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

[kokuyoyo]

Whatever charm you had.

[Probably had, anyway. Chikusa can't really see why anyone would just wander over here for no reason.]

[....Besides Ken.]

[Also, sorry Tsuzuki, but the answer to your question is just going to be the most noncommittal of noises.]

[sweetdeath]

Oh, that. Yeah. I thought it was such a cute teddy-bear phone cord....

[And then, an actual bear. He shudders.]

T-that is, anyway, everything's fine now! You think that's what people got invited here for? Getting rid of charms?

[kokuyoyo]

....That's why you don't accept anything from strangers.

[constant vigilance.

[Still, he doesn't seem too worried- or too much of everything, really- as he glances back towards the fire.]

There's a reason that fire was lit, isn't there?

[sweetdeath]

It was just on a rock!

[Picking up strange trinkets and keeping them: probably also not a good plan, but, look, Tsuzuki lives dangerously like that.

He glances back at the fire, too, frowning as he considers the question.]

I guess there is. It'd already been burning for a while when I got here, so whoever sent that message must've set it, right?

[kokuyoyo]

Probably.

[And then a long, probably judging stare.]

Do you always pick up random objects laying around?

[sweetdeath]

It looked harmless!

[So: yeah, sometimes...]

Quit staring at me like that, it was just a teddy bear strap....

[kokuyoyo]

[The stare does not let up.]

A teddy bear strap?

[sweetdeath]

What's wrong with that? It was cute! I was going to give it to my goddess if I couldn't figure out whose it was.

Except, you know. Bears.

[It's just a good thing he found out about those before he tried regifting it.]

[kokuyoyo]

....I guess it makes more sense if it's for your god.

[At long last, the judging stare moves away.]

Anyway.... I thought it would be the god who owns this temple who sent out the message...

[sweetdeath]

Maybe... except I haven't seen him around at all.

[Sacred trees, sure. Sacred fire, sure. No priests, and definitely nobody who's saying they live here. It's just a quiet little temple that looks next thing to abandoned.

He rubs the back of his neck.] I guess he could've.

[kokuyoyo]

Do you know whose temple this is?

[It might be helpful to at least rule out possibilities and the like.]

[sweetdeath]

Not without seeing the altar. It's kind of a small place, anyway.

[And there aren't any prominently placed plaques or carvings that'd identify it -- there's the gate, of course, and the fire, and the small temple buildings that seem to be closed up. For the night, he guesses, probably.]

And there's no sculptures to tell by that I can see. I guess you don't either, then, huh?

[kokuyoyo]

No.... Which makes it annoying.

[With all the uncertainty going around the Far Shore lately, this is the last mystery they need... Still, he sighs.]

At least it's solved this problem for the time behind.... Although finding the cause would be better.

[sweetdeath]

Yeah, I guess so. I'm just glad there's something here to deal with those weird charms and [he waves a hand vaguely] all that.

Wonder if there's somebody out there cursing charms on purpose?

[kokuyoyo]

Probably.

This many curses.... It's a bit unlikely that so many were cursed by accident, with some very specific effects... Right?

[sweetdeath]

... Yeah, that's out there for a coincidence. I'm just wondering if it's an accident -- like, maybe, there's a warehouse out there next to an ayakashi vent or something.

Or if there's some person doing it on purpose.

[Option A is a big deal, too, because these charms are causing a lot of trouble. But Option A is something that's easier to deal with -- vents don't move and they don't plan. Some malicious sorcerer is a much bigger problem.]

[kokuyoyo]

Probably the latter.

[What do you mean he's being a pessimist? Life is just that untrustworthy. He won't apologize for telling the truth.]

How would ayakashi make cursed objects...?

[sweetdeath]

By possessing them? Maybe?

[Geez, this guy doesn't know how to look on the bright side at all. It's a downer.]

It was just a thought, anyway. It seems like a weird spell for someone to cast.

[kokuyoyo]

Really? It makes sense to me....

[But then again his moral are questionable.]

[sweetdeath]

Really? It just seems chaotic to me. Like some kind of prank....

[Tsuzuki shakes his head, dubious.]

[kokuyoyo]

Chaos can have a purpose. It makes people ignore other things.

....that or they just really hate people....

[sweetdeath]

I mean, they could just hate people.

[He scowls, thinking.]

But if the chaos is supposed to be distracting us, what else is going to happen?

[kokuyoyo]

Who knows. It might not be obvious now.

But there is someone who wants to see Amaterasu overthrown, so....

[sweetdeath]

I mean, we can keep an eye out, but I don't think we've got the kind of power it'd take to fight anybody who's after Amaterasu.

[Tsuzuki glances out over the crowd, his mouth pulling down worriedly at one corner.]

[kokuyoyo]

[...Well, maybe this guy doesn't, and Chikusa doesn't exactly have power, but...]

So what would you do then...?