singillatim | nature offers a violence

NOVEMBER 2023 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — WHITEOUT: Methuselah makes an unexpected early return to Milton to warn Interlopers of an impending monster storm, and boy does it surely come.

PROMPT TWO — A CHOICE: Following the storm, sightings of a mysterious stag prompts a hunt down in the Basin and out in the Outskirts.

PROMPT THREE — REST MY WEARY BONES: While the storm causes a great deal of mess, it also uncovers some far more pleasant surprises. Hot springs.

WHITEOUT

WHEN: Early to mid-month.
WHERE: Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: extreme weather; storms; blizzards; themes of survival; possible character cold-related injuries; possible themes of peril.

In the times that he is no longer occupying the Community Hall in the center of town to help tend to the newcomers, Methuselah is out in the wilds. Despite his growing age, he is a hardened survivor, and has been more than accustomed to life living as a nomad, out in the thickest, deepest parts of nature. Sometimes he can be encountered, sheltered in a cave or out in the woods, huddled by a warm campfire, or busying himself with his latest game catch. He seems to be always on the move, never staying for too long, and never coming into town — unless it’s to begin preparations for the latest batch of new arrivals.

To see him returning to Milton outside of these times is a curious sight, and the grim expression he carries is enough to make anyone wary. Even his voice is grave. The warmth and kindness usually found in his expression is gone, replaced with a deathly seriousness. He doesn’t speak in jest.

"I am long used to this world and its weather, even with the changing times to more bitter nights." he will say. "I have seen the years rise and fall, too many to count. Please, I beg that you hear me with this— a storm is coming. Greater than some of you may have ever known. It is in the air, and we must prepare to see it through. We do not have much time. Three days, perhaps. But no more."

He will tell anyone and everyone; encouraging the word to be spread around. He will instruct on what needs to be done, what needs to be gathered. The storm will be long and hard, and will last for some time. With that, Methuselah will begin to prepare the Community Hall as a place of refuge with a stock of food, fuel and water to get through the storm. Interlopers will be free to join Methuselah and bunker down together, or can choose to bunker down on their own in their own homes, or with others.

You have only three days.

And sure enough, the storm comes. Maybe you can notice the signs too: the sudden updraft, the slow gathering of clouds, the drop in temperature, the changes of pressure in the air.

Halfway through the third day, the storm rolls in: a ferocious snow-storm unlike anything you’ve seen before. Even with the fading amount of daylight as mid-winter approaches, the sky turns as dark as night as will stay like night for the duration. Strong howling winds batter the town, and even the sturdiest of buildings creak and groan under the weight. Trees will be felled, some buildings might not fare the storm.

Relentless snow that falls so hard it’s a complete whiteout, and will be impossible to navigate if one were to step outside. Even then, it isn’t advisable. The temperature is bitter, with a frigid windchill. Going out in this kind of storm would be a death sentence. Staying out in it for longer than a half-hour will certainly kill you.

It would be best to wait it out, to huddle around warm fires in the darkness. It may certainly be a test of patience, depending on your choice of place to stay. The storm will last a full week, a stark reminder of what you are, the words you have heard in your arrival: thrown to Mother Nature’s mercy, the Interloper in her design.

But will you persist?

A CHOICE

WHEN: Mid-month, onwards to end of month.
WHERE: Milton Basin, Milton Outskirts.
CONTENT WARNINGS: survival themes; themes of hunting; possible animal death.

After the storm passes, there’s a certain kind of hush that falls upon Milton and its surrounding areas as Interlopers are left to pick through the wake. While the temperature certainly doesn’t get that much warmer, there’s days and nights of clear, calm weather — short afternoons of weak sunshine and nights of chilly peace, the moon hung high in the starry skies. Winter is drawing ever-closer, but it’s still for a little while.

In the early evenings, before the sun sets, there’s strange sightings of a particular white stag that can be found roaming the area — particularly down in the Milton Basin. It seems quite elusive, but there’s plenty of Interlopers that have been able to capture a glimpse over the coming days. Even Methuselah himself has seen this beast before, remarking there has long been tall tales of a ghostly stag that roams the Northern Territories and is said to bring good fortune to those who manage to hunt it down.

Perhaps you’re a little low on luck. Perhaps you’re feeling lucky. You’re going to find that stag.

Hunting down the stag, however, will take a great deal of patience and time. You might find yourself waiting several hours to wait for it to appear. Building a snow shelter, or hunkering down in some old shack might be needed in order to keep warm. But if you’re patient enough, and able to withstand the cold for long enough — the beast will soon make an appearance.

In the dying light of the day, it is there. It’s unlike any deer you’ve seen before: tall and majestic, with thick, soft fur of brilliant white. It almost looks ghost-like in some angles, it’s an incredibly beautiful creature. But it seems to have also noticed you, just as you have noticed it. It doesn’t dart away, however. Instead it stands before you, waiting for you to act.

You have a choice: slay the creature, or let it go.

It will not move until you make your decision, holding your gaze until you raise your weapon or until you lower it and give up your hunt. But there is a consequence to either action: if you choose to kill the stag, you will be rewarded with a sizeable bounty of venison. Eating said meat will help you feel fuller for longer, and the meat will keep for far longer than any other deer slain.

However, if you choose to spare the stag, the creature will lower its head, as if bowing to you. Then, it will disappear with a swirling of powdered snow. When you return home for the evening and go to sleep, the next morning you will find a gift at the foot of your bed: a pair of deerskin boots, or a deerskin blanket. These boots are supple, tough and waterproof — allowing for a great balance of mobility and warmth. The blanket is incredibly toasty, and will provide a great deal of comfort in the long nights ahead.

REST MY WEARY BONES

WHEN: Mid-month, onwards indefinitely.
WHERE: Milton Outskirts.
CONTENT WARNINGS: n/a.

The storm has blown in plenty of snow to make traversing the area much more difficult, but there’s something else of note that comes with its passing. While the storm has brought much devastation, and some places have been buried in snow drifts, plenty of snow in areas has been blown away, uncovering otherwise lost secrets within Milton. Clouds of what looks like steam can be noted not too far from town, towards the mountains of the north.

If Interlopers head to explore the clouds, they will find old trails leading up towards the mountains. It isn’t a particularly difficult journey, for once, and they will soon discover that the storm has blown away the previously blocked access to a cave. It appears that this is the right place.

The air is warm here, pleasantly so. Warm enough that hats and mittens and coats seem a little unnecessary. One might wonder if someone lives within, and that a great fire is stoked to keep the place warm. But there’s no one in sight, no sounds of life: human, animal or otherwise. If they press on, they will discover that the cave floor is well worn with footfall: plenty of people have come here before, and the reason why is soon revealed.

The air grows even warmer, and more humid. The space opening to reveal small pools of slow-flowing water, warm water. The stone houses a natural hot spring, and following the cave out the other side will lead to another space in the rock open to the air, where there are even larger pools of warm water, perfectly sized and deep enough to bathe in. It seems that this place was frequently used by the people of Milton, where their life of hardship could be forgotten for an hour or two.

The water is pleasantly hot, and incredibly inviting. After so long in the freezing cold without modern appliances and utilities, a natural hot spring sounds like an absolute luxury.

FAQs

WHITEOUT

1. Characters are free to play around with this prompt how they want. Maybe they're dumb enough to go into the cold and get injured or sick. Maybe they're stuck in the Community Hall for the week. Fights might break out as tensions run high whilst everyone's stuck together, or maybe you're actually having a nice time.

2. For those stuck in the Community Hall: there are board games and old school textbooks stored in cupboards. There is also a piano.

3. A floorplan of the Community Hall can be found here.

A CHOICE

1. .... Yes, you can pet the ghost stag.

2. Characters will get one choice only with the ghost stag, meaning they can't keep going back to find it to get extra gifts.

3. If characters can't agree on a course of action, whoever acts first will get their gift. The second character will have a chance to try again another time.

4. If both characters agree on sparing the stag, but players want different gifts (ie. one player wants the boots and one wants the blanket), characters will get the gift the player wants their character to receive.

REST MY WEARY BONES

1. The hot springs will now be a permanent fixture in the Milton Area, enjoy!

PLOTTING POST

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. So we're still kind of matching? [Jack smiles to that. See, that's like 'go fish!' But also, putting cards in order.]

What about the suits, though. How do they go in order?

I guess if we both get a flush with the same cards, we can fight to the death over which one should be worth more.

[ That's not going to be an issue, looking at her hand. ]

Otherwise, high card wins. They just all need to be the same suit, they don't need to be in order.

[ He stares at Wynonna, eyes wide, once again, taking some poor unsuspecting person too literally. ]

We don't need to die over a card game.

[ Jack's hand might not be the best, but he puts it in order, at least. From seven to ten. He pulls out a Queen and shows it to Wynonna. It ruins his straight, anyway. ]

So what about the face cards?

You sure? I know a guy who's killed people over card games before.

[ Granted, that was back in the wild days of the West, but it still happened.

She stares at him, at his card, at his face again. ]

What do you mean, what about the face cards?

Very sure. I don't want to kill anyone over cards. [Not that he wants to die over them, either, but back home he was mostly bullet proof - he hasn't fully found out he's not, here.]

Like the Queen, and the King.

I know what they are. Are you sure you've played... any kind of cards before?

[ Maybe they should stick with 'War.' ]

You treat them like the highest value cards.

Well, yes. Go fish. [Jack manages to answer that with the same upbeat pleasant tone he has had the whole time.] We just had to match things up in go fish.

[He would have to be taught War, too.]

How are you so calm right now?

[ Tension has been rising in this hall ever since the first afternoon, when they all trundled inside and closed the doors to the oncoming storm, then more a threat than the actual chaos that later ensued.

She doesn't do well around people in the best of situations, and this is pretty damn far from that. And now here's this guy, beatific and mild, and she has the sudden urge to throw her hand of cards at him just to see if they'll bounce off with no effect. ]

Fine. The face cards are basically eleven, twelve, thirteen when it comes to how much they're worth. Aces are either worth the most or the least, but we'll go ahead and say it's the most.

[In fact, if she threw her cards, they probably would do just that.]

[As it is, Jack tilts his head a little, eyebrows furrowed, more confused than anything ruffled.]

Should I not be calm? This doesn't seem like a situation where anger helps. [It also doesn't register on Jack's anger radar. Wynonna hasn't done anything violent, yet, and he doesn't suspect her of being anything other than a human, albeit slightly angry one.]

Oh! Thank you. The face cards make more sense, now. [He at least knows the order of Jack, Queen and King.]

Since when has anyone ever gotten angry because it helps?

[ Even she's self-aware enough to know it's not helpful, but that's never stopped her from losing her cool before. Take, for instance, that time they got a warrant to search the revs' trailer park and Dolls kept telling her to stay calm, and she'd ended up firing off Peacemaker and roundhousing a couple of Bobo's goons. She doesn't know if time is passing here the same way as it is at home, but either way that was only about a month ago.

All that to say: she knows he's right, but that doesn't make her any less annoyed. And knowing she could probably try to emulate him if she just tried hard enough only aggravates her further. ]

Great. Ready to try a round?

Sometimes it does. It's never done me any good when I get mad. Things...go very bad.

[Maybe that's part of how he can stay so infuriatingly calm. Those hard lessons from when his first year alive. He likes to think he's matured since then.]

[To be fair, being told to stay calm when you don't think you're that angry, would actually make most people more upset.]

Yes. I would like to give it a go. Is this one of the games we don't show each other our cards?

As opposed to... what?

[ This just isn't going to work. Wynonna shakes her head and puts her hand of cards back into the deck, then slaps the thing down on the table in front of him. ]

You know what? Just play a round of solitaire. That might be more your speed.

[ She shoves her chair back, intending to get up and take a walk, take a breather, before she comes back and tries to figure out how to teach a guy who doesn't know you're supposed to hide your cards poker, only for her chairback to catch a passerby and send them stumbling. "Watch it!" they snap, and Wynonna gets to her feet, steps up on them, her annoyance coming to a sudden fast boil of anger. ]

You watch it. What, this place isn't crowded enough for you?

Well, as opposed to being calmer and working things out.

[It's not that easy, Jack knows that. He's about to protest he doesn't even know how to play solitaire, when Wynonna has an altercation with a passerby.]

This is why I'm talking about. I don't think this is going to help. [Rising tempers after being stuck inside? No way that was predictable.]

Shut up.

[ That's to Jack, and her tone has all the annoyance he might have expected; as he surmised earlier, people don't like being told to calm down.

But it doesn't matter, because the person she's stepping up to is clearly spoiling for a fight, too, and Wynonna's more than happy to offer one. To her credit, she doesn't raise her voice first... but she is the first one to start shoving, because she's never met a bad situation she couldn't escalate into an irredeemable one.

A short but violent scuffle and some shouting later, she reaches for her jacket, swiping it off the back of her chair. ]

I've had enough. I'm out.

[ Jack watches her with wide eyes, and may even try to talk sense into the other person, but no one listened to him, at that point. He watches Wynonna grab her jacket and head out. It seems lonely, or even dangerous, to go out there alone, so he sets down the cards. ]

I guess it's a draw. [ He looks at the table all matter-of-fact like, then grabs his own jacket and heads out. ]

Wait up! It's kind of bad out here. We probably should stay in pairs.

nature offers a violence

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