CROSSROADS ※ 1: DISCUSSION POST [mod event] [video] [open]

[konman]

Okay, so those bird dudes weren't lying about the different paths. I found the crossroads they're talking about.

[Kon really shouldn't be tromping around alone like this so much but he's used to being nigh on invincible. It's going to take a while for him to get used to the idea that he's not.]

[The road was all overgrown but there is a road through the woods - and it leads here, to a place where the line of the forest breaks into wide fields of golden grasses. Kon sets up his mirror to expand to its largest side and leaves it to float. There's a crossroads here with a battered wooden sign. The wood is so faded and weathered that words can no longer be read on it.]

[The path splits off into three paths. Down the left-most path, the unlabeled path leads down a dark and dreary road towards some hills. One hill can be seen all the way in the distance, standing out above the others. Rising a thousand feet above the rest of the land around it, it's covered in battered ruins that offer at least some shelter from the elements and cover from potential enemies.]

[Down the center path, the path clearly leads to a sinister-looking wild forest, a dark and dreary wood that seems filled with endless shadows. The path disappears into the woods and the tangled branches make it impossible to see into the forest's depths, especially at this distance.]

[Down the right-most path, there's candy. No joke. Dirt and normal plants start to give way to cobblestones made of hard candy and sugar-spun delicate trees. Gummdrops line the side of the road. The other two paths are grim, with even the hilly path dim from cloudy skies, but this path seems to have clear skies and constant sun.]

[Kon stands in front of the mirror, so that the paths are behind him.]

So our choices are: the Land of the Hill Trolls, Mirkwood, and Candyland.

[He narrows his eyes.]

I don't trust Candyland. [He gestures vaguely at it.] The other two roads have the good graces to be creepy from the get-go, but that looks deceptively nice. It's trying way too hard to be cheerful and sunshine-ey.

[ooc: See the OOC Post here.]

Comments

[wildernpcs]

[His face shifts again to that of a beautiful woman.]

The light path, filled with its color and temptation, would be peaceful at times and you would know no hunger but the subjects of that great kingdom will dog your every step. You will be monsters in that land of sun and sweetness.

The king with a sweet smile and heart that does not beat will use the danger around you to try to strike at the heart of you.

[fiteclub]

[Anita stands tall and attentive, inwardly wary, through each of the changing faces, listening to what each path offers in terms of threats. Finally, once the womanface finishes talking, she speaks again.]

Thank you for this knowledge, spirit. It will come in use for our decision as to what path we should take.

[wildernpcs]

[The spirit suddenly lunges at her, the face of a baboon appearing and screeching at her, trying to get her to look scared or react.]

[fiteclub]

[The sword at her side rises up in response, the blade's tip pointed at the baboon face.]

[wildernpcs]

[A raised sword still isn't a change in expression. She's won. His face shifts back to the Noh mask.]

Glad to be of service. Perhaps we'll face one another again sometime.

[The exchange is complete. She's won. For now.]

[Fading from the material world, he scurries off and disappears as he fades into the spirit realm once more.]

[konman]

Can I open my eyes now?

[Kon's still standing there with his hands on his face.]

[fiteclub]

Thank you, spirit.

[Once, and only once the facestealer has fully faded from view, does she relax, looking somewhat tired from steeling herself for an admittedly short but intense time, picking up the cloak on the ground nearby to drape over her shoulders and cover herself before looking over to Kon, and the mirror.]

Yeah, mon, you're good.

I guess that answers some questions we had, huh?

[konman]

Yeah, it means we know for sure that every option sucks and a little more about how they suck.

[awfulcer]

The king with a sweet smile sounds alright. [Guess who has two thumbs and zoned out halfway through watching the weird shit in the mirror.

Honestly, he's just really pulling for Candyland at this point so he can feel like he had some input of value to the group.]

[konman]

"The king with a sweet smile and heart that does not beat will use the danger around you to try to strike at the heart of you."

No, he does not, he sounds creepy as hell.

This situation isn't lose-lose. It's lose-lose-lose.

[awfulcer]

Sure, when you put it that way.

[fiteclub]

[Anita's taken Dixon and Kon's arguing as an opportunity to at least pull on her top and overskirt in the meantime. Clothes, even if it isn't a lot of them.]

The forest sounds like it's probably the worst idea of the three, though. I don't like the idea of a place filled with spiders and something even the spiders are afraid of.

[mark_in_the_sands]

Yeah, but at least it sounds like something that can physically be fought. 'Fire and holy light and memory' seems pretty vague, and the whole 'you will be the monsters' path is definitely going to mess with us psychologically.

...Also, I vote we not summon that spirit again if we can avoid it. That was at least three flavors of unnecessary creepy, one for each path.

[outofresets]

How many people in our party have fire and holy spells?

I know we got Toothless, and I think I might have absorbed a fire spell from one of those bug guys, but do we know who else can do what?

[mark_in_the_sands]

I know I'm strictly what Diana and Artemis taught me and none of what Zeus gave me right now. Which means I'm not even as much of a hard-hitter as I'm used to.

[outofresets]

You got completely depowered?

[ Grife, that is ruff! What the sprock Green?! ]

[mark_in_the_sands]

Yeah. Could be worse, though. I might not have the strength and durability and speed anymore, but Artemis was pretty big on me training the hard way in case of just this scenario.

[Or in case her mother got possessed by something evil again. Thanks Morgan le Fay, for that evil-Mom-in-a-corset-and-thong incident.]

[fiteclub]

Believe me when I say that summoning creepy centipede spirits that steal faces aren't my usual.

[She's not enthused about the creepy either.]

[astrarche]

Last I checked, none of us are spiders.

[fiteclub]

No, but if the spiders are a big threat on their own, and something scares even them, maybe we should take note.

[astrarche]

A poisonous spider is a threat, but it's still afraid of a foot.

Are you afraid of a foot?

[fiteclub]

I'm not, but this analogy falls apart if we take size and number into mind, especially if the spiders are apparently giant.

[shyhara]

[If he questioned and played skeptic to everything weird and fantastical going on here, he'd never be done. So he's keeping his mouth shut anout the bizarre shit with the "ritual" and "spirit" and focuses on what's concrete.]

It's lose-lose-lose, but at least the information given about one of the routes includes how to handle the threat there.