UNICORN HUNTING

[goneawaymod]

unicorn hunting

PLOT DESCRIPTION
Wanting to strike up a good relationship with a town with many magical resources the group is dispatched to help the town with a magical plague harming its children. The only thing that can cure them is the unicorns in the nearby magical woods. However, due to past attempts at capture, the unicorns no longer trust any of the townspeople and can reocgnize them on site. The town wants the New Hires to try their hand at luring them in.

The only catch: the unicorns aren't attracted to virgins, they're attracted to emotional vulnerability, and they'll only come if the whole group displays it. Loudly. Which means the New Hires will have to shout their insecurities into the forest and submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.

After the unicorns are caught they'll also have to navigate a difficult moral choice.

SCENARIO

Meanwhile, one of the locations Jorgmund is building connections with is a small village in an wooded area that one could easily distinguish as “enchanted”, on account of the overgrown mushrooms and general sparkliness of the air. Sunbeams lance down, rainbows seem to sprout out regardless of lighting. Lush berries hang from the bushes and shiny red apples dangle from the trees.

Unfortunately, the idyllic aura of the town is besmirched by the sad fact that the children in the town have all been struck by a mysterious disease - a pox that puts children into an endless sleep and has been debilitating this town for weeks. The locals know that the only cure is fresh emotional wounds for the unicorns that inhabit the woods, but their own fear and sorrow over their children isn’t sufficient to get the wily beasts to cooperate. In exchange for their allyship, they require assistance luring in the healing unicorns, which will require public displays of emotional vulnerability from the hires. Beat poetry readings, a cappella ballads, merely shouting into the woods - so long as the hires bare their wounds and weaknesses to the forest, the unicorns will approach.

There’s still a little struggle involved, though - just because a unicorn gets close doesn’t mean it’s willing to give its forces over to the sick children of the town, or to humankind in general. Unicorns must be lured and lassoed and forced into the role of caretaker, which the Jorgmund insists is both for the best and a task that will be well-compensated.

This is, naturally, even more difficult when other forest denizens decide to interfere; in addition to the mortification of shouting your deepest fears into the forest, a hire might find themself accosted with tricky imps trying to steal their belongings, or pixies trying to pluck out their eyes. The local fae are particularly sneaky, trying to play pranks or draw the hires into loser’s contracts to prevent them from ever going home. One might find that the mortifying ordeal of being known is small potatoes compared to the trials the magical beings in the woods are setting up.

For now.

OOC DETAILS
➤ Characters have been given enchanted golden lariats to catch the unicorns with. Once they get them around their necks, they'll be far more docile.

➤ This is a multi-part plot. A later part will involve some moral choices about what to do with the unicorns after the children are cured.

➤ The vulnerable thoughts they shout have to shout have to be fairly extreme, though characters who have very few insecurities can get away with less serious ones. They have to shout them at a fairly high volume.

➤ Other signs of vulnerability like crooning a love song dedicated to someone they have a crush on are also valid.

➤ Players can make up mystical annoyances or minor threats in the forest, and have the freedom to make them anything that might be reasonably found in your average generic enchanted forest.

➤ Feel free to ask questions in the question top-level below.

Comments

[gempathizing]

[ Check and mate. It's exactly the dissonance he was thinking about. Ben is a wildcard at every given opportunity.

(Should a person... should a person eat a hot dog every day for ten years? Is Steven qualified to judge that matter?)

Steven doesn't quite tip over into wondering if Ben is taking this seriously. If he knows one thing, it's that insecurities of all levels will eat at a person. And at this point, as long as the job gets done, it doesn't much matter if the problem is world-ending or about getting scared by one of those pop-up snake peanut brittle cans.

Just. Wasn't expecting this. Not that it isn't a helpful measure for somewhere soft to land when Steven takes his turn.

First, though, like a moth to the helping flame, inevitably, he offers: ]

A lifesaver, mostly. Does Marvin not have a tip jar? [ Do you tip hotdogmen? That's an etiquette Steven has not yet explored in his illustrious career. It feels like a person should be allowed to tip Marvin. Those hot dogs are his livelihood. ]