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.

QUICKNAV
comms	|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

[evulsed]

player name(s): king
character(s): Vanitas
area of exploration: off the edge of the map/this world's Dark Realm
date(s) of exploration: after the aurora, before the ferry comes in

plan: Vanitas is going to try to go out over out and across the lake, far to the other side that none of them can see. He is low-key on the hunt for a World Eater— not to fight it, just to find it, to see what they're up against, and to see if maybe it's a creature of Darkness the way he is. First he'll be using a Corridor of Darkness to get across the lake. His vague target for this is the crater he believes must exist out there from the nuclear attack on the World Eater. Wherever his corridor ends up actually connecting, Vanitas will keep himself shrouded in Darkness so that he can fly around and explore as much as quickly as possible. Depending on what he finds and what he meets, it may change what he does and what route he'll take to get back into Beacon (if he gets back at all, assuming he doesn't just... die immediately)

Factors he will take into account:
- knowing that he might find anything over there, and that his corridor might not connect to what he wants it to find
- he will be the only source of light and will take precautions to hide his lantern in a bag, tied around his waist
- if he encounters something and he thinks he can escape, he won't take a direct route back to Beacon because he doesn't want to lead anything back to the town. he would hop around with Corridors until he loses his tail
- piggybacking off of that, he will use his Darkness to hide his lantern and prevent his light from being tracked if he gets the chance to flee. the only reason he doesn't do this from the start is because he knows there's a time limit to how long he can cover his fire with Darkness before it has the potential to kill him by snuffing the light out

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? yes. unless! this is going to make Vanitas Dead for Real, as in his lantern can't be recovered and render him unplayable. lmk if that's the case and i'll retract the explore!

[inthenightmods]

Vanitas opens up a Corridor of Darkness to travel across the lake, and off he goes! Though, hm, as he travels, he'll find that his lantern begins to dim. The effect doesn't seem to have anything to do with distance traveled, as even if Vanitas stops or turns back, his lantern will continue to dim at the same slow but steady rate until he's out of the corridor. Huh.

What's more is that not long before Vanitas reaches his destination, he'll be forced to stop by a deafening drone that suddenly echoes through the Corridor of Darkness. It's impossibly loud, so loud that one of his eardrums will rupture.

Next comes the cold. A wall of frozen air swings over him like a spotlight, not so much a gust of air as a concentrated beam that negates all heat inside of it. Vanitas will feel his skin prickling painfully, and any exposed flesh will succumb to frostbite if he remains in the cold for more than a minute or two. Luckily, the beam of cold seems to be the on the move, swinging this way and that through the corridor as the horrible sound blares on.

The other end of the Corridor of Darkness isn't far ahead, but is it even worth pressing on? Certainly it will come with some significant risks, though we promise not to perma-kill him. :)

(also just to be extra clear - don't read into the title of that vid it's a coincidence not a clue!!!!)

[evulsed]

Vanitas chooses to continue on, but mostly because he knows he's closer to the exit than the entrance and he's pretty worried about his lantern going out. He's hoping it'll perk up once he's out. Depending on the distress he encounters on the other side, he'll also try to self-heal his ear with magic if he gets the chance once he's out. But he's very likely to flee back through the corridor instead of stay and confront anything he finds after that experience. Also note he will still be keen not to lead anything back to Beacon!

[inthenightmods]

The sound drones on and the cold continues to search for him, but Vanitas doesn't make it very far before two forest spirits attack him. They will block his path to the other side of the corridor and will chase him back to the other end, swatting with hooked tentacles that will readily tear any piece of flesh they manage to connect with.

Any further injuries or death is up to you, but Vanitas' lantern will dim until he passes out and wakes up on the beach, back in Beacon.