Skill: Ice Ice Baby and Yellow Flame

'Every cloud has a silver lining' was an oft-quoted adage by many well-meaning souls, but it was not something Osamu particularly ascribed to of late.

Izumi had vanished, Fujiwara existing only as yet another relic in the vast corridors of his memory, and for whatever reason the end of the world was upon him. A part of the Samurai thought it just. Let the crackling fissures burst wide and take him; let the blizzard rage until his heart ceased to beat. There was little left to live for, yet still he continued on.

No home. No destination.

Osamu suppressed a violent shiver, the cold wind snapping against his wiry fur like a whip. Another part of him thought: what if Izumi was somehow still out there? What if she had been whisked away again, or she had lost her way in a routine hunt? What if the world ended - and her, with it?

Hope springs eternal.

Fighting the snow and the storm and the endless darkness, he pressed forward, seeking out something that resembled what his dreams had imparted. Thus far he had been unsuccessful (not that he'd been trying very hard), but as the Isle raged offshore, it didn't seem like a good time to stop.

But right now he needed a break. If he kept going like this his limbs would surely freeze, and then he wouldn't be of use to anyone at all as a corpse.

Osamu drew near the great yellow flame of the Range, and kept his eyes carefully scanning the horizon for any sign of a growing fracture or suspicious stone.

skill: ranger 1/5 [BWP, flame]

Ambrosia Range was a place that Foxglove knew quite well. It looked different like this, covered in the hellish white snow that felt so endless, Fox couldn't get the displeased look off his face. His hip raged, and maybe it even smarted more because of the fact that damn trough was there. He had given that building a wide berth, it looked even worse off after the fires.

Now the world woke and split, an island was trying to kill them all, and he was trying to hold it all together while still processing the fact that the rest of the Goldencourtes all were in the warpath too. It was too much, he thought, for them to all have to deal with the back and forth between both worlds attempting to collapse at the same time.

Maybe if he closed his eyes and thought real hard about it, Fox might somehow merge the two worlds and they could cancel each other's maladies out.

Instead, he just scouted further out from the Meadows. He might find some of the runes required to keep the world from shattering - he just had to keep his eyes out. Everywhere seemed even worse off - the ground itself gaped in places, and he had to avoid the cracks lest he fall into the earth. He was caught, similar to a moth with a flame, to the glow of the strange fire again. He wasn't the only one who had the same idea, seeking the flame's warmth. Miserable weather out, hmm? he offered in way of a greeting to the greyscale stranger.

Rune Discovery : 「 Failure - Parasite Present」

---

The miserable weather was about to get worse.

It blew in on the wind. A noxious, poisonous gas. Anyone who was subjected to it, would know it was ungodly from its smell, the way it seemed to flow like a heavy miasma.

It crowded around your ankles and became more and more dense the longer you waited. It was thick, cloying, and pulled at your fur. The snow beneath you melted under it's weight.

One could keep their nose above it, if they tried. If they could, they could steer themselves out of the growing toxic swarm. If one could not, then their body would be infiltrated by the worst of parasites, through the most delicate tissues of their nose.

Parasite Event for Osamu and Foxglove

---

You have several options as a player when confronted with infection.

You may either

Choose to automatically fail in repelling the spores, becoming infected

Roll for infection (1d100 - 50 and under fails, 51 and over succeeds in repelling the parasite)

Choose to repel them, but suffer a crippling migraine and muscle weakness for two in-game weeks

You may roll on the forum or in discord’s bot channel and play out the progression of the consequences without further Narrator intervention.

Note symptoms do not manifest immediately, may take up to three days to begin, and can progress at different rates for different characters. The Blue Turtlehead flowers cultivated by Dawnbreak, Camhanaich, and Satriya can be used to suppress symptoms.

If you are already infected, this will speed up the progression of your illness.