exploration

[inthenightmods]

EXPLORATION

ACTIVE EXPLORATION SLOTS: 0/8

Explorations are currently OPEN. They will close again when we run out of active exploration slots.

Building a structure may be done at any time and does not affect the active exploration slots.

•••
The forest engulfing Beacon is dense and uncharted, but that just means there's never a shortage of cool stuff to discover lurking off the beaten path. There's always new locations, plot clues, or extra resources to be found, so although venturing into the woods is always dangerous, the rewards may just outweigh the risks.

Once you come up with a plan, please fill out and submit the form below. We'll respond in one of two ways, depending on the nature of your exploration:

• In most cases, we'll respond with a single write-up detailing the outcome of your exploration. For example, characters venturing out into a particular part of the woods may discover a new location! In that case, you'll receive a full description of that new location, along with any other details worth noting, such as forest spirit encounters or difficulties along the way. If your group would then like to react to any of this or explore that location after its discovery, you can then respond with your own write-up of everything your group would investigate, and we'll let you know what happens as a result. And that's it! Then the exploration is wrapped, the location becomes available to the game at large, and you're welcome to thread out any details of the exploration if you like.


• In limited cases, an exploration request will open a dialogue between the players and mods to determine the outcome of your exploration. For example, characters attempting to interact with forest spirits may get the chance to play out that encounter, whether it be a pleasant conversation or, uh, the forest spirit trying to kill you, since that happens sometimes. Explorations of this nature will not always result in a response like this, as it'll depend on our availability as mods. If you're interested in doing an exploration like this and don't want to leave it up to chance, PM us! We'll work with you to schedule an encounter.

Regardless of which type of exploration you end up with, what you do during an exploration is entirely up to you, so feel free to get creative! We always try to reward creativity in some way, even if it's not a success in the way that you hoped for.

•••
Before you embark on your quest, here's everything you need to know about explorations:

• Exploring uncharted territory is intended to be dangerous, and there is always a risk of failure, injury, and other setbacks. If you're not on board with these risks, exploration may not be in the cards for you.


• That said, the exploration form includes an opt-in for serious injury and death. If you aren't interested in having your character(s) at risk for that stuff at this time, you can let us know upfront. Please keep in mind that opting out of serious injury/death does not mean you're opting out of the above risks of failure, injury, and other setbacks. Those risks are always in play during explorations. In addition, while opting out of serious risks doesn't mean you'll get a watered down exploration, some discoveries lurking out in the forest are reserved for risk-taking characters. For example, opting out of serious risks eliminates the chance of running into the hostile green-eyed spirits, so characters interested in pursuing green-eyed spirit plot threads will have to put themselves on the line to do so.


• If you choose to opt into the risks of serious injury and death, your character's safety is forfeit and you give the mods the right to maim accordingly (though, of course, we'll check permissions posts in doing so). This does not mean that groups opting into these risks will always be tormented and killed! It's just helpful for us to know your preferences and expectations upfront. Please keep in mind that opting into the risk of serious injury or death applies to the whole group, not just individual characters.


• Explorations into the area of Beacon currently occupied by the Parade will always be extra dangerous. Characters will run the risk of encountering the Parade itself, but besides that, the Parade's presence gets all the forest spirits in the area extra revved up, increasing their hostility. We'll give you the "danger zone warning" at the top of the exploration if you're about to head into Parade-infested territory, as characters may be seriously injured or killed at any point during an exploration within the parade route. You can check the Parade's schedule on the calendar page.


• Chance of success will be left up to a mix of mod discretion and RNG. We'll typically use a RNG to determine what you find, if anything, but we'll also take player/character ingenuity into account. In short: If you have a solid, creative plan, you're more likely to be rewarded for that. Aimlessly wandering won't always get you nothing, but it's less likely to earn you something neat for your trouble. (However, please do be encouraged to follow the dumb idea that's in your character's heart. We will reward for IC idiocy, too.)


• Having torches from the bonfire with you will also increase your chance of success, though be careful: If you lose the torches while exploring, someone will have to recover them or they're lost forever. Additionally, you must request torches through the item request page in order to take them on explorations. Torches not logged through the item requests page are not considered game canon.


• Once you receive a mod response to your exploration, you will have one week to tag us back. If that week timer runs out, we'll consider that exploration closed, and mod responses will stop. You're welcome to handwave your own IC conclusion to the exploration at that point. To be extra clear: the time it takes for us mods to respond to your exploration is not included in that time limit. The timer starts fresh each time we tag you back.


• Explorations over two weeks old will be wrapped in the next mod response. This is to prevent explorations from dragging on for too long, which will slow up our system, but more importantly, it'll make for awkward timing issues in the game! We don't want to leave players waiting on exploration outcomes to be able to engage with the rest of the game.


• Characters may only embark on one exploration at a time, no matter how small. Pretty self explanatory! One at a time, please. If you play more than one character, you may send them on concurrent explorations, but keep in mind that we might deny exploration requests like this to give other players a chance to hop in.


• We will only accept a maximum of 8 active explorations at a time. If those 8 slots fill up, we'll close the queue to new submissions until we're able to wrap some of the active adventures. This number is based on mod availability.


• Explorations will always be closed during events except under rare special circumstances. Similarly, explorations can't be forward- or back-dated to happen during an event. Go do event things instead!


• You can also submit an "exploration" to build a new structure on this page! Just use the appropriate form below.

To EMBARK ON AN EXPLORATION, please fill out the form below:

<b>player name(s):</b> (please list ALL PLAYERS involved with the exploration!) <b>character(s):</b> (please list ALL CHARACTERS involved with the exploration!) <b>area of exploration:</b> (please be as specific as possible! we need to know where your character is/is trying to go.) <b>date(s) of exploration:</b> (you may forward or back date by up to two weeks from the current date.) <b>plan:</b> (what, specifically, are you doing? this is the place to detail the plan in full, so be sure to include all of the relevant details so that we can factor it all into our response. consider questions like: what's the goal? are you bringing supplies or torches? does anyone have experience or training that could assist with your plan? is anyone already injured or impaired? tell us what your plan is! AS A REMINDER, EXPLORATIONS WILL TYPICALLY ONLY RECEIVE ONE RESPONSE TO DETAIL THE RESULT, so it's important to be clear about your intentions and plans!) <b>is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death?</b> (a simple yes/no is all we need, and please only give ONE ANSWER for the whole group. a "yes" here doesn't automatically mean you'll all die horribly, and a "no" doesn't mean you won't get anything cool. we'll check permissions posts before injuring/killing characters.)

To BUILD A STRUCTURE or ALTER THE SETTING, please fill out the form below:

<b>player name(s):</b> (please only list the names of the players ORGANIZING construction/alteration.) <b>character(s):</b> (please list ALL CHARACTERS involved with construction/alteration.) <b>location:</b> (please be as specific as possible so that we can add it to the map!) <b>start date:</b> (when does this project BEGIN? based on the details you provide in this submission, we'll let you know how long it will take the characters to complete the project.) <b>plan:</b> (this is the place to tell us how the construction/alteration is going to happen! hit us up with as many details as you have, as we'll be using this plan to determine the length of the project.) <b>description:</b> (what does the finished product look like? this is the description as it will appear VERBATIM on the setting page.)

Please note that with the recent discovery of the medical center, each player may only explore the medical center ONCE for the time being in order to give everyone a chance to get involved. If exploration requests die down and there are still areas to be uncovered, we may lift that rule. We'll make an announcement in the OOC comm should that happen.

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Comments

[darkeyed]

player name(s): Shira and Mina.
character(s): M.K. and Melisandre (voktys).
area of exploration: The church and its shady trapdoor situation.
winters? I MEAN neither of them would probably think to go to him at the time it's happening, but if there's an opportunity to get his take, for sure.
notes: With the two of them hanging out in the church, and Mel being curious about the door in her new home, once it's brought to his attention there's a high chance M.K. would simply use super strength to try and bust through it, given it's wooden and theoretically breakable. Please, god, let it be an Indiana Jones-style booby trap waiting to go off, or a life supply of Skittles.

[inthenightmods]

Sadly, it is not a life supply of Skittles. But it's also not a booby trap, so, you know, little miracles!

When M.K. strikes the door, it doesn't feel like he's hitting a flimsy wooden panel. Instead it feels more like punching a thick brick wall or a cement floor. Like there's something harder underneath, and that sort of diffuses the energy of the hit. The wood remains unbroken— for now.

However, about three seconds later, there is a second loud bang. This one comes from the other side of the door.

(As a side note, if these two do decide to go ask Winters, or any other NPC, about the door, please just let us know here and we'll let you know what they'd say or do!)

[evocation]

player name(s): Jenny
character(s): Kyna with Rafe watching her be dumb
area of exploration: Kyna tried breaking through the trapdoor in the church with Arcane Hand here!
winters? n/a probably?
notes: Leu said it wouldn't work which is why I just posted the tag, but then I was told to post here so if I need to change it please let me know! New games are hard rip.

tacking on here

[chardismastic]

player name(s): Sammo
character(s): Rafe, with Kyna nearby
area of exploration: church trap door, hit it with a regular handaxe
winters? n/a yeah
notes: I mean Rafe figures it won't get through cause the giant magic hand just didn't do jack, but. y'know. for science.

[primordialerebus]

player name(s): Jejune
character(s): Coraline Li
area of exploration: Church Trapdoor
winters? N/A
notes: Coraline, while exploring the church, decides to stretch her powers a bit at the trapdoor and see if she can sense what's going on behind it since its presumably just as dark as the rest of this place. It'll mostly be concentrated around finding a possible latch she could possibly undo at some point.

[inthenightmods]

There is indeed something going on behind it— more door. As Coraline feels through the wood, she can sense that there's another material underneath, and this one's much thicker. It's a secondary door made out of a heavy metal, though she can probably sense behind it, too.

On the underside of this second door is no latch, but a kind of mechanical panel. A keypad.

[evocation]

player name(s): Jenny (hello it's me again 👀)
character(s): Kyna
area of exploration: Her lantern!
winters? Nope! Sorry Winters :')
notes: Kyna is just going to try to cast Identify on her lantern to see if it's a magical object/if any spells are affecting it!

[inthenightmods]

Identify won't give Kyna much info, unfortunately, but she'll learn that the lantern isn't a magical object, nor does it have any spells affecting it. However, what's interesting that the spell reacts as if Kyna is casting Identify on herself. According to Identify, the lantern is part of her.

[darkeyed]

player name(s): Shira
character(s): M.K., back on the hunt for those Skittles.
area of exploration: The forest to the west/southwest of the bonfire.
winters? He'll pass, moody alone time isn't as effective with the buddy system.
notes: Although he'll actually try his best not to get too lost by sticking to a grid search-y type exploring and trailblazing along the way, he's essentially just wandering to see what there is to see for a couple of hours. Yes on combat experience and a torch to light the way, but other than that, he's not bothering with much more than water. Is there anything of note or does he die horribly for Dick's amusement?

[inthenightmods]

Lucky for M.K., his jaunt into the woods is a peaceful one. The torch provides ample light to see by, and the forest around the town isn't too dense. In fact, before long, M.K. will notice a path along the ground, leading in the same direction he's walking. It seems as though it was overgrown with weeds closer to town, which is why he couldn't see it before.

Shortly after he discovers the path, he'll also discover... A building! Good job, M.K., you've just unlocked our first new location. He (as well as you, dear player) gets the sense that finding new locations after this won't be so easy. But, hey, there's no sense in passing up a freebie, is there?

Would M.K. like to more thoroughly explore the post office? Given that he found it first, he gets dibs. Stake your claim, buddy.

[ordinaryannie]

player name(s): PG
character(s): Antimony Price
area of exploration: Looking for more trap doors - the Invincible, town hall, and the general store
winters? Nah
notes: Annie's just planning to survey the ground floors and/or basements of the non-church buildings in town for any more mysterious trap doors. I'm not expecting much to come of this, but she wants to know if there are more subterranean entrances to quote-unquote safe buildings before something possibly crawls up out of them.

[inthenightmods]

While this is a very clever idea on Annie's part, there doesn't seem to actually be anything like a trapdoor in any of those buildings.

[sunborne]

player name(s): Melly!
character(s): Daylight vis Lornlit.
area of exploration: The Post Office.
winters? Yes; Daylight would like Winters' help! Primarily in asking for his advice on how to interact with the spirits and what are the dos and don'ts with them! He doesn't want to offend them during his attempts to make contact since he just wants to show he's friendly.
notes: He's there in hopes of interacting with the forest spirit who is manning the counter! He'll do his best to be friendly to them, saying hello and trying to speak to them. (He'll also do his best to not break anything due to his size.) When Daylight leaves, he would like to leave a gift for them - A sketch he made of the scenery, with some creative choices here and there.

[inthenightmods]

Winters will give Daylight the following advice: "Talking with the spirits is real hit or miss. Most of 'em understand speech, but they don't chat back. Best you'll get outta them is crude drawings or scribbles that might sorta resemble a language. Or miming. They do that sometimes too.

Best thing to do with the friendly ones is listen to 'em. Follow their instructions and be polite. They're good allies to have. But, some of 'em are hostile, and they're bound to be hostile no matter what you do. Don't take it personal. It's just their nature."

The Postmaster General forest spirit perks up as Daylight enters the post office, but will shrug to indicate that there's no mail for him right now. What would Daylight like to say to them?

[chardismastic]

player name(s): Sammo
character(s): Rafe
area of exploration: the church (again)
winters? nah
notes: Rafe is just checking out style/architecture/materials because he's a Cathedral Guy and is looking to see what kind of stone/wood/identifying marks from the making of it all. PROBABLY NOTHING BUT just didn't want to infomod junk by pulling it out my rear end

[inthenightmods]

The cathedral seems to be a strange mix of styles, almost as if several different people designed it. The outside is somewhat Romanesque, while the interior is closer to Gothic, with pointed arches and rib vaults on the ceiling. The church lacks a font, an organ, or any of the other common furnitures of the typical Catholic cathedral. The transepts do not house chapels, but are walled off into rooms (currently occupied by Melisandre, Rafe, Jesse, and a clinic).

The material used to build the structure seems to be a kind of concrete, with mortar between the carefully shaped blocks. It definitely seems old, but the age is difficult to decipher considering the eclectic nature of the building.

There are no repeated symbols or motifs, and no statuary to indicate what sort of deity was worshiped here. The altar only holds the candles and lots and lots of melted wax. The only oddity in the building is the now-revealed metal square in the floor, which has no identifying features.

[broplaints]

player name(s): Anya & Dai
character(s): Noctis & Prompto
area of exploration: The Forest - Specifically the area just to the north of bonfire square. They won't be going to deep, as they're mostly searching for more of the town.
winters? Nope, they're good!
notes: They'll be bringing their lanterns, along with their tablets. Both of them have combat experience so they are ready for any nasties they may happen across. They won't be going too, too deep and doing their best not to get lost. A couple of hours of good, solid, tree exploration.

Sorry for the edit! But they will also be specifically looking for any animals they may come across, with the intent of possibly hunting them and bringing them back as a food source. They are not expert animal hunters, but Prompto is a pretty good shot.

[inthenightmods]

North of Bonfire Square is the church and the harbor, so Noctis and Prompto will have two options! Either they can stick to the wooded area around the path leading from the church/harbor to Bonfire Square, or they can continue north into the undiscovered area past the treeline on the map.

As far as animals go, with either of the above choices, they won't find much. They may notice evidence of creatures of some sort—tracks, disturbed vegetation, that sort of thing—but no actual animals.

[fogey]

player name(s): z
character(s): five
area of exploration: church trapdoor
winters? no
notes: okay i just. gotta ask. because he would try. but like what would happen if five tried to teleport beneath the trapdoor? "nothing" is totally valid!! but i need to know lmao

[inthenightmods]

He would simply teleport to... standing on top of the trapdoor! It's almost like there's a glitch in reality here, where instead of going beyond the door, Five just gets looped back to where he started. How strange!

[reigniter]

player name(s): Helena
character(s): Ignis Scientia ( reigniter )
area of exploration: Archives in Town Hall
winters? Ignis didn't feel the need to ask him for guidance. It's just Town Hall, right?
notes: Whenever there was something to be solved or more things to be found out about, Ignis always hits the books. He seriously dislikes having a lack of information and sitting still just isn't in his nature. So, he'll get up, bring some coffee with him in a paper cup with lid, get the lantern on his hip and head to the Archives in Town Hall.

Ignis has a tendency to lose track of time when he's studying/researching/working in general, so he will be in there for a prolonged period of time, using his lantern to try and read anything he can come across; to try and find clues as to why resets happen and maybe some clues about the woman in the Lighthouse.

Ignis will take anything- any type of information he can get his hands on- relevant or irrelevant. He'll be scouring the Archives between four and five hours. What can I say- he's stubborn.

[inthenightmods]

Good thinking, Ignis! However, at the moment, the town hall doesn't have any records in it beyond the busts and statue. When they're added as the game progresses, the only available information will be stuff that the players/characters already know. It's intended to be a sort of built-in recap system so that all the current plot info is readily accessible to everyone both ICly and OOCly.

We realize this was perhaps unclear on the setting and game history pages, so we've edited accordingly in the hopes of clearing up any confusion. Sorry about that!

(Keep this "hitting the books" attitude, though—there just may be locations discovered in the future where this sort of research will come in handy!)

[voktys]

player name(s): Mina
character(s): Melisandre (voktys)
area of exploration: church trapdoor
winters? no, she's good
notes: honestly, it's less of an exploration and more of a reaction: every time someone tries to mess with the trapdoor, she will leave a fresh offering for our resident basement hozier in hopes of quenching his rage. it's mostly candy bars, twinkies, and other sweets she can find, but she tosses in some fruit now and again.

[inthenightmods]

Hozier accepts these offerings, at least when no one is present. At one point, Melisandre will find a single blue flower lying where the food was previously.

[jigsawn]

player name(s): laws
character(s): billy russo (jigsawn)
area of exploration: the forest to the south/southeast of the forest.
winters? no, not yet.
notes: he has years of military/combative training as a former usmc lieutenant in special forces, so he'll definitely be using his experience and skills when he explores the area. currently, he just wants to get a lay of the land, so he is going to start off looking at what's on the other side of the river. eventually, he'll go deeper, but for now, he probably won't go too far in unless he has cause to. he'll be starting south before he makes his way around to the east and he'll naturally have a bag of supplies at the ready.

[inthenightmods]

Billy will rather quickly run into the river just a few minutes' walk from Bonfire Square. The river is about 10-15 feet (3-4.5 meters) across, and the banks are made up of mossy boulders that look rather slippery. The waterline is a couple of feet (~a meter) below the rocky banks, so touching the water from the bank would be tricky to do given the slick state of the boulders.

The water has an odd movement to it. The surface seems calm as it flows toward the lake, but where the river meets the bank, the current is much faster, churning against the boulders and creating small whirlpools in the nooks. There's also a strange, almost galaxy-looking band of debris streaming down the center of the river.

It's too dark to see what's on the other side, but Billy will notice two wooden posts on the side that he's on. They seem sturdy enough to anchor a bridge.

[webshoots]

player name(s): laura
character(s): peter parker
area of exploration: that fucking trapdoor
winters? —
notes: peter would attempt to open the trapdoor with his ~super strength~ after five's total failure at teleportation

[inthenightmods]

Unfortunately, Peter's super strength is not enough to pull up the door— especially since it now has no visible handles! The flat metal square resists being pried open. Sad trombone noise.

[burstmodes]

player name(s): dai & anya
character(s): prompto & kara
area of exploration: the area south of the harbor near the inlet w/ the river???
winters? nah
notes: kara and prompto have decided to try making a map of sorts of the surrounding area, starting at the general store and plan to head towards the harbor and go south as far as they can go. according to the game map, they'll run into a river type thing? just curious if they'll be able to find anything useful (items, clues, etc.) or if they find that if they wander along the river far enough it might be shallow enough to safely cross. kara is pretty resilient and prompto has a lot of outdoors survival experience (ty world of ruin and daemons). they don't have supplies on them, but they can always go back and get something if they need it before moving on.

[inthenightmods]

Yes, the pair will run into a river! The river is about 10-15 feet (3-4.5 meters) across, and the banks are made up of mossy boulders that look rather slippery. The waterline is a couple of feet (~a meter) below the rocky banks, so touching the water from the bank would be tricky to do given the slick state of the boulders.

The water has an odd movement to it. The surface seems calm as it flows toward the lake, but where the river meets the bank, the current is much faster, churning against the boulders and creating small whirlpools in the nooks. There's also a strange, almost galaxy-looking band of debris streaming down the center of the river.

No matter where they follow the river, these features will be oddly uniform. It doesn't look like there will be any particularly easy areas to cross in the forest. Would they follow the river up to the lakeshore, or try something else?

[chivalrouswench]

player name(s): Hanna
character(s): Brienne
area of exploration: Post office
winters? She's been meaning to ask Winters about where the supplies are coming from, if there are other settlements like Beacon around and how to get in touch with them. I'm guessing this might be a way for her to learn about the existence of the post office? Winters will have to excuse her flinching when they shake hands, the scales on his arm might make her worried that he has an extremely dangerous disease from her world.
notes: Her plan depends on what she learns from Winters but the general gist is sending out a note saying "Is anyone out there" and talking to the forest spirit in charge to figure out how to get it sent out beyond Beacon.

[inthenightmods]

Winters doesn't mind the flinching! He'll explain that the scales are from dying too many times. Sometimes you don't come back quite right, but it's not contagious.

As for her questions: "The supplies come in the same way you lot got here: On the ferry. Beyond that, I can't say. If you figure it out, let me know, yeah? One thing I can tell you is that we're the only settlement left in this world. Only other folks you'll meet will come in on the future ferries, or they're already here."

And yes, he can tell her about the post office!

Would Winters' advice change Brienne's plan at all?

[evulsed]

player name(s): king
character(s): Vanitas
area of exploration: Vanitas wants to get to the lighthouse! he's going to start following the path north-west out of the town.
winters? no he's convinced he can do it on his own
notes: very minimal supplies, because he isn't used to needing anything like that and keeps forgetting that he needs to eat. he has extensive combat experience though, and will be actively keeping an eye out for these elusive forest spirits people keep talking about.
eta i just noticed some other intrepid adventurers went up this way— and Vanitas is going to jump the barbed wire fence because he has no self preseveration

[inthenightmods]

Vanitas can attempt this! And, yes, he will run into the barbed wire fence along the way, and he can easy hop over it.

But! Before we proceed: Are you super sure about this decision?

😃

[identifier]

player name(s): jin
character(s): Dick Grayson
area of exploration: a. the woods
b. around the river
winters? not yet, but he will return and speak to winter about what he finds, intent on sharing intel and getting more supplies for some possibilities on crossing the river.
notes: Dick has extensive survival and combat training and will be taking supplies with him. for this exploration:
a. looking for sturdy trees he can cut down and use (appeasing forest spirits?) for his treehouse. or if he finds a cave at all in the woods the treehouse may not be necessary.
b. for the river, looking for a place to cross or somewhere a boat would have ease.

[inthenightmods]

a. Dick will find a variety of trees that he could potentially chop down for lumber! Near enough to town, too, that he doesn't need to worry about any foresty dangers lurking in the darkness. He won't find any forest spirits on this venture, but hey, maybe that's a good thing? No one attacks him as he's scoping out trees to chop, at least.

He won't find any caves on this trip.

b. He doesn't have to travel far to make it to the river, either! Assuming he's heading directly south of Bonfire Square, that is.

The river is about 10-15 feet (3-4.5 meters) across, and the banks are made up of mossy boulders that look rather slippery. The waterline is a couple of feet (~a meter) below the rocky banks, so touching the water from the bank would be tricky to do given the slick state of the boulders.

The water has an odd movement to it. The surface seems calm as it flows toward the lake, but where the river meets the bank, the current is much faster, churning against the boulders and creating small whirlpools in the nooks. There's also a strange, almost galaxy-looking band of debris streaming down the center of the river.

It's too dark to see what's on the other side, but Dick will notice two wooden posts on the side that he's on. They seem sturdy enough to anchor a bridge.

[ordinaryannie]

player name(s): PG
character(s): Antimony Price
area of exploration: Around the ore dock
winters? Not specific help with this, but she would ask him about general threats and hazards in the area.
notes: Annie's very well trained in wilderness survival and wayfinding, and has a lot of experience dealing with and analyzing weird creatures. She'll be bringing enough supplies for a couple days in case things go south and she gets stuck for a bit. She's pretty decent in a fight, but at this point will be inclined to flag a threat and retreat to arm up/get backup unless she's cornered - she's on a scouting mission, not an assault.

Specifically, she's going to be searching the area leading inland from the ore docks for the remnants of a track or a road that might've been used to convey ore to the docks from what she presumes to be a mine somewhere in the woods.

[inthenightmods]

As far as general threats/hazards in the area, Winters will tell her this: "Biggest risk is running into trouble out in the forest. Things've been quiet lately, but that could change at the drop of a hat. Ask Rastus for a torch from the bonfire before you set out; it's dark in those trees, and it's unfamiliar terrain. A twisted ankle could mean death out there.

I'd stay out of the water too, if I was you. The lake's alright up to a point, but the river? Don't even try it. It'll suck you right down before you can blink."

When Annie goes to search around the ore dock, she won't find much along the beach. However, in the water between the beach and the dock, she'll be able to make out some old, wooden posts cut off just below the water's surface.

How far inland does Annie go?

[chores]

player name(s): Anya
character(s): Kara
area of exploration: the Post Office
winters? She'd likely ask if he had anything needing to be dropped off, otherwise, no.
notes: Kara would like to leave a letter with the post master for her daughter, Alice. She's partly convinced that Alice might also be somewhere in this crazy place and hopes that, maybe, a letter will reach her. Basically she's playing all of the bases she can. The letter itself is basic instructions on how to reach the town from the post office and how to go about finding her along with the names of a few people she thinks are trustworthy! Also that she loves and misses her and that she's sorry. It's all very sad.

[inthenightmods]

The Postmaster General spirit will initially be a little confused, repeatedly trying to hand back the letter (because no, alas, Alice isn't here, and they can't deliver that, so ???).

But once she makes it clear it's an in-case sort of deal, they'll take it and stow it safely away, making a little bit of a show of doing so, just to be sure she knows they're taking this seriously.

[dualikey]

player name(s): Marzi, Holly, Dubsey, Ame
character(s): Sora, Kairi, Riku, Replica Riku
area of exploration: These crafty kids have been working on a boat! But boats take time and this one isn't quite finished yet, so they've settled on a raft for their first voyage. They'll be heading east, in the opposite direction of the lighthouse, with the intention of passing the mouth of the river there and continuing as far as possible. They don't have an anchor so they'll sleep in shifts to explore, but their plan is to follow the coastline and map out the edges as far as they can go.
winters? They can go without Winters! But Sora will have asked a bare minimum of advice, with questions like: do you have any idea how far it goes? and we're not going to run into anything out there are we? Not that this will stop them. He'll also promise to do his best not to turn into a fishperson too. No offense.
notes: They're islanders who routinely took boats from their main island to a smaller island to play on as kids, without adult supervision. They've also built a raft before with the intention of setting sail and they've all traveled on their own before, they all have combat experience.

They'll be bringing drinking water and a few snacks, Sora will probably drop some crumbs over the side to see if any fish (or bubbles) come to the surface because of them. No one is injured and they've brought supplies to try and map out what they find- a map of the shoreline and a star chart, to practice using them to navigate by in conjunction with following the lighthouse.

[inthenightmods]

Winters will give Sora the following advice: "Goes all the way up to the hills, but I wouldn't try to boat down it. The river's dangerous. Sucks up anything that falls in and never spits it back out again." He does appreciate Sora's promise, though, no hard feelings. He likes you, kid.

Sora and co. can make it over to the mouth of the river without any issue! The lake is calm this time of year, so it's an easy trip.

However, when they try to navigate the raft up the river, they'll find that the current is much stronger than it looks. It's determined to push them back out onto the lake. Does the crew have anything like paddles that might help them get upriver? Assuming they're still determined to go, that is.

[replicates]

player name(s): Ame
character(s): Riku Replica
area of exploration: The river
winters? He'll be doing this during the boating trip with Sora and the others so nah
notes: The replica is interested in how deep the river is, so instead of doing the smart thing like throwing something in there, he decides to.... throw himself into it instead. He won't be taking his lantern into the water with him, but aside from trying to see how deep he can go he also wants to test how far he can be away from his lantern without any side effects. The cool thing about having Riku's memories is that he knows how to swim, and he has a lot of combat experience so he can get down and dirty with whatever nasties are in there if that becomes a thing (mostly he'll try and get away rather than actually fighting). He has a little more self preservation than a certain someone, so the second he feels something off he'll make his way back up.

Also I forgot to mention, he'll be trying to see if he can "sense" anything in the dark with his ability, if that makes any difference in terms of navigating his way underwater.

[inthenightmods]

When he scans the river, he'll get an enormous sense of danger coming from it, along with the fact it's much, much deeper than it appears.

So.

There's that.

Are you absolutely sure you want him to dive in there?

[spitefullight]

player name(s): Ceej
character(s): Elden
area of exploration: the river
winters? nope
notes: Elden is going to walk along the river and cast detect undead. He'll be able to see within the presence of Undead within 60ft of him wherever he looks. He'll be doing this to look across the water and looking into it to see if he can sense any undead. He'll also detect magic to see if there's any sort of magical auras coming from within the river or across from it since it spans about a 30 foot radius.

[inthenightmods]

Elden does not sense any undead in that area, nor does he sense any magical auras. Nothing in the river, either. Must be a perfectly normal river, I guess!

[callada]

player name(s): Lauren and Gemini
character(s): Rosinante and Cao Pi
area of exploration: Following the riverbank upriver from town
winters? No
notes: After being revived and before the graves event begins, Rosi and Cao Pi set out with basic survival gear (compass, rope, food, knife, nothing crazy here) and 1 torch with the intent of hiking upriver a day or so from town and then returning. Inspired by Mary, Rosinante has brought paint with him to mark a red blaze along the trees that they pass in case terrain makes it difficult to stick close to the river the entire way.

As a minor note, Rosinante intends to collect a few miscellaneous samples of the plants as they go, at Melisandre's request, so she can experiment with their uses for... Melisandre things.

[inthenightmods]

(Just a quick note: If Rosinante and Cao Pi are taking a torch from the bonfire, please let us know on the item requests page!)

The pair won't make it too far out of town before they notice a fork in the river, just south of the post office. One section of the river continues west while the other seems to head southeast. Rosinante and Cao Pi are on the side of the river that continues west, but hey, now you know more about the river.

As they continue further upstream, they'll start to hear an odd knocking sound that seems to be coming from near the water. A cursory investigation will reveal what looks to be some kind of rope or line caught against the rocks just above the water's surface, but it's too dark to tell what it is from a safe distance. One or both of them will have to get closer, braving the slippery, mossy rocks, to get a closer look or attempt to reach the rope.

Also, Rosinante can grab some plant samples without issue. What he finds would be typical of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but if he's looking for any particular plants, let us know!

[rehabbed]

player name(s): Alex
character(s): Jesse Pinkman
area of exploration: Church trapdoor
winters? Not immediately, although he may approach Winters about it a bit later on when he's in less freaked out mode and more in "It's time to start demanding answers" mode.
notes: So, Jesse has taken up residence in the church with Melisandre. I know Melisandre and M.K. have already done a trapdoor exploration attempt, but Jesse has been eyeing it himself, and in a spur of the moment rash decision, would nervously try to open it after listening hard for a while for any weird noises down below it. He has no superpowers, so he would use the knife Melisandre has loaned him to try and pick at any possible locks or hinges (if there are any). His main objective would be wanting to know if there are any resources down there — food, supplies, whatever — but he'd also be highly on guard that there might be something really bad down there, too.

[inthenightmods]

There are no strange noises, or any noises for that matter, when Jesse first listens at the trapdoor. The door itself, the metal one revealed by repeated attempts to get inside, has no hinges or latches or locks. Not even a handle! It does set into a rather perfectly-sized square hole in the church floor, but there's enough of a gap around the edges of the metal that Jesse could get his knife inside.

Unfortunately, this isn't enough to pry up the door.

It is, however, enough to elicit a response: the sound of quick movement up toward the other side of the door followed by a resounding bang as something slams up against it.