TRAVEL LOG #3: KIDNAPPED CHARACTERS ONLY

[synfluxmods]

THE CHOSEN

CONTENT WARNINGS: cult-like symbols and implications, abduction, cult-like brainwashing.

▶ CASTLE BRAN

The last thing you remember might be speaking to a friend, making merry with a stranger, or enjoying a quiet night against the backlight of the bonfire. Your memories between then and now are a blur—one moment you were in the village, and the next you are here, arising from your slumber and finding yourself in a lavish room with gothic and archaic decor. The windows of the castle are bolted shut so no light goes in and no soul escapes, but candles have been so kindly lit for the captured to find their way. If you can manage to unbolt a window and peek outside, all you will see is a dark fog, obscuring all light and thrusting the castle into an eternal night. The room is old, dark, and eerie, but clean, looking very much lived in and cared for. Within every room, the skull of a wolf has been carefully placed, almost like it oversees the inhabitants.

Welcome to the Castle Bran.

Outsiders, whom attendants within the castle will so reverently refer to as the ‘Chosen’, will find themselves waking up spread across the many rooms of the castle. All their belongings were left behind at the village, and they’ll find that they’ve been cleaned up and dressed carefully in fresh, white linen. Another thing they might notice immediately is that they have been completely stripped of all their powers and weapons, rendering them as strong as any other human.

They are free to roam the many rooms and hallways of the castle but they cannot go any deeper than the ground floor. The attendants of the castle, who appear to be villagers from the town, will follow them and try their best to tend to their every need, be it food, water or a fresh bath. Attempting to question the attendants is a fruitless endeavor: they sing praises of the Lord of the Forest but provide no other useful answers, always diverting the topic back to how wonderful their protector is and how blessed the Outsiders must be to have been chosen by him.

▶ HOSPITALITY TREATMENT

Chosen who try to break their way out of the castle will be hit with a psionic wave, forcing them into a state of calmness, placidity and contentment. They might even be treated to pleasant hallucinations or relive happy memories. There’s no reason to be afraid, after all. The Lord of the Forest will take care of you. Any attempt to hurt or kill the attendants will be met with no resistance from them, almost like they are content to accept their fate. They will then be replaced with another attendant right away, rendering the effort meaningless. The bodies of any dead attendants will be left there to rot until someone complains about it enough, at which point the corpse will be carted off to the dungeons.

At this point, escape seems futile. The dark fog surrounding the castle renders it virtually invisible to the outside world and communications between the Chosen and the Outsiders in the town have been cut off. It may feel like there's nothing you can do but sit pretty and await your fate ...

▶ WE SAVE OURSELVES

After days of strange dreams and curious findings, it seems that help will take some time to arrive. The Chosen will have to save themselves even without their powers. Based on some observations, they may infer that something is cloaking the castle and making it difficult for others to locate it. They have to find a way to disrupt whatever is keeping them hidden.

With each day, they may notice something about the wolf skulls that hang in each room. Every time they look at one, it will trigger their flight response as if they are prey facing off with a predator. Some may feel frightened, anxious, hopeless, or submissive until the skull is out of their sight.

If they can push through those feelings and draw out their fight instinct, they can take the skulls and destroy them. After destroying a skull, a wave of energy will come from it. The energy will give them brief headaches, vertigo, and a short bout of irritability and impulsiveness. Some characters may recognize the feeling as Rift poisoning.

Each time they destroy a skull, the character will receive a microdose of Rift poisoning. Without their LILITH suits to protect them, they can experience extreme poisoning which results in flu like symptoms, mental and physical fatigue, and hallucinations which will make them more vulnerable to the psionic waves. However, with each skull destroyed, the fog around the castle begins to lift ever so slightly. After the air has cleared, the rooms feel safer and less oppressive, making them the perfect place to rest and recover. Unfortunately, if the servants notice, they may replace the destroyed skull with a new one.

▶ AFTERWORD.

Chosen characters may use this log to interact with each other and investigate the situation. It is HIGHLY encouraged to collaborate with other characters and share the clues you have been given.

Everyone who is kidnapped will have their ocular implants turned off, thus rendering communications between Chosen characters and characters who were not captured impossible, and any sort of location tracking will not function. However, certain characters will be given the opportunity to send a short message to the rest of the Outsiders. Players may use this post to have IC discussions about what information they want to provide to the rest of the team. If sending out a message, please submit your message by 11:59 PM GMT on the 10th of October so that mods may post it on the network.

Furthermore, characters can destroy skulls to slowly lift the fog around the castle. The number of skulls they will need to destroy is not specified, but it will lift during the next log.

The purpose of this log is for investigation and collaboration. We understand that players are excited to have terrible things happen to their characters. You can expect that information to be given on the 15th. Timeline-wise, characters will be kidnapped late at night on the 7th and then be freed around the 15th.

EVENT BREAKDOWN/RECAP (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. CASTLE BRAN: Some Outsiders will awaken to find themselves in a mysterious castle and referred to as 'Chosen' by the castle servants. They are stripped of their belongings and powers, and have been freshly bathed and dressed. They are allowed to wander the castle but cannot leave or go further than the ground floor.

2. HOSPITALITY TREATMENT: Outsiders who try to leave will be hit by a psionic wave that leaves them feeling placid and happy, and may even cause them to hallucinate pleasant events or relive happy memories. Since there is a heavy fog around the castle and communications are cut off, there appears to be no method of escape.

3. WE SAVE OURSELVES: After several days, Outsiders may begin to infer that there is something cloaking the castle and preventing it from being discovered. The source is a multitude of wolf skulls hung up around the castle. Though the skulls induce fear and hopelessness in anyone who looks at it, destroying the skull will cause the fog around the castle to slowly lift. Outsiders who destroy skulls will suffer the effects of Rift poisoning.

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Comments

[ignoreher]

Boy, everyone else sure is useful... Make sure you get something to drink, Kabru -- honey'll help your throat.

[ sorry. she's just. definitely not her usual cheery self, pressing her hand to her head with closed eyes. malkuth can tell some of the others aren't fairing as well, but from the sounds of it it could be the skulls.

well. whatever. her head is killing her and she thinks of the messages she'd seen and couldn't respond to. ]

I don't have anything like skulls and dreams, but... I did find a spot in this place where I could see the messages the others sent me.

[ ... a soft laugh, strained as it is. ]

They're all worried. It wasn't a strong signal and it cut out too much for me to want to send anything back -- but it's something. Any ideas of things we could tell them? Something short -- it really, really hurts to be in there.

[ as some others might've found out themselves, but. anyway. ]

[tokakujuho]

[ he doesn't know what to make of this situation, still trying to cope with how weak he feels within these castle walls. no cursed energy from within or without, just a regular human now, surrounded by other equally weak people, presumably. it's too disturbing a thought so Nanami tucks it away whilst listening to all the others. ]

I found a spot like that as well. If we can make any sense of the dreams and other strange occurrences everyone has found, it might help the others in their fight against whatever is lurking out there.

[undrowned]

... at the very least, the location. The villagers were intent in keeping us away from the forest when we arrived - most of them will probably realize quickly enough that the only way is to search outside of the village, but confirmation will help persuade others, in case they ... encounter resistance, and have to resort to violence.

[ what else ... it's a shame that they can only send so much, but it'll have to do. ]

And maybe the fact that we don't have our powers and can be killed. That seems to be, at least, the commonality amongst the strange experiences and clues we've unearthed - the threat of death, which is easy without any of our abilities. That'll let everyone know how urgent the situation is.

[ignoreher]

If there's at least one person who can follow a ping, then our messages should be enough -- it's not like we know where we are, either.

[ besides the name of a castle. that means absolutely nothing to either party, as far as she knows. ]

But I think it'll have to be a combined effort. We don't know how far we are from Brasov, and that fog's going to make it impossible for anyone to find this place anyway -- they could walk right beside us and we'd never know. So we need to lift as much of that fog as possible just before we send anything out -- all on the off chance someone can find us.

[ ...

how many messages can they get out? should they send a test one and see what happens? or should they put their eggs in a basket and do consecutive ones on the same day? her headache's more annoying than it is detrimental the more they talk, at least, and she seems lost in thought as she turns over the options. ]

[tokakujuho]

We shouldn't lure the others here. It's too dangerous, but. If we can gather clues as to where to find this wood creature and determine its status, it might help them go after it.

[ better to eliminate the source rather than waste time and effort when the risk of ending up like the kidnappees is this high. ]

[gimu]

[ it takes choso a moment for the words to sink in, but eventually he shuffles over to blink blearily at potato girl. ]

How short does it have to be?

[ a short message to call for help. a short message to impart urgency. something that the rest of the party would get, know, understand. what, then, what, what what could it be?

he shifts weight from one foot to the other, recalling something someone else had said with another blink. ]

"It's all shut off."

[ignoreher]

[ good question. she'd certainly tried longer ones, to explain the whole situation -- but it'd timed her out, leaving her frustrated. but going too short... ]

That's a start. "It's all shut off. We're okay, for now." Something like that? We can't promise that we'll be okay the whole time we're here, when we don't even know how long they'll be keeping us, but... I think it'd reassure them to know that the ones who went missing are accounted for.

[gimu]

They must be warned. We are not okay.

[ way to lighten the mood, big guy. ]

If our abilities can be shut off like this, so can theirs. There will be no hope for us if that happens.

[ignoreher]

[ choso........... ]

You're surprisingly picky for someone who was willing to try my parfato. "We're alive for now, but it's all shut off." Better?

[gimu]

[ mention of The Parfato is enough to banish the fog a little, allowing his mouth to assume the shape of what can only be a pout. ]

That was that and this is this. The first version was fine anyway.

[ignoreher]

[ he's cute sometimes. ]

They'll panic if we leave it at just that, Choso! We have to reassure them about something, okay? I'm just trying to think of what I'd like to hear.

[gimu]

I would want to know it's dangerous, too. We reassure them by giving them all the information we have.

[ but reassurance would be nice to get if the situations were reversed... but danger... but reassurance... agh. ]

[ignoreher]

[ it's difficult. ]

Look. We have to be short, but that doesn't mean we can't expend a few words to tell them all's well -- for the moment. I'm not here to give false hope. But I know my head wouldn't be on straight if the roles were reversed, and hearing that much from those I care about would help put me back on solid ground. People in panic do a lot worse than those who're calm.

[gimu]

[ “people who panic” she says, and all choso can think of is the pack of pre-20-year-olds that have been left behind. since when have yuji or raidou ever not panicked in their own destructive little ways?

his face sort of falls. ]

No matter how I look at it, you’re right. We can’t let them storm off into more trouble with us all out here as well.

[ignoreher]

[ ... that's her friend. she'll reach for his hand, squeezing gently. ]

It'll be alright. We won't let them fall into the same situation we've found ourselves in -- the same that the three before us did, either. They've got some good heads back there too.

[ so if anyone can figure out the odd messages being sent it'll be one of them. ]

For now, we'll do what we can to help them from the inside.

[gimu]

[ looking down at the little hand on his, choso can only nod, for it is true. the folks in the other group, wherever they may be, are level-headed and smart. that talks-a-lot ratio man, bakugo, geto suguru, goj— no, not that one.

regardless, smart people. good, strong people. ]

Okay.

[ in a bid to maybe offer reassurance of his own, he lays a large, cool palm over malkuth’s warmer hand, absolutely engulfing hers in the process. ]

I will entrust the messages to you. The least I can do is break what I can while you’re at it.

[ he means the skulls the others have mentioned, but really, anything and everything else was fair game. ]

[ignoreher]

[ a real comfort, actually. the only other hands she can recall doing so were vergilius's.

... he seemed so mad in those messages, sent not so long after they'd woken here by her count. malkuth shakes her head. focus on the now, not the farther future, and what can be done in the moment -- everyone's worried, furious for their own reasons, and the least she can do is this much. ]

Thanks. Remember, don't do too many skulls in a row -- even Yuji might get mad at you for pushing it.

[likemybooks]

We have to tell them where we are. It's a castle, and it's foggy everywhere, but other than that, what do we know?

[On his chair, Taryon has his hands tightly folded over his lap as he listens to the others talk. This isn't the fist time he was captured, but previously, there were promises and hopes that he could be found or rescued. Now, the world is deliberately staged to keep anyone from uncovering their location, and he does not trust his own ability to free himself. What has he been able to do on his own? Walk out the front door of his house and leave his father? That's not even possible this time around.]

We also have to tell them it's urgent. We can't risk staying here for long.

[ignoreher]

Oh, I'm beyond sure they know that we'd like a hand sooner than later.

[ she knows

like five people alone who'd level the forest if it meant finding her and the others sooner. if that was the easiest, or only, way... then there'd be an environment upheaval within the hour. ]

The kaiju's possible form and the strange wolf too... the "care" the Lord provides in exchange for sacrifices... Anything at all we might be able to say that'd give them even a hint as to what to expect... There's so much we need them to know, and I don't know how long that signal might last.

[likemybooks]

I'll try to say all that. And if I can't, someone else can go after me. We can go in order, right? Where we are, that we're in danger, bats and a giant wolf are likely culprits. What else? The mind control the kaiju does?

[He looks around the rest of the room.]