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goneawayworld2020-06-24 12:42 am
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawayworld2020-06-24 12:42 am
Entry tags:
THE PATHLESS WOODS - PART 1
the pathless woods
PLOT DESCRIPTION
Far to the west, deep in the mountains, there is a forest where none may tread. Superimposed into the wilds, it has only grown wilder. But these once-quiet woods are peaceful no longer. A town built around an iron foundry is encroaching on the wilderness, enraging the spirits within.
Complicating matters: many refugees of the Go-Away war have been taken in by the town's residents, relieved to finally stop their wandering through post-apocalyptic wasteland. They have now made it their home, a place free from Jorgmund's de facto apocalyptic wage enslavement. Some have also been altered by Stuff and have no chance of refuge in the Livable Zone.
Meanwhile, Jorgmund is eyeballing the resources of the forest and wants the New Hires to exacerbate the conflict and convince the humans within to move within the Livable Zone ("for their own good, you see;") to allow for "resource acquisition." The New Hires must choose whether to stay in Jorgmund's good books, and if not, must decide whether to try to mediate the conflict, choose a side, or face the deep, dark dangers of the woods to find two lost people that some of the spirits believe can act as a bridge between two worlds.
All the while, they must fight off "demons," corrupted forest spirits changed by rage and hate. These demons can be influenced by the rage and hate of the New Hires as well.
SCENARIO
As they're driven to the drop off point, the tinted, reinforced windows of the transport vehicles gives them occasional glimpses of but it's not what they might have expected. Thought some areas are burned from fires that ran out of control, this wasteland isn't filled with scorched earth, just the skeletons of buildings slowly being retaken by the wild, trees growing through cracked concrete, vines swarming the outside of abandoned buildings unchecked. Some areas look like spherical chunks were suddenly carved out of reality, sometimes bisecting buildings. Water collects in these hollows in glittering pools that are ringed with moss and flowers.
The price paid for this life renewed was far too high, but the wilderness cares nothing about prices or unfair trades and retakes what once belonged to it faster than it might have in the past, due to the reality-warping influence of Stuff. There are no people in sight. The land is filled with bitter ghosts.
Soon that becomes literal. They start to reach areas that aren't much more scorched than the rest of the world, but there are still remnants of the war that have wandered away from battlefields, the way even the rural countryside might have some errant zombies after a zombie apocalypse. It starts with people in gas masks and military hazmat suits reaching for the convoy as it passes. The drivers blitz past them without stopping, long since used to hazards like this. People in the rear vehicles will see what happens after the first vehicle in the line ignores them - the gear collapses in on itself all of a sudden like no one is wearing it. In other areas driver-less tanks gather in herds like animals, scattering and driving away when the convoy gets close, as if skittish.
They are let out once the roads become too rugged for the vehicles, near the rocky hills they're meant to traverse. They're told the range of the rig's sensors, the outer limits they can go to before the collars claim their lives instantly. For this mission, the range had been extended to about 60 miles instead of the usual 50 because of how far out the settlement they're supposed to contact is from the rig.
The drivers are considerate enough to warn them about Stuff monsters in the countryside, telling them to be on their guard, and to be very careful of who - or what - they trust, because things that seem human often aren't.
Then they have to start a long march and don't run into much trouble until they get into a small valley in the hills in the late afternoon. A caravan of people driving oxen, laden with supplies, is trying to get them through a narrow gap mountain gap. The group is an unusually mixed group, some of the individuals look as if they've been changed by Stuff into something fantastic.
Some Stuff is in the air in this area, mostly solidified but still fluid enough to wreak some havoc. The group, fearing war or running from it, sometimes have their fears projected around them. Waves of unreality occasionally sweep through, briefly plunging everyone into murky strips of time that are shaped by the idea of war. Nothing gory but filled with the pale shadow of it - bullets zip through the air, there's chaotic yelling in fog that's suddenly appeared, the ground is rocked by explosions - but then each strip of unreality passes or can be escaped by simply charging a few steps forward.
What stays consistent in reality or in these strips of unreality is that the supply caravan is under attack and only armed with massive shoulder mounted flintlock rifles. The group will find they can speak to them, that they've suddenly been granted knowledge of a slightly archaic form of Japanese, the common language the mixed group speaks, just like some of the New Hires randomly learned English upon exposure to the rig for the first time.
If they can get the caravan to the mountain gap ahead, they'll leave the dangerous valley behind them.
Some of the threats the group must contend with that are there both inside and outside the weird strips of unreality:
a) demons
The corrupted forms of great beasts of the forest, these massive creatures have been changed to demons by their rage. They scuttle around the group extremely fast, the corruption forming spider-like legs, attacking aggressively, the squirming dark worms on their bodies killing any living vegetation it touches.
The more rage the New Hires feel fighting them, the faster and more powerful they are, as if it fuels them.
If any of this corruption touches someone, it burns right through their clothes, creating a bruise-like blight on their skin, a situation they'll have to find resolution to later - or they'll die.
Many of these demons were once boars but a few are massive deer, their pronged antlers squirming with corrupted essence. They at least can be killed but it will take multiple attacks that actually reach the beast under the corruption to finally put them out of their misery. Once killed, the great beasts have all the flesh dissolve off their bodies until only bones are left. They curse the humans with their dying breaths.
b) Flamethrowers
Not soldiers, not people, these entities are like moving statues of cracked calcification that looks like pale ceramic. Between the cracks in their skins, roiling yellow-white flames can be seen sizzling inside. They attack by getting close to people or grabbing them and suddenly stoking their internal fires so that the flames scorch whoever is near.
They can be killed if the fire is extinguished - fortunately there are streams and other sources of water around the battlefield due to a recent rain. They can also be killed if enough force is used against them, but it takes a lot for the ceramic to crack. If it can be broken or damaged, then they collapse in on themselves and burn away into gray ash.
c) Artillerymen
Phantom soldiers shoot artillery fire from a distance. Fortunately, it is weaker than real artillery, with less fragmentation, but a direct hit can still kill you. They fade and vanish when someone gets close, without needing to even be killed, but their weapons need to be destroyed or new soldiers will coalesce out of the mist and use it again.
d) Samurai
The samurai seem to have the ox drivers and their handlers especially afraid, looming out of the mist to attack with their blades and arrows and fading back into it again. They can be killed if characters are fast enough or get the timing right by attacking and forcing them to reappear in another spot. Fortunately, their movements are somewhat predictable.
The corrupted forms of great beasts of the forest, these massive creatures have been changed to demons by their rage. They scuttle around the group extremely fast, the corruption forming spider-like legs, attacking aggressively, the squirming dark worms on their bodies killing any living vegetation it touches.
The more rage the New Hires feel fighting them, the faster and more powerful they are, as if it fuels them.
If any of this corruption touches someone, it burns right through their clothes, creating a bruise-like blight on their skin, a situation they'll have to find resolution to later - or they'll die.
Many of these demons were once boars but a few are massive deer, their pronged antlers squirming with corrupted essence. They at least can be killed but it will take multiple attacks that actually reach the beast under the corruption to finally put them out of their misery. Once killed, the great beasts have all the flesh dissolve off their bodies until only bones are left. They curse the humans with their dying breaths.
b) Flamethrowers
Not soldiers, not people, these entities are like moving statues of cracked calcification that looks like pale ceramic. Between the cracks in their skins, roiling yellow-white flames can be seen sizzling inside. They attack by getting close to people or grabbing them and suddenly stoking their internal fires so that the flames scorch whoever is near.
They can be killed if the fire is extinguished - fortunately there are streams and other sources of water around the battlefield due to a recent rain. They can also be killed if enough force is used against them, but it takes a lot for the ceramic to crack. If it can be broken or damaged, then they collapse in on themselves and burn away into gray ash.
c) Artillerymen
Phantom soldiers shoot artillery fire from a distance. Fortunately, it is weaker than real artillery, with less fragmentation, but a direct hit can still kill you. They fade and vanish when someone gets close, without needing to even be killed, but their weapons need to be destroyed or new soldiers will coalesce out of the mist and use it again.
d) Samurai
The samurai seem to have the ox drivers and their handlers especially afraid, looming out of the mist to attack with their blades and arrows and fading back into it again. They can be killed if characters are fast enough or get the timing right by attacking and forcing them to reappear in another spot. Fortunately, their movements are somewhat predictable.
➤ This is a multi-part plot. Later parts will involve speaking to npcs in Irontown and deciding how to handle the whole conflict.
➤ Characters will have both canon gear (and clothes, if they prefer it over their field uniforms) and the wilderness supplies described in the gear section of the game mechanics page. They will also be allowed to have canon weapons they came in with or will be given a weapon they're comfortable with.
➤ Feel free to ask questions in the question top-level below.
Re: 3
She recognizes in Stacia what the werewolf had seen in her, earlier: the twin and twined desires to talk and not talk about something that isn't your fault, except for all the ways that it is.
"That's the one drawback with a tight crew," she says quietly. "Love's stronger'n'money, but it takes more outta you. You wanna talk about it, or forget about it?"
Re: 3
Stacia makes a noise not unlike laughter when Saturday says that love is stronger but takes more.
"I mean, if you don't mind listening to me stretch my emotional scar tissue? It all went down a couple months before I popped up here, so it's still sensitive. Not as bad as it could be, we found out who did it and karma got them good, but..." She makes the not-quite-laughter noise again. "I think it's going to be painful for a really long time."
Re: 3
It's an invitation, though it's worded oddly. No one here seems to have been taken at a good time; everyone here needs to be at their best. So let's see if we can look after each other.
"Sometimes you need to say the shit out loud, or it ain't real and you can't get hold of it."
Re: 3
Horror infection, kids, a very close friend. No good there at all.
Re: 3
It's easier to put away the closed, hot warehouse, the bodies in the circle, the pulse of Caim's heart slowing. Hold on as tight as you can and they'll slip away anyhow. No miracles this time, no precious destiny to step in and save the day. Only the heroes get that. Everyone else falls on the wayside.
Sick fucking system, any way you cut it. Makes a body wonder if the horrors don't have a point.
"We could make it a drinking game," she suggests, so it can be a joke. "Never have I ever helplessly watched a love one die, that sort of thing. At least we'll be drunk at the end, hey?"
Re: 3
"Sounds like a plan liable to end up with us setting something on fire to make an offering to the dead," Stacia says. "I'm in. Just know my ear's open if you decide you want it. But try to hold off until I'm not asleep; I wake up swinging."
She shifts her weight, checking to make sure that no one's started moving yet.
"I can start from two different angles on this, I guess," she says. "How they died, or who they were. You're gonna get both, but you can pick which one you want to start with and end on."
Re: 3
She crosses her legs, settling in. "They were your crew, yeah? Don't need more'n that to start with. So let's start with how."
cw: murder, miscarriage
"Okay, I'm going to give you the quick and dirty version because getting into all the details would be complicated and boring," she says. Also because she doesn't want to get too deep into Secret Garou Politics, even if Saturday is from another reality and they're in a third reality entirely.
"The set-up is that werewolves, like any other people, divide themselves into groups based on various criteria. There's one particular group that's considered the 'nobility' and everyone agrees that they are to one reason or another. Some of them are okay people, some of them are elitist douchebags, and most of them are somewhere in between.
"My buddy, Ace, is pretty decent as those guys go. He was one of the people who found me after I shifted for the first time, and he decided right then and there that I was his favorite baby cousin. That's basically how our pack started, him smiling indulgently at me while I screamed at him that everything he was saying was stupid and that werewolves didn't exist."
She'd had him in her phone for a long time as "THIS asshole".
"We pick up a few more people and none of the rest of us were 'nobility' at all, but Ace brought us along to the fancy werewolf parties anyway. Most of us were eventually looking to become leaders ourselves, and he wanted to give us the opportunity to mix and mingle with powerful people. He brought some of our other friends along, too. Unfortunately, some of the worse ones decided that we were getting ideas above our stations, and that we needed to be put back in our places."
Stacia flexes her fingers. Breathes in, holds it for a four count, and lets it out again.
"Like I said, they separated us up. Found ways to call us off in different directions at the same time, things we weren't suspicious of." Bares-His-Fangs and Bulletproof had been off with their respective Tribes, and Lilly had received an invitation likewise. They'd planted a bomb in Isaac's car. Ace got a summons to the king's court. And Stacia's mom had called and asked her to come home early so they could talk.
"They attacked me and Lilly at the same time," she says quietly. "We all felt her die. They all felt what those asshole did to me. We felt Bares die when he tried to come back for us, even though we told him to stay away; and Bulletproof did stay away, he broke ties and went into hiding. And the only reason our non-pack buddy survived was that a pregnant friend was able to warn him in time, and the only reason she didn't die for that was because he saved her back. But the baby didn't make it."
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
"That's - familiar." She's gotta roll the concept around in her head a bit, see what pieces fall into which slots in her own understanding of the universe, but end of the day she knows this story. Lived some parts of it, too. "The nails that stick up, get hammered down. Mind you," she says, offering Stacia her water for lack of anything stronger, "best make sure they stay hammered, or they're gonna rip an artery right open, first chance they get. Yeah?"
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
"That's where the guilt comes in," Stacia says, accepting the offered canteen. "Because yeah, we'd have gotten hit at some point, right? Ace isn't gonna notice or care if people are talking shit behind his back, so eventually they're gonna escalate to taking swings at the rest of us to make us go away. The rest of 'em can -- could -- take care of themselves in a fight, but I'm the one supposed to be keeping an eye on our butts politically. And Bares and Lilly died, and they carved 'trash' into her body before they left it. The only reason I survived the maiming they did to me was because they wanted Ace to be the one to decide I was too damaged and kill me himself to spare me the misery. Teach him a lesson about elevating people like me. They just didn't count on our connections outside of the werewolf box and our ability and willingness to make use of them. But the end result is that I'm alive and Lilly and Bares and Zelda's baby aren't, and I can't help but feel that I should have been able to see it coming."
She takes a sip from Saturday's canteen, an expression of grim satisfaction in her eyes.
"But yeah, you're right. If you're gonna hammer a nail down, you need to make sure it stays down. Ace can't hold a grudge to save his life, unless the evidence of what went wrong is right in front of him, day in and day out. He went outside the box again to find out who'd done it while I was recovering, and got evidence of not just who'd done it, but what other murderous, shitty things they'd done, and we turned it over to appropriate and very trustworthy authorities."
She shrugs and passes the canteen back. "The leader got executed for his crimes, but not before he and his pack got into an all out brawl that left four of the others dead. The only survivor was their healer, and she got demoted and put under care for deprogramming the shit the rest of the pack taught her. She's young enough that she might recover and learn to be a better person."
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
She's not going to tell Stacia not to beat herself up, that she isn't responsible; why would she, when she holds herself to the same standards? She's gonna blame herself for the hive run going sideways and everything that followed until the end of time.
But there is one thing she can say, and does.
"You lived and you got your own back. Next time, you'll do it better. That's all you can ask." She bites the inside of her mouth. "Being one of the survivors sure can suck, though."
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
But fuck it, that's a waste of time and a waste of the ear Saturday offered her.
"Yeah," she agrees. "I will do better next time. And yeah, in some ways, being the survivor kind of sucks." She laughs, and it's more genuine this time. "You know, I used to worry that I was a monster? Just this constant, low-grade whisper in the back of my head that all it would take is a single slip and I wouldn't be able to tell right from wrong anymore. I'd undo everything that happened in half a heartbeat if I could, but it's nice to not have that worry gnawing at me anymore."
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
You don't need scales and wings to be a dragon. She's a dragon's sister. That's apparently enough.
But she gets the gist of it, the shift in how you look at yourself.
"I'm sorry for what you've gone through," is what she says instead of any of that.
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