⇨ THE WYLDLANDS

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[insidescoop]

Carly- who has been quietly fuming more and more through this- explodes. "Of course he is!" She snaps, focusing on Lambert in particular. "They have his daughter! Who it sounds like, is all he has of the one he loved on top of it! ...No matter what way he meant it!" She continues, an edge of weepiness in her words. That she even considers Peridot's question to the dragon in her words is honestly impressive...but for now, she's more focused on the theorizers either way. "And you...You keep pushing about the 'Red Beast' like this is some sort of whodunnit that has to be solved!" And to be fair certain things would be good to know.

But at least to her, considering the emotions involved is just as important.

[scientificist]

"Does this matter?!" Herbert bursts out with, finally. This is a lot of pointless theorising and conversation to him, and worst of all, he can't ignore it because he's trapped on the cliff wherever Jasper is. Just. Staring forward. Propped up looking at it.

"Are we going to, stand around here, demanding answers until the Huntsman takes over--we should be...getting this over with!" He nearly kicks at Jasper's side in punctuation, and then thinks better of it and just pokes her with a metal finger. "Let me down!"

[periphrasing]

"If you want to go barging in with only half the story, why don't you go fly on ahead?" Peridot mutters, sideyeing Herbert.

[whattaprick]

Well, that throws a wrench in his theory -- or most of it, anyway. Lambert crosses his arms, scowling in general as the thinks it over. From everything presented to them, he'd sort of guessed they'd have to loosen the Huntsman's hold on the Red Beast and then convince it to use that power (or whatever the fuck) to get the Ringmaster. But if they're not dealing with two separate beings here...

"It matters because it's the Red Beast's power the Huntsman is using to do all this," he argues, gesturing at the Huntsman's distant territory. Just looking at it makes him want to shiver more than the mist being blown in his face, and offers and exhale of his own. "He may not have taken her over completely--" At least, based on the report from Steven's dream expedition, he's going to assume there's something still left to save in there. "-- but the last time we got away from him, it was only because he didn't think we were worth keeping. I don't think he's going to let her go."

He looks to the River Dragon, then, dragging a hand through his hair. "I'd like to know the answer to those questions myself," he waves at Peridot. "I'm here for the Ringmaster. But ... it sounds like you know more about who or what she is than she does. Are we saving two people, or ... part of one?"

[stompadour]

Scowling, Jasper huffs and sort of... shrugs her lower body so that Herbert falls off sideways. She doesn't like any of this. The River Dragon makes her nervous.

[scientificist]

"Damn you, why?!" snarls Herbert in the tone most people would say "fuck" as he falls like two metres onto rocks.

[npcarnival]

The River Dragon inclines his head, his will finally breaking. He huffs out another misty breath, finally looking back to the group - especially towards Lambert, the spearhead of all of this. His hesitation has come to an end.

"...She could not be suffered to live as she was," he says. "Hounded since the beginning of time, by the Huntsman, by the Courts... resigned to solitude and hiding. Her power, what she represented, could not be allowed freedom. With the Wyldlands under the hand of the Hunt, her capture was an inevitability."

"And so... she sought to change, as is the purest essence of her being. I gave her what I could of my own strength, so that she might be reborn as something new. Something that would, perhaps, stand against her Hunter." Rainbowed light refracts through the air, thick with mist. "The Great Beast does not know her origin, as was always our design. In this life, I feel that you may be more her kin than I ever was."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya hasn't had much to say while he follows Lambert's thoughts. It's a story he wants to hear, and is probably better unraveled between two people.

His jaw drops when he puts together the reality of what the River Dragon comes just short of saying. The reason she could always come back...

"No way," his grip on Rita tightens briefly. "The Ringmaster is the Red Beast."

[starseedling]

Steven stares.

"I really shouldn't be surprised by this," Steven says, after a crushing moment of realization. He puts his hand to his face and shakes his head.

[betheman]

There's a lot to take in, from so few words. The Ringmaster is the Red Beast- reborn, and changed.

But he thinks back to the experience within the realm of the soul. The talons and the feathered wings- things that certainly were not something he would have associated with the Ringmaster herself.

He looks to the others who were with him in the dream, wondering if they, too, are coming upon the same question he is. "...If that is the case... ...Then the one who we encountered would have been the Ringmaster herself, but..."

...

But what does that appearance mean for the secret the River Dragon held so closely?

[drrdrrdrr]

"WHOOF," says Amethyst -- her tone of voice suggests this was supposed to be a sort of quiet expression of exhausted shock, but she is a megaphone right now so it comes out at MAXIMUM VOLUME.

[stompadour]

Jasper is pretty impatient about all of this except that it means the Ringmaster might be more powerful and important than any of them previously suspected, which is obviously good for people associated with her if they can free her -- but then she resolves the niggling feeling of familiarity she's having about this, and her eyes, narrowed, fall on Steven. She doesn't say anything, but, boy...

[moonfang]

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt!!! What an unexpected twist!!"

Zangetsu deposits himself back on Gon's back, "We had all three Miracles all along!" He yanks on some of his friend's vines. "Oi! Maybe the reason she looked different in the dream is cause the Huntsman awakened her true nature and all those sleeping memories?"

[betheman]

"MngHN..." Somehow, Gongenzaka neither jolts, nor screams. But he does scowl, and look to the dragon to speak.

"...River Dragon- not long ago, I and three others, attempted to connect to either the Ringmaster, or who we 'thought' would be the Red Beast- we connected with...what appeared to be the latter. We met with great red eyes, and talons...and when she sent us from the dream for safety, we saw wings of flaming red, with feathers. These things...

"...It is because they are not at all as the Ringmaster has ever appeared to us, that I, the man Gongenzaka, worry for what it means... ...If perhaps, Zangetsu's theory, is not unfounded..."

[kingsroads]

The more they explain this, the more pissed off Strange looks. His hair is worryingly on fire, at least three or so inches compared to the normal half an inch.

"No wonder she was so close to the Summer Maiden," he scowls. "Both of them refused to accept their true status."

[flashover]

Rin is here! AMAZING.

He throws a small pebble at Strange's head.

"Hey, weren't you listening? It's not like the Ringmaster remembered she was a Miracle!"

[periphrasing]

And Peridot is right there along with everyone else being pretty floored by this information: she's standing there with her mouth scrunched up and eyes widened, trying to process the implications of this new revelation. A certain magician opening his mouth is the thing that finally snaps her out of it.

"Strange you clod, he JUST got done saying that she didn't know!" she snarls at him, electricity crackling warningly around her form. She's pretty riled up about all this.

[kingsroads]

"She knew when she was the Red Beast," he clarifies, still annoyed.

[periphrasing]

"Which was before she was ever hanging out with the Summer Maiden, so your comment doesn't even make sense!" she retorts, stomping a foot impatiently.

[flashover]

Another, larger pebble comes hurtling towards Strange's head.

[hippocarnival]

"Well nobody asked you to come save her!" Yuya's voice is close to shrieking, but that's mostly because he's further away with Rita. He's still leaning around with frustration in his expression, though.

"Maybe she thought that was better at the time, but it doesn't matter now! Now we know, so we can know what to do for her!"

[fortuneglass]

While she somehow avoids doing anything like throwing pebbles, Carly does storm over to stand immediately in front of the man and seethe. She's ready to slap him.

But she won't.

"That's right! No one forced you here! So what is the MATTER with you? 'True status'? So what if you mean the Phoenix instead of the Ringmaster!" she snarls, "That wasn't any kind of status, or 'meaning'- she was living a life of being chased down! Is that what you think should have happened?! That she should have just been locked up and captured for whatever the Queens wanted? But more than that..!" Carly snaps.

"It's just like Peridot said! SHE MET THE SUMMER MAIDEN AS THE RINGMASTER! When she FORGOT all of that anyway! SO WHAT ON EARTH IS YOUR PROBLEM, STRANGE!"

[scientificist]

"Are you all of you done yet?!" Herbert grouses from the ground. He's propped up now on his hands, and he clambers up to his feet, ending up glaring at the River Dragon. "Obviously not telling her was an incredibly poor decision: everyone with any power seems to have worked it out anyway and used her without her awareness--which. Is what is happening this! Moment so can we leave?!"

[kingsroads]

Strange looks at everybody, looks at the dragon, and quickly decides, "We'll talk later."

At this point, Strange just remains silent and turns into smoke and hangs out near Lambert's feet, still obviously pissed off. (But at least nobody can throw stuff at him now.) It's obvious he's got some personal feelings on the matter but is going to save them for later, when they're not in front of a potential ally.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst makes an airhorn sound. I'd say an impatient airhorn sound except that the specific emotion behind it is impossible to determine unless you look in her direction to see her angry eyebrows.