The Camp Greenwolfe Tragedy

[Sachi]

Nov 21, 2023 11:27:37 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Nov 21, 2023 11:24:38 GMT -6 Sachi said:

Virgilia looks around the immediate area for something, anything sharp enough to lay the creature to rest. But the sticks are flimsy, the stones are tiny - you feel nothing would even pierce its skin without making it suffer even more. For a moment, you briefly consider whether strangling it to death would be a humane thing to do, but as you're pondering the ethical concerns behind this train of thought, the creature begins dragging itself closer to you.

It takes great effort, as even though it does have twelve arms, not all of them can reach the ground. The shortest of them practically point up in the air, making them little more than extra dead weight it has to carry around. Couple that with the useless legs, and you find yourself wondering how much this creature might actually weigh.

It reaches two of its arms towards you once it's close enough. You glance down at them, and are immediately drawn to the bracelets they're wearing.

Fashioned entirely of human teeth - adult teeth, milk teeth, yellowed teeth, perfect white teeth - they're made indiscriminately, from the mouths of dozens of different people.

You think the creature is motioning for you to take them.

Virgilia takes the bracelets off both arms, and checks its other arms for additional bracelets. She carefully examines the bracelets, counting the number of teeth on each one. 

On a hunch, she double-checks whether they are all molars. 

With every removed bracelet, the creature's form becomes less and less stable.

Eyes fall out, arms become limp - its physical form resembles the consistency of freshly melted butter. But despite the changes, it no longer groans, moans, or makes any noise at all. It moves each arm toward you in turn, waiting patiently for you to slide each bracelet off.

You can confirm that they're made entirely of molars.
Each bracelet is constructed from fifteen teeth.
There were twelve bracelets in total.

Following the removal of the final bracelet, the creature can no longer stay together. It collapses in on itself, flattened out on the ground. It no longer moves now. You think it's finally dead.

[peterparker]

Virgilia leaves the creature's carcass behind and trudges back into the woods, in the direction that she thinks the clearing was. Hopefully her flashlight can help her retrace her steps. 

When she makes it back to the clearing, as soon as she comes across a body with the distinctive bloody streaks down its chin, she will pry its mouth open and shine her light into the back of its mouth, trying to see how many teeth are missing. 

[Sachi]

Nov 21, 2023 12:29:23 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Virgilia leaves the creature's carcass behind and trudges back into the woods, in the direction that she thinks the clearing was. Hopefully her flashlight can help her retrace her steps. 

When she makes it back to the clearing, as soon as she comes across a body with the distinctive bloody streaks down its chin, she will pry its mouth open and shine her light into the back of its mouth, trying to see how many teeth are missing. 

You safely return to the clearing and soon enough find one of the corpses you're looking for.

It seems to be missing eight teeth.

[Ame]

[Source] Sachi said:

A brief and vague description of the charm is listed on the page, along with a list of apparent instructions.

"Those this charm is cast upon will have their mind, body and soul become as one. The ultimate marriage of flesh, forever inseperable, forever together."

There's an image of a kind of magic circle under this description. It vaguely matches the one laid out on the ground.

"A drop of blood from all involved must mix together in a bowl and be placed in the circle's center.
A number of bracelets equivalent to the participants' numbers will be fashioned out of an appropriate material.
If no suitable material is provided, the circle shall seek one out itself."

"Well, that's not creepy at all."

Gaap looks at the summoning circle and realises that it's kind of munted. To which she will go around and adjust it until it matches the image that has been given to her.

"And now I need... Blood drops, from all involved, and a number of bracelets equivalent to the participant's numbers... the hell does that mean?"

"Lets see. Virgilia and I both have three, and the others have two... so we'd need... twelve bracelets then. Plus five drops of blood."

I'm gonna hazard a guess and assume that there is a bowl in the summoning circle already

Gaap is going to take the bowl from the summoning circle, look around for a clean knife, and head down to the river, cleaning it out. Then she'll dry the bowl and knife, and tell everyone around the campside and lake, dragging them to the ritual circle with her.

Izumiko (Emi)  Sorin Poe Hansbulla

Once she's arrived, she'll ask them all if they have any idea about bracelets, and then begin searching for Virgilia, calling her to the summoning circle again.

peterparker

[peterparker]

Nov 21, 2023 13:17:27 GMT -6 Ame said:

[Source] Sachi said:

A brief and vague description of the charm is listed on the page, along with a list of apparent instructions.

"Those this charm is cast upon will have their mind, body and soul become as one. The ultimate marriage of flesh, forever inseperable, forever together."

There's an image of a kind of magic circle under this description. It vaguely matches the one laid out on the ground.

"A drop of blood from all involved must mix together in a bowl and be placed in the circle's center.
A number of bracelets equivalent to the participants' numbers will be fashioned out of an appropriate material.
If no suitable material is provided, the circle shall seek one out itself."

"Well, that's not creepy at all."

Gaap looks at the summoning circle and realises that it's kind of munted. To which she will go around and adjust it until it matches the image that has been given to her.

"And now I need... Blood drops, from all involved, and a number of bracelets equivalent to the participant's numbers... the hell does that mean?"

"Lets see. Virgilia and I both have three, and the others have two... so we'd need... twelve bracelets then. Plus five drops of blood."

I'm gonna hazard a guess and assume that there is a bowl in the summoning circle already

Gaap is going to take the bowl from the summoning circle, look around for a clean knife, and head down to the river, cleaning it out. Then she'll dry the bowl and knife, and tell everyone around the campside and lake, dragging them to the ritual circle with her.

Izumiko (Emi)  Sorin Poe Hansbulla

Once she's arrived, she'll ask them all if they have any idea about bracelets, and then begin searching for Virgilia, calling her to the summoning circle again.

peterparker

Virgilia's hands are a little gross from inspecting the dead body's teeth, but she holds out the twelve bracelets to Gaap and the others. In a great rush of words, she tries to explain to the group what just happened with the creature, stuttering and stumbling over her words in a way that no one has ever seen from Virgilia before. 

When she sees the bowl and knife in Gaap's hands, a chill comes over Virgilia and she goes still. 

Finally, she manages to get the words out. "Gaap ... you aren't intending to do that ritual again ... with us this time?"

The image of the six children, fused together into that thing, won't leave her mind. 

[Ame]

[Source] peterparker said:

"Gaap ... you aren't intending to do that ritual again ... with us this time?"

She looks at the bracelets in Virgilia's hands, horrified of their source

"So... those are, children's teeth."

She gags, almost throwing up, but somehow keeping it down

"Do you know what the ritual calls for?"

"A drop of the participants blood, and bracelets."

"Bracelets made of an... what was the term? Worthy material? And we need as many bracelets as there are participants... numbers? Which-"

She moves her bracelet up to show everyone

"Mine reads three. All up, twelve. It can't be coincidence that we have that many of those bracelets."

"This is. A challenge, given to us by those, things from before. Treating us like we're in some sort of game!"

"But there's one more line. It states that if the bracelets aren't made of something suitable, it'll collect one itself"

She glances down, staring at a nearby body

"I'm sure that's what happened to them. The circle didn't deem their bracelets valuable enough, and then collected their teeth. It must mean that it thinks their teeth is worthy."

"It's gross, but, we should do the ritual."

[Hansbulla]

”For what purpose? Do you want to confront the forces behind this ritual? Are we even prepared to do so?”

[peterparker]

Nov 21, 2023 13:41:28 GMT -6 Ame said:

"It's gross, but, we should do the ritual."

"... Do we all have to do the ritual?"

Virgilia's voice comes in a shaky squeak. It's so antithetical to her usual demeanor that everyone begins to wonder just how awful a sight she has seen in the forest, to make her this scared. 

"Gaap, I don't think you should do the ritual. Someone needs to make it out of here to tell someone what has happened. And, since we have the bracelets, you should be spared if you don't join in."

[Ame]

[Source] Hansbulla said:

”For what purpose? Do you want to confront the forces behind this ritual? Are we even prepared to do so?”

[Source] peterparker said:

"... Do we all have to do the ritual?"

Virgilia's voice comes in a shaky squeak. It's so antithetical to her usual demeanor that everyone begins to wonder just how awful a sight she has seen in the forest, to make her this scared. 

"Gaap, I don't think you should do the ritual. Someone needs to make it out of here to tell someone what has happened. And, since we have the bracelets, you should be spared if you don't join in."

"..."

"I know what you think, *******, anyone could have guessed as much. But why does it have to be me? Shouldn't it be you? Everyone knows that *** needs you far more than he does me- even if he won't admit that."

"No. I'm going to participate. Even if I'm the only one, I will find out what happens. If you so choose, you can stand back. Not participate. Spectate. But look around. There are so, so many people who died here, and we still don't even know even what killed them. Stealing children's teeth are gross, no question about it, but I don't think that would kill them."

She reaches her hand out towards Virgilia



"Please, Virgilia, give me three bracelets. I need you to trust me. I'm going to do this, and I'd like do it with your approval."

She looks towards the Blue Trio

"And besides. It doesn't seem like there's a requirement for all of us to participate. If you want to watch what happens with her, be my guest. Even if things do go wrong, we're already prepared for the worst. By all appearances, that's the largest difference between us, and them."

[peterparker]

Nov 21, 2023 15:16:05 GMT -6 Ame said:

"..."

"I know what you think, *******, anyone could have guessed as much. But why does it have to be me? Shouldn't it be you? Everyone knows that *** needs you far more than he does me- even if he won't admit that."

"No. I'm going to participate. Even if I'm the only one, I will find out what happens. If you so choose, you can stand back. Not participate. Spectate. But look around. There are so, so many people who died here, and we still don't even know even what killed them. Stealing children's teeth are gross, no question about it, but I don't think that would kill them."

She reaches her hand out towards Virgilia



"Please, Virgilia, give me three bracelets. I need you to trust me. I'm going to do this, and I'd like do it with your approval."

Virgilia holds the bracelets close to her chest, almost by instinct. For a moment, it seems as though Gaap will have to rip the tooth bracelets from Virgilia's hands. 

But then she relaxes, reaches out, and presses three bracelets into Gaap's palm. 

"If you insist on doing this, then I cannot let you do it alone."

[Ame]

[Source] peterparker said:

Virgilia holds the bracelets close to her chest, almost by instinct. For a moment, it seems as though Gaap will have to rip the tooth bracelets from Virgilia's hands. 

But then she relaxes, reaches out, and presses three bracelets into Gaap's palm. 

"If you insist on doing this, then I cannot let you do it alone."

"Thank you, Virgilia."

She reaches out, and takes the three bracelets from Virgilia, setting them out in the ritual as per the design, and tells Virgilia what to do with her three.

"Well, before we get this ritual started, are any of you three going to participate as well? If not, I would suggest moving back, and perhaps preparing arms."

[Sachi]

You closely refer to the old manuscript and take great care not to make a single mistake. The circle is in place. Drops of blood from Gaap and Virgilia have been placed in the bowl, and the two shakily place their toothed bracelets down in the designated areas.

The Blue Trio simply observes. It's clear that Exvy finds this an absolutely abhorrent idea. Enemy and Knight's reasons are a bit less clear. Common sense? Or are they just afraid?

On the placing of the final bracelet, the two participants make absolutely sure they leave the circle's border. The moonlight shines down. The circle, in all its completed glory, absorbs the moonlight and begins glowing an eerie red.

The ground around you shakes. The provided bracelets float into the air momentarily, before flying like bullets toward Gaap and Virgilia's wrists. You feel them clasp on tight, as if they're biting down on you. This repeats for every additional bracelet, sending a new wave of pain through your arm each time. It's almost certainly bleeding, yet your survival instincts prevent you from looking. Seeing blood would only make the pain worse.

You feel a light pricking sensation on your opposite wrist approximately where your actual bracelet is. This is accompanied by the uncomfortable sensation of something being injected into you. A few short moments later, the toothed bracelets lose their grip on you and fall harmlessly to the floor.

And the Circle tries again.

Six additional bracelets soar through the air and try placing themselves on the duo's wrists. They feel the pain of the bite, then the injection, and again, the teeth fall.

The distinct sound of whisking through the air at an alarming speed reaches your ears.

There were a lot more than twelve bracelets.

Another six. Injection. Another six. Injection.

Another six. Injection. Another six. Injection.

These new bracelets seem shoddier than the previous ones. They don't take hold as easily, and crumble even quicker when you feel the inevitable prick of the neeedle.

When this collection has run dry, the observing Blue Trio feels the unmistakable sensation of toothache. They all instinctively cover their mouths, before they, too, receive an injection from their bracelets. The sensation vanishes just as quick as it came.

The shaking stops. The circle's light fades.

Gaap and Virgilia feel extremely lightheaded.

[peterparker]

Nov 21, 2023 20:12:54 GMT -6 Sachi said:

Gaap and Virgilia feel extremely lightheaded.

Virgilia is surprised to find herself still alive after this ritual. 

She looks down at her bracelet - not the assorted teeth bracelets that lay at her feet, but the actual bracelet on her arm, the one that used to say BLUE 3. 

[Sachi]

Nov 21, 2023 20:29:22 GMT -6 peterparker said:

Nov 21, 2023 20:12:54 GMT -6 Sachi said:

Gaap and Virgilia feel extremely lightheaded.

Virgilia is surprised to find herself still alive after this ritual. 

She looks down at her bracelet - not the assorted teeth bracelets that lay at her feet, but the actual bracelet on her arm, the one that used to say BLUE 3. 

It is as it was before. There is no change.

[Hansbulla]

"At least our captors kept us from the same fate... But you are one demented mathematician."