eye of the storm

[groundrules]

Image source.

EYE OF THE STORM

This is an optional assignment, for those who are done U n w i n d i n g and want something to sink their teeth into until 15 October. Feel free to use this post if you have questions or want to plot among yourselves, but there will be no mod-run log — you're welcome to do your own and/or posts!

✘ OBJECTIVE: bring back fallen dragon scales and/or a crystallised eye from the Sibilant Sands wasteland outside of Serthica.

■ True to his word, Cain d’Ubiq has arranged for a dozen transport dragons to wait at Serthica's ports, reachable through the Mouse House.

■ The dragons accept new riders easily. Cain d'Ubiq's people have equipped them with dried meats, food, light shovels and water supplies, binoculars and climbing hooks. Bring your own weapons.

■ The Sibilant Sands are a long red stretch of withered land with misted peaks and abrupt canyons. Beware the nauseating aridity of the region — and massive whirlwinds that coalesce unexpectedly and can easily pull in skittish dragons.

■ Reaching Cain's coordinates takes you to a valley of fallen dragon bones, half buried in dunes, some peeking. Careful: sand dunes can easily pull you in as you inspect, while local scavenger creatures would delight in fresh meat.

■ White, opalescent scales are buried haphazardly in the desert. Dig long enough — exposed to quick sands, the elements and various creatures, and you might even find an eye. Scales are up for grabs, but sign up by 10 October to RNG for the eye.

■ Bring your loot back to the Mouse House. No pressure, but the eye would be exceptionally handy...

QUESTIONS

Comments

GOT MY EYE ON YOU | RNG DRAW

[groundrules]

Fallen dragon scales are more liberally scattered across the Sibilant Sounds, but crystallised eyes are a scarcer commodity.

We have one to go around — you can drop a comment here with your character's name by 10 October to sign up for an RNG draw for it. Try not to lose it, if you get it! It's about 20cm in diameter, should be... hard to miss.

The winner is required to advertise they have the eye, network-wise!

[weifinder]

Pats down in here for the RNG!

[groundrules]

Scale up, homies!

[unas]

sign me up baby

[groundrules]

Scales for this lovely lady, but they're a treat!

[somebadnews]

Five is getting dragged into this, and for canon-reasons it's very funny to me if he finds it. He's VERY GOOD at not losing eyes.

[groundrules]

Scales this round, but check out the effects!

[incantates]

I'll hop in on the sign up. Could be a good ingredient for future potions.

[groundrules]

Eye on the prize.

[incantates]

He finally leveled up from the jar of dirt he's been carrying around.

[groundrules]

[incantates]

...ahah, suddenly, the jar of dirt doesn't seem so bad

[groundrules]

Folks, the RNG gods have spoken, and Magnus gets the eye. However, being just four of you — I'd say, talk the adventure among yourselves here, see who wants to post or thread or whatnot.

Una, Wei Wuxian and Five can discover up to three scales each.

How this works:

The Eye: 30cm in diameter. The bearer can see the true state of someone's undeath or whether they've been touched by dark water. It also briefly reveals their true physical situation to you — they will appear featureless, consumed by mould, entirely dark and tar-covered or, more frequently, made of burlap. Only the holder of the eye can see this, for a few seconds. Hold on to it, it'll be of value in the Halloween event.

The Scales: this acts like a detector for undead and/or dark water-touched creatures. The physically closer you are to them, the more it glows white or warms. The scales cannot give you a clear idea of whether they are undead or under the thrall of dark water — it reacts the same way to both.

Both the eye and the scales only work for the people who actively hold it (in other words, three people touching the eye won't all benefit from the effect), and cutting them in parts annuls their effect.

Good news: you can see or feel no undead/people touched buy dark-water/camouflaged burlap mannequins in the Mouse House. But there are a few dozens in the port you have to go through when you return. They don't realise you've seen and felt them.

...don't scream.

[weifinder]

LAUGHS this is beautiful, my one question is: we don't need to worry about details of the scales until Halloween event, right, I'm presuming we're all staying below Serthica proper until then.

OKAY FOLKS do we want to thread anything specific, does someone want to post what this ends up like? I was going to toss up a "let's go leave for the dragon boneyard!" post, but that might be less helpful if it's just the four of us, in which case:

Hey Magnus wanna tell what you found, and any of the rest of our folks can chime in with the scales? Seems like the best way to figure out functionality will be when they return to port

[groundrules]

Yeah, to confirm — shit's gonna hit the fan when you hit overground, the "o h this isn't that bad" reveal is just Mouse House and the port. But you're not overground until the Halloween event!

[weifinder]

Perfect, that's what it seemed to be, glad for the confirmation! Also clarifying: the loaner dragons and Lethe, do they all look okay/feel okay?

[groundrules]

Oh right, right, you didn't take a loaner, yeah. So.

GOOD NEWS!!!! The loan dragons are all okay.







Lethe's croaked tho.

[weifinder]

LMFAO I HATE THAT THIS FITS TO WEI WUXIAN'S EXPECTATIONS SO WELL

I mean also I love it but he's going to grim nod and give Lethe extra nose-pats

[valeas]

Wifi and Emilia are threading right now and will be getting into all of this

rip off the bandaid for me please

re: Opal

[incantates]

Yes, he'll be happy to share his information with the group once he's played with/experimented with the eye. For science!

[weifinder]

does he want to see and be surprised at that first visual evidence when he looks at lethe before they head back, because that's a kind of unexpected "whoops now you know lethe's dead" versus the loaner dragons all being entirely alive?

[incantates]

Yes, that works as a good initial test. He can point the eye around at the dragons and find out the truth about Lethe and then share with the class so they can all stand around, trying to unpack the city's ...weirder properties.

[unas]

whispers i totally forgot to check in here after getting the notice (whoops) but if it's not too late i'd love to thread things out c:

[weifinder]

rubs hands together, at this point what i would love to do is have them use their scales in whatever we're about to get as an event in the next few days! would that be fun for you? mostly rubbing my hands together with "can they notice if anything is black water or you know, dead"

... it might be useful!!! glowing scale detector systems

[unas]

that works!! guide her, she's clueless