it must be that old evil spirit

[singmod]

SEPTEMBER 2024 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — PAINFUL REMINDERS: An Aurora briefly connects the Interlopers to their homeworlds, and with it are able to receive items from home — but these ones will bring no comfort to them.

PROMPT TWO — THE ENEMY WITHIN: Strange and familiar occurrences begin in Milton and Lakeside, growing in frequency and danger for the Interlopers. Who can truly be trusted among their numbers?

PROMPT THREE — BAD BLOOD: The Forest Fighters finally come to Milton, and with it: they bring the yawning grave.

PAINFUL REMINDERS

WHEN: 5th - 9th of September.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: potentially upsetting themes; themes of loneliness/isolation.

For many, the sight of the Aurora is now one they have become used to. There have been plenty of them over the year that has passed since the Interlopers first came to the Northern Territories. Often, they have been a sign of great danger, with plenty of unsettling and unnatural things happening when the skies light up. Other times they have been the herald of aid — a link between Interlopers and Enola, gifting them with abilities to help them survive in this world. There is no real knowing what kind of force the Aurora is, truly. And there is a tension that holds amongst the Interlopers as the day turns to night and there is the soft sound that grows louder.

The ethereal, high-pitched chorus of sounds, is difficult to place. Perhaps it sounds like voices, or discordant strings. And with it, the low-drone of electrical buzz — punctuated with the echoing pops and sharp cracks. The sky is alive with sound, and with it comes the swirling streaking of colour against the inky black of night, growing brighter and brighter as time goes on — greens, blues, pinks and purples shifting and dancing across the night. And much like every Aurora before this one, the electricals of the world come to life too. Homes, streetlamps, cars long-stranded in the snow. Man’s world comes alive, buzzing and flickering precariously.

But there are no ghosts like there once was a year ago. No terrible weather, no poisonous fog. If one could call it a ‘normal’ Aurora, that’s what it appears to be. But there is something else in amongst all the light and noise. Snatches of things: whispers of conversations, names called, laughter and tears.

You realise you recognise these voices. They are the voices of home. Perhaps you hear your mother, your siblings or friends. Whoever they are, you can hear them. And although they might not be able to hear you — for one brief night, the Aurora has connected you, bridged the gap between your world and this one. You may sit for a while, simply listening to the voices, relishing in hearing those from back home. If others join you, you will find yourself compelled to speak of them: to share in stories about those from back home — the connections you share with them.

It’s strange, though. These voices do not fill you with comfort or joy. Instead you are left with feelings of sadness, anger, and isolation. The Aurora has connected Interlopers, but now you feel so cut off from home, cut off from friends and loved ones — reminded of everything left behind. Everything you long for. Everything you have lost.

Something strange skips through the sky, a warping of the sound. It’s unsettling. Something feels... wrong, somehow.

It’s not just the voices that will remind you of this. Something else comes through the Aurora after that night. A small token will be brought through. Whatever the item may be, when you go to sleep and next wake, you will find said item. It may be placed on your bedside, on your desk or dining room table.

The item, you will find, will bring you a reminder of pain. Of sadness. Of horror. Perhaps it’s something you haven’t thought of in some time. Maybe it is something that has lingered in the back of your mind. Perhaps it is a part of you, waiting to be uncovered. A sign of something to come. A painful reminder of your past, or an ominous omen of your future.

THE ENEMY WITHIN

WHEN: The month of September.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: kidnapping/attempted kidnapping; attempted murder; murder; vandalism; arson; assault; animal mutilation; corpse mutilation/manipulation/desecration; themes of peril/terror; possible character/npc injuries; possible character/npc death.

It starts with strange happenings at night, things left to be found by the next morning. Those within Lakeside many find themselves unsurprised by it, given their location, but the scenes found in Milton are a foreboding sight.

Mutilated bodies of animals: rabbits, ptarmigans, even deer — mangled and strewn about the streets, blood upon the snow. Some may awaken in the middle of the night to the sounds of their windows breaking, with houses on the Outskirts being targeted more than those in the middle of town. There is… a kind of unrest in the world.

It escalates.

Some may leave their home for the day and return in the evening to find the place trashed: items broken, precious foodstuffs thrown about the place and destroyed. Those within the Outskirts are once again particularly vulnerable, as are those within Lakeside. Fires are started in some of the abandoned buildings of Milton. Something, someone is targeting the Interlopers.

It is hard to pin-point who exactly, and it only puts the Interlopers on high alert. Nothing like this has never happened before. This is new, especially in Milton.

As the month progresses, the acts become more serious. Fires may be started in the middle of the night in Interlopers’ homes while they sleep. Some are attacked in the night, others are taken from their beds. Some killed within their very homes. Of the Interlopers that go missing, their mutilated remains may be found days later out in the wilds.

In Milton, soon enough, someone is bold enough to come out from the darkness, out from the gloom of the night. Interlopers may be attacked in broad daylight — by those they may recognise as newer Interlopers of the community, who appeared from the wilds: lost and shivering, with nowhere else to go. Some of them have been within Milton for a few months now.

Those in Lakeside will face something similar: Forest Talkers are making a move, rogue and isolated incidents — done with sabotaging attempts at hunting and taking a more direct approach.

They have no qualms about being captured or killed, only determined to get rid of as many of the Interlopers as they can. They whisper, they scream: “You don’t belong here. You should never have come here. It wants you gone, it wants us all gone. The end is here, it’s too late for any of us. Nature must run its course. The yawning grave has been opened.”

The attack is on two fronts: the first of Forest Talkers in Lakeside amplifying their actions. The second in Milton, enemies within the ranks of the Interlopers, Forest Talkers hiding as Interlopers.

Within Milton, newer Interlopers will likely be met with suspicion as being some of the Forest Fighters as a result of these individual acts of violence. As the numbers of Milton have been infiltrated, and it’s easy to have mistrust amongst those newer to the community. In-fighting is likely, and the entire town is stuck in some terrible, tense state — unsure of who to trust within their own numbers. In the days and weeks that follow, it remains like this. Acts of violence and vandalism — chaos and disorder.

BAD BLOOD

WHEN: The night of 27th - 28th September.
WHERE: Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: attempted murder; murder; vandalism; arson; assault; mentions of blood; themes of peril/terror; possible character/npc injuries; possible character death/npc death; actual NPC death.

Towards the end of the month, the moon is full. They call it the Harvest Moon, but colour seeps into it — oranges and reds: a blood moon, partially eclipsed. The night is calm and cloudless, but there’s an uneasy feeling in the night.

The earth groans, the rumble of another quake that’s plagued the Northern Territories since the beginning of August. It is the only warning Interlopers will get — if they may realise it as a warning. To some, when they look back, it’s a omen, a starting pistol.

They do not come through the Mines. Thanks to the efforts of Interlopers to guard the entrances of the Milton Mines, they know better. They come to town from the south, not the north.
The quakes of August and September have opened a new way from Lakeside to Milton. They are led by their Leader: a man dressed in white, a large deer skull upon his head. And while their numbers are small in comparison, they come armed and with the determination to get rid of the Interlopers once and for all. As they come into town, they launch their attack.

More fires will be set, Interlopers will be attacked with abandon. Shot at, stabbed, beaten. It is a mass execution. They will not stop until the Interlopers, or them, are dead.

Well, the majority of them. There are just under a dozen teenagers and younger people amongst their ranks who have shown hesitance toward violence in the past. Perhaps they can be reasoned with. Perhaps there may be a way to convince them to abandon their cause. There is fear in their eyes. Some of them do not want to die. They fear the yawning grave.

What will do you then, Interloper? Are you willing to fight for your life? Are you willing to take another’s to save your own, or a friends? Will you hide, or run? What choice will you make? The Forest Talkers have long since made their own choice. Now you must make yours.

It is another night of chaos on a town already scarred by the events of June. Interlopers will note two familiar faces in the fray: at some point during the night both Methuselah and Young Bill will arrive. While Methuselah will concentrate on aiding the wounded and trying to shelter Interlopers the best he can, Young Bill will help protect Interlopers from the Forest Talkers with his rifle in hand. But fortunately, it is just for one single night. Ammunition runs out, sides are switched, and people are killed. As dawn approaches, Forest Talker numbers dwindle. Either killed, incapacitated or defected. In the early morning light, bodies lie in the snow both Interloper and Forest Talker alike.

Those trying to hunt down the leader will see him slipping inside an empty cabin, heavily wounded. Following after him, they will find him settling himself down to kneel on the floor. The white of his tactical gear stained red with blood as it blooms from his wounds. Slowly, he removes the deer skull from his head to reveal a clean-shaven man in his late twenties with a shock of white-blond hair. His eyes are blue, calm.

He sets the skull down, panting and sweating. He is dying. He is not afraid.

“My name is Mallory, not that it matters now. We are dead, you and I.” he says softly. “We exist in a dying world.”

He is in much pain from his wounds. He moves again to sit cross-legged on the floor. A hand touches the bloodied fabric of his front and he laughs humourlessly.

“You don’t understand, do you? The end must come. That is the order of things. The end must come so the world can be reborn. That is how it’s always worked. When the world is swallowed, it will grow again from the earth.”

It is a story. The story of the Darkwalker. Some believe it to be the end of the world, but Young Bill had once said there is another telling of the tale. A creation myth. The Darkwalker swallows the world and returns to its slumber within the earth. Within it, everything its swallowed grows again and the world returns.

“We fought against man’s actions to ruin this place, not knowing our true purpose. The Devourer has shown me the truth, and I sought to put that into action.” His head tilts to one side. “The yawning grave is opened. Does new life not grow from the decay? It is a cycle. The grave and the cradle.”

He finds it difficult to breathe, but he presses on.

“You fight to live. You come here and you do not see what you are. You are only delaying the inevitable, perverting the true course. Prolonging the suffering. You are the Interlopers, you are not part of nature’s design. The Darkwalker does not want you here. And where it fails, we have tried to succeed.”

There’s another laugh, something catching in his throat. He coughs, blood bubbling from his lips.

“And failed. For now. The First Cursed cannot hold it forever. She, too, delays the inevitable." Even as he is dying, he still have the energy to sneer. He speaks of Enola. "A woman who plays at being a god. What right does she have? All must go into the Long Dark. ... As will I. Return me to the grave.”

Mallory’s head dips, his body sagging. He inhales once more and then stops.

FAQs

PAINFUL REMINDERS


1. Players must sign up for items. See the toplevel on the plotting post.

2. Items will face the same warps/nerfs as everything else that is brought into the game.

3. Items can be no bigger than something your character can reasonably carry.

4. While items do not have to belong to your character, there has to be a good reason why they’d receive such an item — ie. something related to your character.


THE ENEMY WITHIN

1. The Forest Talkers within Milton are a number of NPCs that have been pre-selected from NPCs who arrived in April and August. Not all of them will show their true intentions as the month goes on but will continue to stay hidden.

2. Two NPCs killed in the June Event were also Forest Talkers. … Good… job?

3. The following NPC Interlopers will out themselves as Forest Talkers at this stage: Devon Busswood; Rita Yee; Realm Lovejoy.


BAD BLOOD

1. Following the events of this prompt, Interlopers now have an additional way into Lakeside. It’s still rather dangerous: it’s through a partially collapsed cave system that ends into abandoned bunker on the Lakeside side. The game map will be marked accordingly in due course.

2. Some Interlopers may recognise a familiar face in the Forest Talker ranks: the man who was kidnapped by Interlopers previously in July has returned. Looks like he made good on his promise. He's come back to cause problems.

3. The following NPC Interlopers will out themselves as Forest Talkers during the attack: Jackie Blackmore; Ross Huguet; Jennifer Kitchen; Daniel Kresco.

4. As a reminder of numbers: around fifty Forest Talkers will show up for the attack.

5. There is an OOC vote on the fate of the remaining Forest Talkers, the link is here.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

[friendsfordinner]

Hickey can't help but laugh a little, shaking his head as he points out, "Nah. You've got to see something you care about to be traumatized, yeah? Everything I care about is right here."

He could see how this would go differently. He can think of a different universe where he hears Billy's voice whispering to him, where he hears Crozier talking. But that's a different universe. That's not the here and now. There is literally nothing tying him to his home, to his friends, to his nonexistent family.

This is a man who was willing to go to extreme lengths to reinvent himself. Ties aren't something he's used to.

[fissure]

The answer catches Prior off guard and he practically stutters through his thoughts as he tries to imagine how it all correlates. Having nothing until coming to this place sounds incredibly unfortunate. In a way, he wishes he could claim such things – that would certainly make leaving it all behind easier – but as it stands, Prior's found himself caring much too much.

"Are our experiences here meant to lack trauma? Because I don't feel some of the residents received that notice." That's the implication, at least. "Or, do you suspect memories made here don't count?" How exactly does he come across the confidence to believe himself unaffected, that's what Prior wants to know. And, if by chance, such a thing is able to be shared, he'd very much like to make a trade.

[friendsfordinner]

"I don't think memories made here count for whatever this is," Hickey points out. He's got a quizzical little frown on his face as Hickey explains, "This place pulls stuff from the past. There was a house that caught on fire, haunted by the ghosts of it's previous residents. During one of the Auroras, we saw ghosts of the previous residents. But we don't have a past, yeah? We're new here—hell, you're newer than I am."

After all, he hasn't seen Prior around before. This is someone who hasn't been here for months like Hickey and the rest.

"So these things are going to pull from our past, what we remember before coming here. And what I remember doesn't matter to me."

[fissure]

Prior has, admittedly, not done a whole Hell of a lot of digging into the history of Milton or the related lore during his short time in town. He is, indeed, quite new, and while others have expressed curiosity in his company, he's merely listened (somewhat half-heartedly), convinced as he is that none of this could truly be reality.

"Well, how should they—" Hesitating, Prior corrects, "How should it know what matters and what doesn't?" Eyes pinging around unfocused, Prior grasps for an understanding. Hickey speaks with a sense of authority on the subject that can't be ignored, but in all manners of ways, it feels untenable to agree. But then again, reality has turned itself up-side-down; maybe now what's right is wrong and what's wrong is right.

Perturbed, he feels his shoulders lift and his jaw tighten. "I didn't choose to care." The undertone brings with it no accusation, although Prior does admit to himself that the sting of envy is not missing when he looks at Hickey. Such a simple thing, to claim not to care, but how could that be true when the alternative – this cold, uncompromising, dangerous, isolated, harsh environment – offers so little? What must Hickey's life had been by contrast?

"What right does it have?" he snaps, agitation rising.

[friendsfordinner]

Hickey speaks with an authority about everything. Even if these are just his pet theories, his own ideas, he speaks with the confidence of a man who knows how the world works and knows exactly what he has to do to bend it to his desires. He has never met a problem that he felt was insurmountable or unknowable. Just apply enough dedication, grit, focus, and anything can be yours. You've just got to want it enough.

So of course he's right in his theories. He knows how the game works. He pays attention. He's not one of those idiots who gets tripped up in their own pasts, their own histories. He knows the lay of the land. Of course he's right. He's always right.

He's also a tad narcissistic but hey, that's neither here nor there.

"It doesn't have the right," Hickey points out, "but it wants to break us. That's what all these things have in common, yeah? If they're not trying to break us physically, they're trying to break us mentally. A fog that makes people sick, animals attacking out of nowhere, hearing voices you'll never see again. This place wants you weak. You've gotta prove it wrong."

[fissure]

Something so simple as an affirmation shouldn't set Prior on edge, but Hickey's flat explanations and understatements have him wondering if there isn't something as strange about the acceptance as the problem itself. How should a place want anything?

Prior is reminded of Rivers' headhunters, and of the stories shared over the few weeks he'd spent convalescing at the doctor's flat in London. Rivers had insisted that something strange had happened on the Solomon Islands as well, but Rivers never committed to it in a way that made Prior suspect obsequiousness. That it's so prevalent here seems as much a pattern as Hickey's observations.

"I was already doing that," he points out with a heavy sigh. He rubs his face tiredly. "And who am I proving it to? The lot of you? Myself? " Prior's pointer finger jabs at his own chest. "I know who I am," he lies. And where he would have once easily described himself as weak, now he simply chooses to call himself cured of weakness, primarily thanks to the doctors, Rivers, and his time at Craiglockhart War Hospital.

[friendsfordinner]

"You're proving it to whatever bastard's doing this to us in the first place," Hickey points out. There's a worrying intensity in his voice as he talks. His eyes shine with excitement as he talks, leaning in like he's telling Prior a secret or imparting the truths of the universe.

"Cause obviously something's doing this to us. The Darkwalker changed everything a few months back, wormed into our heads and made us think things. But this isn't it. This is the Aurora. Odd things have happened there before—odd things including a woman's voice. People call her Enola. I think she's the one who's trying to make you weak, trying to get in your head."

At least, she makes a convenient scapegoat. And the more people Hickey can convince to treat this woman with a hint of skepticism, the better.

[fissure]

"Ah," he muses. Better people have certainly tried getting into his head.

But the more Hickey says, the less Prior wants to hear. Never mind that the whole damn experience makes no sense from stem to stern, adding in levels of mysticism and hushed conspiracies only deepens Prior's disdain. He tries not to let it press through, but he can feel it stretching his walls thin and decides he no longer wants to entertain the thoughts.

"I think I hear someone calling," he notes, abruptly. Does he mean those mysterious voices Hickey can't seem to hear? Prior's not saying, although to perhaps spare the other man awkwardness, he still tips his head and knuckles his forehead as he takes a step back and aims to take his leave.

[friendsfordinner]

Blissfully unaware that he got a little too woo-woo and too metaphysical for Prior's tastes, Hickey gives him a little nod.

"It's a small town. If you've got any other questions about this place, it's not like I'm hard to find."

But he'll let Prior make his escape if he chooses.