nextnightmods | EXPLORATION.

EXPLORATION.

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:

player name(s): (please list ALL PLAYERS involved with the exploration!)
character(s): (please list ALL CHARACTERS involved with the exploration!)
area of exploration: (please be as specific as possible! we need to know where your character is/is trying to go.)
date(s) of exploration: (you may forward or back date by up to two weeks from the current date.)
plan: (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!)
is your group willing to accept risk of serious injury/death? (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.)

QUICKNAV
comms	\|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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.

The stench of the sewer is honestly a lot more preferable to him than the rushing torrent of water that was there earlier. He'll leave the manhole cover alone for now, and continue onward toward the rusted metal filter. There, he'll test the bars to see if any are loose or broken, and when he discovers the one that's bent toward the bottom, he'll pull on it to see if it will give way or move. If the opening is large enough for him to pass through, he'll discard his coat and his boots, folding his coat up nice and neat before setting it aside on a dry patch. He'll leave his torch and his tablet behind as well, and see if it's possible to wade through the sewage to get to the other side.

He doesn't seem too interested in the refuse, but he'll make certain to keep his weapons within reach in case something jumps out at him.

Javert paws through the piled up refuse to get a grip on the bent bar, plants his feet, and gives it a good pull. It's wedged in there pretty firmly at first - he can feel it wobble, but the problem is all the debris piled up against it that's holding it in place. Interested in the trash or not, Javert ends up having to pry and kick some of it aside with the end of the torch providing helpful leverage, revealing a few soggy unreadable books, something black and twisted that may have been part of a bicycle once, and the shredded, colorful remains of some thin plastic material with a rainbow print.

Despite having gotten thoroughly covered in stinking sludge, he has also managed to shove aside enough space to pry the bent bar wide, kick through a rusted section of the filter immediately behind it, and find himself with just enough space to squeeze through on his hands and knees.

After setting some things aside and crawling through, Javert can see that the sewer chute slopes sharply downward in a fifteen-foot drop, hence the splashing. Javert can slide down along with it if he likes; however, now that he's in here and able to shine his lantern around, he can see what looks like a rusted maintenance walkway to his left that runs parallel to the flow of sewage. Getting there from here could be tricky - it looks a little far to just jump it, unless he's feeling very lucky and very athletic. But there might be handholds among the rocky growths on the walls that would let him climb across.

The long-legged spirits dart to and fro over the crusted wall, hiding in its crevices, and now Javert can see the strange hard growths a bit closer as well. Their rough but rounded shapes all have seams running along the surfaces, reminding him of oysters, or maybe mussels closed up at high tide. As he studies them, he sees that the ones closest to the edge of the sewage flow do occasionally open up to let little tentacles dart out and grab at things in the water, then retreat back into their shells. One grabs one of the spider-spirits by a leg. The spider shrieks and pulls back, trying to retreat into its tiny shell - which on this one looks like a seed, unlike the jack-in-the-box of the large one months earlier - but the mussel-spirit lunges out of its shell, extending a full foot of inky, silky blackness to grab the spider back up and yank it into the shell to consume.

He'll investigate the maintenance walkway first, since the chute may be a point of no return, and he's not quite that eager to throw himself into even more sewage. He'll search the walls for any sort of handholds or indents that would allow him to climb over. If there are mussel-spirits in his way, he'll attempt to smash them with the hilt of his sword, but if not, he'll leave them and the long-legged spirits alone for now. Let nature take its course.

It's a little unnerving, looking at the wall, because it seems the best handholds are the mussel-like creatures and their lumpy shells that attach directly to the otherwise mostly smooth metal. But he can see a fairly direct route over, it's just a matter of pulling it off.

So he goes for it - one foot onto the rough, rocky shells, one hand onto another similar growth. Most of the spirits clamp themselves shut and stay that way, not willing to try to tackle this much larger lantern-bearer. One or two dart out a hesitant tentacle as Javert passes over them, and he'll feel a distinct numbing sensation, which leaves a tingling feeling, like pins and needles, on his skin after a few seconds. Otherwise, they seem to pose no great threat to him, and he lands his feet onto the corrugated metal of the walkway after a few minutes of careful navigation.

He follows it through the darkness into the bowels of a large chamber, constantly followed by the sound of trickling filthy water. The smell hasn't let up any in here, unfortunately. Down below, he can see where the tunnel comes out into the room he's now in, which mostly is full of a thick layer of the same sand and sludge, but the filter has kept large pieces of debris out of the tank. He exits through a doorway set into the wall, and emerges into yet another large metal room with water flowing down below, though it's clearer here now.

Ahead, the ceiling has collapsed, and he carefully picks his way over rubble, following a twisting path in order to try and keep in sight of what's left of the walkway, which has suffered a beating under the falling stones. Eventually, he lands back on it - but the collapse here is so complete that he can see starlight above, and the lake ahead of him, where the filtered sewage, now mostly clean water, flows out into the body of water. It's as if he's inside some sort of crater, the collapse is so deep into the cliff - but hanging precariously off the edge he can see the sign that reads BEACON WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY.

At the farthest east end of this collapsed treatment room, harsh, pounding waves funnel up through the rocks and slam into what remains of the outflow pipe.

Several things can be found washed up on the ruins around the pipe:
- four rusted barrels, two bearing one corroded warning sign, the other two bearing yet another;

- one metallic greenish rock about the size of a grape, shining out of a patch of mud.

The mud is eroding away with each wave. That stone hasn't been here long, and it won't be here much longer at this rate.

Javert is going to pay heed to the warning signs and stay clear of the rusted barrels. He's already experienced chemical burns once, and he's not eager to experience it again. As for the rock, he'll pick it up and wrap it in a handkerchief, which likely isn't clean anymore, but it's fine. He'll also take a closer look at the crater and avoid hanging around the crashing waves for too long. Is there a path for him to get out, or will he have to turn around?

The stone is just slightly warmer than the damp mud around it. It's fine.

As he turns to survey the crater, an especially strong wave shoots upward through the gap in the rocks and catches him off-guard. It throws him down onto some of the jagged rubble and leaves it slick with murky water as it retreats. Javert is briefly dazed, his lantern badly rattled, but seems to suffer no injuries beyond some bloody surface scrapes. As he pulls himself to his feet, he catches sight of a pair of green eyes peering at him from atop a collapsed wall near the crater's surface. They vanish - perhaps the creature left, perhaps it simply closed its eyes. Perhaps it was all in his head, for as he squints in the darkness, he can't see any figure there anymore.

The crater itself is about twenty feet high, and most of that is rusted metal wall that has been set into the earth. Only the top five feet looks like it has easy handholds here, but it could be climbable if he had a rope anchored above, or perhaps wanted to hike in with a very tall ladder. Closer to the waves, some of the collapsed rubble could provide a partial staircase up, but it doesn't look especially stable and he would have to contend with that rush of water. Either way, there may be something waiting for him above if what he thinks he saw is to be believed. Retracing his path in is long, but probably the least dangerous option.

Still, the other routes might be valuable to future travelers now that Javert knows about this place. It's clear to him that there's a lot that was left behind here - those barrels could be useful in the right hands, and if that rock was here, what else might there be?

Feel free to respond if Javert wants to do anything other than head back using the safe path, but otherwise, congratulations - for Javert has discovered the wastewater treatment plant which should be a useful resource for those willing to brave its dangers, as a successful trip can be quite rewarding, as he has already found!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EXPLORATION.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject