feintofhart: ([ mid phase ] standin around)
feintofhart ([personal profile] feintofhart) wrote in [community profile] expiationlogs2023-08-23 06:10 pm

[ OPEN GROUP LOG ] emergency planning & diplomacy

Who: Everyone! Please use this as an event log -- put up your own starters, and also tag around to your heart's content!
Where: Aldrip's neighbouring towns, the spooky forest, and throughout Aldrip.
What: The Chosen, reeling from the recent forest attack, decide to organize for future attacks, whether that's diplomacy with neighbouring towns, reinvigorating farmland, or getting some combat training in. Please see THIS OOC post for more information!
Warnings: None anticipated; please let me know if I ought to update it!



In the wake of destruction wrought by the strange beast of the forest, Claude and Marianne - both people far more well-acquainted with the ramifications of damaged farm grounds and unprepared civilians than they would like to be - have taken it upon themselves to try to prepare in advance for the next attack, whatever that may be. After discussion with the leads of Aldrip, they’ve come up with a list of what most needs to be done – and they can’t do it alone. With the community of the Chosen at their heels, new and old, for reasons of altruism and for reasons of simple exploration, they have set forth with the following tasks: an excursion through the eerie Pessiria Forest to get to Rumpitur to exchange goods and services for aid from the dubiously friendly naga-like people who live there, restoring life to the destroyed forest and farmlands so that nature can once again thrive, and to properly stock up safehouses with preserved goods, shelter, and weaponry.

What’s in it for you, you ask? Well, when the next attack comes, you don’t want to be the one going hungry.

EXCURSION THROUGH THE PESSIRIA FOREST

Rumpitur is a full day’s trek away, and not a straightforward one; in order to get to their destination, the Chosen must first hike their way through Pessiria forest. They meet with their packs and wagons at the entrance of the forest, a thick, lush wall of foliage greeting them along a winding, unsteady path. If you’re prone to listening to rumours, you may hear some of the locals buzzing about uncertainly: “no business being on that land, none at all”, “Did you hear? That’s where that Froste boy disappeared – when you go in, you never come back out”, “Going in there? They’ll be cursed!”.

No such dangers will greet the Chosen, but the more paranoid among them will be confronted with the grim reality of an entire day’s travel spent on edge, jumping at every flutter of wings from overhead and snapped twigs from the fauna skittering through the brush. During this trek, there will be ample time for the Chosen to stop and rest a while, replenish their flasks and perhaps share a story or two, but be careful; in forests this dense, it’s easy for someone to get lost. Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone was left behind?

To add insult to injury, once they arrive in Rumpitur, they’ll realize that there’s nowhere for them to stay, and the scaled denizens of the place will firmly - though not unkindly - refuse to let them into their homes. That means that to get anything done, the Chosen will need to make camp right outside, a great opportunity to swap stories around the fire, try to rustle up some dinner, go stargazing, or just complain about the effects of the hard ground on your poor old backs. Happy bonding!

DIPLOMACY OF RUMPITUR

Once diplomatic meetings have come and gone, the representatives of Aldrip and Rumpitur have come to an agreement: Rumpitur will provide its aid, but only at a cost. They have their own interests to protect, after all. But they’re flexible on how such a debt is repaid and ask only that the Chosen provide whatever they are able to – and you wouldn’t want to give Aldrip a bad reputation, would you?

Here, the Chosen can truly shine as they’re asked to give what they can. For some, this means sheer manual labour as they haul water from the wells, transport crops and goods from one place to another, or provide much-needed assistance to the smithies and shopkeepers of the land. For others, this means providing gifts, whether that’s their own handiwork of artisanal goods, of art, of culinary delights, of weapons and toys and trinkets that only the Chosen know of. Other civilians may yet yearn for entertainment; a fussy crowd they may be, but with the same people coming in day in and day out, they’re hungry for new music, new acrobatics, new shows.

Be creative in what your characters can provide – and have them ask for help too! This is a true group effort in showing Rumpitur the Chosen’s goodwill, and showing themselves as a steadfast community that can be trusted.


RESTORING RAZED LANDS

Back home in Aldrip, the Chosen are faced with the farmland and lush forests that were decimated in the wake of the attack. Now that the bulk of rebuilding has been completed for the townspeople, it’s time to turn their attention to the abundance of the earth’s gifts that were ingloriously sapped. Here, the Chosen have been asked to replenish destroyed crops by irrigating and milling the land, planting new crops, and tending to the displaced animals that require assistance – though strangely enough, there seems to be some new flora and fauna that’s popping up. Are those plants glowing? Wait, is that a giant bird? It almost looks as though if you caught it, you could ride it… and the villagers of Aldrip seem just as familiar with them as you are, commenting that new life seems to be drifting into Aldrip’s territory on a regular basis.

Have your characters mill about on the farmland together, nurse wounded animals back to health, plant seeds, and help rebuild farms. Nothing says bonding like a good old-fashioned group activity.

Just watch out – those summer storms can be absolutely dreadful, and on more than one occasion, you may find yourselves taking cover in one of the abandoned old farmhouses to wait it out. Get out of those wet clothes, get underneath those (admittedly musty smelling) blankets and use the stove inside to put on some tea. Get nice and cozy – you might be here for a while!

STOREHOUSE SCRAMBLE

Last on the Chosen’s to-do list is to build up their stores so that if an attack of this scale happens again, they’ll be ready for it. The Chosen are to come together as a group to help dig out safehouses and cellars for citizens to hide in during the next attack, and to help bolster their stores. Now that some of their ranks have brought home goods from Rumpitur, it’s time to figure out what to do with it all.

Chosen may assist in hunting and gathering resources, working together to dry and pickle vegetables, dig out safehouses (careful – there are vermin and minor cave-ins aplenty!), and to solicit local smithies to shore up their stores of weaponry – just in case.

That said, weapons aren’t much good without the ability to use them. The Chosen are welcome to test out the wares in a nearby clearing set up specifically for training, especially if they’re from worlds where they weren’t stuck with swords and bow and arrows. There are scarecrows and targets set-up to practice on, but there’s really no replacing one-on-one combat – take a shot at it, and you may even gain a small audience! And are they placing bets…? Well, you’d better do your best, or else more than your pride might wind up bruised.
strength_of_will: (01 Smile)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-09-17 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That sounds similar to his old world, he thinks. ]

Would you mind telling me some of those stories and superstitions?

[ He's curious to know what people from another world find frightening! ]
izanagis: (042)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-09-17 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yu nods. He's done some reading on things like this...nothing extensive, but telling ghost stories in the summer is pretty classic, after all.]

In Japan, a lot of those stories feature ghosts of scorned lovers and unjust murders...victims claiming revenge by haunting the person who wronged them. As for superstitions, there are a lot of taboos around emulating death or funeral traditions in normal life. It's often said that the souls of people who have passed linger where they used to live, and they might attach themselves to you if you're not careful.

[Come to think of it, the creepiness of all that seems a little...over-the-top, doesn't it? ... Not that he'd ever keep his thumbs out when a funeral procession is passing, of course.]
strength_of_will: (07 Pensieve)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-09-20 08:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ Japan... They're from Japan? He can't stop the brief look of surprise from flashing across his face. It's a strange feeling to see someone from his former birthplace.

Perhaps other people in his position would scoff at those superstitions now. William merely grows thoughtful. ]


I see. Well, whether or not they're real, death is something we all face eventually. I wonder if maybe spirits do exist in Japan but most people simply can't see them. It would explain why there are stories of malevolent ghosts lingering if there's no-one who can give them peace.
izanagis: (030)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-09-22 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yu doesn't miss that change in expression --he's spent the last year trying to find a murderer, he's just used to paying attention to things like that-- but...he wouldn't be able to suss out a reason without pushing. For now, he just logs it away as curious.

"Most people can't see them," huh...that's an interesting thought. A little like Shadows, maybe. It makes him think about the TV world. Even though people could see that, most of them didn't think anything of it.]


Or maybe they don't even look. [A small shrug.] If people don't believe something is possible, they'll come up for any excuse to explain it away. Even something like spirits.
strength_of_will: (04 Glee)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-09-25 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He laughs a little. ]

I guess it helps that spirits aren't invisible in my world. There was a time when I would have said that the undead and demons were fantasy too, but they're also very real. Magic, too.

[ The smile on his face grows nostalgic as he reaches around to throw a few more sticks on to the fire. ]

I guess we can say for sure that they exist here too after what happened in the desert though.
izanagis: (043)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-09-25 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's an interesting thought. People who had been in the TV world didn't have trouble believing it was real, especially if they were able to use Persona. If every unbelievable thing was just as impossible to explain away... Yu nods; he can see how that would make a difference.]

The desert? I think that was before I got here.

[Now that has him curious. Kotone had mentioned it, too, a bit.]

What happened, exactly?
strength_of_will: (11 Aside)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-09-28 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Nothing much happened during the day, but as night started to fall we were approached by what looked like ghosts. They turned into humanoid spectres with strange markings all over their bodies - I think that fairy called them Infected - and I had to use my goddess' benediction to send them on.

[ He is still not sure what was meant by using 'items with power' back then to attack. ]

As ghosts they were immune to most spells and attacks. It was only when they turned solid that anyone could hit them.
izanagis: (076)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-09-29 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I-- see. [It takes him a minute to process the multitude of alarming details...

It sounds almost like shadows, in a way. Immune to attacks, creatures who look like ghosts, strange markings...is it possible that this world is somehow connected to the Midnight Channel? Without an immediate way to answer that particular question, he sets it aside, going in another direction.]


... Were they all "sent on?" Did anything else happen to them?
strength_of_will: (07 Pensieve)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-10-02 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
All the ones I encountered were laid to rest, yes. I imagine there were a lot more but I only stayed there for that one night so I don't know if anything else happened.

[ His expression grows sombre. ]

I just hope that they weren't the original residents of the town...

[ But all signs point to 'most likely', he thinks. ]
izanagis: (166)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-10-03 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ghostlike creatures in the desert...it's a lot to take in. But given the things he's already seen in this world, Yu isn't inclined to doubt the truth of it. If it is what really happened...he starts to feel a nervous knot tying in his chest.]

If they were, it means something pretty bad happened to them.

[No doubt about that. He can't blame William for hoping that's not the case.]

But that would leave the question of who they are...and what happened to the original residents, too.
strength_of_will: (09 Unsure)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-10-07 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
I heard afterwards that the markings on those people were similar to ones that some of the Chosen had a short while ago. But I don't see anyone with those markings now. Maybe because, whatever it was, it was defeated? I arrived after it happened apparently.

[ Had fought off one of its remaining, glowing tentacles, in fact. He still wishes he'd been able to fight the real thing properly. That would have been an enjoyable battle. ]
izanagis: (032)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-10-12 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well that's new information. Chosen bearing marks similar to locals out in the desert...what a frightening thought.]

Here's hoping. I arrived after that too, but...it was impossible not to notice the amount of damage done to the town. It must have been something incredibly powerful.
strength_of_will: (01 Smile)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-10-14 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess we should be glad it wasn't so powerful that it couldn't be overcome.

[ He smiles reassuringly. It's a good sign as far as he's concerned. The Chosen will not share the same fate as those out in the desert - assuming the affliction is one and the same. ]

Anyway, if it does happen again, I'll be able to help. Just ask for William through these charms.

[ He gestures to the communication charm hanging around his neck that all newcomers are supposed to receive. ]
izanagis: (020)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-10-23 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[He breathes a quiet chuckle, nodding in agreement.]

I'm hoping that won't be necessary, but-- thanks.

[Hey, a guy can dream. Still, he offers a friendly smile.]

Nice to meet you. My name's Yu.
strength_of_will: (07 Pensieve)

[personal profile] strength_of_will 2023-10-27 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ He nods back and stands, offering Yu what probably comes off as an oddly formal bow: one hand over his heart, one leg slightly back. ]

I'm going to patrol for a bit. I'll see you around, I hope.

[ With a final wave, he steps away from the fire and into the night. Straight-backed, calm and determined. ]
izanagis: (058)

[personal profile] izanagis 2023-10-31 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[It does seem odd, but then again...Yu is used to that. Oddness. It's almost endearing, at times. He nods in return and offers a little wave.]

Yeah. See you around.