there'll be oats in the water

[singmod]

JULY 2024 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — THE AURORA: REDUX: A storm finally arrives, and with it — Enola extends her hand to help the Interlopers once more, granting them new abilities.

PROMPT TWO — PENSIVE LOOKOUT: With the Forest Talker efforts focused on sabotaging hunting efforts, Interlopers can attempt to explore the Pensive Lookout Tower, where they can uncover secrets from the diary of Sam Bouchard — the former firewatch worker of the summer of 2014.

PROMPT THREE — A PEEK INSIDE: A group of Interlopers get their hands on one of the Forest Talkers in search of answers — and get a little more than they bargained for.

THE AURORA: REDUX

WHEN: Mid-month, for three days.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural/extreme weather; lightning storms; potentially disturbing dreams; dreams of being trapped in ice; dreams of animal death; dreams of the death of loved ones.


July brings warmer weather. The fog has lifted, and the daylight returned — but an odd kind of pressure lingers in the air, the kind that feels similar with oncoming storms but something still feels off about it all. Measurements and readings are erratic, with them often making little sense. It’s hard to predict just what might be coming, but sure enough something is coming.

Hold on a little longer, Enola told you. A storm is coming.

It comes quickly, the gathering of storm clouds. At first, it looks as if a kind of snowstorm is moving in, but there’s something else at play here. Within the grey, cloudy skies, there is a tell-tale sound of an Aurora mixed within those clouds.

And with it, in amongst the dark, the swirling colours. Greens, pinks and purples weaving through the clouds, almost mesmerising to watch. The air is alive with sound: static noise, cracks and pops: a storm and the Aurora mixed into one. For those who’ve been here long enough, it’s a worrying, unnerving sight. The storm rumbles with the low roar of distant thunder, growing ever closer. The electronics of the world begin to come alive, and in the static of it all — you begin to hear Enola’s voice even clearer than before.

After so much darkness, now there is so much light. A lightning storm — aurora colours mingling with the grey clouds, punctured with crackles of lightning. Something powerful and strange — flash forking across the skies, followed by booms of thunder.

The storm lasts three days, and even though her voice is soft — you hear it over all the noise, nestled gently in your ear.

“You're still here. It means something. This isn’t the end, I refuse to let it be the end. It can’t win. You won’t go into the Dark.” Enola tells you. ”I will make you more than what you are, more than what was stolen from you. This place will not be your end. I have to try. We have to try. Together. I showed some of you, once. I’ll show you again.”

She tells you to sleep. For some, they recognise this and realise what may end up happening. For others it feels like going out on a limb. But you sleep, and perhaps a dream may come to you.

COLD FUSION: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream of a great hall of ice: as if it had been carved into some great ridge of it. You walk through it, marvelling at the beauty of it — a blue gloom, echoing with each of your footsteps. But as you take one particular step, the ground cracks and collapses beneath you, sending you into dark, frozen waters. In seconds, the water freezes around you, encompassing you in thick ice, your entire body trapped within it. The coldness burns you, and you are stuck there — frozen in agony. The pain is immeasurable, your entire body crushed and searing from the ice. There is no escape, no reprieve.

A voice speaks to you, perhaps it is the voice of a stranger, perhaps it is the voice of someone you know: Do you know how you survive the cold?’ They ask you. You do not know, and you wait for the answer: ‘You become colder than it.

Your eyes close. You believe those words, you do. You must become colder than the cold itself. And so you will. Your breathing slows, your heart slows and the cold… it stops hurting, it doesn’t burn. The ice around you begins the crack.

When you awaken the first thing you realise is despite the temperature, you are completely cosy and warmed. You do not feel the slightest chill. It is perhaps only once you are around other than you truly notice the difference to you — you are cold to the touch, lacking the heat you once had. An understanding comes: you are at one with the cold, it will not beat you, it will not cause you agony. Winter is at peace within you: perfect Cold Fusion.

MOON TOUCHED: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream of running through the silent woods at night. The moon is full above you, the air is calm and still. Hunger draws you forward, everything is so sharp and vivid in your senses, even in this dreamscape. You hear the crispness of the snow beneath your feet, smell the scent of the pines on the air, feel how warm you are against the coldness around you.

The snuffling of a rabbit catches your attention, and you swiftly leap after it, jaws opening and closing around its neck as you capture it. You bite down hard, feeling the crunch of its bones as they break, the sweet coppery taste of blood filling your mouth and nose. You lift your head towards the stars, blood on your tongue. You realise you are not a person at all, but a beast on all fours: a wolf, content and filling your belly with meat.

You wonder, for a brief moment: were you ever a person at all?

You do not know the answer to the question. You do not seem to worry about such a thing but there’s a flash of warning on the air. Something you cannot quite place, but you know that you should not forget it.

When you awaken, you feel… different, somehow. Everything seems a little sharper, as if the world around you had been dull, or behind some pane of frosted glass. With it comes a strange balance of calmness and chaos, tameness and wildness, fear and bravery. You find yourself looking for the moon in the skies and when you finally find it, it hits you — this is what it means to be Moon Touched.

INTERLOPER’S SACRIFICE: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape and then fade into nothing. You dream of kneeling in a darkened, charred wood. You are not alone. In this dreamscape, you dream of a loss, or a time you have never felt more helpless in your life. Perhaps it is when someone you knew died before you, or you stood as someone was sick and injured and you were unable to do a thing. As you kneel, they are there with you: sick or dying or even dead in your arms. You cannot do anything but hold them, and the helplessness is overwhelming.

You look up and a woman in furs stands before you, her expression solemn. Enola herself. There are tears in her eyes, as if she shares the very pain you do: the loss, the grief, the hopelessness, the powerlessness. She approaches you and lowers herself to kneel in front of you and your companion, bracing your shoulders for a long, lingering moment. There are no words, none from neither of you.

Enola shifts slightly, leans forwards. She kisses your forehead, much like when a parent kisses their child: sweet and tender.

And then you feel it, as if you are set alight: an agonising pain that encompasses you whole — so painful you cannot even open your mouth to scream. You feel yourself growing weak, the corners of your vision blurring into black. It feels as if you might die from the pain, and you want for it to stop but it doesn’t.

Enola pulls away and you gasp, slumping in exhaustion, but still alive, somehow. You stare at her, sweating and clamouring for breath, and she offers you a sad smile. Never again. you feel the words inside of you. This time, it will be different. Better.

When you awaken, you can still feel the kiss upon your forehead — enough to make your fingers reach up to touch it, your entire body tingling a little. A small voice in the back of your mind whispers, reminding you as you find yourself looking down at your hands: never again. Never again, you tell yourself and the comprehension comes to you: you have chosen. This is what it means to be: this is your sacrifice. The Interloper’s Sacrifice.

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.

PENSIVE LOOKOUT

WHEN: The month of July.
WHERE: Pensive Lookout Tower, Lakeside.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of survival; possible fall injuries/treacherous climbs; themes of terror; themes of diminished sanity; themes of starvation.

The Old Hunting Lodge is located in the southern-most area of Lakeside, and its surrounding area is generally considered no-go territory with the presence of the Forest Talkers. As June turned into July, the Forest Talker’s presence in the wilds of Lakeside has begun to grow again — but their efforts appear to be focused on sabotaging the efforts of Interlopers, Methuselah and Young Bill in hunting fresh game. If anything, it could mean that with attentions drawn away — perhaps the braver sorts of the Interlopers can explore the area a little more fully.

There’s little in terms of buildings of interest in this area. The wilderness is thick and deep here. Perhaps the odd ransacked cabin once belonging to a local may be stumbled across — its contents picked clean, presumably by the Forest Talkers. Many of these buildings will be completely inhabitable due to the damage done — with some cabins being razed to the ground.

However, on higher ground, with a good hike to access it, stands a watch tower.

These lookout towers could mean a number of things: a chance to access supplies that may have otherwise been forgotten about due to the hike to get up there, a better view of the surrounding area, and the possibility of a radio — given the sign of a radio transmitter that can be found blinking a feeble red on Aurora nights.

With the snow on the ground it’s a little more treacherous, but given the circumstances, anything’s worth a shot, right? Those who attempt the hike may fall foul to slips and trips along the steep slow to reach the tower, and should take care in the ascent. Even with the warmth of July, it’s difficult. One might hope this might make the place a decent outpost, if you think about it. Somewhere hard to reach, and with such a vantage point.

Reaching the tower and climbing it to its interior will it largely intact but a mess. Someone has lived here for some time. Interlopers will find no food here, but some useful tools that belonged to the lookout: binoculars, maps, a compass, an alidade. There is even a radio sat upon a desk, and with it — a journal.

The journal, Interlopers will find, belonged to a man named Sam Bouchard — the firewatcher for the season during the previous year, detailing the months of his arrival and ending in November last year. It is unknown what happened to Sam, but his journal will perhaps offer some insight and even some information.

A PEEK INSIDE

WHEN: The month of July.
WHERE: The Gas Station, Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of kidnapping; imprisonment; self-starvation; blood/minor injuries; psychological torment, supernatural abilities.

The Forest Talkers have a long history in the Northern Territories, long before Interlopers started arriving in Milton. Champions of nature, they have sought to put an end to the industries and tourism-related expansions in the Lakeside area, first peacefully and then… not-so-peacefully. But with the events known as the ‘The Flare’ last year, Forest Talkers have been… acting peculiarly, disturbingly, aggressively.

There are plenty of questions to be asked. But the Forest Talkers are difficult to communicate with. Previous attempts have ended up in aggression or being ignored entirely. And now, even with the events of the previous month coming to an end — game remains difficult to find, and Forest Talkers are keen on sabotaging any attempts of hunting made by Interlopers, Young Bill or Methuselah. And more importantly: what is the yawning grave?

It starts as mutterings between tired and disgruntled Interlopers. They need answers, and there’s got to be a way in trying to get some. They’re hungry and exhausted and so many of their numbers are now dead. Those mutterings grow, and soon enough a plan is put into place. A small group of Interlopers embark into Lakeside and wait.

Soon enough, it bears fruit. A man is captured, bound and blindfolded — quietly and secretly brought back to Milton to be held up in the unused Gas Station to be questioned. It is not the leader, but surely one of them is better than no one at all. He is injured, but not enough to kill him. It will prove challenging in trying to get answers out of him, but soon enough the Interlopers will get him to talk.

News of the Forest Talker in their midst will inevitably spread, as most things do in small communities. Secrets are hard to guard. It won’t be just those behind the kidnapping who might end up coming across the man being held in the Gas Station.

Anyone who goes to investigate will find the man sat on the floor in quiet contemplation. Attempts of conversation will be met with long, silent stares — holding your gaze for an uncomfortably long time. He will spurn any gestures of kindness: spit on the floor at Interloper’s feet, refuse any food offered — as if the man has chosen to starve himself in protest. He says nothing, at first.

But after some time, he will look into an Interloper’s eyes and utter something. A word. A phrase. It may be a name, or a place. It may be a specific thing an Interloper has read, or been spoken to by someone. Something that holds meaning to the Interloper. It may be the name of a loved one from home, or the last words ever spoken to you by a friend. Something the man shouldn’t know.

Whatever it is that he speaks to you, it is not something that will fill you with hope or fondness to remember — but quite the opposite. A reminder of something painful, of a loss, or some other thing that caused you misery. As if he had reached right inside your mind and plucked some painful part of your past from you and spoken it to the wind.

The Forest Talker smiles, and will say nothing else. The damage has already been done.

FAQs

THE AURORA: REDUX

1. The next three Aurora Feats are unlocked! Please see the following page for more information.

2. Aurora Feats are completely optional.

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

4. This Aurora/storm will last a full three days, darkening the skies almost to night.

PENSIVE LOOKOUT

1. Interlopers who dwell in the lookout for the next Aurora will find the radio works, albeit poorly. They will be able to pick up the same broken morse code message.

2. There are no signs of blood/injury that befell Sam in the lookout. It appears he made good on what he wrote on in his journal and attempted to leave to get to Silverpoint.

A PEEK INSIDE

1. While only a small number was involved in the kidnapping itself, anyone can discover the fact there's a Forest Talker being held in Milton.

2. In terms of appearance, the Forest Talker is very much your typical average white guy. Bearded, weathered by the cold, someone who's lived several years without much in the way of comforts or luxuries.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

[wingbound]

"Preparing how? By telling the others he's in a room somewhere in "Canada"?"

Again, he's not happy with how the NPCs others chose to handle this issue currently but they'd been careful on the way and at least nobody has set the guy loose. So far. Though with what he's hearing that might not mean much in the end, actually. What the fuck.

"Is this letter something you keep on your person? Could he have accessed it?"

He's suspecting the answer, but he'd like a confirmation before he lets himself be freaked out.

[meadqueen]

“There is only one of those stations accessible to them unless they have enemies in areas we cannot reach ourselves. These are contemporary people, and familiar with the area! Unless he was unconscious he knows he travelled through the mines…”

Randvi takes a deep breath and tries to cool herself down before she burns her mittens in distress.

“I have not seen the letter here and it was not addressed to me by name.”

So even if it had been brought here like her bow and he knew her name somehow he couldn't have connected them.

[wingbound]

"If they're already familiar with the area, then they're not learning anything new." Of course, that's no reason to show the guy around, just in case. At the very least, the number of people here and their exact locations remain a mystery to the Talkers.

He sure fucking hopes nobody got the bright idea to change that.

"So they had no way to know it was yours? That's fucking creepy."

He doesn't like that. At all, in fact. He might try to march in and kill their prisoner outright later, but he'll be conveniently stopped by some NPCs still trying to question him if that happens.

[meadqueen]

“If he can communicate with his fellows he can tell them where he is!” Whether they would mount a rescue or assume he was compromised and leave him to die is a question they don't know the answer to, but Randvi doesn't like the risk.

“Even if you saw it yourself, you might not know it was mine. I don't like this.”

[wingbound]

"If they're familiar with the area, they probably already know. There's nobody else that could've taken him. Considering they're killing their own to leave arrangements in the woods, though, I don't know if he expects a rescue."

If they gave any shit about the lives of their people, he thinks they would have given any signs of that by now. Of course, they can't discount the possibility completely, but they haven't been acting like somebody who cared if they lived or died.

"...I don't like this either. That means they probably knew what they were doing."

Perhaps he needs a nudge to elaborate a little on that last part, but he is, of course, talking about them summoning the Darkwalker (or so he thinks).

[meadqueen]

“Of course, if they do not think he simply disappeared they could guess that he was in Milton, but not the exact building!”

They don't know enough about the dead people in the forest to understand what's going on, and this Forest Talker doesn't seem inclined to help with that.

“Knew what they were doing? I can not see how those types of deaths could have been an accident.”

[wingbound]

"I doubt they know the insides of each room in town that well." They made sure not to let the prisoner see where they were taking them, at least the others listened to him that much. "Doesn't mean they can't fuck us up anyway."

If they truly felt slighted by what happened -- in the case that this guy somehow communicated it to them -- they could always just snatch a random Interloper, or raid any part of the town just because they could. Unfortunately, in Levi's experience, everything comes at a price, and having a better understanding where they stand in relation to the Forest Talkers has a good chance of being worth that cost.

They should make the most of it, therefore. Torture the guy if necessary, though Levi suspects he may be one of those types that die without divulging anything of use. Exactly why he agreed to step back and let others use softer methods, just in case.

"Unless you've accidentally arranged a ritual sacrifice before, no. But it could have been a superstition, a theory, not something planned with purpose. If they have abilities we don't know of..." He pauses, and frowns at Randvi. "What happened here last month was no accident, either."

Maybe his hunch was right. Maybe those guys were summoning the Darkwalker to wipe them out -- and it was partially successful, too.

[meadqueen]

“There is only one such station in the area, isn't there? If he can figure out that this is the type of building he is in he will know everything.”

Look, she's a professional worrier, she's thought about this.

“It seems unlikely that they were the ones summoning it when it had killed five people before we had even been able to access Lakeside.”

[wingbound]

"Then he'll know that he's not in the middle of a residential area, at least." Again, that's assuming that the Forest Talkers are less inclined to commit war crimes than they may be in actuality, but either they would attack the place where their guy is held, or it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

He also doesn't know what's so special about the gas station; it doesn't look like anything to him on the inside, but maybe he doesn't know what to look for. He doesn't think he's seen the exact same building elsewhere, but the area Ruby hangs around looks similar enough to him.

"Doesn't have to be every time. It wasn't a coincidence last month, and it certainly isn't now. You know they've been sabotaging our traps, right?"

[meadqueen]

Randvi gives him an arch look. “We have been destroying their caches. It's only rational.”

It's the farthest thing from a shock that these people would want them out of Lakeside.

“How do you know whether it is a coincidence or not? We do not know what drives that creature to attack. I still believe that it is despair and isolation that make us enticing to it.”

[wingbound]

Levi gives one back, though a lot more subdued. "I thought we agreed not to, at least not the ones with food. Can't speak for others, of course." Besides, if they were to believe Bill, they had been a problem before that anyway.

Regardless of who started it, they will need the ones to finish it. He has to go home.

"It may be so. That does not mean they're unable to manipulate it at all. You have spoken to him just now, have you not? Does he sound like a regular person in rough circumstances to you?"

Besides the obvious, which is, a regular person would certainly not know about her private correspondence from home.

[meadqueen]

“We did agree, but these votes mean nothing. People do what they wish.” It's immensely frustrating to her, but what can she do about it? She has very little power here.

“He would not speak to me, aside from what I've told you. This is not unusual to me for a captive. I’d imagine he wants us to kill him.”

He’ll be compromised to his own people now. She would want to die with honour.

[wingbound]

"...Even if they decided to repay us taking their ammo by cutting off our food, they've still shown they're not interested in communicating with us and wishing for our deaths. The situation has changed." He frowns slightly, considering. Randvi may be right.

"Sounds like a reason not to do it yet. If he wants to die so badly, maybe he'll start talking without riddles."

[meadqueen]

“They want us out of what they consider their territory.” The situation does not seem to have changed that much. Bill had essentially said the same.

“He had food sitting next to him untouched. If a decision is not made soon, he may make the decision for us.”

[wingbound]

"Yes. Which means we either roll over and die, move somewhere else, or fight back."

There had been room for interpretation before -- many of the Interlopers wanted to parley and sent peace offerings and messages to the Talkers, all of which by now was solidly proven to be in vain, so yes, it has changed. That's exactly why he deemed the previous vote no longer relevant; there's no point in playing nice with someone set on despising you. It's less about finding common points and more about eliminating threats now, as far as Levi is concerned.

He's fine letting this guy getting taken care of by his own, though, unless something more unexpected happens, but the potential magical power revelation certainly makes him want to walk in there and put a bullet in their head right away.

"We'll shove it down his throat once he's too weak to resist if it comes to that." Which might be rather cruel, denying someone a death on their own terms, but that's what that guy gets for celebrating their upcoming extinction. An easy way out is not it.

[meadqueen]

"It seems to me that they'd leave us alone if we would keep out of Lakeside." They only seem to be harming hunting attempts on that side. From what Randvi knows, the first one to cross the mine since it had been cleared was this one who had been kidnapped.

[wingbound]

"For how long?" He can see that reasoning, sort of. They were there before most of them -- but giving in to such tactics is never a finished ordeal. They'll see that they can push them around, and try again, maybe this time trying to force them out of Milton, too.

Besides, destroying food is just asshole behaviour and never justified, as far as he's concerned.

"It'd make us look weak. They'd know they can demand more next."

[meadqueen]

“We are weak,” Randvi points out. “If you were correct about their numbers I do not believe that we could best them in a pitched battle. The only viable option I can imagine is to lay siege to their base, and I doubt we have leadership here that can manage it.”

[wingbound]

"Yes," Levi grouses flatly, "but there's no reason to tell them that."

In fact, he's quite certain that the reason they haven't attacked yet is because they don't know the situation. The Forest Talker's words had left no doubt in his mind that they want them eradicated one way or another.

He thinks guerilla warfare would be plenty successful -- they could have killed this guy, they could take them one by one if necessary -- but he definitely would like more people on his side before he tries anything like that. Maybe Randvi has a point; maybe simply leaving them alone would be the easier, less bloody option.

Until they continue pushing, at least.

"Leadership is also a problem." He's heard of some people that he thinks would be a decent fit, but everyone insists on having these sham votes instead. This is how they wasted enough time to end up in an unfavorable situation in the first place.

[meadqueen]

“It's a difficult thing, determining leadership in these situations.” Or at least, Randvi thinks so. “None of the people with ancestral ties to Canada held much power there. I think Constable Fraser had the most and he says this is not an area that was under his control. Many others here have fought, but few have seen war.”

[wingbound]

Levi looks mildly confused when she mentions ancestral ties -- as usual, his face doesn't change much, but his eyebrows do rise just barely higher, eyes widening slightly.

"We don't need a king, we need a commander," he corrects what he deems to be the misunderstanding. "Someone who's proven their mettle that everyone respects. That doesn't exactly narrow it down, though."

He's been here about three months at this point and he still has no idea what anybody's feats are. Granted, he hadn't exactly been socializing a lot.

[meadqueen]

“A king is a commander.” They come from very different military structures. “And people would not dare to disobey one more than once.”

If people had ignored Sigurd’s directives like this there might not be anyone left in Ravensthorpe.

“And as you say, very few have proven themselves in battle here.”

[wingbound]

"The hell he is." Indeed they do, and it looks like they're about to discover that -- or maybe they won't dwell on it, considering it does nothing to help their current conundrum. "Last guy calling himself king has been useless for decades before he got overthrown. I'm not interesting in repeating that whole bullshit here."

[meadqueen]

“What is the alternative?” Randvi asks, irritated. “This? People doing whatever they please and putting the entire group at risk? This is worse than useless!”

[wingbound]

Levi takes a moment to respond. She's... not wrong in that this may turn things with the Forest Talkers even more sour. At the same time, Levi knows that most things have a cost and he thinks it worth it in this case. Being blind and deaf and ignorant isn't going to keep them safe.

"The entire group is already at risk," he grumbles. "People have died, even if it wasn't you or me." He was the one helping reduce their number, in fact, even if he hadn't been in his right mind then. He still feels responsibility for it. What did they all die for? So the rest of them could sit and twiddle their thumbs a while longer?

"And more will keep dying. We have to figure out what we're up against if we're to have any chance against our enemies, or of going home."