The Witches Huts

[travelagency]

Who: Various
What: Swamp Hunting
When: M11 D27 - M11 D29 (Feb 17 - Feb 25) IMPORTANT NOTE days have been changed to make the plot more accommodating.
Where: Three different swamps far from the Village
Notes & Warnings: See the plot post for further details. You are allowed to go to more than one swamp. There's plenty of time, to. Plotting Links: The Marsh of Sorrow | The Offending Swamp | The Witch's Den. Participation is encouraged so that we can make later plots around expanded world access, or so that characters can use potions or cauldrons they didn't turn in themselves. The Slip 'n' Slide log is still open for tagging.

The Marsh of Sorrow

Foggy and murkey, sparse trees jut out of the bog like gnarled fingers reaching to an unseen sky. There's a light mist in the air- raining again in some form or fashion as every explorer who has returned has reported. Not all have returned, though, and caution is very much encouraged. There are more wild hounds than one would expect for somewhere that apparently doesn't have free grazing livestock. They seem to be waiting around for something.

It becomes obvious when a sheep becomes mired in the mud near the border. Easy prey. Luckily the hounds have never shown any interest in people.

The good sign is that that there are few skeletons and creepers. While one might assume that they're hidden by the fog, they're generally extremely sparse. Off in the distant fog there are lit spots, areas where old huts are, glowing mysteriously. Those are the places that the museum wants to be investigated. It just requires wading through the muck to reach them.

What the museum doesn't know is when the marsh is active, emotions play a role in whether someone can make it across. Unfortunately it's the only time that the huts can be located through the fog. People that are entering the swamp with grim feelings in mind will find themselves sinking. Perseverence, ambition, joy, curiosity? Those will help people strive through, and hopefully pull others to the surface.

The Offending Swamp

The museum doesn't tell people why it provides them with face masks, but oh, they will know when they hit the border of the swamp. It's a terrible smell, not quite like being near a sewer but not far off. That unfortunate paper-mill smell. The mask given to them will allow people to speak freely and unmuffled, but it only blocks out about 90% of the stench. This is one of the situations where someone might hope that the rewards are worth it.

The ground is far more solid than in the Marsh of Sorrow, with plenty of firm areas to roam. It makes the stench more irritatingly mysterious. There are few animals, too. But the answer to that becomes obvious when bursts of flame pop out of small holes in the ground. Apparently getting through will require great care.

The museum did not provide fireproofed clothes. But when the hut is found, luckily alongside its cauldron will be an abundence of fireproofing potions. Their purpose isn't obvious so it would depend on the curious or the adventurous to figure it out. That will at least make getting back out easier.

The Witch's Den

When entered, this swamp seems the more relaxing one. The temperature is moderate, the air isn't deplorably foul, the boggy areas are not as difficult to navigate. Once someone is within its limits, making their way to the hut, the more unsettling aspects of the swamp make themselves known.

Voices of people lost or left behind speak to people over their shoulders, soft and sometimes pleading, or accusing. They mutter secrets, things about their past, fears that people don't say aloud. Sometimes they're just whispers, and sometimes they're loud enough for the next person over to hear. Often they will tell people to go a certain way, toward another object or in another direction.

If they follow, it will put them back at the edge of the swamp.

There is a single hut in this one, far towards the center. As with the ones in the Marsh of Sorrow, it will glow as the swamp's abilities are active. It lies past the remnants of dilapidated houses and landmarks, a village likely abandoned long before any of the other ruins were formed. It is best found as the sky grows dark. Unlike the Marsh of Sorrow, though, enemies will crawl out of the dark.

Comments

[vengeance_driven]

[He pulls out his gun, but doesn't really stand at attention or anything. Instead, he sort of just turns and stares into the trees from every angle.]

Oh, you have to be shitting me. Is there something in the pollen here making us crazy?

[Another voice, an older woman, beckoning from the distance. She's trying to get Niko to go in the same direction that Jade was wanting him to run- for whatever reason that whatever enemy she was talking whatever about was pushing her. He's a simple man, but he's capable of math.]

[Something is screwing with their heads and wants them to go that way. But he doesn't know if they should or not.]

I don't think anything is going to come after us except the usual. I am pretty sure anyway.

[una_persson]

"Might as well enjoy it while it lasts," she said, and set off following Kay. Out of habit, she used the stick to check the path for any unpleasant animals, but soon she realised that wasn't really necessary.

"I suppose there isn't much demand for wildlife in a place that would end up cooking it on a regular basis."

[domesheriff]

At least they should have a hard time seeing us from too far off. [not that she doesn't share his concerns, but she's comforting herself with the fact that their aim isn't very good even when they have a clear line of sight] But you're right, we could be out here for a while...

[most_feared]

"No, I guess they've known this is a bad place to be for a long time. That fella-" he pointed off towards the gliding snowperson "-and us don't. But the animals seem to have learned their lesson."

At least he didn't see any yet. He hadn't seen any hostiles, either, but that might just have been because it was during the day. "I gotta admit, this stuff is pretty new even for me. The friction just going away like that, anyway."

[ratkicker]

I don't know! But we can't let our guard down! [Strangely enough, though the voices are getting louder, she can't see anything coming.]

So what are you hearing?

[una_persson]

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. I don't even understand how that's possible." She shook her head. "Every time I think I'm starting to get a grasp on this place, something new comes up. Like frictionless patches of ground."

Up ahead a burst of flame melted a bit of the snow trail, creating a puff of steam. "What do when—here, what's that?" She pointed. Some distance ahead she could just make out a shape that didn't seem to be foliage.

[most_feared]

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. With a whole new set of physics. Narvin had an idea, pretty smart one actually-" which, sadly, he sounds surprised to say. He had been underrating him because of his focus on invisible villains.

"That this place was sort of a nexus between universes."

[una_persson]

"He said that?" Una sounded—and looked—equally surprised. "Now I'm starting to wish that I got on with him better, because that's an interesting observation indeed." She paused a moment to unstick her boot from a patch of particularly sticky and smelly mud. "I wonder how that relates to the unrelenting linearity of time here."

[thumbsdown]

That's not a problem. We've got time.

[They're in no real hurry. It's probably not a good idea to rush into the fog- not that they can move all that fast now anyway.]

[most_feared]

"He's not bad. He's just like one of those kids that grew up surrounded by computers in his parent's basement and never had friends 'cause he had to be smarter than them or suspects they're gonna bully him. The problem is a guy like that can either turn out to be an okay person if he meets the right people or he can turn out to be real goddamn dangerous under the wrong influence.

"Anyway, I think that might be it. Like all the time flows out of this one or something. Into other places where it can move around. Anyway that's my best theory." Admittedly, he didn't have the tech to pursue it.

Even the normal mud here felt like shit. He followed along that snow trail, watching as that wayward snow golem went around a puff of fire almost by accident rather than any real effort to dodge it.

[vengeance_driven]

I don't think it is the thing you're hearing that we have to watch out for. Now it is my mother is trying to tell me that I should go that way.

I don't know if it's good advice or not. [So he's not moving yet.]

[domesheriff]

[she nods] Let's just hope the rain doesn't pick up.

[that said, she continues forward in silence for a bit. but at the sound of a wolf howling somewhere out in the mist, she jumps, turning instinctively in that direction with her pistol now drawn]

[ratkicker]

[Jade is silent as she tries to hear the voice of a woman calling to them. Nope, only the deep, rhythmic voices of invisible DomZ monsters.]

So is she trying to help up get away or what? [Her attentions moves back to the swamp area they were running from, still not convinced that they are safe.]

[una_persson]

"Those who envision Time as a tree immediately raise the question of whether there is a central 'trunk'," she mused. "It would be curious if this was actually it. Mind you, that's not a model that I particularly favour but—" a wry look, "I'd owe several people many drinks if this turns out to be the long-imagined temporal centre."

[vengeance_driven]

My mother isn't dead. She's still alive and back home. [He says dubiously. Unlike Kate, who he heard before, so he knows it can't be his mother. But he doesn't move until the voice as stopped, and even though he can't hear Jade's, he stays his original course.]

[There is a small herd of the strange looking Quadratus oxen and they don't seem at all bothered. They just graze and give them vapid looks as they pass, a couple of calves rompling carelessly. They don't hear anything out of the ordinary.]

[It's not until they get close that the oxen back off and shamble along, which is odd because they're one of the animal types that don't mind being close to people normally.]

[ratkicker]

[She follows Niko, occasionally glancing over her shoulder, but her staff has returned to its place on her back.]

Hey! Think they saw something? [The staff is back in her hand.]

[most_feared]

"Maybe it's like a one way highway with lots of on ramps or off ramps. I guess there are a lot of comparisons. But I guess this could be the main path that goes one way, and happens to run into 'em all."

He was doing his best to make sense of it, contemplating all the little different universes and how, if touched by this one, maybe it just forced that tree to happen. He couldn't say quite yet.

"You got a main theory about how it works in your universe?" He asked as if it were the most casual conversation to make with someone. For him, it was his favorite form of interesting small talk.

[una_persson]

"There are as many theories as there are chrononauts," said Una. Generally she was quite cagey about her regular line of work; in most cases, to be too talkative was dangerous. But in this strange temporal zone, with its combination of unbreakable linearity and wide-ranging lateral access and the general acceptance of these normally esoteric facts, she felt she could speak more freely than usual.

"Some compare the Multiverse to a vast lake, into which each action is like a stone thrown into water, except in four or five dimensions. Others treat it as a kind of field, in which all of Time and Space exists simultaneously. Some accept the 'branch' theory, but deny the existence of any kind of centre. Regardless of the metaphor one prefers, however, certain constants remain—the dangers involved in passing between temporal zones, the inevitability of echoes across parallels, the importance of being able to camouflage oneself in an unfamiliar zone."

[vengeance_driven]

Yeah. Us. [And he sounds a little confused as he says it.]

[And then, bless this man... he smells his armpits as if something might have stunk them out. Nope, he's clean.]

[thumbsdown]

[He hopes it doesn't. The rain just leaves him wet and miserable. The ice and the freezing rain make him miss home. It could get unbearably hot some days, but he can deal with that better. He turns when the wolf howls too, already on edge, but he relaxes slightly when he can't immediately see anything dangerous. He knows better than to think that means they're safe for now, but it beats turning around and spotting a creeper.]

Let's move.

[He's not sure if hounds can become aggressive for no good reason. He's never seen it happen, but this place can be unpredictable. He takes another step, and sinks just a little more.]

[ratkicker]

[She won't blame him for checking his odor. With all the running around they do, there's a huge change Niko ran into something and forgot to wash really well.]

But I'm surprised they're so nervous. Think there's something dangerous here that they're afraid of?

[most_feared]

"How many temporal zones have you passed- and do you start out as a chrononaut or were you a traditional sort of human once?" And now Kay had started with the inevitable questions. It was an easy pattern to fall into, comfortable in pursuing one line of curiosity even while wearing a mask and trudging through a godawful swamp.

[vengeance_driven]

I don't know. Maybe they hear us being something we're not, too. [But at this point all he can do is guess. He's not magical. He might as well manifest theories and pull them out of his butt.]

[With an exhausted look Niko just trudges forward, pretty aimless at this point.]

I just know I can't give up. I have nowhere else to go. Either they fix town or I lose another home.

[ratkicker]

That...would make sense. [She's never encountered anything like this before, but alien planets are full of surprises.]

Where do we head to? There might be something important this way. [She gestures in the direction they were running to earlier.] Dangerous, but important.

[una_persson]

"How many? I've lost count. Truly." How many years would it be, she sometimes wondered, if she were to add up all her experiences across Time? It almost didn't bear thinking about—and it was a mercy, really, that she couldn't remember all of it.

"At any rate, before all that started—I was ordinary enough." At least, she thought she was. The memories were forever hazy, with occasional flashes of clarity that she had come to distrust. "Those of us in my region of the Multiverse with this kind of talent usually discover that we have it the hard way, by getting displaced in Time. If this happens, it helps to have someone more experienced to stabilise you and help you learn to exert some will over the process. I met such a person a long time ago, and I've endeavoured to do the same for others. I expect that's why Jeffers wanted to hire me."