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

[letteropener]

Yes. That's very true. It does raise a lot of questions itself, doesn't it...

[redotiertwo]

Kinda. I mean, if they're basically relying on the whims of RNGesus to pick us, then why the hell aren't there more of us kinds of people. [Humans can't be the next big thing in that many universes proportionally...]

[letteropener]

I'm sorry, but what?

[She's done her very best to keep up based on context and educated guesses, and being a clever pony she has done pretty well so far. But 'RNGesus' references two things well beyond her current understanding.]

[redotiertwo]

[Thankfully, she is not the first person Davesprite has had to explain the glory of RNGesus to, so he's prepared, spreading his hands somewhat dramatically.]

So it's like the Random Number God, which is basically the whimsical son of a bitch you pray to if you want something up to chance to go right, except the Jesus version because he's supposed to be more forgiving than God or some shit. So he might maybe not fuck you over as much.

[letteropener]

[Celestia regards this explanation with some skepticism, as she tries to parse around the profanity to get to the heart of the matter.]

Are you certain that particular version is chosen because of forgiveness, and not simply because it makes the combination of terms flow?

[redotiertwo]

Also that, but the random number god was already a thing, so I figure there's probably some reason for RNGesus other than the flow.

[Unless whoever invented the term had some very determined rhythmic considerations, in which case more power to them.]

[letteropener]

Is that god a real god, with a position here in the Far Shore?

[Because, well... just checking.]

[redotiertwo]

I mean, you could argue the position covers any god of luck or chance, and we've had a couple of those.

[He's pretty sure there was a Fortuna around when he got here, at least, even if they haven't been for a while.]

[letteropener]

Well, maybe it does, and we've simply never considered that before? [Just a random thought from her...] And yet divine powers do not always, or perhaps even often, seem to relate to what the god is supposed to do...

[redotiertwo]

To be fair, not all gods are gonna have shit that translates well to a power. My god is mostly meant to be some ultimate creator deal, but her power is tracking people down with threads or some related shenaniganry.

[Or just general thread things. There's a lot of thread involved, is what he's getting at.]

[letteropener]

And Inti is a sun god, but I already control the sun. Or at least I did in Equestria. Strange that I seem to have less ability, as a god here.

[redotiertwo]

Probably different power levels at work. If you were already OP as shit they weren't going to keep stacking it on, or it'd just skew the power balance.

[Because this is totally a video game and all relevant video game terminology applies.]

[letteropener]

But I did gain the power to change my shape. That is actually a very significant power indeed.

[Once again, intelligence and context manage to make his cryptic statements reasonably comprehensible to her.]

[redotiertwo]

Change shape into what, though. Like, compared to other powers here that might still be small bananas.

[Or at least only medium-sized bananas.]

[letteropener]

Most any creature or anypony within a given range of my mass. I use it for human shapes most frequently, in order to blend in while visiting the Near Shore, but that is certainly not its only use.

[redotiertwo]

Mass range limit is a pretty severe limiter on the kinds of shit someone could pull with a shapeshifting power, though, so that's something to even the field.

[In theory, it means she can't just go and turn into a fly for infiltration or a dinosaur for fighting.]

[letteropener]

Oh? Why do you say that?

[Celestia doesn't really deal in infiltration by nature, and her full range of magic makes her a terrible foe in combat without a need for immense size. Instead, what her power has given her is greater access to the world of other intelligent beings, most particularly humans at the moment.]

[Friendship is one of the greatest magics in existence, and Princess Celestia has been handed an insight into it few can match.]

[redotiertwo]

The most useful and abusable shit you can do with a shapeshifting power is kind of at the extremes. Sneak into someplace as a literal fly on the wall or trash whatever threat you need to trash as a dinosaur or giant fuck-off whale or some fuckery.

[Davesprite has a pretty specific idea of what he'd do with a shapeshifting power if he had one, and that's applying in full force here.]

[letteropener]

Physical force is not always the best way to deal with a threat, you know. Sometimes, but I do not lack for it already. Flexibility is very valuable, though.

[redotiertwo]

It sure fucking is sometimes, though, so having the option is a good bonus for that sort of power. But yeah, the mass limit cuts off a bit of that flexibility.

[So there is some element of power balancing there, even if it's not as obvious as it could be.]

[letteropener]

Well, again, I might agree with you more if I didn't have possession of magic. Becoming a massive dragon would not make that any more powerful, after all.

[redotiertwo]

That kind of proves my point more, though, because in that case you got an ability that does literally nothing to your existing power level.

[She's definitely right in saying size wouldn't do anything to the ability of her magic...but then, shapeshifting would essentially be a cosmetic power.]

[letteropener]

[Celestia turns a full, bright smile on him, not exactly bereft of amusement.]

You are thinking of power in terms of defeating a foe, but I have been given the power to make friends and understand them more effectively. There is very little I could have been given that could have made me 'stronger'.

[redotiertwo]

[Davesprite just has to give her a real long look at that, because he feels almost like puking up rainbows just at the sentiment of that.]

Have you considered a career in moralistic children's television, because I'm pretty sure you'd hit that shit out of the park and into the fucking sun.

[letteropener]

[Perhaps someday Davesprite will see it in action -- if Princess Twilight Sparkle were ever to visit the Far Shore.]

I think I had probably better stick to ruling. I do a little good there too, you know.