EVENT #1: THE EMPTY THRONE (PT 2)

[aionmods]

The Empty Throne Pt 2

ESCAPE

As more and more of the prisoners awaken to the Pleroma's power, it soon becomes clear that conflict is inevitable. Strength that was locked away blossoms once again, and simply waiting is no longer an option; those that remain in the cavern have made their choice, and they will not be kept there so easily.

By means that may not be immediately apparent, the Pleroma have found themselves able to cast a spell that will ensure their freedom... but only if they can last the half hour it may take to complete. Whatever this power, Xishen, the Aion orchestrator of the Kenoma's ritual, seems able to sense it. As it begins, she will appear at each of the Kenoma's sides.

"The Pleroma has taken hold of them," she says. "Stop them now, or when you see them again, it will be as your mortal enemies. If you believe in the Kenoma's promise, take a stand. The Regent is watching."

For those that heed her, it will not be hard to find the congregation of Pleroma, the first seeds of their teleportation magic taking form. What's more, the fires of their hope have been stoked by this new chance at survival, granted them a surge of energy born of the Pleroma, compensating for the poor state of their bodies. The tension comes to a head, between those that would follow the Regent's path towards a better universe, and those that would seize the wild power of the Pleroma to escape.

Whatever violence ensues, eventually it will come to an end. Despite the Kenoma's efforts, the teleportation spell will come to fruition, enveloping the Pleroma in a sea of light and warmth. The Kenoma can only watch as fractals of blinding color whisk the Pleroma away.

VALLEY OF INNOCENCE

You will find yourself at the Shrine of the Innocent, surrounded by a valley of flourishing wildflowers. As you step from the shade of the monument, you will find your arrived here just in time to enjoy a warm spring spring morning, the sound of birds and gentle breezes tickling your ears. The sun slowly drifts past the horizon, its rays reaching out to you, as if in comfort. The air itself is alight with a strange aura of peace, as if committing violence here would be a sacrilege. There are no man made structures as far as your eyes can see.

Flowers of all shapes and sizes can be found here, and so can fresh water and various fruits and berries. All of them are safe to eat, and seemingly grow in abundance. There are animals here as well, all the common types one would expect from a place like Earth, with the occasional odd addition. While you can try to hunt them, you will find yourself unable to follow through on any attempts to hurt the creatures here. In turn, they regard you as familiar, and will fearlessly wander close as they inspect these new arrivals. In the distance, you may even catch sight of what appears to be a unicorn, only for its ephemeral shape to disappear from sight just as quickly.

The Pleroma will find safety and comfort here for a time, before they recover enough to travel onward. At some point during the afternoon of the first day, they may spot the occasional humanoid figure moving in the distance; when attempting to move in their direction, they will find an assortment of clothing set out across the grass as if in offering. It will come in many sizes but in mostly plain colors, fitting a general aesthetic of 'things a fantasy peasant might wear'. There will also be some blankets, wrapped cheese, jams, jerky, and bread left alongside them.

While there are trees and brush enough to find shelter, the Pleroma will find they hardly need to while resting here. The weather will be picturesque, a comfortable temperature even at night, and there will be no disruptive rain or aggressive wind. Of course, nothing lasts forever, and even though there could stay here for days, what if the Regent's forces are on their way? Once again, they must find the strength to carry on.

THE TRIWATER

As the Pleroma vanish, those claimed by the Kenoma are left in the darkness of the throne room. The Hylician soldiers are clearly agitated by the fighting, but Xishen herself seems unflustered. She will only sigh before quietly coming to the aid of any Kenoma that still need it, providing some light healing magics and explaining that their work here is over. With the Pleroma gone, all that's left to do is to return to Achamoth.

Things move quickly from there. The camp grounds are packed up, and soon enough the Kenoma will be ushered towards the river at the edge of the forest, to board a particularly large river vessel. As the Hylician soldiers prepare to go their separate ways, you will be told that you are to take the Triwater river to the capital city of Achamoth, where you will finally meet your new master, the Regent. The vessel is big enough for all of you, and it will set off the moment everyone is boarded. Suddenly, the world of entrapment and ruins you've been living in since your arrival will be left behind, leaving you to ponder the nature of your future.

The boat itself is well equipped and comfortable for what it is. A variety of colorful hammocks are hung in the lower decks and are open to be claimed for the journey back, which will take a day or two. The Kenoma will be offered a change of clothes of a similar style to what they already have if necessary, and there are plenty of blankets and cushions available to make life in the hold more comfortable. There are dice available for games of chance as well as some mystifying decks of cards that seems to have twelve suits with five cards each, themed around the Legacies. The twelfth suit is for the Regent.

Though the sailors controlling the vessel will mostly keep to themselves and leave the Kenoma alone, one of them will occasionally play harp music on the deck. Though they probably don't actually need help running the ship, they will let the Kenoma help them with chores and ship running tasks if they are so inclined; generally speaking, these sailors just seem like normal people, albeit a bit shy of their passengers. If you're polite to them, they may even gives you a river tour of Horos. On this ride alone, you'll get to see several magnificent bridges spanning the Triwater's width. At night, you are treated to a clear spring sky filled with stars.

As you make it closer to Achamoth, you'll notice the landscape shift, becoming mountainous and dotted with more and more military watch posts. The land becomes increasingly lifeless in a way that's hard to put your finger on, nature giving way to man-made creations of impressive architectural prowess. Soon, you will meet the person behind it all.

QUESTIONS

Can my Kenoma character fight against other Kenoma and/or help the Pleroma?
Yes, though if you do this you must describe what your character has done in a reply to the "Committed Actions" top-level below. This way, the mods can be aware of what happened and have your character treated accordingly. They are unlikely to receive immediate consequences if they don't hurt their fellow Kenoma, but their choices will follow them into Achamoth. If a Kenoma vs Kenoma conflict escalates into serious violence (attempted or successful) committed by the Kenoma rebel, Xishen will intervene and consequences will happen immediately which may restrict their actions until the next event post.

Can our characters leave the valley?
They can, yes, but really this event is just meant to cover the day or two they spend recovering before finding a more permanent place to go. You are free to have your character investigate the valley and probe the spaces beyond it, but please save any plans for large scale travel to the next event, which will be happening on April 2nd. The game will move into a 1:1 time ratio as of then.

Can our characters leave the boat?
Technically yes, but any Kenoma who wander too far will get in trouble. You are expected to report to the Regent, and behaving as if you are considering doing otherwise will not make an good impression.

Does the hope-based Pleroma boost last into the valley?
The boost to Pleroma characters will fade shortly after arriving in the valley, like coming down from a high. They'll have to recover the normal way from there.

Comments

[lachtara]

"Indeed." He takes one card between his index finger and middle finger and holds it out to offer. "Now that you have your card, I suppose I ask you, for example, eights?"

[baltimores]

Amos takes the card, adds it to his hand, and skims them over. He peers back up at Emet-Selch. "Go fish," he says, nodding at the pile.

It's nice that there's such an ease to this game pretty much anyone can pick it up with only barebones instructions. For a second, Amos idly wonders how poker would work here — only reason he didn't immediately jump to that one is because who knows how much they'd have to twist the deck around, elaborate on the rules, to make it work — before asking, "Any fives?"

[lachtara]

Go Fish - draw a card, then. He does so and glances at the face of it before slipping the card into his deck.

"None of my cards are fives. Go..." Emet-Selch waves a hand to and fro to illustrate the point. "...fish or whatever it is you must do." He's trying.

"Is this a common method of entertainment where you come from?"

[baltimores]

Amos' expression doesn't change much, but there's something distinctly amused in it when Emet-Selch makes an attempt at telling him to go fish. Something in his eyes; an alertness that hadn't really been there when he'd first joined him, but is certainly here now.

So he goes to draw a card and add it to his hand, only looking back up when Emet-Selch asks him that question. In response, he shrugs a shoulder.

"Can be. Helped pass the time when I was a kid, at least. Been a while since I played, actually, but most of the other games I know might take a bit of time to adapt to this kind of deck." He sits up a little straighter. "You really didn't have anything like this where you're from, huh?"

[lachtara]

"There are two card games which hold popularity with the locals. Only one of which could be adapted to this deck," His expression dims. "And it is dreadfully boring. It requires pulling a card and guessing if the next draw will be higher or lower." As he said, dreadfully boring.

"I hope the other games you know require more attentiveness?" After a pause, he then adds, "Seven." Might as well keep playing.

[baltimores]

He has to pause for a moment as Emet-Selch describes the one game. And then, with barely any inflection, "That's popular where you're from?"

Yeah, he's on the same page there. That's fucking boring. Amos pauses for another moment before giving his head a small shake, pushing the thought away. Jesus. He brightens a little more as he moves on to the next thing.

"Sure. Lots of strategizing and bluffing. Some of 'em are more mind games than anything else. Sometimes people get heated enough to attack someone if they don't like what's going on." He speaks of it like that's a positive thing; a good brawl's a good brawl, no matter how petty the source, right? And, in the next breath, "Go fish. Threes?"

[lachtara]

He gives a look the side at his acquaintance's rhetorical question. Almost as if to say 'yes, they are popular for whatever reason' with a certain amount of exasperation.

Emet-Selch crosses his arms without answering the question of threes. "Then why can we not play that game you described?" Strategizing, bluffing, mind games all of it seems much more engaging and enjoyable than this. "If the deck needs adjustments then we shall adjust."

[baltimores]

Amos raises his eyebrows but has no problem setting his hand down, current game abandoned just like that. He frowns as he looks at the unused cards, too; there are so many suits.

"Dunno how adaptable Poker is to this kind of deck. I mean, something like four of a kind or straight flush might be too easy to get with these cards. Kinda takes a lot of the strategizing out of it," he says. Still, he goes to pile all of the cards back together, idly shuffling them. "You got any idea why there are twelve suits? Feels like it's too much to work with."

[lachtara]

"They're a novelty. One for each Legacy, it seems." He answers passively. For the moment he is more interested in doing something fun and the game described seems to be a shade of fun.

"Other such identical decks exist over there." Emet-Selch nods to the location where he retrieved the deck of cards from. "We need not hinder ourselves to this deck alone. We can build the ideal one using several decks if we needs do so." Surely they could tailor one to get what they required?

[baltimores]

Amos glances over in the direction of the other decks when Emet-Selch points them out; looks back at him as he continues shuffling. He doesn't feel the need to keep his hands busy; it just feels like the appropriate thing to do in the current environment.

"Think it might be more plausible if we assign a value to each suit. At least that way we could get some kind of hierarchy going. Figure out who has the better hand that way," he says. "You know what all of the Legacies are? 'cause really, I just know my own, and I got no clue how to rank these things."

[lachtara]

"I do, yes." There's no point in trying to explain those unless it is pertinent to how their little game would work. "Explain this game to me and I will think of what to assign each suit. Attempting to keep track will be much more stimulating than boring ourselves to sleep with simple games."

[baltimores]

There's a certain respect to be had for someone who gets right to the point. Amos nods, and launches into a brief explanation of poker — the best kinds of hands to have, how there's more variety one can have when you're dealing with thirteen cards in each suit rather than just five. And how he isn't entirely sure how to translate that. Hence, trying to use the suits as a value system instead.

"I mean, I'm all for something more stimulating," he says. "Can't wrap my head around what you're supposed to do with only five of each though."

[lachtara]

Emet-Selch sighs. The dilemma on how to convert it to their purposes becomes clear as the explanation continues.

However, he's still not given up on his quest for something that wouldn't bore him. He puts a hand to his chin and asks. "Have you anything to write with?"

[baltimores]

He blinks; okay, so they're on the same page now — except for the part where Emet-Selch asks for something completely out of left field. His confusion is evident for a moment, and then recognition lights up in his eyes when he's pretty sure he's caught on.

"Sure," Amos says, retrieving a small stick of graphite that had been stowed away in a pocket and offering it to Emet-Selch. "One of the sailors gave me this, in case I needed to mark something on the ship."

Not like it was limited to just that, though. He'll play along.

[lachtara]

He takes the stick with a nod. "My thanks."

After which, he picks up each card - one at a time - and marks the front of them with the graphite. He writes the suit and number on the face of the card in the white space, ignoring the graphic and number printed on it.

52 cards are sorted through and marked - the exact number which was described to him.

"If what we have does not suit our needs, then we change it so that it does." He says, motioning to the cards with a hand. "Now we have our deck."