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
no subject
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?
no subject
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.
no subject
2. Wonderful, thank you!
3. Then in the case of having the message read, does the poltergeist activity stay less violent?
4. You guys are great fun with the NPCs, so that's also an extra, extra bonus! Thank you for the clarifications.
5. Got it, so definitely smart enough to want to be in control of the situation, so trickery of a more thought-out kind is going to be the better bet. Thank you!
6. Hahaha beautiful, thank you! Should we stick to monsters already introduced as game canon, or can we make up any kind for the sake of this singular instance?
7. And finally thank you yet again, excellent to know!
no subject
3. As long as characters pursue the message, the poltergeist activity will remain at lower levels (though it won't entirely stop until all of the characters have been rescued). Messages will continue being written in the steam and the TV will be turned on at random, your blankets may be yanked off if you've slept in too late or the house might rumble, but less lamps are at risk of destruction and your food will remain safe, unless it begins to feel as though you're ignoring it again.
6. More detail on what to find in the lab will be given on the event post, but we'd like players to stick to monsters already introduced in game canon for now. There are certain traits to this location that may make it a bit... ill-advised for the culprits to have utilized particularly uncontrollable creatures.
no subject
3. Thank you so much! That's a lot of fun stuff to play around with.
6. Hah, sounds good, and I love that the culprits themselves are operating under some restrictions... like sensibility ones, laughs.