logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER

Entry tags:

EVENT LOG: WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER

characters: everyone.
location: Everywhere
date/time: March 15
content: The World Eater arrives.
warnings: probable violence, gore, death; mark threads as needed

Everyone here was brought to Beacon for this one reason: to try and find a way to strike back at the thing that threatens to end the world entirely. You've spent the entire time learning, preparing, and for many, making this dead world your home. You've made friends with each other but also with the forest spirits, you've discovered much of the town's past and have set out to ensure its future.

This is the moment that every decision, and every person, shall finally come together, or be lost forever.

i feel the weather change

At the missile silo, Weaver and those helping her have been busy for over a week straight hammering scrap metal into place, wiring the controls to the launch system, and running new cables from the silo to Solis' lab to get the place set back up onto the Beacon power grid - a feat possible only because several batteries were recovered from the power station some time ago. Disassembled drone pieces lie scattered for easy repurposing, and networked tablets allow easy network chatter between the silo and anyone at the Helix Station who has offered to observe from the lake.

In the distance, those around the missile silo begin to hear an eerie droning hum. Weaver's eyes go wide and her ears lay back against her head. "It's here," she says with a shudder, then quickly bounds over to the control system. "That's the sound that the lighthouse used for the reset. If I don't need you down here, get up top, and get ready to fight."

At ground level above, the snarls and warbled growls of spirits call back, but immediately, there's rapid movement in the trees and some of those calls are cut short with a gurgle. Masked figures with green eyes dart through the brush, giving the silo a wide berth as they move in to fight, but those who would be allies must be outnumbered as aggressive forest spirits, both green-eyed and otherwise, break through into the clearing and seek out the people of Beacon. Their many-eyed leader has been kept occupied, but these ones are still looking to pick off every creature with a lantern. It's time to stand and fight before they make it to those still below, who are preparing to aim and launch the largest bomb Weaver has ever built. If this wasn't difficult enough, the green-eyed spirits are up to their usual tricks - you may find yourself suddenly fighting someone who looks just like your best friend, or perhaps your own animated, dismembered body - a cruel vision of what might soon come to pass. They are fast, they are ruthless, and only with the effects of the potions will you be able to shake off these horrible visuals, so make good use of them.

i hear the river say your name

Those at Helix notice it first - the droning hum that had first been noticed as a minor vibration in the hull swells in volume until it can be heard throughout the station. Thanks to the tablet network, they hear when those at the silo do that the sound is the speech of the World Eater - and it must be very, very close.

Inside the station there's little means to act directly against it; however, you'll find yourselves plenty occupied anyway. The little spirits (and the large corpse-wearer, shrouded in decaying bodies) that had previously been docile and had tucked themselves into hidden corners in the station scurry boldly out of hiding, with teeth and claws at the ready to devour and dismember anyone they find. And proximity to the World Eater once again has its effects - you may feel nauseous, disoriented, or despairing; you may find that it's hard to breathe, that your fingernails fall off their digits, or that sabotaging your fellows is the only way to survive. The potions help substantially, even if the effects aren't completely removed, so drink up, stand your ground, and keep an eye on those tablets to help let those at the silo know when to fire, and if they've succeeded.

Because eventually the creature itself is visible against the night sky over the lake, a void in the place where stars should be, and that means it's close enough to be targeted.

i watch the birds fly by

Soon, Beacon Square and the harbor as well as the general reaches of town become a dangerous place to be, but perhaps you feel you need to brave the run - to get supplies, to check on your friends, to flee and hide as spirits emerge to do the World Eater's bidding. There aren't many, thankfully - for those who care commanded by the many-eyed spirit are busy fighting those at the silo and the green-eyed allies, and nearly every friendly spirit seems to have gone missing. But alone and in the open without anyone to back you up if you need help is a frightening prospect, made even worse when you see the distant figure silhouetted over the lake, vastly taller than anything else you've seen since arriving.

The disruption from all the fighting must have delayed the launch, or perhaps something else went wrong. Just looking at the World Eater from a distance creates a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as it takes one long stride after another, drawing nearer to the town and singing that eerie song that drives the spirits to hunt you and to destroy everything you've built.

And then, suddenly, you hear something else. A counter-drone, a song like birds, like cicadas, like howling wolves and the strange whistle-warbles of the spirits, all merging into one. It's sung from every tree all around, and it drowns out that jarring hum of death.

The spirits so bent on drawing blood and viscera slow, and listen.

The World Eater slows, one foot raised into the air, then swings its head, seeking the source and finding it everywhere. And that's when it happens.

At the missile silo, Weaver has been successfully defended, but just barely. One of the spirits got to her before it could be killed, and a horrible gash has ripped through her clothing and the fur of her back. Her lantern is flickering desperately when she presses the button, and the makeshift missile roars and arcs into the sky.

From the square or the lakeshore, or for those watching monitors at Helix, the streak of vapor from the bomb's tail vanishes somewhere high above. And then moments later, it drops - landing not on the World Eater, but into the lake at its feet.

Rather than a blinding light, the tablet monitors go fully black as an intense roar and rush of water fills the audio channel, and the Helix Station shakes horribly, creaking and groaning as the rush of water from elsewhere in the lake strains every element of its construction. The noise and the confusing darkness persist for several minutes. It feels much longer.

But eventually, the darkness diminishes as stars shine through the mist and ongoing falling rain. There's still a tall column of water vapor in the air over the lake - it stays for nearly half an hour, slowly dissipating as powerful waves smash into the shore, triggering a small series of tsunamis that swallow the harbor and threaten, but never fully inundate, Bonfire Square.

The towering void has buckled where it stood, and only a few pitch-black spines jut out from the surface of the lake before they are slowly swallowed by its returning waters.

i see an emerald in the sky

When the spirits stop singing, the rain persists. Clouds billow up into the sky over the lake, and fall back down. The droplets are warm - warmer than the frigid air, than the ice and snow that surrounds the town.

The damage has been limited - most of the buildings still stand, for there were too few spirits that sought to attack, and those that did now sit in place or pace around curiously as if they hadn't just tried to tear out your intestines and dismantle The Invincible - which, actually, hasn't even seen a single scratch, as suits its optimistic name.

Many of Beacon's people may be injured, and many may be dead. But those whose lanterns still burn bright now find themselves in a slowly thawing world, as the deep and endless winter seems ready to launch into a new spring. Cautious and curious, spirits watch from the trees, then point out at the lake and chitter with excitement.

There is light in the water. It funnels upward from the foam left by the bomb, and with each ever-gentler wave, it touches the shore. And in a few tiny patches of sand, sheltered between rocks, green grasses begin to sprout.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Drop your character in here, and optionally feel free to describe where they are (silo, helix, wherever). Results will be RNGed. Death will be possible for all of these, but if there are any specific limits otherwise you'd like to clarify, please do so!

Roll for Link (location: Silo)

The pointy-eared warrior will be out there with sword and board trying to protect other people at the silo from the spirits.

And he's doing just that, protecting someone else, when he notices an unnatural whistle of wind. It seems to permeate his senses, throwing off his ability to hear clearly, and the sound itself comes from no obvious location. Rather, it's everywhere - and briefly he wonders how much worse it would be if those potions weren't so readily available.

He spots movement, suddenly, and turns with his shield up. Skirting along the surface of the snow is a spirit that's paper-thin and paper-white, and glitters subtly more in the lantern light than the snow around it. It rears up once it has been spotted just feet from Link and throws itself at him with a horrible hiss, trying to wrap its body around him and suffocate him. It's much harder to cut than paper, as when Link drives his sword through it as it surrounds him, its body parts and re-forms behind the blade as it passes. It grapples for his head while Link tries to wedge the shield and the flat of his sword under it, hoping to fling it off if he can't cut it.

From beneath the mask, an ice-cold spear-tipped tongue darts out, straight into his right ear. It's brain freeze and severe pain all at once, and in his desperate movements Link finally forces his shield through its body - a hole apparently too large at once for it to repair. It dissipates into ice crystals, leaving blood pouring from Link's right ear.

Link has gone deaf in his right ear from the trauma, but at least he's alive.

Rosinante will be among those fighting to defend the silo.

I will cross my fingers for his sake, but let the dice fall as they will.

This spirit has green eyes.

That's about the only thing Rosinante is sure of. When he raises his shotgun to fire at it, he's aware that its visage is shifting rapidly - hallucinations blurred and unwinding as his potion-enhanced mind battles to make sense of the reality rather than what the spirit wants him to see. It whispers, it laughs, it uses his brother's voice and drags up the horror from within him that shrouds his vision in gray-red-pink, his sense of smell in death and gunpowder. For one sickening moment, he's a child again.

If not for the potion he may have bolted for the trees, once again to run with no goal but to escape, but he swallows and forces the fear and nausea down and refocuses on his target right as it's inches from closing with him - a hulk of muscle equal to his own height, its stomach-mouth a whirling circle of bladelike teeth that quickly envelop his arms the very moment he pulls the trigger.

His shotgun, once Winters', is damaged; the shot comes out as an explosion that knocks him back and would burn if it could. The spirit twitches, gnaws at the snow where it fell, then is set upon by one of the allied green-eyes and torn to shreds in its moment of weakness.

Rosinante's arms are shredded with dozens of deep cuts - he'll have to back off and heal up if he wants to fire a single further bullet with any other weapon. Worse, though, will be the hallucinations, for at random, on occasion, when speaking to anyone he deeply cares for, he'll see them die an abrupt, violent death and be unable to do anything about it only for things to go right back to normal moments later.

Pudding is topside at the silo, but as close to the entrance (and Weaver and her team) as possible. She's using a combination of her revolver and Flashback to try to keep the spirits at bay from as much distance as she can manage.

Flashback is a useful tool for sure - already, she has stunned a few of the smaller spirits that have slipped past defenses farther ahead as she holds her position in front of the bunker door that leads down into the silo. Most of the spirits either hold long enough for her to shoot them, or go skittering off into the trees, no longer a threat.

Several minutes pass in which she's able to catch her breath. Their allied spirits are doing good work, as are the other Beacon residents around her, so she pauses to reload her revolver, and that's when the door opens.

Not the one behind her, but one in the air before her. A gap in the forest and snow widens until it's large enough for her to walk through, though of course she doesn't - this is clearly a trick, and the potion keeps her focused enough to know that what she's seeing can't be real, especially when the spirit walks through that door.

It's roughly her own height, and stands on two legs, with two tiny arms, a long tail, and a toothy head. Picture a human-sized Tyrannosaurus rex, and then picture (instead of dinosaur skin) that it seems to be composed of overlapping, twisted small humanoid bodies, with more lumped over its face as a sort of mask.

It lunges, and she fires. Each shot, in those few seconds, knocks one of the bodies off; they fall limply to the snow, revealing another layer of limbs and heads just below. It's more than she can fight on her own, and an attempted use of Flashback only seems to provoke a shocked expression on one of the small human-ish parts of its torso.

Others notice and try to come to her help (she even sees a green-eyed spirit turn and stare in her direction before galloping toward her) but none are quick enough to save her life as it grapples her and pries those tiny hands on tiny arms into her abdomen. She fires again and again, dropping parts of its head and chest to the snow as it tears through flesh and intestines and throws them carelessly aside.

The green-eyed spirit bowls into it and knocks it off of her, but it's too late - that flash of green eyes is the last thing she sees before she succumbs to her injuries. But her lantern is unharmed - so as long as someone manages to survive, as long as that World Eater doesn't succeed in its single-minded goal, she'll be back eventually.

Please report your death here!

Hey.

So Will is going to be up at the silo, helping Weaver rig things up and fixing things if/when they go wrong. He's garbage for defense but he's nothing if not tenacious, so he'll make sure that bastard works to the bitter end. When the green-eyed spirits start to attack, he'll remain below with Weaver.

Those up above are fighting hard to do what they can to defend the crucial people down below who this whole thing hinges on. What good is a big ol' bomb if nobody is down there to fire it? Or like, to make sure it works in the first place, which (until it does) is still a huge question.

Some types of spirits, the folks above with guns and blades just aren't always good at spotting, for the creatures that the many-eyed monster has picked and created and trained come in many forms. The one that works its way down the silo wall could be easily mistaken for some of the very materials they had been working with - if it lies still, it looks an awful lot like a pile of scrap. When it moves, it spreads itself thin and tumbles like leaves. It is a master at camouflage and infiltration; the only one who makes it this far down undetected.

It stretches alongside the cables, black and bundled, and by the time anyone notices, there's little time to react. It gathers its folded flesh into blades and tears at the people down here, catching Weaver low across the belly and Will across his chest. On the plus side, between the two of them they can manage to tag-team it, Will keeping it at bay and essentially kiting it around the control room while Weaver gets a hit in with something that seems a lot like a taser. The spirit goes rigid, enough for them to call for someone to help (or just beat it to death, I won't tell you how you want to do this).

Will is left with a set of five slashes from one bladed hand, two of which cut deep enough to have struck bone. Thankfully Weaver has a stash of Pudding and Kuai's healing salve down here but not only does it really burn sharply when applied, if Will tries to apply it himself it burns his hand, too - leaving Weaver (or someone else who comes to help) in charge of trying to fix him up a bit. It will be a slow, painful process, and getting up out of here via the ladder will probably suck, but good news - he'll survive.

As much as I want him to stupidly try and freeze the lake again, I think Soldat would haul him back by his hair.

Instead he'll be outside the Silo trying to make ice walls to prevent spirit attacks and fighting anything that tries to get close.

The thing that staggers out of the forest, arms wide and head sweeping back and forth in a desperate search, is about the size and shape of a human child, but with purple-black, blistered and cracked skin over every inch of its body. Green eyes betray what it is, beneath the mask that looks like a constantly-moving swarm of beetles, but such a small, lost thing can hardly be a threat, right?

Its eyes meet Kuai's before he can try to freeze it in place and for a moment he's elsewhere, surrounded by the sounds and smells of something nostalgic, making him both happy and sad at the same time. Home, in a brief moment of peace. Hanzo.

But it's fleeting, thanks to the potion and Kuai lays down a jet of icy shards that race along the ground to trap the spirit in place before it can get any closer - because it sure looks like it's about to sprint right for him. Trap it he does, but in response the spirit's insect swarm floods (mostly) off its face, leaving only a few dancing over its features as the rest race toward Kuai on the ground and through the air. Walls and darts and icy terrain stops them all - or so he thought.

One slips past unseen. It lands on his back and seeks bare skin, and delivers a bite which blossoms with pain. Kuai finds the thing and smashes it instantly, but the venom is swift. Blisters sprout and burst across the surface of his skin as he's seared with an acidic burn that ultimately covers nearly a quarter of his body.

He'll recover in a week's time, thanks to the healing salves and potions, but until then movement is likely to be extremely painful as the tender, blistered skin bleeds at the drop of a hat until it's fully healed.

Meanwhile, the spirit seems solidly frozen in place despite its struggles to break free - so Kuai is free to get his revenge, or have a friend help out given the intense pain he's currently in.

INJURY ROLLS

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Re: INJURY ROLLS

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now in the right place, jfc

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MOD-CONTROLLED SPIRIT INTERACTIONS

Let's do this.

Cao Pi | open

B

A

Bucky/Soldat | OTA

III

III

Rosinante | OTA

2.