[Artifact] The More Things Change

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gaia_crown [ Day 1 - The Tulgey Woods: ]

Finding the location of Wonderland is something which happens by accident.

The forest itself is seemingly unending, perpetually dark but with the grass and trees lit from within by strange ethereal light. The sky overhead where glimpsed through the branches is an impossible black and there is no moon.

Everything in the forest itself is not quite right. The flora and fauna are not like anything Brenley has seen before...

gaia_crown [ The Mushroom Patch ]

You come to a grove of strange mushrooms interspersed with signs which state EAT ME. There seems to be no way forward until you do just that.

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6. A colourless grey mushroom which tastes like paper, it makes the eater relive a time when they felt alone. Minimum of 800 words.

Nothing truly interesting had happened to him in almost a year.

On most days, Bren had more pressing matters to concern himself with, like whether or not drinking this or rubbing himself down with that was going to kill him or make him lose his memory or simply dissuade his mount from carrying him for a day or two, setting him behind the schedule in his head. He was always occupied with new discoveries, new places to see and people to reluctantly talk to, but things were not like they used to be. Most of all, he was beginning to realize he was lonely.

The boil was loath to admit that, considering that he had always been alone and that was a state of being he quite enjoyed. But lonely and alone were two different things in the same way that occupied and captivated were. He wanted to be captivated by his work, not just doing it for the sake of doing something. He wanted to be alone. Sometimes.

What he really couldn't figure out, not even after he had worked through his primary problem, was why he missed the confusion, that fear of being transported to dangerous places to make even more dangerous decisions. Amityville was quite literally a pit of uncertain horror, a stunning institution where students were tapped for experimentation and painful death. It was uncontrolled and messy, and he was such a ardent fan of order. Or at least he thought he was. For all that he liked structure and making concrete plans, it was the events that he hadn't anticipated that had led him to his greatest accomplishments.

In the end, he decided swinging past the school for a visit couldn't hurt. He would check in with Dahlia, get some new assignments, and get out again before he could get hurt. Maybe he'd call Ig too. He owed the boil that much.

It was stupidly inevitable that he would dream that night. It was stupidly naive for him to have assumed he wouldn't.

Brenley woke up, fully clothed, lying on a bed of dry pine needles. At least he thought they were pine needles. He couldn't be sure, mostly because the world around him remained just as dark whether he opened his eyes or not. Reaching into a pouch at his side he pulled out a flat stone, whispered a word over it, and squinted against the light he had made. They were pine needles after all. And he was alone.

He was not about to call out to see if anyone else was around either. That was just... stupid.

The boil pushed himself to his feet, wary but not entirely nervous. He had handled himself in situations far worse than this one before. He chose a direction and walked in it, confident that any way could be an exit if he went far enough, but when he reached the mushroom grove, he realized that assumption might have been a faulty one.

Someone else might have remained unconvinced, might have thought they could rail against the whims of a magical space, but Bren knew there would be no escaping if he didn't follow the sign.

EAT ME

It was a good thing he liked sticking strange things in his mouth.

He found a low stump and took a seat, spreading his scarves and cape out behind him as he cast a critical look around him. A lot of these mushrooms were quite colorful, and though he wouldn't have had a problem with that had he been in the safety of his room, he was in the middle of a forest without any means to keep himself safe were he to end up compromised. As such, Bren chose the most average, boring-looking mushroom he could find, plucked it from the ground, and took a dainty bite.

It was the first night he had spent away from both school and home, and he was irritatingly conflicted. On the one hand, it was going to be nice to grow up a bit, to get away and see what the world had to offer for a while, but on the other, well, he was going to miss his friends. As he rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling for at least the fortieth time now, Brenley couldn't help wondering if they would miss him in return. Ig would, sure, Hel and Ruth might notice his absence long enough to wonder where he'd gone, which was enough for him on that front, but there was one person who he wondered about just a little more than the rest. He hadn't seen her in what felt like forever, he had no idea if she was even okay, and at least half of that was his fault.

Brenley rose to his feet with a dramatic sigh, shaking off the mushroom's effects. Stupid dream forests and their stupid demands.  

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gaia_crown [ Day 2 – The Winding Forest ]

After a lot more wandering through the forest, following endless winding paths, Bren ends up in a darker, more sinister part of the woods, the path once again blocked by gnarled trees and thorns making progression difficult. In the forest, it is impossible to see the sky and any glimpse of it is pitch black. Already claustrophobic it only becomes more so.

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2. Cat - You end up on a wildly twisting path through the forest, seeing the same sights over and over. You are certain you are lost and that no matter what direction you turn you always find yourself back at the same place. Before you appears a large smile, followed in turn by a striped and sinister looking cat. No one else in your group can see him but you and he speaks to you about one of your deepest secrets. You find yourself temporarily driven a little mad by the aura of the creature and you turn upon your teammates or self. This is mercifully temporary and after several minutes sanity returns once again. Minimum of 500 words.

Even though he could feel the oppressive pressure of this place lift as his mind cleared, Bren still saw no way out, no path forward that wasn't lined with brambles too thick to pass. He paused, glaring as far forward as he could see with his meager magical light, and in the darkness ahead he caught sight of a purplish-blue figure, a small, mysterious beast slinking through the trees. Its presence was as good a lead as any, and he gave chase without question.

Cover grew thick once more, tripping him up and leading him astray. The path ahead and his surroundings repeated themselves at least three times before he stopped chalking it up to coincidence, stopping and contemplating his next steps. At a loss, he called out for the hidden creature.

"I know you're nearby. If you're willing to help me, I'm sure we could work out some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement."

A dry chuckle issued from a low branch just ahead, and as his eyes darted in the dark, searching for the source of the sound, a pale, menacing grin appeared before him.

"Mutually beneficial. How proper. I had no idea opportunistic murderers could be so articulate."

Brenley stopped moving, stopped breathing, and he held his features as still as he could make them. A floating smile was nothing really, not very frightening or threatening at all, but a smile whose owner knew about that was terrifying. Unwelcome. Bren swallowed.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes. You are. Afraid. I speak of Pachua, the boil you killed so that you might live."

"Pachua is not dead."

"Not anymore. Our kind are difficult to end forever. But you murdered him not knowing whether he would return. It was the thought that counted."

Though he hadn't agonized over any of this in a very long time, he found the horror hadn't left, and as he closed his eyes against the meaty resistance his weapon had met as it slid past bone, he saw Pachua staring, lifeless, as he had fled the room. Brenley felt sick and confused, far more than he deemed strictly necessary, to be honest, and he swallowed thickly as he glared at the cat that now hovered before him.

"I'm not sorry anymore. I've apologized to the only one who deserved it. How dare y—"

His knees buckled, his mind warring with his body and winning as he dropped to the dirt. He almost retched, only holding back because he knew this was a dream, and how ridiculous would that be? What did one even puke up while they were asleep? He was determined not to find out.

There was an ominous rumble almost too low to hear, and when Brenley looked up again, the cheshire was gone. He rolled back off of his knees and into a proper seated position as his nausea subsided, reaching in a pouch across his chest for a leaf to help his stomach settle. He remained quiet. He was not going to give the creature the satisfaction of knowing he'd been shaken.

As if the heaving of his breaths wasn't a dead giveaway.

Bren sighed.  

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gaia_crown [ Day 3 – The Red Queen’s Castle ]
Route 1 - Painting the roses red
You come across a group of people sized playing cards frantically trying to paint white roses red. They enlist you to help.

Roll 1d20, if you roll above 7 then you are successful in helping them and they approvingly let you pass into the castle out of gratitude, if you roll below this then you must choose one of the below two tasks to complete to proceed.

It took him a while to find the strength to stand, but once he had, Bren realized he was no longer trapped in the forest. He barely moved forward more than a few dozen feet before he emerged in the shadow of a castle, the sun so bright he could scarcely believe the trees had managed to hide it. Up ahead, a handful of very large cards were gathered around a rose bush, paintbrushes clutched in their fists like daggers.

They looked thoroughly fishy. Hoping that his fairly ostentatious clothing wouldn't be noticed, Brenley edged around them, heading for the tall wall of foliage in the distance instead.  

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Route 2 - The castle maze
Another way into the castle is via the castle’s enormous hedge maze, this way is perilous and difficult but can have hidden rewards. You need to roll twice successfully to pass.

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2 - Success - Ahead of you the strange cat appears and points you down the right path.

He entered the maze with a brief but long-suffering sigh, though to his credit that was the last sound he made until he was out again. The reaper advanced slowly to keep his bangles from jangling, edging close to the leafy wall as he rounded the next corner.

Up ahead, there sat a cat.

It wasn't bothering to hide in its smile this time, nor did it seem particularly interested in making him sick again. Instead, it waved a paw, leading Bren forward without a backward glance. Against his better judgment, the boil followed.  

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6 - Success - You hear arguing around a corner which leads you in the right direction.

He slowed when he heard an argument coming from somewhere in front of him, wondering who this person was who was wandering around without regard for their own safety. Perhaps not everyone in here was as wary as he, but he had already been to Wonderland and knew how things could go.

Brenley stuck his head around the next corner, a handful of enchanted pebbles at the ready, but there was nothing there. Or rather, no one. The castle he had only seen from afar until now loomed large at the end of the maze, and the corridor ahead was empty.  

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gaia_crown [ Final Day - The Queen’s Throne Room. ]
gaia_angelright The red queen’s throne room is enormous and is linked to a vast network of guarded rooms and corridors, at the end of these rooms is the treasure room where the valuable and often stolen treasures are stowed away by the selfish queen. Success means you can move onto rolling an artifact, Safe means if you fill in an rp post you can roll again, a free re-roll can simply be immediately re-rolled if you wish. Fail means you must wait 24 hours to roll again.

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2 - You all successfully make it to the treasure room through a combination of stealth and sheer dumb luck - Success

For reasons unknown even to himself, Brenley entered the castle at a run, having taken the final stretch of the maze at speed so no one would see him. At least that was how it went down in his mind. In reality, he had to use one of his precious invisibility enchantments to keep a number of guards from noticing he was there. Thankfully after that he was quieter, ducking behind statues and into empty rooms until he came across one that was not so empty.

The space reminded him of the Orphic Wildwoods, not so much in its overall feel, but in what he found there. Treasure. This room was loaded with the Red Queen's treasure.  

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2. The Hatter’s Hatpin A very ornate pin.
Status Effect: When used generates a fantastic and appropriate glamour hat. If the owner is sporting a neckbeard, has a penchant for fedoras.

 

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4. Jingling Bell: A neat little cat bell on a collar.
Status Effect: A clear ringing bell which calls forth a ghostly cat for twenty minutes, this can be pet but cannot be hurt.
Battle effect: Heals 5 HP to all friendly participants per battle/ per rp.

 

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2. The Hatter’s Hatpin A very ornate pin.
Status Effect: When used generates a fantastic and appropriate glamour hat. If the owner is sporting a neckbeard, has a penchant for fedoras.

 

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12. The Rabbit’s Watch:
Status Effect: Can be set to one individual and the hands will monitor where that person is and what they are doing as long as the target is wearing a traditional wristwatch or pocketwatch (Spectre watches, Halloween watches, and phones do not count).

 

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6. The Hare’s Cufflink: An elaborate cufflink in the shape of a hare's head
Status Effect: Can be used to turn the owner or someone else into a hare for a short period of time, maximum 5 minutes per day. Cannot be used on someone higher stage than the user. Does not work in battle.

 

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12. The Rabbit’s Watch:
Status Effect: Can be set to one individual and the hands will monitor where that person is and what they are doing as long as the target is wearing a traditional wristwatch or pocketwatch (Spectre watches, Halloween watches, and phones do not count).

 

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12. The Rabbit’s Watch:
Status Effect: Can be set to one individual and the hands will monitor where that person is and what they are doing as long as the target is wearing a traditional wristwatch or pocketwatch (Spectre watches, Halloween watches, and phones do not count).

 

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1. The Caterpillar’s Pipe: A strange pipe that exudes an aromatic scent.
Status Effect: When inhaled from it gives the ability to ask one question of someone which they feel compelled to answer, but only as cryptically as possible (ie: in a riddle, sarcastically, etc) (useable once a day, limited relative to the year of the person it is used on and ooc consent), the rest of the time it functions like a magical vape pen with plenty of mist.