clocktowers | (WIP) (Quest) The Temple Expedition

Now that Ozpin's combat academy and Hunters' guild is set up, it features a quest board: Ozpin is sending adventurers into known ~~dungeons~~ challenging areas of Trench. Their goal is to recover artifacts which can lessen Blood Pollution. (Ozpin takes no cut of your loot, but he encourages donating it to a Sleeper establishment like the Farm, Sanctuary, or Outpost.)

Once again, this miniquest uses dice rolls, like an informal D&D one-shot! This quest will be posted on the network and at the Academy. There is no player cap; many small groups can undertake this task.

THE BASICS

In March, Delilah Dirk (now dropped) discovered a sealed temple in the forest to the far north of Trench. She led a short expedition to unseal and investigate the ruins, but the group was only able to scrape the surface. Adaine has now proposed that Sleepers return for a deeper look, and Ozpin has put forth the quest to any adventurer brave (or reckless) enough to take it.

All curse durations are player's choice. Curses may be lifted when your character completes a satisfying narrative moment, or commits some act of destruction, like further breaking the mirrors. You can have more than one curse at a time.

This quest is available from November 10 - indefinitely, 2022.

HOW TO PLAY

This part is optional. You can always ignore the rolls and just use the log like a normal log. But, imo, the dice can provide great inspiration for your toplevel and tags.

Each character gets three stats:
Might (ability to withstand physical damage)
Speed (ability to dodge hazards)
Stability (ability to resist Corruption)
If your character is average in a stat, +0.
If they're very skilled, +2.
If they're godlike at it, +4.
If they suck at something, -2.
If you're just being mean, -4.
At each step of the miniquest, I will post a prompt with dice challenges. You roll a d20, add your character's stat bonus, then use your total to fail or succeed at the task.

Why and how your character fails or succeeds is for you to write. I am not the dice police and won't mind if you disregard this mechanic, but personally I enjoy the extra sense of risk!

PROMPTS

Below are the six sections which will be posted in the log. Use as many or as few as you want.

(1/6) The Temple Bunker

As you enter, you come to realize: this is not a series of rooms, nor a labyrinth. It is a bunker centered around one long, bleak hallway. The offshoot rooms are aggressively utilitarian, with shelves of preserved food long picked clean, vast water containers bone-dry.

As you walk, there are very few wall sconces: the darkness seems to be welcomed here. What light you bring reflects off the shattered mirrors which flank the hallway like art pieces, no two mirrors broken alike.

The earlier exploration party disabled (or tripped) the traps here, and fought off the undead door guards. Still, there is such a strong scent of blood...

[ Roll Stability 10 or suffer a gradual rise in Corruption. ]

(2/6) The False Mirrors

You come upon a mural.

It depicts a city, which must be— Trench? But this city is heavily stylized, grander-than-life. Blood-red cobblestones line the streets and gothic fortresses line the sidewalks. The sky is a gentle red, and the moon hangs immense and luminous. Two figures are centered against it, two Pthumerians suspended in the air, intertwining: one with pale tendrils and the other with an ornate, filigreed body.

[ If you make eye contact with yourself in the mirrors surrounding the mural, roll Speed 10 or your appearance will begin to tell lies. You will glimpse a wrong reflection at the edges, and others will see you as an idealized version of yourself or as someone whose legacy haunts you. ]

(3/6) The Janus Mirrors

You reach the second mural. The city is of no importance now: all attention is upon the two figures against the moon. The pale figure has turned her back upon the filigreed one, who has crumpled to the ground in despair. You recognize now that she must be massive, twice the height of a human— because imposed over her, small and crouching with the same despair, is a masked nun.

[ As you examine the mural, a mirror on the ceiling bursts and rains shards upon you. Roll Might 10 to avoid sustaining a scratch from the glass, or you will find part of yourself stolen and mingled with another: you suffer a bodyswap with someone else in the temple. You can swap only appearances, or you can also find powers and Bonds blurring between the two people. ]

(4/6) The Beast Mirrors

The third mural depicts only a new figure, alone, who stands among a burning town. This isn't a grand city: the houses are humble, collapsing under flames, flanked by burning pine trees. At its center is a horror, a demon: lashing black tendrils extend from the eyeless face of a little girl.

[ Your reflection in the mirrors warps, and something builds within you. Roll Might 10 or suffer a monster transformation that is, thankfully, only skin-deep. The broken mirrors will still reflect your true body here and there. ]

(5/6) The Echo Mirrors

In this mural, the girl-monster is gone. The pine forest is dark and chill beneath a horrible mountain, its peak erupting with tendrils of white light. The nun is back, and she hangs in the air like a divine protector: arm outstretched, fingers curled like claws, she holds off the light and the humanoid figures silhouetted within it. Some of those look familiar, like a broad-shouldered man, a three-eyed woman, a horned man... and an oddly acrobatic spider.

[ The mural may depict any Deerington veteran, especially those who vehemently defended Julia Sodder! Hurry quickly past the blue flicker in these mirrors, or it will begin to follow you in earnest. Roll Speed 10 or find your mirrors haunted by a spectre from your past— a person or monster. They may even follow you as a flickering blue hologram, looping brief movements, never quite able to speak. ]

(6/6) The Chimaera Mirrors

This is the last and worst mural. The pines have gone sickly, dripping blood like rain. The sky is webbed over in viscera, like a crude bastardization of that first gothic vista— but there is no moon here. Beneath this awful sky sleeps a gathering of people, plain and human. The nun hangs in that ruined sky, her arms thrown out as though to shield them.

[ All who view this mural must roll Stability 12 or suffer monster transformation and rapid Corruption. This transformation will be multifaceted, creating a chimera instead of a single coherent beast— and your reflection will show all those different monster-selves in separate fragments, each terrible possibility imposed upon you at once. ]

The bunker complex seems to continue deep, deep into the rocky landscape north of Trench. Past this mural, you finally uncover rooms with intact loot: protective equipment like gloves, cloaks, and gas masks which seem to shrug off Sleeper magic. These can serve as a mild form of anti-Sleeper armor... at the cost of always smelling of smoke and human blood.

PLOTTING

Make your rolls, tell us how your character will fare, and find thread partners to play out the consequences! All prompts are optional.

Character Name: Might: Speed: Stability: The Bunker Temple: The False Mirrors: The Janus Mirrors: The Beast Mirrors: The Echo Mirrors: The Chimaera Mirrors: