018 | Season Spirits

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Season spirits and spooky things
When: IC August 1-15
Where: The Near Shore and Far Shore
Summary: It's the time for spirits to get a bit more 'lively'.



August is a spiritual season in Japan with many people preparing for the Obon festival but many others get into the spirit in another way. All across Japan, people have begun to share their favorite summer ghost stories. Movie theaters advertise the hottest horror flick of the season, teenagers challenge each other to do trials of courage, haunted houses begin to pop up, and it feels like you can't change the channel without switching to some ghost hunting urban legend special. All of this talk about spirits comes at a cost, though.

July comes and passes easily enough but it's almost as if as soon as August begins, so do the incidents. There's an increase in spiritual activity and shenanigans on both shores. Some of them are harmless spooks but others are much more sinister. Arm yourselves with all of the ofuda and omamori you can find and get out there and restore peace!



Possessed Possessions

Inhabitants of the Far Shore may awaken to find their sheets trying to strangle them and shoes stomping on the floor around them. Others may go about their day and find out their teapots suddenly only serve lukewarm tea or their weapons are trying to take swings at them. They're just playful spirits that will abandon their hosts if you shove any ofuda/omamori at them or yell loudly enough. They aren't malicious spirits... they were only just trying to have some fun.

Spirited Festivals

There's a festival every weekend and some of them have set up haunted houses for patrons to visit. You have your standard haunted house thrills... costume make up, jump scares, special effects smoke, the usual! But it looks like some real ghosts have made themselves at home here. Visitors are going in and emerging hours later absolutely traumatized. It looks like once you enter, the real spirits walk you around in circles and give you real scares. There are some spirits here just to have fun thrills and these are spirits that can be chased away with regular ofuda. But it looks like the more violent ones are actually ayakashi out for vengeance. Be careful in there!

Cursed Charms

There sure are some weird trends out there, huh? The latest one is buying cursed trinkets off the internet and passing them off as gifts to unsuspecting victims whether it be to prank a friend or get revenge on an enemy. Cursed mirrors, dolls, fake ofuda, VHS tapes, and so on are being passed around the Near Shore and spreading all sorts of curses.

• Bad luck. As long as you're in possession of the cursed item, you'll be followed by bad luck to varying degrees depending on the quality of the charm.
• Fear. Holding onto this charm results in intense, crippling fear. The fear can manifest as an intense paranoia at all times or being frozen with fear in the face of danger. Some say you can even die of fright...
• Sickness. This charm is pretty straightforward. Having this charm just makes you feel incredibly under the weather and your health will worsen the longer you have the charm.
• Evil. Holding onto this charm results in you being followed attracting evil instead of warding it. Suddenly, you feel as though you are always being followed, as if something is stalking you and clearly out to get you. You begin to run into smaller ayakashi at first but they keep growing in strength and number until you can't fight anymore.
• Bad romance. Someone's meddled with a romance charm so it ends relationships instead of making them! People stuck with this charm are suddenly hyper aware of the faults of others. Everything gets on your nerves and you can't stand being around that person because they're just that annoying. It doesn't just work on couples! It also works on friends and relatives too.
• Bears? An oddly specific curse. It looks like someone has taken a protection from bears charm and made it so now you attract bears where ever you go. Some of them are nice but others...

You can try to destroy the charms but you will find that unless you have purification powers or rend it, the effects last. It looks like most people have been able to shake off the effects by simply disposing of them at temples and buying another charm to counter the effects.

Haunting Hour

There are reports of violent attacks at night-- people being pulled into alleys and attacked, school children being chased by slashers while walking home from school, homes being broken into-- and all of it is done without a single clue left behind to explain who did it. People are warned to be careful at night and as the sun begins to set, something happens. The hour between sunset and dark is supposed to be the scariest hour them all. At this time, the shadows are suspiciously bigger and darker and you constantly see things just out of the corner of your eye. Suddenly, the wind blows cold and there's a rotten smell in the air like blood. It's Oumagatoki, the hour evil spirits meet. Small time ayakashi and spirits on the verge of becoming ayakashi spill into the streets and begin to terrorize others. Protect the people of the Near Shore and watch your own backs.*

* These are just generic ayakashi! Nothing special, nothing specific. Feel free to make up and NPC your own two-bit ayakashi.

THEN WHO WAS PHONE?

In the evening, everyone will receive a set of coordinates and a message from an Anonymous sender,

I want to talk about the
mysterious things that have been happening
lately.
OF course, i
NEED
EVERYONE to come. so don't be
late! see
yoU.
:)

Everyone receives it and there is no way to track where the message came from. If you follow the directions, you'll arrive at a small temple on the outskirts of a city. A sacred fire is lit on the grounds for people to dispose of any cursed or old charms they may have collected. Hang around a bit and it'll become obvious that no one knows who has gathered all of you here tonight. The only ones around are gods and shinki. It doesn't look like any evil spirits are around so other than being invited to the middle of no where at night... there's nothing to worry about. If you wait around, nothing will happen. So while you're here, you might as well discuss the strange happenings! Or tell ghost stories around the fire.

Wildcard

Choose your own adventure! Feel free to make up your own prompts. Ronald Knox's player (diehardreaper) has offered up their temple as a test of courage in the Far Shore for those who want to try their luck. Check out their description under the Baron's manor.

In Summary:

• Beat the heat by feeling a scary chill
• Deal with cursed and spirit-imbued items
• Keep the Near Shore people safe
• Chat about your scary encounters
• Have fun~

Comments

[hackberrydragon]

[ And that voice causes him and the bear to jerk and just freeze in place, like a pair of kids who just got caught doing something bad. Even the dropbear's got his attention on Shun.

But the fact that he's been told not to move is telling him there's something else he should be aware of. All it takes is a turn of his head as he notices the bear up in the tree. ]

How'd that get up there...?

[revolutionfalcon]

[In that case, Shun's just going to keep going, kick off the trunk of the tree, and leap up onto the branch to join the drop bear. At the very least, he can probably stop it hurling itself onto Eno, and he keeps a rather close eye on it even as he goes to answer that question.]

That's what I should be asking you. We're too far into the city for bears at all. [He's...honestly not entirely sure how the bears would have made it to this park, but there's a lot going on right now that doesn't make sense.]

[hackberrydragon]

All I know is these bears showed up when I picked up this charm..

[ He's still holding on to his sword though, hissing softly as he tries to keep his grip tight enough that the bear can't jerk it out of his hands. ]

H... hey! What're you doing?!

[revolutionfalcon]

[Another goddamn charm. Shun's going to set fire to every charm he comes across at this rate.] I doubt you're the only one, then. Bears aren't the worst thing going around, somehow.

[Shun and his bear appear to have reached some kind of impasse, and both look down at Eno's exclamation.]

Can't you unsheathe that thing? [Well, if it's anything like the one it looks like, the answer is no, but it's worth asking.]

[hackberrydragon]

There's stuff worse than bears?!

[ Are the bear ayakashi back? Is that it? But the second question does cause a frustrated groan. ]

If I could, I would! But it's kind of stuck in its sheath!

[revolutionfalcon]

You can run away from bears. Usually. [If they haven't managed to get hold of your sword.

A difficult to read expression flickers over Shun's face at the mention of the sword being stuck - it does sound similar to Reisi's, then. However, he sets that aside for the moment with a mildly annoyed sigh.]

Then can't you try to twist it out of its mouth?

[hackberrydragon]

I'm... trying...

[ The bear's growling, almost like an irritated dog who refuses to give a new toy back than a wild bear. With the way Eno's tugging it back, Shun might be able to get a better look at it: it's almost exactly like Reisi's except with less embellishments.

With one sharp yank (and a surprised yelp from the bear), he's got the saber free. Unfortunately, the sheath escapes with scratches on it. ]

We should... probably get out of here.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's definitely keeping an eye on that sword when he can afford to not be keeping an eye on the bear he's sharing a branch with, though for now it seems to be mostly preoccupied by the tug of war anyway. The similarity between the swords piques his interest even more than it already had been, but once Eno gets it free and makes that suggestion, Shun glances around them.]

Might be better to lead them somewhere less populated first, or someone less able to handle it might get attacked.

[Avoiding bears is fine, but he'd prefer everyone be able to avoid bears.]

[hackberrydragon]

[ There's a nod back at that. Looks like a decent suggestion, at least. One hand is busy trying to keep the sword away from the bear while the other is digging into hi pocket. ]

H... hey! Do you think getting rid of that charm is gonna distract them

[revolutionfalcon]

I think you have to get rid of it a certain way. [Shun gets that out of the way quickly before Eno tries throwing it - he's seen others try that, but it doesn't seem to counteract the effects by itself.] I've seen a couple of people burn them in temple fires, or buy a normal version of the same charm to counter it after getting rid of it.