be able to find out a little about who once lived here.

There are faded, half-destroyed photos that show a family of five: a father, mother, and three young children all under the age of ten. The father with warm, beaming smiles, the mother has kind eyes, the two oldest boys with toothy grins much like their father, the younger girl looks shy, wanting to hide against her mother. They look happy. Just a typical family. In a world where so many strange things are happening, it feels so strange to look upon these family photos and around this home to realise that they simply lost their home in a house fire.

But as you hold a family picture, or some half-destroyed trinket: a toy, a shoe, a book, a vase, you’ll find the item will suddenly catch alight, bursting into flames in your very hands. The flames do not burn you, and as you discard the item, it will fall to the floor as if nothing had happened.

Then, it comes to you. Here and there. Different sensations that stop and start suddenly: the house groans and creaks around you; the smell of smoke enters your nose; the sound of fire cracking and popping with a roar fills your ears; the sensation of heat against your skin; the clawing and suffocating feeling in your lungs that makes you cough and choke; the sounds of terrified shrieks of children echoing above you. Feelings flood you: fear, panic. When you next turn around, the entire house is aflame around you, and you can’t tell if this is real or if you’re reliving some terrifying memory.

You need to leave, get out of here. For some, it will be what comes naturally. You’ll have to fight through the flames and escape the house before it burns down completely around you. You’ll have to fight your way out, find an exit not already consumed by flames — through a window, perhaps. Crashing out of the house and into the snow, you’ll look back and see Milton House just as you entered it: nothing more than a half-burned ruin.

But for others, there will be another pull. You are drawn upstairs, to the screams of children. You need to get to them, to help them, save them. You will battle through the flames, heading towards the ruins of what was a child’s bedroom, or towards the bathroom. Inside either, you will find a figure cowering, engulfed wholly in flames: one in the bathtub or one in the closet. You recognise them as the two sons from the family pictures.

Mom. They will call you. Or Dad. They weep, terrified of the flames. I’m scared, I’m scared. I want the fire to go away. Help me. Stay here.

The tragedy of Milton House is before you. More than just a fire. What is more tragic than the death of a child? What silences voices? Breaks spirits? Leaves one helpless to act in the wake of such a passing?

There is something to be done here. You are not so powerless. Calm the child. Offer gentle assurances. They will get out. They are safe. You are there for them. You will stay. Embracing them will set you alight. Too hot. Too bright. It will hurt, but you won’t burn. But don’t let go; holding them will eventually calm them down enough for the flames to grow dim, to slowly ease their spirits to rest.

Soon enough, the flames will go out and the child will disappear, leaving you alone in a decaying, dilapidated room.

In the churchyard of Milton, there is a family grave by the name of Barker. Three lie within it: Thomas it reads, and his beloved sons, Patrick and Christopher.

THE VISITOR

WHEN: The month of January.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: erything absolutely worse.
THE VISITOR — CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural beings; dream-related horror/disturbing dreams; doppelgangers; themes of depression; themes of self-harm; themes of isolation; potential themes of suicide.


It seems the dream of the New Year and the Aurora dreams are not the only odd sleep-related instances occurring this month. You first notice that something is off when a strange dream pulls you from sleep. The dream may feel like any particular dream you have, whether it be a usual nightmare or strange concoction your brain has conjured up for you this night. Maybe it’s a dream you’ve had before, maybe it’s a new dream entirely. But no matter the dream, there is one thing that is odd about it. In tiny moments within the dream, you notice that there is something different, something that feels out of place. Something is there that shouldn’t be.

A figure, tall and silent, entirely made of shadow stands lurking in the background. It looks human, but there is not much more that you can really describe further. It is a sad, unsettling presence.

When you awaken, eyes bleary from sleep, and you look about the room, to the bottom of your bed, for a half-moment you see that figure standing there silently. That unsettling sadness permeates the room, and after a few seconds of blinking and sitting up — the figure disappears. Perhaps it was just some trick of the mind, some half-awake illusion.

But the next time you sleep, it appears again. The same figure, the same emotions surrounding it. And when you awaken, it stands at the bottom of your bed once more. Only this time, it lingers, and you find yourself staring down the figure before it disappears once more.

Over the next several days, the presence continues to linger more and more. It stands silently in the corner of the room of your home; it hovers by the window, staring out into the snow; it stands in the middle of the road as you go about your business. More and more, it is there. Always standing, always watching — silent and sad.

No one else seems to notice it, only you. And over time, the shape of it seems to change — the vague, undefined shape of it slowly shifts into something you recognise. The same hair, the same height, the same way it holds itself: it is exactly like you. A perfect doppelganger, a second shadow. And with it, it exudes an oppressive sadness, a particular kind of loneliness. It is suffocating, bleeding into you.

It makes you withdraw from the world around you, from the people around you. Perhaps you stop spending time with others, retreating into solitude. You hide from others, keep to yourself. You find yourself not sleeping at all or perhaps sleeping too much. Perhaps what little you already eat becomes nothing. The shadowy doppelganger draws ever closer to you, close enough to touch you - ever hovering at your shoulder. Its presence bores down on you, making you feel small and more and more alone even with its ‘company’. No one else can seem to see it but you, mentioning it to others will earn odd looks, or even concern. It seems you and your double are alone together.

Hopefully, those around you will notice the change in you. How you stopped reaching out, how you’ve stopped taking care of yourself. Hopefully they will see something isn’t right and reach out. You are doomed to the doppelganger's company otherwise.

However, those around you can push the shadowy double away, and can break its influence and hold over you. Genuine care and concern for you will have it shrinking back. Perhaps it is a kind word, perhaps it is the gentle but insisting coaxing to eat. Perhaps it is an attentive ear to listen to your thoughts, to how the presence has made you feel. Maybe it is even the simplest of touches, an embrace or the holding of a hand, the grip of a shoulder. Continued connection with you will slowly have the visitor’s power diminish.

And hopefully it is done before it is too late, or it may be all too easy to fade into the Long Dark.

FAQs

THE AURORA: NASCENCE

1. Aurora Feats are now unlocked! Please see the following page for more information. Aurora Feats are completely optional.

2. Interlopers will only receive ONE Aurora Event. The only time this is available is this month. After January, players will have to wait for the next Feat round for another chance at an Aurora Feat.

3. This Aurora will last a full three days. It will be a period of only night.

4. For more information on the ghostly loops seen during the Aurora, see this previous event, under 'The Aurora: Aftershocks' prompt.

5. For new players who would like a little extra context regarding the woman can look at December's Tales From The Northern Territories, under the 'New Happenings in December' section.

ADUST

1. Characters will not be physically burned in the fire, but only feel as if they have been. The effects of this illusion will last a short time after they're out the house before they will fade.

2. The only real injuries characters can sustain will be from fall damage, or if the floor gives way and their feet go through, etc. whilst in the house.

3. The children cannot leave the house. They will be too scared to leave. In addition, they are tethered to the house, given that this is where they died. Simply being calmed/comforted is the best way to help them and they will disappear after that.

THE VISITOR

1. An Interloper's Visitor can't be seen by anyone but the Interloper themselves.

2. The Visitor can be spoken to, but it will not speak back. It cannot be interacted with and is intangible.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

[cantor]

... I went looking after I left the house.

[How could he not? When he'd felt their pain, their desperation, their terror - the same emotions he'd experienced so many years ago, choking on the fumes of a neighborhood consumed by flames - he couldn't leave them. In the children, Renny had seen himself.

He looks to Konstanti when he comes closer, wearing a faint and sad smile.]

A house that large speaks to a family of means. They'd be wealthy enough to reserve a plot. But I was worried the graves would be... lost. That time may have used the elements to wipe them clean. I'm grateful it's not so.

[He drops his gaze.]

What did you see in the house?

[Was it the same screams? The same desperate pleas?]

[sputnik]

[ Went looking.... Konstantin hadn't even considered such a thing. (No, of course not, he decided to hide instead — ducking his head and pretending as hard as he could these past few days that the experience hasn't been eating away at some already-existing hole within himself, made the edges of it wider, more consuming. Running away is what he's done for as long as he can remember.)

There's a lump in his throat as he comes a little closer, not wanting to intrude on this private moment but drawn to this, unable to run away now that he's staring it right in the face. Those names, proof that the little ghosts he'd held really happened, in some shape or form.

But how does he convey what he'd seen there? His mouth opens, closes a little, opens again. ]

I think... a memory. Or something designed to feel like one.

[ A trick? A hallucination? Perhaps he'd been drugged with something. ]

The house.... burning. The boys inside. They thought I was their father. [ The lump tightens, hurts. He can't hide the way his mouth sags at the corners, wounded. ]

Did you see the same?

[cantor]

[Renny recognizes the way Konstantin's mouth pulls down, as if laden by a great weight. He's attended enough funerals to recognize grief and sorrow like old friends. Had Konstantin, like Renny, lost himself to the ghosts' memory? Believed, for a few agonizing minutes, that if one ached and hurt enough, the barriers dividing past and present could be transcended by their well-intentioned hands?

(that, by saving the children, those in the past would be saved - that mother and father would be brought back by this theatrical, fitting act, and their little house on the corner would return anew.)

Renny's lips press together into a tight line. He's not quite looking at Konstantin as he searches for the words.]

Yes.

[The affirmation drops heavy.]

I don't - I don't think it was false. Some ghosts are condemned to play the same act until they're released from their torment. [The emotions had been too intense, too genuine.] And... I've been in their position before. Everything they felt, felt true to me.

[sputnik]

[ He knows, by now, that experiences in this place sometimes, somehow, are shared by multiple people. The man he's living with now has shared many of them with him, including this one.

But it's still so strange to encounter someone else who knows what he's known, felt what he's felt. Perhaps it proves that the crying ghosts he'd held onto hadn't been punishment strictly for him, but.... he can't help feeling that way about it. Dwelling on it, unable to move past.

He's watching the other man speak, and then slowly moves to lower himself right to the ground, long legs slowly curling in crossed as he sits there closer to him. He still isn't sure how he feels about ghosts — can they truly be real...? But he's hanging onto Renny's words with severity no matter what, listening deeply. When he asks, it's gently. ]

Their position...? You mean trapped somewhere?

[cantor]

[Renny's gaze flicks up as Konstantin sits, and the man may glimpse an unusual sadness that subtly defines the halfling's expression. He's forced a small little smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.]

What are the cities like where you come from, Konstantin? Are they grand and sprawling, or are they small and cramped?

[There's a purpose to what he's saying, but he's reaching it in a roundabout way. It buys him time.]

[sputnik]

[ Compared to the jovial disposition the other man had maintained through his first meeting with him... this is certainly striking. An ache reflected back to him, and Konstantin's own frown deepens. He offers a little smile in return, a quiet thing.

The question is one he accepts calmly, takes a moment to think about. ]

There are many different types. Some grand, some much less so... But everything is very structured. Efficient. Everything has its place. [ Soviet life and its cities are all about efficiency. But there's one place in particular that he thinks to: Star City, secretive and esteemed, a proud place for cosmonauts to live while training. His whole life he dreamed of being there. ]

The city where I lived and trained... to reach the stars. It was wonderful there. Very proud. Small apartments, everything contained and neat. ...I suppose one could say a little cramped, however. [ He admits, with the softest echo of a laugh. ]

[cantor]

[He listens and he hears home in the cosmonaut's words, the timbres of fondness allowing Renny to feel what the city was to him. It eases some of the sorrow contracted in his chest, lightens it enough that it can be spoken.]

I wish I could see it.

[It's an honest sentiment. A city where voyagers of the stars were trained - what could be more romantic than that?

Renny links his fingers together. He finds his words after a minute.]

When I was young, my family lived in the Heapside. If you had a look yourself, you'd agree with the name. There's buildings all jumbled together, conjoined like the spines of a narrow, winding slate serpent. Everyone lived next to each other, if not on top of each other.

[A bit of warmth returns to his smile.]

Not a bad place for a scamp to grow up in, if you ask me. There was always someone to look after you.

[The next part comes far easier than he expects, a natural continuation despite its abrupt nature.]

There was a fire. A bad one. I'm certain you can figure the rest out.

[sputnik]

[ Konstantin falls quiet as he listens to the other man, attention fixed on. There's a quiet smile that settles on his features, mind conjuring up mental images to go along with Renny's descriptions: it sounds a lot like some of those Soviet apartments he was so familiar with, except everything contained even closer, like one entity.

It's familiar enough that he can picture it, and different enough that it's something new and curious to think upon, and he slowly draws one leg up towards his chest, elbows bent, resting on that knee. It's a cautious movement; he has to be careful how he bends and moves now, not wanting to disturb the thing that lives just under his ribcage, but he's learned how to keep his torso straight while moving like this. It's a comfortable position, athletic, a little boyish.

His smile warms as the other's does — an easy thing to reciprocate, natural, as he listens to this man speak of his home with such fondness.

And then it comes, and Konstantin's smile lingers for a moment or two longer but it's left his eyes as realisation comes all-too quickly. Renny is right; he doesn't need a detailed explanation. He understands. ]

....I'm so sorry.

[ Breathed more than spoken, and his brows knit in empathy as his mouth sags into a frown, deeply wounded. It's a horrible thought. A horrible implication. ]

It sounds like.... a miracle you survived.