In the Night Moderators (
inthenightmods) wrote2018-05-09 11:11 pm
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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.
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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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character(s): bruce wayne
type of exploration: minor? maybe major? please advise OTL
area of exploration: village and outward
notes: bringing supplies or torches? bruce has been staying in the museum doing nerd things up till now, but rastus has been kind enough to provide him with a metal detector and bruce has been making some diligent notes. he's started drafting a map of the town and has brought a length of rope and home home made rigging with him.
he's looking specifically for railway tracks on the belief that a mining town would house miners, who were unlikely to stay in the town hotel. he'll start his search in the village and slowly fan his way outward. he's trying to locate tracks, carts, rails, or even mining supplies- but he's also only making a preliminary run. he isn't about to follow anything he might find all on his own, he knows he's unprepared. he will alternate between tying one end of his rope to a tree and using it to walk into the woods, then to follow back out, casing the area for anything that might ping.
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wheeze I'm sorry I was trying to be Prepared
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As Bruce makes his circle of the village area, he won't encounter much trouble from the forest spirits. Maybe the dangerous ones stay further out in the woods? (Or maybe they just took a day off.) Whatever the case, all he'll see are bugs here and there in the light of his lantern. He's wise to anchor himself, because that means he won't get lost if the forest decides to play tricks. He's able to make it back to his base tree each time by following the rope.
And eventually... he gets a hit! To the northeast of the village, his metal detector pings on something beneath the soft forest soil. And then on something else just a few feet away from the first thing. Hmm, curious!
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Bruce has elected not to go charging forward by himself and is instead bringing Jason Grace and Vanitas along. Their dubious motley crew will head out after the hallucinations have ended (because the three of us plan to log this based around whatever- unfolds here) and the plan is as follows:
They will not bring torches, but they will have their ocarinas and they'll take lengths to mute the light of their lanterns. He has a few snacks, drinking water, and a first aid kit strapped to his back because he's neurotic. Bruce is also bringing climbing supplies for the three of them and a whole lot of rope, as well as the metal detector, and tools to draw up a map as they go along. They're going to use the same process as before- tethering themselves to trees with rope as they head in to explore whatever the pings were- and then if possible, to follow them.
No one is injured or otherwise impaired! All three are skilled combatants- Jason can fly and Vanitas can navigate in the dark. Bruce is baseline human and they're probably sharing his braincell.
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The pings continue along a parallel path, so it's safe to assume they're connected in some way. It's probably pretty safe to assume they're some sort of tracks, actually, being that they're always evenly spaced. As the trio follows, continuing northeast into the forest, they will occasionally see glimpses of metal rails peeking out from the earth and pine needles. Here and there they can even catch sight of a rotted wooden plank between them. Assuming these are railroad tracks, nobody's used them in a long, long time.
The trail leads them right up to the banks of the river, where the remains of an old bridge jut out over the water. Unfortunately, there's a five-foot gap in said bridge, with only a few decaying beams left on the opposite shore. It could be possible to shuffle out and try to jump the gap, but it's difficult to say how sturdy any of this structure still is.
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Bruce will stop just long enough to take a few measurements, to see how buried the tracks are in some places and to take soil samples. But the group as a whole will continue to follow them until reaching the bank of a river. After hearing about the dangers presented by dipping toes into the last river they elect to avoid interacting with the water entirely and just focus on getting to the other side.
Vanitas uses his dark portals to teleport first and appear on the other side of the bridge instead of trying to test the planks. And Jason does a marvelous impression of the Magic School Bus, carrying Bruce across as he flies. They'll have tied off their ropes to follow on the way back and from here on will need to mark the path a different way. Bruce will try to do this by using some of the flame from his lantern to leave small burn marks in tree trunks as they go.
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In any case, it's difficult to say whether this is the same river they were warned about, so it's a good call to avoid being careless. They make it to the other side without being swallowed by anything, though there is a bit of a churning splash in the water as Jason and Bruce pass over. It's probably nothing.
Bruce can try to make scorch marks on the trees with his lantern flame, and while the fire doesn't catch on the bark, it does produce heat, so with some patience he'll be able to do it. It won't feel entirely pleasant, though. The flame touching the trees almost seems as if some inner part of him is being prodded. It's not exactly painful, but it's deeply uncomfortable for sure.
The journey takes a long, long time. Most of a "day", in fact. The trio sees nothing but more tracks and more trees, until, rather suddenly— a path! They've stumbled upon a sort of trail through the forest, which goes both east and west. Assuming they've been map-making as Bruce intended, they'll realize they're roughly in longitude with Bonfire Square. If they turn left on this path, they'll probably end up there.
Additionally, the tracks continue north. For that matter, they probably also continue south, back where the trio started, if they wish to backtrack.
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They'll set up a small camp as the day wears on, once they get to the giant fork in the road, and discuss their options that night. Sleeping in shifts.
In the 'morning' they elect to keep following the tracks north and set off fresh.
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During the night, their camp remains relatively safe, perhaps due to the vigilance of each one keeping watch. Whoever's on second shift, however, will hear some high-pitched chittering in the trees above. Is it birds? Is it monkeys? The only thing that's certain is that it isn't just bugs. Thankfully it passes before "morning", but it's pretty unsettling for the duration.
As they group travels north they'll begin to notice a strong scent on the breeze. It's like deep mud and rot and cold rock, and it comes with a whooshing, rushing sound. There's a hint of... what's that? Dead fish, maybe?
Oh. It's the lake. Quite suddenly, they've reached the shore of the lake. They can see the hulking black shape of the ore dock to their left. They're near the pier where the ferry... used to stop, but this area's a bit different. In the water between the ore dock and the beach, where the tracks end, is a series of wooden posts that they can just make out by the moonlight.
Clearly, something ore-related must've been brought here via those tracks...
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Before setting off again, are they able to see the lighthouse from where they are and get some idea of their location in conjunction with it? For mapmaking purposes.
Assuming that nothing looks out of the ordinary, when their backtracking returns them to the strange fork (https://inthenightmods.dreamwidth.org/1212.html?thread=642748#cmt642748) where they decided to follow the tracks, they'll elect to follow the path instead, since they're here. Instead of using the route that would likely return them towards town, they go in the opposite direction instead- using the ropes to navigate and taking a break on leaving scorch marks on those trees.
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Since it's now been discovered, they may have some idea that this path leads out to the river, and beyond that, to the Armory. Would they still like to go this way, or would they prefer to follow the railroad tracks south?
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So far so good on the maybe-monkey situation; nothing seems to be out there screeching right this moment. They'll hear the occasional rustle of branches and dead leaves, but that's probably just the wind, right?
Heading south past their original starting point, they'll have to cross the river once more, but they seem to be old hat at that by now. What awaits them beyond, following the buried tracks, is deeper, thicker forest. At times, the metal becomes harder to trace, rusted away in places by years of disuse and the ravages of nature. Eventually, they'll get to a point where it seems like they should stop and camp once more, but, hmm... there's something poking its head out from the trees up ahead.
Looking up, they might at first mistake the hulking form for one of the more terrifying spirits, but a careful inspection reveals that it's not a head at all, but some sort of metalwork. A thin, slanted tower, perhaps? But there's also something dangling from its end, a massive hook on cables.
They could reach it before they get too exhausted, but they're always welcome to stay the night in the forest. With the. Er. "Wind".
Question!
If it is “wind” or something to do with “wind” that is odd, Jason would probably figure that out. Wind magic/power and knowing the winds is kind of his thing. So he would be paying extra attention to that.
So, I guess to make this a question: would he be able to eliminate "that's just the wind" as a possibility?
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As it turns out, that happens to be a tall, chain-link fence, reinforced with plates of corrugated steel. There's razor wire at the top, but Jason could probably fly high enough to avoid it. Or they could simply explore the perimeter, where they'll eventually find a set of chained-up gates. And beyond that...
Cars. Cars, cars, and more cars, a sea of cars, and not a one of them looks like it's in working condition. If they break the lock or otherwise enter the fence, they'll discover plenty of other scrap as well, including the bones of a rusted-out boat hull.
Somewhere in the midst of all that is a garage-like building, and parked next to it, towering over the whole, is a massive crane. Ah, so that's what that huge shadow was.
So long as they manage to enter the fence, the boys will escape their pursuers— for now, at least. But who knows what might be lurking inside the fence. Do they wish to explore further?
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In the 'morning' they'll split up to look for supplies, equipment, and clues without traveling too far from each other. Bruce specifically will be looking for records, papers, photographs- anything that might contextualize this place they've discovered focusing mostly on the garage area and the boat. Vanitas's unversed will be able cover more ground for them- rooting through cars while Vanitas himself will be doing a great impression of that kid sent to summer camp who doesn't want to be there. So long as there aren't any weird doors to open or mysterious buttons to push he'll probably keep his shit-stirring to a blessed minimum. Jason, as their resident superman will definitely get asked to fly up and check out that crane. Sorry dude.
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While looking for clues, Bruce will locate an office within the building, probably the main "front" of whatever this business was (this is where the gumball machine is located). On the wall is a very faded calendar with sexy pinups on every month (not just women, either). The year is hard to make out due to the age and the mold, but it definitely starts with a 1 and ends with a 0. The way the months and days are arranged matches the Gregorian calendar. Inside the drawers of a desk, and scattered over its surface, are stacks of yellowed papers, most of which are too washed-out to read.
The few that Bruce can make out seem to be invoices and bills. One is from a utility company, charging for electricity. Another is documentation of the sale of an old boat to this business; the boat was once called "The Seaduction", but at the time the document was written, it was considered to be in junk condition, having run aground. There are a few more papers that detail the release of impounded vehicles from the local police to the junkyard. Because that seems to be what this place was: a junkyard.
As for the cars, they're not of much use. There might be a few bucks of change in the various cup-holders and glove compartments, but mostly they're just scrap. A few look like they could run with a little work and some gas, but the grand majority are totaled. If Vanitas wants to push buttons, he can play around with the car lift.
And as for the crane, it seems to be the thing in best condition here. The arm is thoroughly covered in a layer of rust, but the controls are all unharmed, and the keys can be found in the office. If you could find some fuel for the thing, you could probably get it to work. And then you could... hook... stuff? Listen, it's cool even if it's not very useful.
Of course, all of this motion and noise in the typically-silent junkyard seems to summon something sleeping there: a junkyard dog. A very large junkyard dog, more the size of a pony than a pit bull. The raggedy creature has a mask like any other spirit, and a chain that drags behind it. And it doesn't seem too pleased to see visitors. The first to encounter it would be Vanitas, most likely, and though he won't be attacked, he'll certainly be barked and growled at.
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Vanitas will freeze at first when he sees the spirit dog, but it doesn't look like the ones that attacked him, nor like almost anything else he's seen. What makes him pause is that chain. Vanitas might have broken emotions but he can recognize a kindred spirit (no pun intended). After the initial fear, he'll summon an Unversed in the shape of a more normal sized dog and send it forward to greet the spirit. It'll approach almost nervously, but very much like a puppy interacting with a grown dog, meeting it for the first time while Vanitas watches from a careful distance.
Bruce will unfortunately now have an interest in finding the tragically named "The Seaduction" among the other junk that's found its way here. He'll collect what he can of what's legible so that he can look over it later, including the calendar and the invoices. He'll also collect a few supplies for mechanical repairs. And then, because it seems like the thing to do on his way out- he'll return to the gumball machine and wedge the slot open, manually loosening the crank inside to take all the gum. He hopes Selina would be proud.
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Meanwhile, the dog spirit doesn't seem to have anticipated this move. It does the classic Dog Head-Tilt, then sniffs at the newcomer. It lowers itself a bit and nuzzles at the smaller dog, doing the dog greeting thing. It whines a bit, but it does stop growling. So far so good, and then...
Well, good news, seems like the spirit-dog is okay with another dog. Its tail wags slightly and it sits.
As for Bruce, his search for The Seaduction won't take him too long— it's the old boat hull that's laid up on blocks. Hope you've had your afterlife tetanus shot, Bruce. Not just because of the rusty boat; who knows how long that gum's been sitting in there?
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Vanitas isn't sure what he expected. Maybe for the spirit to attack because the Unversed are far from what might be considered normal. Does this mean the spirit recognizes his creatures as something familiar? The dog-Unversed drops to its belly and inches forward, almost dwarfed by the spirit— and watching them Vanitas is reminded of another spirit that treated him without cruelty. He hesitates, then takes a few steps forward- no where near close enough to touch but certainly making his presence known. The littler Unversed puts one oddly shaped leg forward to touch the spirit's paw.
Bruce will be less interested in following the Unversed than he will be in seeing if he can get inside the sad old boat and rummage around the same way he had in the office of the junkyard.
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If he's looking for it, the ship does still have its engine, rudder, and propellers, but the whole system doesn't seem to be anywhere near working condition.
Back with the dog spirit, the big beast leans down to give the Unversed's head a little lick on the top. Like a mother grooming a puppy. It then glances over toward Vanitas, tilting its head slightly once more, as if to ask what he's doing, or why he's there.
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Bruce, no stranger to discomfort, will take his time moving through the hull and will take the ships logs with him before climbing back out and meeting up with Jason- where they both head towards Vanitas and his New Friend.
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