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

[myblueskies]

Look! Mister Iskander is here too! [After their first run of cutting ties they are now in Peru, they are really high up on a mountain. So high up that it's even harder to breathe than it is elsewhere!

That doesn't seem to be slowing Romeo down much. He points over at where he can see Iskander.] Let's go and say hello, he might know where more bad ayakashi or cultists are hiding!

[alchemists]

Please wait a second...

[ Elfnein's having a bit of trouble keeping up, between being high up in the mountains and Romeo being not phased at all but this. ]

[towards_okeanos]

[Iskandar thought he heard a familiar voice. When he turned around he realized that indeed he was right.
He runs down the steep street to meet them.]

Romeo! Elfnein! What a pleasurable surprise! What are you two doing in Peru?

[One look at Elfnein and the grin vanishes replaced by concern.]

Are you all right?

[Both of them may notice Elfnein is not the only one a little out of breath. While Iskandar was busy being ethusiastic about their meeting, a small, grey-haired lady finally manages to catch up with him.]

[myblueskies]

Elfnein? [He stops at her request and moves to her side, peering at her worriedly.

Luckily mister Iskander comes to them!]

Hello mister Iskander! We came to help fight the bad cultists! But are you alright Elfnein? Do you feel poorly?

[What's wrong with her? Does she need a doctor?]

[alchemists]

I'm ok, it's just hard adjusting while everyone is at full speed.

[ There was still a lot of stamina training that Elfnein needed to do if she was ever going to keep up in different situations. ]

[towards_okeanos]

[Iskandar nods.]

Then we slow down. Right, Romeo? The air here is terrible.

[He smiles. Some of the Old Gods could take those kids as an example. ]

Have you managed to find anything yet? I'm out of luck myself. All I get is rumours.

[myblueskies]

Oh! Sorry Elfnein! Let's slow down! [The air was a bit funny now that he thought of it, but hopefully Elfnein would be alright once she got used to it!]

No but I think there are definitely bad ayakashi here, there were two children scared about monsters but their mum took them away before we could talk to them. [Their mum hadn't seen them at all, Romeo and Elfnein or the monsters. But children were better at seeing things than grown ups.]

[alchemists]

Thank you

[ Taking it slow for a little bit would help everyone out in the long run. ]

What Romeo said is all we know, if we can find those bad ayakashi we might be able to learn more.

terribly sorry for the delay and the delete ... I messed up the tabs :(

[towards_okeanos]

Ayakashi?

[Iskandar's expression turns serious. That explains a lot.]

It makes sense. I was told about several people getting hospitalized with severe exhaustion. It might be connected.

[He looks at Ada then back at Romeo and Elfnein. He would never question their fighting spirits but they're still kids. Could use some help. Good thing that killing monsters is his speciality.]

That's something we can help you with.

[myblueskies]

Then let's go and find the bad ayakashi!

[If they were making everyone so tired then it was really important they stopped them! He grins at Ada, working as a team would be a good idea!]

Is mister Waver not with you?

[towards_okeanos]

[Ada smiles back at Romeo the type of smile that only sweet old ladies can present. It does help she's a dictionary example of the sweet old lady.]

Oh, of course, he does. We just split. I left him at the University. He had a theory he wanted to check and I thought I could try my luck at tracking more of the missing students.

[Iskandar shrugs. His usual luck has failed him this time.]

Unfortunately, I didn't. All I got were the ones at the hospital and I already knew about them.

[alchemists]

If that's the case why don't we ask the ones in the hospital what their daily routine was and maybe it can be used to help with tracking down what we need?

[ There had to be some common factor in all this. ]

[towards_okeanos]

[Iskandar stares at her for a minute then blinks.]

Oh, I... I didn't think about that.

[It sounds obvious now that she said it but it really didn't occur to him before.]

It's not far from here. I can show you the way.

[myblueskies]

Good idea Elfnein! [Romeo grins and nods at them both.] Thank you mister Iskander, with your help I'm sure we can find them!

[Teamwork is even better if teams team up!]

[towards_okeanos]

[Iskandar has an idea of his own.]

Hm, we don't need to be running around. I remember this place well enough that I can teleport all of us right in front of the entrance.

You just need to hold onto to me.

[alchemists]

Will you really be able to take both of us with doing that? It might be hard...

[ Elfnein can speak from experience on that, when she teleported Romeo and Hibiki back to the temple it took a lot out of her. ]

[myblueskies]

[It will be hard! Romeo believed in mister Iskander though, just like he had believed in Elfnein! He will be able to do it!]

[towards_okeanos]

Not a problem at all!

[He could lift you both with one hand. Teleportation is not that much different.]

I had teleported other people before.

[Several times actually. With different people. Of various sizes.]

Just hold tight. I don't want to drop you.

[Because that happened... maybe don't ask... He's not very proud of his role in this particular adventure.]

[alchemists]

Alright, we'll make sure to hold on really tight!

[ Elfnein ends up grabbing Iskander's right arm, leaving the other one open for Romeo. ]

[myblueskies]

We will sir! [He holds tight just like he promised. He is quite used to teleporting now but he doesn't want to be dropped! That would be bad!]

[towards_okeanos]

Will be right there.

[They're both so tiny that Iskandar doesn't even feel the difference. And they're done in a blink of an eye landing before the hospital entrance. Big glass door marked with a red cross. There's an ambulance parked right in front of it and a row of metal letters on the orange wall stating Clinica San Jose. If anybody had any doubts what kind of building this is.]

That's here. Second floor.

[alchemists]

That was really amazing!

[ They arrived in one piece, Elfnein couldn't help but be impressed with Iskandar. ]

[myblueskies]

[Romeo grinned as well! And here they were, right next to the hospital.]

Right second floor! Let's go, will you be alright with all the stairs Elfnein?

[He's still worried about that bad air!]

[towards_okeanos]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

[Iskandar nods. It's always nice to be appreciated. Even if for small things. He can't help but smile when Romeo expresses his concern. How the boy always thinks about and cares for Elfnein fills his heart with joy. Those two are a true pleasure to be around.]

Fear not, young gentleman. There will be no stairs. It's a modern building and they have elevators.

[Fortunately not only foreigners unused to local conditions need them. Off to elevators they go.]

[alchemists]

Even emergency stairs?

[ Well, that's one less thing to worry about, taking the elevator will make things a lot easier. ]