⇨ 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

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

"My own magic slowly returns,
So I can take my own turns.
And I can still use
My special brews.
But thank you anyway.
If I need it, I'll say."

That was a promise. One Zecora didn't expect to NEED to make good on, but even she recognized she risked being in a very bad way if she didn't take care of herself.

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Good to hear! Things have been awful hairy since I got back. I'd like to think this place isn't all fighting for our lives all the time these days. Is it?" The Carnival had been a bit less exciting when she'd last been here, with people in jobs like hers being the ones most likely to be in danger. The vampires invading the carnival grounds had been something of a shock.

She supposes in a way it helped her prepare for what happened to the Temple a few months after she got back to it. Nowhere is safe, after all.

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

"Vampire attack
Meant watching our backs." The Ringmaster had made more than a few bad decisions since that time, Zecora acknowledged, but none out of deliberate malice. In the time she had been in the carnival, she hadn't know any creatures that had born such hostility towards them all.
"Now they they are done
We should have more fun."

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Maybe!" In truth she'd found a lot of the places they'd stopped to be annoying or trying to various degrees. Scout was raised to seek truths and help people, to entertain only in passing or as a side issue. Whatever the Ringmaster's ethos is, it's not something Scout understands.

Still, violence on the scale of the vampire attacks is hard on everyone.

"Can you tell me a bit about the stops I missed? I heard there was a party."

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

No one understood the Ringmaster. No one could.

"First we went to the realm of dreams
Where nothing was as it seems.
After that, before us unfurled
A fake construct of a world.
Then we went beneath the sea --
Which was very strange to me."

THAT one had been so strange because somehow everything had still worked normally beneath the sea, despite physics.

[stillwinningthehardway]

"The sea sounds like fun. Did you all get respirators? Um, devices that let you breathe in the water?" She gestured at her face.

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Zecora couldn't help but laugh, though she certainly didn't mean it to be at Scout's expense. "We gained the features
Of underwater creatures."

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout blinks. She's suddenly sorry she missed that. "Is that why there's so many people with gills now? They stuck around? Last time I was here they were pretty rare."

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

"That visit in this season
Is surely the reason," Zecora said with a nod.