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.)

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a lot of wincing going on down there, but Minimus clamors up all the way into the little room with the spirit, hammer at the ready, shouting down to the others to keep back... and that he can't hear anything. Soldat shimmies up behind him, staying halfway on the ladder and grabbing one foot so Minimus knows he's there, then sings in the spirit-language their best attempt at: "Stop we are friendly no hurting!"

Minimus manages to scramble up into the nest of the radio tower. The spirit stays where it is, uncomfortably flattened to the rafter. It's clear from the lack of moment and the way one arm hangs limply that it's broken, or worse. That's not the only injury it sustained from the last group that visited, either, if the blood all over is any indication.

There's another, though far less sharp cry as Soldat joins their sad party. Nobody will lose their hearing from that one. The spirit twists at the song, almost like a dog keening toward some unexpected sound, except well, it looks a great deal more creepy coming from a creature that looks like this spirit happens to.

It doesn't move, though. It looks ready to launch from the rafters, muscles and limbs tight with movement just waiting to happen, it just... doesn't. It waits, and perhaps... listens?

Singing as clearly and carefully as they can in spirit tongue, Soldat says, "Sorry sorry want help you. Sorry for hurts." They climb up a little further, tap Minimus's arm to get him to lower the hammer so it looks less threatening, and motions for Javert and Misty to stay put below for now.

Thankfully, Soldat and Minimus are blocking Javert's sight lines for the spirit, so neither one can inadvertently threaten the other.

The spirit considers this, twisting their head... wow, heads are just not supposed to twist that much. It's rather alarming. It takes a frustratingly long time for it to provide any response at all, before it echoes back a single phrase in a distorted croon.

Hurt. Hurt. Hurt. hurthurthurt — The spirit unwinds its neck to bob its pale face, clinging to the rafter and limbs going a bit less tense with intent to launch itself. Hurt.

The party will notice that the static in the radio is abating, at least slightly, as the spirit seems to show signs of calming. They can hear the message, distantly, through the slightly lessened thrum of static.

Minimus lowers his hammer and takes a step closer to the spirit to try and get a better look at how badly it's hurt, and Soldat sings, soothingly as they can, "Sorry sorry. Will help. Have--" They have to pause and come up with a word that could conceivably mean healer out of the limited vocabulary they have. "--hurt-fix person. Maybe can fix."

Then, in proper English again, only just loud enough to be heard below, "Misty. Please come up slow. The spirit is hurt from before. Told them we'd try to help."

The spirit listens in the same uncanny, head twisted manner. Just as before, the processing seems a little on the slow side. It still lingers in the rafters as Soldat nears, though the proximity does make the static flare again.

The spirit seems to have a broken arm... well, all its limbs look like arms, though the right one nearest its head is the broken one in question. It's bent and bulging and hanging loosely, unable to grip to the rafter. Not easily visible, though, are the multiple stab wounds it got from tangling with the wrong end of Cao Pi's sword.

Misty is able to join the ramshackle group at the top of the tower. As more of them join, the static does start to increase, and the spirit occasionally darts attention toward the radio consoles, still littered with bird bones. It does not approach any of the party, though, instead lingering up in the rafters.

Misty comes to join them, and Soldat, registering the increased static, steps back and motions for Minimus to back towards the ladder, too, giving Misty and the spirit as much room as possible without anyone actually descending yet. "This hurt-fix friend." Then they say, "Misty," in English, so the spirit knows her name. They know spirits have names; Owl Friend did. "Touch help. Come down? Please? Only Misty touch not me not others. Misty, if they come down, they should let you touch them."

If the spirit still won't come down and gets more agitated, Soldat will step down the ladder a little, not far enough to not be able to translate but far enough that clearly they can't attack from that angle. Minimus is still there, but Soldat is closer to the ladder, so hopefully that will be enough. No one's approaching the radio controls yet, this is taking precedence.

Edited 2020-07-08 21:41 (UTC)

Hurt fix friend, huh? The spirit sadly echoes hurt, hurt, hurt in an eerie croon that seems to echo throughout the small room. It is clear the spirit is waging some sort of internal battle, attention split by all the strangers in the room and occasionally toward the bevy of bones across the console.

It doesn't come down, exactly, though it gingerly twists around to hang from the rafter like an ungodly looking sloth. It watches Misty with a blank masked stare. Its limbs are all preoccupied holding onto the rafter, except the broken one. That just follows the lead of gravity and hangs sadly, closer to Misty than anything else.

Misty puts her hands over Soldat's arm slowly in mime, watching the spirit to show that this is what she's going to do to it, then approaches slowly with both hands up and, if needed, lifts herself up using magic to hover a little bit above the floor underneath where the spirit hangs. She holds her hands close to the spirit's broken arm, not touching yet, and starts channeling healing magic into it, to gently realign the bone and start knitting it back together.

The process doesn't hurt, per se, but it does make the arm feel overly warm and the actual setting kind if pinches.

Misty is able to approach the spirit and attempt to heal them. They do not make any approach, though it is clear they are surprised by the sensation of magic. As much as Misty tries, it does not seem her healing is effective on the spirit. It's not that the magic is blocked, it just does not seem to help the poor thing. It will need traditional care, it seems.

However, her attempt is understood, even if the action does not seem to help any. The static completely dissipates, leaving the repeating message echoing in the small room. Soldat might recognize the notes the spirit hums, a new word from hurt: Raining. Raining. (Misty doesn't translate into spirit very well.)

The spirit seems to be mostly pacified by their attempts to help. It slinks heavily from the rafters, and crawls on the three limbs that function to a spot off in the corner. By the looks of all the blood, it's likely the spirit was laying there for awhile before arrival. The spirit is in very poor health, though it seems to have accepted their presence. The team should be able to use the equipment, if they're careful!

Aw that's sweet (Soldat translates the word for Misty, "Your name in spirit is 'raining', Misty,"). They donate their small stock of bandages for the spirit, and Javert downstairs looks for something to use as splint before coming up the ladder to join them. Minimus offers support for spirit-limbs if needed while Misty sets about offering first aid in the more traditional way.

Soldat and, if not needed for spirit first-aid, Minimus set about gingerly poking at the radio controls. The goal is to find the Helix frequency and try to send a response back: a query, whether using voice or Morse, for an updated status.

The spirit does not seem to much understand what Misty is up to, but is overall compliant with any nursing she is inclined to offer. It vacillates between hurt and raining, and overall just seems exhausted by the combination of injuries and the recent stress of unexpected visitors. It does pause to watch Soldat and Minimus at the controls, though it must decide that the two are not a threat, and is content to just lay there, almost like a dog. Just with way more arms.

It takes some fiddling, but Minimus and Soldat are able to find the frequency the station is broadcasting from. As they begin to send out their messages, quite abruptly the loop cuts off entirely. It seems as if that's all they're going to get until suddenly, a message comes through, though it is incredibly quiet.

-. --- / ...- --- .. -.-. . .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.- / - .... . -.-- / -.-. .- -. / .... . .- .-. .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.- / ... - .- - ..- ... / -... .- -.. .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.-

Soldat has super hearing it's fine. Also, fluent in Morse code, so this is useful. Since Minimus can't hear it, they wave at him and point at the receiver, looking grimly excited. They write out the transcript briefly with a piece of paper and pencil stashed behind a knife sheath, then respond in kind:

-.-. --- .--. -.-- / -.-. --- -.. . / --- -. .-.. -.-- .-.-.- / ... --- .-.. .. ... / -.. . .- -.. / .-.. .. --. .... - .... --- ..- ... . / ..-. .- .-.. .-.. . -. .-.-.- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / - .-. -.-- / - --- / -.-. .- .-.. .-.. / ... ..- -... ... .-.-.- / .... --- .-- / -- .- -. -.-- / ... - .. .-.. .-.. / .- .-.. .. ...- . .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.-

Over in the corner, Misty continues her tending with Javert as an extra pair of hands, both for the arm and any other wounds she can see, until she's out of bandages or the spirit is no longer dripping spirit-blood anywhere. Once finished, she will give them some space again.

The handsy spirit submits to the splinting, and after seems to be most intent on resting. It does not seem to be much of a threat at this point, and their attempts to help the spirit will hopefully help the limb to heal. The group does not get much response from the spirit at this point, it seems to have more or less passed out.

As for the contact with the Helix Station, they get another response, only slightly delayed:

-.. .-. / .... .- -.. / -.-. --- -.. . ... .-.-.- / ..-. .. -. -.. / .-.. .- -... .-.-.- / .. -.. -.- .-.-.- / -- .- -. -.-- / --. --- -. . .-.-.- / .-.. .- ... - / -- . ... ... .- --. . / ... . -. - / .-- . . -.- ... / .- --. --- .-.-.- / .--. .-.. . .- ... . / .... . .-.. .--. .-.-.- / ... -.-. .- .-. . -.. .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.-

Minimus, unable to hear the Morse at all, looks around the control room a bit, whether for additional info or potential threats. Misty, finished with the spirit, leaves them be and comes to look over Soldat's shoulder.

Soldat writes out the response as it comes, for anyone else who can't translate Morse, and responds immediately and rapidly:

..-. --- ..- -. -.. / .-.. .- -... / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .-.. --- --- -.- / ..-. --- .-. / -.-. --- -.. . ... .-.-.- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -.-. --- -- . / - --- / .... . .-.. .--. .-.-.- / -... .- .-. .-. .. -.-. .- -.. . / -.-- --- ..- .-. ... . .-.. ..-. / .-- .. - .... / ... ..- .--. .--. .-.. .. . ... .-.-.- / ... . -. -.. / .. -. - . .-.. / --- -. / - .... .-. . .- - .-.-.- / ... .. --.. . / .--. --- .-- . .-. ... / .... --- .-- / .. - / --. --- - / - .... . .-. . .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.-

As for the rest of the room, there's not too much new things to find. Minimus can browse through a handful of manuals about the radio equipment, though there's not a lot interesting to find in them. They are very dusty.

Once again, the response is delayed, though this time, the morse taps through rapid-fire. Soldat will have to flex his morse code muscles on this one, as it will not be easy to follow.

--- -. . / --- ..-. / - .... . -- .-.-.- / -. --- - / ..-. ..- .-.. .-.. / --. .-. --- .-- -. .-.-.- / -.-. --- -. ... ..- -- . ... / .- -. -.-- - .... .. -. --. / -.-. .-.. --- ... . .-.-.- / - .-. .. . -.. / - --- / ... . -. -.. / -... .- -.-. -.- / - .... .-. --- ..- --. .... / .--. --- .-. - .- .-.. --..-- / - .-. .- .--. .--. . -.. / --- .--. . -. .-.-.- / -- --- .-. . / -.-. .- -- . .-.-.- / --. .-. . . -. / . -.-- . ... .-.-.- / --- - .... . .-. ... / - --- --- .-.-.- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -.- .. .-.. .-.. / --- -. / ... .. --. .... - .-.-.- / -. --- / .--. --- .-- . .-. .-.-.- / -- ..- ... - / -.-. --- -. ... . .-. ...- . .-.-.- / .--. .-.. . .- ... . / -.-. --- -- . / ... --- --- -. .-.-.- / .. -. / .-. -.. .-.-.- / -.-. .- -. / .... . .-.. .--. .-.-.- / .--. .-.. . .- ... . / .... . .-.. .--. / -- . .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. .-.-.-

Sadly, there will be no other responses, no matter how many more questions are sent. That is all their informant from the station is able to send.

After a few follow-up questions that don't get responses, Soldat replies with:

- .... .- -. -.- / -.-- --- ..- / .-- . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -.-. --- -- . .-.-.- / -... . / ... - .-. --- -. --. .-.-.- / --- ...- . .-. / .- -. -.. / --- ..- - .-.-.-

And then it's time to go. Soldat pauses by the spirit to check on them, then everyone picks up to head back, and figure out how best to tell the others about all this.

Also, over the next two weeks until they leave for Helix station, Soldat adds the radio station to their patrols once every other day, to check on the spirit, change bandages if needed, and (once there's food again) bring them snacks. Calories help people heal, right? Sure they do.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EXPLORATION.

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CW: BROKEN BONES

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