Synodiporia OOC community

When last we left our intrepid heroes, they’d ventured into Backstage to try to implant an inoculation against viral dreams, but were halted by distrustful Volksgeist Spirit Companions who feared the unforeseen damage they might do. On Aratta Skyhook, people began coming together in protest of the totalitarian behaviors of the local Orthopraxic Council, but the Council had not yet mended their ways.

It’s been a rough week for many of us, for a variety of reasons, and some of the threads and plots have been stalled without resolution to indicate to the mod team what we need to write next. That’s not anything anyone’s doing wrong - but we want to be sure to write a mingle people won’t bounce off of. Matt’s initial notes for this mingle felt, frankly, too much like railroading the plot, and that’s not how any of us want the last mingle to go.

So: here we have a plotting post without any certain, pre-determined prompts. The situations Backstage and in Aratta are still unfolding, still at a crisis point.

What we’d like in the plotting post below is for each player to state one thing they want to try this week, and one question about the situation they still have. These can be solo notions or group collaborations. As plotting goes up over the next 24 hours, we’ll work these ongoing efforts and questions into our prompts, as many as we can without creating a text-wall players might bounce off of, and we’ll provide each player who comments with at least a partial answer or clue to their question, so that the threads in this mingle will involve characters putting pieces together and pooling efforts in their threads, rather than having to wait on mod schedules and brains to provide exposition.

Then, tomorrow, early on the 18th, we’ll post the final Jaunt mingle, and we can bring the threads together and find out how, exactly, the Travelers and Dreamers are going to save the day.

If any of this feels too misty or open-ended and you’re not sure where to go with this, please let us know that, too, so we can find a different approach to cracking this mingle and bringing the Jaunt to a successful and collaborative conclusion.

One additional question: who would be interested in playing a wild Volksgeist or someone else's Spirit Companion this week? There's a whole category of privileged information we can give to anyone threading as a Spirit Companion that we can't hand out otherwise.

Last Week, In Harmonic Resonance...



As more people became Conductors, Travelers faced their own worst nightmares, crawling out of Liminal Space. A journey to Aratta Skyhook in the Waking World discovered ominous connections. And Grant was assigned baby-sitters.

This Week, In Harmonic Resonance...

Ia & Ib.
Cards on the Table. Travelers, Conductors, and other Dreamers meet at Hushabye Meadow to share all the information that’s been uncovered in the last week, and to discuss next steps. There will be one toplevel on the mingle for just dropping exposition, for those who want to read and catch up, and a second toplevel for group discussion.
II.
Opening The Way. Collaborating, Travelers and Dreamers manage to open a stable portal to Aratta Skyhook, enabling any who wish to investigate the Waking World side of things to do so. But fitting in on Aratta may not be easy… contact the mods here for any information or further prompts needed for this investigation.
III.
The Fall of Mount Widdershins. One of Questing Country’s floating islands falls out of the sky - an almost unprecedented ‘natural disaster.’ Dreamers and Travelers struggle with the dream-magic and work to understand and clean up after the calamity.
IV.
Quests. Several different Quests have been mounted, both last week and this week, including a Quest to find Shacklebreaker. Groups of Dreamers Questing together can plan here, and contact the mods here for any information or further prompts they need.
V.
Wild Card. This is the halfway point of the last Jaunt. If you have a creative, off-the-wall idea for tricks, shortcuts, longshots, or other curveballs, plot it here, and contact the mods here for any information or further prompts they need.

Questing Country: Harmonic Resonance
the final Jaunt of lucky round 16 of Synodiporia
September 1st - October 10th

In Questing Country, for thousands of years - but not forever - the collective unconsciousnesses of more than half a dozen species have been meeting as friends and allies. Under the guidance of Spirit Companions, young Dreamers are empowered to take up Roles and Archetypes in the long fight against nightmares, keeping the Waking World safe from their worst fears and desires. Of course, the sophisticated adults of all species almost never believe there’s such a thing as a world of dreams - in a universe with space travel, who believes in magic?

For the Chosen Dreamers of Questing Country, it’s been three months since the end of the cross-time meeting called the Ouroboros Retrograde. In the Starquake Era, the quakes have nearly stopped creating dangerous Transformed Lands, and the Transformed Lands have nearly stopped turning Dreamers into Harbingers. One gate, the Opaline Bore, has been left mysteriously open to permit Timewalkers from the past to visit.

The Oracles have been concerned with two problems, these last three months. The first issue: Human and Gorgon nightmares have both been getting stronger. Human nightmares were expected to grow worse; as humans spread out across the cosmos and discover its size, they discover new unknowns to fear. It’s happened to every starfaring race. But the increase is sudden, and stronger than expected - and no one has the least notion why Gorgons are experiencing the same thing.

The other problem is the Arcana. Spirit Companions have been warning that, while the damage the Arcana did on their last visit has been healed, they are afraid what might happen if the Arcana return. And anything a Spirit Companion fears is almost a nightmare in its own right…

But the Oracles have hope to share. Questing Country is always changing, and there are three new changes that promise assistance.

First, the Hecatites have perfected INVLEP, also called “Envelope,” a program which, when installed in Synthetics, allows them to emulate dreaming. New Synthetic Dreamers have already begun entering Questing Country and being Chosen.

Second, there are now Diabolin dreamers. In fact, there have now been Diabolin dreamers for centuries - a tiny minority of Diabolin have both a genetic mutation and a neurological syndrome which lets them fall unconscious. These periods of unconsciousness are more like comas than restful sleep, but they allow these rare few Diabolin to dream. This is a change in the timeline. While Champions may protest that they’ve had Diabolin friends for years, Oracles and Spirit Companions insist that this is a change in the timeline since the Ouroboros - and a good one. Diabolin understand nightmares - they experience waking hallucinations constantly - and so they’re very unfazed by things which terrify other species.

Third, for two months now, some Dreamers, through means unknown, have become Conductors. This is a new Role - possibly what Harbingers were always meant to be, Dreamers empowered by the unknowable Starmovers. Conductors are almost immune to negative emotion, and each possesses a bident, a weapon that can pin nightmares in place before they flee. All of them have healing powers among their magic. What’s more, they form one single Bond group, and within that Bond group, they can send telepathic messages. Their arrival - though so far very few Adversaries, Champions, or Oracles have become Conductors - is maybe the most hopeful change.

They have the calm of the Synthetics, the fearlessness of Diabolin, the telepathy of the Travelers, and the power to defeat the new Human and Gorgon nightmares. As always, Questing Country draws from the dreams and desires of its Dreamers to give the Waking World a fighting chance.

All that could go wrong now, the Oracles say, is if the Arcana returned before they were ready to face that trouble as well...

Content Notice | The Known Worlds | Species | Dream Forms | Roles | Changing Roles | Timelines & Summaries | Questing Country Locations | Bonds & Bonded Groups | Casting Call/Plot Role Announcements | Glossary | Skills | Calendar | Who’s the What of Which | Player Resources | Questions/FAQ | Plotting