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

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Yeah, you could. [Nia folds her arms, leaning back slightly to regard him with a flat and unimpressed look.] Soon as your Blade shows up so you have a weapon, protection, and power, I'll let you. How long should I wait?

[swordofzero]

I have borderlines. They are a weapon and a protection.

[He doesn't need a blade. If that's what these creatures are called.]

But I don't want to argue. You can go first but I will be right behind you.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Yeah, we both got those, wasn't counting them. [Rolling her eyes, Nia stomps on forward to the door. The strange artificial-looking being that is a Blade is close behind as she shoves open the door.]

[swordofzero]

[He is silent at that, letting her and her blade lead the way. He is indeed right behind though, ready for whatever might come at them as he follows them in.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[And for all that debate, the sight when they head in the door is pretty mundane. Looks like nothing more than a messy sort of office, papers and debris strewn all over.]

...Well, this isn't exactly a thrill.

[swordofzero]

I suppose being in a cult does require paperwork. [Does it? Suzaku supposes it would be more than just traps and ayakashi and magic forests. But it is still... Not quite what he was expecting.]

Where shall we start?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Turn around, go home? [No, Nia doesn't believe that's really an option, and going home would be really awkward for her right now, so never mind.] Guess we just look for anything suspicious.

[swordofzero]

We can't do that. [He gets the feeling she's not being serious, but just in case...]

Split the room then? Half each?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Sure, we'll take the left. [Her and her Blade, of course.]

[swordofzero]

I will take the right then.

[And off he goes, to begin searching methodically through what he finds. He has no real idea what he is looking for but he puts anything that he is at all suspicious of to one side.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[After a moment, Nia pipes up from the other side, where she's doing her own search.]

Why would there be clothes?

[swordofzero]

It is strange. Perhaps they were expecting to have to move on quickly. [Or planning on kidnapping. But kidnappers didn't usually give their victims new clothes. It's a strange thing to have in what seems to essentially be an office.] Unless they mostly live here as well as work here.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Disguises, maybe? If they were changing outfits to avoid attention...

[swordofzero]

Perhaps. Wouldn't they have to change more than just their clothes though?

[He begins going through the clothes in more detail, looking at what there is.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

That's what people notice most, isn't it? If you were glancing over a guy, in a crowd, would you notice faces, or clothes, first?

[swordofzero]

I guess you're right. In a quick check clothes are the easiest thing to notice and changing them may throw someone off quickly.

[Collecting those then, moving them to the important pile.]

You found anything else?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Lots of stuff, most of it garbage near as I can tell. Lots of crumbled papers that have nothing useful written on them. Box for pizza...

[swordofzero]

They weren't very tidy.

[Maybe it's on purpose, to obscure evidence by leaving it a mess.]

I say we gather everything that has even a chance of being important and take it back, the Heavens will know if it is important or not.

[Hopefully...]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

That's about my plan. Let them worry about it, I'm not a secret -- thing -- detector! [Whatever that even IS!]

[swordofzero]

Then let's get these things into bags and get out of here as quickly as we can. [The quiet is strange and he doesn't want to stick around longer than is necessary. He begins hunting around for any suitable bags. He has one, but he gets the feeling they will need more with how ambiguous everything is.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Hey, not so fast! [Her ears twitch a little as she glances over to him, a little sharp out of surprise.] We've got to be thorough. We can't afford to miss anything that might be important.

[swordofzero]

Right. [She's right, he supposes. Even if his instincts are telling him to get out of their quickly. But they can't miss anything and there's too much to be able to take it all.]

We will keep going then.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

What's got you in such a hurry, anyway? [She glances sidelong at him, over her shoulder. Her instincts aren't giving her a lick of trouble.]

[swordofzero]

I don't know. [He frowns.] It just seems too quiet... [Too easy. As if this should be harder, more hindrances and because it wasn't... It felt off. They had seen what kind of defences the cult could create, why would their areas of activity be unprotected?]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

It's quiet because we kicked their arses, you know. [Seriously, why the paranoia?] If there IS anything here, we can handle it no problem.