Are we out of the woods yet?

[reddosmod]

MARCH 2022 EVENT

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! All the following information pertains to how the entire event works.

- First two prompts feature forced relocations via Moss King's abilities.

- There will be "spill-over" from each prompt meaning certain elements from the prompts may be present in the ordinary Trench. The third prompt features how this is impacting the overall setting and could be a good option for those not interested in full relocation.

- Each level will be infinite in space and impossible to ever fully travel. It will however be very easy to run into other Sleepers since they will naturally be clustered in close areas. The Moss King wants Sleepers to be put together! More blood magic collected in one area = more magic for him to use!

- What does that mean? The longer you stay in one of the levels, the weaker your blood magic becomes and the more sapped of energy you become! You can customize this depending on your character's overall strength/power set.

- Characters with teleportation/reality-altering abilities will not be able to teleport in and out of these levels at will, but they can teleport around inside of these levels.

- All Omni/Omens can receive and send messages as per usual in the levels.

- If your Patron is the Moss King, you can either assume he will spare your character the trauma of the levels...Or send them more often than others.

- All levels and challenges can be experienced multiple times throughout March. All levels will be inaccessible on April 1st. Any characters who are not out of the level will automatically die.

- Characters can leave levels after completing at least three challenges. Some characters may be stuck in one location for the entire month. You do not have to necessarily play out all three challenges, but you should have a general idea of what your character did to get out.

- Only items on your character at the time of their forced teleportation will be brought with them into the levels. They will not be able to summon other items even if they have abilities to. If they have a bottomless bag, they will only be allowed what's inside the bag already.

- All challenges are really meant to be played with multiple characters.

- There is no way to research or get ready ahead of time for any of the prompts due to the Moss King regularly changing up rules and games every year. The only "records" of March caution Sleepers about the Moss King, comparing his chaotic nature to a "less violent version of Mariana" and with more chances of positive outcomes.

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Jumanji board game with moving piece towards the center.]
[Image Two: A hippo rushing out of the water and eating up a man while onlookers gasp in shock (comical, not graphic)]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Bloody hand grasping dirty hand as man is buried alive. Slight strobe effect.]
[Image Two: Flickering images between screaming people, burning car, gaping mouths on stone faces, shadow of human on dirt path. Slight strobe effect.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Picture of two good boy Doberman Pinschers.]
[Image Two: Person in suit staring up at plants with blood like bubbles/balls growing off of them.]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

JUNGLE LEVEL

WHEN: March
WHERE: ????
CONTENT WARNINGS: Forced participation via mental coericon, jungle-themed dangers such as animals and natural risks, potential animal violence/themes of hunting, survival challenges, potential body horror/changes, draining blood via mosquitos,

---

You think you hear a drumming. It's brief and easy to dismiss at first...But then it steadily grows until you can feel it vibrating through your body. It increases your heart rate and instead of feeling anxious or put off...You feel an inexplicable excitement and drive to see what's making that curious noise. As you seek out the source, the drumming becomes louder and louder and louder...Until finally, you find it.

A board game called Jumanji. Those who might be familiar with the movie have all information about the movie completely blanked from their mind. This game is completely new to all, looking like a relic of Trench technology. It has somehow appeared in your home or in the shop you frequent/work at. It might even just appear in the middle of the forest or on The Farther Shores. And when you open up, even if you aren't usually one to play games, you have the undeniable urge to play it. What can it hurt? It's just a board game...

But of course, this is Trench. In order to play, you need to offer a drop of your blood. It happens the moment you pick up one of the player pieces. A little prick of the finger and the sacrifice is granted. Roll the dice and make your first move. The pieces automatically stick to the board and move according to the dice. The goal is simple: move the pieces to the center of the board. There are no other rules. The center of the board gives a smoky message every move you make, some sort of unique challenge.

The first challenge is simple though: Enter The Jungle Level. You don't have a moment to wonder what that even means because before you know it, you're being quite literally pulled into the game. You are sucked into the center of the game and transported to a dense, heavy jungle. You enter with the people you were playing with, or if you were playing solo, you're arriving with other players who found their own version of the game. So, you're in a jungle and you have this board game. What now?

Turns out you can't escape the Jungle whatsoever except by completing the game. All consequences of the game vanish upon completion. Losing the board means you have to get the board back. Don't worry, the pieces will stick to the board and you can make dice if you lose the dice. Ignoring the game isn't possible. You have an increasing urge to complete the game no matter the cost...And boy, is there a cost! Some of the challenges are simple and easy enough, but some are downright lethal. You just have to survive till the next roll which might mean getting to the board and getting in a roll. Sounds simple until you're drowning in quicksand and the board is sinking right next to you. At least the board will appear elsewhere if you lose it through a challenge...But do you really want to risk the time it might take for it to reappear?

The challenges vary completely and there is absolutely no way to determine any sort of trick. If you roll a five, your piece will move five spaces, and on the space it lands, the challenge will appear in the form of a riddle in the center of the game. Then the world around you will throw a very real challenge at you. Some people may experience the same challenge twice in a row while others might never see the same challenge twice. You can play with up to six players but you can play side by side with another group playing on their own board.

THE CHALLENGES
GIANT FROGS: These frogs are massive yet masters of blending into their surroundings. Unless you're highly skilled at detection, you won't even realize that these frogs are hunting you until it's too late. Suddenly their tongues lash out and it's so quick, you're in their mouth before you know what has happened. It's as disgusting as it sounds, but it isn't a particularly fast death. You're more likely to get drenched in their saliva and fight with a strong tongue. But the moment you are swallowed, the acid of their stomach will quickly kill you...and painfully. Thankfully, they are just ordinary flesh creatures. You might be able to cut your way out of them or get them to puke you up if you have something gross tasting on you. Someone could even get them to spit you out by kicking dust into their face.

QUICKSAND: No matter where you are standing when you roll this challenge, the ground beneath you turns soft and pliant. This is more like movie quicksand where the sink is almost instantaneous, sucking your feet down so tightly that you might break them if you try to wrench yourself out. Struggling will only make you sink faster and possibly crush bones in the process. Leaning forward or laying flat backward will help get you out, and if someone is nearby and able to toss you a rope, they could slowly drag you to safety. Losing the game in quicksand is a common occurrence and something to try and avoid. Worst case scenario? You drown in one of the worst ways possible.

RUSHING RIVERS: Much like the quicksand, it doesn't matter where you are. You hear and feel the rumbling of water and a tidal wave of water comes crashing through your immediate area. You're immediately swept away by the water, slammed through trees and against rocks. This flash flood can last up to an hour, but if you're quick, smart, and a strong enough person, you might be able to find safe haven on a large rock or tree. Maybe you get lucky enough to find something to float on in the process.

PERKING UP: This doesn't seem to do much of anything at first...The person who rolls this challenge will feel a little like sneezing. Their skin will tickle and they will have a very funny feeling in their gut. Slowly they will begin to develop animal features: ears, tails, fur on their hands, turning into a hybrid between a jungle animal and whatever they already are (a human, elf, etc). These features will give some helpful abilities, such as speed if you become part cheetah or possibly flight if you become part bird or flexibility if you become part monkey. Some transformations may be full. Transformations will only revert once the game has been beaten.

TROPHY HUNTER: Unfortunately for you, you have summoned a very smarmy asshole who is an exceptional hunter of exotic creatures. And that now includes Sleepers. The thrill of the kill exhilarates him and he seems to have weapons capable of killing any Sleeper regardless of their abilities. He might look like an ordinary person, but he seems to have been enchanted by the game and is an unkillable challenge. You can hide from him and trick him, and you can slow him down with injuries, but he will keep getting back up. He is human in the fact that he needs to sleep, rest, eat, and take his time tracking you down...So you better hope you're damn good at keeping yourself concealed. If he catches you, he won't hesitate to kill you.

MOSQUITO MANIA: In such a humid, dense jungle, it's no surprise the air is filled with bugs. However, after getting this challenge, you will notice an increase in mosquitos buzzing around. These mosquitos are drawn to Sleeper Blood and the more they drink...The bigger they get. It's hard to notice at first, easy to think you're killing small ones and bigger ones are coming back for more. Your blood pollution fills the air, and soon, mosquitos the size of baseballs are slamming into you. Maybe even bigger...And the bigger they are, the more deadly they become, the more blood they drain. It doesn't help that their bites leave itchy welts that grow in size to match the mosquitos. It's hard to fight off all the mosquitos and they seem to be drawn to all blood equally.

One way to get past them, however, is by covering yourself with mud. It seems to cut your smell off from the bugs and they will quickly lose interest. Thankfully there is plenty of mud in a jungle! You just have to think to use it...The mud will help soothe bites as well.

CATACOMBS LEVEL

WHEN: All of March
WHERE: Catacombs beneath Trench. People who escape will find themselves crawling out of a grave in the Sanguine Graveyard.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Catacombs, death, skeletons, optional corpse/undead styled monsters, burning people/animals themes (but not actual), extreme themes of claustraphobia, being buried alive/being trapped, forced panic/hysteria/confusion, time manipulation/displacement, feelings of starvation/thirst but not actual starvation/thirst, mold/mushrooms/fungi growing on skin, drowning, extreme disorientation, extreme feelings of inadequecy.

---

One might wonder where all the dead bodies of Trench go. Trenchies will typically say the Sanguine Graveyard or people are sent out to the ocean...But it wasn't always that way. If you dig a bit more on the subject, you may come across a reoccurring piece about Trench having extensive catacombs beneath the city. Yet no matter where you look or how deep you dig, those catacombs never really seem to appear. So what's the deal?

The deal is it takes the power of a Pthumerian to get you to the now deeply buried catacombs. These catacombs are a testament to this world's blood pollution and power. These do not seem to be just the catacombs of Trench...But the entire world. They are endless, complex, and dangerous. Unlike the Jungle Level, there is no board game to bring you to the Catacombs. It is the mere whim of the Moss King wondering if you might be capable of handling what lingers within. This is a matter of surviving the challenges, getting through them, and seeing the other side.

You have no say in the matter either way. One moment you're standing around, minding your own damn business, next moment you're being quite literally ripped into the earth through vines and rubble. You get a mouthful of soil as you're pulled through whatever bizarre blood magic vortex the Moss King has created, hearing screams all around you, feeling smoke fill your lungs, the scent of grass burning your nostrils. The entire world feels like it's caving in on top of you, and then you're plummeting through open air and hitting the ground.

Once you orient yourself, you will find yourself underground in an open stone shrine to the Moss King. A massive stone goat head is staring at you with two massive torches lit in place of its eyes. The ceiling above is covered with heavy vines and plant life, and there is no way to go back from where you just fell from. You are automatically joined by others and they might be people you were with or complete strangers. It could be just the two of you or a large group of people.

You come to the Catacombs with whatever is on your person, but fear not, the Moss King has thought ahead. Smooth stone cubbies line the walls, and in each cubby is a fully stocked backpack filled with things anyone would want for spelunking, cave-diving, and deep underground exploration. There are plenty of flashlights, head flashlights, ropes, harnesses, gloves, hiking shoes, some basic medical supplies, flasks of clean water, and a few mushrooms to fill up one's stomach. There are no maps, no compasses, but those things wouldn't do you much good anyway.

There is only one way to leave the stone room and that is through the giant goat's open mouth. It's a simple stone passage that leads to the Catacombs. You have no choice but to go through them. You cannot manipulate the space around you with abilities. There is a certain haze in the air that can dim abilities and make you rely more heavily on your intuition and intelligence. Thousands upon thousands of skulls and skeletons are compressed together. Some areas are well-lit with torches, but the deeper you go, the darker it becomes until you must rely on flashlights.

The Catacombs start off relatively normal, but in order to escape, you must delve in deep. The pathway changes for every party, and you may come across other characters completely lost in the Catacombs. Eventually, the skeletal remains become thoroughly buried beyond stone walls. There are tight, narrow passageways that are difficult to crawl through. Some places you need to actually crawl to get through, stone walls tight all around you. Other places you need to drop down into, relying on ropes and harnesses to get safely down. You may need to depend on rock climbing or crawling over bones or wading through cold, murky water.

But it isn't just the enclosed, dark spaces that are a challenge. There are vacant rooms with unique challenges and things lurking in the dark. You can hear unsettling sounds, such as the distant trill of a random phone that keeps on ringing, the sound of feet skittering away as you approach, the musky odor of fresh corpses, the uncomfortable feeling that you aren't alone no matter how quiet and still the air around you may seem. Can you survive the Catacombs? Will you see the world above once more?

Throughout the Catacomb one can find directions pointing you in a certain direction...Only these directions are quite unusual. It doesn't seem like one can rely on the usual Sleeper translation - you either have to know the languages or figure them out...But they aren't ordinary. You might find upside-down kanji directing you or come across braille engraved into the stone or backward French or Latin. Some Dothraki directions might point you in one direction while Na'vi points you in another. Riddles give you warning about possible challenges or solutions to the Catacombs throughout. Can you solve this giant, undead puzzle before you become part of it?

You may encounter a variety of the following challenges. Some only once, some multiple times. One can be trapped in the Catacombs for what feels like days/weeks, but once you get to the surface, it will have only been an hour or so in real-time. While it may feel like you are dying of thirst or starvation, it is not actually possible while in the Catacombs. The water in the packs will sustain you.

THE CHALLENGES
DARK WATER: There aren't too many sources of water in the Catacombs, but when you come across it, approach it with caution. There is a difference between regular water and the dark water of the Catacombs, and telling the difference isn't easy unless you're a darkblood and can detect the slight shimmer to dark water. Dark water will cause a severe disorientation of senses: it can deafen all sound, cause immediate vertigo, make you smell things that aren't there, make your mouth fill with an awful taste. Careful not to consume the dark water. If you wade through the water, the effects of it will last while you're in the water and about ten minutes after you have left it. Some have been known to accidentally drown in the dark water due to its disorientation even if dark water is rarely that deep.

CALLING FIRE: You hear the roar of fire and smell smoke long before you see it. You step into an open cavern and in the middle of it...is a burning house. An ordinary house. Up in flames. You see dark figures standing at all the windows, staring out at you with sightless gazes. They do not scream. They do not move. They merely watch you. Then the front door bursts open with the scream of a woman, and the screaming gets louder and louder. Those who feel the urge to help others will become overwhelmed by the desire to rush into the fire and "save" whatever lurks within, but those who are a bit more sensible about self-preservation will be able to resist this siren screech. They will likely realize there is nothing to be saved in this house.

Those who persist into the house will find, unsurprisingly, a burning house. Only this fire won't immediately kill you: instead, you'll go mad searching throughout the burning house looking for the source of the screams. You will smell the flesh burning, hear the cries of people or animals trapped, rushing from room to room trying to find them. It isn't the fire that kills you. It will be the smokey, strange figures watching you in every room. They slowly drain the life out of you, covering your skin in soot and destroying your lungs, your eyes, your nostrils, until nothing is left of you but an ashen heap. While this is a lethal trap, it is one that people can be saved from...Eventually.

UNTOUCHABLE TEMPTATIONS: You stumble into a room where there are heaps of treasures beyond rusted, cellar doors. All that glitters and more: gold, silver, rare gems, bloodstones, vials of rare potions and elixirs, stunning weapons, delicious smelling food, beautiful clothing, and possibly even relics from your own homeworld. Perhaps the rarest sword of your world is sitting right there. For many, this will be an obvious trap. One must simply bypass the temptations and enter through the next door and continue with your journey...But...Unfortunately, for many, this will prove a great feat. Paleblood glitters among the floor of this room and heavily sways people into being enormously tempted by the treasures, even if they normally might have better sense.

For those who yearn for treasures of any sort, they will find the pull nearly irresistible. Only someone who genuinely wants for materialistic will find it easy to pass by the area. They will likely be the ones to save others. Those who break open the cellar doors and attempt to get the goods, your touch will begin to turn all around you to gold...Including the spots on people you touch. This might permanently render someone's skin gold, and can quickly kill people. Eventually, the cursed person will turn into a golden statue of themselves. They will reincarnate as usual, but a golden statue of them will be forever left in the Catacombs, possibly discovered by other Sleepers passing through. This Midas touch can last well after you have left the Catacombs and you may need to get some extensive darkblood therapy worked on your body to reverse the curse.

CHRONOLOGY OF SEASONS: You enter a stone room with twelve sliding tiles painted to look like the various stages of the seasons in Trench. Season of Bone, Season of Tears, Seasons of Blood. They are mixed around the room and you need to put them in the right order. Each tile depicts the Patron Pthumerian associated with their specific month with their moon in the background. To those who have been diligently studying the Patron Pthumerians, this should be a relatively easy task even if figuring out how to move the tiles might be difficult. You can generally tell where the tiles should go seeing as the wall you entered is decorated with floral carvings, the wall to the right is decorated with leaves, then the wall ahead is decorated with snowflakes. The tiles form one large cohesive portrait that wraps around the room. The moment you enter the room, the wall closes permanently behind you. Each time you move a tile, human blood begins to trickle into the room, and if you mess up enough...Well. You get the picture. Or, in this case, you didn't get the picture. Oops.

TIL DEATH DO WE PART: Throughout your journeys in the Catacombs, you will keep seeing glimpses of familiar faces out of the corner of your eye. Parents, friends, loved ones, people you haven't seen in some time...But it's always someone you know isn't actually in Deer Country. Someone who you know to be dead or to be back home, in another world, another time. Eventually, these loved ones will start to walk after you, looking like undead versions of themselves, limping along, completely unresponsive to things you might scream or say to them. They just gaze at you with unseeing eyes. They don't seem to want to hurt you though, no matter how threatening or unnatural they may look. What they want is some closure: some parting words you never got to say, one last embrace, a final "I love you." Once you have, they will turn to ash and you will be filled with a temporary sense of peace.

THE EXIT: At last, you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Literally! You see a familiar street lamp or maybe even the surprising sight of your own backyard. It's right there! You can even smell the fresh air. Oh, thank goodness! You have no idea how you wound up finding the exit all of a sudden, but let's get the hell out of this place! You take one step through the exit and suddenly you're pitching forward, falling, tumbling down into a massive pit of...very squishy mushroom. The fungi are growing all over the ground and over the cave walls. They gave you a vivid hallucination to lure you in and damn if it didn't work! Time to crawl out...

Except gosh, you're really drowsy and dizzy...Are those skeletons you see? Are these mushrooms already growing on your skin? Yup! These mushrooms trap living organisms with hallucinations and quickly consume the body by spreading rapid-growth spores all over your body. If you're strong enough you might be able to crawl out in time, or if you were with someone smart enough not to rush through the exit, they might be able to throw you a rope. You can wash the spores off with mushrooms and if the mushrooms had already started to grow, you will just have to rip them off your skin - and yes, that's as unpleasant as it sounds. Otherwise, people can die quickly in this trap. It only takes a matter of minutes for the mushrooms to start growing.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW: The worst of the Catacombs rests ahead. You are given the warning: THE KINDNESS OF THE WORLD IS BEHIND YOU: HELL IS AHEAD. AS ABOVE, SO IS BELOW. THAT WHICH HAS BEEN, WILL RETURN AGAIN. Before you is a horrifying black hole and you don't necessarily know why it is horrifying, but even the bravest soul will find themselves trembling in its presence. It feels like a creature watching you, waiting for you, patiently evaluating every weakness you have ever had. You will feel a crippling sense of doubt, of anxiety, and you will be crushed into a sense of incompetency until you are bursting at the seams. You will feel the urge to admit to your companion, to someone, what your faults are. If you are alone, you will be driven to contact someone with your Omen/Omni. Some may even feel the urge to confess to the entire network the things they feel most incompetent about, begging for forgiveness that they are not a better, stronger, smarter, faster version of themselves. Only when they have admitted to their faults will they be able to step forward into Hell...

And that is when they will feel as though the world has turned upside down. They will be walking down and then suddenly, they are coming out of a hole and going up into Trench. Out of a random grave in the Sanguine Graveyard, no evidence of the Catacombs around them. Congratulations - you made it out.

BLOOD DETOX

WHEN: March
WHERE: Throughout Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Blood, blood blisters bursting, blood pollution.

---

While everyone is going off the rails in other levels, things in Trench are flourishing. Plantlife is rampant everywhere and things seem to be bursting with life. This includes the apparent expolusion of blood pollution from the earth! Part of Moss King's process apparently includes a phenomena known as Blood Blisters. You can see these Blood Blisters throughout Trench. Some look like the size of soccer balls while others are the size of cars. They are red fleshy lumps growing out of trees or out of the ground. Some grow out of the sides of buildings or maybe, unfortunately, in your living room. They are hot to the touch and reek like blood.

That's because they are filled with blood. Blood from Sleepers, animals, humans, Pthumerians - everything. It's raw blood pollution the Moss King has extracted from the earth like a disgusting magic pimple. None of the blood inside is salvageable for magic and you do not want to be near these things when they pop. Rotten blood splatters the immediate area and it smells pungent. Worse yet? If you're caught in it, it's almost inevitable you rapidly turn into a beast. If you're lucky to only see it happens, don't count yourself lucky for long. The downside to this process is it calls in beasts from your immediate area within seconds.

Thankfully, that's what blood hounds are for. These solid black canines are stacked with a massive pair of antlers and bound around Trench to take care of the Blood Blisters. These dogs stand beside the Blisters and seem to have a magical ability that draws the pollution from the Blisters and gathers them in the center of their antlers. This blood seems to fuel the beasts and they might be one of the best examples of how some beasts in Trench maybe don't deserve to be killed. It's a far better alternative to the Blood Blisters bursting.

The bloodhounds can scent out Blood Blisters and seem willing to help Sleepers find them. Additionally, if someone is exceptionally gifted with animals or very patient, they may be able to adopt a blood hound and train it to summon the blood pollution from Sleepers on command. This process takes an enormous amount of energy and will take months to train a bloodhound. The bloodhound in the meantime does feed exclusively off of blood pollution, so be prepared to keep it fed or else it might just turn on you and eat your blood instead!

It isn't all bad in Trench though. For people who are regularly completing the challenges and levels in the other two prompts, you will find random prizes waiting for you back at your home! You can choose from the following list what kind of prizes your character might get from winning challenges. You can win multiple items. We ask our players to be reasonable and honest about what challenges and how many their characters could realistically win to obtain the following prizes. Some prizes may be more difficult to acquire than others.

THE PRIZES
MOON DROP: A highly valuable stone that can completely cure beasthood, blood pollution, injuries, and even bring one back from death. Gained only if at least three challenges are completed with the survival of two or more characters in a group and the escape from the Catacombs Completion considering "surviving" them. To those who have it used on them, they may experience hallucinations and a commune with Moon presence, feeling as though she is in your head.

A REALLY LAME T-SHIRT: A plain white t-shirt that perfectly fits your character with the bold print of: I'M BARELY SURVIVING TRENCH AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS T-SHIRT.

PTHUMERIAN BLOOD DROP: A blood drop allegedly gathered from a Pthumerian. The Pthumerian Blood Drop can cause instantaneous corruption and/or beasthood in those it touches. It can be used to greatly enhance weapons to cause insanity in those they strike. This blood drop is contained in a small vial and once it is used, it cannot be used again. Its enchanted effect on a weapon lasts as long as the weapon is intact. Once the weapon breaks, so does the effect.

A SPACE HAMSTER: This adorable Space Hamster! How adorable! It's a hamster that never needs to be fed! Maybe it contains the cosmos within its mighty, furry body...Or maybe it's just a suuuuuper cute hamster. Do you dare defy its sweet little gaze?

SUN CHALICE: A chalice you can place in the sunlight. This gathers sun magic. Once a liquid is poured into the chalice, a Sleeper can drink from it and alleviate monthly blood symptoms or blood type-specific abilities. It does not fully remove abilities or suffering, but consistently drinking from the chalice can drastically help. The chalice will need to be placed in direct sunlight for at least one hour to work. Its effects last a week before it needs to be placed back in the sunlight to charge once more.

A POKEMON: A non-legendary pokemon of your choosing complete with a pokeball. Can evolve as per usual in canon (which also means if it requires a Pokemon canon specific item to evolve such as a fire stone, it will still need that to evolve in Trench). Pokemon can maintain canonized moves as long as they do not break the game setting and are used reasonably.

CHAINS OF VASTA LI MAEVE: An apparent urban legend of Trench- a young woman who was once shackled in chains and left on the shore as a sacrifice to Mariana by her deranged mother. Vasta spent several days screaming to be freed. The legend says Mariana took pity on her by taking her life but allowing her shackles to remain as a curse in Trench. These chains have been granted to you, glowing a faint, ominous red. When you shackle a living creature with these chains, that being will not be able to move until you or another removes the chains from their bodies. While they are chained, the sounds of a screamed woman will terrorize the being trapped, and the scent of the ocean will fill their immediate surroundings.

WELL-DONE HAMMER: A massive hammer that is made out of...a...giant chicken leg that has been cooked to perfection! You can eat it and it will taste great, sure, but it is actually a very powerful hammer that can land a seriously damaging blow. The only downside is that it smells heavenly and you will probably summon a lot more beasts using it than not...But hey, you can get in some KO shots before it's eaten, I Guess.

A WEAPON FROM HOME: You can get a powered weapon from your character's canon world - whether it is one of their own weapons or another weapon from that canon. Weapons can come in with their regular powers as long as game-breaking abilities are nerfed/able to be stopped by Pthumerian intervention.

AN ITEM FROM HOME: A general item from home whether a trinket or some clothes or a picture. Something from your character's canonical world even if it wasn't from their storyline. For example, maybe Harry got his mother's necklace or Draco's necktie. You can have characters obtain headcanon-based items as well. Like weapons, any powered items just need to be nerfed to not break the setting.

CODING

Comments

clarisse la rue | ota

[laruetheday]

jumanji

i. jungle mingle

[ So they're inside a board game.

Clarisse is okay with this, in theory—she's been itching to fight something for a while, and figures this is as good an opportunity as any. She's not worried about making her way through the dense jungle, even if the humidity kind of sucks. She's more concerned about whatever weird rules this game might have. It's not like it came with a leaflet explaining them, or that she would've bothered to read it if it had.

She turns her wrist, letting the dice roll around in her closed hand like little polished rocks. ]

All I'm saying is there better not be anything crazy complicated we need to remember to win.

ii. giant frogs

[ She's using her spear as a sort of all-purpose tool, swatting away bugs and pushing ferns to the side as she makes her way through the brush. It's while she's holding the spear out ahead of her that something long and pink and sticky smacks against the spear and yanks it abruptly off to one side.

Clarisse is so startled that she just keeps holding onto it and ends up taking several fast, stumbling steps off the path (the "path") and right into the waiting embrace of a fucking huge frog. Its mouth, specifically. The shaft of her spear is too wide to fully fit in the thing's head, but it's close enough to worry her that she might end up breaking her third spear in the absolute dumbest way possible. Her hand is wet with the thing's spit, or... whatever it is frogs have in their mouth, and she has one combat booted foot planted against the fleshy stomach of the frog. ]

What—the—fuck!

iii. rushing rivers ((cw: potential injury later in thread))

[ The water hits almost without warning. The rumbling that precedes it is abrupt enough to make her wonder about animal stampedes and earthquakes, but not flash floods. Listen, she's from a place where it almost never rains. So sue her.

Then the wave hits, and it's like being pushed into the spin cycle of a washing machine. Clarisse is a strong swimmer, but the current is stronger, and she has no idea which way is up. She feels herself scraping against things—rocks, trees?—and thrashes her arms and legs until she somehow manages to right herself and breaks the surface with a gasp.

The water is dark with debris, entire boulders and trees being pushed along with her. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She grabs for a vine and snags it in one hand, uses it to haul herself upward so she's only half submerged. The current pulls at her relentlessly, and she looks this way and that, hoping to see that somebody else made it out of the flood. ]

Hey! You okay?

catacombs

i. entrance ((cw: anxiety/panic/flashbacks that deal with claustrophobia and/or violence))

[ The earth gives way beneath her and sends her plummeting into darkness.

For a minute after she lands, Clarisse can only lie there, stunned and trying to get her bearings. Once she does, she almost wishes she hadn't, that she'd been knocked out or something instead, because—

It's the smell more than anything. That musty odor of wet soil and rock that makes her feel like she's breathing around a mouthful of dirt and decay. She looks up and sees the mass of coiling vines above. Further down, the open and burning eyes of a mounted goat head on the wall. An open passageway leads off to one side, lit by a single flickering torch. From this vantage point, she can see what looks like round, white stones lining the tunnel wall. Stones or... skulls.

She's not alone. Maybe it should make her feel better, comfort her somehow, but it doesn't. All she can feel as she tries to orient herself is a deep sense of dread. ]

Oh, [ is all she says, in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. ]

ii. dark water

[ The path ahead is broken by a pool of black, stagnant water. Clarisse halts several feet in front of the pool, wrinkling her nose in distaste. It's not like she'll refuse to wade through it if there's no choice, but she's not looking forward to getting that shit all over her clothes, either. ]

Okay, uh... maybe we can jump across. [ She sounds doubtful. ]

iii. calling fire

[ For what feels like a long time, but can't be more than a minute, all Clarisse can do is stand staring openmouthed at the fire. It's just weird, okay, coming across a house like this, much less one that's burning. They're underground, after all. Why would there be a house undergr—

That's when the woman comes bursting from the front door, screaming. The sound drives into Clarisse's ears like a drill. Suddenly all she wants to do is make that sound stop. There are people inside the house. They'll die if she doesn't go in there and save them. The woman needs her to go in there and save them so they don't die.

Suddenly the fact that the house is underground doesn't seem weird. In fact, she's not thinking about that at all. She takes a step toward the burning house. ]

We have to go in there.

((ooc: i'm down to do most of the other prompts for both the jumanji and catacombs levels, so if you'd rather do something that isn't here, let me know @ errorchord or lor#5438 and i can write you up a starter! alternatively, feel free to just wildcard me here! ))

Rushing Rivers

[grandtheftperson]

[Clarisse does indeed have company, and surely it was a person based on the amount of angry cursing that could be heard very briefly now and then amongst the roar of water and crash of debris, exceptionally colorful in its descriptions of all things Trench related, including the water and all things in it.

As she pulls herself halfway up a vine and partly out of the raging flood, instead of a human struggling above the water, it's a tiger.A tiger that may be part of these challenges given the amount of wild animals that keep getting involved! And if it's completely soaked, streaked in mud and bleeding from a gouge across one shoulder and along its back, well, sometimes monsters get stuck in their own traps. ...But the blood is Coldblood-hued, not vibrant red, and the tiger bares its teeth and mutters another strangled, hacking curse before trying to haul itself a little further up the tree much, MUCH too small to bear it for long.]

No. I'm not okay, I'm wet. I had no idea what this felt like to a cat and now I know!

[The voice doesn't match with a giant predator. A tree nearby crashes into the torrent and the tiger nearly detaches from its - his? perch, ears pinned back and eyes wide.]

I ... don't know how to swim like this.

[laruetheday]

[ Clarisse isn't as weirded out by talking animals as a lot of people might be, given her father's side of the family and their, uh, tendencies. Still, she would be raising an eyebrow if she weren't so focused on holding herself up and semi-out of the water. ]

Pretty sure a freaking giant couldn't swim in this current, [ she calls back over the roaring water. ] So it probably doesn't matter.

[ Even she knows that that's... super unhelpful, though, so she adds, ] Can't you turn back? [ She's got the impression that being a tiger isn't typical for whoever this guy is. ]

[grandtheftperson]

[There's already a premise to this world that dying is temporary and inconsequential, that in short order anyone who did die would be right as rain ... but he's extremely reluctant to simply let go and allow himself to drown or be battered on whatever lay below the torrent of water.

He eyes a potentially better perch a bit further away but it would be a risk.]

Of c--

[The brief moment of indignation cuts off - yes he could.. should be able to control his form, he's not usually a tiger, and nothing could force him into a shape he didn't want! Except. It did, hadn't it?]

... No. I think it's this environment. It even changed my information!

[He pulls himself up a tiny bit more, ears flat again, preparing as best he can to try for higher ground.]

[laruetheday]

[ For a minute Clarisse is confused by his answer, but then she gets it. He must have rolled the dice and the game decided to turn him into an animal. Shit, that's rough. She hopes for his sake it isn't permanent. ]

If it makes you feel any better, you can probably jump way better than you could as a human. [ Useful for this particular situation. At least he's not just hanging from a vine. ]

ii. dark water (but all the catacombs probs)

[kroenleinia]

..."we". [Bella repeats the word with as much gentleness as she possibly can, but it comes across incredibly flat. She's already tripped over the uneven ground at least sixteen times, and at one point walked face-first into a wall. After they get out of here, she's going to get her inner ear checked.]

hold on tight, spider monkey 🙃

[laruetheday]

[ Oh. Right.

Clarisse winces visibly as she tries to picture Bella jumping to the other side of the pool. She's not even sure she'd be able to do it. Maybe if she used a stick or something as a sort of pole vault. Too bad they're fresh out of sticks down here. Plenty of bones, though.

After a few moments of thought, she kneels down on the dusty ground. ]

I'll carry you.

cinematic parallels

[kroenleinia]

[Bella makes a wheezing, surprised sort of laugh.] You -- carry me? Are you sure?

[Then, quickly:] Not that, like. I don't think you could, I just...you shouldn't...need to.

[laruetheday]

I want to, though.

[ Clarisse sighs and licks her lips. She feels like in any other circumstance, this conversation would be, if not way more flirtatious, at least kind of funny. But the circumstance is awful, and she just feels anxious and tired and wants to be away from here. If that means wading across the pool with Bella on her back, so be it. ]

I mean, I can obviously do it, and there's no reason both of us should have to walk through this shit, right?

Jumanji- I

[cuddlery]

[Another day, another wild adventure! At least when it comes to adventuring buddies, Clarrisse is one who Scorpia's glad to have with her. She does seem very strong and capable! And who knows, maybe this won't be so bad for once?

In any case, Scorpia watches with anticipation as Clarisse prepares her role.]

I sure hope so! It seems pretty to the point so far? Just... keep on rolling until we reach the end! [She thought it would be fun to play more board games with friends. But not like this!] We got this.

[laruetheday]

[ Likewise, if Clarisse is gonna be stuck exploring the jungle with another person, she'd much rather have Scorpia by her side than... most other people. Scorpia won't slow her down and Scorpia can fight, which are two of Clarisse's top qualifiers for questing companions. ]

Yeah, [ she muses, crouching down and trying to pry her piece off the board. It's totally stuck on there. Finally she shrugs. ] Well, as long as there aren't weird riddles or number sequences we'll probably be fine.

[ With that, she uncurls her fist and allows the dice to tumble out onto the board. Six. She leans over the board, watching intently as the figure she'd picked begins to slide six spaces ahead. ]

[cuddlery]

Right, those- they do sound like potentially confusing things. Maybe. Riddles can be fun?

[She offers that with a shrug of her shoulders. She watches as she makes her roll, and the figure begins to slide ahead! She watches with suspense, because she doesn't know what to expect.]

Come on, something nice!

[laruetheday]

Not in my experience.

[ Maybe if the riddle isn't being whispered to you by a decrepit old mummy who only speaks in rhyme...

Anyway, Clarisse leans forward, watching the center of the board. Smoke swirls in the center and forms a single word: QUICKSAND. Just as suddenly, she goes off balance and almost falls as her knees sink into what was totally solid ground just a second ago.]

Hey!

jumanji iii

[mactirebeag]

[Mebh has lived in the wilderness long enough to know that some flooding can happen in the spring, but she's never actually been caught up in a flood before. It's already too late for her to outrun the rushing water before she finds herself swept up by it at an alarming rate.

Fortunately, she's able to break the surface long enough to grab hold of a large rock that's jutting out of the river, though it's taking all the strength she has to cling to it and not get swept along by the current again.]

I'm fine....! [There's still a frustrated growl in her voice making it clear that she's not fine, though.]

[laruetheday]

[ Oh. It's just a kid.

Clarisse adjusts her grip on the vine and stares out across the water, trying to gauge whether or not she'll be able to make it to the rock Mebh is clutching. It's downstream a bit, off at an angle. If she swims as hard as she can... ]

I'm gonna swim to you, [ she yells over the rushing water. ] Just hold on, okay?

[ She doesn't wait for an answer, just drops from the vine and back into the rushing current. She starts swimming in the direction of the rock before her head even clears the surface again. ]

[mactirebeag]

I told you, I'm--

[Mebh almost loses her grip on the rock before she can finish that sentence, though, which causes her to slip further down towards the water. At this point, she realizes it's better to stay put and wait for Clarisse to come to her rather than try to get out of this situation herself.]

catacombs i

[fogsong]

[ Sharon just knows she's going to have a plethora of new bruises in the morning. She rolls the shoulder she'd landed on as she takes a look around. There was only one way to exit the room and taking a good look at where they'd fallen through, even if they could climb the walls to the ceiling, there was only a tangle of dark vines above them, no obvious holes.

The only thing that really stands out to Sharon, aside from the goat's head entrance, were the carved cubbies along the walls, each one stuffed with a backpack. She's quick to grab one, sifting quickly through the contents. A flashlight, climbing gear, food, and water... She should be grateful these were here but instead, all she felt was a deep sense of foreboding. ]

Hey, I think these were left for us. Looks like a bunch of supplies. [ Sharon can tell the other woman is as uncomfortable with this as she is. Maybe even more. She hefts the pack's strap over her shoulder and grabs a second one from the wall, bringing it over to Clarisse. ]

You all right? You didn't get hurt from the fall, did you? [ Whatever they're about to go through, it looks as if they're going to go through it together. ]

[laruetheday]

[ With a mute shake of her head, Clarisse reaches out to take the offered bag of supplies. She figures it's the best answer she can provide, considering the two questions she's been asked. She's not okay, no, but she hasn't been hurt, either. Clarisse glances into the backpack and notes the gear inside. All of it is meant for them to explore further into the tunnels, obviously. There's even food and water, implying that they could be down here for... a while. She feels her stomach turn with sick dread. ]

Fuck, [ she breathes out in a whisper, before turning to look at the other girl.

She's not someone Clarisse has seen around before. It doesn't necessarily mean she's new, though. It's not like Clarisse is great with the whole socializing thing, especially not lately. ] Who are you?

[fogsong]

[ Sharon's got a feeling that the other girl was definitely shaking her head in response to her first question. It's not something she even wonders about. It makes sense for someone to not be all right but she knows to keep an eye out for her now.

Fuck. Sharon nods. That's a sentiment she can get behind. ]

I'm Sharon. [ In a normal situation, she would've offered a tight half-grin. In this one, it's more a grimace. ] And you are?

i. jungle mingle

[possessum]

( This would all be something Peter would see as really stupid, if he weren't so horrified about it. They're stuck in a board game? What the actual fuck? Stupid.

But the fact they're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dense forest and weird noises and seemingly no way out— they're in the fucking jungle?? Naturally, he's already starting to freak. )

Who cares about winning? How do we get out of here??

( He's pacing around, a flurry of nerves and already very much giving off the energy of an accident waiting to happen. It's when he hears Clarisse jiggling the dice that his head snaps back to face her, wide-eyed. )

I don't think we should fuck with that thing anymore. Let's just throw it in the woods.

( Yeah, there's some weird compulsion in him to keep playing the game. But Peter doesn't like that thought at all, so he's trying his hardest to ignore it. )

[laruetheday]

[ Clarisse is feeling pretty comfortable. Like, she's never randomly trekked into the jungle before, but she's sailed across the Sea of Monsters, explored part of the Labyrinth, and also walked around New York City enough to feel like she can handle whatever weirdness this place throws at her.

At them.

Peter's here too. He's already looking halfway to a panic attack, no surprise there. Clarisse is surprised he hasn't lunged for her and tried to steal the dice out of her hand yet. ]

We get out of here by winning, Peter. [ She gives the dice another shake and adds, ] And if I threw them into the woods, that would technically be rolling.

[possessum]

( Peter's staring down at the game for a long moment, before slowly moving a bit closer to where she has it spread out, equal parts suspicious and frightened. He's looking at it like it's going to snap up and eat him any second, arms held close to his body, protectively. )

What if it's all just some trick? We could be playing right into it.

( Paranoia. Conspiracy theories. He is a Scorpio. )

Maybe we should like, not actually play it and just try to find a way out first. I mean this fucking jungle has to end somewhere.

rivers.

[micycle]

[Someone else made it out, or at least half out. About a hundred yards upstream, a gangly knot of a boy is clutching onto the twisted branch of a tree, his arms stark white against the brown water. Like Clarisse, he's only halfway submerged, drenched but free from the waist up.

Unlike Clarisse, though, he's utterly frozen in panic, unable to even move his mouth to reply to the question. The whole jungle has vanished around him; the water has turned sharp with North Atlantic ice, and there's a burning in his chest.

PTSD is a bitch.]

[laruetheday]

Hey! [ Clarisse shouts again, but the boy doesn't respond. She has no idea if he can't, or if he just doesn't hear her over the sound of the water.

Okay. Okay, this is... fine. She'll just go to him. Upstream. In the flash flood.

Despite appearances, Clarisse isn't stupid enough to drop back into the water and try to swim against the current. Instead, she detaches one hand from the vine she's clutching, shakes out the cramped muscles in her fingers, and grabs for the next vine over, then grabs onto it with her other hand and swings herself over once she's relatively sure it'll hold her.

Tarzan made this shit look easy, but it's really not. It's actually like trying to cross the longest, most fucked up set of monkey bars ever. This might take a while. ]

[micycle]

[Mike watches dumbly for a few moments, blinking river spray out of his eyes as what looks like an Amazon starts making her way towards him. Shit, what is she doing? Did he ask her to do that? Why do his hands hurt so bad? He starts to stretch them out, but his grip is locked even as his confused thoughts jump.

Oh, wait. Shit.]

D-don't! You- [This water tastes gross, hold on.] I'm fine, g-get yourself out!

[Heroic talk from someone with noodle arms who still looks like he's about to puke from sheer terror.]