In the Night Moderators (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inthenightmods) wrote2018-05-09 11:11 pm
inthenightmods) wrote2018-05-09 11:11 pm
exploration
EXPLORATION
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 BUILD A STRUCTURE or ALTER THE SETTING, please fill out the form below:
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no subject
character(s): Nathan Drake, Eugene Hicks
area of exploration: The north road out of town, which runs adjacent to the church into the spooky trees and God knows what else. The intent of this effort is mostly scouting, and to satisfy the cabin fever that both characters are HELLA feeling right now. Preferably a successful venture with minimal to no death, preferably coming out of it with either newly-understood territory or any odd, interesting trinkets found along the way.
winters? Nate will ask Winters if there's anything Weird (TM) he should expect out there, thank him for whatever information they're given, but refuse the kind offer of physical assistance.
notes: Nate is an experienced explorer with orienteering and mapping skills, as well as somebody who happens to pretty well-versed in sudden, violent combat and Not Dying (the irony...). He's bringing his usual adventure satchel with the usual goodies (sketchbook, tablet, climbing piton), as well as the rope and grappling hook he keeps on his belt, and the handgun in his shoulder holster. Gene is a combat medic with a medic's gear bag, armed with a sidearm. They'll pack rations for a couple of days, not anticipating anything lengthy. If there are things to climb, they will 100% scale them
YOU CANNOT STOP THEM.no subject
If they have any particular questions they'd like to ask before heading out, let me know!
Nate and Gene will be able to follow the path north of the square, though after they pass the church, the path slowly fades away until they're wandering through the forest itself. The trees are sparse enough here that there's room for a path, though.
Eventually, that break in the trees will veer westward, and further north of that, they'll come across a barbed wire fence. The fence is rickety—essentially just a line of waist-high posts strung together with a few rows of barbed wire—and the pair could easily climb over it without injury if they chose to.
However, they'll also spot signs dangling from each segment of fence. The signs are scraps of old bark strung up with rope crudely crafted from grass and other plants, and words have been scratched into the wood in child-like handwriting. Each sign is different, but they all generally carry the same message:
DANGER! GO NOT HERE! BAD AHEAD! NO FOR YOU! BYE!
Accompanying the scribbles are drawings of teeth, angry eyes, and a lighthouse.
Would they continue beyond the fence, head west to follow the break in the trees, or do something else?
no subject
Out beyond the edge of town Nate and Gene will avoid crossing the fence with the warning signs - seems a bit rude - and will instead leave an offering: a sandwich, and a drawing of a lighthouse on a scrap of paper. They'll turn back and head west through the break in the trees instead.
no subject
As for the keeper, they seem much more cheerful. Listening to them and the way they make their noises, Gene gets a sense that they like this person. She is important to them.
And as for directions, they are simply adamant about not going toward the lighthouse.
The path that leads west, past the lighthouse peninsula, gradually turns from well-worn track to overgrown ruts. Small trees grow out of the walkway, making it difficult to keep sight of the trail itself. Eventually the "road", or what traces are left of it, comes out of the treeline to the edge (very very close to said edge) of a cliff. It's hard to see what's down there with so little light, but it's safe to assume from the faint moonlight-crested waves and the sound of splashing that it's more lake. The boys have reached the north coast, just past the lighthouse peninsula.
Unfortunately, the trail seems to end there. If it goes back into the forest, it's impossible to tell where. Maybe some of it was washed off the cliff? If Gene and Nate wish to continue, they'll have to pick a direction.
no subject
Upon reaching the dead end of the trail at the edge of the cliff, they peer over the side. There is brief deliberation but ultimately they decide to execute an exercise in rappelling to get an idea of what's along the cliff face - or at the bottom - utilizing the grappling hook and rope Nate brought with him (he will hook it either around a tree trunk, or a rock, whichever is solid, sturdy and available). In the darkness they intend to be as careful as possible, and Nate goes down the rope first with Gene following him.
no subject
And use it he can! There are several large trees near enough to use as anchors, so at least they won't fall. For that reason, anyway. Navigating sheer cliffs in the pitch dark is, as suspected, a very difficult task. There aren't a lot of hand or footholds, so getting back up is gonna be fun. As they go further down, the rock begins to get slippery. Soon after, they can feel faint sprays of water hitting their skin.
At the bottom of the cliffs, or as near as they can get, is the lake. Waves smash up against the base of the cliff, not as rough as the ocean but certainly not something you want to rappel into. They see no signs of any caves, and there doesn't even seem to be a shoreline down here, just jagged rocks carved out by the surf.
What now, boys?
no subject
Gene and Nate do an exercise in tandem climbing their way down to scope things out, get disappointed there's nothing but darkness and slick rocks, and climb back up the cliff again.
Once at the top they intend to continue west after wrapping up the rope again, and do so along the cliffside so as to not get stuck in the woods: not so close as to topple over, but to use the coast as a guide so they're not wandering in complete woodsy darkness.
no subject
Behind the platform, (so, further inland,) is a small statuary garden, featuring some interesting figures, the most prominent of which is a bronze sculpture of a woman on a pedestal. She has long hair and holds a clipboard under one arm and a flame in her outstretched hand as she looks defiantly toward the sky. It looks like there used to be an inscription underneath, but it's been violently scratched away.
The garden is overlooked by the looming facade of a very strange building. The doors are locked, but there are probably ways around that, right? ;)
no subject
The doors are locked. Gene suggests they knock, so Nate taps shave and a haircut against the wood. They wait, but if no response is forthcoming he fully intends to try a window (barring that, scaling the building for another way in.) For the time being, though, feet mostly on the ground to explore what options there are.
no subject
But nothing happens after that; no response, no sound of anything moving within.
There are no windows quite at ground level, aside from the giant ones on the Modernism side of the building. These, unfortunately, don't seem to open. On the Romanesque side, however, there are openable windows just a short climb away from the front entrance. If Nate and/or Gene make their way up the facade, they'll find these unlocked. (Guess they didn't expect anyone to go up there?)
Do the boys decide to enter that way, or try something else?
no subject
After shimmying up there like a gibbon to one of the lower windows, Nate will try to open it - if successful, he'll prop it open so Gene can follow and they'll both vault over the sill into the interior of the building.
no subject
... And then A SKELETON popped out!!!
Haha, just kidding! But it's probably at least a little bit of a spook for Gene and Nate when they find themselves suddenly face-to-face with a prehistoric monster. Thankfully it's long (long) dead, as are the other specimens in this cavernous room. If they choose to explore this hall, they'll see some very impressive displays— although some are a bit odd. Pointing their lights upward reveals a high ceiling with a massive articulation hanging from it. Looks like they've found... the skeleton room?
What a strange sort of place this is.
There appear to be three other halls, as well as a second floor. Do they continue to explore? Do they do anything else in this room?
no subject
They intend to investigate the ground floor first before moving to the upper floor, just to get a basic idea of what's in each hall, so they'll do a cursory assessment of them as opposed to a lingering one. This place is bigger than they expected.
get ready for a long response here it comessss
On the ground floor, the first hall they enter appears to be more natural history. This time it isn't bones, but taxidermy animal mounts in realistic environments. Most of the fauna depicted is fairly typical of what one might expect from this climate (moose, deer, foxes, wolves, etc.) but there are some oddities. Those can't be natural animals... right? Nothing about their displays suggests any joking, though.
The second hall is more focused on humanity— or whatever sapient species once lived here. There are stone tools, a recreation of an ancient hut, and, in a case at the back of the room, what appears to be a shriveled, blackened corpse. It... looks human, if you squint, but only if said human was flattened and turned into coal-dark leather. Spooky.
The final hall on this floor has a name: the Solis Hall. It contains a surprising array of items, each one placed behind inch-thick bulletproof glass. These items include: an unopened bag of Cheetostm (flamin' hot), a pair of jeans with four legs, something that might be a seed pod, whatever the hell this is, and some unique eyewear.
And then there's the upstairs. This floor is divided into two sections: one on rocks and geology, the other on local history. The geology wing seems fairly straightforward, with crystals and minerals and such, except, hmm, something's missing? Where there should be a specimen of plutonium, there is instead a broken pane of glass and nothing left.
The local history room features a lot of cultural artifacts and even modern art from local artists. Pretty much everything relates back to the people who lived on this land for thousands of years, with some nods here and there to influential immigrants (from countries neither of them have heard of). Nate, with his particular specialty in identifying artifacts, may note a similarity between the local culture's art style and that of the Ojibwe people of Earth.
And that's about it! The rear exit to the museum just opens onto more forest, and the place doesn't seem to have a basement or a storage space for objects not currently on display.