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

[shadowsran]

player name(s): Raven, Gail
character(s): Misty, Soldat
area of exploration: Owl Friend's....meet spot? And mystery coordinates.
date(s) of exploration: Ahhhh we'll say, like, the 12th
plan: Misty's trying to cash in on her GPS coordinates from Pluto! Took her a hot minute but she's going with 'it's spirit language prolly', and rather than just...running around playing it at some poor soul trying to go about their own day, she roped Soldat in and they're gonna see if his Owl Friend can guide them - or, failing that, direct them to a spirit that could. Misty will snag a torch for the road and bring along what she considers a modest Winter Explorin' Kit (two days' food and water per person - which is a lot in A Certain Soldier's Case - one warm change of clothes per person, ice picks, one hand saw, one shovel, one hatchet, compass, basic first aid kit, one walking stick per person, rope), clearly hoping this will be some immediate journey start. And coffee, to thank Owl Friend for assistance, whether they themselves come through or not.

Soldat is...always a little armed to the teeth, much hardier than the average person, first aid knowledge, bona fide murder machine, great dancer. Misty's got magic, great for healing and capable of both offensive and defensive use. Telekinesis alone is...pretty versatile. (And on a specific note regarding teleportation - in any absolutely dire pinch, she won't be above grabbing Soldat and yanking that lifeline right back to town. Needing another attempt is better than a dead Soldat.)

Not much by way of a specific plan, as they don't know their destination! Misty's just aiming to scope it out, see if hopefully it's someplace possessing a rare resource to lowkey load up on before sharing any news. Or just something really cool? She wouldn't turn her nose up at fun. If there's anything worth immediate investigation, ferreting about as necessary.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? We're gonna get our money's worth with these coordinates or DIE TRYING

[inthenightmods]

Oh! Oh oh oh! Owl Friend is very pleased to see Friend Soldier! And Friend Soldier's Friend! So many friends! Wow! And then the coffee is gone, when did Owl Friend even get ahold of it, it's a mystery, they were thirsty.

When they play the audio file for the spirit, they perk up, chittering happily.

Yes! We go! Stump stump stump stump stump—

It's a repeated refrain as Owl Friend skitters off into the forest. Hurry up, Soldat and Misty! They're quick on their feet, and they have no trouble navigating through the dark woods.

Every so often, Owl Friend does pause to wait for the lantern-havers to catch up, should they need it. They'll be at this a while, in fact, and at times they even seem to be going in circles... It's a dizzying way to spend an afternoon, but after a couple of hours, they arrive...

at the stump.

It's a cute little stump, all covered in mushrooms and moss, gently glittering with bioluminescence. Snowdrops peak out of the snow around it, and the gap in the trees overhead is just perfect for viewing the full moon—wait, is the moon full today? It looms awfully large overhead. Huh.

As the trio steps into the clearing, the forest comes alive with all the wonderful sounds of a winter's night, owls hooting overhead and the faint trickle of a stream somewhere nearby, the breeze playing over the snow... Large, beautiful moths alight from the stump, scattering up into the night sky around them.

Left sitting atop the stump: three small, glowing bottles, which Owl Friend insists that they take. Attached to each bottle is a label with neatly inked instructions.

The first bottle: "The contents of this bottle will heal one fatal wound if applied generously."

The second bottle: "The contents of this bottle will make one forget the past 24 hours if ingested." The liquid inside is colorless and lacks flavor, but it smells slightly burnt.

The third bottle: "The contents of this bottle will trade life for death if ingested." The liquid inside is black and has the consistency of cough syrup. It smells and tastes like pine and mud, although somehow, it's not altogether unpleasant. The imbiber will feel satisfied after drinking it.

...So let us know if you want to use that last one at any time! OOCly, we'll warn you that it will not allow characters to sacrifice their life for another's, as the instructions may imply. Who knows what it does! 🤷‍♀️

Each bottle contains one dose of the described potion, and they will work as promised! Soldat and Misty will feel sure of this as well, as they are safe and at peace in this part of the forest, here with Owl Friend at the stump. It's a lovely day.

When they're ready to leave, Owl Friend will lead them back to town—which, huh, it only takes a few minutes to return to Bonfire Square. Where the heck were they? No matter how hard Soldat and Misty attempt to retrace their steps or return to the spot where the stump was, they'll never be able to find it.

But at least they had a nice afternoon with... the stump... uwu...

[shadowsran]

STUMP STUMP STUMP STUMP

(Danke, and noted!!)

[worthallthis]

(Soldat loves you, Owl Friend <3 )