Over the singing of birds (and Mr. Trullinger), [CHARACTER D] hears something strange, a rushing sound like a hundred pebbles rolled down a hill. Clink, clink, plat, thunk, the sound echoing across the lake. Turning their head this way and that, they finally find the source, a pocket of shadow on the far shore where there shouldn’t be.
Although the teacher chaperones try to herd everyone away and get on with their return trip home, Uriah Hatfield sneaks off to go investigate, curious about the sound and the strange shadows. Ms. Min paddles after, and soon almost everyone is in tow to investigate, though some students may fall back as they draw closer. A horrible, misplaced feeling settles over the water the nearer they come to shore. A feeling of wrongness and unbelonging that grows and grows until the first kayaks reach the pebble beach. Uriah fights the feeling to climb from their boat and step into the unnatural shade, where they find something strange.
A person. Sort of. A young man with a face that’s not quite right, though it’s hard to say how. His eyes glint like the eyes of a predator — shining yellow-green when they catch the faint light, but fear, unmistakable, is written across his features. The young man is injured, bleeding thick gray ichor that smells strangely of unsweetened chocolate. The feeling of wrongness spikes so high Uriah thinks they might be sick, but then it abruptly subsides to a slight discomfort in the pit of their stomach.
The three teachers and more students crowd into the shade.
“It’s one of the beings from the Paw Paw reserve,” Mr. Trullinger blurts.
“Shit, you mean, it’s one of them things from the…” Mr. Youngblood chimes in, as though correcting Mr. Trullinger, but his voice trails off, like, actually, he can’t remember what it was he was going to say. “Uh...y’know.” He squints hard, through a headache, then eventually mumbles, “Gatekeepers.”
“He’s hurt,” Ms. Min interrupts. “Should we sidealong him back to the edge of campus?”
“No, he’s not—they can’t be apparated. It’s...something with their physiology.” Mr. Trullinger stammers through an explanation, like even trying to remember gives him a headache.
“Need a stretcher,” Youngblood mutters, then turns away from the young man and starts pointing at students. He directs [CHARACTER F], [CHARACTER G] and [CHARACTER H] to fetch the first aid kit from Ms. Min’s kayak and start gathering things they can transfigure into a stretcher. “Alright, folks, bit of magic wilderness medicine training for ya. Don’t fuckin’ dawdle.”
Ms. Min and Mr. Youngblood leave the shadowed pocket with several students to start hunting supplies, leaving Mr. Trullinger and a handful of students behind. The young man pulls in a breath that sounds a bit like rain pelting the roof of a car. That rattling noise continues, louder and more solid, until it coalesces into words: “Listen to me.”
“Hey, buddy, we’ll get you to a healer, it’s okay,” Mr. Trullinger says as he works some spell that seems to close a few of the strange young man’s many open wounds.
“No. You musthear. I am all that is left. A journal he took for the Wood from the West. For Ice, a tin of…of....caaaaandy. He takes whatyou bring. He makes it a key.” The being coughs, a horrible rattling sound. “He has more, I think. But I do not know what.I ran. I left them. I’m...sorry.”
Outside the shadowed spot, the searching students find splatters of that gray ichor everywhere. And just beyond the trees, those strange vines and purple flowers. Whether out of self-preservation or in revenge for the injured being, [CHARACTER I] draws their wand and uses Glacius on the trees until not a single purple flower remains.
A combination of impressive Transfiguration magic from Ms. Min and practical means nets the students a serviceable raft which they carefully relocate the badly injured young man to. While helping to move him, [CHARACTER J] accidentally brushes against a spider-like limb that unfolds from the young man’s back. The contact is hot, not burning, but unusually warm, and for a brief second [CHARACTER J]’s vision blurs. They’re on a beach like this one but different. It’s night, it’s alien. Strange stars dot the sky, so dense as to turn it gray, and the waters that lap at the shore are thick and inky blue. There are purple flowers everywhere, all around, eating everything. It seems endless, but somehow [CHARACTER J] knows that there are roots, they can be pulled, and the infection can be killed.
When [CHARACTER J] blinks back to awareness, almost no time has passed. Ms. Min is firing off a flare from her wand, three rockets of colored light spinning up into the air. Ms. Min then takes point, overseeing students returning to their boats. Once everyone is set, she casts some spell over the group, some charm that makes each kayak cut speedily through the water. The return to campus is far swifter than the trip out had been, but it’s not yet clear if it was fast enough...
[ALL ADVENTURE CLUB MEMBERS may participate in this section and can be assumed to have witnessed all or portions of what transpired. You may use this header to scene at the beach, but keep in mind that things are rushed from here on out.]
KAYAKING: SOMETHING STRANGE ON THE SHORE:
Although the teacher chaperones try to herd everyone away and get on with their return trip home, Uriah Hatfield sneaks off to go investigate, curious about the sound and the strange shadows. Ms. Min paddles after, and soon almost everyone is in tow to investigate, though some students may fall back as they draw closer. A horrible, misplaced feeling settles over the water the nearer they come to shore. A feeling of wrongness and unbelonging that grows and grows until the first kayaks reach the pebble beach. Uriah fights the feeling to climb from their boat and step into the unnatural shade, where they find something strange.
A person. Sort of. A young man with a face that’s not quite right, though it’s hard to say how. His eyes glint like the eyes of a predator — shining yellow-green when they catch the faint light, but fear, unmistakable, is written across his features. The young man is injured, bleeding thick gray ichor that smells strangely of unsweetened chocolate. The feeling of wrongness spikes so high Uriah thinks they might be sick, but then it abruptly subsides to a slight discomfort in the pit of their stomach.
The three teachers and more students crowd into the shade.
“It’s one of the beings from the Paw Paw reserve,” Mr. Trullinger blurts.
“Shit, you mean, it’s one of them things from the…” Mr. Youngblood chimes in, as though correcting Mr. Trullinger, but his voice trails off, like, actually, he can’t remember what it was he was going to say. “Uh...y’know.” He squints hard, through a headache, then eventually mumbles, “Gatekeepers.”
“He’s hurt,” Ms. Min interrupts. “Should we sidealong him back to the edge of campus?”
“No, he’s not—they can’t be apparated. It’s...something with their physiology.” Mr. Trullinger stammers through an explanation, like even trying to remember gives him a headache.
“Need a stretcher,” Youngblood mutters, then turns away from the young man and starts pointing at students. He directs [CHARACTER F], [CHARACTER G] and [CHARACTER H] to fetch the first aid kit from Ms. Min’s kayak and start gathering things they can transfigure into a stretcher. “Alright, folks, bit of magic wilderness medicine training for ya. Don’t fuckin’ dawdle.”
Ms. Min and Mr. Youngblood leave the shadowed pocket with several students to start hunting supplies, leaving Mr. Trullinger and a handful of students behind. The young man pulls in a breath that sounds a bit like rain pelting the roof of a car. That rattling noise continues, louder and more solid, until it coalesces into words: “Listen to me.”
“Hey, buddy, we’ll get you to a healer, it’s okay,” Mr. Trullinger says as he works some spell that seems to close a few of the strange young man’s many open wounds.
“No. You must hear. I am all that is left. A journal he took for the Wood from the West. For Ice, a tin of…of....caaaaandy. He takes what you bring. He makes it a key.” The being coughs, a horrible rattling sound. “He has more, I think. But I do not know what. I ran. I left them. I’m...sorry.”
Outside the shadowed spot, the searching students find splatters of that gray ichor everywhere. And just beyond the trees, those strange vines and purple flowers. Whether out of self-preservation or in revenge for the injured being, [CHARACTER I] draws their wand and uses Glacius on the trees until not a single purple flower remains.
A combination of impressive Transfiguration magic from Ms. Min and practical means nets the students a serviceable raft which they carefully relocate the badly injured young man to. While helping to move him, [CHARACTER J] accidentally brushes against a spider-like limb that unfolds from the young man’s back. The contact is hot, not burning, but unusually warm, and for a brief second [CHARACTER J]’s vision blurs. They’re on a beach like this one but different. It’s night, it’s alien. Strange stars dot the sky, so dense as to turn it gray, and the waters that lap at the shore are thick and inky blue. There are purple flowers everywhere, all around, eating everything. It seems endless, but somehow [CHARACTER J] knows that there are roots, they can be pulled, and the infection can be killed.
When [CHARACTER J] blinks back to awareness, almost no time has passed. Ms. Min is firing off a flare from her wand, three rockets of colored light spinning up into the air. Ms. Min then takes point, overseeing students returning to their boats. Once everyone is set, she casts some spell over the group, some charm that makes each kayak cut speedily through the water. The return to campus is far swifter than the trip out had been, but it’s not yet clear if it was fast enough...
[ALL ADVENTURE CLUB MEMBERS may participate in this section and can be assumed to have witnessed all or portions of what transpired. You may use this header to scene at the beach, but keep in mind that things are rushed from here on out.]