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

[inthenightmods]

Unfortunately, the group's attempts at diplomacy seems to fall on deaf ears. While the crocodiles don't outright attack, the sentiment of allowing any of them to come outside seems to be met with a repeated round of:

AWAY GO AWAY AWAY GO GO GO AWAY

They're not feeling it. Fortunately, Sora and Misty will be successful in moving them! They won't lunge or grow violent during the moving process, and once they've all ultimately been relocated, they seem to quickly accept the Tunnel of Love as their new territory! This does, of course, mean that there will be no canoodling on said ride, and warnings should probably be given before someone discovers this the hard way.

As no crocodiles are hurt in the process of this explore, the group is free to continue forward! Will they do so, or choose instead to call it a day with their current success?

[callada]

Hooray, crocodile safety! We oughta get some wildlife girl scout badges or something in here.

There will probably be signs put up at some point and certainly a network mention of the toothy hazard but for now, onward! The group would definitely like to try and explore as much of this area as is possible.

The area is flooded, but Jason and Sora can fly, and most others can swim to explore. Daylight can power things with his arc energy if they come across interesting devices that might function temporarily with power just to see what they are. Rosinante is utterly useless if he's in contact with as much as 3-4 feet of standing water, so he will stand guard at the stairs with his guns and watch for movement while the others explore the area. Misty, Daylight, and Prompto will prioritize searching the tech shop (and Rosinante has requested they look out for computer components along with whatever else they find), while Jason, Sora, and Fjord will search the not-REI.

If they need a quick escape, Fjord can pull a Moses and use his Control Water spell to part the water in a trench 100 ft long so they can run back toward the stairs. Daylight can probably just like, pick up Misty and Prompto over each shoulder and quarterback run honestly. Sora can also freeze the water if it comes in handy but it's a slow process.

[inthenightmods]

Unfortunately, the group will find that the entrance to the tech shop is actually currently locked! Perhaps they could look around a bit more and then double back; surely the key can't be too far?

As for the not-REI, just to be clear, is this in reference to the recreational shop? If so, they'll quickly discover the source of the flooding (and likely the source of the crocodiles). It looks like a large aquarium had shattered, and the water source continues to run, shooting water out into the surrounding area. A few shopkeeper spirits have sequestered themselves on top of high shelves inside the store, and wave and scream out frantically when they see the group of explorers enter to investigate.

They seem relieved! They must have been having just as much trouble getting past the crocodiles as everyone else.

[callada]

Haha yes, sorry, "outdoor recreation" I took for an REI equivalent. Anyway, as Daylight can't get in to the tech shop but hears all this going on, he will call out to the shopkeepers and ask if they know where the pump or valve or some way to turn off the flow of the water is. Fjord, meanwhile, can easily go and actually get to wherever that is - he's fast in water and can breathe in it with no trouble (and can enable other people to do so with his water breathing spell, again, if this is a multiple person job to turn it off and if it is itself underwater at this point).

The others (excluding Rosinante who is still stuck on the stairs, chilling with a cigarette) will look for the tech shop key, expecting that the janitor's room probably has a copy.

[inthenightmods]

Excellent, thank you! Unfortunately, the spirits don't seem to be very much help. They try to help, mind you, but just sort of end up screaming contradicting things over one another, leading to one indiscernible mess that isn't worth translating. The good news is that Fjord will be able to find the source of the problem with relative ease once he's in the water, as well as any helping hands he might require: it looks like a pipe has burst! They'll have to come up with a way to repair or at least block it off.

Meanwhile, as the others explore the janitor's closet, at first it appears to have little more than what one would generally expect. Cleaning supplies and tools are stored here, much of which is now sopping wet. Someone's foot is bound to come into contact with something on the floor, underwater, though, that feels promising. Anyone who dives down to retrieve it will find...ta-da! A key! It isn't labeled, but they're free to try it on the tech shop to see if it's what they're looking for.

[callada]

Okay. Daylight is going to do his best to talk with the spirits and calm them down to try and lessen the shrieking. Meanwhile, Fjord will give Sora a piggyback ride over to the pipe and point out where it is (as Sora cannot swim) and then cast Control Water to part the water at the site of the break, which will keep the new water at bay and give Sora a dry spot to stand. Sora will provide a temporary fix by freezing the water inside the pipe so it stops leaking. Hopefully it stays shut long enough for them to look around, but none of them feel great about doing some serious plumbing work right now so they'll have to send someone later to provide a more permanent fix.

Meanwhile, the other group is trying to see if it looks like water has already flooded into the tech shop - is the door transparent, are there windows, does it feel like there's a current going underneath the door? If it's already clearly flooded they'll try the door but if they can't tell, or if it's obvious the interior is still (mostly) dry, they would rather wait so as to not let a flood of water into a bunch of electronics.

[inthenightmods]

With the water fixed for now, the water begins to still! It doesn't seem that it's able to drain on its own, but the level won't grow any higher or spread any father, so that's definitely a positive. The shopkeepers give the group a round of applause! If they give a harder look around the shop, disregarding the standing water, they'll find it stocked with fishing gear, camping gear, climbing gear, hunting gear (such as backpacks, vests, and thermoses, but lacking anything that could be conceived as a weapon), sports equipment, and other such goods!

The other group will be able to determine that, yes, unfortunately, the water has flooded straight through into the tech shop long before they arrived, so there's no reason to hesitate. It's quite clear once they enter that the existing equipment inside is completely unable to be salvaged. Before they can be too discouraged, however, a spirit swaggers out from where it was keeping dry to hop its way closer at the main desk. The masked creature is bird-like and particularly, um, top-heavy?

They chirp a somewhat sultry greeting to the explorers, apologizing for the mess but seeming grateful to have business! They tell the group that if they can find a way to drain out the water, they can get their shop back up and running, and will make it worth their while, whatever that means.

[callada]

Got it! All good finds, shame about the unsalvageable tech.

This group scratches their collective heads, but fixing the pipe and draining the water might be a job for someone with actual plumbing equipment on hand or some different magical skills. Their goal was primarily to get rid of the crocodiles and they did that successfully! Time to head out and let another group figure out what to do about all this water. Catch you later, sultry grouse spirit!