EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

[cherrywood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 12th - 28th
Location: Kithika, inside the bottle
Situation: The discovery of an artifact from the first war against Malicant reveals the land of Kithika within a dimension of the Death Plane... and just happens to be contained inside a bottle.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

OOC INFORMATION ♦ CITY OF KEELIAI ♦ INSIDE THE BOTTLE ♦ THE WORLD EATER
Arriving in Kithika is unpleasant for the most part. Transport through the glass vessel deposits you in the middle of a thick and murky swamp, with air so hot and humid it feels as though one is breathing through a wet towel. This is a place of perpetual night and there are no celestial bodies visible overhead through the twisted vines to break up the blackness, making the only light visible that which comes clumps of marsh fungus that emit a steady glow in a variety of muted colours: pale blue, whitish green, watery mauve. The only other light comes from those who can generate it themselves and that will reveal numerous broad-leaved trees, in some places standing too thick to move through. Below, knee-deep water laps in swirls at their legs, accompanied by the occasional slithery feel of something moving in the bracken against wet limbs, gone before it can be identified. A variety of strange noises from creatures of the swamp fill the air with buzzing and hoarse croaking, interrupted by the screech of mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds darting past and hungry for a meal.

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OOC NOTE: Characters will not be able to progress past the Temple and the Grounds for 48 IC hours after which point, the way to continue onward to find the dragon will be discovered. The second log will be posted on the 17th, to help spread out the tagging. Thank you!

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OOC INFORMATION
Landfall Questions | Approved Item Requests | Player Plot - Kryptonian Rampage OOC

CITY OF KEELIAI
Emperor's Orders: Miasma Explained | Marshaling the Forces | A City Under Siege | Halting the Scourge

INSIDE THE BOTTLE
Crossing the Swamp | Decayed Grounds | The Sullied Temple | Stone Idols | Item Discovery

THE WORLD EATER
Battling the Dragon | Soul's Poison | Kryptonian Rampage | The Guarded Pool | Weighing the Options | Aftermath

Comments

Crossing the Swamp

[cherrywood]

The swamp has a faint slope to it and heading upstream as they move through the area, it will seem like the swamp itself wants to halt their progress. Attempts at flying will be met with trees shifting and seeming to grab at them. Any use of superpowers to try and break the trees will result in eerie, high-pitched screaming as if someone nearby is in pain. Persisting in that vein will cause hair-raising shrieks to blast the ears of any and all nearby as long as any super-powered attempts at breaking the trees are made. Any normal attempts uing weapons and tools or brute strength will result in a chorus of whispers throughout the swamp speaking in some unintelligible language and the trees will bleed a thick, brackish blood that causes burns to those that touch it.

Characters will discover that the trees seem to shrink away from the phosphorous fungi, so anyone who has the idea to scoop it up and, say, stuff it in a bottle will have a handy torch that can beat back the bushes as they continue their upstream trek.

The vegetation finally parts to reveal a large, dilapidated temple sitting on the edge of the swamp. The entire ground on which it sits seems to be tilted down in the direction they approach from, as if everything is sliding towards the swamp. Near the edges of the swamp where it moves to a firmer ground there are several humanoid statues that are posed as if they're trying to claw their way out of the encroaching slime and muck. The statues have empty eye sockets and clawed hands, frozen in a grotesque tableau as if trying to reach the safety of the ruined temple ahead of them.

[originalflameon]

To anyone who's nearby when Jim decides to cross the swamp... well. I hope you enjoy the trees around yelling for their dear life.

At first he'd stopped, scared he was actually hurting someone- or something, because if the trees were able to make such sounds they had to be some level of sentience and he wasn't going to just be cruel for the sake of going faster. But that determination only lasted for a nice couple minutes, and soon he tries pushing it, burning brighter and for longer, burning the branches that try to reach for him and doing his best to ignore the yells.

It isn't really working, if the pained face he's making is any indication.

Closed to Anne

[asouthron]

"Unbelievable..." Of course they would get separated! Of course! Because heaven forbid this magic bottle not have enough oomph to teleport him and his fellow officers all together in the same spot.

With a tired huff, he takes out his communicator to alert whomever is in the area that he's fine, but he's... somewhere else. Everything looks the same, he can't exactly give a good description of where he is. And coordinates? Forget about it! There seems to be too much interference, or the macro-microcosm of this world and Keeliai is too immeasurable for something that is never meant to calculate at this kind of range.

"Great..." For now, he's on his own. His tricorder is able to tell him there's lifeforms in the area, but once again the rang isn't measurable. This would usually be the part where he starts cursing up a storm, but he has to be honest... This is every damn mission he is ever forced to undergo. Nothing ever works! Every mission is a worse-case scenario! He's become numb to the sensation of disappointment, really.

"Well, make hay while the sun's shinin'..." It's more fun to be stereotypical when Jim's around to roll his eyes at his idioms, but the idea still stands. On an unknown world, who knows what it'll be like at night. McCoy has no interest in finding out. Instead he begins moving uphill (Of course it would be uphill! Knowing his luck it'll be uphill both ways!) watching his instruments and the placement of his feet when his boots sink into the quagmire around him.

"Christ, could this get any worse?"

open.

[mythically]

( her first instinct is to fly as high as she can, and then struggle her way through the thickness of the swamp. diana normally isn't one to destroy nature without thought, but the severity of the situation has been thoroughly impressed upon her and she wants to be able to get through as quickly as possible. but as soon as she starts ripping branches away from the trees, and the reactive sound begins, she freezes. hands clasped over her ears, she shakes her head, murmuring her apologies.

she's on foot, after that, examining everything she can and trying to find anything that might help. she won't have the insight to go for the phosphorous herself, but she will offer her assistance and protection to anyone she comes across. )

Open!

[solo_patria]

While there can be no regret for his decision, Enjolras does slightly wonder whether he ought have prepared for this a bit more before rushing in. Namely, he's a bit concerned about the traction on his boots as he makes his way through the swamp. Should have considered those matters in more detail, he tells himself, as he finds himself slipping a little, well, more than a little, into the muck.

When Enjolras rises, he's reaching for a nearby tree to tug himself up, which seems to have been...not the best of thoughts, given that ooze, is that a blood that comes forth from it, on his fingers? He's pressing a bit more to get a better feel for it, at which point...Ouch.

"Well, that was idiotic." He's muttering, then pushing his way forward as it is, trying to wipe that from his hands before the sting grows as to incapacitate him.

"Do not even touch the trees." He's calling, if any are around to make the same mistake. "It's a bit stingy."

open.

[sushihouse]

Rioichi is a shadow among shadows, a steadily-moving blur traveling through the upper branches of the trees. His progress is silent save for the creaking of the trees themselves, the weight of their gnarled bodies shifting in the mud as they try to grab at him, and the occasional rush of whispers born from slashing through vines that couldn't be otherwise bypassed. For the most part, both hooked cane and razor-sharp ninjatō are slung across his back in order to free up his paws for the delicate work of climbing something that very much wanted to throw him headfirst into primordial ooze.

His tail flutters soundlessly behind him, a flicker of movement in the dim light. It's hot and suffocating, but he ignores the discomfort. Occasionally he drops to the ground to examine this or that, growing increasingly interested in the glowing fungi.

[open]

[fearlessherosheart]

If Tazendra let a little thing like screams of agony stop her, she wouldn't be in situations like this. Considering how she arrived in this world, perhaps that wasn't a good thing. Never the less, she was trying to use her sword and a great deal of sorcery to carve a path.

"These trees are quite uncanny. One would think they could feel the flame..."

One might wish to stop her before she deafens the entire group. At least she's keeping the fire from becoming an inferno.

Open

[spideyfanone]

Kurt's having fun. Sure, it's creepy, but he's pretty creepy, so that's fair. It's hard not to be smug when you can cheat without even trying. He's built for arboreal acrobatics and he can see just fine in the dim light. The trees are too close for much in the way of fun acrobatics, but he can always port when it's tight. He doesn't even have to get his feet wet.

He blends into the darkness seamlessly, and the easiest way to track his progress is to follow the glow of his eyes. Or the little puffs of smoke that porting leaves behind. Swinging around a trunk on one arm, port, leap, get caught in a branch, port again, hang by his tail for a moment to get his bearings...

open

[bindsthedead]

This was nothing like she expected. Sabriel had been expecting a lifeless wasteland, or to have all of her worst fears thrown in her face.

A hot, humid swamp was not what she was expecting. Between the heat, and the fact that it seems to be trying to keep her out, rather than pull her in deeper. And with only a small charter light for illumination, the forest seemed full of shadows... and the plants made further passage upstream impossible.

With a sigh, Sabriel drew her sword, the marks on it flaring into brilliance as she selected a string of Charter Marks and let them flow into the blade.

A swing of her sword released the spell, sending a wave of golden fire in front of her and Sabriel stepped forward- only to grimace at the screaming. So much for any attempt at stealth, she thought as the flames ate into the foliage, creating a path Sabriel quickly stepped through, sword at the ready.

[open]

[hulkintraining]

Of course Teddy's first reaction to seeing the swamp was 'fly over it'. No one would want to cross through it on foot unless they had to. However, now he was beginning to regret his decision as he attempted to wrestle out of the clutches of a tree branch. It was like he'd fallen into a duel with the walking trees of Lord of the Rings or something. he slashed at the branch with his claws, which bought him some time to get away, but not before he nearly had his eardrums burst from the shrieking.

He glided to the ground and let himself drop to the ground, just missing the swamp water. It looked like he would be grounded with everyone else. "Is anyone else seriously regretting their life choices yet?" He really hoped he wasn't the only one.

open

[backwordscompatible]

[Was it cheating to use magic for just about everything?]

[Absolutely.]

[But you know what? The swamp was cheating too, so Zatanna considered it fair game. Less than five minutes into her attempts at flying over it, and she'd been attacked by the nastiest tree branch since The Wizard of Oz. Weren't those things supposed to be on the witches side? Traitors. One of them managed to cut her cheek. The blood still trickled down even now, thin and minimal but smeared.]

[She lashed back, using a cutting wind to blow the branches back. Not two seconds later, the screaming began.]

Oh, don't give me that. You started it.

[open]

[doc_holi]

Well, if anything, this reminded her of the old days with Providence. Only that she didn't have a machete to cut through the jungle - or swamp rather - this time.

She did notice that the trees seemed to be a bit more aware than... most trees. Why it didn't surprise her, she wasn't sure, but Holiday was keeping a close eye on their actions since they were completely hostile. Perhaps there was some sort of pattern or puzzle here.

[open]

[casaerotica13]

All is still and quiet until a loud curse is heard through the branches and man falls from the sky.

Gabriel lands in the murky water and stays a moment before he fishes himself out, sputtering and shaking his long hair like a dog. "Dammit, that was the third time!"

Growling a little, he vanishes...

And then falls again about a foot away from his original area. "Dammit!" Guess he's gonna walk instead.

Closed - Stiles & Batman

[skybluejeep]

Landing face first in a mucky swamp, surrounded by darkness, getting slime up his nose and all over his clothes, not his favorite landing so far. Choking and sputtering, Stiles sits up, wiping the worst of the ick from his face, spitting out the brackish water.

And silence falls.

He figured his thrashing about would have a certain werewolf all up in his grill, making sure he's okay. And yet...

"...Derek?"

He calls it out tentatively at first, and then louder and louder, scrambling to his feet and pulling his dirk out. Yeah, he grabbed the dirk on his way in; he's not going totally defenseless, thanks. And he's even wearing those bracers he got in Sinbrilee. He's never worn them before, but this felt like the right time.

"DEREK?!"

Nothing. Silence.

He and Derek have been separated. He's wet, he's cold, he can hardly see anything, and all he has to defend himself is a short sword.

Great.

[parallels]

Clara is alone in her attempt to cross the swamp. It's an easy way to avoid being told not to go, or so she tells herself. But now, wet and cold and shivering, she's starting to regret this plan. It's impossible for her to get her bearings in a forest that seems to keep shifting and changing. There's a nasty cut on her forehead from a rather violent resistance from a tree after she tried to whack it with a stick.

"I'm not lost," She says aloud, as if saying so will make it true. "I'm fine. Just a bit... turned around. Quite a few steps below lost." She bites her lip and looks around before summoning charter magic to produce a light spell. She holds the light in her palm and it comforts her a bit.

But it the image of the dark trees looming above her and the light reflecting off the quiet water makes her realize how alone she really is in the swamp. She swallows again and takes a step forward, "I'm fine. Really fine. Not lost, just turned around." She repeats it to herself under her breath, a mantra to keep her going.

Open

[iwannabeadragon]

"Of course it would be a swamp. Why wouldn't it?" Hawke trudges through the swamp with a stubborn conviction. Nothing beyond his own determination can really help him at the moment. The axes he carries are made for piercing armor and rending flesh, not for hacking through vines and swamp growth. Besides, he's seen attempts made by others. For now, all he can do is push forward through the murk at an agonizing slow pace.

As a vine coils around his leg and pulls it out from underneath him, Hawke hisses out curse before falling face first into the murky waters. He lifts his head above the water and turns to grab the vine as he cuts it away from his leg with a knife drawn from his belt. Hawke pulls away before the strange blood can burn him and does his best ignore the whispering. Instead he focuses on cursing his luck.

"Maker, I think I got some of in my mouth. That's going to take a few weeks of drinking to get rid of the taste." Rising to his feet, he brushes off some of the slime before once again pushing up the slope in his slow trudge.

open

[chittybang]

It had been a long time since Asami felt this gross in her own skin, but she wasn't letting that get in the way of her focus. She'd had half a mind to tie her hair back upon approaching the swamp. Although she downplayed the importance of doing that, it really was easier to manage the murky waters.

She was having the same troubles as anyone else who wasn't equipped with a power ready to try on the vegetation. Currently she was nursing a burn from the blood-like ooze that seeped through the bark of a tree she needed to stabilize her balance. Not wanting to stay in one place for too long, some of her focus was on moving forward, but her eyes kept a steady glance down at her torn sleeve and the dry, bright red skin beneath it.

Predictably when facing obstacles without keeping her eyes on the trail ahead, she eventually caught her ankle on a branch and just barely caught herself from falling on all-fours. No, only on one knee, and a hand plunged deeper into the muddy water than she anticipated. It took three good tugs before she could get it out, but the frustration was getting to her.

She sighed. Just keep moving. This isn't a forever-situation. At least, she could hope as much. She inched enough during her breather to reach a steadier ground, and with her eyes kept low with weariness, something on the ground interested her. Why wasn't coming to her immediately.

She glanced behind her shoulder, just to see if there was a second pair of eyes around available for an opinion.

Open;

[alphatar]

As if the smell of burning trees was bad enough, there was the screaming that came with it. That was what made Korra stop trying to burn her way through the swamp and try a different element. Bringing up both her fists caused the earth beneath her feet to rise up, enough to topple a few trees and it almost seemed to be working.

Until the instant she stopped bending and the swamp sank back into it's previous state all too easily.

"Oh come on!" She was ready to go right back to fire and just deal with the consequences. This was not going to stop her from doing what she promised.

Open

[nerdylilspidey]

Webshooters were a non-option. Spidey discovered that helpful little factoid the moment he tried firing a line of webbing at one of the trees so he could get to swinging, only to get an earful of unintelligible (and freaky) whispering and some kind of acid sap to dissolve the webfluid away. Not a fun time. The acid sap also meant there would be no jumping from tree to tree. So there was that, too.

Which left... walking. Through a swamp. In his booties and tights. And the award for Best Keeliai-Sponsored Field Trip into the Mysterious and Deadly goes to...

All things considered, he was probably getting off easy. Super strength made trudging through the thick swamp a little more manageable than expected. It was also a good thing he'd hit a tree with webbing before using something else- his hand for example? And then there was the good ol' Spidey Sense, always happy to go off when something bad was headed right for him.

"You know," he called out to no one in particular, "This place really could be a lot worse. Not that I wanna build a summer home here, but if you don't touch the trees, they're actually quite lovely."

[Closed to Mike and Leo]

[meanandgreen]

The glass is cool against his fingertips, and then in an instant swirl of color and light that snatches away his breath and makes his heart seize, the palace's grandeur fades. Cool marble floors become muck pooling around his legs. The cool air becomes hot and thick with moisture. The echoing chatter of warriors, waiting with anxious glances to their possible doom, becomes a chirping chorus of frogs, the distant call of night birds, the buzzing of massive insects.

Weird trees tower dizzyingly overhead, tangles of brush and thorns woven between their trunks. And all of it lit by an eerie glow of lichen dripping from the branches, lighting up the water in the ghostly shades of chemical spills.

All of it has a sense of foreboding. The spark of impending violence is electric in the air, and Raphael hangs onto that. He's been ready for this fight for days. And as much as he hates fighting for the Emperor--for Evandau--this fight as become his.

If he and Leo ever want to see their family again, they have to be ready to risk it all. And he is. He so desperately is.

Though the swamp as an eerie magic to it, sinks warm fingers into his skin with damp heat that chases away the winter sluggishness in his bones, warm mud oozing between his toes. The swamp sounds echo in his head, stirring something primal, old and reptilian that soothes him like a lullaby, calms his adrenaline-fueled veins, and beckons him deeper into the night.

Still, he crouches low, drawing out his sai in one smooth motion, and leaps up the trunk of a nearby tree, disappearing into the broad leaves for cover. Silent. Even as he thirsts for the coming fight, he can't swallow the giddy flicker lighting in his chest.

It almost feels like he's home.

open

[wintershepherd]

The first thing that hits him is the oppressive, choking heat like he'd just been thrown into an oven. Jack had thought summer was bad because he couldn't get away from it but that had been a relatively slow build, allowing him to adjust as best he could. This was a punch and he staggered a bit, trying to get his bearings. He immediately pulls his normal cold inward and the radius of cool air that normally surrounds him disappears, internalized. It definitely helps and after a moment he straightens, not even realizing he'd doubled over.

That handled for the moment, he took a moment to glance around at the swamp and then upward. Seeing a small patch between the canopy he lifted into the air and angled for it -- only to have a vine wrap around his ankle and slam him back downward into the swamp before he had a chance to do anything more than yelp.

"Well," he said, sitting up and spitting out a mouthful of disgusting swamp water. "This is going fantastic so far."

[loquaciouslyfeline]

The moment she enters the bottle, Amelia finds herself in a thick swamp, and, more alarmingly, quite alone. She calls for Temeraire repeatedly, but there is no response. “Blast,” she snaps under her breath; the thick vegetation all but guarantees that she will not find the dragon easily, despite his size. There is nothing for it but to push onwards.

Unfortunately, the swamp itself seems to resist her efforts; Amelia finds herself wanting dearly for even a knife as she once again disentangles herself from grasping vines. It’s not long before she finds herself staying near the glowing fungi that dot the swamp. For whatever reason, the going is easier near them.

closed - Rapunzel & Jim

[watcheslanterns]

Rapunzel was lost. Very, very lost. Not that she had really expected to be anything but lost on this strange journey. She couldn't turn back though. She'd promised to do whatever she could to help everyone else who had made the journey in and she always kept her promise, so she moved forward.

Forward wasn't very far, though. The trees were just too much to get through. She'd attempted swinging by use of her hair, but if things weren't already odd enough it seemed like the trees untangled themselves from it once she'd taken a hold.

One such failed swing landed her directly into the swampy waters.

"Oooh!"

She was beginning to wonder if she would really be any help at all.

OPEN;

[beganwithamask]

The swamp is probably the nastiest one Bucky's ever seen, and he's seen some pretty awful terrain in his four years at war. Still, he slogs through the water without complaint, his trusty tommy gun held above the water level to keep it dry and his pack and other weapons slung high on his shoulder. He's wearing the blue and red of his costume and his domino mask to help keep the sweat out of his eyes. His boots are already full of muck, but he keeps going without complaint, unlike some of his companions most likely.

Of course, he's not experienced with giant mosquitoes, so when one flies out of nowhere at his head, he takes aim and shoots it out of the sky with expert aim, splattering it into the murky water. "Ugh, this place has one hell of a bug problem..."

closed to natalia

[spiritshifted]

It wasn't a matter of if the Lord of Spirits would cross the marsh. It was a matter of how... and then, perhaps, when.

Her normal approach was useless here.

First Milla had attempted using Gnome's powers to make the swamp passable, as Rowen had done with the use of boosters at Fezebel. However, she did not have a booster available, as Rowen had used; a booster was never really needed with the Four. They had simply always been strong enough to surpass any problem as long as they were around. However, the swamp stayed steadfast.

Then, calling on Sylph, she attempted to lift off and fly through the forest, and successful she was until the angry tentacles of trees slapped her down. The shrieks that Efreet's fire caused were enough to give her pause. Sounds like that were, although probably illusory, unsettling. Freezing the limbs with Undine had the same effect.

While a sword was not really meant for chopping branches, she tried that next. Willpower was, all identity as Maxwell aside, Milla's strong suit, and she was certainly going to find some way to get through. Tu Vishan had to, of course, be saved.

Milla bent over slightly to inspect the blood that erupted from the branch she'd scratched with her sword. Frowning as the tiny bit she'd touched seared her skin, she began to wonder if this was the sort of loot for which the merchants of this town would reward her, and if there was a way to safely collect it.

In her thought, she did not notice the giant mosquito buzzing behind her bare leg, homing in for dinner.