lostcarnival | ⇨ THE WYLDLANDS

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⇨ THE WYLDLANDS

Who: Everyone pursuing the Huntsman.
When: Day 134 - Day 140
Where: The Wyldlands
What: Working as scouts from the Summer armies, the carnival makes a dangerous trek into the Wyldlands to find the Huntsman, defeat him, and save the Ringmaster from the Hunt. The day descriptions below are an outline, and details may change based on actions earlier in the week. Overall, though, it will keep the same general locations. You can make up encounters with Wylderkin at any time.
Warnings: Probably violence and gross Huntsman stuff.

HUNTING THE HUNTER↴

Upon first arriving in the Wyldlands, the carnival will find themselves in a scene much like the picture above - strange mountain ranges rise up around them, while thick forest cling to the land between. Every so often, giant silhouettes of Wyld Fae will fly overhead. Thankfully, the Summer Fae have picked an area with plenty of cover to hide in to begin their infiltration, and as the carnival is arriving via teleporation, there will be squadrons of Summerland and Summer Court Fae spreading out and concealing themselves within the trees. They will be following the carnival's trail as they move deeper into the Wyldlands, looking for their guidance to avoid the maw of the Hunt.

The carnival Supervisors will be given several golden scrolls that unfurl into small light elementals. These will transmit information between the Summer armies and the carnival at speeds similar to sending a text message. They takes various forms, but most of them are abstract motes of light with wings and tails. When delivering messages, they take the form and voice of whoever gave the message, like a custom hologram that disappears immediately after finishing.

After the carnival has been debriefed one more time, they will be sent off ahead to begin their scouting duties. Through a mixture of augury and expertise, the Summer Fae have narrowed down an area the Huntsman should be, as well as designated a general route that will mostly have ground cover. Who knows if it will stay that way, though, with how quickly the Wyldlands change. Much like in the Summer Court, time here is subjective - all sense of time varies between individuals, and the only solid way of knowing when a day is over is to have the light from the sky disappear. All time pieces will perform erratically while here.

The carnival will still need to eat and rest, as well, which means that they will have to figure out the best times to set up camp. They have sufficient rations, at least.

► DAY 134: The carnival heads deeper into the forest on the first day of their scouting mission, told to head for a giant tree that they can see on the horizon. Apparently, this tree is a landmark that will remain consistent for the time being. Someone will have to check above the canopy every so often to keep everyone on target, which risks gaining the attention of flying Wyld Fae. There are plenty of Wylderkin around (lesser Wyld Fae that behave more like standard fantasy animals) but overall the journey through this section will not be hugely perilous, as long as they remain cautious and hidden. There will be a Megathread on this day, dealing with some optional and only mildly important Summer Court NPC interactions.

► DAY 135: Early during the next day of travelling, the forest will begin to fill with more and more magical fungi until giant shrooms have almost completely replaced the trees. At first they will seem innocuous, but as their presence becomes more inescapable, it will gradually become apparent than many of the mushrooms are poisonous to the touch - and eating them will be far worse! Those with empathetic connections to plants may be able to determine which are poisonous and which aren't, while some fungi may even have beneficial effects, if they get lucky enough to find and identify them. Generally speaking, though, there are few non-plant creatures around here, due to the fact that everything is toxic, including the swampy water that covers large sections of the ground. There will be no mod directed interactions during this period, besides handling general investigations.

► DAY 136: During the middle of this day, the carnival will finally reach the giant tree. On one hand, the plant-life has become relatively safe again. On the other, the giant tree is the lair of several neutral Wyld Fae who probably won't like the carnival's presence. On the other other hand, maybe those Wyld Fae might be willing to help or offer them directions? It's up to the group to decide if they want to attempt diplomacy, or to stealth past the tree and find their own way. There will be a Megathread on this day, based on however the team decides to handle it.

► DAY 137: Past the area surrounding the big tree, the lush foliage of the forest will begin degrading until nothing is left but dark naked trunks filled with glowing pods of various sizes. It's here that those with a connection to the Hunt will start to get a sense of the Huntsman's presence, and will be drawn in a vague direction. Unfortunately, this will also be their first major brush with the Hunt itself. Hunt patrols skirmish with neutral Wyld Fae in this forest, and the collateral damage of their warfare can be seen all over. The carnival will want to either map out a path through the trees that the fighting can be avoided for the sake of the Summer troops, or give them enough data to be able to handle the threat. How this portion goes will partly depend on the outcome of the previous day's Megathread.

► DAY 138: The forest will open up into the beginnings of a mountain range, with flowing water, luminescent plant life, and the occasional cluster of crystals sprouting from the earth. There are large parties of Hunt controlled Wyld Fae patrolling this area, and so making it through will require careful navigation. As the path becomes more and more mountainous, it will be possible to find routes that mostly avoid the patrols - this information will need to be communicated back to the Summer troops. There will be a Megathread here dealing with a Hunt patrol encounter.

► DAY 139: The mountains will continue to steepen, and the crystal formations will grow more huge and consistent. The air is always cloudy, and the air condition is bad, making it harder to breathe. Weather will become more and more unfavorable the higher into the mountains the carnival gets, with cold winds and lightning that frequently strikes the crystals and causes them to send out bursts of destructive energy. Paths will occasionally crumble. There is still a heavy Hunt presence, here, though they keep to safer trails - the best way to avoid them may indeed be taking the most dangerous routes. It's probably better than being mauled to death by beasts, though. Some distant mountain tops look like the might be volcanoes. There is almost no plant-life here, besides the most stubborn of brambles. By this point, the pull of the Huntsman has grown much stronger.

► DAY 140: The sky clears enough to show a deep red skyline. Barren cliffs are punctuated with rivers of lava, and paradoxically vibrant trees and foliage in erratic spurts. The those in the carnival with a connection to the Hunt will find themselves drawn to a valley in the center of the rocks, absolutely filled with Wyld Fae and other slaves gathered from around the multiverse. This will be the final encounter, and the carnival may have to trust in their Wyld Fae disguises to make it through. There will be multiple Megathreads here, detailing the encounter with the Huntsman and bringing this log to an end.

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With a spell that lets her turn into something small and flight capable, Peridot is an obvious choice for a canopy scout. Throughout the day she's changing shape, periodically flitting up through the branches to take a cautious peek at the surrounding landscape, helping the others with similar abilities make sure that the party stays on target.

It's a simple job, and they're only early on in the mission, but Peridot already seems extremely tense. Sometimes when she lands, she makes uncomfortable eye contact with whichever carnival member happens to be nearby, but it's always brief and awkward; she always tries to dart off as quickly as possible whenever this happens, like she's avoiding having to talk to anyone. There's nothing stopping anyone from taking the initiative and addressing her first though, if they happen to be so inclined.

Strange is also tense, though for reasons that are probably different than Peridot is. So, when he spots Peribat landing near him and making eye contact, he recognizes that tenseness behind her expression. And honestly? He's a bit relieved to see that he's not the only one who feels this way. Before she can fly away, he starts talking.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one with mixed feelings about all this." Granted, he doesn't know just how precisely mixed Peridot's feelings are. But she wouldn't be that tense if she was gung-ho 'we're gonna save the Ringmaster and things are going to be great' levels of denial. There's some mixed feelings in there somewhere (he thinks). "For all that the Summer Court said that they would help, I can't help but notice that we're the ones leading the way and we're the ones who would run into danger first."

Strange doesn't know the phrase 'canary in a coal mine' but that's what he's thinking about this right now.

Peridot immediately regrets that eye contact, because she's really not sure if she's in a good enough place for talking to Strange right now? Unfortunately for her, it's happening whether she's ready for it or not.

"It does make the most logical sense," she replies somewhat distractedly, keeping her ears swiveling all around for suspicious sounds. "We're really the only ones who can safely do this job."

Relatively safely, anyway.

"But we're also the ones who are more easily enthralled, poisoned, eaten alive, or just dead. Obviously I don't want to test it, but I've no idea how quickly the Court would spring to our aid if one of us were in danger—or even if they would consider doing it in the first place."

There's like what, fifteen or so carnival members? All fifteen certainly don't need to be alive to go on a scouting mission. Strange can't help but wonder how many of them the Court's already written off as acceptable losses.

"Weren't you the one who was completely adamant that we get as many Court fae on our side as possible?" she replies, a tad more terse in her response than is typical. "I don't particularly trust them either but we are under the Summer Maiden's protection, and we also have Ignatius and the Gilded Mark on our side. We're not completely helpless out here..."

She pauses a moment, squinting into the distance. "Besides... If we do this correctly, we should be able to avoid the danger, and relying on the Court clods won't even be an issue."

"I was," Strange admits. "But I was hoping for more of a personal connection instead of what nebulous support the Summer Queen would provide. She cares about keeping the Huntsman away from the Miracles, not the Ringmaster's or our specific survival. And honestly, I don't really care about what happens to the Miracles: I just want those I care about to survive this place."

Said with a little nod towards Peridot. Those who he cares about includes green and short over here.

And about that last part, Strange frowns a little, bites his lip, and honestly asks. "Besides, when has the carnival ever succeeded in avoiding the danger? Even in places where we shouldn't have been caught up in danger, we ended up caught up in danger." Wismuth, the Celebration, the Athenaeum...it's honestly a miracle that they were able to leave Alola without having to metaphorically punch a Pokemon in the face.

A personal connection like what the Rose Queen has with Steven? is what Peridot wants to say, but. Then Strange nods at her and she just can't bring herself to breach that subject. She glances away from him at that part, a lump growing in her throat.

"I will point out that it's not impossible to do; my team and I got through the barrens in Eden without too much trouble," she reminds him. "I mean... That is just one instance out of many, MANY bad ones, but the point still stands that it's not completely unheard of for things to go right, occasionally."

Edited 2019-01-21 22:55 (UTC)

Entirely oblivious to Peridot's inner monologue and growing uncomfortableness, Strange lets out a little laugh. "True, true. You all managed to navigate that exceedingly well." There's an unspoken 'and I didn't.' Strange pauses for a moment before he continues, in a tone of cheerfulness that's obviously forced.

"And at least with some times, the danger is there but it isn't as bad as it should be. I'm honestly surprised as many of us managed to avoid capture with the Prince as we did. Granted, aside from Childermass's plan, everything went to hell and back at the ball, but before that there were only five or so of our number captured."

"That whole messy business with the Prince could have easily been avoided if the mission hadn't kicked off with people being complete idiots about leaving their rooms after curfew," Peridot scoffs in annoyance. "You know amazingly, reminiscing on our past failures really isn't making me feel any better about this mission?"

"People were complete idiots," Strange admits, giving Peridot a little shrug. Still, he feels like his point stands! But if she doesn't want to talk about it, then he'll change the conversation.

"At least we have allies. If I may be frank, I honestly thought the Summer Queen wouldn't support us. This is practically a suicide mission."

Says the person who, against his better judgement, is still here with the rest.

"Mmmm," she grunts in reply. Talking about the court just makes her think again of the whole Rose Queen debacle and... Stars, she wants to say something, and the conflict of that desire shows on her face, but she also REALLY doesn't want to say ANYTHING. She bites her tongue a moment, trying to direct her thoughts elsewhere.

"It would have been just as suicidal for her not to help us. Taking some initiative was really the only practical response to the evidence we provided her with," says Peridot.

Steven isn't super inclined to let that go. After making eye contact with Peridot a short time before, he ends up jumping up into one of the trees, making sure to catch her on the way down. He can feel the tension coming of of her.

"Hey Peridot," he says, sitting on a broad tree branch with tiny, moss-like flowers growing on it in patches. "See anything weird, yet?"

Peridot jolts slightly when he speaks-- not a surprising reaction, considering how tense she is-- and blinks owlishly in his direction while she tries to make sense of the question.

"Nyuh-- Urrmmm. Pretty much everything here is weird," she answers after a second. Kind of a lame answer, but it's true? "It would be fascinating to study the lifeforms here if the threat of getting eaten by one of them wasn't such a high risk factor."

"Haha - yeah, I know right?" he says, trying to keep his voice casual enough to be comforting. He's trying to decide if he should be more direct. He scratches his ear, which flicks around like a cat. "...Are you okay?"

That's probably a safe place to start.

She sags visibly at the question, which as a bat basically means she's sprawled out on her belly now. "Just peachy," she grumbles, staring blankly into the distance. Then after a pause: "I'm... Concerned, I suppose. About the Ringmaster... About what will happen if we can't recover her."

Steven frowns sympathetically, glad that she actually decided to explain beyond her initial sarcastic reaction.

"Because you miss her... or because of all those faerie super weapons she has?" he asks. He kind of assumes both.

"Both," she confirms. So he's right on that. "But most of all... How are we going to get back to our Earth if we can't rescue her? Can we really rely on these other fae to help us out? I know St--" Nope, that's a forbidden name. "--Some of us, have been discussing the possibility of working out how to travel inter-dimensionally without fae assistance, but who knows how long getting that to work could take?"

That is a forbidden name. He tried not to make a big reaction to the slip up, but his expression falls into a slight scowl as he thinks about it. Some uncharitable responses come to mind, about how of course that's all he cares about, and how he should just try making some more promises to the Rose Queen, then, if he's so eager to leave.

"Why wouldn't the Maiden help us out, afterwards?" he asks. They're allies now. She came this far, and she really didn't want to do that. "Or Ignatius, or Gild. They don't even want us to be here."

"I guess you're right," Peridot concedes quietly. They've trusted Ignatius so far, right? She really is just letting her anxiety get the better of her.

She certainly doesn't miss out on the reaction that Steven has to the mere mention of Strange, because, right. That's another thing that is weighing heavily on her mind, and she's not sure how to address it. This is an absolute first for her, being friends with two people who aren't really getting along. Especially with Steven being one of those two parties. She frowns out into the trees, trying to focus on her work instead.

Being angry is tiring, and Steven has never really taken to it easily. Everything with Strange, though, is hard to shake. He'd tried so many times to forgive or to leave it be for the stuff Strange has said and done but he just can't right now.

He started talking to Peridot because he wanted to comfort her, though.

"We got support from all the fae we could," he says, scowl disappearing. "I think we have a good shot."

"I just hope we're not too late," Peridot sighs. "These other fae... Most of them don't really care about what happens to her. They just want to make sure that the Miracles don't fall into the Huntsman's hands."

That's probably true. Besides the Summerland fae, most of them are acting out of self interest.

"Things won't really be okay until the Huntsman stops what he's doing," he says, uncertainly. "He's controlling so many Wyld Fae, and it isn't fair. If we stop him... then she should be okay too, right?"

"Your guess is about as good as mine, at this point," she shrugs sullenly. That is to say, the deeper into this fae shit they get, the less it feels like she knows.

She sags onto the branch, obviously distracted. Their mission isn't the only thing getting her down and she knows it, but she's not sure how to address the other issue she's having. "Steven, I--" she starts loudly, turning to look at him again, but when she sees his face she breaks off, and averts her eyes once more. "I'm... The mission isn't the only thing that's bothering me!"

Edited 2019-02-09 20:32 (UTC)

His eyes widen a little in cautious but eager surprise. He wasn't expecting to get anything more out of her, but if she's willing to speak, he is always willing to listen.

"What is it?" he asks, watching intently.

"It's... Strange," she says finally, uttering the name like she's coughing it up involuntarily. This is really difficult for her to talk about. "I don't know what to do! He's my friend but he keeps saying and doing these horrible things!"

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starseedling - 2019-02-10 04:27 (UTC) - Expand

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periphrasing - 2019-02-10 15:47 (UTC) - Expand

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⇨ THE WYLDLANDS

Day 134

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I continue to constantly lose all my regular thread notifs

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