godsoffortune: (in the distance)
The Far Shore Mods ([personal profile] godsoffortune) wrote in [community profile] thenearshore2018-05-01 06:53 pm

28 - The Hungry Forest

Who: Everyone!
What: Will the mysterious forest give up its secrets -- and its captives?
When: Nov 14
Where: Within the forest
Summary: For a while now, the mysterious forest that makes unpredictable moves around the Far Shore has seemed to be getting deeper and darker. Gods and shinki are missing, taken in by the forest's traps. Now, it's time to uncover what has taken them, and find a way to return their freedom....






Step into the forest, and fall under the strangely disconnected feeling within its borders. Your physical abilities will remain as sharp as ever, but accessing any supernatural ability, including a god's powers or a shinki's abilities, is much more of a struggle within this place, and incredibly draining as well.


Forest Dangers

The forest is no less closed-in when people actually get into it, and the sky is almost impossible to keep track of, replaced by looming boughs and twisting, knotted tree limbs. Those branches and vines almost seem a little too purposefully placed to block people in... although it might not be so obvious until you turn around and notice the path grown over with plants behind you.

It’s not just paranoia. The forest itself is acting to stop those here for rescue, and the trees will readily attack or attempt to capture any god or shinki making their way through. Paths knot up with brambles before them, trees drop branches to block the way, vines lock up the gaps between trees before trying to drag anyone who comes too near away. It’s going to be a struggle to get through, but together, it can be done.

Also hovering among the trees are the firefly spirits that have been a worry for some time. They venture alone at a distance, but once someone comes near, they’ll cluster and attack – if they touch your skin they'll burn like real fire, so be careful how you deal with them!

Soulless Shinki

A little deeper into the forest, searchers will begin to find some of the soulless shinki that wandered into the forest. Unfortunately, they’re beyond reason, and their numbers aren't just made up of soulless shinki with gods (Shizuo's, Add's, Hakkai's and Yuna's). Many of the nameless ones who have been living at the soulless shinki temple are here, too. These shinki, armed with whatever weapons they had when they vanished along with powerful wooden spears and maces grown by the cursed trees, are defending the inner areas of the forest alongside the plants with a vicious and mindless enthusiasm. Their focus is purely to stop those who might be getting close to the other prisoners.

Are those spell papers and straw dolls pinned to the trees that they’re clustering to defend? Maybe it would be worth it to get a closer look....

Creepy Cultists

In the deepest parts of the forest, where the weight of the magic working here becomes much heavier, and the forest almost vibrates with power, there are... humans. Normal, living humans, by all standards, except for the fact that they’re swathed in dark, hooded robes, and many of them are carrying the same spell tags and dolls visible on the trees the soulless shinki are so fervently defending. While they can’t see the gods and shinki at work in the forest, the humans are continuing to put up spell markers, and whenever a fresh one goes up, the magic in the air grows just a little more suffocating. They need to be stopped – but the question of how humans are in the Heavens’ forest in the first place still needs answering.

Those nearest to the forest’s center, in the heart of the magic, are maintaining the lines of massive sigils on the forest floor, the edges of which are only just visible beneath a tangling wall of brambles, vines and branches. The plants give way for the cultists, allowing them to continue maintaining the shapes, but nobody else. It’s safe to say that the snarled mess of plant life protects where the trapped gods and shinki are hidden, but can a way through be found with the magic’s effects so strong? Maybe the cultists will come in handy. They're intensely focused on the spell papers and sigils, and no matter what the gods and shinki do, they won't be able to keep their attention for long enough to convince them to answer more than a question or two -- but with some convincing, they might be able to point the way.

To Be Continued...

Be prepared! On May 3 (OOC), the final battle to save the kidnapped characters will be posted as a separate log. Soulless shinki can be NPCed in this first log, but missing PC characters (gods and shinki) will not be found until that second log goes up.



In Summary:
  • Investigate the mysterious forest
  • Battle burning fireflies and soulless shinki
  • Deal with the human cultists
  • Have fun~
redotiertwo: (attention gained)

[personal profile] redotiertwo 2018-05-19 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
The one I was thinking of is flashstepping, basically I can go a couple feet in the space of a blink and I can usually spam it. [Usually. Not in this case, because if even one use makes him a bit woozy, trying to use it multiple times in succession is going to go nowhere good.]

Also I guess I have some weird laser thing now, but I still haven't really figured out how that works.
swordofzero: (stare)

[personal profile] swordofzero 2018-05-20 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
Weird laser thing? [Both of those sounded like they would be really useful. Moving fast and lasers, they would take care of these curse dolls easily, if they worked.]
redotiertwo: (excuse)

[personal profile] redotiertwo 2018-05-20 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Some directed laser deal that comes out of my hand, I've only set it off accidentally so far so even if the spell side-effects weren't boning us hard then I'd have trouble demonstrating.

[Which is certainly a shame, because it would be useful for something like this...but trust Davesprite's dumb sprite powers to be dumb about that too.]
swordofzero: (not impressed)

[personal profile] swordofzero 2018-05-21 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds interesting [He shot laser beams out of his hands. It was quite an impressive power. But right now it was useless. Unfortunately. Suzaku chopped a few more of the dolls down] You did it accidently? Do you not know how to use it?
redotiertwo: (Default)

[personal profile] redotiertwo 2018-05-22 10:24 am (UTC)(link)
Nope. Shinki. Kinda forgot how most of my powers work when I got here. [He's regained quite a few memories, but the only ones that have really been pursuant to his powers haven't exactly told him how to use them so much as what they do.]

I've been here long enough to figure some out, but others are still the basement-dwellers of accessible powers.
swordofzero: (hope)

[personal profile] swordofzero 2018-05-22 01:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah [He guessed actual powers would be difficult to know you had. Suzaku knew that he was fast because Ginia had thrown a borderline at him and he had dodged out of the way, he knew he could fight because he had sparred and his body had known what to do. He couldn't imagine any situation where the instinct would be to throw lasers out of your hands]

It must have been a surprise.
redotiertwo: (lineface)

[personal profile] redotiertwo 2018-05-23 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
That is definitely a word for what it was. [He'd been a little bit pissed at the time courtesy of regaining some nasty memories, but he's pretty sure it had been more of a surprise for the crows he was with.]

Anyway, not much point jumping on the speculation express when it's not going to do shit in here anyway, so swords it is.
swordofzero: (not impressed)

Want to fade on these two destroying straw dolls?

[personal profile] swordofzero 2018-05-23 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes we will just have to work with what we have. [Swords and an axe. It would take a while and Suzaku could only hope that they destroyed enough before they got attacked again, by either people or trees.]
redotiertwo: (if i have to)

Sure!

[personal profile] redotiertwo 2018-05-24 12:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, just like every other week.

[Oh well. Davesprite readies his blade and slips further into the trees to track down more of the freaky curse dolls.]
swordofzero: (not impressed)

[personal profile] swordofzero 2018-05-24 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[Suzaku follows suit, hoping to destroy as many of the dolls as they could, to fix whatever was happening here.]