SETTING UPDATES

• Colder weather creeps in, setting frost that melts in the morning across the grove and early snows a week or so into the month. The plantimals are going to continue invading for warmth, though many will likely be much sleepier now that the cold is setting in more.
• Mr. Bonejangle’s house despawns! I like to think it is in a colorful cloud of confetti. Goodbye house.
• The sky takes a drearier turn, as befitting the weather.
• We have several new buildings:
  • Shadow Milk Cookie has regained the research hall! This is where his past life conducted classes and also necromantic experiments. Yay!
  • Ras has a dojo open to the public! Yay!
  • Kyojuro has a house that I assume is not open to the public but might be! Yay!
• There is a map channel in the Discord server now with an MSPaint-ified version of the old map from way back when. Unfortunately Wolfie’s old map program causes nothing but issues these days, so we return to the ancient art of MSPaint doodles.

PLOT UPDATES

• It’s been a rough fall, hasn’t it? The grove is quiet while wounds and spirits heal. Ydalir and Heimr hang star shaped lanterns throughout the Grove, and invite you to join them- lanterns have always been important to them, and something about the light brings a sense of security.
• Visiting Ydalir’s tent or Heimr’s private abode in the back of the General Store also means getting treated to a home cooked meal. Ydalir’s tent will specifically allow her to treat you to a meal from your home world if it’s made with specific ingredients you wouldn’t find elsewhere.
• About mid-month, a dark green mist rolls from within the Grove. Unlike other recent mists, it seems to only be about waist-high, but as you wander it you will find… yourself. Your past life self, specifically. This will be an opportunity to meet the “you” that used to be, for better or worse.
• Also within the mist will be Morrigan, the Lady Death. Or- is it?
• Turns out someone opened the door to the afterlife in the basement of Shadow Milk’s research hall, and it’s going to need to be closed, unless you really want to live on the sliver of existence between life and death. More so than usual, I mean.
• Once this is settled, Heimr and Renard will take a few days to let people rest, but it’s time for a community feast! They will encourage everyone to come to the Inn for a shared meal, for community, for love and warmth. It’s been a terrible time, after all, and they worry so.

STATE OF THE NPCS

• HEIMR is an old man. He’s still running the store, and welcomes company and business alike. He’s very smitten with Renard. Do you think he likes him…
• RENARD likes Heimr :) And realistically will continue doing what he does best, which is making very tiny trinkets and being a Disney princess with his animal friends.
• NENE is harvesting from her garden and eager to share her vegetables- very large, high quality produce that will probably taste better than anything you’ll ever have had before. But with the cold setting in and her being part plant and all, she’s going to be getting much sleepier too.
• TERHO was resurrected, but he’s never been good with people and also wanted to see his husband asap.
• CALLISTO has kept to herself, experimenting with wines and meads, and watching everyone around her. She seems pretty contemplative most of the time.
• EVAN and RILLIAN are awake! But they seem pretty skittish. That said, if they think your house or inn room may be lacking, they’ll be delivering blankets and supplies. Don’t freeze, people that they used to know.
• THE GUARDIANS & SEHUL are fine (source needed) after their soirée in the mountains. They will return to the usual “doing things around the Grove” pattern.
• ZONARI is ? ? ? ? back to form it seems, only popping in late at night to see the animals and leave. Her motivations still remain unclear.
• THE LORD OF THE MOUNTAINS remains uncontactable after sending everyone back post-minivent, but know that he appreciates you guys.
• YDALIR is having a mental health crisis but is otherwise back to dissociating about her identity; we will have a quest about this eventually.

OOC UPDATES

• All in all, November is going to be a month about recovery from the wringer we’ve been putting you through! Aside from the death. But maybe death isn’t as scary as one might think?
• As you can see, we’re also including more information on the NPCs, for more opportunity for NPC CR, and because they too exist in this world- just because we aren’t looking at them doesn’t mean things don’t progress for them, too.
• Fun stuff aside, we’re making some policy changes-
  • From now on, you have 72 hours upon acceptance to submit your acceptance tasks! If you fail to do so, you and/or your new character will automatically be swept from the game and be unable to be re-apped for one month after.
    • Acceptance tasks include: Joining both comms, creating a toplevel on the AC page, filling out the taken page, and making an IC Inbox.
    • Mod Lavvy is going to tweak the code on our Taken page to include an IC Inbox link when she has time. Please do not make her go out of her way to ask you to make an IC Inbox; please ensure you have one easily accessible now. We have been lenient about IC Inboxes in the past, but going forward it will be a requirement.
    • Mod Lavvy is also undergoing a very busy season at work; please be patient while she gets our pages updated. If anything urgently needs doing/updating, tap Mod Wolfie in the interim.
  • We are also no longer being as lenient for AC. Missing AC comments or Hiatus comments will receive a strike by default, meaning that Mod Wolfie will not chase you down to tap you about doing your checkins/main AC/hiatus comments. Your strikes will be given as a mod comment after AC is processed.
    • As a reminder, our strike system requires double AC to be turned in the next month.
    • Mod Wolfie posts AC reminders in the Discord during the week leading up to AC being due. If you don’t use the Discord and are time-blind, setting up a recurring calendar reminder via your calendar app is the way to go.
• November is, as is tradition, a check-in month for AC, as is December. We want to make the holidays easy on you. If you receive a strike this month, however, you will owe AC for Nov to make up for Oct; if you fail to make Nov check-in or strike AC, you will be assumed fully inactive and swept from the game, unless otherwise communicated with the mod team ahead of time.
• Your AC for October is due today, and is still our typical 2 threads of 5 from you. Please submit that by the end of the day!

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

So uh.

Wolfie decided to go Off this month-

You did guess my riddles three (in the discord! Please do so ICly lol) so good job! Did you piece together what I was cooking? Wellllllll…

A mini-event will go up October 15th. Largely this is going to be heavy NPC involvement, but you’re free to toplevel on it as well. This will take place after characters escape Roseroot and find themselves back in the mountains; you’re free to get lost/freeze to death/break your ankles hiking/etc. The mountains are particularly unforgiving and are, as some of you know, Zonari’s favourite spot — this is where all her favourite oversized hunks of crystals grow, and the caverns are numerous enough to make a maze.

That’s not why you’re here though! You’re going to play with the NPCs and like it*!

*sources say you don’t have to like it or play with the NPCs as the results of this will largely be the same and this should presumably be quick and dirty. I think.

THE PLOT:

• A new NPC (event-temporary) has spawned! This is the Lord of the Mountains, a leucistic deer-centaur twink who wields a Dreamcatcher staff. As you passed through the mountains originally, he tried to stop you from crossing over to the other side into the fake Roseroot that Suri made. This was a result of the Guardians heading up there ahead of time to speak to him and basically requesting that he help you get to the real Roseroot in an attempt to get you guys somewhere safer.
• In this effort, a spell was cast with the other Guardians, using the sacred objects (sun/moon/half sun + dreamcatcher) in an attempt to get rid of False Roseroot and take down the fog wall to let you guys Out. Unfortunately, Suri caught wind of this because Plot and sent Zonari to interfere with the ritual.
• Naturally, Zonari and Zahliya fought, because of course they fought. The broken sword is his (it’s Daybreak, for those who were here for his event) and the glaive is hers, thank you prophetic dream.
• Zonari’s domain of mind magic meant that as you passed through the mountains, the zone created by the Lord of the Mountain’s + Guardians’ magic and hers backfired significantly, resulting in an entire zone of memory-deletion — thus your memories of the NPCs went. And their memories are uh, well, fragmented right now.
• All the NPCs are currently comatose/sleeping, honk shoo mimimi.
• Your trip to the mountains will therefore include getting your own memories back (you are free to play with the amount of fragmentation and what else you may have lost on the way, including non-NPC related memories if you’d like) as well as the possibility of re-stitching NPC memories together if that pleases anybody.
• NPCs will wake up after their memories are stitched together, and business will continue as usual.

THE NPC MEMORY PART OF IT:

• Short-ish toplevels will be posted for each NPC in the prophecy. The list is: Heimr, Zahliya, Zonari, Moder, Ydalir, Renard, Sinann, Callan, Aurora, Sehul, and the Lord of the Mountains.
• These toplevels will consist of a short dreamwalk type event where players are tasked with putting the memories in the order they came. I am not a clever mod, this will probably be very easy to do. It’ll be structured like:
  • “Bob goes to the store.
  • Bob gets in his car.
  • Bob purchases a twenty pack of sour gummies.
  • Bob’s car breaks down on the side of the road and he cries about it.
  • Bob’s credit card declines and he has to call the bank awkwardly in the middle of the checkout.”
    • Poor Bob. Anyway the point is to put these in the order they occurred in.
• Ydalir’s memories will lead into Ydalirquest (IN THE FUTURE)! So y’know! Jot that down as the only one that actually matters for this mini-event!!
• There will be opportunity for CR building with the NPCs. You may be able to influence or change memories depending on how evil you want to be. We The Mods are going to assume that the goal is to make people better but I also don’t control your life.
• After everyone’s brains are unfragmented, everyone goes home, and as of this mini event being posted you’re free to resume business as usual in the Grove and make your “hey we’re back!” type prompts.
• ???? this event is freeform, either put together the puzzle of memories or talk to the NPCs a little bit to do so. This is Wolfie’s mod promise to not drag these out for too long either because Wolfie has 10 of the NPCs here, because Wolfie is a narcissist clearly—
• I’m not going to lie that’s all my ideas have fun! I cobbled this together last-second after snap deciding that I should delete your memories to add to the Silent Hill of it all!

Anyway, we (me) would prefer that people only dole out one (1) of their characters for one (1) of the NPCs so we don’t have one person solving the entire plot. We will allow multiple characters on one NPC obviously, because that is how DWRP works, but *Kindergarten teacher voice* please share with the others. Also, because Lord of the Mountains is new to everyone, I will allow normal threads to take place with him while he’s here and not just the memory ones. For the other NPCs, please take your normal people threads to NPC contact.

I think that’s it okay loveyouguybye!!!!!

SETTING UPDATES:

• Autumn rolls in full force, bringing fallen leaves, the constant scent of chai coming from Ydalir’s tent, pumpkins growing out of control out of the roofs and walls — wait what
• The circus is there one moment and gone the next, with not a trace left behind, including the labyrinth of kidnapped cities underneath it. That patch of the woods remains empty for a while, until a house springs up there mysteriously. A sign on the door says “BONE-JANGLES HAUZ! COM IN GET FUD”. Inside the house is Mr. Bone-Jangles, his bone wife, and their six bone kids who are full-grown adults. They will make you any meal you want, including things from your homes or others homes. As you leave, you get a bag of microwave popcorn and a large chocolate bar. Trick-or-Treat! The treat is being loved.
• It’s October though, so that means: The Plot™.

PLOT UPDATES:

• The truck that crashed through the forest last month remains, and the people driving will help you pack supplies for the trip. They warn you to pack light, as the truck has limited room and will have to make multiple trips no matter what. Those of you who are particularly fast (i.e. can run at truck going through difficult terrain speeds, or can fly/float) might be able to keep up with it if you’d rather.
  • The truck can seat up to six people; two in the back seat and four in the bed of the truck.
  • Once you’re at the destination, there will be no return trips for a while as others are brought here, and you’ll generally find it hard to return the second you arrive even despite the truck coming back. Not impossible, but hard. You’re given free run of the area, though. Speaking of where you are…
• Welcome to Roseroot (source needed)! Roseroot is a beautiful city north of the mountain range that Zonari gets all her rocks from (you do not remember passing through the mountains) (that is a mystery for another day, friends). It’s a wealthy, affluent area where those of you who have past-life memories of being from here may know as “bougie” and “well-developed”. Per its name, it is covered in roses, all bright and beautiful and in all sorts of colours, including colours that don’t actually happen in Earth roses. All the houses and businesses are empty, though the businesses in particular will still serve you via mysterious means that are impossible to figure out. You go to a restaurant and the food spawns in front of you, the clothing stores basically allow shoplifting, etc etc. Per our JRPG-ish vibes, there’s nothing super technological (it’s nothing like Neo Eden), but it’s still well-developed.
  • You can sleep wherever you want in the city — reclaim someone’s house as yours, sleep at the park, go to a hotel, etc.
• When you go to sleep — and you will, you will go to sleep, even those of you who can’t/don’t need sleep — you dream, and every time you dream, good or bad or traumatic or nonsensical, something pulls itself from your memories and manifests somewhere in the city. These are monsters made of your traumas. Yet again, our Trauma Monster Generator™ will be operating (pats Amity on the back) for player ease.
  • The traumas have a range of behaviours; some wander and try to hunt you down, some stand perfectly still and only move if approached, some stalk, some wait in place for you to find them. Some hate the light, some hate the dark. All of these traits depend on you and what you bring to the table.
• As the days pass and you dream, the city becomes more and more dilapidated, with many buildings and shops crumbling, others cracking at the foundation, and most if not all buildings will be largely reclaimed by plantlife by the end of your stay. It’ll be colder, dirtier, with the showers refusing to work for those who are particularly unlucky and food getting harder to come by when the stores suddenly experience mass rot.
• (sighs) YES THIS EVENT IS BASED ON SILENT HILL YES WE HAVE RECEIVED ANOTHER CEASE AND DESIST NO WE HAVE NOT CEASED OR DESISTED
• After the first night of people sleeping in Roseroot, which is totally the real Roseroot and not at all a fake planted by our BBEG, the city will become more difficult to leave. The more monsters are around, the more the entrances to the city get obfuscated, move locations, or completely disappear. Characters within the city will have to deal with them somehow. Luckily, they’re killable, unlike the fear monsters.
• Characters will be able to leave on their own and find their way back to the Grove once they either a) find an exit or b) kill enough trauma monsters to allow a natural exit to exist.
  • For now, we ask that people hold off on “after escaping Roseroot” type prompts/logs, because of the Situation With The Mountains. :) We will elaborate on that during a mini-event mid-month.
  • “Where are the NPCs?” Oh, you see, the situation with the mountains… :)

OOC UPDATES:

• At some point in the future Wolfie will run Ydalirquest. For our new people, our quests are sign-up based, plot-heavy explorations, and usually have a hard limit to how long we let people take between responses (normally 24 hours per mod response to keep everything moving, unless something happens to the mods or the players). If you don’t reply in that 24-hour period, the mod response comes and the thread moves on without you. They are often large group threads, and we politely advise that if you doubt your ability to keep up with them, that you do not sign up. This is for the future but just a note: it’s being thought about finally. Get Ready™.
• This is your last TDM for the year! TDM AC applies to both September and October. November and December will be check-ins to account for the holidays. Go freaking crazy, take a nap, enjoy life, throw rocks, kidnap a duck… the world is your oyster.
• Please remember to do your AC/Hiatus comments/Check in comments for September because Wolfie gets sad when she has to chase you down.

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

Hello everyone! Before we get into our standard setup, we wanted to make a small announcement: September and October’s events are going to be linked together heavily, and the October event will focus on a fake rescue from the forest and ‘safety’ within another city on the continent of Ostorn. We wanted to let you all know ahead of time, since that is! Sort of a huge deal, and will involve a lot of false hope. We’re very excited for the plot for these two months though, and we hope that you also enjoy them.

SETTING UPDATES

• The giant flower has been taken down with the combined efforts of Thorns and Sam fucking around and Shadow Milk hosting a coup with some of the most destructive men alive. Hurray! Those who’d been trapped will find themselves feeling lethargic as they recover from the Dream, and will be dealing with injuries from the Fucking Around by player preference. This will mostly involve light burns, but it’s possible to be even more drained than the others as well.
• White Lily Cookie will return from the garden safely as well.
• Autumn chills are starting to set in and the trees are turning, welcoming the change of seasons with grace. Certain plantimals have to start preparing for winter, if you can remove them from your house or business with any success, and the only thing unaffected are the ever-blooming fruit trees and bushes blessed by the Guardians.
• Sehul, our bone dragon friend, has skin now thanks to Livio’s efforts. They now no longer rattle when they walk.
• Despite the start of Autumn making itself known, cyclamen can be seen sprouting and blooming in small patches around the Grove as early as the fall of the flower bulb.
• Eventually the cyclamen will make a path into an offshoot of the woods- even from a distance within the Grove, one may see bright colorful lights through the trees as well.
• Should you follow the path or investigate the lights, you’ll find yourselves treated to the Cyclamen Circus! The entire crew seems to be Slightly Off somehow, but are friendly and eager to perform, though the real show won’t be until the next… …. Full Moon-ish, time is so strange in this forest. And everyone is invited!
• … Though, some of the crew members and performers may be… familiar, somehow. They look like friends. A shame they don’t seem to recognize you, though.
• New arrivals may wake up within the Grove, or find themselves snapping awake sitting in the audience during a show.

PLOT UPDATES

• The night of the grand performance, guests are invited to watch and play. Outside of the main tent are stalls and carnival games, after all. Side show tents will eventually lead to the main tent, so you really have to try if you want to avoid the show… though, this does seem to anger the staff.
• The circus will start as any ordinary show might, but through the night the audience will gradually find themselves in more and more danger- props being flung at people with the intent to hurt, circus animals mundane and magical lashing out and trying to get at the nearest person to maul, clowns and dancers weaving into the stands as they go, uncaring who they hit or stomp on- and you aren’t the only ones at risk, as soon enough the performers no longer care about their own fellow circus folks!
• Eventually you notice that the doors are gone, the flaps of the tent nonexistent, and the Ringmaster is grinning menacingly. The circus performers may strike now, or you may try and escape, but the only way is down a set of stairs that should not be there.
• The further you go, the deeper into a set of maze-like ruins you’ll find yourself, and waiting within the shadows are monsters some might find familiar: monsters made up of your worst fears, waiting to sink their claws and teeth into you. (As a note: while they can certainly coincide, we do mean fears! We’ll get into the traumas next month. ;) )
• Your goal? Survive and escape the Cyclamen Circus!
• For those who don’t wish to go to the circus that night, they might have a lovely night at home. … Or, maybe something from the Circus will go to them, instead.
• Towards the end of the worst circus show ever, however, something will happen: a truck will break through the fog and into the grove, with several researchers and armed guards stepping out, completely shocked that there’s still life here at all.

OOC UPDATES

• If you need help coming up with a monster for your characters’ greatest fears, drop a comment on the relevant toplevel below. Amity will make up something evil for you. :) Since this is a TDM, a relevant toplevel will also be included on the event log proper. Amity does ask you give a general rundown on what your character fears though!
• Some of you may have noticed this, but for dropped characters we’ve started to offer a “they don’t die, they get stolen by the goddesses” option for the deathless 100% speedrun. This option is only available to characters who have been in game long-term; if you app Bob and then drop Bob the next month, Bob is unfortunately going to die in the woods. Not every drop can live with the Goddesses, they don’t have infinite bedrooms.
  • In addition to this, we allow players who have been here long term who drop with tons of unspent BAC to influence the setting if they’d like (the stars coming back, Sehul having skin, beefing up the fog wall, etc etc etc). We ask that you approach the mod team in DMs to hash out details.
  • With that being said, we prefer if you change the setting via your own efforts ingame; please don’t app for a year and drop with 70 threads each time to “cheat” the system.
• As usual, we don’t do TDMs in November and December, which will also be check-in months. Our last TDM of the year will be in October as it was last year, so double-TDMs and therefore double TDM AC (if applicable to you). This year has been rough, so we’d like to round it out by making your lives a little easier for these next four months.

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

SETTING UPDATES

• Welcome to Summerrrrrr (more) (hotter)! The Grove largely continues to be “business as usual” after returning from Night Vale. It seems that those of you who were stuck there all month had a much more atypical month than those within the Grove overall.
• Flowers continue to bloom, animals flood the forest, the fog wall remains unforgiving and impenetrable… while the fog wall largely prevents creatures from getting in, the occasional smart biblically-accurate deer will accidentally wander onto the true paths and stumble into the Grove. Unfortunately, they can’t figure out how to leave without assistance from those with Golden Glasses. You could also just eat them if you’re hungry, I guess.
• The Sea Monkeys on the beach have realised the blessing of society and free-choice, and have begun to stir in their tidepool on the beach. Notably, they cry out to anyone with a Bone Ring that they miss “their God” and that they “wish to see the benevolent deity of blue” and similar such things. They are talking about Mizuki, because Mizuki gave them meaning last summer. Thanks little guy. Aside from that, the other beach creatures are highly active; the mobster lobsters and coconut crabs have moved their turf war down the beach a bit, the fruit sharks happily swim through the air in abundance. Careful eyes may see baby fruit sharks following after their mothers.
• The mushrooms that transformed you into monsters will disappear by the end of the month, and with it your transformations will also go (and be just as painful as the first time they happened). Thank you for playing in Wolfie’s Monster Mash!
• Amity is bringing us this event and post this time, everyone thank Amity for their hard work on this event! It should hopefully be more lowkey to round out summer; after summer we’re headed into Horror Times, in case you guys forgot we are a Horror Game. :)

PLOT UPDATES

• This month will start you off at the Sunset Bay Hotel, a seaside resort that happens to be staffed by man-eating Sirens.
  • People that get grabbed to go here will not be able to head back to the regular Grove for about a week or two. We want to mention that this is completely opt-out-able despite the event post itself being vague about it, if you’re not interested in this aspect.
  • In my heart the male sirens look like the boy band from KPOP DEMON HUNTERS.
• Waking up will find characters in a single room with Rattan furnishings, overlooking a beach stained by a burning red sky. The oppressive heat and burning colors will not go away.
• Though the Sirens do their jobs very well, they will also try to charm and eat you. They will not stop. Killing one will send the rest into a frenzy against the perpetrator until the next day.
• Amenities are still provided and available, featuring access to a pool, the beach itself, a gym and various eateries. But if you choose to go swimming you will have to deal with more sirens.
• However, at some point in your forced stay, the staff will begin kidnapping a handful of guests a day- and at night the building across the hotel will become a theater where the victims must put on a play that is, in essence, a parody of their own life. This can be as cruel or as comedic as players desire, but the audience cannot interrupt (or leave their seat) until after the play begins, and the ‘actors’ cannot flee the stage until at least halfway through.
• Players can choose to have them forced to perform the whole thing, if so desired.
• The ‘actors’ will shuffle regularly, so that everyone will get a turn. … Yayyyy…
• Süri and Zonari are also in the audience, in a box seat above everyone else- they’re very much protected from any potential attack, and will laugh at your efforts. And your plays. They’re dicks.
• Eventually, Süri will get bored and drop you all off at the beach again, letting you do what you want.

OOC UPDATES

• Welcome to July, and our newest TDM for the summer!
• We thank you for your patience as life and the weather and also life continue to be… Existing (derogatory).
• Once again we thank Kaed for his June plot, and Aspen for their Pride post!
• We’re sorry for yet another secondary location event, we had to get all of them out of our systems. Again, the next handful of events up to October will be very horror-focused and take place in the Grove proper. Thanks for playing in Stickybones!

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

SETTING UPDATES:

• You guys have had a productive month, despite me trapping you in Cyberpunk 2077! Good job!
  • Beiwe’s Church has been moved from the forest to the North Grove, right smack dab in the middle of it. It was initially in ruins, however it has been repaired and is now fully operational. A more detailed summary is on the locations page, but in short:
    • Corrupted or those willingly working with Suri cannot enter it, as they will automatically be blocked by Her will
    • The middle of the church has a pseudo-arena space for battles, because it’s Beiwe
    • The rooms in the back contain a kitchen, dining room, and a room for making pottery including pottery wheels and a kiln
  • Luca has resurrected Sehul! Oops! They are currently just walking bones and do not exactly fit in the Grove, the buildings are close together and they are 100ft tall. They will be spending their time on the beach.
    • I have Yet Again bumped up the height limit barrier. It is 200ft. Hold me to this: It will not change again. I keep forgetting how large my creatures are.
    • Sehul also has the original protection circle on the inside of their skull, and their resurrection has significantly strengthened that in tandem with the existing barrier and other hidden circles being quite strong. The turns are tabling!
  • Dion has figured out that Suri’s constructs can be poisoned. :) And Shadow Milk found out how to do A Lot Of Damage. These items were shared at the most recent family meeting.
  • Renard has been rescued (untreed)! He’s walking around despite the fact he should not, but lives out of the General Store for now. He will probably at some point ask Sesa to borrow the workshop so he can make sickass swords. He has a rat in his shirt pocket named Jennie, and probably knows Too Much about where magical items and artifacts are hidden, considering he came back with at least ten of them.
  • The Heimr’s children from the manor are still snzzzing.
  • Sinann can take person form now, since they’ve been fully strengthened. They will make this everybody’s problem.
  • The fog wall has been strengthened, and Suri’s constructs are no longer able to slip into the Grove, barring super extenuating circumstances such as someone physically going into the forest and forcing them through the barrier (don’t do this). The fog wall is also white again and will not automatically harm you when touched. The Golden Glasses are still needed to traverse its paths properly; I’ve given you guys some leeway in the past with this but we’re going to make this a requirement going forward. No more accidentally stumbling into the plot.
• Neo Eden is gone, goodbye Neo Eden. As a reminder you’re allowed to take one (1) item from it, be it clothing, a box set of movies, an espresso machine… as long as an adult can physically carry it without struggle. Again, you cannot have a car.
• The mushrooms fruiting in the forest have gotten worse. They have spread beyond the fog barrier and into the accessible woods to you guys, and when stepped on, a spray of spores may have mystical effects…

PLOT UPDATES:

• Hi. You’ve been waiting for this event for (checks notes) like 4 months. Hope you got your monster-lovin’ bones ready. (Also this month is a TDM!)
• Curious characters who wander into the forest and step on a mushroom may be subjected to some monstery transformations. They can either be very painful or completely painless depending on how you want to play it; we just ask you use appropriate CWs as always.
  • If it was not incredibly obvious I based the mushroom sporing transformation thing on an episode of Dungeon Meshi, and if you haven’t seen Dungeon Meshi go watch it. Our habits of getting sent Cease & Desists will not abate.
• As per the last few posts, we do have rules for how the monstering will operate, outlined below for ease:
  • Your monster can be whatever you want as long as it’s not too massive (i.e. don’t be a 200ft giant). Your monster design cannot be overly mechanical; some mechanics like a cyborg are allowed, but no TVs for heads. Keep it within the setting’s typical low-tech constraints.
  • Whatever monster design you want does not have to be animal based or plant-based, you can be an eldritch horror if that appeals to you.
  • You cannot gain new powers (if you become a cyborg you can’t suddenly shoot lasers if you couldn’t before). Basic powers such as wings that give you flight, being a vampire lets you suck blood, etc, are okay. The ability to shapeshift into a smaller form (i.e. if you decided to make your monster very large) or to change forms (i.e. from merfolk to humanoid) is okay as well, so that you aren’t bared off from buildings.
  • You can choose to keep your existing powerset, or scrap it/parts of it. The only stipulation we have is that you cannot gain powersets (exceptions are noted above — if you aren’t sure, ask). We will not be allowing hard swaps in powersets either, i.e. if your original powerset says you can use fire magic but you wanted an aquatic design, you will not be able to waterbend instead.
  • Those of you who are dragon-blessed do not have to incorporate your dragon blessings into your design if it would interfere with the ~aesthetique~; you will retain the dragon blessing powers either way.
  • Those of you who are Corrupted MUST include the Corruption damage/motifs still, however.
  • The marks left on your person by the Gods (Suri or the lesbians) will remain, if you have them.
  • Personality changes to match your monster/transformation type are not expected, but allowed and encouraged! Dietary changes to match are fun as well, but again, not required.
  • Multiple transformations are allowed, since these are mushrooms in the woods that you step on. This is also the way to reverse the transformation. Story wise this is “random” and not based on your will; OOCly obviously you can do whatever you want.
• At max, the transformations will last 3 months — May, June, July, and end at the beginning of August automatically. You can, again, end this early by stepping on a mushroom. You can opt out entirely by Not stepping on a mushroom.
• There isn’t going to be much “““““plot””””” this time around. We want this first event to be more sandboxy, while everyone gets used to being a creature. That said, we will throw interactable things into the background for everyone so that we’re not entirely boring you. This will be a Vibes Month since we’ve had so much back to back plot.

OOC UPDATES:

• All the now-contactable NPCs will be bumped up on the NPC Contact page. It’s getting pretty long, so we’ll probably look at reorganizing the page again soon. You guys are doing a good job at rescuing people. Aurora’s real name, Freyr, will be included on the page — she will go by either name, she thinks your new name for her is cute.
• Related to NPCs, we’ve had pronoun blurbs under each NPC for a while, but we’d like to remind everyone that they’re there. We know we have quite the robust cast all around and would like to help everyone avoid confusion, especially because we don’t expect you to memorize every single character. Let us know if there’s anything more we can do to help with ease of navigation.

Please use the following form for plotting (and please describe your monster transformation to the class while you're at it!):

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

Hello beautiful stickbones players, this is Wolfie with a general update! In short, Tal is jiggling the plot around and we love him for it.

With Affogato Cookie's drop and last wishes using the Mystery Organ from Callan, a few things have changed within Aldric's Grove this month: 

• A small shrine close to the inn has appeared in the Grove. Affogato's spirit is tied there, to a black raven figure carved from smooth stone. His last wishes were for the Grove and the people here to be protected, and therefore:
• The spell strengthening the fog wall gets buffed and helps the magic circle that was placed in the Secret Location. This takes some pressure off of Heimr's rescued children, who are still comatose currently, but will ensure that the barrier does not falter.
• The fog wall loses its black tint/corrupting qualities from Corrupted Moder's wish back some time in 2023, and is now safe to touch (but is still, you know, a barrier and you still need the golden glasses to find where to get through it). 
• Sinann gets powered up further and can now shift into a proper Person form to go on land, though largely will still hang out in the river in fish form (its pronouns are still it/its or they/them). It will be able to speak in complete sentences as well.
  • This was the last Guardian y'all had to power up so congrats you did it, confetti sparkles etc
• Affo being a poison-element cookie means Suri's creations are now weak to poison, and Suri himself is a little bit weak to it but Not Really
  • This won't be immediately noticeable until someone tries to poison said creations. We are all looking at Thorns rn I know but he's banned from disseminating plot, figure it out yourselves-
• Pearl, Affo's baby dragon, is going to make a brief but terrible rainstorm out of grief :( They are sad :( This will largely not matter to those of  you who remain in Neo Eden all month, but should you pop back into the Grove, you will be dunked on. Literally.

That's it, if there are any questions just drop a line here or in the Discord! Pages will be updated after Wolfie is done slaving away at Capitalism. <3

OOC UPDATES

• We’re closer than ever to bringing our magic system to light! We hope to introduce it in a mini-event later in the month. When this occurs, we will also be making an informational announcement on our OOC comms.
  • This system is meant to be a reward for player engagement; for now all we can tell you is that the entry fee to unlock Grove magic for a character is 10 threads, and that learning the magic spell in question requires a proof thread, i.e. it cannot be handwaved. More information will be provided mid-month.
• Reminder: The Monster Mash/Transformation event will happen in May. Y’all got two more months. The mechanics have been loosely described on our last plotting post.
• AC is due today; go do it.

SETTING UPDATES

• Winter is fading to spring, perhaps faster than expected. Though it’s still chilly, the snow is melting more and more, leaving white patches of slush and mud around rather than the blanket of snow that had been present.
• However, this also means the Fog Wall is coming back, as dangerous as ever. As always, there are patches of clarity that can be used for foraging, hunting, wood gathering and the like, but the fog and its monsters are back.
• The beach is more pleasant than it has been, but the chill in the air still hangs heavy.
• Large grooves of fresh, upturned or flattened earth can be found, even within the fog, if one uses the Golden Glasses.
• Daffodils, chamomile, arctic poppy, foxgloves and lavender can be found growing amongst the flora and in clearings, alongside camellia bushes.
• The clinic has largely repaired itself! Some things are still damaged, but it’s now safe to use once again.

PLOT UPDATES

• The sun is out again and it's no longer perpetually nighttime.
• The giant tree of god flesh, the Caerula Arbor, has disappeared. The Nethersea Brand has cleared up, and you are no longer subject to random bouts of paralysis and/or memory sharing.
  • Well, it's mostly cleared up. Where the Arbor once stood is a "scar" on the land where the people-trees are deep in the woods. It's formed of Nethersea Brand and serves as a nest for some new baby Seaborn. They will largely leave you alone, but they will also shoo you off the Brand if you try to touch it. Go on, git.
• The baby Seaborn in the river are beginning to grow up. They saw some of you flying with your dragon wings, and saw Aurora as well, and a handful of them have decided that they’d like to evolve. On occasion, you will now see a flying Seaborn. You have no choice.
• However, not everything is as peaceful as you may like. Almost overnight, black and purple snakes have worked their way into the grove. They hide in bushes, in tall grass, under anything they can and if they bite, a familiar but weakened venom to those here last summer will take its hold:
  • One bite brings an intense pain, full body chills, hallucinations, and ease of bruising increases, alongside a black sun scar forming on the bite.
    • The black sun scars are permanent, as a sign of divine wrath, but can be changed by the Goddesses if asked.
  • Two bites brings an agonized sleep, not unlike a coma.
  • Three bites brings death.
    • As this is an event-related death, it will not yield trips to the Garden.
• Within the woods, two large stone snakes deposit more of the smaller snakes, guarding the paths to the Fallen Sun’s flowers as the non-poisonous ones can be used for easing the venom in medicine. They will restructure immediately upon being broken and will strike back with a vengeance — and should the larger snakes bite you, then you will be hit with the full force of the venom.
• Near the end of the month/close to April itself, characters will receive strange visions of a modernized city flashing through their dreams, and hear the distant clatter of dry bones…

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

SETTING UPDATES:

• For those that missed it or did not participate, the Attack on Suri concluded… with several little updates that will moderately shake the setting up:
  • Characters who were alive at the end of the battle know Suri’s name, which despite us using it all the time, was not actually known by anyone barring Tal’s Cookie Duo™. This includes four of the five Guardians as well. Because of this, Suri gets a power jump — but it’s up to the players if they choose to disseminate this information, or figure out a new way to be disrespectful about it.
  • The Temple is destroyed and merely a pile of rubble now.
    • Suri’s next probable location is therefore unknown.
  • While not otherwise hostile to the players at this time, Zonari will be moving out for now; dad’s calling and she has to get back to their new home. That said, she will still visit the Grove because she’s weirdly fascinated with all of you (and very fond of the Tomas chicks in the barn) under the excuse that she’s “keeping watch”.
  • A new NPC, Callisto, will be available to contact on NPC Contact. In short, she’s the merchant who originally opened the Temple doors and caused the apocalypse, and Suri has spent the last thousand years torturing and resurrecting her in an endless cycle. Mizuki rescued her as he escaped, and she currently lives in the inn and frequents Luca’s bar.
  • The NPC Elsword has left the Garden and is now Contactable as well. He lives in the therapy building with Mizuki.
• Callan, still frustrated with the winter cold, will remain in Siffrin’s fishtank.
• Player sacrifices have been acknowledged. Those of you who didn’t bother to make a sacrifice will have some effects to contend with; those of you who did are spared. Regardless, Winter and the wraiths have moved on into the forest, and springtime will be upon you soon.
• The snow, while not fully melted off, will start to do so. The ground will remain snowy, but the river will unfreeze, which allows Sinann and the baby Seaborn (who have grown a lot since they were first introduced) to float up to the surface again and say hi. Yet, the Seaborn population in the river is still much thinner than it was before.

PLOT UPDATES:

• February’s log is a player plot written entirely by Rubie. Questions about event mechanics therefore should be directed to Rubie through official channels, meaning: Please ask these in a public location such as the Discord Q&A or the FAQ here or on the main post so that they’re available to anyone who needs to see them. The mods would advise sending Rubie a ping if you use Discord.
• The rest of the plotting notes in this section are written by Rubie, so without further ado: < rubiezone >
• Several months ago, Mizuki introduced some of his God’s flesh to the Grove. It had been under Pure Vanilla’s watch… but due to some of his unforeseen absences, pieces have escaped and grown.
• It now occupies a part of the forest most would do well to avoid – the people trees. Characters this month will notice that massive tree that now stands stories tall above everything else in that part of the forest.
• The Nethersea brand is back! Now worse than ever! As a refresher (or introduction to our newer folk), the brand is a web-like, blue, almost flesh-like mass that will continuously grow and cover whatever it can. Touching it gives a numbing sensation that will eventually cause your nervous system to shut down. It’s not instantaneous, but you don’t have long! After some time, you’ll regain feeling again, but if you don’t leave the brand in that time, it’ll happen all over again.
• What does all this mean for you? Well, for starters, leaving the brand unchecked will cause it to grow over the Grove. In the past, it stayed contained, but considering it’s stemming from this massive tree – the Caerula Arbor – this time, it will become a problem. And secondly… anyone trapped within the brand, or stuck in the “roots” of the Arbor will have a vague “assimilation” with it. You won’t become Seaborn or anything like that, don’t worry.
• “What does that mean?!” Glad you asked! It means that Rubie has the opportunity to give you all a memory share event! The Arbor’s whole thing is about grief, so likely memories will align with that, but I’m not about to police what fun you want to have. Go nuts.
• Because the Arbor is assimilating with the people trees as well – characters from everyone’s past lives – y’all will be able to explore past life memories, too! Yaaaay!!! ✨ Again, I’m not about to police any of y’all for this. Please have fun, do what you want, plot away, I’m here for it.
• On top of this, I will also be hosting a “stop the Arbor from branding the Grove” that doubles as a Mizuki rescue mission! This will have sign-ups for that below, as this is going to be a quick-paced thread that centers on DnD-esque puzzle-solving and… depending on how y’all handle it, a fight scene?! Who knows. I don’t. I’ve got lots of endings planned, though. 🙂
  • Sign-ups are limited to 1 character per person.
• Please note, for when you sign up, I, Rubie, may end up in your inbox before the event drops to do some pre-event shenanigans. Nothing major, just some fun flavor~
• < /rubiezone >

OOC UPDATES:

• For those who were wondering about the monster transformation event we promised and didn’t bring up for another few months (sorry) — we now have officially scheduled it for May. We know art/designs/deep thoughts are important to players for such events, so here is a rough outline of the actual mechanics:
  • Multiple transformations will be allowed per month (May will be primarily monster focused; June & July will still have characters transformed if they wish to be, but will have other plot focuses). You can also just stick to one if it please ye. At any point, the transformation can be ended early via the same mechanic that transforms players in the first place — or avoided entirely for the uninterested.
  • Dragon blessings do not have to show up on your person if you do not want them to (i.e. if it interferes with your idea) — Corruption however will be present. You will not lose the effects from either of these things while Creatured.
  • Any monster is viable, and there is no bestiary provided — however, we ask that you keep in mind our existing size constraints, do not break our game, & do not use overly-mechanical designs as it doesn’t fit our setting. No full robots or TV heads. Steampunk & partial robotic designs, as long as they are mostly flesh, are OK.
• We love you guys. <3

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>