acatalepsy_logs | PHASE 3: AKVOS: THE END.

PHASE 3: AKVOS: THE END.

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the great escape.

The Circle has quite a lot on their plate, this time around. Multiple players are fighting for the control of Akvos, and many difficult choices to make. No matter what path you choose, though, one thing is for certain: it is a bitter fight to the death to ensure that Akvos remains standing, one way or another.

There are three main areas for the characters to explore in the final log of Akvos: (1) The Kingdom of Akvos, where the King is fighting to seize control; (2) The Rift, where the characters will encounter the Dreamscapes; and (3) The Kingdom of Polankos, which is where King Ka'pouli has reigned since his arrival in the pocket dimension. Decisions made in all there areas will affect the outcome of Akvos, so get to exploring.

THE ASSAULT ON WAHINE.

The King’s forces will attack in three different fronts. There will be mermen attacking from above, riding saddled giant seahorses and manta rays, launching spears at the mermaid-warriors below with terrifying precision. They seem to be indiscriminate, in their aim -- the weaponry, charged with the same dark energy that the shadow creatures seem to be made out of, find their target in civilians and warriors alike, raining down a sea of terror upon the central stronghold of the Kingdom of Akvos.

The mermen will also be attacking at the ground-level, attempting to burst their way through the Palace Gates to flood the city with numbers. While the mermaids outnumber the mermen, the mermen are certainly more brutal than the mermaids. Some of them, though, in finding the city, are more concerned with looting it than with senselessly murdering everyone inside. Indeed, this is the most food they have seen in a long time -- and markets are destroyed in grabbing as much food and riches as they can, pressing closer to the Palace, and toward the Queen's stronghold.

And, finally, they will be attacking from below, navigating their way through a network of tunnels meant to transport goods and bursting their way into people’s homes, to sneak their way closer to their ultimate goal, which seems to be the Palace itself.

The Circle's main goal, here, is to protect civilians, usher theminto the underground strongholds beneath the Palace, and fight for their own lives should they attack the mermen first. Man the wall, if you so choose, to attempt to block the air attacks from the mantas. Fight on the ground, to protect Akvos from destruction. Or make your way to the underground strongholds and tunnels, to block access to the Palace. All of these will certainly assist in keeping Akvos safe.

In addition, please remember that shadow creatures (which can only be killed by magical means) are still making their way through the entirety of Akvos. While King Ka'pouli's forces are targeting the Palace of Wahine, the shadow creatures are still present everywhere. Get to killing!

INTO THE RIFT.

Some of you, however, have elected to traverse into the mysterious rift that appeared in the midst of the Fields of Akvosia. It looks like a black hole into nothingness, crackling with odd energy . . . and passing through it feels as though you have stepped through an icy waterfall. For a moment, you cannot breathe -- and then, you are treated to beauty.

The gaps between time and space are full of sparkling lights, bolts of rainbow starlight winding around you as you move through the uncertainty that is the void. It seems endless, but something inside you is tugging you forward . . . and, suddenly, there is a soft voice in your ear. A familiar one, to those who reside within the Circle . . . the confused voice of Astoria.

"Hello? My Travelers? How are you within the Void?" The Void? That word hadn't been used to describe whatever this magical place is before, but . . . well, a witch with the ability to send you all across the universe probably knows what she's talking about, right? "That should not be possible . . . who opened this doorway?"

You can tell her, or you can not. It seems to matter not, because: "Is this not getting through? Why can I not hear you . . . but I can feel you, I can -- please, if you can hear this, be careful. The Void is not something for mortals to interact with, and it can show you terrible things -- terrible things, so please--"

And, right before you have the opportunity to respond to our benevolent witch (or captor, depending on your point of view), you see a bizarre glass-like surface in front of you. It looks like a mirror, and you see a perfect reflection of yourself. It is absolutely captivating, and it beckons you . . . almost urging you to touch it. And Astoria's whisper grows a bit louder, more urgent:

"My dear Traveler, be careful what you encounter here -- can you hear me? Can you see me? I am trying to get you out of there, to bring you back home--Akvos is--"

But it is too late.

Your fingers graze the edge of the mirror, and you are pulled -- a sensation that is familiar to you, the same pull in your stomach that you feel whenever Astoria thrusts you across the universe, into new realities. And, when you blink your eyes again, and look around . . . you are no longer in Akvos, or the Void. You are somewhere entirely new.

Welcome to the Dreamscape.

THE KINGDOM OF POLANKOS.

Once the Circle emerges from the Rift and the Dreamscape, they will stumble into another world . . . but this one's wateris shallow, in comparison to the massive depths of the crystal-clear kingdom of Akvos. You can quite clearly see the surface, here, and there are shallows that allow you to come up onto islands, tropical in nature with fruit, odd creatures that appear to be multiple-headed monkeys and parrots, and sandy shores. It's a bit jarring to see, after spending so long underwater. Indeed, you emerge to trudge onto land, and look around, somewhat mystified that the deep-dwelling mermen would be from a place like this.

However, exploring the islands (which is not very difficult to do, as they are all small and will not take very much time) will yield the discovery that on the islands themselves are tunnels -- underwater caverns that thread through the islands to much deeper water. It's almost as if the islands themselves are barriers to the underwater caverns below -- shallow water, a layer of land, and then a (mer)man-made bubble of water below the barrier of land. And that whoever lived on these islands tunneled through them to find deeper water. Princess Kea, (who will attend on these journeys, while remaining in the water), will tell the Circle members that King Ka'pouli told her that when the mermen were cast out, they landed on solid land, and had to slowly dig deeper to their salvation.

Navigating through these tunnels will be somewhat perilous -- and the Circle members will need to carry Princess Kea to the nearest tunnel to get her into some water, because while she can breathe on the surface for a certain period of time, she cannot navigate the land as quickly as you people with legs. Additionally, underwater caving isn't exactly a blast, but the deeper you go, the more clues of civilization you can find. And, eventually, once you go deep enough, you emerge into a massive underwater cavern to find the small Kingdom of Polankos.

In comparison to the Kingdom of Akvos, Polankos is witheringly depressing. It is not brightly colored, nor open -- indeed, it is tiny, with mermen huddled together waiting patiently for the forces that went through the rift to return. There is not a lot to find here, save for some interesting weapons that possess a dark energy, versus a lightning energy -- and those weapons will be given to the Circle members who ask for them, because those who wield them are in no condition to fight. There is little food, little room to sleep, and these are a people clearly in need of assistance.

In order to get them out of Polankos, you will need to usher them through the tunnels back up to the Rift above -- it seems that King Ka'pouli opened the Rift on the surface, rather than risk the city below in case it did not work. The mermen there (who seem to be elderly and weak) will be eager for the assistance to get out Polankos, and at the promise of being brought into Akvos, they will happily go. There will be no resistance from them.

You may also see Princess Kea, who has filtered in and out of the Rift to assist on the journey -- teary-eyed, heartbroken at the sight of these individuals who require rescue, organizing the mermen with the promise of keeping them safe in Akvos.

"Hurry," she tells you, as she rouses another merman into getting to the nearest tunnel. "We do not have a lot of time to pull this off, and we must work quickly."

Additionally, please feel free to write up and work with your own prompts! These areas of the world are presented as jumping off points for your characters, not limitations. The idea of this world- as with all the others- is to explore -- you may use as much leeway as you want in order to come up with what your character will do, especially in the Dreamscapes.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them back on the various threads back in the OOC post from before!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a) mama mia, here i go again (dreamscape)

[Welcome to the Waverider.

It's such a stark, drastic difference from the world you've left behind that it's kind of hard to deny that it's a vision of some kind. For Zari, it's almost like waking up from a bad dream, returned to the place she been starting to doubt that she would ever see again, and for a moment, she's happy. She'll even give you a tour, if you want.

Part of her is waiting for the other shoe to drop - part of her is always waiting for the other shoe to drop - but for now, it's nice to take her friends around to see her home, and then, suddenly, a siren goes off just before the room around them explodes, and everyone is incinerated in a firey cloud of death.

And then you wake up.

You're still on the Waverider. This time, when Zari wakes up next to you, there's a bit more urgency to her expression, before she groans, rolling her head back as she pushes to her feet.]

C'mon, we have to find Waterloo.

b) here i go again on my own

[If you come in to the vision later, you'll find a much more world weary Zari. People have come and gone, but she's still stuck here, exploding every hour, on the hour, and she's not sure how to break free of this loop.

The first one was broken by her coming to appreciate her team and finding faith in her friends. This loop isn't consistent enough for her to find the pattern and the real Gideon isn't here to help her. So when you come on the scene, Zari is sitting on the steps to the library, face buried in her hands and looking so, so tired.

She's tired of dying. She's tired of watching other people die. And she doesn't think a fun montage is going to save her this time. Whatever the rift is doing?

It sucks.]

[ . . . what in the hell is going on?

inej feels disoriented, at best, as she shoves herself up, eyes darting around to try and figure out what's going on, where the fire is, the explosion, when she spots zari. and inej sucks in a breath before shoving herself up onto her feet, a knife in hand: ]

Waterloo?

[ uncertainly. ]

What is this place, what is going on?

[Here we go again.]

This is the Waverider. It's a ship. Normally I live here, but this particular version isn't real. But we are stuck in a time loop where the ship explodes every hour on the hour unless we can solve whatever puzzle the bubble has set up for us.

[Did any of that make sense? Probably not. None of Zari's life ever makes any sense.]

[ there is an incredibly long silence, from inej, before the girl sounds positively incredulous: ]

This ship -- this is a ship?

[ with a somewhat scattered wave of a gloved hand, looking skeptical at best. ]

And what puzzle do we need to solve to avoid being blown to pieces?

[ zari wtf ]

Given that it's being created from my memories, we need to find Waterloo, the eight track tape.

[She holds up her hands to demonstrate the size.]

There was a bomb in it. Diffuse the bomb, and hopefully we make it out of here.

[That's not how they solved the puzzle back home, but it's a good place to start considering that Gideon isn't pulling the strings on this one.]

[ diffuse a bomb? not for the first time, inej has a painful want for wylan's presence. he could diffuse a bomb with his eyes closed -- or, at the very least, kaz, who could get himself in and out of anything without letting on the barest glance of suspicion. there was absolutely no way inej could diffuse a bomb without their guidance and assistance, but: ]

And you are able to diffuse a bomb?

[ a little. hopefully. ]

[She could tell this woman that she hasn't been successful thus far, but if they don't they'll just wake up and get to try again, but she doesn't think that'll be all that comforting.

So she goes for what to anyone else would be the second least most comforting thing as she starts searching the parlor of the ship.]

In theory.

[ in theory. . . . indeed, it was better than nothing, but inej still isn't feeling the most confident as she begins, too, to search. it's only after a few moments that inej realizes something crucially important: ]

What is an "eight track"?

[ as she glances over her shoulder at zari, her lips pursing into a tight frown, brow furrowed. ]

I have never heard of such a thing. What does it look like?

[How does one describe an eight track when you were born when it was already twenty years obsolete?]

It's a cartridge about this big?

[She holds up her fingers to indicate the size.]

You record music on it and put it in an eight track player to play it back. It's way before my time, but it's all black so it stands out.

zari tomaz | ota

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