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

we are all need group

[bythehand]

As someone 1) still too fresh and salty to want to be involved if the prisoner exchange goes through and 2) eagerly hopping from one short-term goal to the next in a bid to stave off thinking about 90% of what's happened in his life, Finn's gonna be down for exploration! Let's hit a bunker!!! And he does prefer to work in groups whenever possible, which works out. Features include:

- instant ride or die, will catch a grenade for any teammate unprompted
- goal oriented
- c o n s t a n t v i g i l a n c e
- good at fighting and running. good at strategy??? i don't feel like they'll need strategy but finn is not dumb and is good at remembering things
- base level 110% intensity, No Chill
- almost always willing to bond and find common ground and talk on life-changing field trips; also high-strung and easy to poke for fun
- used to doing lots of work with little to no downtime

[circumitus]

If you'd like, I still haven't organized a group for Rey and she's definitely gonna want to explore those bunkers! She isn't really looking for super large groups and her and Finn don't really have CR at the moment but it would be a good start y/n?

[bythehand]

I would super like that! I think the only other character I've got guaranteed to be on this particular team so far is our Poe Dameron, so it definitely seems like we'll wind up with a less-than-10 group number even if a couple people end up signing on!

I think cool adventures are a great place to start up CR tbh

[circumitus]

Sweet! I think a bitty three-person group would be good enough considering how many seem to be volunteering, so if the Poe player is on board one of us could hit up the finalized thread to get more mod details? (I'd just like to make sure we're on the same page before making assumptions for anyone!)

[bythehand]

I'll check in with them and point them this way if they're officially on board!

I've been trying to leave a hypothetical 2-3 open spaces in case someone in the new app round wants to get an IC foot in the door through the same craigslist ad these 3 are gonna use or whatever LMAO. But it seems like there's not gonna be anything else really happening on this post, so it feels safe to go ahead and work on hitting up the finalized thread if everything checks out, which I don't mind doing!

Does Rey have anything specific she's in the market to discover, or is she kinda looking to just get out there and see what they can find?

[volitaunt]

I'm so in, I say, having nothing else to offer.

Poe comes back from expedition #1, soulmates event happens, Poe immediately turns around and leaves the city.

SEEMS LEGIT.

[circumitus]

Now I'm imagining when Poe comes back and the soulmate stuff starts happening and he's just like

[circumitus]

Oh yeah that's a good idea! If any newbies want to get in at the last minute or something, I'm totally open to that. We've already got a pretty small start so we can afford some more wiggle room if anyone wants to get in on this.

As for Rey - she's been scouting the landscape since shortly after they ended up on the ice planet, so she's aware of the bunkers but hasn't ventured in one yet (canonically speaking the last time she went into a bunker reinforced by AI on her lonesome, it didn't end well for her, so there's a good reason why she's searching for backup right there). She would be looking for any kinda information to get one up on the Null, really - like she would consider knowing their locations as a possible way of hitting them back rather than constantly running from them. In general she's looking to learn as much as possible about what they're dealing with (Null and gods alike) as possible, so she'd be really into the stuff like history and culture and more about the Null's hivemind. If any of that helps! She's been around for literal years at this point so she has a fairly decent idea on what to look for.

[bythehand]

Thanks a lot! I plopped a basic summary down there on the finalized plans thread! I've been sick this week so if I blanked on something or if there's anything you'd like to add on, you can definitely feel free to pop on over!

[circumitus]

Sweet! I think that looks good. <3

And oh dude you have my utmost empathy on the sick part - I'm still getting over my lousy freaking bug that I caught the other week. Hope you feel better!