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!

Planning,

[thewatchers]

Feel free to plan in terms who/what powers

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.

[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.

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.

[thewatchers]

Given the response we had, we had since revised and altered the plot to remove the mind control elements.

[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.

[unlogic]

Okay, this looks like something. I might be looking at throwing one of the two at it, probably Becky? I'll have to see what I can come up with.

[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.

[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?

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.

[thewatchers]

They can cross over into other dreams, and depending on how long the "Visit" is the more the dreams will bleed into each other into a mish-mosh.

[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...

[stavros]

this sounds GREAT let's beat up some ancient creepers

[hattersgonnahat]

It's gonna be fuuuuuuuuun.


Please no dying.

[the_reverend_daughter]

If you want to throw the Knight in, how do you feel about getting the Mark from Harrowhark? And maybe having their nightmares start combining? Harrowhark's realm will probably be set in a cave (so plenty of room for bugs), and also deal with a few hundred dead children, so there could be room for some freaky mindmelding of a sort?

[voidbug]

Hmmmmm, it's possible! I don't wanna quite rule out other options yet but I might consider it.

[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?

[unpocoloco]

Excellent! Thank you!

[spelleton]

i think this would be a GREAT way for the resident lich to meet the new necromancer student frankly so i would be all for tossing him into nightmare hellscape land

[the_reverend_daughter]

Heck yeah! Sounds like a good time! :D

[thewatchers]

Mindset is irrelevant, prolonged close contact is enough, but diving into the unconsciousness greatly increases the chance of getting marked (and again, this is entirely Opt-in)

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