EXPLORATION.

[nextnightmods]

EXPLORATION

ACTIVE EXPLORATION SLOTS: 1/4

Explorations are currently OPEN. They will close again when we run out of 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 unknown areas 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 GPSL 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 GPSL.


• Characters may only embark on one exploration a month. This is to allow all characters to have equal opportunity to make an impact on the setting, as well as to foster more cooperation between characters! With only one explore a month, we implore you to collaborate with other individuals and complete explores as a group when possible.


• We will only accept a maximum of 4 active explorations at a time. If those 4 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, and we are looking to get comfortable with the system before we up the number in the future.


• 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!


• We have recently moved setting and building updates to the Setting Page. If you're interested in doing that, head on over that way!

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.)

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Comments

[nextnightmods]

Explorations are currently OPEN. They will close again when we run out of slots for new explorations.

[immortalaccursed]

player name(s): Psi
character(s): Ardyn Izunia
area of exploration: unspecified, but he was at the Landmark during the flood so probably Downtown somewhere.
date(s) of exploration: Early May
plan: Ardyn will be searching for any forest spirits that have been left stranded or who are now out exploring after the rain. If he finds a weaker looking one he intends to pounce upon it, daemonify it (infect it with Starscourge) then absorb it into his body which will also give him some of its memories...Or will it? He's hoping to learn something about the setting or at least learn to speak the forest spirit's language... Hey it worked for learning the language of the Hexatheon back home.

More on how daemonification works can be read here in his app under the Starscourge section.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes! But if things start to look bad he'll try to escape by collapsing into miasma and phantom leaping away.

TW: PURGING, INJURY, CHILD DEATH

[nextnightmods]

Ardyn goes out intending to find a weaker spirit, and he does find one. Pale faced, mottled skin, almost as if mold is growing up its legs and arms. The mask it wears is almost difficult to spot, if not for the seams of it along its head. It's impossibly small, toddling around in the wet with what looks like curiosity. It looks up at him with hollow eyes, and bears no resistance as he infects it, the body slowly molting in the sickly purple flames. Just staring, emptily — it has no eyes to close — until its existence fades and becomes one with Ardyn.

The flashes he gets are memories, in a way. Something's off about them, though. Not clear-cut pictures like he might be used to. Like watching a TV through oppressive static, or trying to make sense of a full-color picture with only a handful of them working. The sound comes through more clearly than the picture; there's wet, tearful sniffling. The most inescapable sensation of the memory is the glow of something held close. A flashlight? Or, no.

A lantern.

We didn't have enough time. How did he expect... The words seem strangest of all. At a distance, as Ardyn sorts through these experiences on his own time, they will start to make sense. In the moment, though, they seem a jumble. Like some kind of language, syllables and phrasing and prosody and all of it should make sense, it just doesn't. --reset us now? We never got a chance.

The lantern is hugged closer, and the vision blurs just a little more. Suddenly it smells a little saltier, too.

Maybe they won't find us. A face swims closer, arms winding around what feels like a little frame. Shh. Just close your eyes. There's a sudden thunder of footsteps, above, or around, or beside, hard to tell. But the eyes shut and they stay shut. That's the last of the fragmented memory, and sadly it does not come with further connection to spirit language. Just a figment with frayed edges, that only seem to fall apart more as they are picked at.

With that, Ardyn doesn't notice much of a difference. At least, not right away. Three days after absorbing the spirit, Ardyn will notice he has bright green eyes and that all friendly spirits will avoid him accordingly. Even more social spirits like the Post Master and the Librarian will close their doors to him. A day or so after that, Ardyn will be incredibly sick. He'll struggle keeping down any food or drink, as his body fights with an inability to truly purge what ails it.

Eventually, though, the starscourge will escape his throat instead, burning and torching his throat raw. It will float around him, almost like usual, before the light slowly fades and turns to ash, scattering in whatever place he happened to be when the worst of it hit. From there, Ardyn will take a handful of days to return to fighting form, and he'll find it hard to speak as his throat heals from the burns left behind there.

[fjorgedinfire]

player name(s): Maniette and Gail
character(s): Fjord and Soldat!
area of exploration: The tunnels under the church, starting at the mudslide; Fjord has already excavated the church-side tunnel.
date(s) of exploration: May 11th
plan: Fjord wants to explore the tunnels leading to the church and needs supervision, so Soldat is here. The aim is to follow the open tunnel as far as it goes, investigate that immediate area, and back up immediately if something threatens to go wrong.

They are both coming thoroughly overprepared, since there's no knowing what happens if they die. Soldat has So Many knives, a mix of small and large guns and plenty of hand-to-hand combat experience; Fjord has a magic sword, can teleport, and can cast ranged spells; Soldat has patched up tactical armour, Fjord has leather armour. They also both have charms: Soldat's "friend to spirits" charm that he got from Owl Friend, and Fjord's Constitution charm (makes Fjord unable to feel pain) and Wisdom charm (better insight into other beings and their motives). Soldat also has snacks!

If they make it all the way to the end and back in one piece, Fjord wants to test their luck and shovel clear the tunnel leading away from the church and see where that goes.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? No death please

[nextnightmods]

Truly, these two are a pair of very seasoned explorers and have come well-prepared for anything. With shovels, tools, weapons and trinkets in hand, they head back to where Fjord had initially broken into the end of the tunnel that leads beneath the church itself. The tunnel is well-maintained here, but narrow - only just tall and wide enough for them to fit in single-file, though one could awkwardly squeeze past the other if need be.

From the point at which Mollymauk's horn was found, it's only a short walk, less than a minute, before the walls become stone beneath the church's foundation. Fjord had been able to see just this far before, at the very edge of his lantern's light. The water sounds undeniably loud here, as if they will come out to the river at any point - but of course the river lies in the opposite direction across the Bonfire Square. Nevertheless, the air feels thick, as if it must be swum through rather than walked. But they never do find much more water than the damp layer of soil on the ground, which looks to have been regularly walked by one pair of boots by how many layers of the same footprint are left in the caked dust. Pressing through the slightly disorienting feeling of being underwater without being in water at all, they find themselves at the foot of a small set of steps beneath a trapdoor. There is a small box here with a keypad - perhaps the heavy, well-constructed metal trapdoor above needs a combination in order to be opened.

But there is nothing else immediately here to discover, and so the two backtrack and begin to dig. It's painful, backbreaking work digging through the collapsed tunnel wall and debris. The loose muddy ground easily collapses further on itself as they go, and grasping the tools with wet, muddy hands gets frustrating. But eventually they break through into this stretch of the tunnel that runs away from the church, angled westward toward the mountains in the far distance. And so, faced with the same style of dark, narrow tunnel just comfortably big enough for one, they begin to walk.

About fifteen minutes in, they come to an intersection. Ahead, the tunnel carries on as it currently is - mostly straight, fairly level, but the humid air carries the faint smell of blood and meat. Thin, yellow strands of some gelatinous substance wander across the tunnel walls and ceiling ahead, forming sparse but intricate networks over the top of the bare soil and its occasional wooden supports which in this area have held their own against the weight of the flood.

To their left, the tunnel slopes downward at a comfortable angle into darkness, and cool, crisp air blows from it, carrying a muffled echo of the river.

Which way would they like to go?

[scarsolderthanyou]

player name(s): Gail, Mawi, Lauren, and Erica
character(s): Stone, Sora, Rosinante, and Jason
area of exploration: Leaving from the Invincible and flying across the unexplored forest to the lighthouse
date(s) of exploration: 5/5-ish, once the first two bridges have been built
plan:
The group is going to go investigate the collapse of the lighthouse and look for Robin! As they are flying (Stone carrying Rosinante in winged form, Jason flying his own self, and Sora being yeeted into the sky by Stone since apparently he needs a boost to fly), they do not expect to be gone very long. In case of trouble, Jason brings his lightning and wind powers and his sword, Sora brings a variety of magics and his keyblade, Rosinante his guns and his cutlass, and all three younger men are good fighters. Stone has claws and teeth and, you know, being very big. They're bringing tablets to take pictures and communicate with people outside if necessary, some medical supplies in case Robin is there somewhere and needs it, and Sora's torch.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? No please

[nextnightmods]

Their flight is relatively uneventful. A notable change for those that had tried and failed to cross the airspace to the Lighthouse in the past. It's almost eerie, the silence — excluding the wind rushing as they fly or "fall with style" to their desired location. There are no attacks, nothing tearing towards them with murderous intent, just empty and slightly soggy land.

Distance had already warned of the destruction, but standing on top of it is a completely different story. It's a little unnerving to look at exactly how demolished the building has become, much of it torn into pieces and not even existing as a building proper any longer. Besides the outbuilding, much of the structure has been completely torn asunder, like the storm made the lighthouse teeter a little too far in the wind and the gravity was too much to stop it from entirely capsizing.

Searching through the rubble, much of what they find is destroyed. There's a curious amount of machinery, looking admittedly dated but vast in scope. While there's surely some components in these devices that are salvageable, much of it is waterlogged, broken, or both. In addition there's a huge amount of supplies, from canned food to water, bandages, tools, linens, and ... well, whatever an isolated Keeper might need to survive. There's too much to take back in one trip, though it's doable in multiple. Even more so if the group recruits help to hoof it all back to the city proper.

Continuing to search, they'll find many items that don't seem to mesh with the dated technology. Stuffed animals, blankets, clothes — all signs of the Keeper. However, Robin's things are the only things that can be found. There is no body, and there is no lantern, no matter how much they dig or how hard they look. When they make it to the end of the destructive trail, the huge light that used to beam out into the darkness still flickers, but barely.

All in all, it seems much of the Lighthouse is mostly destroyed. However, the outbuilding is still standing, though trying the door it is securely locked. Close inspection will show it is not a simple wooden door, either; it's made of heavy stone, and trying to kick it in would be unadvised.

[sunsbreath]

player name(s): Mawi, Daz, Raven, Helena
character(s): Ephrim, Pudding, Misty, Xayah
area of exploration: The Greenhouse
date(s) of exploration: Somewhere around the 5th?
plan: There are new weeds in the greenhouse and Ephrim is going to go above and beyond to figure out what these new guys are! Secondary goals are going to be to take stock of the greenhouse itself to see what's available to grow, food and resource-wise, and how long it'll take to grow, but the weeds are the least known factor here and Ephrim wants to take a look at them before they rip 'em all up. Misty and Xayah are both greenhouse regulars who are interested in the well-being of the greenhouse in general, and Pudding is there for her culinary interests almost solely and schadenfreude only somewhat.

Ephrim: look if you document unknown and almost 100% dangerous plant species during a ten year food crisis you learn a thing or two about research and calculated risks. He's there to make sure everything is organized and documented, and he'll be testing things on his own body bc he's ephrim and that's what he does. He's also done a tiny bit of research on local plantlife at the library but he's going to leave off-world knowledge of plants to the other people in the party. He's also somewhat magical, but that doesn't really apply here unless the plants are magical in origin.

Misty: Earth plant touchstone, here. Also an avid grower and appreciator of plants, and can probably encourage plants to grow faster. May (???) heal in the case that anyone gets, like, super poisoned.

Xayah: Not Earth plant touchstone. A plant and nature appreciator. Here to flick peanuts at Ephrim and laugh if he fails.

Pudding: Not Earth plant touchstone 2 (pirate edition). Not as much a gardener, but she specializes in plants used in cooking and baking, so she will definitely want to advise in the case that these weeds end up being edible. Also here to flick peanuts at Ephrim and laugh if he fails (but like, very innocently, so Ephrim isn't allowed to get mad).

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? No please! Making someone v sick is on the table, though.

[nextnightmods]

As far as greenhouse repair goes, it honestly seems in decent order. One broken window is all that shows obvious need of repair. Duster did a great job looking out for this place during the storm! It'd be easy to salvage a replacement piece from another destroyed building, or just board it up to keep the climate appropriately balmy. A lot of the tools, seeds, and sprouts already existing survived the storm. Any that are looking a little green at the gills just need some love, that's all. Xayah and Misty should have no trouble baby-talking them back into health.

More unusual are the mysterious weeds seem to blanket quite a few of the empty plots. There's notably three colors — red, blue, and green. They grow quite vigorously, and even when plucked by the root another seems to crop up in its place after a day. The taste of them is pleasantly herbal, ranging from more grassy (green) to slightly spiced (red). The blue are nicely minty. Fresh, they'd be perfectly fine for cooking, and Pudding will find anything she makes with these herbs will not only be delicious, they seem to make anyone that eats them feel stronger and more energized.

Truly these herbs seem to shine when they are dried and powdered, and especially when they are mixed. It increases their potency by a large margin. The green herbs seem to have restorative properties, and can ease aches and pains nearly instantly. The red doesn't seem to do much on its own, but combined with the green? It continues to amplify the effect of the green, leaving anyone that ingests them to feel instantly stronger and notably numb to injury. In fact it can help to heal injuries in half the time, or even faster, depending on use of magic to help boost the healing. The effect of the blue is very difficult to ascertain immediately. In the end it takes a slightly allergic reaction and a "might as well" attitude to realize that mixing the dried blue with the other two colors limits the effects of poisons in the body.

These herbs can easily be powdered, mixed, and delivered in a capsule, tea, or salve form. And they grow like... well, weeds, even faster than anything else in the greenhouse. However, the team will notice quickly that all the plots and any plant they try grows quickly enough that they start to show fruit in a week. Considering the current resource insecurity, it seems the team has found both an efficient way of growing food as well as plants to help restore health and prevent damage, which is certainly helpful in a time when lantern restoration services are currently not operational.

[unwieldy]

player name(s): Yuul, Kitty, Carlee, Wind
character(s): Haein, Carmilla, Meg, Masaomi
area of exploration: The abandoned building that Carmilla and Xayah stumbled upon.
date(s) of exploration: Mid-May
plan: Carmilla leads this ragtag party to the abandoned building she and Xayah had previously discovered. They're all in relatively good health, and Masaomi is armed with a crowbar, two knives, and his sporty delinquent attitude. Meg is armed to the teeth with her sharp tongue and wit, while Haein's got a bad personality and a torch that he never returned to the bonfire. Carmilla's the powerhouse here with her vampire abilities, but she's expecting Masaomi to do all the heavy lifting for her.

For their first order of business, they'll try to break into the shuttered building with Masaomi's crowbar, and if that doesn't work, Carmilla will order Masaomi to distract Haein and Meg while she tries teleporting inside. The goal is to discover what's inside the building and what its function/history was. Three of the four are exploration newbies and don't really know what to expect.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes.

[nextnightmods]

The front door is no match for Masaomi's crowbar. The wood is old and dry, and although the lock itself feels solid, he's able to force enough of a gap to then reach his hand in and unlock it, and then pull the door open. It swings on creaky hinges and hits the fallen sign on the landing, and a dry rattle of the dragging chains attached to it echoes within.

Before them is a dark, muddy entryway. The yellow paint on the walls and ceiling is peeling away, and flakes of it litter the floor. On the right, a glass window looks into an office with desks and shelves. The door to the office is ajar and in fact the doorknob has broken entirely and now lies on the floor. A metal plate on the door reads "DAYBREAK ORPHANAGE MAIN OFFICE".

Just past that, a hallway runs to the left and to the right, while straight ahead is a concrete spiral staircase with a wrought iron banister. Peering down the hallway shows four doors to the left, and three to the right - all fairly large rooms, probably, as they're spaced well apart. On a wall in the hallway to the left is a corkboard stuck with pins and a few crude children's drawings remain.

The mud is littered with footprints - many sets of small ones, scurrying erratically from room to room and to and from the staircase. One large set, a pair of boots with pointed toes, has prowled back and forth through the exact middle of the hallway.

Upstairs, something clatters loudly and a heavy thunk is heard through the ceiling.

[mindofathief]

player name(s): Nara
character(s): Duster
area of exploration: graveyard
date(s) of exploration: May 10th
plan: Now that Duster's arm has healed enough, he's going to check out the area behind the pawn shop that Will pointed out. He'll keep his smoke bomb on hand in case he runs into any zombies or possessed gravestones because what cemetery doesn't have those?

He'll primary check out the names and dates on the stones and check out the overall layout of the area.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? yes

[nextnightmods]

Duster's trip is largely uneventful. It's a bit of a slog through the forest, though, thankfully much of the mud and bog has dissipated. It's a moist walk, though not a completely soaked one. It's a warm and humid hike, all told, though eventually Duster's peristance pays off. He will find the graveyard nestled in the dark, surrounded by a few banks of trees, the picture of a creepy graveyard if he ever saw one. It's even appropriately entrenched in dark, knotted wrought iron, with some ivy crawling up the spokes. The tips of the fence are spiked and foreboding, it probably wouldn't be a great idea to climb over.

The padlock holding the gate closed looks old and rusted, though. Might be able to break it open... unless Duster has a better idea.

[paletteswap]

player name(s): Sydney, Kitty, Nara
character(s): Kuai Liang, Matt Murdock, Minimus Ambus
area of exploration: Through the tunnels and (hopefully) to Doctor Solis' Lab
date(s) of exploration: A few days after Kuai's Planning Post - around 5/17
plan: They're fairly certain they've deciphered the code to open the lock on the door to the tunnel which they're hoping leads to Doctor Solis' lab. Pudding has put together rations for them and given the code to Bucky who passed it along to Matt. Fjord will show them where the lock is but won't be accompanying them any further than the door.

The group has two torches (one is from Matt's room, the other is the hallway torch from the Invincible) and all of them are preparing for the worst should the door open and be full of giant spiders or some other danger.

They have some basic supplies with them like rope, chalk to mark directions should the tunnel branch, a compass, etc.

First things first: the code. They're going to attempt 1969. If that doesn't work they'll cycle thru summer months + year (061969, 071969, 081969). Assuming it opens then down the tunnels they go!

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes.

[nextnightmods]

The group heads down into the tunnels and squeezes through that gap between the first locked door and the wall, becoming uncomfortably well-acquainted with the strange, jelly-like fungal veins that stretch across the soil and that have also begun to bridge that gap and grow over the door's surface. Whoever goes first has to clear the way, and this is a whole lot gooier than brushing aside a spiderweb - but Kuai reaches forward with his torch to swipe through the stuff, which recoils slightly at the flame. Here is where Fjord leaves them, too - they're on their own once they enter the room with its wooden coffins and fungal growths.

The bodies the last group had spoken of are gone. Broken mushrooms lie scattered around the room, and some of the boxes have been gnawed on by something with strong teeth. The ground is also covered in unusual tracks from feet of a variety of shapes.

But the door on the opposite side that had stopped Soldat and Fjord before remains closed, and so they begin testing keypad combinations. 1969 itself does not open the door, but when they try 071969 and hit the pound key to enter it in, there is a cheerful, two-toned beep and the door slides sideways into the frame set within the wall, showing darkness ahead. With Matt's keen hearing, he can also pick out the sound of a large volume of rushing water. Onward they go - and after a few seconds, the door automatically closes behind them. Good thing there's a keypad on this side too. This section of the tunnel looks completely dry, and the group reasons that it must have stayed intact during the flooding. All footprints here look to be the same pair of boots going back and forth.

It's only a few minutes before they hit another intersection. A branch to the right leads straight north, as they experimentally turn toward it and eye the needle of the compass. The other branch is angled slightly to the left, which the compass indicates is closer now to southwest, and also heads downward, deeper into the ground. The sound of flowing water is stronger to the left, according to Matt.

Left or right?

[policier]

player name(s): rachel
character(s): javert
area of exploration: the manhole cover leading down into a small sewer, marked number 3 on the map
date(s) of exploration: may 24
plan: first, javert wants to investigate whether the sewer is backed up with water from flood or not. if it is, and it is unsafe for him to travel, then javert will explore the area around the manhole cover, looking particularly for supplies or anything that could be of use to his and everyone else's survival. that will be his priority.

if the sewer is safe to explore, however, then javert will head down there and try to use the key he got from the skunk judge on the locked, rusted door. he will carry with him his sword, his pistol, the torch he keeps in his room, chalk to mark his way on the tunnels and trees, food and water, and his tablet in case he should need to make a sudden distress call. javert himself is a police inspector with no remarkable powers other than a keen eye for details and a natural instinct to investigate and observe everything around him.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? no. javert is going to be overly cautious and not put himself at risk if there is danger, because he promised his friends he would stay safe.

[nextnightmods]

The cover to the sewer entrance is awfully hard to move for one person, but Javert really leans in and pushes, and manages to slide it off successfully, thanks in part to it having been previously loosened by other visitors. He can hear a loud thundering of water down below, but it's very difficult to determine from above if that renders it unsafe or not, so he climbs down the ladder far enough to have a better look, while still holding tight.

The water looks to be moving very swiftly, but there's just enough of a walkway to inch along, so Javert continues down until his feet are on the ground. The walkway is wet and slick, and the water looks more treacherous now that he's down here, but not to the degree of the river above. The sewer water smells like fresh soil, and foams thick and brown with flood runoff, but hey, at least it doesn't smell like other brown water.

As Javert picks his way carefully along the tunnel, he notices quite a lot of large debris in the waterway. Perhaps the jam back behind him in the direction of town loosened at some point? For there are some large boulders as well as other smaller but still bulky stones, and occasionally he finds he'll have to climb over them to continue on where they've settled in his path. He's careful, but everything is manageable enough so long as he takes it very slow.

Speaking of slow, it's probably a good thing he brought food and water. There are areas with so much debris that the water shoots forcefully through gaps in the rocks like a firehose, and he has to think hard about the best place to put his feet and hands in order to proceed without getting swept off-course. One step dislodges a rock, and he catches himself, but that rock is caught up in the flow and smashes into a larger stone with a loud pop, an unpleasant reminder that while he's doing his best to be careful, it certainly isn't perfectly, one hundred percent safe down here. Then again, where in Beacon really is?

After a solid five hours of cautious maneuvering, Javert comes within sight of the gate. But wedged into the bars at the base of the gate, halfway underwater, is a colorful metal box covered in fine scratches, probably from some of the stones in the water. It looks to be on its side, for he can see the metallic, unpainted base from this angle, and as he watches, a pair of soggy off-white gloves reaches out of the water and waves at him. Bubbles arise from the box, implying some sort of sound being made, but he cannot hear it over the roar of the water. Does it need help? Is it saying hello? It looks a little frantic, judging by the hand motions.

[callada]

player name(s): Gemini, Sydney, Lauren
character(s): Cao Pi, Kuai Liang, Rosinante Donquixote
area of exploration: Southeast of the hospital, trying to find the same place where this torch was found.
date(s) of exploration: June 22 (forward-dated)

plan: These three veteran explorers are going to do their best to retrace Kuai's steps and head into the woods in search of that strange speech-like static he heard when he found the torch that Rastus' feather led to. They are aware that there may be dangerous spirits in the area, and although between the three of them they have plenty of weapons (Cao Pi's sword, Rosinante's guns and cutlass, and Kuai has his ice powers), their preference is to move quietly and hide out of the way of anything that might come looking - Rosinante can block any sound they make if they pick a hiding spot, and they'll just have to conceal their lanterns and the torch they're carrying as best they can behind clothing and inside a canvas bag brought along for this purpose. Sometimes you just don't want to make extra enemies, you know?

As these three have done before, one will carry a small bucket of paint and a brush to mark their path along tree trunks so they don't get lost, especially if they have to bail.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? yes

[nextnightmods]

It's good that the squad intends to move quietly. They're going to need their wits about them, and there's something uncannily quiet about the woods as they venture through it. Solemn and serious and all on alert, they pick their way through the woods.

After journeying and tracking their route for a while, Kuai will notice it seems familiar. They've found the stretch of forest where he found the feather, there are even faded footprints to mark his short-lived adventure here. The sound that had seemed linger on the edge of the darkness is still there, just... even quieter than before. Still, they made a plan and they decide to stick to it, branching out toward that sound.

They'll hear, and quite suddenly, when the noise changes from faded (almost muffled?) to a more determined crackle. It won't take much longer to find the source of the noise. It's a walkie-talkie, hidden in a hollowed-out log. It's catching a very distant signal, too distant to be really understood. It comes through in taps and beeps, though the biting static cuts in the message too often to even try and understand it. They'll find that when they're facing slightly southeast, the reception seems stronger.

They'll also notice that there are prints around the log. Not footprints, exactly... more like handprints. Hands with elongated, bony fingers, splayed in unnatural directions. These prints aren't old and fading like the ones they saw earlier, either. They're fresh and present in the mud, with small wells of water collecting in the palms.

[worthallthis]

player name(s): Gail, Raven, Rachel, and Nara
character(s): Soldat, Misty, Javert, and Minimus
area of exploration: The group is following the path of the previous explore out to the radio tower.
date(s) of exploration: Backdated to 6/24, the day after this message.
plan: They’re going to try to reply to that message from Helix Station, and see if they can get any details of what’s still happening there for when the group goes looking for them. Any info on the attacking “world eater” and where it is now is prioritized. Sub-mission: take out the radio-interfering spirit if it gets in the way. They will be bringing one torch, borrowed from the B&B (this is the torch labeled “Bucky’s residence”; man we gotta update that...).

Soldat has an arsenal of handguns and knives plus a metal arm and super-strength, and the armored tac vest. They’re also bringing a home-made ham radio to try and tune into the radio tower’s frequency, and maybe to use as a warning signal for the spirit that disrupts radio signals since the walkie talkie is gone. They’ve got knowledge of how radio stuff works, and will be playing with the controls to try and get a signal back out in response to the Helix’s SOS. They’re more likely to try for Morse than a vocal response if there’s telegraph equipment there, and might also try communicating with the hostile spirit via Morse code (tapping on the metal arm) if there’s the opportunity.

Misty is their magical escape option as well as telekinetic powerhouse and healer, plus she can use a club! Kind of. Soldat started teaching her like… a week ago, maybe. She also has some knowledge of radios, albeit mostly to play music.

Javert has no idea how telecommunication systems work. He’s here to guard them and help take out that spirit. He’s brought his pistol, sword, knowledge of fighting, and grumpy attitude.

Minimus has knowledge of futuristic communications devices, if this trip happens to need that. He’s also bringing a large scrap-made warhammer and his metal chassis, good luck biting through that, spirit-dude.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes, though if death becomes likely, Misty is gonna try to grab people and teleport away.

[nextnightmods]

The trek through the woods is mostly non-eventful. They manage to find the radio tower in short order, and from the outside not too much seems different. When they get close enough, Soldat manages to tune into the signal coming from the tower. It hasn't changed from before, morse code warning about the incoming message, and the same message, word for word, repeating on an endless loop.

On the inside, it's a little different. For starters, all the random furniture splayed out by the hole where the door used to be is purposefully stacked in front of it. It's honestly not that hard to move, whoever tried to make the blockade really didn't do a great job. There's blood all over the place, splayed in twisted handprints all over the furniture, floors, walls, and ceiling. The desk that had once displayed a macabre shrine to long-lost birds has been swept. Lots of blood, but no bones any longer.

Good news is, there doesn't seem to be evidence the spirit is still down there. Bad news is, there's a tickle of static on the ham radio when they approach the ladder.

[countershocks]

player name(s): kitty, celen, rachel
character(s): matt murdock, law trafalgar, inspector javert
area of exploration: inside the hospital
date(s) of exploration: august 3
plan: the tl;dr version of their plan is to search the hospital for any usable medical equipment and track down any signs of the green eyes.

matt will focus on tracking down hints of the green eyes, trying to find blood trails or something like that, or sense if there's something weird there. he will also keep track of their surroundings, in order to notice if something is approaching. he's also the one to supply the group with a torch, simply for the benefit of the others, what a good guy.

law's focus is on scavenging: he wants to find anything that even vaguely resembles medical equipment, and he'd try to bring anything usable back with them. he is also trying to sense anything weird with his observation haki, as well as keep a room up that covers the hospital so he can move them out of harm's way if need be. he's moving inside the hospital with his power instead of walking, at least in the areas where that is possible, and in the event he finds something usable he will shambles those outside the hospital immediately, to be picked up when they leave. or by someone else if things go sideways.

javert wants to see if the green eyes left anything behind in the hospital, and his special interest lies in the surgery wing. he would also want to find signs of what actually took place in the hospital, if any signs are left. he's also carrying his sword and his gun, if they end up in a fight.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Y but law is going in with the determination to teleport them the hell out of there if things start looking real bad. hallucinations here we come

[nextnightmods]

The journey to the hospital itself is largely uneventful. Curious spirits watch them as they pass by the graveyard, and some follow a short distance, but hang back and disperse before they reach the grounds of the medical center itself. The surroundings are, in fact, disturbingly quiet; devoid of the trills of insect or birdlike spirits by the time the buildings' ruins become visible at the edges of the lantern and torch light.

Ahead, a gaping open doorway sits between some crumbling concrete walls. The doors themselves have gone entirely missing. Visible just inside is a dark lobby strewn with flood debris and torn soggy carpeting, and a metal banister of a set of stairs heading upward. To the group's left (and Beacon's northeast) are the remains of what must be the surgical wing, for signs of a fight still scar the grounds - dozens of footprints circle the door and windows, frozen in dried mud, and though it's hard to make out bloodstains in the darkness, the place still smells faintly of it. Meanwhile, to the right, a sign caught in the trees reads "EM R NC ->" and while it no longer points to the emergency room's intake lobby, what's left of that wing is obvious enough - most of the ceiling seems to have caved in, though, as several massive trees have fallen directly onto the building, and the entrance and surrounding windows have collapsed. The interior is visible, however, through smashed sections of wall and broken window, and the silhouettes of chairs and a small office section can be seen through the gaps.

As much of the group is primarily interested in the surgical wing, they head that way first. It's easy enough to get inside whether by walking or teleportation. What was once a lobby still bears the obvious signs of what happened here - all furniture has either been dragged out by the spirits or was washed out in the flood, and though silt and debris has scoured some of the floor fairly clean and piled up in the corners, old black blood still streaks the walls. Among the debris are shredded, discarded clothes, chunks of hair, and a thick dark pool of sludge that stinks of death. A hallway continues from this lobby toward an office area and multiple operation rooms, but with broken lights hanging loose by the wiring in the hall and sharp glass shards below them, and with the ceiling creaking every time the wind blows, it may be treacherous to continue. The smell of decay and rotting flesh is particularly strong in this direction.

[callada]

player name(s): Lauren
character(s): Rosinante
area of exploration: forest between the graveyard and hospital with a bit of vague wandering
date(s) of exploration: August 3
plan: Well. Yeah. "Plan." Rosinante sets off late after Law's hospital trek with the intent of catching up to him because yes he hates the medical center but he hates more that Law is going somewhere potentially dangerous without him. Except currently he's also feeling starved for flesh thanks to the world eater encounter, and on the way there he gets distracted by either finding a spirit, or the tracks of one, or something - so he'll end up veering off-course when he's overwhelmed by the desire to kill and eat it raw. Cool. It's real cool. He's got his pistol and a cutlass, can move in complete silence (and silence his gunshots or whatever, for that matter) so he'll do his best to make this quick and easy and then probably feel like utter shit.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? oh always

[nextnightmods]

As Rosinante stumbles through the woods, he comes upon a spirit with impressive antlers and multiple hooved limbs. The spirit is not doing anything in particular, perhaps communing with nature. They do not seem to notice his approach and that is to his benefit.

With his ability to move silently and the fact he is well armed, he's able to land a solid blow on the spirit before it can even react. The spirit is heavily wounded, and for a blessed moment, it almost seems like he might get away with this with only a singular blow, without much fighting back.

The spirit rallies, however, and the number of hooves it has does make for a mean blow. They connect solidly with Rosinante and throw him into a tree, which will leave him with a few bruised ribs and hooved-shaped injuries to show for it. The spirit rounds on him, perhaps contemplating another hit, before it begins to crumple. Hooved limbs press to the injury left by the cutlass, leaving Rosinante with an opening... should he choose to take it. The spirit takes him in, the look in his eye and lantern in his possession. It seems confused, through muttered huffs that indicate pain.

[callada]

player name(s): Lauren, Gail, Celen
character(s): Rosinante, Soldat/Bucky, Law
area of exploration: Beginning at the ore dock
date(s) of exploration: 8/22
plan: Having not heard from the Wild Hunt since - yikes, months ago now, how time flies - the boys want to set out to try and find the mines and see if any of them survived the flood or what their situation is. They know that vaguely the group must be headquartered near the mountains but that's a huge stretch of land so it seems like the only reasonable thing to do is start at the tracks (train? minecart? they're hoping minecart) by the ore dock and follow them for as long as possible.

Usual weapons and powers apply - all three are armed and skilled in combat, Rosinante can make them all quiet if they need to stop and hide from something. If the tracks begin to head in a direction they can hear parade music from, they're turning right the hell around to come back another time but will at least take note of where they leave off. Soldat will bring one of the torches from the B&B to use.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? not this time, they're determined to be extra cautious!

[nextnightmods]

Following the tracks, they don't see much out in the dark. Occasionally the tree line presses close, here or there they'll have to trudge up a hill and back down again. Overall, the journey is rather uneventful, until they hit something out in the dark.

It's a ramshackle building, stretched out over the tracks. Likely a station, or something close to it. They will notice that many of the ties that once went under the metal beams of the track have been pried away or... gnawed on? The station itself is dark, though the closer they approach, they will hear movement inside. The door is shut tight, with almost an excessive amount of locks. Might be a lot of work to get in that way. There's also some broken sidewalk leading away from the building... or they could test the tracks and see if they can get in that way.

Oddly, when they are close to the building, they can hear muffled movement beyond the door.

[policier]

player name(s): rachel
character(s): javert
area of exploration: the sewers
date(s) of exploration: sept 5
plan: he's going back to the small sewer he visited in may. with any luck, the tunnels won't be quite so swelled with water as they were last time, but if they are, he's come prepared. he has his sword with him, and his pistols, with extra ammunition including the armor-piercing rounds he received earlier this month. he has enough food and water with him to last two days, some chalk to mark his way through the sewer, bandages and a sewing kit in case he gets hurt, and the torch from his residence to light his way.

he'll traverse the sewers as carefully as possible, taking his time. once he gets to the gate he opened with the key, he'll use the torch to survey the area before pressing on, his gun at the ready in case the spirit he fought wants to come back for round two. he's looking to find some sort of exit, ideally, but he'll investigate anything along the way that seems interesting.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? yes

[nextnightmods]

Here in the earliest week of autumn, long after the flood, the sewer is certainly not the rushing torrent of residual floodwaters it was in the spring. But it isn't empty, either - clearly the residences in town are still connected to the sewer lines. It's how they get their fresh water, and how they get rid of what's not-so-fresh anymore.

Which means in the early September warmth after a long stretch of heat and dry weather, it stinks horrendously in here, and what runs along the bottom of the tunnel is indeed a stream of waste. The air is still, humid, and thick, and the stench is nearly enough to suffocate.

There are scratches in the darkness as something shuffles along the walls, but it slips out of sight when Javert moves his torch or lantern to see. The sounds become more frequent as he travels onward and at one point he pauses to listen and finds that when he stops, the sounds do too. Little scratches, little taps of feet, all over the ceiling and walls of the tunnel around him, always just out of sight.

This time it only takes three hours to reach the gate, which is still open, and the key remains in the lock, though if Javert goes to try and remove it he will find that it now seems to be thoroughly rusted in place. But not far past the gate, he will find two things:

About a minute's walk onward, there is a small alcove set into the tunnel wall with a ladder leading upward just like the one he came down initially. The manhole lid above it is impossible to lift with his strength alone. Above, he can make out a soft rumbling sound, like snoring or purring.

Back down into the tunnel, it continues on for another ten minutes before it comes to an end. There is a rusty, barred filter here the size of the tunnel itself, and the stream of sewage flows through and splashes down to somewhere below. In front of the filter is a lot of scattered, utterly filthy trash - things flushed, thrown away, or washed down by the flood, including rocky debris but also things discarded by decades of people living in Beacon. It might be worth searching if he doesn't mind getting very, very dirty.

Looking past the bars, Javert can just see into some sort of deep chamber with smooth metal walls. The scratching, tapping feet are here, too, and more than once he manages to catch a glimpse of something small, hairy, and many-legged - a little like the creature he met here before, but a quarter of the size. The metal walls are encrusted with patches of odd growths that might be stone, might be bone, might even be shell - it's hard to say at this distance, but they look rough and rugged and yet they form regular patterns. The bars are too tight to squeeze through, but there may be a way to bend or remove them, and in fact one of the lower ones does look a bit bent, possibly from constant collision with debris - but if there's any gap at all, it's fully submerged in sewage muck.

[pure_havoc]

player name(s): Gemini, Lauren, Psi, Leu, Rachel, Gail, Celen
character(s): Cao Pi, Rosinante, Link, Will, Javert, Soldat, and Law (7!)
area of exploration: Helix Station! Specifically the portal room, power room, lab that was underwater (if it can be drained), and if there's time the other labs and armory that were explored before
date(s) of exploration: late October 6 through early October 10
plan:
Cao Pi wants to find the lab that was under water last time, and see if the power restoration means there's a way to pump the water out so they can explore it. He's looking for tools and objects to collect. His second priority is making sure they collect all of Alastair's research into the portal and how to yeet World Eaters into it. He is armed with his paired swords, armored, and has his ice power.

Soldat's goals are basically extermination of mimic spirits (or negotiation and removal which he will try first, but he doubts they'll listen this time when they didn't last time), and finding the body-wearing spirit to negotiate either a return to the surface or a truce/protective relationship with Weaver, and hopefully a release of the (now severely decomposed) bodies. He comes fully armed with two handguns, lots of knives, a variety of snacks to maybe bribe mimic spirits with, moderately fluent command of the spirit language, and origami paper.

Rosinante is mostly backup but knows about the folder, and wants to search Pluto's quarters for it. He also wants to go to the portal room to see if they can get it running - and if they need to move the World Eater corpse ahem. Sure.

Link wants to deal with a spirit in the power wing that Weaver had mentioned to him. He will attempt wolf form conversation (or letting Soldat converse if they're together) first and if that doesn't work he'll use force. He is also armed backup.

Javert's intention is to investigate the labs and see if there's any further research on how to stun or weaken the world eaters or green-eyed spirits. he'll especially be looking for some sort of recipe to create the potion they used in the world eater fight. if there are any directions on how to construct a bomb or weapon, he'll be interested in that, too. he will have his two pistols with him and his sword, along with the notebook he found during the key retrieval explore.

Will is here for smarts reasons and to work any intact computers or equipment, and he'll be able to tell which information is actually helpful data and which is trash. He does have his trusty knife but he's mostly relying on everybody else to make sure he doesn't get eaten by anything. His #1 goal is to Find That Folder now that he and Rosi have an idea where to look.

Law's main goal here is to get to the room that Cao Pi was talking about, because he really wants to see the equipment that's in there, hopefully it'll be something more usable than what he was able to get from the hospital. Aside from that, he's also here to use his power to cut locks and move people from room to room around the station.

Since there are 7 of them, they are likely to split up into teams, but Rosinante will always be around Law and Will. Cao Pi, Javert, Soldat, and Link might make a decent second team to move from the power wing to the lab.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? no, please. they're hoping that the station is less dangerous and are wary.

[nextnightmods]

Power and Maintenance:

With persistence and caution, Soldat, Link, Cao Pi and Javert finish off the remaining mimic spirits (which continue to be uninterested in conversation) as they cautiously make their way through the power wing. It's not without some difficulty, though. One particularly devious spirit, disguised as a loose screw on the floor near the collapsed supply shelves, stays put until Link steps on it. It erupts into its full size instantly, driving a slim spike-like finger upward through Link's foot in the process. With it and Link stuck together, Cao Pi easily cleaves through its arm with a sword and Link kicks out the remaining chunk of arm-spike, but will be limping for a while until that injury is seen to.

Once the aggressive spirits have been hunted down, the large corpse-wearing spirit remains, now with a few new companions that seem mostly to stick to the shadows and avoid the group of explorers. The corpses are in sorrier shape than before, now just unidentifiable mounds of decayed flesh and bone. Even with Link's help, the large spirit is hard to convince - the bodies of the dead are part of it now, it insists, and its friends must all stay together as they had done for such a long time. The idea of going to the surface provokes a brief flash of anger, but it holds back from striking. The power wing is its home, its friends all belong here, and here they will stay - but they agree to leave Weaver alone, and to allow people to pass through this set of rooms unimpeded as long as they aren't attacked, and maybe are sometimes brought things like snacks and origami.

With the spirit distracted and possibly placated, Cao Pi is free to go into the power control console area, and Javert comes along to see if he can help. The two may not be masters of computer handling but they've figured out enough by now to manage to access Alistair's notes and download copies of his last work on how to kick that world eater out backwards to where it came from.

R&D/Labs:

Cao Pi finds that unfortunately there is no way to simply suction the water out again. The structure is compromised by the broken door. The door would need to be repaired, and from there work could be made to empty the lab. That said, whether the electronics inside would function any longer after being soaked for months? Seems unlikely.

Javert will find that there is some running lab reports on the narcotics meant for green-eyes. There is a formula for multiple different versions, in ranges of potency. Most of the ingredients are a bit esoteric and it's likely they'd have to be portalled in, and apparently the process to refine the poison is a bit complicated. It would be a good player project to have characters work together to slowly work on creating the tonic.

Law will be disappointed on the front of getting usable tools from the lab; however, there are plenty scattered elsewhere around the R&D department, ripe for the picking! He can take whatever implements he thinks will be useful.

Will has a lot to go through on the computers. Plenty of research, plenty of logs and details and agendas. There's so much, it could take him an excessively long time to search through it all. Is there particular information he's looking for? Either way, he'll be able to go through Alistair's records on the portal once Cao Pi and Javert retrieve them, and download his own copy for further study. However, it is pretty complicated stuff, we're talking big time Physics and Math here.

Crew quarters:

Once Will and Law have had a chance to look into R&D, Rosinante will bring up the folder he and Will saw in their shared vision and suggest trying to find it in Pluto's former quarters. After a bit of searching, they're able to find her room among the others without much effort - the doorway is wider and the furniture and room fixtures are more spaced out and lowered, compared to some of the other sleeping quarters they've seen.

The room is in disarray now, with items like tablets, clothing, books, and equipment strewn about the room but at one point its contents were well cared for and meticulously organized. With some searching, they're able to find a file on one of the tablets with detailed profiles on the teams that had worked in the station prior to things going dark. One will look very familiar. A note underneath her basic information (her name, what she'd been in charge of researching, who she'd reported to, and the team she'd been running) will read Caffeine freak.

After some discussion, they decide that the folder could be hidden in the break room - makes sense, since that's where the vision had taken place. They make their way there and, much like the rest of the station, it's a big mess. There's a lot of searching in cabinets and under tables, but they find the folder they're searching for in a drawer with a false bottom. Inside, they'll find the official military orders which indicate that the Helix Station was to be repurposed and its scientists conscripted and mandated to pursue their new orders. Previous research on the portal, the alien worlds and species beyond it, and the physics involved were all canceled, and an entire new wing was constructed specifically to allow for weapons creation and testing with the aim of combating the World Eaters.

A few files in the folder of a later date discuss a failed immobilization attempt, and it is made clear that their new commanding officer will not allow them to "waste further time" on these efforts - the only acceptable solution the military will allow is killing the World Eaters outright.

Portal room:

The portal itself is not currently running, and diagnostics pulls up a bunch of red flags. That said, Will should be able to get it started again with extensive assistance from Weaver, it will simply take some time. Good thing they're planning on being down here for a few days.

What remains of the exploded and battle-torn World Eater corpse can still be found in the portal room, but there isn't much left now. Black, sticky blobs of decayed material are strewn across the portal room's floor and walls, and approaching them directly fills Rosinante with a deep sense of nausea and severely blurred vision, but those feelings dissipate when he backs off to a distance of a few yards again. Anyone attempting to inspect the corpse should put together a plan describing exactly how they wish to do so.

[paletteswap]

player name(s): Sydney
character(s): Kuai Liang
area of exploration: The forest in general (depending on where this leads)
date(s) of exploration: 12/06
plan: Kuai is going to follow the Rat King after one of his trips through town. He took a torch from the bonfire and will be using that to hopefully light his way.

Basically Kuai thinks that the forest spirits must have some sort of base of operations or den or nest or something and since the Rat King is dashing around distributing presents random junk there must be a stockpile of such things and Kuai wants to find it. He'll chase after him for some distance, listening for where he goes if he's too fast to be followed.

This isn't life or death World Eater knowledge, Kuai is just curious, so he's not going to jump over pits to follow him, or wade into the river. He'll give up the chase if it seems to be too dangerous or he's in danger of not being able to find his way back to town. (Or what he thinks is a reasonable distance or amount of danger)
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes.

[nextnightmods]

First off, please make sure you copy your item request onto the current page so we can keep track! And if you know which page led you to that old link, let us know so we can fix it. 👍

Anyway...

Kuai follows the Rat King and his jolly party of spirit rodents as they scurry through town, keeping a reasonable distance so that he can follow them without them turning around and swarming him. He nearly loses them a few times but they're not that hard to track, for even though they're small, there are so many of them (leaving weird bits of junk behind, sometimes) that he can generally tell which way they've gone. For one chilling moment their path bends north and in the distance he can just make out drums and pan pipes, but they swing erratically southwest past the bike shop, taking advantage of the bridge by the school to cross the river.

The forest is not well-traveled past that point by the people of Beacon. After swarming straight over the immense machinery just south of the bridge (who knew the Rat King on a scrap metal sled could be towed straight up the side and catch some sick air on the way down?), the rats go deep into dark, dense forest, wet and cold with recent snow and rain. But Kuai diligently follows until the trail starts to vanish. Where could they have gone?

A broken, silver-colored orb drops out of the air and onto Kuai's head. At his feet are the shattered remains of a few ornaments, and either dirt or crumbs. He looks up, and sees tinsel caught in the needles of the immense spruce tree above him, and somewhere up there among the whistle of the wind in the branches, he hears squeaking and chattering. The bark of the tree is scraped, like someone had once again been pulled straight upward. It's very, very hard to make out anything other than darkness above - the trees are too thick, and the sky is completely overcast.

But something, apparently, is up there!

[scarsolderthanyou]

player name(s): Gail, Lauren, Celen
character(s): Stone, Rosinante, Law
area of exploration: Following the map Rosi and Law were shown to find the power station
date(s) of exploration: Back-dated to before the blizzard event
plan:
The plan is to find the power station, collect information on what happened there, and try to find the special batteries needed for the downtown area. Secondary plan would be to clear the place out and make sure it's safe for additional visitors.

For the trip there, Stone will be in winged form, carrying Law and Rosinante, so they will be easy to see coming but also relatively safe. There aren't a lot of spirits big enough to tangle with Stone. When they get there, he'll shift down if necessary, though he'd rather stay big. He can communicate with spirits in a basic fashion in this form, because he's capable of consonantless singing (thanks Soldat!). He isn't bringing any supplies.

Rosinante is bringing his collection of weapons, and he's a little better at the spirit language than Stone is, and has the ability to make himself silent or make a bubble of silence with a certain radius. Law has a whole lot of abilities, which the exploration mod is plenty familiar with, so I'm not gonna list them all.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes

[nextnightmods]

Initially, Stone's plan of walking with the two on his back works out. The map indicates that the power plant isn't too far west, maybe an hour and a half beyond downtown, and up through that point the path is clear. Where the old road ends at the edge of town, though, the trees grow quickly dense and unless Stone wants to spend time knocking them down to fit between them, he's likely to find himself having to shift into humanoid form just so he can pass between trunks within about ten minutes past the last torch.

Soon after, the ground begins to slope upward, and recent weather alternating between rain and snow as the seasons change makes walking difficult - it's slick with mud and ice here. At that point they become grateful for the dense trees. They need the handholds.

As they near the foothills of the mountains, ground thick with moss and dense with large granite boulders between the trees, it's Stone who comes across the first unusual structure - a wide metal beam, rusted and collapsed, lies on the ground. Between the trees, slivers of light reflect their lanterns all around them. The metal beams are as wide as the narrowest tree trunks, and crossbeams connect many of them like enormous ladders; meanwhile, trees have overtaken the area so thoroughly that in some places they have grown into and over the metal struts and crossbeams, forming a strange composite of organic and inorganic forest.

The place is like a maze - in trying to push forward, they have to take side paths just to get around obstacles, and quickly the risk of getting completely turned around is obvious. They could climb to get a better vantage point (or Stone could fly up), Law could just clear a path by cutting through trees and substation pylons, or they could trust their navigation skills and patiently keep winding their way through at the cost of their speed - or maybe there's another way to handle this. They must be close, wherever they are.

[paletteswap]

player name(s): Sydney
character(s): Kuai Liang
area of exploration: the Lake
date(s) of exploration: Prior to the event, around 2/10
plan: After his conversation with Weaver, he's considering that trapping the World Eater in the lake under a layer of ice might be a viable option to buy them some time. However since physics here is weird he's gonna go do a test run out on the lake to make sure it's not full of some substance that doesn't freeze. Since part of it is already frozen he's going to walk onto the solid part of the lake out to where there's some open water and attempt to freeze a four foot square as thick as he can. If this was a normal lake back on Earth he'd be able to get about a two foot thick iceberg, but in Beacon, who knows?!
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Yes.

[nextnightmods]

Frost races from the edge of the sheet of ice on the shore out over the water's surface, branching into fractal patterns which thicken as the water begins to turn solid.

And boy, does it freeze.

Maybe it's just the unusual deep cold this winter has brought, maybe it's some strange quirk of Beacon, but the ice grows double the length and width he was expecting. It takes on a life of its own, plunging deep into the water and then shooting upward in gleaming crystals his own height that jut out at sharp, intimidating angles into the sky. Kuai's heart slows, and for an extra-long second he imagines he is the ice, cold and ruthless.

And in that moment, he feels something else, too. The lake itself is singing. The song is below the level of his hearing, but the water, and the ice, feel its pulsing vibrations, and he feels through them. In fact, he gets the distinct sensation that if he were to keep going just a little longer, keep pushing the ice ever forward, maybe he could make out the words to that song...

With a gasp, he snaps out of it. He's cold and out of breath, and his heart is pounding in his ears as blood begins to rush back into his extremities. He doesn't feel the vibration any more, but the spectacular sculpture remains, tall and intimidating, a little like a creature with too many limbs standing out there in the lake.

[callada]

player name(s): Lauren, Gail, Psi, Molly, Celen
character(s): Rosinante, Soldat, Link, Hope, Law
area of exploration: Northwest, following the info from the notebook recovered at the power station to try and find the old missile silo
date(s) of exploration: Feb. 13
plan: Most of them are armed (some very heavily), all have snowshoes to make the travel a little easier as well as warming rubies from Soldat, and Hope will also be bringing Rosi's torch along because light is always helpful. Link has his superior Hylian hearing to add to the mix of abilities. Soldat has extra rations in case they need the food. They know this is going to be a rough trek given the weather, but that doesn't seem to be improving any time soon. The goal is to try and find the silo, see what state it's in, and report back. Given persistent green-eyed spirit activity in this direction after the mines trek they're going to be extra watchful for those, and given how few people remain in town these days they'd rather flee than fight if it looks like they're going to be outmatched, but they have some serious fighters in this group.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? yes

[nextnightmods]

It is a long and arduous walk into the mountain foothills, for it's hard to go anywhere fast on snowshoes. This probably bodes well if they run into trouble, doesn't it?

They take the tunnels to Solis' place, then start above ground from there. Snow makes the dark a little less claustrophobic as the torchlight reflects off of ice on the ground and on every tree branch. They're probably extra-visible to everything in the woods, but it's much harder to be ambushed when you can see a little bit better, and that probably helps ease the nerves for otherwise, the forest is deathly quiet. Even Link, who can usually pick out the twittering of spirit-birds in the trees, hears nothing but the crunch of snow and swish of clothing as they work their way up the remnants of the road and rail tracks toward the mines exit, which is the point nearest this supposed silo that any of them have been to and at least there's a path there. They shelter in the mouth of the cave for a quick break (snowshoeing uphill all this way is hard work!) before venturing off into the unknown.

Hours later, they make their way to the general area the silo ought to be in if Langstrom's mention of the place is accurate, but it's harder to find in all the trees and snow than they might have guessed, for the area they need to search is probably still fairly large. They're looking for a large circular area that will mostly be underground, which may have some sort of lid/roof over it that is now covered in snow (but likely not covered in trees), or which may be open to the air and could just be a giant pit. Soldat likely knows what a missile silo is and can explain the gist to the group.

Will they take the time to search as a group? This runs the risk of taking longer (depending on how lucky they are) but is relatively safe. Or,

Will they split up individually or in small groups? This will almost guarantee someone will find it sooner, but there's danger in being separated. Or,

Is there another alternative they would like to propose?

[flangirl]

player name(s): Daz, Gail
character(s): Pudding, Soldat
area of exploration: Library to start; other areas as needed to find willing friendlies
date(s) of exploration: early February, ~Feb 2-4ish?
plan: Pudding is hoping to be able to use her Flashback ability to stun spirits as necessary during the face-off with the World Eater. Soldat has offered to help her speak to friendly spirits to ask for volunteers to test the effect on spirits, to see if they're as likely as living beings and Homies to be startled / briefly stunned by the flashbacks - as well as to see whether they flash to memories of their previous lives, the way Homies remember the lives of the people whose souls were used to give them sentience. They'll be asking the Librarian first, followed by Flesh Horse and Rye Mother if they can find them, and possibly the junkyard dog. Pudding will suggest they ask if these spirits can find other volunteers. Soldat will do most of the talking, as he's the best with Spirit Language. Pudding can sing and understand some but is by no means fluent. They'll both be bundled up against the weather.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? YES injury, NO death

[nextnightmods]

The Librarian is no harder to find than usual, as they drift around accompanied by the crinkling of paper being thoughtfully chewed on. They float before Soldat and Pudding as they consider the request, raise a hand draped in veils to their face in thought, then nod in acceptance.

When Pudding uses her ability, the Librarian drops to the floor. No longer floating, they sit as if kneeling, and the veils ripple as they shudder. They gather the veils closer around barely-present shoulders, huddling in on themselves, and give a quiet, keening moan. Several seconds pass before the spirit finally gathers themself up and even if Soldat and Pudding can't see their face, it's not hard to imagine the Librarian is shaken.

And then they thrust out a hand and demand snacks as penance.

---

The two find Rye-Mother next, who is lurking in a patch of black, wilted weeds near the graveyard - though little is visible of those plants except the dead seed-heads poking out of the snow. Rye-Mother strokes their bundled effigy child and explains that Flesh Horse is elsewhere along the lake shore, watching for the World Eater. They are happy to participate, though, and hope that they get to see more of who they were once.

Once Pudding uses her powers, Rye-Mother doesn't move at first. They stand there in long silence and stillness - even the hand that usually strokes the bundle in their arms stops moving. But then they look around as if remembering where they actually are, and with a sense of purpose, they gather up a handful of the dead weeds, plucking them from the snow one by one as they carefully select the nicest, then walk into the graveyard. They come to a stop at a headstone half-buried in snow and so worn with time the text is no longer legible, and lay the offering down, then offer Soldat and Pudding both a quiet "Thank you."

---

Soldat approaches the Dog, who initially does a full-body wiggle in recognition of their friend. But at the request, they lower their head and scoot backwards, whining and drooling with anxiety. So that's probably a no.

---

The two could go track down other spirits, and the Librarian and Rye-Mother are both willing to suggest some, but ultimately the end result appears to be that yes, this ability does work. It doesn't always last more than a few seconds, but in some cases that might just buy someone enough time.

[paletteswap]

player name(s): Sydney, Daz
character(s): Kuai Liang, Pudding
area of exploration: Solis' Lab
date(s) of exploration: End of February
plan: Kuai hasn't been able to find out IC how to make more of the anti-greeneyes potion so he's attempting to find out via Clara and Solis' computer. (I believe it was Javert who made it last time but Kuai didn't find out before he left Beacon). He is able to work computers, and navigate files (no hacking though), but he's not very scientific. He's hoping for some sort of recipe or at least ingredient list or methodology for making this.
EDIT - Soldat has been holding onto Javert's notes for a while, and has turned them over to Pudding. Hopefully in there are any steps he used to create the anti-greeneyes potion, or at least a path in the right direction of getting more. Kuai and Pudding are going to try and recreate it, with Kuai doing any ingredient gathering and Pudding doing the actual 'cooking'.

Any additional info they need Kuai is going to try and use Clara's knowledge and Doctor Solis' computer to fill in the gaps.
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? Not this time. They gotta live to make the concoction.

[nextnightmods]

With Kuai and Pudding putting their heads together, poring over Javert's notes, and doing some experimental blending, cooking, and very careful testing in Solis' Lab to make sure their final concoction has the same properties as the notes describe, they do manage to recreate the potion. It takes several days of work, a few mistakes along the way (including one mixture that, when poured into a sample vial, eats right through the glass, oops), and a lot of patience from Clara who is always right there to clean up the mess and provide some new tools, but the team is ultimately successful!

They are able to create enough to give every resident of Beacon a single 2-hour dose, or alternatively, if people sit out someone can get a four-hour dose, and so on - so use it wisely!

[flangirl]

player name(s): Daz
character(s): Pudding
area of exploration: A culmination of general foodening and minor explorations / experimentations in mostly "safe" places
date(s) of exploration: Things have been Happening since the flood, but let's say late February ~ early March for culmination
plan: Pudding has been testing a lot of cooking and cooking-related things throughout the year. Major end goal here is providing some level of help making more of the resistance potion, as well as making a healthy stock of other potions for the final fight. Minor end goal is making things as sustainable as possible in Beacon, should enough people survive / stay / come in to need it. She's staying here unless doing so becomes untenable, after all.

Things she's been up to:

• Experimenting in the Eerily Cold And Damp pantry in The Invincible. Attempts at growing mushrooms, sprouts, local flora, and especially the medicinal plants from the early greenhouse explore. Storing small amounts of foods that ferment or age in cold temperatures. Storing small amounts of foods that should be kept cold for preservation. She's been checking on everything and taking notes every three days to a week.


• Drying surplus foods with the heat at the back of the stove, on top of ovens, etc. Anything that can be easily preserved. All the plant protein.


• Canning. Lots of canning. Jellies, pickles, and attempts to preserve anything high in protein. She's saved every viable jar from prepackaged foods that come in with supplies and is reusing whatever of them will seal properly with stovetop canning methods.


• Lots and lots of cultivation of those medicinal plants in the greenhouse. She's seeded or rooted cuttings (experimenting with both and using whatever method yields best results), using every available greenhouse space that isn't being used for food or other projects, especially vertical shelving.


• Lots and LOTS of experimenting with those medicinal plants to see what yields the most potent results, including low-temperature slow roasting, oven-drying, freeze-drying, air drying, pickling, stewing, reductions, oil infusions, tinctures with various different kinds of alcohol, tisanes, etc. All of the liquid methods attempted with fresh, various dried, dried and powdered, etc. Attempts for food and potions.


• Seeing how well she can make salves and potions in her NO TOMATO pot. 8|b Worth a try for that extra volume of output. If so she's absolutely gonna try that on the resistance potion recipe once they figure it out.

is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? I GUESS??

[nextnightmods]

Pudding is about to become Beacon's favorite apothecary.

Which is good because if anything happens to Law when the world eater arrives, they'll be out a doctor, but also Pudding is working on more than medicine anyway. Here's what her work finally yields by the beginning of March:

• The Eerily Cold And Damp pantry is an odd little place. Mushrooms do very well there - extremely well. They grow tall and spindly, but numerous, and quickly. If gone accidentally unchecked an extra day the place gets a little crowded with them. Sprouts seem to rot before they can really take off, locally-collected seeds and transplants don't seem to change much at all. Fermenting works, though. Enjoy your pickles and sauerkraut!



• Drying seems to proceed as expected, so feel free to assume the shelves are stocked with an abundance of dried herbs, beans, and so on. Likewise, anything better off canned will indeed stay preserved more or less indefinitely, for their purposes. All together, by the end of the explore dates, Pudding probably has stocked up an extra three to four months of food considering how few people are now in Beacon.



• The greenhouse would be grateful to Pudding if it could voice such sentiments, but it's a building. (This is probably a relief.) Pudding takes up where Xayah left off, with a lot of thriving, healthy plants, and so she's able to continue to propagate what's there. The green healing herbs especially seem easy to grow and take to the vertical culture well. She's able to improve on the known recipes for simple healing along the way, finding that the properties become especially potent when a few colors are dried (oven or freeze-dried), powdered, and then mixed together with oils for slathering on burns, cuts, or other surface injuries.
  
  Pudding fiddles with various ratios of green and red herbs until she finds a blend that, when pureed and consumed, seems to help stomachache, muscle cramps, and other minor internal ailments - an all-purpose painkiller! Nice.
  
  The blue herb in particular behaves a little differently - when steeped alone in a tisane, it produces a mild hit of mental clarity, similar to caffeine. The tisane tastes a bit like sumac, which is unexpected but refreshing. Drinking too much results in serious indigestion and probably worse, if you're not careful, so go easy on it, but it occurs to her that this too could be useful if someone consumes something poisonous, probably. Ew.



• All three of the above methods take to the pot just fine - she can produce in bulk with ease. The plants seem simple enough to work with once she's gotten all this experience in doing so!