The Swamp of Sorrows [D5 LN]

[Canary]

[WARNING: This event is very dangerous!]

Deep in the night, you experience a dream… or at least it feels like a dream. You crawl out of your tent, a haze filling your vision as you hear the call of a lost loved one. You can hear them - you know that they’re here, that they need your help. You can bring them back if you just follow their voice and find them. You find your feet moving without thought or focus, drawn by the need to see them again, to help them. Maybe they’re not lost after all… Soon you find others around you, dim figures going the same way into the fog. They're not important.

Soon, you find yourself on the edge of a misty swamp. The haze gets too thick farther in to see much, but you can see the outline of the tall vine and moss laden trees farther in, and some mysterious figures. Human-like figures. The person you lost, it must be.

Location: The Deep Swamp

Participants: You'll know if you're supposed to be here.

Rules:
For the purposes of this event, each "round" takes roughly 5 minutes. Rounds will occur one at a time - do NOT post all your rolls at once. All characters must act, either by rolling, helping someone, or stating that they're staying where they are before the next round starts. The GM will declare when the round ends. Once it does, you can start your rolls and actions for the second round, and so on through the fourth.

Lost Love penalties apply to this event, but characters only need to spend Void once to negate penalties for the rest of the event. As long as they spend the Void before they roll, and please note this in the post, the current round's penalties are negated.

The Drawing Down: The characters begin this event entranced. This trance will compel them to enter the water to look for the person they heard calling to them, whom they will hear as long as they are entranced. They have four chances to succeed at a Willpower check vs. TN 20 to break their trance, one roll per round.

They must first roll to resist entering the swamp water. If they succeed at the first roll, they snap out of it and do not have to enter. If they fail the roll, they enter the water and must make an Earth roll at TN 15 to avoid gaining a point of Shadowlands Taint. They have three more rounds and three more Willpower checks to try to escape the compulsion to stay in the water.

During the following rounds, the characters must continue to make resistance rolls until they either succeed, all four rounds of the event pass, or they are rescued by another character. Characters who successfully make a resistance attempt may leave the water during the same round they succeed. Those who succeed may enter the water if they haven’t yet (in which case they must make the Taint Resistance Roll) or stay in the water in order to automatically break another character out of their trance and pull them out. This takes two rounds, the first to enter the water, break the trance, and help the person out and the second to get out themselves.

Any character who is still in the swamp at the end of the fourth round of this event are swallowed by the mists and disappear. Characters who are not entranced may make a TN 25 Agility/Athletics roll to attempt to escape the water. Characters who are still entranced and in the water at the end of the fourth round disappear.

Rewards and Consequences:
If more than half of the characters escape this event, they gain 10 Purity Points. If all of the characters escape, they gain 20 Purity Points.
If less than half of the characters escape, they gain 10 Corruption Points. If all of the characters disappear, they gain 20 Corruption Points.

[Jin]

"Jin, where are you? Please..."

The call drew the man called Jin deeper into the swamp. Something was off, something not right. But he couldn't place his finger on it.

"Jin..." The voice of the one woman who had shown the man kindness before he cut out his eye. The woman who raised him.

The cold water seeping into his clothes did not yet break the spell nor did something darker that seeped deeper still.

(Jin enters the water and gains 1 point of taint)

[Ryoshun Taiko]

The guards at the camp raised eyebrows as Taiko left the camp in his bedclothes. Torch in one hand and sword in the other he followed the sound of the voice, the sound of his sister into the darkness.

"Tai-chan, this isn't like you. Where are you?"

Just a little farther...like when we used to hunt frogs in the wetlands as kids...you remember don't you...before you let me die...

((VP for lost love))

"You know I couldn't...you know I was coming back for you..."

LN 5 - Willpower+VP TN 20: 4d10o10+4 41

Taiko resists the pull of the swamp for now.

[Taochusu]

A large silhouette, a woman of greater weight than most, speaks to him in a sweet, song-like voice. "I have another new song to teach you, my little zebu," she says, the whisper reaching his dreams. "But I can't teach you until you save me. I'm stuck and I need my little zebu's help."

Somewhere between falling asleep and becoming partially aware he found himself at in this swamp. He knew that he would have to be strong to save his mother, so he did his best to strengthen his heart and his will. It was his only chance to get her back. He wanted to hear her music again.

And as he steeled himself to go find her, the pain of her loss helped him realize that she was well and truly gone. It hurt, but it was something he had accepted years ago. This was not like him and he didn't know what was driving him to do so.

"You... can't be my mother. Even if she were some sort of spirit... she would not be this far south... She hated getting wet too. She'd never live in a damned swamp." He looks out over the swamp to see if any others were here. The figment of his mother faded, easing the burden on his heart.

----

VP spent to negate Lost Love

D5 LN, Willpower, VP +1k1, TN 20: 4d10o10 35

[Seppun Takako]

Takako heard a voice she hasn't heard in years. "Mother?" She stumbled in the dark, surprised as she was standing on the edge of the swamp.

"How did I get here..." She looked past into the fog, seeing a vague feminine figure beckoning.

Memories flooded her, the time spent with her mother, learning to sew, learning to cook, the pair of them looking after her siblings. It seemed like an age ago...so tempting.

But then she recalled Chisei.

"I am sorry, but I cannot. I have someone else who depends on me." She waved at the fog with steely resolve.

OOC:
D5 LN Swamp o' Sorrows, Willpower vs tn 20, VP for +1k1, +5 from TA,: 4d10o10+5 37

[Nozomi]

The bank of the river wasn't that deep. It wasn't that deep, and she could hear them, smell the scents of wood smoke on the horizon. The flood of emotions was back in her mind and she was gripping the rails of the little river boat as it floated down the waters. She could hear the scream of terror in the night and her mouth opened before she slapped her hand over it, covering it and quivering with nausea and fear, eyes wide like a little child's once more.

"Otosan! Okaasama!" The sound of her voice was shrill but muffled by her own hand enough that it didn't get farther. She gripped what felt like the rail of the kobune and was about to step out into the water. She could stop this. They didn't have to go. They didn't all have to....

She froze. She remembered her... She remembered her walking in the shrouded mists of the night. It was like she could see her again. The kimono was bedraggled and there was something wrong. A glimpse of hair, a look at her staring towards the village before she snuck back the other way. The wave of nausea was worse, the smell of charnel smoke and the figure was disappearing into the woods. She had to...

Phi's head wrenched as she snapped out of it. She staggered back a step and looked around. She hadn't even been asleep when it had happened. She'd been out on guard patrol. They were getting deeper and swamps were a thing she knew, a thing she'd lived beside for five damned years since they'd lost the pass to those blasted Shiba and the Bayushi. Relegated to a filthy peat bog in the middle of nowhere that nobody wanted. So, of course she'd volunteered to take one of the night shifts. She could adjust her sleep schedule because someone had to keep these lowlanders from dying in their sleep on a crazed ogre's blade.

She hadn't been asleep, so why was she here? Her red eyes narrowed and she stared around her, her lips pulling in the rictus of a snarl. "Whoever you are," she whispered, taking a step back from the water's edge, hand reaching up to clutch at her chest for and to one of her tonfa. "Y...ou should know better than to give a girl two dreams like this in a row." She breathed softly, steadying her senses and starting to calm the beating of her heart. Her mother and father were not here. They were gone, and they were never coming back, and she was not a scared little girl anymore.

'Thank you, Sh...,' she started to say when she thought he heard movement and glanced in another direction.

============

( TN 20 Willpower roll, Void for +1k1: 25)

[Nanzi]

Ananzi.jpg (28.12 KiB) Viewed 4822 times

Hadananzi sat on the stone and fastened a sharpened point to his spear and then said to his little boy, “Pay attention boy, a man must know these things if he is to be a great man.”

Little Ananzi did his best to emulate his father and said, “This is hard.”

“Hadananzi knows that we must do the things that are hard, boy. This is what makes men great and others small. This is what separates those that will be remembered from those that are forgotten,” his father said sternly.

The little boy nodded and continued working, his hands were scraped and cut from the work but after twenty minutes he had fastened the sharpened stone to the spear and smiled. “Papa, I did it!”

“Good,” the older man said, “Now let’s learn you the hunt. A man must know how to feed his own, this is the truth of the sands and the mountains. Come the game will not wait for us.”

The little boy nodded and followed his father on the hunt before he found himself in the swamp and heard the words of his father calling for aid… he was older now how long had he hunted? Years?

“Ananzi where are you… please…” he heard the words of his father coming from the darkened waters and for a moment he nearly entered but something was not right. Hadananzi had been gone for many summers and he was a father himself and his own children…

He stopped himself at the edge and said, “You are not my father… and this is an evil wishing me seeking to deceive me. But Nanzi is a great man, as his true father wanted and will not be tricked by such evil!”

OOC: Not this time foul water!

Willpower + Void TN 20: 4d10o10k4 48

[Noriaki no Yamadono]

"You really have been such a good father to Matsu, my love..." She was tall, a knowing smile on voluptuous lips. A dashing scar down across her face across the bridge of her nose that somehow accentuated her high cheekbones, her vibrantly sparkling eyes.

"Hi... Hikarihime..." The large man watched her, through the dense haze of the fog. The yellow eyes of Yamadono glistened as he heard her voice. It had been so long since he had seen her.

She hadn't aged a day. Her hair, dark was onyx, long and free-flowing, gently swayed in a small breeze, as she barely stood in the swamp.

"You deserve to rest. I've missed you so much Yama. Come... let's rest here. There's a lovely tree, we can rest in the shade on the other side..." the woman extended an arm, delicate fingers beckoning to her husband, the great beast she had tamed.

A step taken, then another. A tear broke, trailing down his rough, handsome jaw.

"You haven't aged since... since..." then a moment. Revery broken. "Since you died..." his lips curled. Yet the woman still smiled at him, wishing him to enter. He stopped moving, looking down at the form. "You're gone. And I'm still here. Matsu needs me, my love. I cannot go with you."

The woman's lips turned to a harsh frown, before disappearing into the fog.

All that stood was Yamadono, slightly hunched, breathing heavily as he allowed himself a moment for a few quiet tears.

VP spent to avoid Lost Love

LN5 - The Swamp of Sorrows - The Drowning Down [Willpower 4, VP +1k1, TN20]: 5d10o10k5 28

[Doji Kakuro]

Kakuro once again started hearing sounds. Much like the other day when he heard some whispers near his tent, once again at first he heard a muffled somewhat familiar noice.

He started moving towards the source. The voices he could heard call him into the waters of a nearby swamp. It was difficult to resist now being drawn into their luring summoning.

The cold waters began to touch his body, soaking his ragged clothes as he went in...


******************************************************

[OOC - Rolls]

Willpower trait roll; +1k1 VP - 13|Failed [TN20, 1 VP]
Earth ring roll; +2k0 Touch of Spirit Realms: Tengoku - 14|Failed [TN15]

Results
1/2 Void left
+0.1 Shadowland Taint

[Seppun Dawei]

Dawei staggers towards the shapes, heedless of all else.

"...Hiro? Hiro?"

He shakes his head, trying to clear it.

"No; it can't be. It can't be!"

The normally quiet man's voice breaks on the screamed words. "I saw you die!"

The small spear thrust through his thigh, driving him to the earth and pinning him there, bleeding. The Noriaki took his time, then, club breaking Hiro's arm to knock his sword away, foot holding the other arm down so that he could put his weight behind the club again, slowly pressing on Hiro's ribs until they started to crack, twigs snapping to make kindling for a fire.

He was so far away. If I had stayed by his side, I could have saved him.

"I could have saved him," Dawei sobs, and he steps forward into the sucking water, where something moves unseen under the surface.

(Void for Lost Love
Willpower Roll 1, TN 20: Fail at 14
Earth Roll, TN 15: Success at 22, does the jade help?)

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

Ryoko had not been sleeping particularly well, ever since the vision. Now she thought she heard voices... thought she heard her father in her dreams... Rising from her bedroll, tired of tossing and turning, she exited her tent alone.

In the misty, shadowed night, she couldn't see anyone. Couldn't hear anyone. Just twisting shapes, almost human... There was an almost instinctive feeling - out there somewhere, she was certain of it...

"Mom? Dad?"

Taking hesitating steps, she began to walk out, toward the swamp. This was where they had gone! They could explain what was happening to her! Explain why they had left her alone!

As her feet neared the edge of the water, she paused, a voice inside telling her that this wasn't real. She fought with it in silence for a long moment, before finally stepping forward, only to find her progress blocked by a large arm, which sent her back onto her butt on dry ground.

"Itaiii..."

Looking up, angrily, she froze, surprised to see Tago standing over her, his arm still oustretched.

With a sad expression, he simply shook his head, and she knew that, in some way, he had just saved her.


----

Into the Swamp: 21 : https://orokos.com/roll/809535

[Inga]

Inga tried to discern the voice, it has been 12 years since she had heard it but it was him, the man she called father. "Papa?... Papa... I didn't mean to...I... I didn't mean to... it was an accident... my hand slipped." She continued to walk toward the muck yet she realized something was different. "Papa?"


//LN 5 Event Willpower TN 20: 22

[Shinjo Miuna]

Roused from her sleep, by a sensation previously not experienced by the girl, Miuna untangled her limbs from her sister's and quietly slipped out of her tent. She used her ears, which were seemingly functional now, to follow the sound of a woman. She wasn't sure how, but she could feel it inside of her that this was the voice of her mother. A woman she had never known, but might get to meet, if only she kept following the voice calling her name. She could hear nothing else, and she knew in the back of her mind that something wasn't right, but still she walked. In a dream-like state she navigated her way through the swamp. When she reached the edge, a small part of her screamed somewhere in her mind, control lost to whatever entranced her soul. She carefully waded into the thick, murky waters. Thankfully she was a good swimmer, for she could not feel the bottom.

She slipped below the surface, the stagnant water filling her mouth.She inhaled, choking, breaking the surface of the water once more.

[Canary]

[The first round is over]

Ryoshun Taiko, Taochusu, Takako, Phi, Nanzi, Ryoko, and Inga snap out of their trance. Much of the fog clears, and they find themselves fully conscious, in the deepest part of the swamp outside of the camp. A quick glance around reveals the figures traveling with them to the side to be their fellow travelers on the expedition.

They can see others, as well... Jin, Dawei, and Miuna... but they stepped into the water. Are they in the same situation the others were? You could likely save them if you were willing to step into the water yourself. You can sense something wrong, though. Where the fog swirls away, the water beneath is too dark, as thought sucking in the ambient light.

Will you take the risk?

[Round 2 begins now]

[Nanzi]

Nanzi did not wait he rushed to grab Jin, and shouted to the others, "Be brave, the Emperor protects!"

He attempts to pull the man free from this enchantment.

OOC: Taint resistance TN 15: 3d10o10k3 17 and has Jade finger.

[Seppun Takako]

Takako shook her head, her vision cutting through the fog...and seeing a familiar face.

Oh no.

"Dawei-san!"

She yelled, jumping in after her cousin.

OOC:
D5 LN SWAMP OH SORROW Resist Taint to save Dawei, Earth vs tn 15, VP for +1k1: 4d10o10 20

[Nozomi]

"I do not need a blasted emperor's protection," she growled in close to a snarl as she waded out into the water. She probably should have been grateful that while she didn't feel she needed the emperor's protection, she at least had Jade's protection because even a Hikaru needed assistance, whether they admitted it or not. "If I can't take care of my own self, I'm no good to your bloody emperor."

She got to the nearest one, who'd managed to somehow trip and take a drink of that filthy water and gave Shinjo Miuna a good, swift back hand to the face. "Wake up, you idiot. We've got to get out of here!"

===

(Action: Enter Water and attempt to give Shinjo Miuna a good, solid shake to wake her out of the trance Taint Resistance Roll: 17 v 15. Success. She'd better be damned grateful to Reiko right now.)

[Taochusu]

He had met a few of them before, and a couple he hadn't were already being taken care of. So the large man waded in to grab a hold of one.

The danger meant little to him. He had come along to help protect others and he was going to do that.

Taking Kakuro by the arm, he shook him until he regained his senses and helped to get him out of the swampy waters.

D5 LN, Earth vs Taint, TN 15: 3d10o10 22

[Seppun Dawei]

Takako shook her head, her vision cutting through the fog...and seeing a familiar face.

Oh no.

"Dawei-san!"

She yelled, jumping in after her cousin.

OOC:
D5 LN SWAMP OH SORROW Resist Taint to save Dawei, Earth vs tn 15, VP for +1k1: 4d10o10 20

Dawei, still sobbing, sinking into the water, is shaken from his reverie by his cousin's clarion call.

"Takako! No! Get back!"

But she is in, and he finds himself struggling to reach her so that they can both leave the water and its strange, sucking pull.

(Rolls in progress before quoted reply posted. Will query GM for effect.
Willpower Roll 2, TN 20: Fail at 7, dammit, Orokos!
Earth Roll 2, TN 15: Fail at 8, dammit, Orokos!
Jade action dependant upon GM ruling / clarification of this, else 0.1 Taint)

[Shinjo Miuna]

"I do not need a blasted emperor's protection," she growled in close to a snarl as she waded out into the water. She probably should have been grateful that while she didn't feel she needed the emperor's protection, she at least had Jade's protection because even a Hikaru needed assistance, whether they admitted it or not. "If I can't take care of my own self, I'm no good to your bloody emperor."

She got to the nearest one, who'd managed to somehow trip and take a drink of that filthy water and gave Shinjo Miuna a good, swift back hand to the face. "Wake up, you idiot. We've got to get out of here!"

===

(Action: Enter Water and attempt to give Shinjo Miuna a good, solid shake to wake her out of the trance Taint Resistance Roll: 17 v 15. Success. She'd better be damned grateful to Reiko right now.)

Miuna came to, the slap jolting her out of her trance. She yelped, clinging to the hooded woman like a wet cat. She looked even more so as she launched herself onto the bank, rolling onto her side, coughing up dark and viscous liquid. She continued to cough, expelling the water as best she could from her lungs, peering up at her savior with confused gratitude. Her hair was plastered to her face and she shivered uncontrollably. She spotted several others in and around the swamp and wondered why they were all here. Where is Aono, what's happening? She thought, disoriented.