Mokley

Moonfiend

_{art by Jen Zee}

Only the guilty, the lonely and the indebted volunteer to build that impossible wall. Periphery City is as prosperous as they come -- all clean streets and bright color and the finest technology this side of the Seventh River -- but its weakness is its terrible fear of the Grit. The first wind the queen got that the Grit have figured out how to fly, she ordered that wall to be built to the sky. Nothing unsavory would ever cross the wall, she said. Periphery was a haven of safety and peace, she said.

That was before the sky was ripped in two.

CONCEPT

---

Your character stands atop the wall that separates Periphery City from the wilds outside -- building it higher, or guarding it, or visiting for the view -- you're all that'll be left of that proud, hopeful people. Something terrible is about to happen to that city far, far below, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

But maybe there's something you can do to fix it, if you wanted to. It'll take a bit of soul-searching and a lot of keeping an open mind, but maybe -- with your help -- Periphery will shine again.

GAMEPLAY

---

This is essentially a fantasy roleplay. Technology in Periphery can reach sci-fi levels of floating buses and laser pistols, while the world outside the wall relies on magic and wild nature for survival. This is your classic tech-vs-nature conflict -- at least on the surface.

It's up to your character to decide whether to restore the city of Periphery to the haven it once was; to side with the Grit and return the city to the wilds; to take advantage of disaster for your character's own gain; or to broker peace between the city folk and the Grit and bring down the wall for good. There will always be a driving force to continue to act, but how you act shapes where the story will end up.

CHARACTER

---

Your character will begin atop the wall-to-the-sky -- the impossibly high wall that is forever being built higher and higher around the city of Periphery. Builders on the wall tend to be debtors or ex-prisoners -- people who have no other choice but to spend years of their lives building a seemingly pointless wall for minimal pay. They could also be guards, or foremen, or simply curious citizens that wanted a tour of the top of the wall -- why your character is there is up to you.

NAME: what your character is called

ABSTRACT: sum up who your character is

DETAIL: tell us everything, or keep a few secrets

MAGICAL INVENTORY: tell us how many sigils your character can access or remember without the help of electronics -- none to three is a good number -- and a description of any enchanted item, if they've got one. There's more to be found as the story goes, so don't sweat it.

DEFINITIONS

---

The Grit

Grit are people who live in the wilds outside the wall. They're known to be misshapen and even inhuman, depending on who you talk to. They're said to be tricksters and monsters, wielding infernal powers drawn from their worship of horrible gods. The only good Grit is a dead Grit, as the saying goes.

Sigil Magic

Sigils are geometric drawings used to cast quick and temporary spells. The basic ones are pretty common -- you can find books and pamphlets full of 'em at any corner magic shop -- but the dangerous ones are famously kept under lock and key in the queen's palace.

Anybody with a decent imagination and some capacity for emotion can cast a minor sigil spell. Just draw the sigil (if you're not using one ready to go, like a book page or an engraving), touch the drawing, and think of something that makes your heart clench -- something happy, or sad, or determined, or powerfully hopeful. That clench in your heart is the feeling of a dream being born. Sigil magic runs on dream power: that's why robots can't use magic at all, and that's why children are devastatingly good at it.

The majority of city folk consider sigil magic to be archaic and too much effort for results that can be achieved far more consistently with technology. Gone are the days when sigils were used to freeze water and make fire, after all.

Rune Magic

Runes are used to imbue or enchant objects with permanent and powerful properties. Enchanted stuff is extremely rare for one important reason: in order to enchant an object, the master mage has to splinter off a piece of his own soul and -- using the runes -- imbue an object with it. One mage can only perform very few enchantments in his lifetime before his soul will be too unstable to continue a normal life. Things that have been enchanted by rune magic are very special, and are treated with the respect deserving of a broken soul.

Lantern

Anise nodded as Morly explained how the river was safe, but the sound of witch was a bit unnerving. "That's good the river's safe. How long should it take for us to get there? How quick will the witch take to come?"

Morly sniffed and gave the river bottom a solid poke with his stick. "I dunno. The river's kinda mad. Somebody set the woods on fire and then used the river ta put it out, and a buncha dead critters drownded. I fixed it, but she's still mad. It's okay."

Morly sat down and splashed a hand in the rushing water, as if petting it. "The witch lady shows up right behind you when yer not lookin," was all he would say about that.

So they were called gryphons? Like the fairy tale monsters? "Do you know any way to calm them and maybe keep them from hurting my and my friends?" She felt she could actually calm them down with the help of the Spirit Egg, but she wanted to have another option available just in case that wouldn't work. "I don't want to have to fight them if I can help it."

Morly stared up at her through the eyes of his frog mask, and it was unclear what expression he was giving her. After a moment he grabbed a bag beside him and rummaged in it, and drew out a disgusting-looking fruit -- warty and sickly brown and squishy in all the wrong places. He crossed his legs and bit into the fruit with a squelch.

"Nope," he said with his mouth full.

She concentrated on the egg within the lantern itself and tried to make contact with it. Hello, I'm Anise Sinclair, Princess of Riverforde. I want to help bring the forest back into its proper balance, and there are going to be gryphons in my near future. Can you help me?

Where normally Anise would feel a resistance or a noise of thoughts, within the egg was a deep and vast space. She would have the feeling she was asking her questions of a mountain or the sky -- that her insignificant voice would go unheard. If she persisted, all she would find was an echo of her own thoughts. I'm Anise Sinclair, Princess of Riverforde.

Suddenly Anise would feel a flash of red, and at the edge of her mind she felt the pull of a distant fire. She knew instinctively that the red Lantern had just surged with energy, broken from the confines of its mechanical tree, and was coming closer.

When Artemis surfaced among the brush – as quietly as she could – the boat was already passing over where she'd landed. She clamped her free hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her pained breaths and pushed herself further into the plants. The swaddled Lantern was held close against her stomach, under the water's surface. Artemis was too focused on the thundering in her heart and the fire in her lungs to notice anything else that might've stalked the shore.

The red Lantern glowed brighter as the blue light approached; the swaddled light was warm, almost hot in her arms. Soft trickles of steam rose up as the soaked cloth dried against the Lantern's heat.

Meanwhile, on the shore behind her, something huge and silent approached: a towering wolf the size of an elephant, ragged and black with glowing yellow eyes, slowed down as he caught wind of her scent.

Reus stepped forward cautiously, his paws making no sound on the shore -- but it was clear that this new stranger was no threat to him or to the princess. The dark wolf slipped along the treeline unnoticed, then stepped closer and closer until he was standing directly behind Artemis.

The great wolf stared down at her, ears perked.

She reached out with the Spirit lantern probing for whomever or whatever was there. She decided to take the initiative. "Hello? I saw your light. My name is Anise. What is yours?" Her nerves spiked with anticipation as she prepared to duel in a battle of wills with the Spirit lantern.

Artemis would have the uncomfortable feeling of someone else's thought being shoved into her mind. What are you? Whatever it was was searching her thoughts and memories -- and Artemis would have the distinct feeling that this thing was poised to destroy her if it was displeased with what it found.

It was no wonder Reus hated it when Anise pointed the blue Lantern's power at him.

The red Lantern was getting hotter, but it would not burn her.

Anise, meanwhile, would find a frightened yet determined presence in the reeds -- but the blue Lantern didn't linger long on the stranger. The memory of fire -- bright infernos like the one she had narrowly escaped not long ago -- filled Anise with a thrill of anticipation. She felt a strong urge to move toward the red Lantern despite the water that flowed between them. Limitless destructive power was just within her grasp. She just had to reach out and take it.

Meanwhile, Morly had stood up and jammed his stick in the river bottom, holding the raft in place while the water flowed on. He was still chewing on a bite of the fruit, and he didn't particularly see what the fuss was about.

Lantern

HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

Are you guys waiting on me? I feel like it's us three, at least for awhile.

Mirror, Fox, Key

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's have an awesome 2016. :)

(also . . . I kinda wanna respond but I think it's probably bad form so I'll wait! xD)

Grimtooth

So, uh . . .

Yep.

:)

Grimtooth

The clacking sped up until a terrible, resonant whirr roared behind the walls; stone and cogs flung past the windows. Paint chips and bits of plaster rained down from the crumbling mural on the ceiling. Fissures cracked and split up the walls.

A high-pitched, metallic SCREECH caught their descent in a lurching, nauseous stop. The last of the glasses and tableware crashed to the floor; wine pooled and dripped into spreading puddles. The phonograph and its table had toppled and twisted. For a suspended moment, the absence of sound rang in their ears -- then the room dropped the last six inches and slammed into the ground below.

Everything had stopped, silent. Bits of dust and plaster floated in pools of wine and spilled food. The locks on the doors clicked open. The phonograph made broken whirring and clicking noises, on its side on the floor. The gas lights on the walls had stopped flickering and shone brightly once again.

There was only darkness and stone outside the windows.

Should the doors be opened, the partygoers would be hit with the musty smell of old pine needles, damp stone and rotten meat. Outside the doors was a clear sight to the wide mouth of a cavern and the bluish glow beyond it, like shining moonlight.

Between the doors and the way out of the cavern, something was breathing.

It was scaly, clawed and sharp-toothed, and it was curled in an elephant-sized sleeping ball just outside the ballroom doors. Broken branches and old bones littered the floor.

Somehow, the crash and racket of the ballroom's descent had failed to wake the tyrannosaurus.

Mirror, Fox, Key

Looking down into her bag again, she dug her hand in. The felidrake still seemed grouchy, but it was preoccupied with eating the rest of her food. Meryn tried not to roll her eyes as she avoided touching it to pull out the tiny silver bell. Triumphant, she held it out to the bird between her two fingers. The name and the rune glistened in the light as she eagerly hoped for some sort of explanation.

Meryn

The little bird ticked its mechanical head to the side, and her thin metal feathers flicked with interest.

"Your dreams have an unusually vibrant color," she informed Meryn. Her glassy eyes were staring over the courier's head; the statues around them whistled softly. "Your question is about the silver bell, right? They're from the temple magi that used to study here. When an apprentice becomes a mage, his final task is to imbue a small part of his soul into a silver bell -- that's what the rune is. Every mage carries his bell with him his whole life. When a mage dies, his name is inscribed on his bell and it's kept at the temple as a memorial. Some of the oldest temples have entire rooms filled with souls that date to the beginning of history. It's breathtaking, if you ever have a chance to see it. The Temple of Winter Silence at Soondark Pass has an enormous and very creepy memorial room that still gives me the shivers to think about. I highly recommend a visit, if you like spooky things."

Echoes of shouting rose up from the road below, and the little bird raised her head in confused curiosity.

"So you think that it's ok, just because the mother of these creatures was sick, and they have a chance of being sick as well, to just chuck them into nothing! They're completely innocent, and you're killing them because of their mother! You're a sick monster!" Then I attempted to punch him again.

Alex

Spook moved fluidly, and with an effortless shift of his weight and twist of his shoulders he entirely missed Alex's punch; Alex's fist whiffed in empty air.

"You're entitled to your opinion of me," Spook said with the same grinning voice -- and as long as Alex continued to try to hit him, the Traveller would continue to avoid being hit, but never raised a hand. The felidrakes in their cages yowled frightfully.

"Are you volunteering to take personal responsibility for them?" Spook picked up another of the cages, and in the same motion held it out over the gaping nothingness of the portal on the ground. "It's a painless death," he offered helpfully, as if this fact made everything better.

Grimtooth

We're definitely still running! At this point it's probably best if I go ahead and post a continuation so we can move on. :)

Anyone who wants to post should do so soon!

Mirror, Fox, Key

Totally not dead! In fact I plan to post today or tomorrow. Anyone who wants to post should probably do so soon! :)

Lantern

WE ARE MOVING ON!

Also.

I have now officially brought this entire story full-circle, haha!