villagemod: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)
The Village Mod ([personal profile] villagemod) wrote in [community profile] villagelogs2021-02-20 07:12 pm

036 » aftermath: the dead

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Mathias Township...?
WHEN: Day 036
WHAT: What happens after death?
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! And a log for the living.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Kijo 鬼女"





DAY 036
RED SKY AT MORNING

But for the dead, morning does not come. They awake to a frozen world covered in darkness, the night sky above so clear that they make out the stars that are both familiar and strangely not. The moon is full, casting light that reflects upon the snow, but both are covered in a haze of red.

Everything is covered in red. The snow, the ocean, the night sky. It's as if they are seeing through colored glasses, but that filtered hue cannot be removed.

Those who were victims of the Hunt awake where they fell, surrounded by their own blood but curiously unharmed. In fact, their physical state is that of before the Hunt, and the only sign of their injuries are the wild splatters of blood all around them.

There is no sign of anyone in Mathias except for the dead, no matter how much they search. And there is quite a lot now to search — the fog has vanished from the town completely and all paths are clear to be wandered. Time is of the essence, though, for the dead will not remain so for long.

They have only six hours in this place that is Mathias but not.



SAILORS TAKE WARNING

At the fourth hour into their stay, a storm arrives. Perhaps difficult to see at first, before long the clouds can be noticed moving across the sky, at first blocking out only patches of those strange stars but then blotting them out entirely. The moon struggles in vain to shine through their darkness, eventually failing and leaving only artificial light to guide the dead in their journeys.

The storm begins with the fifth hour. The rumbling is like that of a thunderstorm but infinitely more ominous, signaling something approaching that is not meant for the world of man. Within a few minutes, they learn why as lightning arcs across the sky, the cracks of powerful energy echoing through the air. Those branching spikes at first remain in the sky, but then suddenly they crash down to meet the earth, striking the Town Hall. The sound of splintering wood fills the air, followed moments later by the roaring crackle of a fire raging into existence. Those cracks and crashes continue, but no others reach the ground.

The fire spreads with purpose, moving outward from the town's center but never touching the forest. It leaps from building to building, consuming everything in its path. It is a living, breathing thing driven by a need to devour. There is no stopping or controlling it.

As ash begins to fall from the sky like snow and the final hour begins, the earth rumbles like the sky. Like so many of them recently experienced, the ground shakes, sending burning buildings collapsing inward and residents tumbling to the ground. For a full minute, it seems as if the world is truly ending—

And then it stops. The world is silent. No rumbling of the sky, no crackles of fire. For a few moments, there is nothing.

The sound returns with a cacophonous rush, jarring and overwhelming. At first, it seems as if everything is normal, at least as normal as this nightmare world ever is. But residents will quickly begin to notice that the fire is receding, following the same path it took before. Back and back it goes, retreating through the street toward Town Hall. And if residents pay close attention, they will catch glimpses out of the corner of their eye of burned buildings suddenly repaired and standing as they had before the storm — just a glimpse, gone in a flash when faced fully, but enough to have anyone questioning what sanity they still have remaining.

When the sixth hour ends, so too do the dead. They will blink and in one moment be in this empty red hellscape of Mathias and in the next, awakening on Day 037, with only their memories to show for their harrowing experiences.


ABOUT THE FIRE

The fire that spreads through Mathias can be treated as an almost sentient entity. It does not necessarily behave as fire normally does — it can skip buildings, burn when there's nothing to fuel it, and may actively pursue residents. How it behaves in your character's encounter with it is up to you and does not need to match how others perceive it.

Characters may be injured and even killed by the fire. Both will incur sanity loss and may cause your character to gain a Madness (in addition to others they may gain from normal sanity loss).
— All who are injured by the fire lose one sanity point and will wake on day 037 with their burns.

— All who are killed by the fire lose two sanity points and gain the Madness pyrophobia for seven days. The degree of their pyrophobia is up to the individual player.





CONDITIONS UPDATE
THE WEATHER starts off clear, with temperatures well below freezing. The storm begins to move inwards around three hours in, and takes full form an hour after that.

THE FOG has vanished. The dead may wander the whole of Mathias at their leisure, though there is still a chasm in the earth between Hill Lane and Stine Road. The chasm spans from one side of town to the other, each end disappearing into the forest, and effectively blocks passage to the "northern" (actually western) part of town.

DISAPPEARANCES continue. Eliot Waugh has now vanished as well. Though none of them will notice until tomorrow...

THE GREY GULL now has a working bar! The selection is not quite what it once was.





OOC NOTES
FOOD will be restocked in some fashion in the next log, don't worry. We aren't going full survival mode yet.

REWARD REDEPEMPTION is on hold for this log. Sorry, friends! It'll be back next round.

HOUSEKEEPING Please be sure to have a look at this post in regards to sanity loss from the Hunt and what is being done with the corpses of the Hunt's victims.

MOD STATUS What will become a regular reminder that it's mostly just Amy steering this ship for now, so things will probably be pretty slow for a while. Apologies in advance, and please don't feel shy about pinging me if you're stuck waiting for something.


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villagemodama: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] villagemodama 2021-02-27 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
There is a precariously steep path winding down the side of the cliff to the beach below. He could possibly get down without breaking something but getting back up might be tricky.

The view from the top of the cliff shows nothing on the beach and only provides a clearer view of that path down.
conning: (Default)

[personal profile] conning 2021-02-27 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
YOLO... ISH. This mf will be following that there path. What might he discover at the bottom?
villagemodama: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] villagemodama 2021-02-27 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
And this is how you die despite already being dead...

At the base of the cliff, completely hidden from view until directly in front of it, is the entrance to a cave.

conning: (359)

1/3

[personal profile] conning 2021-02-27 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
......
conning: (Default)

[personal profile] conning 2021-02-27 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
conning: (279)

3/3

[personal profile] conning 2021-02-27 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
The dumb fuck gonna go in.

ETA: HELLOOO just want to follow up on this to inform Negan and Neal's explorations in the latest log.
Edited 2021-04-24 18:46 (UTC)
villagemodama: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] villagemodama 2021-04-27 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
For this misadventure:

The entry to the cave is narrow, wide enough for one person to easily enter but not two standing side-by-side. After walking around 40 feet in this narrow passageway, it opens up into a large circular open space, roughly 30 feet wide and 20 feet high. This far from natural lighting, the space will be almost pitch black without residents bringing a light source with them.

The stone floor here is smooth, as worn as the tunnels running beneath the town — it’s easy to imagine that hundreds of people have walked through this space. At the far end of the room is another opening, slightly wider than the path taken to this cave, but it is blocked by stones that seem deliberately placed — there is no sign of other debris in the area. These stones cannot be moved.

The walls of the cave have been marked by time, smoothed into an almost rippling effect, and at first, there seems to be nothing distinct about this place. However, as the light source is moved into various places, the shadows will move and settle into worn carvings that spiral throughout the space from floor to ceiling.
conning: (Default)

[personal profile] conning 2021-04-27 01:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Could I get more details about the carvings? Would he be able to find any signs of the tools used to make them?
villagemodama: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] villagemodama 2021-04-27 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
The carvings are the same type of spirals that cover the town. As for tools, they seem to be similar to how other North American rock carvings were made but there is also something off about them. If he didn't know better, Neal might think they weren't made at all and instead just came into existence naturally.
conning: (Default)

a smooch icon as an apology

[personal profile] conning 2021-04-27 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay so this is.... incredibly pedantic, probably has no relevance, and I apologize profusely: WHAT KIND OF SPIRALS ARE THEY? Anything particularly significant about their size/the tightness or looseness of the coils/which direction they're facing? Are they closed or open? How many are there/how closely packed are they? I ONLY ASK BECAUSE THESE ARE THINGS THAT NEAL WOULD NOTE AND ATTACH SIGNIFICANCE TO IF THERE IS ANY CONSISTENCY.
villagemodama: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)

[personal profile] villagemodama 2021-05-02 03:30 am (UTC)(link)

Examples! The spirals vary in size, number, tightness, and direction depending on the location in town, but after studying them, Neal would be able to notice some spirals repeating. It might be the loops at the ends of the spirals, or the way a certain type clusters together, but there are definitely recurring patterns that seem almost like a language. There's definitely meaning behind it.