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nextnightmods) wrote2020-04-20 11:03 pm
nextnightmods) wrote2020-04-20 11:03 pm
EXPLORATION.
EXPLORATION
Explorations are currently OPEN. They will close again when we run out of active exploration slots.
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The forest engulfing Beacon is dense and uncharted, but that just means there's never a shortage of cool stuff to discover lurking off the beaten path. There's always new locations, plot clues, or extra resources to be found, so although venturing into the woods is always dangerous, the rewards may just outweigh the risks.
Once you come up with a plan, please fill out and submit the form below. We'll respond in one of two ways, depending on the nature of your exploration:
- In most cases, we'll respond with a single write-up detailing the outcome of your exploration. For example, characters venturing out into 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!
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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.
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Javert will collect all the information on the poison/narcotics and prepare to bring it up to the others later on the surface, which also leaves him free to help out anywhere else. Law also wants to look into that poison stuff after he cleans out every medical tool he can find.
Seeing as the lab's door is the problem, Cao Pi finally gives up and decides that it probably isn't worth the labor involved - not unless someone else gets a much more significant clue to suggest that they really do need to get in there. Other things are more obvious and worth working through. If there's anything Law can see or sense and be able to use his Room to get out of there, he'll suggest doing so and then move on.
In the power room and R&D, all possible things that can be downloaded, copied, or picked up and carried away absolutely will be (so if there's anything specific that hasn't been mentioned yet, let us know!). That includes Alastair's research, The Folder, the poison research, etc. Which leaves them with two major projects left for the rest of the time - the Portal room, and Will's computer bits.
What Will is looking for: Is it possible he could also copy from the computers in the R&D section? Or like, steal a hard drive? He'd love to have access to everything in there, even if it takes him ages to sort through it all. As for particulars, he wants anything related to World Eater destruction methods or anything about the town/world history that the Night Market may have dug up. Also, is there anything left of the original pre-apocalypse scientists' research? Because that seems like it could be relevant. The dragon spirit sent them there for a reason, after all. Lastly, did the Night Market ever experiment with sending things through the portal from this end? Like, other than Alistair's hail mary? If so, Will is Intently interested in that. And also restarting the Portal yep.
Portal room: Rosinante marks that reaction to the bits and pieces and backs off to suggest they find something to store them in. He and Will agree with Law that they need to save at least some of it, on which to experiment later if they can find a safe way to do so, which means looking for something that will contain a few chunks of World Eater viscera without harming the rest of the party. They can't actually use the portal or stay in the room without getting rid of the corpse so here's the plan: Law can teleport the pieces without touching them or going near them. If they can find a container that proves safe (Rosinante's suggestion is the lockers or anything large, metal, and shielded in the lab), they want to teleport some pieces into said container to save them for later. Then, since it will take until the end of their trip before Will even gets the portal working (and can't yet reverse the stream on it) they need to move the rest somewhere secure. Cao Pi suggests the flooded lab, while Rosinante wonders if the lake is enough. Law is mostly on the hook for the teleporting, even though Soldat's metal arm might be able to touch the pieces if he can stand being close enough to them for long (probably not).
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In the password search, they aren't able to find any more old paper files from pre-darkness days - if any survived, they don't seem to be located here. There does seem to be a set of text files on one of the computers relating to that research, though the last access date was many years ago. Still, at least someone found time to transcribe it at one point. A glance shows it's very technical reading.
Stealing hard drives backfires quickly - a lot of what's stored in the station's systems seems to be located on a server that's locked up somewhere in the station, and any discussion of or attempt at walking off with one of the few hard drives that's in the R&D room is met with Weaver's immense displeasure and an insistence that they not remove those from the station or she'll have to start locking them out of the computers entirely. Copying is all right, she's willing to share, but theft is a step too far.
While they do find a few SD cards and USB drives to download some information to, these have limited storage space. Therefore, there is neither enough time nor enough space to download literally everything on this trip.
What would the group like to prioritize? Please pick one or two specific topics for this trip out of everything that was listed in the previous response (Alistair's research, pre-darkness research, general Night Market logs on all kinds of subjects, etc) and we will let you know in summary what they can obtain given their current limitations. If one topic is chosen they'll get more in-depth information on it; if they choose two, it will be a little more cursory for each. It should still be quite a bit either way - a few gigs of text files and spreadsheets is some dense content.
Mission: viscera. One of them finds a sturdy lockable sample container in the flooded spirit research lab, about 1 foot square, which should be sufficient to contain a piece of world eater flesh. Law can successfully transfer a piece of it into that container, and as long as the container is completely closed, they seem able to safely transport it.
The rest of the corpse still remains in the portal room, however, until they agree whether they want to put it in one room or another or ditch it into the lake, just let us know.
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After a lot of discussion and voting, it looks like the group is split on whether to prioritize World Eater destruction info or Alastair's portal info, with Will advocating for all the pre-apocalypse text files (assuming they're small) instead of Alastair's research. His question: can Weaver, with or without help, come back down to the station and replicate Alastair's research using the information that would remain stored there? If Weaver says no, then the two priorities will be world eater destruction and Alastair's research. Pre-darkness will have to be set aside, in that case.
The group in the portal room will use Law's power to teleport some small pieces of the corpse into the lockable container, and then the rest they want to teleport into an unused room within the station. Most likely, the flooded lab, since it can't be recovered for anything else right now. Not the lake, though, no one wants that.
That said, anyone free (Link and Soldat mostly, with Javert sometimes) is available to go looking for the paper trail on passwords if that'll speed anything along and help with the downloading and/or recovery of files.
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As she says this, she plugs in some coordinates into the portal for several buckets, some mops, some soap, and a new set of screwdrivers. Oh look! Even an instruction manual that's at Will's level.
Let us know if the team is willing to commit to coming back down to help out in exchange for more info, or if they'd rather just take what they can get now and not make that agreement.
Meanwhile, Law can easily teleport the world eater bits and pieces around. Easy enough to do so long as everyone keeps their distance, so they now have a good half-pound sample in a locked container and the rest is in the flooded lab, probably to be dealt with later if they take Weaver up on actually fixing the place up.
While Will and Weaver snark at each other, those who are able to start poking around and copying info can certainly get started with information on the Night Market's research on what could possibly kill a World Eater. In summary, when they read through later, they can learn the following:
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Is there anything else they can do or will that cover the remainder of the few days they're there waiting for Will to finish getting the portal running?
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In the meantime the group can also grab what's left of the pre-darkness research that was saved. This as well as the above mentioned research will certainly take plenty of time to sort through, read, and make sense of, so that will surely fill quite a bit of their downtime. The pre-darkness notes, in summary:
As the base is somewhat sheltered from the creature due to its underwater location, most weapons creation and testing moves to the station and it fully becomes a military outpost, with the remaining science team conscripted to work on a variety of new projects. Chemical and biological weapons are launched at the creature and all fail to even make it flinch, and peppering it with ammunition yields no obvious effects either. Weaponry focus quickly shifts only to nuclear warheads as they have no more time to test less-conventional methods.
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