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]

[ Nah man they're just normally native to Australia. What this one's doing in Japan though is anyone's guess. But Eno does pause, glancing at the direction Yata's calling out from. ]

W... wait, there's another one?!

[ Still trying to yank back that sword. Bear still seems adamant about keeping it. ]

[thevanguard]

Head's up!

[ Yata calls out to him, but the guy's not moving.

So he reacts without thinking, putting on a burst of speed on his skateboard and lunging for Eno, physically dragging him out of the way as the bear up above him gathers itself and takes a flying leap...

....Dropping right on the spot Eno had been standing a moment before. ]

[hackberrydragon]

Wh... whWAITHOLDONGAK--

[ Is likely all Yata hears as Eno get pulled out of the way. He hadn't expected such an unorthodox rescue.... or a rescue at all for that matter. Thankfully he manages to pull his sword from the jaws of a very surprised bear.

There's a second before he realizes there's two bears now. ]

We... should probably get out of here...

[thevanguard]

Heh. Ya think?

[ Which is when he unceremoniously hefts Eno over one shoulder and takes off on his board with a burst of fiery sparks behind them. ]

Look at you, making friends. Even if they're the kind that might want to eat your face.

[hackberrydragon]

H... HEY!

[ Eno stop being such a twink, srsly. But here he is, being hauled off like a rag doll and all he can do is hang on to his saber and stare at the bears.

...sadly there's only one other thing on his mind. ]

...how's your skateboard doing all this anyway?

[thevanguard]

What? Skating?

[ Yata just snorts and keeps going. ]

That's what they're s'posed to do.

[hackberrydragon]

No, I mean the sparks!

[ Sparks that are dangerously getting close to his hair! But there's a pause as he looks up.

Uh oh. Not alone anymore. ]

Uh... Yata-san? Could you go a little faster?

[thevanguard]

That's not the board, that's me.

[ ....It just happens to channel through the board really well. He figures there's a reason for that, even if he doesn't know what it is. He's just really glad he'd arrived with it, because he suspects he might melt a normal board.

The worried tone has him glancing back over his shoulder to see what had caused that. Apparently Eno had managed to find really persistent bears. ]

Ugh, shit. Yeah, probably. Hold on, this might get bumpy.

[ His Aura flares hotter, streaming out behind them as he focuses and puts on an additional burst of speed. ]

[hackberrydragon]

[ That's him? How does he even... Maybe it's part of that red... gang... thing. He's not going to try and figure it out right now. Not when there's freaking BEARS on their tail.

Besiddes. He's trying very hard not to scream. Sure it's getting them away from the bears but still.

No. Focus, Eno. Keep your eyes on the road. ]

Y... you could probably turn the corner and lose them! They're starting to look tired, I think.

[thevanguard]

I have something else in mind, just... try not to puke on me, kay?

[ And with that somewhat dubious instruction, Yata leans forward, channeling the fire out of his wheels as he goes zooming down the street at an even greater speed. Which has a purpose, as he jumps to catch a railing a half a block away, angling them upwards to get him the lift he needed. Granted he wasn't used to doing this with a passenger, but he thinks he got them enough speed so that....

Ah. Perfect. They go airborne, skimming off the wall of a nearby building, still climbing with the boost of fire behind him. A series of jumps to avoid inset windows they are now gliding over vertically, another leap aaaaaand he straightens them out to land on the roof of an adjoining building.

Yes, he totally just skated them up a two story building to escape from bears. Hopefully, Eno managed to keep his lunch down. And didn't deafen him the entire trip with yelling. Either way, he sets the other shinki back on his feet with a satisfied smirk. ]