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

[worthallthis]

player name(s): Gail
character(s): Bucky
type of exploration: Minor
area of exploration: The woods at the edge of the village, near the gym but he'll probably wander a bit along the tree line to try and catch different spirits' attention
date(s) of exploration: 10/4-10/8, I'm just a slowass who kept forgetting to do this
notes: Matt told him that some of the spirits understand Morse code. Well, he comes from the World Wars, he knows Morse too. He's going to try and tap out some messages in Morse with a knife handle on his metal arm, once a day, for maybe an hour at a time each day. "This is a friendly" and "Do you understand this" is what he'll be starting with, repeated over and over.

[inthenightmods]

The first day, nothing happens. The second day, he seems to have attracted some sort of owl.

A soft hooting comes from the forest, though it's more pointedly bird-like than the usual spirits' noises. At first, it would be easy enough to dismiss it as inane animal chatter. It's always dark, so of course there's something out there like an owl, and of course it's making noise.

But if Bucky pays close enough attention, he'll start to notice something— the "owl" is repeating itself. Three separate calls ring out over and over, much like Bucky's code. The hoots come in two distinct flavors: the short, stuttery variety, and a longer, more sustained note. Hmm... seems like something out there might have understood him after all.

Listening closely to the spirit's message, he can make out the three letters easily: Y-E-S.

[worthallthis]

Nice. This is easier than the ocharina, when one has metal fingers that don't cover holes properly.

Of course, now it's got to figure out something to say back.

Because it's the Soldier and not somebody else, the response is: "Hello. Do you need help with anything." Always best to start with that when you're unsure, right? Of course it is.

[inthenightmods]

The response takes a moment, as if the whatever-it-is out there is processing and deciding what to "say" in return. But soon enough the hoots continue.

Hello, they say. No help. Do you.

Well, alright, their English morse code isn't perfect, but it's something!

[worthallthis]

Really? It's fine. The Soldier doesn't exactly use the best English (or Russian, or any language) all the time, either. It can work with this. (Even if a task would have been easier.)

There's a pause on this side, too, for thinking. Questions if allowed. Who are you. Name, magic, species, personality, whatever.

[inthenightmods]

Welp, guess they're both just gonna fumble this language thing at each other. It's fine.

The spirit responds with a Yes, followed by a pause. And then a different sound, a low, humming howl, a note drawn out.

These noises seem to be coming from much closer than before. And they're accompanied by a rustling in the undergrowth. Seems the spirit might be getting curious.

As if to emphasize that, its next message is Who you.

[worthallthis]

The Soldier drops to a crouch, slowly, so it's closer to the spirit's level. It commits the sound to memory, to practice later in the hopes that it can repeat it properly without offending the spirit or calling something else entirely.

It resists the urge to say "no one", and instead taps out, Soldier, and then says it out loud, since the spirit did as well, and though it doubts the spirit can say it, it should at least recognize the sound if they're going to be friendly: "Soldier. Or Soldat." Then, because this is really going well so far, it asks an important question, Are you in danger from the world eaters too.

[inthenightmods]

Soldier. The spirit repeats it. It's unclear whether or not it knows what it means or if it just sees this as a name.

No danger no. Soldier danger yes?

It even uses the signal for a question mark. Very proficient in morse code, very bad at English. You can't win 'em all.

Help yes?

The closer the spirit gets, the more its noises seem to be coming from a taller height than most of its kind. An almost human height, actually.

[worthallthis]

Okay, well. Standing back up again. Now the Soldier feels a bit foolish.

Still, it's good to know the spirits are safe. Might even explain a few things. If that is allowed. Yes. The spirits haven't done a whole lot to help so far, if things the Soldier's heard can be believed, so for all it knows it's not allowed. (And it's pretty sure they can. Like 80% sure.) And yet here's one offering. Intriguing.

[inthenightmods]

The rustling is very close now, advancing more and more until an incredibly dapper gentleman emerges from the foliage. Is that owl face its mask, or its actual head? That's an excellent question.

The spirit blinks at the Soldier a couple of times, then makes a show of looking around left to right before settling its unnerving black-eyed gaze back on him.

See no danger, it hoots.

Seems someone isn't very good at following a conversation.

[worthallthis]

Honestly, not all that unnerving. The Soldier's main reaction is something along the lines of that is so fucking cool. Humans are much more scary than owl-headed spirits, because no owl-headed spirits ever stuck it in a chair to erase its brains or cut it open.

And that answer makes it want to smile, because... yeah. It kind of understands not following a conversation very well, too. Even if that isn't very helpful, the spirit is obviously trying.

Thank you I am glad, the Soldier replies. Do you have a home close to here? Can I speak to you again?

[inthenightmods]

Fair point, Soldier, fair point. For its part, the owl spirit doesn't seem to find Bucky unnerving either. In fact, it's quite pleased when he says he wants to meet up and talk again. To show this, it clacks its beak, half-close its eyes, and wiggles its spindly fingers.

Yes home near. Come soon yes?

[worthallthis]

Just two weirdos making friends in a weird way. This is great. Yes. Please show me where to go?

[inthenightmods]

The spirit chitters again in excitement.

Here good. Remember way here yes.

[worthallthis]

Yes. I walk here every day for you to find me too.

He patrols. This is right along the edge of his usual multiple-times-daily patrol. He can always add a couple minutes lingering here to the routine, just in case.

[inthenightmods]

They nod eagerly, their head bobbling almost unsteadily as they chirp.

Yes here. Careful when come not all me.

The forest spirit's neck twists until their head is upside down, blinking at Bucky with wide, dark eyes.

Careful when not me. Some danger. Some chit-chat then chomp chomp. Chomp chomp.

They clack their beak menacingly, though obviously in show.

Some big bad.

[worthallthis]

The Soldier attempts to bend enough to at least look at the spirit sideways, since it can't manage upside down, smile tugging at its mouth. Why is that so fucking adorable. Jesus.

Will be careful. Know when to run. Can defend myself too.

The Soldier flexes the metal arm a little after it finishes tapping on it, inner mechanisms tightening with a metallic whirring noise.

And you if you ever need it.

[inthenightmods]

Careful, they emphasize, a slightly louder whistle. They like this strange human. They don't want to see him get eaten. That'd be slightly sad.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow home. Tomorrow Soldier back here home.

It's as much a question as a happy prediction-- and he'd best not oppose, because in the next instant there's an unnervingly close whooshing noise, as though something's just flown right over his head.

Bye, Soldier.

[worthallthis]

The Soldier ducks, on instinct, but then turns to watch them go.

It will come back tomorrow (patrols are every day, after all), though just to drop by and say hello, not to ask any important questions.

It will not, however, visit once the hallucinations start to really get going. Sorry, owl-person.