EVENT ↠ THE DRIFTING ROADS

[faderifting]

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: A Crossroads Adventure
WHEN: Most of Cloudreach 9:46
WHERE: The Crossroads
NOTES: OOC post!

A team recently discovered a cluster of eluvians, one of which leads into the attic of an occupied home in Minrathous. This could be an extremely useful route if it can be made safely accessible, but that will require careful planning. In the meantime, Riftwatch needs to urgently explore the other eluvians in the cluster to ensure that none of them make the Minrathous route too dangerous to keep open (for instance, if another leads into the center of Val Royeaux or the royal palace in Cumberland, or anywhere else that a party of enemy combatants could quickly cause terrible trouble).

To that end, teams are assigned to explore and (as much as is possible in the Crossroads) map where the others lead and what the paths between them are like so that the danger/usefulness of each can be assessed. Because there are dozens and this needs to be done as quickly as possible, anyone with any time may be ordered to take on an exploration shift. Assignments will be given to small teams or pairs, but never to just one person alone. Some people may be assigned multiple shifts. (These assignments will be made IC, but OOC you're free to choose your own teams.)

The aim of this event is to focus on the Crossroads themselves, so the eluvians investigated will almost all lead to other eluvians and to islands of disconnected pieces of the Crossroads. It may be necessary to travel between and through several successive eluvians to different portions of the Crossroads to ensure there's no access to a vulnerable location.

The portions of the Crossroads teams will be exploring now will come with a variety of frustrating geographical hazards, any number of which your characters may encounter during their travels:

• RECONCILIATION ROAD: One eluvian will be positioned in the distance on a narrow island of the Crossroads and reachable only by two paths that unfurl ahead of people as they walk and finally converge to reach the island. The paths will slowly angle toward one another if the people walking on each of them discuss a topic of disagreement, coming together to meet at the eluvian if the parties are reasonable and calm during the discussion and make some earnest effort to find common ground along the way. They won't have to wind up in perfect agreement to reach the end, but breaking into fighting or being stubborn or petty will result in the paths diverging instead of coming together. People who already agree about something won't be able to make it work—they'll have to find something to disagree about, even if it's just the best color of flower. A monument at the beginning will explain its purpose (using Veilfire writing that gives mental impressions, rather than requiring knowledge of ancient elven languages): the paths were designed to require people to calmly discuss their differences on their way to reach someone appointed to mediate disputes at the end, rather than allowing them to barge in shouting.
  
• IMPULSE AVENUE: An area will be populated by spirits who will act out a form of people's repressed feelings/impulses on their behalf. That might mean a nonverbal wisp or a more distinct verbal spirit. So a wisp who is acting on behalf of Person A might shoot little icicles at Person B because Person A is annoyed with them, or a more substantial spirit might hit on Person B because Person A thinks they're cute, et cetera. The spirits won't volunteer to explain why they're doing this, but the verbal ones could identify Person A as the source of the desire if pressed on the subject, especially if Person A secretly wants it known.
  
• INNER CHILD BOULEVARD: Teams may need to pass through a particularly twisty, shifting maze that's only passable with the guidance of spirits—specifically, spirits who, for some unknown reason connected to their original purpose when the Crossroads were a thoroughfare, present as ghostly forms of the people they're guiding as they were when they were children. They'll know that they're spirits and that their purpose is to guide people through the maze, not mistake themselves for "real" people, but they'll behave and speak in the manner of the child they're imitating while doing so. (Like all spirits, they rely on the information available to them from people, so if there's some significant difference between the way a person recalls themselves as a child vs. how they really were, the spirit will only be able to imitate what the person recalls.)
  
• SUSPICION CIRCLE: A pack of fear spirits (specific breed: suspicion) has control of a dark, tunnel-y portion of the Crossroads. They're able to rearrange the paths to lead people in circles rather than allowing them to escape, all the while trying to stoke fear and drive wedges between people by whispering to them about any fears they may harbor (or that just seem reasonable) about their companions' motives, loyalty, etc. Resisting the fear will prevent the spirits from feeding and eventually make them unable to keep up with rearranging the paths, allowing people to escape. Otherwise, if people do give into fearing one another and thus feed them, they'll have to be fought or outsmarted some other way.

They may also encounter other minor hazards and irritations, such as:

• SPIRITS OF VALOR: Bridges or paths may occasionally be occupied by these fierce spirits who will demand that any who wish to pass first best them in single combat. They can also sometimes be passed without a fight, if you manage to out-swagger them.
  
• WILD GOOSE SPIRITS: Spirits that will lead anyone who follows them in pointless circles for as long as possible. They may appear offering assistance, claiming they know the way to the party's destination and can lead them to it, or claiming to have been sent by another group that needs their help urgently. On rare occasions the aid they seek will be real, just far too late--they may lead people to scenes of spirits falling to their deaths as paths crumble, crying out for help but unable to be saved.
  
• MOOD WISPS: Characters may encounter clusters of small wisps that will follow them about and change color depending on the mood of the person they're hovering near. If that person's emotions are particularly extreme they may also hum a little, annoyingly, in a way that vaguely indicates the relevant feeling.
  
• TRUTH PATHS: Paths that will fall away if you tell a lie. It doesn't require active truth-telling to cross, so you can be silent the whole time if you like, but if you lie about something while wandering the path will vanish ahead of you and will not reappear until you correct the lie. They aren't clearly marked.
  
• PUZZLES EVERYWHERE: There are puzzles. They're everywhere, and they're frequently required to unlock an eluvian or make a pathway appear. Some of them might require people to play Ancient Elven Symbol Twister. Or Ancient Elven Symbol Hopscotch, if that's more your thing.

This project will be ongoing, in addition to characters' normal duties, until events TBA.

Comments

[rathercommon]

i. Impulse Avenue
[ Kitty isn't really great at suppressing her impulses even at the best of times. So there's a spirit - little more than a wisp - sort of slouching along the path in a way that seems a little irritable and a little anxious; and, at the same time, the expression on Kitty's face reads a little irritable and a little anxious. ]

We've been this way before. Haven't we?


ii. Reconciliation Road
[ She knows what she has to do.

She really, really doesn't like what she has to do.

The look she's fixed on her companion can best be described as baleful - short of angry, but well beyond resentful. But, dutifully, she mutters at them - ]

Sorry.


iii. Wild card

i.

[hemitheoi]

"I don't think so. The paths wander but we have not seen these rocks before."

He turns a flat eye before and ahead of them, faintly assessing. Then turns it back, looking where they come and compare the two.

"But this place seems to delight in its tricks."

Because behind them is a sliver of a thing, and it stares blankly in fear. It's words incoherent, it's figure trembling and it has no substance, a breath could push it over. At times, distantly, it cries.

And it does nothing better to put him in a good mood.

[rathercommon]

Kitty grunts in acknowledgment, though turns a curious and uncertain eye on the spirit behind him.

"D'you know why that one is following you?"

[hemitheoi]

He casts his eyes back to, for the first time, truly looks at it.

And it makes him wretch with disgust. A visible flash over his face before he turns back to her and keep his back to it.

"Who knows. We walk the lands of the dead. The dead are their own business, not mine."

[hassaran]

[ Yseult isn't exactly thrilled about this development either--the result of groups rearranged on the fly on last-minute necessity and an unusually agreeable guard playing oblivious third wheel--but needs must, and she did study the veilfire instructions carefully. So she casts a dry look at Kitty across the gap between their two pathways. ]

There is a time and place for stubbornness, [ she says, which is both true and technically an acknowledgment of a sort. ]

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty's frown deepens, and her shoulders hunch a little. ]

I just apologized. That's the opposite of stubbornness, isn't it.

[ She assumes that Yseult's comment is criticism - there is a time and place for stubbornness, and you're not able to recognize it - rather than acknowledgment. But, well, that's Kitty in a nutshell, really - always expecting disapproval and ready to fight against it. ]

[hassaran]

[ That is in fact the precise distinction Yseult is drawing. There is a time and place for stubbornness acknowledges that it's not a bad trait on the whole, but stops short of voicing an opinion on how Kitty chooses to exercise it, because the goal is to focus on things they can agree on. Or so the veilfire suggested. ]

The magic doesn't seem satisfied. [ Not that it has done more than inch forward for her. ] You could try being more specific.

[rathercommon]

I could be more specific?

[ Kitty stares incredulously at Yseult. The woman insults her, and then says that Kitty should try harder? Kitty, unthinking, snaps out - ]

God, why are you so mean?

[ And then flushes a little at how childish that sounds. But she doesn't take it back. ]

[hassaran]

[ Yseult's brows tilt inwards and she cants her head a few degrees, bemused by the word choice. ]

Your path didn't move. It's a practical suggestion, not a personal attack.

[rathercommon]

Yeah, right.

[ She hunches her shoulders and says, in a rather decent imitation of Yseult's manner and accent: ]

Oh, Kitty, this is all on you. You're just so stubborn, and you really ought to be schooled in how you should act. You act like my mum.

[ That comment is uttered with all the muddled-up emotion of a girl whose aforementioned mum betrayed her to the cops. So, you know - A few more emotions than are perhaps warranted in the given circumstance.

She shoves her hands into her pockets. ]

How about you actually succeed in schooling me for once. How about you show me how it's done, instead of clucking about how wrong I am.

[hassaran]

That accent's not bad.

[ She's silent for a moment after that, considering. When she speaks it is, as ever, in that same mild, neutral tone. Perfectly civil, nothing more or less. ]

Since you arrived it has been clear to me that you have natural abilities that could make you a formidable operative and that you care a great deal about using those abilities to help others, as I do. I might have liked to help you. But you've also made it equally clear you aren't interested in learning what I could teach, that you have no respect for the abilities or intentions of anyone who does not wholly agree with you, and that as a consequence you cannot be trusted not to strike out on your own to the detriment of our primary mission. So be it. [ She shrugs. ] I've taken no action against you, I simply don't have time to spend trying to find a way to connect with you, either.

[rathercommon]

[ The muscles in Kitty's jaw are tight. ]

I don't see the path opening up.

[hassaran]

[ With a sigh: ] I assume it requires multiple reciprocal efforts.

[rathercommon]

Well, I assume it requires an apology that isn't just someone saying that everything they've said or done is completely justified and laying out the other person's failings. Again.

[hassaran]

I wasn't apologizing, I was explaining. What is it that you would like me to apologize for, precisely? Because just saying the word "sorry" aloud without it meaning anything clearly isn't going to work.

[rathercommon]

[ Her lips thin even further. And she says, with fierce anger: ]

I'd like you to apologize for explaining.

[hassaran]

[ Genuinely baffled: ] Why? How are we ever going to find common ground without explaining ourselves clearly?

[rathercommon]

[ She shakes her head. ]

'Cause you're not explaining yourself. You're explaining me. Every time you talk to me, it's nothing except a list of all the things I'm doing wrong. The only thing I learn about you when you explain yourself is how disappointed you are in all my failings.

[hassaran]

[ The angle of her head suggests disagreement, but even so Yseult asks: ] What do you want to know?

[rathercommon]

[ A cluck of disapproval. ]

You can't turn off your spy-thing for even a minute, can you?

[hassaran]

Not enough to stand here and recite facts about myself at random in hope that I might stumble on something you want to know.

[rathercommon]

And I don't even know enough about you to know literally anything that I should be asking. It's almost like explanations are kind of crap.

[hassaran]

You complained that you know nothing about me so I offered to tell you what you want to know. If you won't even acknowledge that then we might as well both jump over the side now.

[rathercommon]

[ Exasperated: ]

That wasn't my complaint. My complaint is that you're saying that, oh, we've got to explain ourselves but all you ever do is take that as an excuse to scold me. I don't care about - [ She waves a hand. ] Assorted facts from your life. Why would I? It's not going to tell me anything. An explanation of why you believe the things you believe - that would be interesting. But instead all it ever ends up being is Kitty, you're untrustworthy, Kitty, you're stubborn, Kitty, your defiance is going to get you killed. Like I haven't been hearing all of that since I was old enough to go to school.

[hassaran]

I've told you before why I believe those things. I've told you why I believe this work is important and why I do it. And I've asked you whether there was anything I could say or do that would make you willing to do anything at all differently and you told me no. Why would I bother giving you any more than I already have when you've made clear it won't achieve anything?