Adventurers Wanted IC

[Hawkflight]

Within seconds ... nay, negative seconds of the portal closing, Liz's pistols her in her hand, ready for action. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about the portal closing, so it appeared she was stuch here ... for now.

As she looked around, her mind was flooded with memories of home, when her owner ... captor, she corrected herself ... would take her to the play. She had become more familiar with the theater than she might otherwise have, but even that couldn't prepare her for this.

Shokah looks around at her comrades, feeling as though she must have become a wooden puppet like the ones she had used just that afternoon.

"Gods in the heavens and stars above, what is this horrifying place I see? Where stretch the eternal mountains? Where does the ocean meet with the shore? What sanity is there in this madness? Oh gods, what strange and terrible wonders have you beset on me?"

"It appears to be a giant theater," she said, stating the obvious. "Strange as this is, we may be able to use it to our advantage."

[TheAmishPirate]

Shokah stood upon the wooden stage of the Harrowed Realm. Her journeys had prepared her for every danger, every horror she could have possibly imagined.

Which had ill-prepared her for the unimaginable, the indescribable, the horrifyingly uncanny.

She kicked at the wooden stage, the unfamiliarity of wood flooring more bizzare now than ever as it stretches out like the earth. She stares up at the sky, and while it must seem very far away, it looks to her horrifyingly close and unreal. She nearly falls back as she tries to reassert the night sky into her eyes, or to find the real sky anywhere in this world, but cannot.

Shokah looks around at her comrades, feeling as though she must have become a wooden puppet like the ones she had used just that afternoon.

"Gods in the heavens and stars above, what is this horrifying place I see? Where stretch the eternal mountains? Where does the ocean meet with the shore? What sanity is there in this madness? Oh gods, what strange and terrible wonders have you beset on me?"

Melindy stooped down and calmly gathered up the fallen cards, idly shuffling them into a full deck.


She gently placed it in her pocket, and hobbled over to the panicking Shokah.


She raised her staff, and bonked her comrade over the head without hesitation.

[Benson]

Neeba grunted as she picked herself up from the ground, a sour expression upon her green face. She lowly growled, feeling about for her belongings. Satisfied they were all there, her mind finally registered her surroundings. She kicked the ground as well, a small cloud of dirt rising, where her boot hit, the wooden moldy planks were visible. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. Seeing that Luci was making over to the road sign some ways ahead, she followed right after. No time to waste when the master needed rescuing.

The handsome good looks of "Gaston" burn away to dust and ash, revealing the dark, scowling visage of a rather unhappy Changeling. "Wonderful," she grunts, looking and sounding rather dour. "Guess we're stuck here til she gets a new deck, or we figure out how to hocus pocus our way back home. Anyway, we'll gain nothing from just sitting here. Come on," she says with a tilt of her head towards the forking dirt path. "Let's get this show on the road, as it were," she quips sardonically, before going over to look at the road signs.

When Luci first arrived, she would see right in the middle of of the many direction pointing sign, painted red lips that seemed to pucker and flex animatedly, also the wooden arrow signs themselves seemed blank.

"Oooh oooh a visitor...a visitor, oh right, hold on...ahem.." The sign spoke in a crisp high pitch voice and even seemed to wiggle a little in a cartoonish manner and bowed. "I am Miss Direct, director to new comers and the lost. Looking for a place, I can point you the way." The wooden arrows of the sign swiveled a bit.

[Trobby]

Shokah rubbed her head gently, coming somewhat to her senses.

"Thank you, Melindy..." She says, though feels the smart of the oracle's staff as she follows behind Lucy and Neeba.

She tries not to recoil in horror as lips appear on the roadsign, simply furrowing her brow in frustration at the bizzare nature of this realm.

[TheAmishPirate]

"Don't mention it." Melindy dusted off her staff - wouldn't want to damage the fine craftsmanship - and hobbled off to the signpost. The signpost with a working mouth, by the look of it. Was it surprising? Probably. When one expects the unexpected, does the unexpected become the expected? Insomuch as the unexpected can be expected, and what of the unexpected unexpected?

Melindy decided that road led to a little too much madness, and opted to engage the talking signpost in conversation. "Directions, eh? You must get lots of comers of new coming newly through here." She leaned on her staff and chattered away casually.

[Lycan 01]

Luci just stares. Not an incredulous stare, but a flat stare, her expression deadpan. Her right eye gives a small twitch.

It's obvious she's in no mood to deal with this right now. Best to let Melindy or someone else handle it...

[Benson]

The pair of painted pouty lips smiled as the sign post bobbed up and down as if though it were nodding. "Well yes and no and no and yes. You lot are the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth guests to appear in a long while. It was starting to get lonely."

The sign post seemed to almost droop. And then it immediately stood erect as if happy again. "Ooh right, before I forget, since you are new comers and all, I suppose you wouldn't know where to want to go. Hold on, give me a second..." The sign post shimmied and shaked, grooving to a beat that appeared in the air, music notes bobbing and bopping and disco dancing.

On the ground behind Miss Direct, a huge blob of melted wax stuffs sproing up from the ground and began to shift and mold itself as it turned into a wooden table. "I almost forgot about the Table of Contents, silly me. Good thing I don't get paid, I'd get fired by now heheheh."

[Trobby]

Shokah stares at the 'table of contents' like some kind of ancient wonder of magic...for all she knew that's exactly what it was. She presses her hands against the table, wondering what purpose it could possibly serve.

"What sort of...table is this, path mark?' She says, her common tongue slipping a little on the unusual name for the signpost.

[Lycan 01]

Luci just stands there, arms crossed and faintly scowling. "Let's just get on with it. I'd like to find the boss before he gets his soul eaten or something, or before dawn breaks and I lose whatever chance of sleep I have..." she grumbles.

Luci is grouchy when she doesn't get her sleep.

[TheAmishPirate]

The pair of painted pouty lips smiled as the sign post bobbed up and down as if though it were nodding. "Well yes and no and no and yes. You lot are the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth guests to appear in a long while. It was starting to get lonely."

The sign post seemed to almost droop. And then it immediately stood erect as if happy again. "Ooh right, before I forget, since you are new comers and all, I suppose you wouldn't know where to want to go. Hold on, give me a second..." The sign post shimmied and shaked, grooving to a beat that appeared in the air, music notes bobbing and bopping and disco dancing.

On the ground behind Miss Direct, a huge blob of melted wax stuffs sproing up from the ground and began to shift and mold itself as it turned into a wooden table. "I almost forgot about the Table of Contents, silly me. Good thing I don't get paid, I'd get fired by now heheheh."

Melindy watched bemused as the giant blob of wax grew up from the floorboards and formed into a wooden table, and her eye faintly twitched. Sure, why not?

"And a loverly table it is, Miss Direct, but you see, we already know where we want to go." She propped herself up on her staff, and leaned over to the sign conspiratorially. "Between you and I, the most popular destinations are always the best. Guests ought to be in the company of other guests; it's only proper, you know. And since there has been only one guest before us in a very long time, why, that would make their destination of choice the most popular!"

Sometimes, being a little bit crazy had its perks. Such as when logic needed to go sit in its corner and be quiet.

"Yes, yes, the most popular destination for us! Where did that chic and trendy guest go?"

[Benson]

"One of contents!" Miss Direct answered unhelpfully.

As Shokah stared at the Table of Contents, cursive words began to transcribe themselves in all their flowy delight and arranged themselves in a chart like manner on the table.

*The Demon's Fen
*The Manmolds
*The Prophet's Garden
*The Midnight Circus
*The Sanquine Playhouse
*Smith's Caldera
*The Strid----

The last one seemed to have letters missing or maybe it was simply The Strid, who knew. Besides was a small illustration, save for the last, of a rough doodle of the location bulletized.

Miss Direct's painted lips form a huge grin, showing the lack of painted teeth. "Oh ho ho indeed indeed, the one from before uttered about circuses and fortunes so directed upon with use of the tables, Midnight Circus, so that must be the popular!"

[Trobby]

"Midnight Circus..." Shokah ponders, her finger trailing over the words on the table. "And what manner of place is this Midnight Circus?"

[Lycan 01]

"My dad would love this place, with all the theatre stuff..." Luci mutters to herself as she idly kicks a wooden shrug while listening to the exchange between the talking signpost and Shokah. "Bonus points if it has hot demon chicks..." she grumbles.

[Benson]

"Midnight Circus..." Shokah ponders, her finger trailing over the words on the table. "And what manner of place is this Midnight Circus?"

"Oh a lively place, performances all day long and through the night, a never sleeping revery of excitement and entertainment!" Miss Direct replied with gusto and happily shimmied and waved as if gushing.

[Trobby]

"...We must go there, and retrieve him. No mortal is meant to revel as the gods do. His legs will fall off." Shokah says, fully convinced that this will actually happen.

[TheAmishPirate]

"Indeed! We must hurry and take our turn for the dancing, lest the poor guest's legs run away from them." Melindy bobbed and weaved, mirroring the signpost, as she tried to get a glimpse of the proper direction. "Miss Direct! Which way to this fabled Midnight Circus we've heard so much about?"

[Lycan 01]

Luci paces back and forth, pondering to herself. "Hmmmm... I wonder if this place works based on my dad's logic. The more dramatically appropriate, the more likely it is to be the truth. The better a story, the better the odds. Hmmm..."

The Changeling frowns. "Wherever it is, it's probably just far enough away that we'll arrive just in the nick of time, when the dramatic tension is highest. This realm is one big stage; it's all a show. And what happens in a play when characters run off somewhere? A curtain fall and a scene cut. So..."

She looks down the road. "It's probably not a matter of how far away it is, or how long it'll take to get there. It's a matter of presentation. If we stay silent, we're less entertaining, so there's less reason to show us on-stage, so to speak. So... If we run fast, stay silent, and keep up an appropriate degree of urgency for the sake of dramatic tension... it should be right around the next corner or two."

She turns back to the sign, and tilts her head with a frown. "Right?"

[Benson]

"That-away!" Miss Direct twirled the sign posts until they all pointed north towards the deep woods. "Through the Briar Woods and beyond ye must trek!"

Then Luci spoke

"Stage?..." If the sign post could have eyes they would be big, wide and full of confusion. "Oooh...a joke!...Hahah, hilarious madam, a riot I must say, oh ho ho, made has been my day."

"Right-o, well fare thee well visitors! Enjoy your visit to the realm of the Harrow! Beware the conspirators!" And with that unhelpful -ness, Miss Direct, directed herself, and became an inanimate sign post. Behind Miss Direct, the Table of Contents began to melt away into waxstuffs and fade into the ground.

[I hate this place] Neeba mouthed and sported a tight unamused scowl.

[Trobby]

"...Though I am not certain we can trust these directions..." Shoka mused. "They are the only ones we have, so we must follow them."

[TheAmishPirate]

"Oh, what reason would dear Miss Direct have to tell a fib?" Melindy said, waving good-bye to the inanimate signpost. "We're just strangers in a stranger land, out to find a stranger before he turns too strange. Let's be off!"

With an odd spring in her hobble, Melindy started off towards the indicated direction.

[Trobby]

"...A lack of reason is my chief concern..." Shokah says, but feels the words are falling on deaf ears. "But with no other guide....I suppose we must take what direction we can get."

[Lycan 01]

"Less talking, faster running. The more boring we make this transition from scene to scene, the faster it will be," Luci says with a frown as she runs as she treks down the path rather hastily. "At least, that's how my dad's logic would work..." she grumbles.

[Benson]

And so the five continued on into parts unknown, through The Briar, a forest of trees and overgrown garden paths, hedge mazes that were a nightmarish tangle of thorns and mud. Turning this way and that, moving up to and fro and up and down and all around. It seemed like they were getting nowhere fast.

The sounds of possibly strange birds echoed instilling the overwhelming possibility that they were lost in the large grandness of this place. The Briar just felt like it went on forever, snagging and making it difficult to move about in. Branches that looked like claws, reaching out with thorns, rip, tear, scraaaatch.

Melindy would then feel a low thrum in wherever she kept those Harrowed cards.

[TheAmishPirate]

"Neeba my dear," Melindy grunted as thorny vines slapped her in the face for the umpteenth time. "I've carefully considered your points and arguments, and I've come to the conclusion that your assessment of this place may, in fact, have some merit." Why couldn't the vines be made of paper, or maybe cloth? What kind of play was this?

As if to answer her question, her pocket thrummed and pulsed. Not the most helpful of answers, but it was better than a vine to the face. "Hold up now; what's this?" She dug the Harrow Deck out of her pocket and inspected it.

[Trobby]

"Does something trouble you, oh Oracle?" Shokah asks, coming to a stop. She attempts to gather her bearings while they are stopped, though with few ways to determine their location in this wretched realm, she has few hopes of doing so.

Spoiler

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Survival: (1d20+6)[14]

[Lycan 01]

Luci growls in annoyance as he cloak snags on some thorns for the umpteenth time. "I hate this place so much," she grumbles. "I guess I was wrong about the whole scene-change thing. I've got a few other ideas, though. At least one of which involves burning this whole place to the ground," she scowls, yanking her cloak free and stomping on ahead. She pauses though, when Melindy pulls out the cards. "Hm?" The Changeling arches a silvery eyebrow, and leans over towards the halfling. "What's going on?"

[Benson]

Trying to figure out where they were exactly was on the tough side, everything in the immediate area sorta just blended into one green brown blur of shrubbery, trees, and thorns. Shokah would swear that the thornbush to her left looked like the same one from twenty minutes ago. However, with some assistance from the fake sun against the painted sky, it felt like they were maybe going in the right direction.

In Melindy's hand The Tangled Briar card sheened as for *some reason the card resonated within her. Speak my name... The words she would hear in her head.


*Effectively, the Harrow cards have a situation in which they can provide some sort of benefit to the group while within the Harrowed Realm. This will be the only time I directly help and alert you lot to a situation that calls for a certain Harrow card, you will have to figure out which card might go with your current scenario as you on. Hence why I put the images of the cards up in the OOC as they can provide visual cues. Have fun!

[TheAmishPirate]

Melindy studied the card in her hand, brow furrowed. "Troubled? Suppose so. The head-voices are raising a ruckus over these cards..." And as always, they didn't have the decency to tell her if they were friendly voices or not. But surrounded by endless thorns on all sides, any voice handing out advice was a friendly one. "Stand back; I'm going to try something magical."

The halfling cleared herself a space to stand, and shut her eyes tight. Improvising as she went, she remembered every last step of this blasted journey through the brambles; the feel of the thorns on her skin, the smell of vegetation all around them, anything having to do with these claws of the earth. Her eyes snapped open, and she thrust the card forth and shouted, "The Tangled Briar! Through Fate's twining paths, show us the way!"

[Benson]

The card would hum a bit as it let out a small green aura before fading away and becoming an inert looking Harrow card.

The party would be targeted by a spell as they now felt more confident in their time in the Briar.

<They gain Woodland Stride whilst in the Tangled Briar and a +4 to Survival checks to navigate a path out of the Briar. The boons are only available whenever they are within the proximity of the Tangled Briar>

[Lycan 01]

"Yes yes, good good, let's go," grumbles Luci, who seems to be getting very tired of thorns and briars. She tries to blaze on ahead, and forge a trail!

...it probably doesn't go too well.

Spoiler

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Survival: (1d20+4)[23]