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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Exploration

[legalcy]

player name(s): Nara, PG, Rachel, Gail, Erica, Maniette, Psi
character(s): Minimus Ambus, Link, Javert, Bucky Barnes, Jason Grace, Alisaie Leveilleur, Fjord
area of exploration: Courthouse for MURDER
date(s) of exploration: March 11th
plan: Minimus is gathering a group of concerned citizens to fight the monsters in the courthouse because according to Link's previous encounter, they are not too willing to diplomatically let the Beaconites enter safely. He and Javert have an idea of the interior and relay it to the other fights.

For weapons, Bucky will bring his sniper rifle and Javert his handgun. Minimus can put together a makeshift battle hammer from pieces of scrap from the scrapyard, and if push comes to shove, he can use his strength to restrain the monsters.

Alisaie will serve as a distraction and lure, going inside the courthouse and leading any monsters outside, where they can be sniped at by Bucky. She also is a combo ranged magic user/melee burst damage mobility fighter.

Javert's leg is injured and he's only able to get around using a cane. he'll have his lantern with him as well as his sword and his pistol, and he'll be keeping his distance from the spirits when they come out of the courthouse. he'll mainly be using his pistol, which is semiautomatic and can shoot seven rounds at a time, aiming for their heads and mouth, should it open. If it gets too close, then he'll try to skewer it with his sword, aiming again for its head.

Jason Grace has his lightning magic and Fjord can use some long-range magic if needed. Link will be a close range combat fighter, and Minimus will remain outside to keep the monsters from going too far into the city and to avoid damaging the interior of the building with his fighting.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes

cw: descriptive gore, burns, death

[inthenightmods]

The plan works up to a point! The creature that Rosalind and Javert had trapped upstairs has long since broken free, so it's a trio of creatures Alisaie lures outside-- but once they see what awaits them, they aren't very happy.

Because, see, those clever bullets Bucky and Javert are firing don't seem to be doing too much. They hit, of course, but the spirits' thick, black bodies seems to simply make the rounds disappear, flesh rippling before stilling once more. Fjord uses his magic, and Alisaie joins him after a moment, and the bullets are still firing away and it's at that very moment that Link realizes and yells to the others that the spirits' bodies aren't just deflecting all that power.

They're eating it.

All that raw energy has to go somewhere, after all. And it's so hard to see in the dark, but the spirits seem . . . bigger in the flickering of the torchlight. Their limbs stretched out unnaturally, their torsos swelling, their blank doll's face of a mask weaving slowly upwards through the darkness as they stare at the creatures that try to fight back.

They're so, so hungry, see. And that little snack hadn't really done much.

Their throats split. Their tongues loll out.

And then there's a lot of blood.

They're quick as a flash, going from one person to another, teeth-- and there are so many teeth, long and wickedly sharp, built to tear and rip and kill-- ripping into flesh like it's made of paper. Within thirty seconds both Link and Alisaie are missing large chunks of their legs, blood pouring out; Fjord is next, as the creature's tongue whips out, catching him in the stomach and breaking three ribs. He's slammed back into the tree Bucky is perched in-- and that wouldn't be so bad, except suddenly the spirit is rushing after him. He ducks in time, the spirit slams into the tree-- but he's left howling in pain, as the saliva from these creatures burns. It digs at the wounds (and by now Link and Alisaie have discovered this), pries at them, burns the flesh back further, exposing the wound to the air by force. It won't stop until they've second-degree burns covering the area afflicted.

But ah, the tree. It's not particularly strong, and that last crash from the spirit sends it toppling. Bucky's quick about moving, which is why he lands on his feet. But sniper rifles aren't really all that useful in close range-- and yet still he fires an impressive number into the spirit's white mask. It cracks, and they falter-- but it's no use. Not a breath later and they rush towards him, limbs snaring him, holding him still, and then there's a maw opening wide, gaping blackness and teeth teeth teeth and an awful crunch--

Bucky dies.

Jason and Javert, untouched for now, rush into the fray: Javert with his sword, ducking in close, slashing as many vulnerable areas as he can. There's electricity in the air, a rumble of thunder, a crack that's far too loud as lightning strikes down, sinking through the creature's flesh and attacking within. They stumble, lurching to the left, and Javert strikes swiftly: stabbing forward and piercing within their mouth, dragging his sword through the thick flesh.

Heroism has a price, though: that acidic saliva is no joke. As he lands the finishing blow, his hands, arms, his torso-- all are badly burned, the scent of charred flesh thick in the air. Even as they die, the creature writhes towards him, mouth opening and shutting feebly in an attempt to swallow one last meal before they die.

Meanwhile: of the other two spirits, one had tried to rush into town. Tried being the keyword, but then there's Minimus with his hammer, which stuns the creature nicely. Before he can attack again, Link comes to the rescue: bleeding, burned, but still he manages to take advantage of the spirit's dizziness and thrust his sword into its gaping mouth. Much like Javert, he doesn't escape unscathed: his hands, arms, and torso are badly burned.

And then there was one.

Fjord and Alisaie are easy prey, after all. One's stunned and the other's bleeding out, and sometimes all you really want is an easy meal. They rush towards Alisaie, and all seems lost, right up until Fjord casts his magic, and then it becomes apparent this was planned (or at the very least, that two warriors understood this ploy without having to speak it aloud). Alisaie strikes, and it works, it does-- but not before the creature manages to sink their teeth deep into her shoulder. They snarl and tear, but the movements only drive the blade in deeper, until at last the pain is too much, and their corpse falls next to Alisaie.

She has just enough time to realize she'd accomplished her goal before she dies.

The spirits are dead, but so are two of their companions. The others can make it back to town if they'd like, or continue to explore the now empty courthouse.

[legalcy]

The group will first tend to the wounded by carrying them to the hotel and Fjord asking Sora who asks Misty to come over and heal them. Once they're ready, they will go inside the courthouse to explore.

Javert will get his and Rosalind's shoes and check out the courtroom (the door was closed the last time they were there). Fjord is looking for public records or personal/personnel files to find something out about the people who lived and worked here. Minimus is looking for legal documents on the town's historical borders, government systems, and laws.

[inthenightmods]

Alas, before they can go forward, they have to get past the barricade holding the courtroom door closed! Not the one Rosalind and Javert made, mind-- but rather, the one behind those locked doors.

There's still someone snuffling around, see. And we do mean snuffling: Javert, Minimus, and Fjord will be able to hear the sounds of something medium sized sniffing at the crack of the door. It sniffs and sniffs-- and then, a little haughtily, whistles out a question over and over.

It takes a little bit of translating, but sooner or later, they'll understand: the spirit is asking if those other spirits are dead. They were trying to eat them, see, and so they locked themselves in, because who wants to go through that? But if they're dead, fantastic.

. . . but, hm, maybe these lantern-bearers could help? In fact: by the power vested in them, they demand they three help get all these benches and so on out of the way somehow. Yes, there's still a door between them, yes, there's a good deal of furniture there, but figure it out.

[legalcy]

Link will set his lantern aside to turn into a wolf to communicate with the spirit. Javert will join Fjord in sitting back and overseeing the removal of the benches to make sure they don’t fall on anyone. Jason, Link, and Minimus will be in charge of carrying those benches out one by one and stacking them away from the doors.

[inthenightmods]

So sorry about the delay on this!

Once the group makes it through the doors, they'll find... a courtroom! Makes sense, given that this is a courthouse. The courtroom is in fairly good condition, but the judge's office beyond is a hot mess. Some kind of large animal has been nesting in there, it seems. The furniture is all piled up to form a makeshift burrow, and all of the legal books have been shredded, their pages carpetting the floor like bedding. It's quite cozy.

But the group's investigation is interrupted by the sharp banging of a gavel. At the head of the room, a wispy, ghost-like forest spirit curls up from the judge's chair. They float in a swirl around the chair, settling atop the back in a pile of black robes and shimmering blue fur. Their tail twitches in a puff behind them.

The gavel bangs again, this time against the wood of the chair. All rise for Skunk Judge!

Bright eyes blink from behind their mask, and they hoot out a speech that sounds very official, even if its exact meaning is lost on their audience. Link, however, will be able to get the gist:

Skunk Judge super appreciates these lantern-haverses heroism in liberating them from those terrible forest spirits with the long bad mouths! As a token of appreciation, Skunk Judge would like to bestow up them... THE KEY TO THE CITY!!!

Specifically, this key is small and rusty and old and... moist? With some variety of grime? Ew. In any case, Skunk Judge whips THE KEY TO THE CITY!!! directly at Javert's forehead. Apparently he looks the most qualified for receiving keys to cities.

If asked, no, the Skunk Judge does not know what THE KEY TO THE CITY!!! is meant to open. Who says it has to open anything? It's a key to the city.

In other words, you're on your own.

With that, the honorable Skunk Judge swirls down from their perch and resumes their place in their chair, fishing a pair of reading glasses from the air so that they can carefully read through a stack of legal documents on their judgely desk. Oh, hm, you're still here? Go away, please, Skunk Judge is very busy.

[legalcy]

Javert will take the key. Minimus will drop to his knees and mourn the destruction of paperwork for a few days.