MARCH PLOTTING: WOULD YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WAS A WORM?

[sticksandbonesmods]

SETTING UPDATES:

• Luca built us a bar watchtower. It’s very cool. When he is absent, it will be maintained by an old spirit. Get drunk and eat fondue to your hearts’ contents.
• The school is officially under Livio’s jurisdiction and is gradually being patched up. Please offer to assist Livio as he’s working very hard and deserves the world.
• The snowfall has stopped, and the remaining snow is melting off. Cute flowers in various colours will pop up across the Grove. They are harmless, but care should be given to thank the forest before picking them. This also means that bugs have returned to the Grove: a fly might be in your soup, or a butterfly might land on your nose, or a bee might bumble over to you. For some reason, the eyespots on the butterflies’ wings look too realistic.
• Moder has started to grow mosses and flowers on her back as well. Happy Spring!
• The map has been updated. Some curious players have already seen the new maps in the gallery, which leads us to…
• The explorable area for everyone is going to massively expand this month. The expansion will happen to the east and west, aka the sides of the map the river stretches across, and player characters will be able to take rafts down the river from either side of the stepping stones in the middle to these new locations. One of them goes up to the edge of the cliffs to the east, where Sesa and Elsword saw the ocean and the Cosmic Serpent, at which point the fog wall will block them from progressing further (the serpent will however be visible); the other travels west and has multiple viewing points: a graveyard of bones, including a creature so massive one wonders how it once roamed this land, and the lake, which will be visible but still blocked off by the fog. Sometimes when player characters stand too close to the lake, myriads of black hands slap against the fog wall as if trying to reach them, and a distinctly beautiful singing can be heard.
  • Keep in mind that to reach the end of either of these areas will require a three-day long journey at minimum, as was discovered when Elsword and Sesa got lost in the woods for 3 days the first time around. The River Guardian may be able to speed along this journey if offerings are made to it first. If that option is not taken, there are spots along the bank to camp out, so no one needs to sleep on a raft.
    • Maps are not reflective of travel time because Wolfie did not feel like making 3 maps worth of nothing but trees.
• Sometimes, curious player characters might travel to the lake’s edge to hear the Guardians bickering with the thing behind the fog in an unknown language.
• A monstrous crocodile with too many eyes can be seen swimming through the river. It will stalk player characters, but won’t hurt them unless they hurt it first.

PLOT UPDATES:

• This month will feature our regularly-scheduled TDM/Event, as well as a player-plot type mingle log that Chi will be writing us that we wanted to highlight. While this player-plot is optional to participate in, we felt the need to bring it up in the plotting post because it is going to shake up the state of the game slightly. “Why isn’t in the event log then” because we didn’t want you guys to feel pressured since the mod team is going to ruin Wolfwood’s nice mingle log. Don’t ask questions you’re not ready for the answers to!!
• (Side note: If anyone wants to run any big events in the future as a mingle and wants it highlighted in a mod-official plotting post, tap us. We’re here for it.)

TDM/Event:

• This is a Large Game Month. For our new players: Large Games are events in which player characters are transported elsewhere by the Creature’s magic and made to participate in some sort of event or “game” lasting for one day, with the reward at the end being something that will affect the game setting or be otherwise profitable. This game’s reward is the explorable area expansion, meaning that unfortunately you cannot immediately walk to the new locations until this challenge is done. Worry not, because this event is ICly taking place 🎉🎉🎉March 2nd 🎉🎉🎉, nice and early.
• The game itself will involve each player character being transformed into an animal no larger than a German Shepherd, where they will then race through the woods while being chased by monsters. Player characters will have to not only evade these monsters, but outsmart them, as the racetrack is a little too long and will take about 8 hours for each character to get through. You could sprint the whole way, but breaks are encouraged… just don’t be surprised if something sneaks up on you.
• Aside from the rule that you can’t be too large, you are also limited to just real-life Earth animals (extinct ones will also work), so no dragons or unicorns. If you want to be an animal that is normally quite large, you will be shrunk down to the proper size dimensions — so if you choose a bear, you will be a small bear. We are also aware that saying "extinct animals are fine" means y'all will want to be dinosaurs, and we are willingly opening ourselves up to the mayhem of letting a tiny T. rex roam our setting.
• This time, there will be a clear winner of this race determined via the mods rolling a d20. We are requiring players to sign up to win the race against their peers (signups are below), so if you don’t care to win you don’t need to sign up. The reward for the winner will be a free, up to medium-sized item from home, given to you by the Creature itself in a package made of… sticks and bones. Sorry, we had to.
• With Large Games, keep in mind that while death is possible, deaths are not punishable with trips to the Garden, so die terribly as you see fit. We support you.

Chi’s Plotline:

• We will admit upfront that we want to keep the heavy details of this under wraps for the surprise factor of it, as we think it’ll be more exciting that way, especially with the “what happens and why” since this is Chi’s baby — but here’s the information we can share with you in advance:
• On the night of the New Moon (March 10th ICly) when the Fog wall is weakened, as the moon lore goes, Wolfwood is going to start burning the cult books in the Church (again). This happened in a prior thread between players, but they respawned, and he’s had enough. The entire Grove is allowed to come to this historic cult book burning and are encouraged to add fuel to the literal fire.
• Unfortunately, this is going to piss off the Forest, and in retaliation, the Grove will be attacked by all sorts of twisted monsters, enough to keep player characters occupied — there might be two monsters to one player, even. Have fun with it, go wild. Characters wishing to not participate in combat can skip this by hiding in the inn or their houses, if they own one.
• The Guardians, meanwhile, will be unable to help for various reasons. Moder can only take on about three giant beasts at once; the River Guardian is a fish with 0 combat abilities; Zahliya will be elsewhere. “What does that mean” Zahliya will be elsewhere. It ain’t fun if the demigods can bail y’all out!
• The attack will last for a few hours of the night, and end when the Forest is satisfied. “Hey what does that mean” you’ll find out. :)
• This event is not a Large Game, since it's a player-posted log, which means dying will send you to the Garden, and the usual rules of “losing something to return” will apply.

OOC UPDATES:

• The rec center is still unowned. If anyone would like to claim it, please shout at us on this post or in the discord. It needs less cleaning up than the school does, but we thought we’d put that out there. This will NOT count against you owning a building in this setting if you have yet to use your bonus AC to build us something neat. The rec center is now Sesa's to clean up, have fun buddy. We will update this on the locations page.
• We are working on tweaking the FAQ page to clarify some things. We will announce in the Discord when this is done.
• This plotting post kinda long, someone should tell the mods to chill :/

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Status: Who is your character? What did they get up to last month and how is it impacting this month? Did they discover something? Are they harboring a clue? HMM
Seeking: Any CR or plot thread you want to kickstart!
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Meme: you know you have one.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Status:</strong> <strong>Seeking:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

Comments

Phantom | Arknights

[bloodyopus]

Character: Phantom/Lucian
Status: Alive and kind of not doing much. Just vibing in the inn, still trying to find an attic there or if there is anyone's attic to invade and...Cope. Yep.

For the most part, though, he's coping on account of 'this is all similar to my traumatic experiences in the old castle and with the Troupe' so he will likely pull a 'first time?' card on you at some point. Probably. If you let him.

Plus he found Jesus. In the form of a cookie...sheep person who is not Caprisun Caprinae, but that's fine. Much better than a faceless, brainwashing Dionysian farce of a deity. He's Pure Vanilla's Apostle now.

Overall, doing good — better than he (and I) thought he'd be. He'd also still have his plantnimal Raoul, a gray catlike thing with a white flower growing from his ear. The upcoming flowers would probably delight him, although he'd still be wary. (As he should.)
Seeking: Things I'd written here in my February plotting comment still applies (minus the one for February event). As in, I am still looking for That...since I missed more or less everything in February. Available for monster-killing and slaying too; though I would avoid death and extremely major injuries (for example losing a limb). We can discuss.
Not Seeking: Nothing shippy and/or remotely sexual because he's still waiting for his not-boyfriend to get here. Really. Aside from that...pretty much anything else goes, I suppose. I'll ring gently in PM if anything doesn't fly with me.
Anything Else: I won't be participating in the race event as I do not feel comfortable with the transformation mechanic and premise. ICly, this means it happens but I will make Phantom forget about it due to his inherent memory loss/wonkiness lore. (This is mod-approved on Discord!)

On that note, it's fine to talk to/mention the Incident to him ICly because it'll be amusing since he won't remember anything, but please try not to overdo it, and please don't ask him ICly to try to recall the details (especially assume the details for him in my place). I'd rather minimise the impact and please allow me to pretend that it didn't happen/happens only in a dream.

That aside, dragging Phantom to the bar is most definitely allowed. If you need someone to help you with exploration— actually, you know what. Just take him. He's dying to go. Or I'll go on my own.
Meme: I'm eepy and can't pull up any good ones on this phones (they're all in my other phone), but here you go

[purevanillacookie]

Wait until he meets Pure Vanilla face to face and gets hit by the radiant beam Smile.

Get blessed.

Also Pure Vanilla is very much going to try and dissuade him gently from being any sort of Apostle, and encourage him to just live his life how he deems it most worthy to live for him. Do the good in your heart, not because Pure Vanilla decrees it so. Spread the word of love and light only if you truly believe it. Etc.

[bloodyopus]

Oof. I saw that he did That to Wolfwood and now I'm wondering if Phantom would be able to stand that, or if he'd immediately scurry into the nearest shadows (since he could no longer use his Arts in the presence of another Grove resident).

WE ARE BLESSED! (And blind to boot.)

Okay, acceptable, though. To be fair, it's mostly just me exaggerating, but Phantom has imprinted on PV the same way a small birb or a stray kitten would. PV is kind to him! So he would die for him!! ...That's how the logic goes. Sort of.

But seriously, he'd probably do anything for PV. Anything. Just say the word.

[purevanillacookie]

Poor Phantom, don't run!

PV will gladly keep him around honestly, he loves his friends. He can help him with a garden once he gets his seeds now that he's got his house and etc.

Or once PV figures out magic and etc around here and whether he's left himself stuff to dig into, Forbidden Magic things.

As you do with your friends.

[bloodyopus]

Hopefully, he won't actually run. PV, please do consider turn down your brightness setting just a lil bit...

That's good to hear, though — PV is now officially in possession of one (1) murder cat. Yes to the gardening too because that will likely do wonders to Phantom's mental state; at the very least, it would keep him distracted and occupied. PV would have to talk him into it or suggest it to him first, however — better yet, just drag him to it if PV already has his house and only needed to get the seeds. but could I get one nibble of the house first

What is this Forbidden Magic that you speak of, anyway...I am Very Interested. In any case, either way is fine by me! In the meantime, they should find Gnosis first, though I assumed this has already happened icly (but we should let Wolfie know about this first).

This is the Truth indeed. Friends are everything.

[purevanillacookie]

He'll turn it down by 1 notch. That's it. That's as low as he can go.

THE HOUSE IS NON-EDIBLE FOR THIS VERY REASON CRIES. PV was like yeah.... he adores everyone but doesn't trust them to keep their teeth off his walls. It looks edible tho. :) Try a bite of delicious oh that's wood.

OH, you know, trying to play God by creating the perfect uncrumbling unsogging Cookie body that will never age or die or hurt or suffer. Also learning destruction and binding magic. The good naughty stuff. BUT YES, if you both want to play it out, I got a clinic/lab prompt on my wander log otherwise we can talk to Wolfie and hash something out oocly!

[bloodyopus]

God...Phantom would still be blinded because he has an Extra Sharp Sight but that's alright. It's acceptable. The Things You'd Endure For Love.

IM SORRY BUT ITS DESSERT ALRIGHT???? I love dessert...I can trust Phantom to not take a stray bite out of it because he's Polite but me? I'll Chomp. Sorry PV. CRYING he should have a fence installed around his house's perimeters but I assume the fence would have been candy canes so that'd cause even more problems.

I'll eat wood if it looks delicious enough honestly (JUST KIDDING)

GOD...PV has a questionable past too apparently. But that is indeed Very Interesting. And most certainly will not backfire later, right? ...Right?

I don't mind crashing your clinic/wander log later! Though oocly is also fine by me (maybe even preferred since my back is dying from the amount of stuff I have in my inbox). But we should talk to Wolfie first either way!