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! |
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acatalepsy_logs2019-01-04 10:22 am
no subject
Thank you for participating. This is how your colleagues voted:
[ A set of bar graphs appears, displaying how... Firo's colleagues, allegedly, weighed in on matters with titles like "Inferior companions" and "Eternity among the stars". Halfway down, it dissolves into blocks and bars of pixels, with the rest of the screen real estate reserved for:
THE PROXY LISTENS
Firo has about ten seconds to contemplate this chestnut before the monitor goes black and the door behind him gives an assenting two-tone bip. The switch is now yellow. Good job, bud.
When pressed, the door rises to reveal that he’s on an upper floor of... something. Broken machinery and filthy floors are visible through the grating under his feet. Ventilators whirr and turbines churn, but the most prominent noise is agonized choking and gagging.
The silhouette at the end of the railed corridor doesn’t seem to have arms, or even a discrete neck and head. Just spindly legs and a twitching, bloated trunk, with only the suggestion of shoulders. It almost looks like when a cartoon character is comically foiled by having an upturned vase dropped on them, but when it's still, you can see the torso writhing, as if bound.
They walk in slow, laborious steps, body listing forward and backward under the weight of their massive upper half. ]
no subject
[The "be quiet" part of the message apparently doesn't really resonate with him.
He turns when he hears the door beep, and he's all too glad to try that panel again and get the hell out of that little room. The next room he winds up in is hardly pleasant. He frowns as he tries to imagine what's gone on here to make the place so filthy, then tries not to imagine it anymore.
The choking sound is an immediate and not-entirely-welcome distraction. Firo tenses, because either that person is actually choking and thus busy with their own problems or a threat. Maybe both. Probably the latter.]
Hey, who're you--
[He cuts himself off when he really observes its shape and movements--there's nothing natural there, and he finds himself wondering if whatever it is is even human.
His hand drops to his waist but can't find the familiar hilt of his knife. Shit. How could he lose something like that? But whatever, he'll work with what he has. This thing can't be tougher than the other fights he's been in, right?
He calls down the hallway, taking one step forward, then two:]
Stay right where you are, unless you wanna get hurt. Who are you?
body horror cw
It’s humanoid. One can even see parts of its withered bruise-purple arms protruding from a mass of swollen flesh, covered in blisters, varicose veins and huge yellowish clusters of what are either pustule-like barnacles or barnacle-like pustules. Segmented metal cords weave in and out of the massive chrysalis of meat crowding out its face, eyeless, mouth stretched open in a capital O of a frozen scream.
Even if it could move its immobilized “head”, it’s clear that it can’t be seeing Firo. Its entire face — really, everything above the legs — looks vestigial in the operation of this thing. It simply does a two-step turn on toeless feet toward the sound of his voice, still writhing, from within somehow, like a person trying to escape from a straightjacket.
Before he’s finished speaking it looses a guttural screech, neither human nor animal, and breaks into a sprint. Unfortunately, inertia works in the favor of its lopsided shape. It’s faster than it should be.
And then Firo’s arm is yanked by another thing, from his side. When you look, it’s a dark figure, the eyes glowing red lenses — but then you blink and it’s just some human rando, already taking off, hopefully with Firo in tow. ]
This way!
[ Silently willing this guy, who he doesn’t know but who is clearly a Circle member, to stop being Example McDiesFirst about the monster did not work out, obviously. ]
no subject
--get dragged out of the way?
Running seems like a good idea now that someone's shown it's an option, so he keeps pace even as he tries to register who this is--not someone he's met, he's pretty sure. ]
Who the hell're you?!
[Even as he continues running alongside the stranger, Firo tries to wrest himself away.
Maybe he'll be more grateful later. But probably not.]
crawls back to lately tag.....!!!!
But even if they still stood a chance of stealthing away from this thing, it’s gaining on them pretty quickly, so he just gives Firo a poorly-lit (and quickly-moving) incredulous look and says: ] We can talk when we’re safe.
[ He can only hope the guy has enough sense to still be running in the same direction Simon is, which so far seems to be the case. They pass more generators, light from the room beneath their feet outlining the near-blurs Firo will pass. Emaciated human bodies, almost certainly beyond recognition even if you knew who they were, pinned to machinery, suspended against it, by what can only be described as masses of metal and... meat.
Simon doesn’t pause as the creature lurches after them at an alarming pace. He basically stops at a door panel hand-first, but there doesn’t appear to be a door, only what would look to modern eyes like some kind of trash compactor or cardboard baler at shoulder-height built into the wall. Until it opens from the middle, and then it’s more like some kind of tunnel or vent.
It’s big enough to crawl in, though one has to pull themselves up into it.
Which he urges Firo to do by shoving his back, eyes darting back to the approaching Proxy. Sorry bud but you know, monsters. ] Get in!
Hello! :)
He carries on running alongside Simon, sparing only brief and increasingly confused glances towards the scenery around them. Worry about that later.
When they reach the vent, Firo hoists himself in without hesitation, quickly crawling in farther to free up space for the stranger to join him.]
You good?