Mark of the Herald Sign Ups -REVISED

[thewatchers]

In light of concerns, part one of the event is now as written, and will ICly start August 3rd:

The Mark will appear on those who opt-in to the events as before, but the effects will be different.

Those who are marked will fall into a deep sleep, and reports will soon come in from around the world and from human-populated sections of the Outlands that humans with the mark start to fall into a deep sleep. While normally only effecting humans, any non-humans who are in close proximity can end up getting the mark themselves.

The area around the affected will start to warp, essentially creating a rip between the real world and humanity's collective subconscious. Characters who choose to enter this portal will find themselves in a strange, potentially nightmarish dreamscape warped by the mind of the Marked character that formed the portal. Characters must navigate and confront the dreams within to find and free the sleeper. The exact content of the dreams in question and the actions needed to wake them are up to the discretion of the player.

Once awakened the Marked will retain a new power* they possessed in this quasi-dreamscape (About anything except time-travel and unlimited reality warping is fine).

* This power does not need to be useful.

While none of the PCs will be affected by the next step, NPC marked will start sleepwalking towards a mountain that appeared in the Sahara after a sandstorm. and the non-humans that initially scoffed at what appeared to be a human-only issue are now being stricken with the same condition. Player Characters with the Mark will be able to sense where the NPCs are going, but will not feel the compulsion to follow as they're awake.

The Collective Unconsciousness? What should we be doing with that? What should it look like?
Stylistically, what best fits your character's mental state, if you're looking for inspiration, Silent Hill's otherworld, Persona's Palaces and Midnight Channel.

The idea is that the little segment is a symbolic representation of the sleeper, and determined to keep its creator asleep.

EDIT For those who want the option, multiple people can share the same dream.

Comments

Questions?

[thewatchers]

If you have any questions, put it here!

Re: Questions?

[hawkwardness]

So does this apply to all former humans/humans-who-are-hooked-on-the-Bird-Lyfe-but-still-have-human-souls?

Re: Questions?

[thewatchers]

Yep, if you were a human, it counts.

Re: Questions?

[the_reverend_daughter]

What will the Marked player be doing while others are exploring their dreams? As in, how are they participating in this event? Are they sort of like a DM for how the dream world acts?

Re: Questions?

[thewatchers]

Yes, there will be some DMing on the player's side for how the dream world/collective unconsciousness works. As for the Marked Character, their status is up to the player, either as an ally or opponent to anyone stepping in to wake them up, or anything else that feels right.

[emergensirations]

Hello, yes, what are the rules regarding dreaming characters going into other dreamscapes? Is that a no go? Do they have to wait until xyz to visit others? Or is it a free for all?

[voidbug]

What are the requirements for non-humans getting marked other than being in proximity? Like does it only happen if they're next to a human as soon as the human gets theirs, it just naturally spreads, or does it happen if they go diving too?

Do they also need to be in a specific mindset or anything to also get it?

[standless]

So how long between Getting Marked and Falling Asleep exactly?

[emergensirations]

After some thought and adjustment, I'm thinking Sira's power after this will be mirror-based, passing into one mirror and moving to others (resembling reflections), listening in and spying what's on the other side. I was considering the added thing of pulling one small chunk of traits/information/power from anyone that looks into their eyes in the reflection but I don't know if that's too much. Would the first half or all of this be viable as a power?

[hattersgonnahat]

First gonna preference with the fact that I have no idea what I am doing and freely down for anything.

The main TL;DR is that there is a few directions I can take Puella's dreamscape because it was already influenced by memories that aren't even hers (and now is presumably getting tainted even further by whatever is causing the marks and forcing those who have it to stay asleep), that it really comes down to which ones still fit in with the event.

Basically Puella's nightmare is reawakening the memory of the daemon that killed the Time Piece's last owner (It hadn't actually done so in the memory yet, and now it thinks Puella is the owner instead). Only depending on how much the Mark is changing things around, and keeping people asleep and eventually in this weird hypnotized state, that the daemon has changed from "kill, take Time Piece" to "make sure she doesn't wake up...and also deliver Time Piece to who/wherever it is that's calling her (while also delivering herself, a front door key to one of the biggest mana batteries ever and one of the last people alive that knows how to turn it)"

Obviously, Puella is going to wake up before anyone starts actually sleepwalking so it's going to fail anyway. But the three part question is:

- Would the one creating the Marks notice it?
- Could anyone from the Outlands potentially notice it?
- Is it even allowed?

Planning,

[thewatchers]

Feel free to plan in terms who/what powers

[unlogic]

I have one (1) Actual Human and one (1) Not Really Human But Eh Close Enough, but mind control's not a thing I'm particularly into so I won't be subjecting either of them to this directly. They'll still have to deal with if any of their CR ends up affected, but yeah I'm putting this out here so people know not to expect anything major from me here.

If anyone wants either Becky or Desi to be involved in any specific way short of being affected themselves, though, this is where we can hash that out. Or yell at me on Discord or Plurk. Or something.

[stavros]

This looks fun! Kokoro could use a nap after this past month, anyway... maybe not this kind, but this is what she's getting. The dreamscape will probably be the standard creepy haunted castle, but no ideas on powers yet.

[the_reverend_daughter]

I'm very tempted to throw Harrowhark into the deep end here. Maybe after a bit of arrogant, "That'll never happen to me, I am far too careful to allow- shit."

For her nightmare hellscape, it'll most likely be full of bones. Skeletons everywhere (including her parents). Bits of teeth scattered around. Bones, bones, bones. Getting her out of it might play out like a dungeon crawling puzzle, trying to get into a tomb to open a coffin.

I'm not certain about her power yet. She has a pretty strong disdain for "flesh magic" so it'd be hilarious if she ended up with something along those lines, so she can really go Dr. Frankenstein on bodies while also hating all of it.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Due to her backstory, her hellscape may also deal with suicide, hanging, and ritualistic child sacrifice (infants included). Harrowhark has a very dark past.

Adriel | OC

[thaumatrope]

Adriel will be getting a Mark through infection from someone else and falling asleep. However the person who's dreamscape that people will be entering is the ghost that they were created to be a container for, something known as a Soul Memory.

The Soul Memory's dream will take place in a building and characters will start in a small room with the objective to escape the building without dying. On top of puzzles there will be three things hunting escaping characters down: a heavily mutilated being, a woman named Delilah and the Soul Memory themself. Characters caught and 'killed' by any of the three chasers will re-spawn in the small room and the world will adjust itself to change the puzzles.

Caution Warnings: References to torture and eye injury. In addition while the objective is straightforward the dream will be particularly hostile to characters who are human or appear to be human, and will be outright brutal to daemons.

I'm undecided on the power Adriel will receive after this. Likely a healing power of sorts.

[hattersgonnahat]

OKAY LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN WITHOUT CHROME DELETING EVERYTHING.

Puella: About a year ago she had some pretty weird dreams because she accidentally inhaled a some of dead person's memories (it's...a long story). Although these actually turned out to be helpful because it lead to her finding the Time Rift.

What she also found out by going into Time Rift is that she is a descendant of a group of rune-based hunters that got completely decimated by those after their Time Piece to get in their clubhouse. (Also purely out of spite. They were growing way too fast in power and some part of the Outlands did not like that)

What Puella's dreamscape is going to end up being is a mix between the past memories she had, but also her current pursuit of looking for any Time Pieces that might still remain. All the while, there is a feeling of dread and something lurking just behind the shadows. A very old, otherworldly enemy that Puella has no idea about, although it most certainly doesn't want her alive.



Knight: Presumably if they get a mark from someone else, basically everyone's favorite Hollow Knight location of suffering. White Pal--no it's the Abyss. The place where they originated from but also where they and hundreds of thousands (and that might still be a generous number) of their siblings were thrown back in and left to die.

It's not a fun place.



Neither of these should have very explicit content warnings, although one of them does basically involve a very large charnel pit for bug babies, so uh...

Re: Planning,

[improbablenotimpossible]

Ky will be unaffected but will jump in to help students and faculty alike.

Sherlock will be affected, and his area with be a giant, endless library with sweeping spiral staircases and mountains of books with a waterfall feature in the center. Now it looks like an earthquake went through it, and strange plants are growing all over the place with ruby-red fruits that smells incredibly delicious.

There are shadowy creatures hiding in the books trying to keep people from getting to the top floor.

CW: Blood, blood, vampire hunger-type metaphors

[hatesdeerstalkers]

This time, I actually want moriarty to not be the victim and help get people to wake up! So I guess if you need someone to wake up your character or want to play something cool, hit me up!!

JONATHAN TIME,

[standless]

So first of all, Reira will NOT be marked, because ultimately trying to work with Reira and dreamscapes is a Nightmare. She'll exist, in this event. She'll...exist. Probably, she'll hop into a few dreams.

Jonathan however.

Jonathan WILL be getting marked, and it's a bright obvious little sucker on his wing. Regardless of how fast the sleeps hit, he's going to be in his phantom body at the time though- which is definitely going to be a ??? moment for everyone!

Jonathan's mindspace will be a dreary foggy version of a desert- albeit with an awful lot of Victorian architecture scattered around. A few places with more upset memory tied to them seem to have ghastly dogs around them, but there also seems to be some Other Thing lurking around at random-

Thanks, Galra, for bringing out some memories of what Dio did with his body. That sucks.

There'll probably be warnings for blood, gore, general self-deprecation...This Bat can hold SO much guilt,

Notably, he'll be himself here! ...Sort of. He's all purple and stuck in a bunch of vines wherever he is to be found. These vines are pretty far reaching, so at least he'll be easy to locate.

Easy to get to...maybe not so much.

[emergensirations]

Sira will be getting mark this event due to human proximity! Their dream will be a mess of mirrors. Mirrors on the wall, mirrors on the ceiling, big splintering panes of glass this way and that. Too chaotic for a funhouse it's a maze nevertheless.

Within the glass, people will find reflections, but not all will be of themself exactly as they are. They might see distortion or maybe pieces of themselves they thought long gone (or wish were long gone). They might be other people that they felt were "a part of them". They'll also see strangers. These people will appear mostly human, commonly mages, but that's where the similarities end. Running children, caustically glaring teenagers, older men and women who seem busy with something or other and just don't have time for you. They go out of the frames of mirrors and into others and disappear. Some mirrors will lack any reflection at all.

In amongst all these, something will be prowling. Something large and clawed. As it goes hunting through the mirrors, more reflections will be caught. If caught, one might be dragged into the mirrors themself and they'll need to smash it out to escape the creature.

Escape will be found with a twin set of young girls, facing each other, one in the mirror and one outside it. You may either smash the mirror or pass through it, taking only one of them with you. Choose wisely.

Sira's power after this I'm thinking will be mirror-based, passing into one mirror and moving to others, listening in and spying what's on the other side. It'd be cool if they could pull traits off those who look into the eyes of their reflection but we'll see if any of this flies first.

This month is also when Coco shows up. Boy, heck of an intro to the school. She'll go around to help close CR of Héctor's or anyone else who'd like her.

[spelleton]

Ekkehardt is predictably going to be around fussing over people and will have some time to inadvisably dream-dive to help others before getting marked himself despite his best efforts, and passing out in the infirmary or something. He's good at this.

His dreamscape is one of constant peril, or at least it feels that way. Wherever you go, you always feel off-balance and on edge, like something is waiting to go wrong and the whole world is holding its breath - there's a constant sense not of being hunted, but the sense of being the hunter, tasked with an important mission. It's basically a maze of corridors and inexplicably open paths, filled with morbid imagery. Lots of climbing down into graves, digging them, locked doors and coffins, etc.

Occasionally there are places to rest (tombs, gravestones, altars) surrounded by flowers or water that offer a moment of peace and quiet. The names of people that might be at best vaguely familiar are commemorated here, but since it's a dream, the words scramble whenever they're focused on too much.

Ekkehardt is tucked away somewhere in the deepest reaches of the maze, in a chamber suspended by chains (though a silhouetted version of him will often appear to visitors and demonstrates various powers and coherency, like being able to open locked doors and cut through obstacles and the like). Escaping requires finding his resting place and freeing him from it.

Not sure what his power will be from here! Potentially it'll be something simple like being able to open locked doors (amount of effort and magic varies depending on difficulty) or being able to project his kind of terrifying shadow away from his body so he can communicate long distance.

Hornet and Vivi will be around, with various levels of trying to help. Hornet may also get infected by proximity, in which case her dreamscape will be a silent, washed out village inhabited by blurry spider people who don't speak. Escaping requires finding either Hornet herself (who will cut her way out of the dream extremely angrily) or taking one of the various younger versions of Hornet to find her mother, who is instilled in the deepest part of the village on an altar.

[heromedal]

Who wants to enter the Land of Paranoia!? I'm working on something based around Rex's distrust of... everyone mostly.

I haven't yet gotten a grasp on what the landscape will be or what power I might give Rex, but I know what I want the way to get him out will be-

Rescuing Rex is theoretically simple. When someone comes in, they do so through one of many doors. He just has to be convinced to leave through the same one they came out of. Forcing him won't do it. He has to walk through, because he trusts the visitor.

Possibly, someone should bring Indrik in with them and let him do the final convincing and then I have have Indrik undergo a Digivolution at last.

[hatesdragons]

This is EXTREMELY LATE, but I have a few ideas for Emille that I still want to play out. Please let me know if anything needs to be changed, or if anyone wants in on any of this!

Since the markings will begin on the night of the full moon, Emille's dreamscape will be filled with spirits of humans, fae, other daemons, etc. who have been killed by the Dragon daemons. They're usually moaning in her head during the full moon, but she can't usually understand them, and they're simply a nuisance. For those inside her dream, they're visible and audible and will talk about their deaths at the teeth and claws of Dragon daemons. At least, as much as they remember. It'll probably be more moaning in pain than anything. Likely CW for descriptions of murder/consumption, and maybe more depending on how the thread goes.

Emille will be sleeping while surrounded by a blue aura. It's her sister's spirit, protecting her and keeping her asleep so she doesn't have to experience her surroundings. In order to end the dream, Aitelle will need to be convinced that the other(s) present can help protect Emille from consuming herself with her wrath, especially when she's unable to. Regardless, the dream will end at dawn, and Aitelle will go back to being an inaudible, faint spirit.

She also will let the visitor(s) in on the fact that, unbeknownst to Emille, she's been marked by both the Herald and a Dragon daemon. Due to her involvement with the recent Dragon battle, she -- and anyone else involved with that event, if interested! -- has caught the attention of a Dragon stronger than the one slain, the Dragon it was under the command of... One of the seven mighty True Dragons, known as the Curse God. He's basically a lich Dragon who will be in a rivalry with the Heralds. The Dragon victims in the dream will mention his name in fear and reverence.

I guess this is more foreshadowing for and setting up some stuff I want to do with Emille and her canon in the overall world of Daybreak Academy. Again, if anyone is interested in being involved with Dragons, please let me know!

[pickedpocket]

Garrett will not be affected by the marks, and as a very active subscriber to the 'not my problem' school of thought, will almost certainly be trying to take advantage of the situation for his own personal benefit...
...fortunately for those who have been afflicted, this is Garrett, so he's invariably going to be dragged into several of these nightmarish dreamscapes whether he likes it or not. If you're looking for an exceptionally unenthusiastic rescuer with zero interest in heroics, hit me up!

[voidbug]

Hey Garrett.

Garrett Garrett.

Do you want bugs?

Do you want a lot of bugs?