021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias.
WHEN: Days 021-023
WHAT: A cold storm approaches.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Emily Kinney & Lauren Cohan "The Parting Glass"

DAYS 021-023
THE WORLD TURNS WHITE
“Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves, O flakes of snow,
For which, through naked trees, the winds A-mourning go?”
— John Banister Tabb
The howling wind is what wakes the residents of Mathias each day now as the world turns slowly into a bleak stretch of white. Snow continues to fall in thick curtains of flakes that accumulate on trees and rooftops, swirling sideways in the gusts of wind that bow trees and whistle through any crack they can find. The drifts of snow grow taller against the buildings and the wind makes the already freezing temperatures feel bitterly cold.

By day 022, the far ends of streets begin to resemble the hazardous fog with how little becomes visible as the winds pick up. Buildings can still be discerned as dark shapes but the weather's warning becomes clear — a storm is coming. And by day 023, the storm arrives properly, the wind still screaming through the streets like a winter banshee announcing so many deaths to come. These conditions are far from hospitable and only the truly mad would be foolish enough to venture outside in weather such as this.


THE NEWLY ARRIVED
With an embrace of wintery white, Mathias offers a chilly welcome to its newest residents. They awake along the southern treeline bordering Mathias, near the small makeshift cemetery containing a handful of wooden markers erected without names or signifiers of those buried within. And not far from them is the schoolhouse, where in a snowdrift they will the frozen corpse of a young woman named Rey.

LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS
“A lantern can give you light only when you light it”
— Munia Khan
When residents wake on the morning of day 021, they will find outside in the snow the abandoned lanterns of those shadowy spectres who have moved so silently through Mathias. Each nestled in a patch of frozen white outside their door, the lanterns are now cold to the touch, the half-burned candle within each one seeming to have been lit so very long ago. Inside the glass encasement is a small rolled piece of paper, upon which is written:

keep it lit
There is nothing more, and the prior owners of these lanterns will not return within these days.

There is one lantern waiting outside the building for each resident wherever they are sleeping — the exception for this is those who may have already claimed a lantern as their own. Removing a lantern from its resting place results in no apparent reaction, nor does lighting or not lighting it. However, whatever residents ultimately choose to do with these lanterns should be reported.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— SNOW continues to fall, resulting over the three days in upwards of a foot of accumulation. The winds blow in gusts over 35 mph.

— VOICES are not openly haunting our residents, though they may still be occasionally encountered in the more heavily decayed buildings where some rooms seem to almost swallow whatever light tries to enter them.

— THE FOG has still receded from the town proper and much of the eastern and northern beach, with the path through the northern forest to the lighthouse still clear on day 021. On day 022, however, as the storm worsens, the fog returns to the paths in the forest, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper or else.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. While Zed Martin has returned, Rey's corpse will be found in a snowdrift near the Schoolhouse; she disappeared on day 018.

— THE STRANGER is gone.

— THE SPECTRES are gone.

OOC UPDATES

— DISCOVERIES have been collected and collated for your review. Please note that this is OOC information only, put together for the purpose of helping you as players see connections and possibilities for CR and your own character's potential avenues of exploration and investigation. (If we are missing something, please report it so we can add it to the list.)

— AP REWARDS have a new option now — Ideas may be requested if you find yourself stuck. You may now claim up to 2 rewards per log: (1) idea and (1) other reward.

— SANITY may be regained in two ways: self-medication and treatment. In Mathias, this means such coping mechanisms as drinking or drugging oneself into a stupor that allows them to face their fears and issues, or talking to someone about those fears and issues. Since both of these will take some time, best get started. (A form will be added to the Sanity page.)

— REMINDERS — Don't forget about the bulletin board. Please continue reporting your updates to locations, plots, and discoveries. The map of Mathias has been added to the locations page for ease of reference. Make sure your character's sanity level is kept updated. Prospective players are still joining the TDM, so it's recommended to track new top-levels so you don't miss them.

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Comments

[descendent]

I promise Elena won't go murdering NPCs this log. 😬

Boarding House questions…

1. Elena and Elijah are in room 1 of the Boarding House. Does the room have anything like a receipt or business card in the pocket of a coat or anything in the drawers that could have belonged to someone who once boarded there?

I'm thinking of having Elena go to one of the King Lane houses (she was in one when she first arrived, but blood loss paired with disorientation and Elijah's handsome face distracted her from really exploring and knowing the details wasn't the purpose of that thread) and wanted to know if she returned to the house:

2. Would she be able to find anything like a photo album of the family that lived there?
3. Would she be able to find anything like diaries from angsty kids, bills like electricity or even receipts from shopping from local businesses, calendars, etc.?
4. Are there any suits in the closet? Asking for an actual friend.
5. Does the house have a garage (I'm assuming so, but you never know with designs) and if so, would there be gardening tools in this garage? What could she find in there?

Jumping on the back of Lausanne's awesome questions about the school as I intend to have Elena go there this log…

6. What is in the teacher's desk drawers? Are these empty?
7. Are there any student reports?
8. Is the principal's office easily accessible?
Do vampires attend this school?

And lanterns...

9. Do the spectres know Simon the Spectre will have a funeral? I'm joking. But no, seriously. Do they?
10. Is the lantern's flame warm?

Thank you! And sorry.

[villagemodama]

1. There's nothing in the room from the original occupants, but they may find a mundane note addressed to "Jill" in one of the drawers. (A fellow former resident who stayed in this room.)
2. There are photographs of the family along the walls and shelves. Mom, dad, daughter, and son. Typical family shots, kids doing kid things, and a photograph of a group of people in front of a large house surrounded by trees.
3. No diaries or financial documents, and all calendars have the years and most details smudged out.
4. Sure, why not. They're only mediocre quality though, sorry Elijah.
5. Yes, and yes. Typical gardening and home repair tools.
6. Just typical teacher desk things, nothing of note.
7. If you mean report cards with grades, nope. If you mean reports written by students, sure! Normal topics, nothing out of the ordinary.
8. There is no principals office, or any sign of a leadership position within the school.
Hahahaha how would she be able to tell that, exactly??
9. Insert shrug emoji.
10. When the candle is lit, it behaves like a normal candle. So yep, warm!

[descendent]

WHO IS JILL???

I know you're not going to answer that one, but I had to ask.

Just a follow up for:
2. Is the large house surrounded by trees a house Elena can recognise is in Mathias?
3. Do the calendars have images, like a theme i.e. locations within the USA or perhaps Mathias...?
7. Do the reports have any student names on it or would I consider this smudged out like the dates are conveniently for the calendars?

And thank you for the suits! It makes Elena super happy...

You know better than anyone Elena attracts vampires. You never know!

[villagemodama]

ELENA SHOULD ASK HER NEIGHBORS THAT.

2. It is not.
3. Calendar themes include cats, US national parks, and cheese of the month.
7. Reports have students' first names but other Important Information is inconveniently smudged out.

[descendent]

💖THANK YOU.

Is it okay if I make up the student names (like Abigail, Sarah, Harry...) or did you have a set in mind? (Also I'm making one of the calendars ragdolls.)

[villagemodama]

Whoops, though I replied to this! Make up names however you'd like for the kids.