41 - Cultist Arc Finale

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
When: June 2nd 2017
Where: Mostly the Near Shore
What: Tracking down cultists to remove them as threats to Heaven, erase as much of their presence from the Near Shore as possible, and consequences of such







With it being made clear that the cult's influence was scattered throughout not just Japan but spread far and wide, the gods of the Far Shore have been asked to assemble in the same place where Conclaves normally happen. Bishamonten is assigned the task of rallying the old gods, while Orihime is given the same duty for the new gods. Essentially, the old gods will be working in Japan and the new gods elsewhere. Both Bishamonten and Orihime have a long list of individuals and their last known locations with vague descriptions, collected by those who went out hunting them on Heavens' behalf when everyone was last gathered. ("A Different Sort of Hunt")

Orihime gathers the new gods at her home along the river. Outside her small abode, there are several soulless shinki pulled from their temple. Ostensibly, they are to help any new gods who don't have a shinki available to create the Cutting ties or Rend effects, but no one is there to stop a shinki from commanding them as well.

Orihime will direct the gods to many places in the Scandinavian countries of Europe, south as far as Italy, west to the United Kingdom, and east as far as Belarus and Ukraine. Meanwhile, another contingent is sent to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the South Pacific / Oceania islands around there. There's even some scattered across the Americas - north in Alaska and the Yukon as far south as Chile and Argentia. Getting to any region requires the permission of a Near Shore god with a local shrine there to teleport, or a much more mundane plane trip.

Since this is all taking place over an extended period of time - roughly 48 hours - new gods are welcome to jump around the regions at their own choosing, not restricted to just one place.

Cutting Ties

Tracking down the cultists won't be easy. Some of their last known locations just confirmed their home addresses, work addresses, school addresses, etc. It's not like there's a GPS on them! However, with the address being specific to a city and country, along with a description of the person involved, it's possible to track down the rank-and-file cultists in these places beyond Japan. Many of them you won't even need to speak to, just find them and use a shinki to cut the string of fate that binds them to their cult activities, spell knowledge, and awareness of Heaven.

It's possible to run into other gods and shinki, though! Especially in major hubs of regular human activity, the cult was able to thus recruit more people to their causes. Maybe you can team up, swap information based on who you're looking for, that sort of thing.

Blight Circles

Where the human cultist recruits favored larger cities, their blight circles are much farther into countrysides - where they were less likely to be disturbed while the cultists crafted them. These circles are fairly simple in their lasting impressions: spellwork in a large circle on the ground, dead or dying flora for double the diameter of such a circle, and powerful ayakashi drawn to their vicinity. Strike down the ayakashi gathering there, purify the area if you can with magic or holy water, and physically break the circle's symbols. Particularly large blight circles might have been crafted near a Vent, increasing the likelihood of powerful ayakashi being there.

The larger and more powerful an ayakashi, the more Rend attacks it will take to bring them down. Maybe you can survive a long battle with one, or maybe you work together as a team with another god / soulless-wield shinki? The choice is up to you!

Cult Hubs

In the true cultural capitals of the world, there is a single Cult Hub - a physical building that was under the governance of a higher cultist official, where spellwork training and other informational sessions took place. Note that these hubs are not always the capitals of their countries, as with New York City or Los Angeles, Toronto or Munich, Sydney or Quezon City. The physical structures where cultists met have a wealth of inventory to look through and either dispose of or use in future efforts for the Heavens. It might not be glamorous work, but it could offer surprising rewards.

Event Bonus:
A thread of 10+ comments earns a character a random item that would have been stored at the cult hub. As with other missions involving "random item" rewards, players can give the mods 3 choices for review and we'll reply with a comment about any choice which might be too powerful / not suitable, or players can ask for the mods to give them 2-3 random items and pick only one as their reward.

Between Scenes / Afterward

As everyone returns to the Far Shore between their major efforts on the Near Shore, recovering from the battles, enlisting backup, or simply looking for another assignment from Orihime, you might still bump into one another, particularly around Orihime's home or down the river in either direction. Feel free to use this as a kind of catchall space or a place to look for healing, food, and sleep with your fellows from the Far Shore.

Alternatively, this could all happen when the last assignments have been handed out and people start to disperse back to their own temples.

Event Bonus: Gift Baskets!

For Gods and Shinki alike, Orihime will provide a gift basket to each and every character, customized as much as possible. This will include, among other things, an article of clothing with a wondrous power unlike any she's made before. Players can request what these items are OOCly, kind of like book requests in the library, but we hope it can to be something you as a player truly feel like is a reward to your character for having come this far.

To claim this reward, simply reply to the Orihime OOC comment below with your desired item and its ability to begin the discussion. Remember: Orihime would avoid granting items that help in battle; rather they're meant to enhance the character's everyday life, make their hobbies easier or more fun, that sort of thing. Example abilities might include: hover-style flight, lite elemental resistance, green-thumb plant growth boost, etc. - they're just tied to the item.

An IC week after the event, gift baskets will be delivered, along with an Epilogue announcement on the BBS.

Event Bonus (all prompts):
A thread of 10+ comments will gain 150 followers / 15 exp per thread.



In Summary:

• Travel the world
• Hunt down the last vestiges of the cult's influences
• Get goodies
• Await the epilogue announcement
• Have fun~

Comments

[brynwieldr]

Well, at least they have enough common sense to do that.

[They being the locals.]

How much holy water do we have?

[onedrinkwithme]

Only a few vials in my bag. But there's one thing I have kept but I do not know the use of it being.

[And he'll rummage through it and pull out a pouch of what appears to be bath salts. Aymeric himself does not know what they do in all honesty.]

The owner of the hot spring back on the Far Shore had given this to me as a thank you for assisting with the upkeep of his home. But I have no knowledge of what they do.

[brynwieldr]

...so you brought them anyway?

[Aymeric why.]

Well, there's regular water bottles around here somewhere, aren't there? Throw some of that salt in and see what happens.

[onedrinkwithme]

[Shrug.]

Aye, one here.

[Pulling out a normal plastic drinking water bottle from said bag. What? They're in Australia and in a park. It's good to have something to drink. Boy, it's winter there!]

Hmm, let us try.

[He loosens the string holding the bag tight and lets a few of the salts fall into the water. All that Aymeric can notice is that they melt and is paying more attention to that than what appears like a few small ayakashi coming up behind him. They would have gotten the jump on both gods if it wasn't for one of them deciding to make themselves known by growling.]

Oh-!

[First he jumps away but forgot that the bottle wasn't closed and the water goes spilling out and spreads along the little death creatures. But it's their reactions that makes Aymeric think harder: they screech and howl as if they were in pain and run away from the two men, one looking at the bottle then back at the circle then to Leo as if silently asking 'what the fuck just happnend?'.]

[brynwieldr]

[That's...

Huh.]

Splash some of that on this sigil.

[onedrinkwithme]

[He nods and kneels down to splash some of the water on the lines but another small ayakashi slinks over to Aymeric, hissing out a warning. Meanwhile the elezen isn't having any of that and splashes some water on it, the creature screeching in pain. He may have done another splash to get it to go away, watching it slither further away from him.]

...if this can harm ayakashi, then those salts can create blessed water?

[The thoughts are starting to connect and he looks to the directions of the nearby lakes.]

...I may have an idea.

[brynwieldr]

[Leo follows Aymeric's gaze.]

...bless the water and drop something heavy in it to splash it all over this?

[onedrinkwithme]

You are on the right trail but I was thinking how to transport the water that will not harm the lake. If it works on this sigil, we will try it on the other one near the lake with salt water.

[Double the salt. Mmmm.]

What if we created a path for the blessed water to travel to the sigil? For the ayakashi within, they will not be able to fight as well if they are practically surrounded by what can cause harm to them.

[brynwieldr]

Either way, we're doing to be doing some damage to the lake. My way causes a lot of splash damage, your way basically drains it.

[onedrinkwithme]

...and you are positive that from the splash that it will get the entire sigil?

[brynwieldr]

Get me a big enough rock or whatever and it should. I could also likely keep it from falling until it was over the sigil with my abilities.

[onedrinkwithme]

That should not be too hard.

[Just as Sukomi returns with a few metal rods and looks at Leo, holding them up as if asking if they're still needed. Meanwhile, looking in the circle area, there is a few rocks that meet the large standard and are not carved...but they are in the sigil and one of the larger ayakashi is on top of it.]

...pray forgive me for this might be a blunder as a result. But you seek rocks needed for this plan to work and there is no other option.

[It's possible to use a metal rod for it; not like a Shield Lob is restricted to round things. But you got about five seconds to voice your concern if you do not want him to do the assumingly stupid thing, Leo.]

[brynwieldr]

Aymeric don't you dare.

[The rods are very much needed. Leo drops all magic and switches focus to one of the rods that Sukomi brought over.]

That's what these are for.

[onedrinkwithme]

And the ayakashi on it? There is a reason why Emizel and I could not fight them by ourselves prior to this.

[Otherwise this circle would have been gone months ago. Otherwise there would be no ayakashi around it.]

They're stronger than the ones we typically run into and the last thing we need is to make one misstep.

[There's a silent sentence in there, along the lines of 'I really do not want to screw this up and hurt you two in the process and keep myself alive as well']

[brynwieldr]

Did you pour the salt in that water yet?

[onedrinkwithme]

[Does it look like he's had time?]

Just trust me on this.

[brynwieldr]

...alright. What do you want me to do?

[onedrinkwithme]

Follow me.

[And he takes that metal rod and lobs it at the ayakashi's head, watching it connect. Naturally, it hates it and starts bum rushing towards Aymeric, who is also sprinting as fast as he can towards the fresh water lake. He can hear the beast snarl and snap as it moves closer but he knows what he is doing this time.

With the pouch of salts open, he takes a handful and when he runs into the shallow end of the lake, he throws it in. Now turning to face the ayakashi, he uses Naegling as a tool to splash the water onto it. The ayakashi in turn howls and screeches at the blessed water, not even noticing Aymeric coming in with Sukomi on his wrist.]

NOW!

[One Rend won't work but a Rend and a good Gravity spell might do the job.]

[brynwieldr]

[Leo races after Aymeric (quietly swearing at himself for being so out of shape) and watches as the other's plan takes shape. He skids to a stop before he reaches the lake to prepare his spell. At Aymeric's word, he crushes the ayakashi under its own weight.]