Tiding 09: Corpus

## Content Warnings

Horror, violence

*"Everything has gone wrong. We shouldn’t have gone into the caves. I don't know what to do any more; I keep looking at their entries: Tomil's and Ylen's and Tien's who gave my sister her name, and they can't help. They have answers for so many things, why not this? They just talk about burying the dead, making teas to help people through it, but... that's not right. We have to fix this. "*

―Challa

## Summary

Venz and Shu leave the Sharrow’s resting place changed men. Meanwhile, the caravan reaches Carn Veskl and, seeing the kite Venz left them, they decide to head into the caves. Inside, the scouting party investigate the screams and find something monstrous at the barricades.
Bris reunites with Korrin, Challa makes a pact, Venz resolves to help Ninut and Belka hears a poem.

## Synopsis

Venz is distraught and still angry at himself and the world- this is the first time a Remnant has died under his watch, and he doesn't know what to do or where to go next. All he has left is the promise he made to the people of Ninut to help and protect them. At Shu's insistence, Venz has left his two-day vigil by the Sharrow's body and the two of them are starting back via the river towards the rest of the caravan at the caves of Carn Veskl. As they climb up the canyon wall (Shu carrying most of their stuff), Venz can feel a sense of recklessness throughout the Sharrow as the snow swirls around. As they venture into the storm, Venz is hit by the feeling of slight reckless self-destructive urges, clearly emanating from Strael. As they head away from Sharrow's resting place towards Carn Veskl, Shu has completely lost respect and faith in Remnants to solve people's problems; meanwhile, Venz' opinion of those that don't respect Remnants has bottomed out.

In the caves under Carn Veskl, the group is reeling from the scream that came from Kalyn down the corridor from the dining room of painted chairs. Bris tears down the corridor, yelling at Kallan to get her sword off Cast. Cast, Madi, Lief, and Belka all follow immediately; Belka is carrying a spoon. The group rushes back through the sports hall and through the branched corridor, finally finding Kalyn at the shrine of glowing plants near the chthonopolis' entrance. Kalyn is standing still and staring straight ahead at something in the doorway. At the entranceway are at least five people-shaped figures (from the knees up) formed from a mass of the strange yellow organic material and plants. They all look like Madi and Kalyn.

Bris pulls Kalyn back, putting herself between her and the organic simulacra even as the mass spreads slowly along the walls. Bris instructs everyone to get back, backing away from it. The people-shaped mass suddenly surges towards the group. Bris tries to chivvy everyone out of the room and back; Kalyn and Madi run. Cast is taking potshots with Lief snarling at his feet, and the wounded parts of the mass fade and crumble.

Belka is fascinated by the strange substance, and climbs onto the altar to get a good view while prodding some of the un-subsumed plants with their spoon. They recognise the glowing motes as *eliclyte* (sp.), which has spiritual value for the people living here, and is what swirls under their translucent skin showing their emotion. It can also represent the emotion of other organisms around it, for example the plants and fungi in the shrine. Belka also gets the sense that the territory under Carn Veskl doesn't belong to the Sharrow but to another Remnant that is associated with hibernation, slumber, and tiredness in a safe place. It seems that the problem here isn't the glowing plants but the yellow organic substance that is subsuming and corrupting them. It doesn't seem to be plant, animal, or fungus. It seems not to move by constant locomotion but by building up energy and surging forward, and seems vulnerable to Cast's spirit gun.

As Belka is climbing down the altar, the yellow substance surges forwards and blocks the route to the door. They stumble at the last step, but manage to roll through the surging mass to the door. In the corridor, the group sees that the mass has started to reach through the door: one figure is beckoning to members of the group, but particularly Madi and Kalyn. They are shorter than the pair, and have the lined face of an older person. Belka rolls through the door, shrinking back as they make contact with the mass' base. The group flees down the corridor and Kallan hands Bris her sword, but Madi says to Kalyn that she's sure the figure was 'Ullun', clearly someone the pair knew. Cast pulls them along grimly.

Cast shouts that they need to build barricades, which Belka and Kalyn start making- but Bris is already swinging her sword at the advancing mass, aided by Cast's precise shots. Lief is comforting Madi, who is in shock. Bris is slashing her sword at any weak-looking points, and simulacra collapse to the ground. Under Bris and Cast's onslaught, the mass shrinks back. It seems that hitting the more yellow patches hurt it the most, which are further back into the mass (the tendrils towards the front contain only small yellow capillaries). Bris is looking for a torch to set i on fire, but Cast calls her back behind the barricade.

Challa wakes amidst the swirling storm. People are surrounding those returned from the storm (Savel, Ven, Ailen, and Ven Yalto), and Ayof is sitting back with Vilte. Challa finds Korrin, to ask him further about how he's doing and possibly about what he saw in Vilte's dream. She's feeling annoyed that Ayof shouted at her when she clearly did something great by bringing back the missing. Korrin is in Jeddah's wagon with her children Vassan and Lef, greeting the returned. It seems that while Challa was asleep, the vote on which line the caravan should take regarding leaving missing people behind (and implicitly a leadership vote between Jeddah and Ri) concluded, with a tie in the community; the vote of the Parish pushed the vote in Jeddah's favour, but those that voted against her are not happy that the Parish was allowed to vote.

Challa greets Korrin with a hug as he sits on the side of the wagon, a warm drink in hands, blearily watching the goings-on. Korrin asks Challa if she's OK and what happened when she collapsed, and Challa tells him she talked to the storm and asked for the people back. She asks how he is, and he replies that he's feeling bad. He becomes frustrated that Bris is meant to be looking after him since his mother died, but Bris never seems to be around and adults in general never seem to listen. Challa promises that she won't leave him, and writes a formal promise on a page of her cookbook. They both sign it, Korrin now smiling through his crying. Challa then asks him if the storm talked to him. He nods in a scared way, which reassures Challa that Strael wasn't only talking to her. She asks him if he thinks she did the right thing by bringing everyone back. Korrin seems confused, and Challa explains that she asked Strael to give the Yalto family back. Korrin is taken aback, and is impressed that she saved people, and talked back to Strael. Korrin only remembers Strael telling him to dance. The pair sits together for a while, watching the Yalto family being welcomed back into the community. They are telling people that they got lost but found Challa's trail, and followed her back; they don't mention the storm.

The storm is picking up, and the caravan is gradually moving goods over the rope bridge and towards the caves. The signal left by Bris' party is still there, and seems to imply that the caves are a safe shelter from the storm. As the caravan makes its way over the bridge and into the caves, Challa is at the front, hoping to find the Underpeople that she's heard live under Carn Veskl. Challa and Korrin are ahead, and come to a fork in the caves. To their left is darkness; to their right is a glowing room full of benches. Challa shouts that she's found something cool, and strides into the room. It's the shrine room that Bris' party found earlier. Challa runs in, twirls around taking everything in, and tries to call to the others to come and see. She notices that plants seem to have grown over half the floor, and that some of them, instead of glowing, seem to have folded in on themselves. Turning, she sees an adult-sized figure (although smaller than people from Ninut). Their skin is many-hued and swirling, but instead of feet, their body flows from their waist into the mass of plants. Challa screams and scrambles back.

Bris and Belka are looking for equipment to make torches, or other weapons. Bris is periodically returning to the barricades to check if the yellow mass has reached them; Kalyn and Cast are helping to shore them up. Belka wanders off to look around for things and comes across Kallan, who follows them, then Madi, who is sitting by herself in the sports room. Madi is looking through the various tabs attached to their clothes, but doesn't seem to be reading them. Belka approaches and looks over her shoulder to see what's on the tabs. Belka doesn't understand the language, but sees that each tab has a few words or phrases written in them. They shudder a little at the written words and ask Madi about them. They are upset that Madi has entombed whole sentences in the confines of writing, where the stories are dead. Belka says they started training to be a scribe, but didn't like writing the dead things down. Madi begs to differ, seeing written words as a way of keeping words alive- every time they are read, they are different. She demonstrates with some of her tabs, saying that since tabs are selected in a different order each time, the telling of the story changes with each reading. She demonstrates one of her works in progress, shuffling her tabs and laying them on the floor. Belka taps some with their spoon, and Madi flips them over in order.

*A stag with a rat's frame*

*Take a [linder] from rock, and its roots latch to hands.*

*A moment of practised access*

*Rasps sharply; then done, it yellows,*

*Collapses into a restored moon.*

She sighs, saying it's not perfect yet. Belka is nodding and frowning. They produce a long piece of string and drape it over both of Madi's hands, then pull knots in both directions, saying that they have made the words alive for her, and that she can change it if she doesn't like them. Belka says they thought the poem was good. Madi offers the tabs to Belka to have a go, but they are hesitant until Madi says they can do it with single words rather than sentences. Madi attaches the tabs she's put down to a ring on her clothing, and offers to make Belka some. Belka starts listing words they like (sunset, goat, moon...).

Back at the barricade, the yellow mass has collapsed in on itself and has taken to spreading slowly along the cave floor. Thin hyphae seem to be actively searching, and when they come across a plant they quickly overcome it. A strange tearing noise accompanies its movement. Bris asks Cast and Kalyn to push the barricade back, impatient at waiting for it to come to them, wanting to test the torches against it. Kalyn gives Bris a dirty look, mentioning that she was the one that put the barricade up in the first place; but she helps nonetheless. Bris asks Kalyn if she's lived in the caves her whole life, and whether she knows of other exits. Kalyn says that she and Madi, and others too, went to explore the other exits- but there was always something blocking the way. They sent people to check out every exit they knew, and none of them came back. The only way out she knows now (since the way Bris came in is now blocked too) is the river. Bris is unconvinced, saying that there may not be air all the way along and they could drown trying to follow it. The barricade now has a gap, and Bris walks out and starts trying to harm the yellow mass with her torch. She hears a scream from down the corridor that sounds suspiciously like Challa.

In the shrine, the figure is beckoning to Challa, then shoots straight forwards towards her, reaching with 'hands' that come out from the yellow mass at the figure's base. She rolls back and behind a bench, and the tendrils slam against the bench and latch on- but they don't hit Challa. She stands and looks around, and sees Korrin frozen to the spot near the entrance, with another of the figures facing him. At this moment, Bris walks in and grabs Challa. She then sees the second figure as it shoots forwards and latches onto Korrin. She drops Challa's wrist, runs over, and plunges her torch into the middle of the yellow mass. Korrin is released as the torch starts to slowly burn it, but the mass grabs Bris instead, losing its humanoid form as it engulfs her.

Challa rushes forwards to try and speed up the burning somehow. A large, uncanny gust of wind blows through the cave and all the fire in the cavern goes out, including that from other people's torches further down the corridor. Challa hears a tearing sound coming from down the corridor, accompanied by shouts.

## Quotes

**Madi**: "Isn't that- Ullun? Isn't- is- that- I *swear*-"
**Belka (spitting leaves out)**: "No, that was plants."

―*Madi and Belka muse on the dangerous yellow mass*

**Belka**: "Why do you do that?"
**Madi**: "Why did you shudder?"
**Belka**: "Why did you trap your writing?"
**Madi**: "Trap my writing? I- they're called words, you write things down, and then other people can experience them."
**Belka**: "You write- you write names down, you write words singular so you can show other people, and then new words, but... hmmm, writing whole- things, whole- the- the word-strings... the sentences, whole sentences written down is... it's death. That's death, dead stories, tombs for stories"

―*Belka struggles to come to terms with the way Madi's community engages with the written word*
## Game Mechanics

* Venz rolls 8 in Mad with Lead People Through a Dangerous Situation to get back to the caravan. *You don't suffer harm; you don't end up in another dangerous situation*
* Belka rolls 9 in Peaceful with Pay Attention to the World Around You to understand the yellow material and the plants. *How is this vulnerable to me; what superstitions exist about the plants and the shrine?*
* Belka rolls 10 in Scared with Tempt Fate to barrel-roll through the yellow substance
* Bris rolls 10 in Powerful with Use Force to hold back the yellow mass. *You drive back, seize hold of something or create an opportunity; you suffer little harm*
* Challa and Korrin gain a bond on each other after promising to take care of one another (and writing as much in Challa's cookbook)
* Challa rolls 7 in Joyful with Tempt Fate to try and find the Underpeople. *You succeed, but with a worse outcome, a hard bargain, or an ugly choice.*
* Challa rolls 11 in Scared with Unthreatening to get out the way of the figure-shaped yellow mass
* Bris rolls 10+ in Scared with Protect Another to save Korrin from the yellow mass
* Bris takes 1 Harm from the yellow mass
* Challa rolls 5 in Mad with Uncanny Potential to burn the mass faster (fail; mark Potential)

## Plot Notes

**Warning! There may be spoilers ahead!**

* It's not clear whether the Ullun mentioned by Madi is the same person as Rugate Ullun Bakkal (Rugate is a title of office), whose pre-episode narrations appear in *Tiding 11*, *Tiding 15*, and *Tiding 22*.

*These Flimsy Rituals is distributed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. This wiki contains excerpts of scripted text and official shownotes, and is considered to be under the same license. Official artwork is not to be used on this wiki. Fanart pieces are distributed under licenses determined by the artist- please check the caption or alt-text.*