Monthly Rundown: February Edition

[hadrielmods]

Almost all the gods are back now, so the city can get back to normal! But was Hadriel ever normal to begin with? And things are starting to get a little dicey anyway. Maybe normal is just a pipe dream.

As always, if you ever have any suggestions or feedback you'd like to offer us mods, remember you can always drop us a line here! Also, please remember to hit up the Current AC post if you have AC for the month! Characters accepted in January do not require AC proofs, but we do require a check-in on the post!

FEBRUARY PART 1: TAKEN

Most of the gods are back - even Delight got dragged back and thrown in her cage. Hadriel is still missing one, though. Where has Tranquility gone, and why isn't he back yet?

On February 3rd, everyone finds out. The Null will break onto the network again, bringing with them a message: they have Tranquility, and they're not going to just let him go. They are, however, willing to make a deal - Tranquility will be returned, but only in exchange for their ally Delight. Shortly after this announcement, the gods will make a post addressing the possibilities of this deal and asking you for input on what to do.

There will be an opportunity for your character to volunteer to go along on the prisoner exchange (if that's the route that's chosen); there is no OOC signup for this as all choices will be made ICly. That is to say, the way to sign up is to tell the gods that you want to be involved, after which they'll choose a number of the volunteers to go along depending on their skills and the gods' opinions of them. There will be minimal RNG involved in this - basically only if we get too many volunteers that the gods would accept. It's all based on your characters' skills, how well they present themselves, and their previous interactions with the gods!

But while all the drama is happening, the Door continues to do as it pleases. On February 10th, it opens again, bringing along a batch of new faces. In addition to the newbies a number of beautiful trees arrive - except of course they're actually Territorial Oaks from the video game EarthBound.

Territorial Oaks are exactly what they sound like: large trees that do not want you around. They can move pretty quickly and hit pretty hard, and they have psychic attacks that really aren't very pleasant. Best (worst?) of all, when defeated they destroy themselves in a fiery explosion, seriously damaging anyone nearby who can't get out of the way fast enough.

FEBRUARY PART 2: SOULMATES

Love has clearly been busy. They tracked down and recaptured Delight, so crisis or not, captured Tranquility or not, Love needs to recharge. Get ready to find your other half!

On the morning of February 14th (wow, weird coincidence) every character will wake up with the name of another Hadriel resident inscribed on the inside of their wrist. They'll feel a pull to that person, a desire to see and talk to them, and when they find them - wow! It's a connection like nothing else. Your other half will have your name inscribed on their arm, and that's how you'll know you're supposed to be together. Haven't you always secretly wanted a soulmate?

And there you are, together forever... or until a few days later, when each of you wake up with someone else's name on your arm. Or no name at all! Maybe you have a new soulmate, maybe it's skipped you this time, but you don't feel that pull towards your previous soulmate anymore. Huh. Wild!

Your characters can have as many soulmates as there are days in the event (which ends on February 22nd), or they could have only one for the whole time, or none at all. The connections can be platonic or romantic, friendly or familial, but whatever they are, while they're intact they feel deeper and stronger than anything you've felt before. What a way to make new friends.

FEBRUARY PART 3: PRISONER TRADE AND EXPLORATION

After some time for planning and deciding what to do, the date for the prisoner transfer with the Null arrives. On February 24th, whatever happens, happens - and it's all up to you. We will post an OOC plotting post on February 20th 21st, summarizing what happens and what the consequences are.

In addition, during this month we'd like to open up the world to more player exploration. We've already seen IC interest in finding the creatures attacking people, as well as investigating the world a little bit more. We've written up a summary of various ways characters can do that - so please look HERE if you're interested in your character doing some exploring. We've got a thread to organize in as well as a place to sign up, and lots of fun things for people to discover!

TO RECAP...

► February 3rd: NPC Post
► February 10th: Intro log!
► February 14th-22nd: Soulmates Event
► February 24th: Prisoner Exchange
► February 21st-28th: Activity Check
As a final note, our schedule for the month is viewable on the calendar!

Comments

[nonscriptum]

Nate wants to head up an expedition to the mountains as soon as the new cycle begins. He's reached out to a number of individuals he trusts to contribute research skills, experience in survival and combat, and magic.

The full team consists of the following:

Nathan Drake
Elena Fisher
Staci Pratt
Agent Washington
Kyna Midha
Agent Maine
Poe Dameron
Taako Taaco
Lup Taaco
Peter Parker

Regarding accurate locating, there are several proficient wizards/magic-users in the group, at least one person extremely familiar with bunkers, military personnel with all the requisite training, and Nate has 20+ years of archaeological experience finding things that don't want to be found.

They plan to travel on-foot (this will suck) using simple sledges to transport goods and supplies. For reference on the expedition intent, this is a boiler plate letter Nate sent to prospective party members. The primary impetus for Nate's interest in this endeavor is research purposes, but if they came across any artifacts or relics he would be absolutely thrilled. While they'd be happy to get into one bunker, there are enough people in the party that if necessary, they could gain access to two.

[hadrielmods]

Thank you for your interest!

During the trip, Nate and his party will run into two separate groups of the mammoth creatures- one will be easy enough to skirt, but the other will be taking up residence right near a point of interest.

The trip itself will be long and exhausting traveling by foot. After a week and a half worth of travel, they will come across what looks like a steel circle in the ground, roughly 8 feet in diameter, with a small control panel to the side. Although snow covers the landscape, it's strangely absent from the steel, and upon touching it, it's clear that it's heated from the inside. The heat appears to be what attracts the mammoths, as they are hanging around on top of it and will need to be cleared away.

Successfully navigating through the alien languages and options on this control panel will make the circle open up into an elevator shaft that you can take straight down into the ground. Alternatively, you could force the door open, but you would not have an elevator to take you down and would need an alternative way of dealing with the ~100 foot drop.

Once you get to the bottom of the elevator shaft, you will find yourself in a large room with branching doors and hallways. The architecture is alien and minimalistic, with tubes of blue light running along the walls for lighting. The temperature is far warmer than it is outside and it seems that the heat is being generated by this strange blue light.

While these tubes are mostly in the wall, there are several branches that come down onto the floor, running across the ground into what seems to be computer consoles. In one room, the light runs into a broken tank that may have been used for containment. The light has oozed into the tank from where the tube ran off in it and remains a gellike substance that spills out onto the floor. It smells strongly of burnt plastic and getting within several feet of it will make any organic creature feel physically ill- there is glass littered around the floor and several trails of a green/black blood leaving the room.

The control panel next to the tank is gently illuminated with something that seems like an error message, though everything is of course in an alien language so it will be difficult to navigate through. Escaping from the error message brings up the current status of the tank- empty, of course- and the temperature of the room around them.

If you're able to navigate through the logs of the panel, you will find images of a former host being trapped within the tank, floating in a soft green substance as the Null performed experiments on it. While again, the accompanying text is alien, there are images and recordings of various surgical procedures, in-depth diagram of the host brains and sickening images of the bloodied mass of organs that are revealed when you remove their shells. Some of the experiments detail the Null implanting various devices along the host bodies and into their brains. It is unknown if the hosts survived these procedures.

Using your network devices, you can download and save this data as an external file- strange though, that the systems are compatible (or perhaps not so strange, given that everything the gods know of technology, they learned from the Null).

Other rooms in this facility are similar- the vast majority of the tanks are empty or broken, though there is one with a host still inside. Upon closer examination, it seems as if it is long-dead, as the liquid it is suspended in has been drained of its supply of nutrients some time ago. With careful management of the control panel, the body is able to be extracted from the tank.

For now, this will be what Nate and co. find. There is a possibility that they can find another bunker as well, but as that depends on interest and how many other exploration parties go out, we will give more information at a later time. Hopefully this is enough to start off of though!

[pocketspa]

HEY HEY MY DUDES a quick q on this

Taako and Lup have a spell called Comprehend Languages that may let them read some of this stuff- I imagine the screens might be complicated since it's touch-active but could they get something from this? Nate's player also mentioned Nate's damn good with languages, especially stuff he can't read thanks to archaeology background. Thank you!!

[hadrielmods]

The two of them would be able to get the gist of the languages used to more easily navigate menus of the various computers and control panels. They would operate similarly to most sci-fi control panels and be easy to manipulate.

When looking at the logs, they will see what's basically presented in the accompanying images and videos: details and rundowns of the procedures that they used to experiment on the host population. The original intent of this experimentation were attempts to understand the synergy between the hosts and the gods with the intent to eventually harness energy provided by the gods for their own systems, as well as questioning if they can make the hosts subservient slaves.

What they managed to do was give the hosts the ability to reinforce themselves with their own emotions, making them stronger and more likely to shrug off any sort of damage when they're angry, scared, or confused. The results of the experiments vary from host to host, but given that the experimentation was particularly cold and unethical, the resulting trauma would explain the current status of the rogue hosts.