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.

[immortalaccursed]

OH GOD.

Are the green eyes temporary?

[nextnightmods]

Indeed they are! They'll fade just before he falls ill. And once the worst of it is over, the spirits will treat him normally again.

[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?

[fjorgedinfire]

The boys would like to go down what we have now dubbed Bloodstink Tunnel, with Soldat taking point and leading with his metal arm.

cw: gross, gore, seriously it's gross

[nextnightmods]

Guess you'd better make some custom signage down here at some point.

Soldat and Fjord continue along the tunnel an additional fifteen minutes, watching as the network of gelatinous yellow something gets ever denser, crisscrossing the walls like the veins of some enormous underground creature until they become so thick they overlap, producing delicate coral-like patterns; no longer just veins but fans and spiraling fractals. In some areas they even hang suspended from the ceiling, and the boys must either duck below them or have their hair caressed by those long, spindly, slippery fingers. The stench grows thicker, too, and layered alongside the smell of death is something ripe and clearly decayed.

Ahead, the tunnel changes shape. The flood must have caved in the ceiling here also, or it tried but was thwarted in part not just by wooden supports but by the metal frame of a door. It too has a keypad, much like the trapdoor had. But the weight of water and sliding mud has bent the frame out of shape, and the door has buckled under the immense pressure, leaving just enough of a gap for Soldat to squeeze through first, followed by Fjord.

On the other side of the door is a room. On the western wall straight ahead is a door like this one, but tightly-sealed with a keypad. But the rest of the room opens up into what can best be described as a morgue. Lying in wooden boxes, rather like handmade open coffins, are several bodies:

- One figure is humanoid except that it possesses a long, bony tail and one ram-like horn. The other is missing, and so is the arm on the body's same side. Much of the skin on the body as well as many of the organs within have blackened and sloughed away, and the blackish ooze has mixed into what remains of tattered, muddy clothing that shows evidence of a fight with something with either claws or long teeth.

- Two humanoid figures are difficult to discern details of. Hair and fingernails have detached into the pool of black filth and the bodies are covered in delicate white fungi, mycelia weaving through grease and bone. By height and shape they may have been women but nothing else distinguishing about them is visible considering the state of decay and the abundance of mushrooms, which must have been here for at least a little while as some have shrunken inward and blackened, themselves.

- Another female-sized humanoid, this one still has a mat of short white hair attached in some places to the rotting scalp. Whatever killed her must have split her open severely, for the level of decay on the body does not indicate the skeleton should be visible and yet the muscle and tendons have peeled away in a split from collarbone to one hip. Out of this crevice, thick orange fungi bloom upward in undulating, fleshy sheets and waves. Laid at her side is a rapier.

- The last, a tall sturdy-bodied man with black hair, and hung on the side of his box is a pair of smashed black thick-framed glasses. His body, for whatever reason, seems to have resisted much of the decay the others have gone through. His skin is a deep purple-red and bloated beyond the capacity of his clothing. Thick foam oozes from his mouth and nose. The yellow mat of gelatinous web has pulled itself up over the edges of his box and lays over and across his body. At the foot of his box, unlike the others, are dozens of disastrously-fragmented pieces of a lantern.

The stench in here is overwhelmingly nauseating. It makes their eyes water; makes it hard to search for much else in this room, though it doesn't look to hold more secrets anyway. Feel free to punch or kick the locked door - it doesn't seem to budge, however.

[fjorgedinfire]

Fjord gets inside, takes one look at the bodies of people he knows, and immediately leaves so he can vomit. Soldat ties his handkerchief around his nose, motions for Fjord to stay the fuck put, investigates each box while he holds his breath as much as he can... collects the rapier and as many of the lantern bits as he can get into the bag he used to use for memory opals, and then tries the door before coming back.

After that they'll double back together and try the second tunnel heading downhill.

[nextnightmods]

They squeeze through that gap in the pressure-warped door and head back the way they came, toward cooler, fresher air. This time, they turn right down that sloping branch in the tunnel. It plunges downward for what must be hundreds of feet, and when they've finally reached the bottom, it curves upward again. This time, rather than a gradual straight slope, it's a spiral. All the while, the sound of the river remains muted, but it's clear by the shape of the tunnel and the angle of the sound above them that they've had to dive well beneath it and come up on the other side.

What they find, once they've finally climbed all the way back up to what ought to be the surface, is perhaps a little discouraging - for like at the church, here too is a one-way trapdoor with a keypad. Hm! But they're far enough away from the river now where it can't be heard, and no other sounds are loud enough on the surface to make their way through this apparent exit. They've learned that the tunnel system must indeed have multiple entrances and exits, but given the disorienting spiral upward, it's hard to say exactly where in Beacon they should be now.

Which means it's another long walk down, and then back up to their original entrance where they've dug through at the site of the collapsed section of tunnel. Finally, fresh air.

[fjorgedinfire]

Soldat is going to try and fiddle with the keypad before they leave, and see if they can't learn anything about it - like how many numbers it takes before it beeps at them in disappointment - but they will for sure leave after that.

[nextnightmods]

The keypad is a standard 10-digit keypad (0-9) with two additional symbols to either side of the 0 (* and #). Soldat can push all the numbers they like - there's a soft click after each press, except that there's a sharper beep if the # is pressed. There's no audible difference in the tones otherwise, whether they push three or twenty keys in a row. It's as if the lock style was perhaps intended to thwart decades of curious Beaconites. Valiant effort, though.

[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

[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]

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.

[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.

[scarsolderthanyou]

First step is to search the rubble for signs of Robin. Stone will be doing a lot of checking for scents, particularly on her personal belongings, so he learns what she smells like and see if he can track it at all (if he can't, he won't be surprised, but it's worth a shot).

They'll all give the door to the outbuilding a shot, first knocking politely, then yelling through it to see if anyone answers, and then Sora will attempt to set his keyblade to it to unlock it.

Rosinante will also be looking around for signs of other spirits, since they had been so protective of the place before, which Stone will help with using his famous nose (tongue? technically it's his tongue). If they find any, it's up to Jason with his command of the spirit tongue to try and translate.

[nextnightmods]

Stone will find traces of Robin... well, all over. This was her space and her space alone for a very long time, her scent is practically overbearing. He'll be able to ascertain she was definitely here... but, as for tracking it elsewhere, that doesn't seem to work. Notably, he won't find any hints of new blood, or potential other injuries.

There are also not any spirits obviously in the area, hostile or otherwise. It seems as if whatever drew them to protecting the Lighthouse is mostly dispelled, now that it's in pieces. No matter how long they stay, or how many trips it takes to retrieve the supplies, no spirits will stop by.

However, there is some good news. While calling and knocking nicely does not seem to get them anywhere, Sora's keyblade comes in clutch — the door will swing open, providing entrance to an extremely musty dusty storage room.

The inside is mostly in good repair, though it is very obvious that nobody has been in here for quite some time. Hopefully none of them have dust allergies! Curiously, there are boxes upon boxes upon boxes of binders, folders, books, and packets of papers. The significance of the papers is a little hard to track, but looking through them will show them to be lists. Lists upon lists of items, of an astonishing variety. Some of the items are pedestrian, from bandages to tube socks, some of them are more remarkable, like varied sorts of weaponry, differing types of seeds, halloween decorations, and honestly, anything you could ever hope to want.

And each item has some kind of code or coordinate to match. Some items even have multiple coordinates, with some noted to be expired or unreliable. The coordinates system isn't familiar to any of the explorers, or following any pattern they can recognize. However, it seems as if they've found quite an extensive catalogue, and while it's a bit dated, the papers are all legible and in good condition, but it'd take months, maybe years, to go through it all.

There's a silver lining in all the dust, though — in the midst of all the dusty paperwork are more terminals, computers, and tech stowed in a corner. All of it seems even older than the busted and rusted stuff destroyed in the Lighthouse collapse, however, there are some functioning units. And quick investigation of the system shows that every last piece of paper in the warehouse has already been exhaustively uploaded and compiled. Well... mostly. There's a document on the device that is labeled, !fuck this.

It reads, simply, i give up. i have nothing but time here and i still give up. nobody here needs xylophones or xerox machines. i see numbers and letters all the time, even with my eyes closed. i stopped checking if the inputs were correct after monocle. if the next keeper has more ambition and patience than me, then you can finish typing this shit in. i'm done.

This note is not signed.

[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.

[unwieldy]

Soon after everyone steps inside, they decide to split up to cover more ground. Masaomi and Meg are the smart ones and stick together to check out the main office. While Meg searches the inside of the office, Masaomi will remain close to the door to keep an eye out. He's not all that fond of the prints left in the mud, and calls out after Carmilla to scream if anything happens.

Haein breaks off for the hallway... He'll start with the first room on the right!

Carmilla, the brave soul, ascends the stairs to see what caused the noise. She's fully prepared to teleport away at anything murderous.

[nextnightmods]

Masaomi takes point while Meg goes inside the office. The floor is a mess, much like everywhere else in town, but luckily as the orphanage sits just slightly elevated up those front steps, the water doesn't seem to have gotten more than a few inches above the floor here and many of the office's contents are still somewhat dry. The main desk here has a top drawer which contains pencils, tacks, and other office supplies, but a larger side drawer has a binder full of forms. The paper is brittle and crumbles easily when touched, but a quick glance indicates these must relate to the staff who worked here. A larger filing cabinet behind the desk is completely full of what look instead like intake and discharge forms of the children who had once stayed here, which number in the hundreds. Exploring these would take a great deal more time and care.

Meanwhile, Masaomi notices a trash can under the desk has a stack of brochures in it, now completely soaked with mud, but he can see the image of a roller coaster on the front cover.

Haein heads to the right and enters the first door he finds, which opens into a kitchen. As he goes to step into it, he trips on a thin wire strung across the doorway and lands face-first in mud and broken glass, suffering several fine cuts across his palms and knees. The floor that he's now very close to is covered in those little handprints, especially around the doorway where the wire has been affixed.

Brave Carmilla heads upstairs and finds herself at a landing facing a similar left-right running hallway with doors at regular intervals. The staircase continues up at least one more floor. One door to her left is ajar, and she can see metal bed frames, and scattered toys on the floor. But to the right, there's another thump, a squeal, and the sound of scurrying feet behind a closed door. Just as soon as she hears that sound, heavy footsteps start approaching the stairway rapidly - from above.

[unwieldy]

Now sporting several cuts, Haein will vow revenge on the culprit(s?) who had set up the wire before yelling out to the rest of the group that the place is booby-trapped and to watch where they step. He'll try to wipe off the mud on his face as best as he can before thoroughly searching the kitchen for anything that might be of interest. This time, he's very wary as he moves around the area.

Upon hearing a thump, Masaomi pokes his head out to see that Haein had fallen and waves that whole ordeal aside because that's a guy and therefore not a priority. He'll then turn back to the office and lean in to try to read the headline on the brochure in the trash can, but won't touch it because it's gross. Meg makes a note of the vast number of forms and its need for more in-depth research and suggests to Masaomi that they move on for now. They head to the kitchen where Haein is, and stop by the door to inspect the wire there.

Footsteps from above be damned. Carmilla makes for the door on the right where she'd heard the squeal and scurrying feet and, having heard Haein's warning with her vampire hearing, is careful when entering.

[nextnightmods]

In the kitchen, Haein finds a whole lot of cooking utensils, many of which seem to be in good shape. They're all fairly large in size, or numerous in quantity - huge casserole pans, 8-quart stock pots, lots and lots of dishes. He tests out the knobs on the stove, but there's no whistle of gas, and no spark of electricity. Most of the rest of town still has power, so perhaps there's a way to get it reconnected. He tries to open the oven door, but the hinges are badly rusted and it clatters loudly to the floor as it falls off completely, and the refrigerators and freezers are stocked with the desiccated, gray remains of fifty-year old food. Opening a pantry yields an explosion of spirit cockroaches with shells like the same chipped paint of the walls that shower off the drawers and into his face before scampering all over the countertop and disappearing into cracks in the walls and floor.

Without doing any digging, the brochures in the top portion of the trash can are indeed for the Amusement Park - specifically highlighting the euthanasia coaster. Masaomi can just make out the phrase "final days" peering through the mud. He and Meg get to watch Haein meet the cockroaches before bending down to look at the trip wire, which was crudely tied to a couple of nails that have been hammered into the molding around the floor. It has snapped through the middle since being tripped on. Little muddy handprints are visible on the floor and walls near where it was set up, and these tracks loop through the kitchen before exiting back out the door and then right again, continuing farther down the hallway toward one of the other two doors, which is slightly ajar. Through that door, a few inches of the wall just past are visible, and a bright red arrow pointing into the room has been painted there.

Carmilla follows the sound of small footsteps. She opens the door just in time to catch a glimpse of the troublesome spirits here, as a round, furred body with finger-like toes on its paws and a bushy tail turns its masked head to face her with a giggle and a chirp before it slips into a crack in the wall it just should not be able to fit into. Glistening wet footprints show three pairs of tracks in total leading from where she stands to that same crack - and the distraction, plus her keen senses and quick reaction time, stop her from stepping forward straight into a puddle of very slick grease in the doorway.

The room itself is some sort of dormitory, long-abandoned, with scattered toys and other personal belongings near a few of the beds. Many of the items look targeted more toward preteens, with a few light novels, playing cards, and other games strewn amidst the blankets and shoes.

A tall figure emerges from the stairwell directly behind Carmilla. Its back is harshly curved forward and yet it still stands a full eight feet in height, with dozens of clasping hands holding its ragged black robes together. The fabric covers its entire face except for the gray, cracked skin of its lower jaw, and it drapes around jagged, angular bony shapes at the spirit's shoulders and spine. The spirit looms immediately into Carmilla's face, studying her, then lets out a harsh, ringing shriek at full volume for a solid few seconds. This will result in Carmilla having a popped eardrum and muffled hearing for the next 24 hours.