villagelogs | 079-081 » to the hideous end

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 079-081
WHAT: More mysteries are revealed in the aftermath.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted the weekend of August 22 29.
MOD NOTE: Thank you again for your patience!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Kosho"

DAY 079-081
“If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man
who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!”
― H.P. Lovecraft
The day dawns red from the smoke that still hangs in the air, though the fires have long since burned out overnight. Ash covers the ground like grey snow all throughout Mathias, even to Baneberry Hall at the far edge of the town. There is still a strange heat clinging to the little town as if the fog that surrounds them has trapped even the temperature within its borders, but the skies have at least cleared of those ominous storm clouds.

While the fires have gone, the ruin they left behind remains. The eastern side of town is full of the charred shells of what were once homes, collapsed walls and questionable flooring warning off those who might consider venturing inside. There may be a few salvageable items within the wreckage but it certainly won't be much, and those foolish enough to try searching the rubble may sustain injuries in the attempt.

What residents are almost guaranteed to find in their wanderings through the town are decidedly more unsettling. Scattered throughout the town are the corpses of current residents seemingly still alive and well, their causes of death as varied as their locations: crushed bones and organs on the beach; asphyxiation on the steps of the library; broken neck in the tunnels under the residential district. The time of death is equally as varied, with some still warm to the touch while others have begun to rot and decay like the buildings around them.

And if that isn't enough to send their anxiety spiking, they will find that the darkness in Mathias has become even less welcoming than before. From nightfall to sunrise, wherever they have chosen to shelter, strange things may happen from one night to the next. These occurrences are not consistent, either across the night or the location, and no patterns arise to make sense of what happens. It is simply another oddity of Mathias perhaps designed to drive them further into madness.

THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the lawn of Town Hall, at the center of the little town square. There are shops all around them, with houses just beyond, and at first glance, everything seems almost picturesque. Except for the silence that is at times so complete as to be maddening... Welcome to Mathias.

THE RESURRECTED
Those who perished on Day 078 will wake with the smell of burnt flesh still filling their nostrils, near what little remains of their former body. This will likely be in the crumbling, unstable remains of whatever building they were trapped inside. Welcome back to the land of the... living?

CORPSES BY DAY
— During any day of this log, characters may find one or more corpses in a location around town. This is an activity that must be opted-into by both players involved: the corpse-owner and the corpse-finder.

— The corpses that appear are only those of current residents within Mathias. The cause of death does not need to match any previous deaths that characters may have experienced in-game, though it should be only natural or possibly accidental — there should be no signs of the cause being an intentional death. (And, for the sake of your fellow players, please try to keep it light on the gore.)

— Corpses may be found in any outdoor location or inside any space where characters are not currently sheltering (such as the crumbling homes on the west side or the burned homes on the east side). The corpses will not appear inside any location where characters have been sleeping.

— The corpses can appear at various times throughout the day, meaning that a character may pass by the library in the morning with no corpse on the steps and then pass by again in the afternoon to suddenly find a corpse hanging out there.

— There may be items or clues found upon the corpses! These are not guaranteed for everyone. Players should submit this form to find out if they've won the Mathias Lottery.

TERRORS BY NIGHT
— Where players have chosen to shelter at night may have unexpected consequences, especially for those in the western half of Mathias. All characters must be accounted for.

— Mod feedback will provide either confirmation that nothing unusual happens in this location or details of any strange or unsettling occurrences on a given night and the potential consequences of staying there.

— If a player wants to opt-out of the consequences of their character staying in a particular location on a specific night, they must find another location at which their character can shelter.

SANITY LOSS

There are multiple opportunities for sanity loss within this log. All instances of such should be reported before the next log.
— CORPSE DISCOVERY Depending on your character's mental state, their relationship to the corpse, and the cause of death, sanity loss can range from 1-5 points per corpse found. This amount is up to the individual player. Items found on a corpse may also induce additional sanity loss per mod instruction.

— NIGHTTIME LOCATIONS Some locations within Mathias are safer than others at night. Players will receive mod feedback on their chosen nighttime locations which may include sanity loss for some things experienced.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER Summer continues in Mathias, with warm days that average 70°F and comfortably cool nights.

— THE FOG has maintained its recent boundaries.
— Residents may now wander the southern stretch of the forest surrounding Mathias Township
— it is possible to leave the paths but potentially unwise to do so.

— The fog has also retreated from the western section of town entirely.

— Access to the northern section of the forest is still blocked beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline; this section of fog will urge residents to stay huddled within the town proper by inducing a physical reaction of panic and fear.

— DISAPPEARANCES & DEATHS have started up again. Neal Caffrey, Athena Carrigan, Jeff Calhoun, and Caitlin Snow have vanished from the town while Wynonna Earp died in the town fires.

— THE SHAPES in the water may be spotted more frequently, and residents may get the sense that whatever is out there is watching them and waiting for something...

OOC NOTES

— ENDGAME (Repeat message.) We are officially heading into endgame. Over the next few months, things will begin ramping up and moving toward the always planned conclusion, with the last log projected to go up between the end of October and middle of December.

What does this mean? Essentially, hopefully, this will mean more opportunities to dig into the mysteries and lore of the game, as well as more chances for your characters to creep toward insanity. However, how things progress and what information comes to light will depend upon character interaction with the setting and involvement with the mysteries of Mathias.

— SANITY NOTES
— Make sure that you're reported any sanity losses from the last log and claimed any madnesses earned with those losses. And report all the losses from this log before the next is posted!

— There is now additional guidance available about what happens when characters fall below 50 sanity points.

— A reminder that sanity may be regained through character actions.

— APPLICATIONS There are only two application rounds left before apps will be permanently closed. If you're trying to lure someone in for the end of the game, now is the time to get enabling.

— FORMS If there are comments on posts that have forms, please try to remember to respond directly to that comment. With DW notifs sporadically going missing, I rely on those comments ending up in the proper journal inbox, which is the only way I'm guaranteed to see them.

— MOD UPDATE The summer program I run is over but I'm back in person at the office for the first time in 16 months, so life is still incredibly stressful and I will continue to be slow for the next while.

I will be prioritizing sleeping location and corpse responses for this log since these are timely matters with information you will need in order to move forward.

— REMINDER Once again, there are a lot of moving parts to this log. Ask questions if something is not clear! Please also make sure to check questions others ask, as well.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ cw: references to death. ]

[ although elena's taken to telling elijah almost anything and everything as soon as it happens, she stalls on telling him her discoveries. a part of her thinks she'd sound insane—"i found myself dead in the lake"—and she isn't quite sure what he'd make of her latest discovery. if she was to tell him she was finding a dead body that looked like her, she's certain he'd lock her in the antique store and not let her out in the instance she may stumble upon a third body tomorrow.

but she doesn't feel like herself. antsy, paranoid—elena's usually not one to show how she's fraying at the seams. seeing her waterlogged body had been disturbing. knowing that she could still be out there is strangely upsetting.

so when she asks elijah to come with her on a walk, she fully intends on taking him to the lake and asking if he can spy anything strange. what she doesn't plan for is a quick trip to the makeshift graveyard. a part of her is curious to know if there are new graves there... if there are a few names that she knows if her own has been engraved into stone.

she also wants to stall.

she stays near elijah, all pent up and unusually tense. elena's heart hammers as anxious butterflies swarm her chest. it only seems to amplify when she thinks she spies a lump in the distance.

swinging her arm out in front of elijah, she stops in her tracks. ]

There's something up there. Do you think it's moving?

( he's been listening to her heartbeat almost the entirety of their walk and while it's not as loud as it would be if they weren't in mathias, he can still hear it and he's been holding off on asking what the issue is. if he has to push, he will.

but he waits.

and when he thinks she's going to say something about it, instead, she draws his attention to something else and he frowns, squinting. )

It doesn't appear that it is. But, maybe we shouldn't get closer. We don't know what it is here.

[ do they ever know what anything is here? this isn't a simple town. it's something else entirely. to elena, she can't see what they have to lose. ]

We can use a stick.

[ this is where a stick would magically appear out of nowhere if this was mystic falls. that town tended to take a liking to hand her what she needed when he needed it.

elena looks around, feeling a surge of adrenaline move her faster than she's moved today. easily walking over towards a tree, she reaches up on her tiptoes to try and break off a branch. ]

A stick?

( he watches her move around, still trying to come up with an argument against her stick idea but he really doesn't have anything. so instead, he sighs and comes over to her. )

Let me do that.

( reaching up, he grabs the branch and starts to break it. )

[ show off. ]

Show off.

[ she says it with a smile. it's one of the few moments where she's felt like herself since the lake. teasing elijah is easy to do these days. now that she knows he'll take it in stride, she feels more comfortable with the idea of looking for an opportunity.

she holds out her hand for it. ]

We can use it to poke at it.

If it's alive, it's probably not going to care for that.

( but he doesn't have a better answer either so...he supposes they're going to poke at it.

he hands her the stick. )

If it moves, back away as quickly as you can.

[ impatiently, ] Yes, yes.

[ she rolls her eyes. feeling more like herself, she shakes her head. with a reinvigorated step, she almost begins skipping. with a mission in mind, she can ignore everything that feels weighted down by water. ]

Can you hear a heartbeat?

No but that doesn't mean anything. My hearing isn't as good as it should be.

( and he places the blame for that squarely on this stupid town's shoulders. he's so tired of it and he wants to go home. even new orleans and klaus is better than this. )

I don't hear anything.

( but again, that could mean so many things. it doesn't necessarily mean that what see's going to poke is dead. )

[ elena doesn't think anything of his hearing being manipulated and somewhat stripped down. to her, elijah is still so powerful. ]

That could mean…

[ not what he thinks it to mean. elena still operates on the assumption that elijah is elijah. ]

Can you smell anything?

[ like blood. ]

( at her question, elijah pauses for a moment and sniffs. he doesn't...smell much but that doesn't really mean a lot either. his senses have been somewhat muted since his arrival here. )

I don't think so.

( or maybe there is blood out there and he can't smell it. )

But that doesn't mean it's not there. This places hampers what I can do.

079-081 » to the hideous end

[80] ELIJAH.

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