inthenightmods: (Default)
In the Night Moderators ([personal profile] inthenightmods) wrote2018-05-09 11:11 pm

exploration


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:



To BUILD A STRUCTURE or ALTER THE SETTING, please fill out the form below:



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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evulsed: (9)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-14 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
player name(s): king
character(s): vanitas
area of exploration: hozier are u home
date(s) of exploration: dec 13/14ish... sometime while everyone is busy with the night market
notes: he still comes here pretty often, but its different this time. maybe because he died again and he knows it was her. maybe because he felt what Bruce did, when he lost his friend. he'd sounded the way Vanitas had, when he lost Sora. he's never seen her come up, not after he destroyed the church, and he considers doing it again, without knowing how else to get her attention. instead, he stands over the trap door for some time, before going to the altar. he blows on one of the candles, like he might try to put out the flame.
evulsed: (59)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-15 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
He turns to look for her, but of course sees nothing. Without any real witness, his shoulders sink with visible disappointment. He wants—

well, what he wants has never really mattered.

"Did you change me when you brought me back this time?" He's maybe not even that interested, but is desperate to hear she's there.
evulsed: (27)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-16 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe he should be more upset about this idea, but he says: "I've always been less than whole."

Which might have been almost boastful, if he were talking to anyone else. Instead, there's a sort of melancholy in it. He turns around to face the candles, following the flicker, trying to follow where she might be.

evulsed: (81)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-18 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
His heart leaps into his throat when he spots the tell tale glow, but its excitement instead of fear. Both hands curl into fists at his sides, an effort to keep still.

"I've accepted my fate. I know what I am."

A beat.

"Someone I know had a dream about this church when the spirits attacked. A vision from the past."
evulsed: (63)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-22 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
She speaks in a very formal way, which is another thing that only soothes him. The cadence is familiar enough without rubbing him the wrong way and reminding him too heavily of his Master.

"He said they went into the past. The church was whole, until it wasn't." Vanitas' yellow eyes are trained on the unblinking lights, as though afraid that if he looks away the evidence of her will disappear too.

"It broke down before their eyes. The bell didn't ring. The walls oozed black tar. He said, it seemed like disease came to this place. There was a note someone left behind: We're all going to die."

Vanitas stares a moment longer, then starts moving forward down the aisle, closer to her. He stops, and puts his hand on one of the pews. He destroyed them before and knows they can move, so he pushes it, like he could show the picture, even though there's nothing there. It screeches loudly.

"There was a picture on the floor. He called it Oroboros."

Vanitas has no idea what that is, which is clear in the way his tongue moves around the syllables. He stops, a lonely island in the middle of the church, looking at her.

"He said that he thinks he heard you underground, but when they went down there, all they saw were people in white sheets."
evulsed: (80)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-24 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
His heart leaps into his throat, kick starting with excitement. It has so little to do with the conversation and so much to do with drawing her out. The closer the figure comes, the more he has to tilt his head back to look into the shadow of the hood, where a face should be.

His hands curl into fists in an effort to keep still, to not reach out.

"I think you've been here a long time.

I don't think you're the same as the other spirits.

You don't get involved.

You keep the Lights."

His back is to the candles, so he can't glance at them, but...

"You fix the lanterns and bring us back when we die."
candlemom: (04)

2/2

[personal profile] candlemom 2019-12-24 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"I am not a forest spirit."

The woman under the mask looks very much human, in fact, save for her pale gray skin and glowing eyes. She opens her cloak to fish through a pocket, and Vanitas will catch a glimpse of a brightly-glowing lantern attached to her middle by a bandolier.

Out of the pocket comes a pen and notepad. She scribbles something on a page, tears it out of the pad, and gently clasps Vanitas' hands in hers. He'll realize then that the claws are manufactured, designed out of what feels like heavy duty plastic and attached to fitted gloves. She tucks the scrap of paper into his hand.

"Write to me, and have the others do so as well. Tell me of these visions in as much detail as you can remember. The Postmaster General will know how to find me."

She gives Vanitas a hesitant smile, patting his hand.

"I'll be in touch."

Then, she steps back, slipping her mask back on as she again disappears into the shadows. There's a click, and another click, and Vanitas is free from whatever had been holding him still. He is alone.

On the scrap of paper, written in elegant script:

Dr. Maridel Solis
Edited 2019-12-24 20:11 (UTC)
evulsed: (10)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-25 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
evulsed: (10)

[personal profile] evulsed 2019-12-25 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
This sensation is familiar, this paralysis. He'd experience something like it the first time he saw her in person, and like that first time, it prevents him from reaching out.

Then he sees her face, and his eyes go huge.

He could never have guessed what she might have really been. He knew she was different but not... this. Vanitas stares into her face, his expression wide and almost childlike in his wonder. It's almost enough to stop him from really taking her in— but she moves and his eyes go to the bright shine of her lantern, to her hands when she writes.

The touch and her smile are seared into his body and his mind, so much so that he almost forgets, once he's freed, to look at the paper she'd given him.

But he isn't the kind of person to go running to share the news. Instead, he folds the paper into both hands and holds it against his chest, like it's as precious as the little blue flower she gave him, and exhales shakily.