ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 1

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: Early/Mid November
Location: Under the shell
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Foreigners had begun their counterattack by trying to possess the Great Turtle whom Malicant had taken, and although the movement had failed, some vital information had been uncovered. Under the shell lay Malicant's weakness, and inside the Dreaming was where he could be fought.

Any help from the kedan is uncommon. They're wary, watching, as a group beginning to lose sight of the community. Their family groups are more tightly-knit than ever, and any approach from the Foreigners is answered by suspicion at best and violence at worst. That makes daily life difficult, when the majority of the city refuses to have much to do with them. Why aren't you doing anything? they seem to say. What good are any of you? All you've done is make things worse. We'd be better if you'd never come.

The Foreigners are unwelcome in Keeliai. The cultists are becoming a majority. Now is the time.

There aren't many left of the Foreigners left, but inside the Dreaming the limitations of the waking world no longer exist. For every Foreigner and their worlds, their loved ones, this is the chance to make themselves safe for good. And all of them will be needed.

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LINKS
Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC Plot Post

OOC
There are two main headers, one for preparation at the Hotel where Milyn and Eva will be available to speak with The second section where they will be able to search the caves beneath the Shell inside the Dreaming to find the Vilii Stone, and where the boon'd characters will be affected. If you are threading something that doesn't fit one of those categories, just add it to the bottom of the post. Questions go to the plotting post, please! Once the Stone has been acquired the second half of the plot will go live in the logs comm.

Comments

BENEATH THE SHELL/MIDNIGHT HOTEL

[ironwood]

There’s a massive presence beneath the shell, the sort that squeezes the temples. It’s like a giant heartbeat that gets into the bones, the soul. Within the safety of the Midnight Hotel it booms, restrained from harming those within but still undeniably there. This is where the Foreigners will make their stand, however it turns out.

The Hotel is prepared for war. The diorama is within easy public access, its innards on display to reveal the cave system within the shell and a little hand-painted mannequin to represent the Hotel itself at any given time—and the stone that Malicant tries so hard to protect. The windows are barred and warded, and the doors are shut except at need. No one is going to leave until everyone is ready, until everyone knows their role.

Milyn is there too, helping bring Eva into safety and bearing the injections to take the Foreigners into the Dreaming. Though she’s trying to keep up a positive front, and seems genuinely enthused for the purpose to which her knowledge has been put to use, she’s clearly unnerved by the thud of the telepathic presence outside the Hotel—or possibly just being under the shell at all.

The common room has been repurposed as a sleeping area. With only one healer present, they all need to be in close proximity in case anything goes wrong. When the Foreigners are ready, it’s there that they’ll gather, and there Milyn will administer the injections.

MALICANT’S TOOLS/THE VILII STONE

[ironwood]

The stone is Important. Important enough that Malicant hid it deep within the Great Turtle’s shell. The Hotel has brought the Foreigners as close as they can come, settled in a cavern between the stone and the rest of the caves at large. The main doors are locked and barred, and Malicant’s pressure beats at them, making the wards glow bright.

But the back door is unlocked and unguarded, and when the Foreigners step out into the cavern where the stone lies they will find the overwhelming telepathic presence has lifted. The walls of the caves shine with the same light as the turtle’s shell from underneath, but slick and congealing with a layer of almost-darkness. If touched the walls will yield a vibration of the pressure outside this room. It’s as though they’re in the eye of the storm.

The stone itself rests in a little pool, like the petal of a fungus growing from the trunk of a tree. It’s several some feet above their heads, but not all that hard to reach as long as those trying to do so can climb.

But that eye isn’t unprotected. Those under Malicant’s influence, the tainted and those who had accepted Malicant’s boons, will feel something inside their minds and souls shift. A haze will settle over them, and though they’re aware of what’s happening it feels dream-like, and they’re having trouble waking up, and Someone Else is in control, using those boons as a weapon. Whatever those gifts were meant to do, now they’re working against their owners and the Foreigners at large.