Hey there, neighbors, and welcome to part two of February’s event! We hope you weren’t too startled by today’s earlier events; those televisions sure are something, aren’t they?
Needless to say, part two will be kicking off with a bang! (Or a burst of static, but who’s counting?) Here’s what we’ve got planned:
As you may have already seen, part two is kicking off a little bit early with a mysterious network post from an unknown entity. This will be followed by some interesting experiences for the characters over the next day, as their TVs turn on of their own accord, strange and garbled sounds coming from the speakers, and messages will be left for those who are still around to receive them. What’s the meaning of these messages? Why, that’s for you to find out!
But do try to do so quickly: After the initial broadcast ends, you'll find that your new poltergeist friends don't want to leave you alone. As the month continues, they will act out more and more — it’ll start with ghostly messages written in the steam left behind after showering, but as time passes, books begin flying off of shelves and lamps may be thrown and shattered, sometimes as if by an invisible force, and at other times the house will rumble like it’s been caught in an earthquake. If you’ve got food cooking on the stove, a force may slam down on the handle, sending the contents flying. Though the poltergeists will never directly attack characters (the knives remain firmly in their knife block!), you may want to watch out; if you get in the way of a flying lamp, it won’t change course.
On February 15, characters will be able to encounter Rosemary Craven and Dale Harding around the town. If you have any questions for them or want to ask them to shed a little bit of light on the situation, this might be your chance! Please note that characters may only thread with ONE (1) NPC and the mods may limit the number of threads that may be started. Choose wisely! Speaking with either NPC will provide a bit of information on what the phrase “Living Island” refers to.
(We would, however, like to reassure all players that missing out on an opportunity to thread with these NPCs will not limit characters’ ability to learn plot-relevant information. Though the mods may limit the number of threads, we will provide pertinent information from the NPCs in the event post itself and you may handwave that your character spoke to one of them and learned the plot-relevant information. NPC threads on the event post will simply be a chance to play out the interaction.)
From here, the timeline will depend partly on what characters decide to do — do you charge in immediately or take a day or two to come up with a game plan? Regardless, your missing neighbors will be waiting for you…
Those characters who have been snatched will find that they are being held in sturdy cages spaced several feet apart in a dark, damp room. There’s no way to tell how much time is passing, though they will find themselves blacking out intermittently, swimming in and out of consciousness on an operation table, and will always awaken with fresh food in their cages and no sign of anyone other than them being here. There will almost always be one character missing, as whoever has captured you seems to have a lot of “work” they want to do with you...
If your character was chosen to be taken, further details on what they can expect to experience during their captivity — for example, what memories they have of what happened to them and what kind of state they can expect to be in — will be provided via PM. These PMs will be sent out shortly; all players should know their character’s fate by the end of the day.
Upon reaching the hidden laboratory, characters will need to work together to navigate the maze-like warren and find the missing — though the missing may find that they’ll gain a chance of their own to investigate and explore the lab as time goes on. Be careful — this place is difficult to navigate, and characters may find themselves getting lost! There’s danger to be found, too; last month’s doppelgangers have apparently found a new home in Santa Rosita and seem to have developed a little bit of intelligence since they were last seen. They can mimic voices of people from your character’s world and even other characters in the game yours are close to and may seek to spring traps on characters as they try to find their way back out of the lab to safety.
We hope this gives you enough to begin plotting out what you’d like to do with the remaining half of the month! As always, this OOC post also functions as a catch-all plotting post. Please feel free to use the space below to connect with other players for potential meetings and CR.
If you have any questions, please direct them to the FAQ top-level below or reach out to us on the Mod Contact page! |
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dullsville2021-02-13 06:10 pm
FAQ
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In addition, since Monika had taken the initiative to seek Rosemary out prior to today's network post and the second part of the event beginning, we would like to offer Monika a reserved NPC thread on the event part 2 post! Please let us know if you would like to take us up on this.
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Screaming into the void is welcome, but not encouraged. You don't want to annoy the other test subjects, do you?
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Equally, the symbol/place name in the post -- will any NPCs (neighbours, HHA members, shopkeepers, anyone) recognise it if they're shown it? The symbol or the name 'Living Island'? TO CLARIFY I'm guessing it's a fallout shelter symbol but I am pretty sure they don't have them on Azeroth SO I was fishing for if someone would tell Wrathion what it was and where some might be, so he can go be stupid.
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NPCs will be able to identify the symbol as a fallout shelter, but the words "Living Island" mean little to them. A rare one or two may be able to remember hearing the phrase years ago, but they won't be able to remember anything more than that. That being said, they'll be happy to give Wrathion the location of the nearest shelter to him -- it's 1961! You never know when you might have to take cover! Unfortunately, none of the shelters he's directed to seem to be the location from the video.
Re: FAQ
2. if the characters investigate the lab what would they find?
2.1 can they bring items from the lab back?
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2. This will be elaborated on when the event post goes up! The short answer is that there will be quite a bit to see and interact with. There will be surgical tools and medical supplies that have obviously seen recent use. The room itself will smell strongly of disinfectant and cleaning solutions with the faint impression of blood splattering the ground and on the surface of what you'll come to realize is an operating table. Throughout the area, there will be signs that surgery and some form of experimentation was performed here. We realize this may seem vague and unhelpful, but we promise that more details will be made clear in the prompts!
2.1. Absolutely! Please reach out to us when the post goes live and tell us what you'd like to take home with you. You might be surprised at what could happen.
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2) Will familiarity with labs and how they're set up aid in navigation, or is this place very strangely constructed even for a laboratory?
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2. Yes and no! The general layout of the laboratory itself will be traditional enough, and characters who are familiar with them will have an easier time finding their way around than those who might not necessarily be so acquainted with them. That being said, while the lab room itself may be normal enough (well, comparatively speaking) the layout of the area it's in will be... strange. It will become obvious that this place was not originally built to be a laboratory but was converted into one over time. More information and pertinent details will be revealed when the event post goes live.
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2. What kinds of messages are being written in the aftersteamy shower zones?
2.a. If there are messages written in return in steam, do responses come?
2.b. If responses are written with something like lipstick or eyeliner, does this change anything?
2.c. If responses are written in blood, does this change anything?
3. When things are getting thrown around, are any other messages written in the aftermath? AKA if food is sent flying, is there a message in the spilled food mess, messages written in glass shards, basically he's going to try and find out if there's any way of having a back and forth with the poltergeists.
3.a. To that extent, is there any pattern or back-and-forth characters may find with their poltergeists if they try hard enough?
4. Am I reading correctly that at the time of the open post for the two Mod NPCs, we'll have the information they can provide with regards to
lonely islandliving island? I'm guessing this is what may point people to the right location to search for the hidden lab.5. Are any of the dopplegangers able to be lured into the traps as well when characters are escaping the lab? Are they intelligent enough not to fall for someone sounding injured/pleading/etc, or calling out to them and asking them to come here in turn (while sounding desperate, for example)?
6. Can we go hog wild inventing traps to be sprung or is there a certain style we should be adhering to?
7. Oh this is silly but do any of the neighbours have complaints about televisions going bonkers at night, did that happen for literally every house?
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2. This will be made clear on the event post, but you can expect repeated variations of the phrase "Living Island".
2a. No.
2b. No.
2c. No.
3. No. The force responsible for the poltergeist activity will not be able to communicate with characters beyond the messages that will appear in their bathroom mirrors. However, the more violent activity only seems to start up if characters don't see the messages and intensifies the longer they go without reading them. Especially if they're willfully trying to ignore what's going on around them.
3a. No. Trying to engage in back-and-forth with the poltergeist won't result in any meaningful interactions. However, it has a stubborn streak and will undo attempts at trying to restore order; if, for example, your character awakens to find all the chairs in their kitchen stacked on the table and goes about putting them back down, they'll return to the top of the table the moment your character turns their back on it. Additionally, if your character is more concerned with provoking it and largely ignoring the messages in their bathroom mirror, the activity will flare up as the poltergeist attempts to steer your character in the right direction to the bathroom.
4. Yes, this will all be made clear when the event goes up and you can see how it's structured. There will be an expository prompt in the main body of the post where characters will find out the location of the lab no matter what from an NPC; it's unavoidable if they're taking part in the event. They will then have a chance to thread this interaction out below with one of the two NPCs.
You do not have to thread with one of the NPCs to have your character investigate the lab. You can simply handwave the meeting as the event post will show. However, if you'd like to flesh out that conversation a bit more, the option is available for you.
5. The thing to keep in mind is that the doppelgangers are the hunters, not the prey. They aren't dumb animals; they will be intelligent enough to be able to tell when a character is trying to lure them into a trap by communicating with them and will repeatedly cajole your character, making up excuses for why your character has to come to them. That being said, it is possible to take them by surprise in other ways, like springing an ambush with another character as bait.
6. Nope! Go insane, go insane, throw some monsters around, make it rain.
7. Nope, it only happened in the player character homes. None of the NPC neighbors or townspeople heard anything from their own houses and will be completely confused if questioned about the broadcast.
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Would things like throwing flour to try to see a ghost outline allow them to be visible at all?
And would anything happen if some dumb teen characters attempted using a Ouija board or some other basic horror movie kind of means to contact the undead?
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If some characters would like to try to make contact with this force via Ouija board or other means, they're in for an interesting night. While it might seem for a moment like they're about to get some sort of response, things will rapidly go out of control -- think the planchette shivering, then being thrown across the room, candles flaring wildly, the television being turned on to show the same video characters woke up to in the middle of the night, lamps being thrown, the works. If characters try to stop the chaos (maybe by grabbing a lamp when it begins to move, or catching the planchette when it's thrown), they'll find that the item is grabbed right back out of their hands and thrown regardless. If this happens, the only way to calm the poltergeist will be through pursuing the "Living Island" as detailed above. Hopefully they've been paying attention to what's been going on around town!
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Sense "spiritual energy": spiritual energy is something between "magic" and human/animal "souls" with a certain amount of ambient spiritual energy in everything. So he would be able to dimly sense "there's a person/animal" and loudly sense "there's a magic user" or "there's a magic thing" within like... 3 to 20 yards depending on how strongly it radiates spiritual energy.
1. Does the poltergeist's spiritual energy generally resemble a normal ghost or is there anything strange about it that Huaisang might notice?
2. Is there anything that might draw Huaisang's attention in the school or lab as an unexpected source of spiritual energy?
3. Do the doppelgangers have spiritual energy and would he be able to differentiate between their energy and a normal human at a quick scan?
4. As long as we're on this topic, what does Huaisang pick up in regards to spiritual energy off of robbies vs normal townsfolk vs new neighbors (also potentially vs Rosemary if she falls into a different category than the others)?
Thank you!
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1. The poltergeist's energy is difficult to describe and difficult to process, even for someone like Huaisang. On one hand, Huaisang will be able to pick up that it is human; on the other hand, there's a very distinct, powerful energy radiating from it that feels a bit like magic but is unlike anything Huaisang has ever encountered before. It also doesn't feel quite like a ghost, seeming to exist in a half-state between life and death.
2. Traces of the poltergeist's energy can be felt throughout the shelter, primarily in the Doppelgangers; however, this energy doesn't feel quite the same as the kind the poltergeist gives off, being just different enough to give off a deep sense of wrongness, like it's something that shouldn't exist. The one place of interest where the spiritual energy feels the closest to the poltergeist's is at the wall at the front of the shelter where the mural from the broadcast was painted on. There's a tremendous imprint of power in this area, but it's very, very old and feels like it was left behind by someone or something a long time ago.
3. As mentioned in the second question, the Doppelgangers do emit some sort of spiritual energy. They feel very similar if not identical to the person they're copying, but twisted to an unnatural, inhuman degree. Their energy signature is so alien that reading it might make Huaisang feel sick, especially if he's trying to read more than one at the same time.
4. Everyone in Santa Rosita emits a degree of spiritual energy identical to the poltergeist, even the player characters. In a normal townie, this energy will feel like a passive but strong undercurrent, like it's constantly flowing through them. With Robbies, however, it's like going from a 1 to 100; they're filled with an overwhelming amount of energy that makes reading them uncomfortable like it does with the Doppelgangers. As far as the other characters go, they have a hint of this energy within them, faint but prominent. If Huaisang tries to read a character that has been Tranquilized, he might be able to sense that energy spiking before it slowly fades away again once the character begins returning to normal.
Another important thing to note is the amount of natural, ambient energy from the "soul" differs wildly between the townsfolk and Robbies. Underneath the amount of spiritual energy they're exuding, a normal townie will still feel alive and distinctly like a normal human being. A Robbie is missing that feeling completely and feels, for lack of a better way to describe it, like a husk that would be empty if it wasn't brimming with a ridiculous amount of spiritual energy.
Finally, as far as Rosemary goes, she's also carrying this energy. However, hers is noticeably different from that of the Robbies and the other townspeople: the energy doesn't feel like it's coursing through her and instead feels like it's settled within her, bonding to her "soul". A few other NPCs in town also share this energy signature.
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so, re: the limitations on Aziraphale's teleportation powers in plot-relevant places - would he be able to teleport into and/or out of the lab during the event, with any kind of limitation for distance, or...?
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To make a long story short, yes, Aziraphale will be able to teleport in and out of the lab. However, how well he'll be able to control where in the lab he ends up in will depend on how far away his current location is from it. For example, if he's trying to teleport from his house in Shadyside, nearly halfway across town, he'll find that his exact destination will be a bit... off. How off? He might wind up accidentally teleporting himself into a locker (and you better pray it's one of the lockers in the school upstairs instead of a rusty, old one in the shelter), or into the storm drain connecting the shelter to Old Growth. Or he could wind up completely missing the mark and end up standing in the middle of Honeybees, or on the roof to the school, or any other number of places around town.
Feel free to get as creative with these "glitches" as you like and how frequently they happen for Aziraphale!