sapped of strength

Willis · January 04, 2019, 05:32 PM

Takes place in Rainsong Labyrinth at daybreak on JANUARY 1, 2019.

According to my calculator, Undersea rolled for a negative event of 1/6 severity, and a random prey animal. As previously discussed, I’ve chosen to increase the severity, resulting in minor destruction of terrain and the disappearance of many beloved seawolves. This read-only thread will showcase the aftermath of the storm and the roster of missing persons. ♥

(I have left it open to replies in case people want it in their threadlogs.)

Komodo and Stockholm had worked tirelessly to shepherd every seawolf they could find into the rocksteady sanctuary of Rainsong Labyrinth. The tempest could not reach them here without destroying the island itself — and, oh, she tried! Her stormhounds gnashed wildly through the conifers that populated Skybowl’s skirts, snapping the younger trees like toothpicks and razing the foliage of the Old Ones. Tallest of them all, the Mother Tree led the resistance, though she groaned painfully with each burst of wind — “…ohhh…nnnooo…nnnooo…” — and quaked with exquisite agony as her limbs were ripped mercilessly from her body. The creak-crack-snap! of her rime-limned boughs was echoed by the agonized howls and the bonelike splintering of her ancient brethren, but their funereal dirge was easily drowned out by the banshee screams of the winterstorm.

Huddled within the deepest chamber of the island’s clandestine heart, the seawolves sheltered. Stormsong echoed through the Labyrinth’s spectrolite halls, ricocheting painfully against the stone, making speech impossible. Fallen trees and shifted stones had barred several of Rainsong’s secret egresses, and Coelacanth guarded fiercely the bottleneck entrance that preceded the stonehollow. They had lost so many — Hemlock, Reed, and Droman; Fern and Mur; Rehan; Blossom; Rokig — and those who endured bore wounds of varying severity. Worst yet, though Thresher had been safely returned to them at last, her greatest champion was now missing in her stead.

posted by coelacanth.