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

[most_feared]

"I think you might have properly identified it." Kay said, holding a handkerchief over his mouth until he finished fishing around in his duffel bag. He found what he was looking for and handed it over to Una: a mask issued by the resort.

It was obvious that, despite his original doubts, they were going to need it.

It was hard to tell where those holes were. It made the whole thing more perilous. One of his MiB suits was fireproof but his security uniform was not. That would mean he'd have to take some extra care here. He couldn't be as reckless as usual (which it was funny to think of Kay as reckless, but he really tended to be).

[una_persson]

She took the mask and slipped it into place as quickly as she could.

"They could have warned us. Or issued something fireproof." She got to her feet and wiped her hands off on her trousers. They were undoubtedly going to be considerably worse for wear once this was all over. "I wonder if something provokes those fireholes, or if they just ... go off."

[most_feared]

"They didn't know, other than the stink. Apparently this place only acts up when it has the same sort of energy patterns as the village did when everything turned black ice."

It was a little boggy in spots, but he suspected as far as footing went, they were doing better than most. He wore boots because he thought ahead, and wasn't too worried about that part, and now that he didn't have to shield his nose from the horror of the smell he could actually hold his gun.

"I guess we gotta figure out what's causing it." But he wasn't sure how. Maybe following the stink?

[una_persson]

Una had kitted herself out in proper army boots, so at least that was all right. She paused to pick up a fallen branch from the ground; it was slightly bent, but it would make a serviceable walking stick that could also be used to poke at the ground ahead.

"If I'm not mistaken, that way is further in, isn't it?" She pointed. "If there's an answer, it's probably that way."

[most_feared]

As if the situation weren't ridiculous enough, the world's worst labrat showed up about then to help them. A snowman, like those that has puttered around the village for a while during market. Some had just merrily strolled off into the wilderness.

And here one was, that had made it all the way in that time to some distant bog.

With all the silence of a creeper (which, at the sight of it's silent movement, almost get it shot by Kay) it comes scooting through. And for the moment, just slides on without being melted away yet. It leaves a little snow trail behind it. The situation seems pretty ludicrous and Kay watches it with the bland expression of a Catholic school marm being entertained by a naughty circus clown, but finally his gaze drops to the snow.

There are a few spots where the snow is quickly melting. Probably holes. "Should give us pretty good ideas of where to check." At least until said little snow golem died or left course to go on more adventures. At least Una would have good ideas where to poke. Kay starts following the trail left behind loosely.

[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."

[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."

[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."

[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.

[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."

[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."

[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.

[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."

[most_feared]

Kay could remember having been ordinary enough quite clearly- and still lived his life under the guise of being ordinary enough. He was nothing like as exceptional as a chrononaut, though, and the leap from one state to the other must have been jarring.

"I'd have felt very lost if that happened to me.... Well... I actually probably would have adapted pretty quick. I think I felt pretty lost back before I became an Agent. Knowing how big the universe was, it made it worth not being a part of the world anymore."

Which was about as forthcoming as he allowed himself to be about feelings, considering he was talking to another member of some secret society. One that also shaped the universe. Maybe someone else who would sort of get it.

[una_persson]

She stopped in her tracks, and if Kay looked back, he'd see that she was smiling. Insofar as you could tell through the breathing mask, at any rate.

"Not many people understand that," she said. "The price, I mean—and why it's worth it."

[most_feared]

Through the lens of his mask, his eyes crinkled up- the only real sign that he was smiling too.

"I guess some ordinary people don't really care whether they are ordinary or not, but want to think of the universe as somethin' special." That was what his case was, anyway. It never insulted him to get lost in it; he was a part of something beautiful and big. "Even when sometimes all that specialness makes it smell like horse shit." Thank you, swamp.

And he noted then that little snowman had wandered right off towards the outline of a dilapidated building. It traced its way up the stairs and looked around in confusion on a porch of a thing, its little distant figure looking about as confused as an animated snowman could.

[una_persson]

Una chuckled. "And some of us imagined and wished that we might be something other than ordinary, and the universe obliged. In spades. But I don't regret it."

She then saw too that the snowman had stopped. "Well, that's the most interesting thing I've seen today," she said, frowning slightly at the structure. "I suppose we ought to investigate, shouldn't we?"

She checked her gun in its holster but didn't draw it yet.

[most_feared]

He pulled his own blaster almost lazily, passing another glance at their surroundings before edging off in that direction. "I guess we don't want to tell them we let Frosty do the work for us."

The camera drone that had been following at a distance did move far ahead, though, watching the bizarre sight of the snowman filling the hut floor with snow as it doodled around in confusion.

[una_persson]

"It may be the most ridiculous thing I've done when confronted with a minefield," she said wryly.

As they approached the hut, she did draw her gun, alert for any signs of danger or movement. But the only motion was the camera drone above and the snowman within the hut. She peered inside. The snowman was still wandering about, and in its perambulations it bumped up against a black iron cauldron near the empty hearth, smearing it with snow. Just visible on the shelves behind was a dull gleam of glass bottles, obscured by dust and cobwebs.

"So what do you suppose this is?"

[most_feared]

Kay glanced over his shoulder at the meandering thing as it nudged against him, and then wandered out onto the porch again. He picked up a bottle with some unidentifiable liquid in it; just a splash, but some. He started to wrap the ones that still had something in them when he noted what Una was examining.

"Like a hell broth boil and bubble, huh?" he said mildly, and nudged it with his shoe as if to check if it was trapped.

"Solid. Heavy. Definitely the real deal. Too bad we don't have anyone magically sensitive around." He had a scanner but it wouldn't work for more than that.

[una_persson]

She bent down and tried to lift the cauldron. It budged, and she could probably move it a short distance—but not through a swamp. Someone else would have to deal with that.

"Magic's not my expertise either," she said. "I suppose we ought to take those back to the town for analysis." She nodded at the bottles he held. "Perhaps a better-equipped party can bring back this thing."

[most_feared]

"Hauling that thing out is definitely more work than the two of us could pull off."

The snowman out on the porch suddenly directed his attention to one corner, and once he was pinned up against the old fence as hard as he can go he started chucking snowballs. Actually snowballs, that he pulled from that endless perplexing supply he formed from himself? (Herself? How does one gender a barely animate snowperson?)

Kay left the bottles for the moment, wandering out and then noting that it was starting to get later in the day, And the snowman was focusing all of his attention on attacking a creeper. Admittedly all he was doing was impeding its progress and agitating it into hissing with each wet thump, but it was pretty intent on warding off the thing.

Kay pulled his blaster but all he needed was one shot- a blast of fire took care of the rest and left a decent sized hole in the ground.

"Well that's not good news. It's startin' to get dark." And that meant either they had to rush with what they had to a teleport point, or hold up in the shack for the night.