bermuda....? ♔ and it will take you to fears you never knew

[behindcloseddoors]

♬ Vessel - Zola Jesus

WHO || Stiles, Fiona, Astrid, Lila, Drax, Snow, Phineas
WHAT || A wish goes awry and the team finds themselves lost in a world of shadow...
WHERE ||Maybe Bermuda. But not.
WHEN || April 14th, 2015 [backdated].
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It started as a simple enough mission.  Travel to a remote area in Russia where an entire town had fallen from the Shadow World years ago and remained largely entrenched in the culture of that world, to check on a Russian woman who had married the local baron for her parents, who had stopped hearing from her.  The woman had expressed paranoia about her husband's behavior, and upon investigation, the party discovered why: Anya's husband, Stepan, harbored a dangerous secret that threatened not only his family, but the entire town.  Years ago, he made a dark deal with an entity who lived inside a family heirloom called a Midnight Mirror - an artifact of Loviatar used as a magical prison to punish those who offended the goddess.  Agreeing to let this entity take over his body for a year every decade, the shadowy figure helped Stepan to trap his own brothers in the mirror and take over the baronry for himself.  His marriage and the subsequent birth of his child, however, made him change his mind about following through on the next swap, and the shadowy being, angry at him for reneging on his deal, released a plague upon the local town called tallowthroat, a horrible disease wherein shadows birthed out of the inflicted's throats.  

Stepan convinced the heroes to enter the Mirror and destroy the heart of it, ending the threat to the town and freeing him of the deal once and for all.  After a fierce battle against the horrible form the Heart had taken, the Shadow Manor began to collapse, taking with it their only escape route.  Trapped and uncertain what would happen to them if they were there when the entire Manor fell apart, they made a wish on Fiona the genie, to escape to Bermuda.

Where they found themselves seems to be the beach - but they are also in a world still drained of color - trapped somewhere, perhaps, on the Shadow Plane, with no known way to return home.

Comments

[unlost]

[Snow has no idea what the fuck just happened. At all.

She looks around, eyes wide and frightened, taking in the very grayscale surroundings.]

What happened?

[thesleeper]

[Phineas is still getting his bearings after the impromptu surgery. The last thing he remembers is being inside a stomach.]

Did... Did we win?

[killingtodeath]

Sort of? I mean... no more disappearing house, so- step in the right direction?

[bittersweeter]

A step in the right direction to where exactly? [ lila mad. she throws her arm out as if they're unaware of their shadowy surroundings, anger etched across her pale features. ]

[pathology]

We're going to be here until we die. [astrid moans pitifully while digging through her obnoxious hello kitty backpack that contains all her medical supplies. oh look it's xanax just for her. she's not telling anyone after fiona took like her entire supply of valium. that whore.]

[missindependent]

[ it takes fiona a little while to fully regain her bearings, her whole body reeling from the forceful surge of such powerful magic. and the valium probably hasn't done much to speed up her recovery time. but now that the world has stopped spinning, she eagerly jumps back to her feet, her mouth falling open as she hungrily scans their colorless surroundings. ]

Well, might as well make the most of it, then, right? [ her optimism knows no bounds ]

[unlost]

What we need to do is figure out where we are and how to get home.

[This is not a beach party. 8(]

astrid, lila, & snow ♔

[bittersweeter]

[ lila stops once she's out of sight and earshot, pausing abruptly in the sand to fish around in her backpack. she pulls out an actual compass that she passes to astrid with a muttered, along with her cigarettes, that she does not pass to astrid.

clearly the most important thing right now is snapping her pink lighter to light her cigarette. they calm her down, it's actually important. ]

[pathology]

[she got a 20 total nav check for using the compass (or 19 survival???). look she spends a lot of time playing with the compass app on her phone ok. don't judge. it's easier to focus on using the compass than confronting lila about her impending lung cancer like she actually wants to do. huff.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ guess what's not working right

yo compasses

also this world is drained of color so i think u mean her black and white lighter ]

[pathology]

It's not working! [tosses the compass on the ground in a little hissy. THEY'RE ALL GOING TO DIE ANYWAY.]

[unlost]

We're going to need to use landmarks or something physical to find our way back.

[She pulls out her multi-tool, and she'll just carve a line into some of the nearby trees? If there are any? Or she can lay sticks on the ground pointing back. Whatever you get the idea.]

[bittersweeter]

[ IT'S PINK IN HER SOUL OK.

she exhales shortly and puts her hand on astrid's arm like calm down bb, i'm not gonna let you die. gaaaaaaay. ]

I have-- [ clamping the cigarette between her teeth, she rifles around in her bag again, looking for something useful. ] Duct tape.

[ which would also be pink if not for this crappy black and white world. like she is already hella pale, okay, she doesn't need to be pleasantville pale. ]

through the portal~~~*~*~*~

[behindcloseddoors]

[ further exploration of the ebon dome monastery led to confrontations with what seemed to be clerics of the evil god of murder and deception, cyric. killing all of these clerics (and their horrible howler pet), they were left to piece together what was going on in this place from a few chance comments made about something called the "Black Rift", and some paperwork that they discovered among the head cleric's things.

this included the following unfinished letter:

Most honored Watchful Skull, Blackwill Akhmelere,
Greetings from your bloody hand, Skull Servant Ethar. As expected, the Sharrans hide their secrets well, but I did discover something that might lead us to understanding their ultimate plan. We aid them in their ritual to create a field of dead magic. Obviously, this is to their advantage, as only Shadow magic works in such spaces. I prayed to the Black Sun to grant me knowledge of their plans. I received no vision, but while living here in one of their old monasteries I discovered the piece of parchment I've attached with this letter, praise be to Cyric. I believe it to be the writings of a monk that once lived in the Monastery of the Ebon Dome.
It seems the Sharrans have a secret Roll of Years. Of its origin or accuracy, I can say nothing, but some names seem uncannily close to the history we have witnessed - perhaps even more so than those penned by the lost sage, Angathra the Mad. You can see that the Black Chronology seems to span a mere 34 years, but perhaps there is more not revealed by this scrap of parchment. Reading the Book of the Black might explain more and tell us what the Sharrans truly plan. They have been receiving tributes through a portal from a world unknown to us, to aid in accomplishing their ends.
I could not find more writings like this one despite a week of searching. I made subtle inquiries with the Sharrans and Despayr. Despayr seemed to know nothing, but with his kind, it is always hard to tell. The other Sharrans said they did not know what I meant, and talked about how the monks of this monastery went mad living here in the Shadow plane - but I sensed some wariness in their postures. For now, we protect the portal to the Black Rift, and attempt to learn more of the work they do there.
I think we need to find the Book of the Black and --

phineas cast a divination about the Black Rift and was rewarded with the cryptic message: "The tearing of the weave will unravel all, if fear and Despayr remain unconquered, and the unknown unfaced."

they also located the additional piece of parchment that listed the "Black Chronology", which seemed to have been the property of shar cultists that the cyricists were working with. while the two were distrustful of one another, evidence pointed to the shar conspiracy mentioned in the letter being the same as the one the knights had uncovered in new zealand, where innocent people were being magically dominated by sharrans pretending to run a temple of mystra, and sending them through some kind of horrible mystery portal.

the party decided to look for the black rift, and found it guarded by a ferocious and horrible gloom golem, which quickly proved to be too powerful for them to overcome. using the invisibility potions they'd found, they sneaked beyond it and jumped through the portal that they believed might be or have something to do with the black rift.

the line between bravery and foolishness is a thin one when it comes to adventuring parties.

but this one seems to have served them well. they tumble out in a pile, surrounded on three sides by rock walls that tower high above. on each side, one of those giant black circled portals with the purple border that makes them the symbol of Shar hangs, including the one they just spilled out.

in the fourth direction is a cliff, with a rickety suspension bridge stretching out over a deep canyon, a hundred feet below. the bridge connects down to a platform, where flaming posts light the end of the walkway, illuminating a squat tower surrounded by a sea of writhing black tentacles, everywhere except for where the bridges are attached. a second bridge seems to lead out of the back of it further into the canyon, but a fog makes it difficult to see what lies beyond. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ STILL BLACK AND WHITE! THIS IS SOME SHADOW BULLSHIT. shaking out her limbs and pushing her hair back, lila looks around, looking disgusted when she sees the tower at the end of the bridge. ]

Well, we're not dead. [ yet. ] And this is the Black Rift... Zero stars. Would not visit again.

[pathology]

[the most sarcastic and unhappy with this turn of events:] Yeah, this is sooooo much better than murder house.

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles groans when he sees the black and white bullshit that is happening. Worse yet when he sees that they need to cross this super unstable bridge yay :| ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ in the distance, beyond the fog, there's a hideous roaring sound that is a little bit reminiscent of the t-rex in the jurassic park movies. ]

[pathology]

[astrid's face immediately scrunches up like oh fuck no i am not fighting dinosaurs again!!!!]

tearing of the weave wrap

[silvermaid]

[ in the midst of the group's debating what to do about the blackguard malkarion, jordan opened the portal from katoomba, which led onto the same cliffside where the other portals sat, allowing alanna, faith, and anastacia to come through and see the others on the bridge. while they urged the group to escape through the ready exit, the others informed them (as well as they could), that some sort of great evil disturbance was occurring up ahead, and if they did not find a way to stop it, the weave itself was somehow in trouble.

with this in mind, they moved on to take on the fallen paladin, felling him with ease. continuing into the mist, they came upon three dark priestesses enacting some sort of ritual, and stopped them as well. it was then that the air was rent with the snarl of a large dragon, and they steeled themselves for the inevitable truth - 'despayr' was not a person at all, but rather, the name of the fearsome black shadow-touched dragon that awaited them in the final valley beyond. the captive souls who had survived the journey through the portal from katoomba were kept in cages there, where despayr drained their energy for some kind of ritual of his own, contributing to the tear in the weave, which he threatened would extend to their world also. he claimed he had expected them, even led them to him, so that he might use their lives to power his ritual as well. with no other course of action before them, they undertook to slay the beast, and managed to do without losing more than a few more captives, which the dragon was willing to sacrifice to heal itself.

after defeating him, the tear reverted to normal, and with their freed captives, they took off quickly to return to the portal that jordan still held open, freed captives in tow. as they all moved through the portal safely, they tumbled out into the now excavated tunnel of the remains of the buried temple of 'mystra' in katoomba, in the room filled with piles of bones and skulls.

anastacia turns to check them all, as the captives look around in dread, recognizing the place and gathering together, arms huddled around themselves. ] Do we have everyone?

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's hand is still gripped around stiles' wrist like she did not save his scrawny ass only for him to get left behind when they dove through the portal and when anastacia speaks up, she finally releases her death grip on him, glancing over at astrid. she has her boo, everything is fine. ]

Yeah, looks like.

[killingtodeath]

And all of our limbs, which I think we can agree is more than anyone should have expected.

[trebond]

If anyone's injured, you'd best speak up now.

[ She sheathes her sword, glancing around at the dusty ruins with distaste. She hates this place. A lot. ]

[pathology]

I'm good. [ONLY VAGUELY TRAUMATIZED.]

[killingtodeath]

I'm still good from your little boost earlier. [He quips to Alanna.]

Thanks, by the way. Again.