⇨ HOME AGAIN

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone!
When: Day 68 - Day 72
Where: Carnival grounds.
What: Everyone makes it back to the carnival after their adventure in hell. The Ringmaster makes a new lake to celebrate, apparently.
Warnings: A notable absence of torture.

TO HELL AND BACK↴ The rescuers and the liberated captives will emerge from the portal like bats out of hell. Much like their previous return, this arrival will be met with a flurry of medical activity as everyone gets their injuries seen to, particularly those that had been held prisoner within Morningstar's hell fortress. It will still be night when they arrive, and the rest of Day 68 will be clouded over completely, for the benefit of the new vampires as they get settled in. After the immediate panic is dealt with, the Ringmaster will disappear into the forest until the morning of Day 69. It will be raining off and on during her absence. ► RECOVERY: Unlike the last time, the Ringmaster will be supplying the carnival workers with some healing potions from her private hoard, given that most of the healers are already wounded or spent. Damage caused by iron poisoning will not be cured by healing magic or healing items though, unfortunately, and those who have spent a lot of time in contact with iron will take at least a week to fully recover. However, regular healing remedies like bandages and herbs may help speed things along if the patient is suited to them. ► A BRAND NEW LAKE: On the morning of Day 69, the Ringmaster will return the forest to announce that she's built a new lake into the carnival grounds, only a short trail's distance from the backyard. Unlike most of the forest, this area won't just lead you in circles when explored, meaning that it can actually be modified and developed as the workers see fit. The water is always clean and just the right temperature for swimming, though it gets a bit cooler the deeper you swim. At the far side of the lake, there is a warm, stone pathway leading up the side of the mountain, that will eventually take you to some bangin' hot springs. Brought to you mostly because the Ringmaster doesn't know how to say sorry with actual words. At least it gives you something to play with while you try to shake off the trauma. ► FRUITS OF VICTORY: On Day 70, all the workers who came to hell for the rescue mission will be given a gift from the Ringmaster. Each of them will receive a bright green, glowing seed, about the size of your thumbnail. She will tell you that, when planted, the seeds will swiftly grow into a small citrus tree, which will grow fruits with regenerative properties. More details about these plants will be written up in a separate post, but for now your characters can ogle them and decide if they are going to plant them or not. ► TAKE ME TO CHURCH: Staring on Day 71, the Ringmaster will be starting to work on removing the vampirism from those infected with it, which apparently involves a lot of... meditation? She will take the newbie vampires out into a shady area of the forest and encourage them to look inside themselves and attempt to separate themselves spiritually from their demonic beasts. How well you character masters her teachings over time will determine whether or not she is ultimately capable of stripping out your demon soul and returning you to life. Of course, not all demons are made equal, and some will be more difficult to separate than others...

Comments

[raynos]

"Meditating," Jamie answers, staring back out from the musty shadows of the trailer. His eyes are glowing dimly in the dark, which might look creepy to a less seasoned individual but is probably nothing new or startling to someone like Lambert. His ears flick forward in brief acknowledgment, then cant back nervously.

"Am I bugging you? I can leave." Lurking underneath someone else's living area is A-OK until it becomes annoying, apparently. Is this trauma logic or normal Jamie logic? It is a mystery.

[whattaprick]

"Meditating?" Lambert echoes, brows raised. "What for?" No, the eyes glowing in the dark aren't much of a surprise, but that part is. Lambert hadn't been a fan of learning how to do that when he was training in Kaer Morhen, and he doesn't imagine Jamie is much better. Asking a teenage boy to sit still and empty their mind for longer than ten minutes is like asking a flooding river to stop.

"It doesn't bother me. Just doesn't seem like you're getting anywhere with it."

[raynos]

Jamie crosses his arms and rests his chin on them, still ensconced underneath the trailer. "It's supposed to take care of the whole...vampire thing." He sighs a little, though why he needs to do this when he doesn't breathe is a mystery. "If we can separate what's us from what the vampire part is, the Ringmaster can get rid of it."

He pauses and then adds, just a little dubiously: "The vampire part, I mean." This...seems obvious, given her noted distaste for the vampiric species, but the Ringmaster is such a contradictory and nonsensical beast he wouldn't put it past her to leave the demon part in someone's body and eat their actual soul just for funsies.

Distractedly, he rakes his claws through the dirt and pebbles underneath the trailer. "I don't think I'm getting anywhere with it, either. It's...harder than I thought it would be." And he's not sure what to make of that.

[whattaprick]

"What, by eating it?" Jamie probably has no idea what Lambert is talking about there, but that wasn't a sight he's going to forget anytime soon. He, too, sounds skeptical of the Ringmaster's proposed method of curing vampirism, considering he's never heard of a problem successfully solved by just willing it away.

"Meditation's not for everyone. Can't manage more than an hour or two myself," Lambert shrugs like that's no big deal. He usually doesn't need more than that, thanks freaky witcher mutations. "I knew some witchers who could sit for almost a whole day."

[raynos]

"Probably." He might not get what Lambert's actually referencing, but he'd seen the Ringmaster eat that goat-woman's heart, so who knows what she actually plans to do with whatever she pulls out of people's souls.

"An hour or two?" Jamie looks, frankly, awed at this. He's a generally patient kid himself, but sitting around ~~looking inward~~ for that long sounds like a miraculous feat even to him. "How'd you manage that?"

He's not even sure it's physically possible for someone to do that for an entire day. What happens when you have to pee?

[whattaprick]

Witcher trade secret.

"Getting yelled at a lot, mostly," Lambert offers. "Took a while to get the hang of it." Years, really, which isn't time Jamie or anyone else really has. But apparently, it's the key to becoming human again? Lambert considers the problem for a moment, then shrugs, sheathing his sword and putting it down on the steps.

"Move over." He slides underneath the trailer to join Jamie in the shadows, pupils contracting in the dimness as he lies on his belly. "What do you usually do when you start meditating?"