outofsticks

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

That sure was an exciting trip to the beach! And a horrible hotel. Let’s not talk about the horrible hotel.
The Silver Kingdom is as beautiful and serene as ever, shielded under a gentle canopy that makes the realm feel like it’s wrapped in an ethereal night sky and- … wait, Aldric’s Grove?
…
Something is very wrong.

PLOT UPDATES

All this to say that, at some point in the late summer, Lily’s corruption is going to come to a head, with Suri taking over and using her fae powers to trap Aldric’s Grove within a waking dream. Her kingdom which she will rule over upon return to Earthbread has overlaid itself over the Grove, and members of the Grove will believe themselves to be faerie citizens of the kingdom.
Dreaming citizens will also dream up their Ideal Lives, with the caveat that it still falls under “Faerie Citizen of the Faerie Kingdom”. As White Lily Cookie is driven by the desire to make a perfect world, Ideal is the key word here! As such, all dreams are shared as you're a part of Lily's dream.
- For example, Felicity (NPC) has a childhood of abuse, neglect and being a child soldier. Her ideal life would have her be born to a different family with less powerful magic, being able to grow up as a regular child and not who she truly is.
- Another example would be the way that the dream prisons in Twisted Wonderland Chapter 7 have played out (apologies for spoilers); Riddle Rosehearts is the son of two famous mage doctors and has many expectations and rules placed upon him, and while the Waking Riddle loathes it, his true ideal life is being the rebellious child of two ordinary, non magical people with freedom and the ability to break rules as he sees fit.
Characters will exist within the Dream, though some characters will find themselves Waking Up and, while still trapped in the Dream, be lucid and aware of the differences and truths. The first characters to Wake Up will be awoken by White Lily’s own voice, begging them to wake up and help her. To Wake another character up, you can choose logic and memories… or just smacking sense into them, if it’s thematic to the Waker or the Dreaming.
The goal is to Wake Up as many people as possible, free or Wake Up White Lily Cookie, and return to the real world! This will be difficult though, as the dream is tainted with Suri’s magic and he will try to stop you, and some people are very hard to wake up from the Dream and will continue operating on the script.
- As a note: Characters with dream walking abilities or psychic abilities may be able to Wake Up easier… or they may be extra-ensnared. This will be by player choice!
White Lily Cookie herself is available to speak with, but she will always be present in the company of Elder Faerie Cookie, Pure Vanilla Cookie or Dark Cacao Cookie, and will not abide slander of her treasured lovers. And Elder Faerie Cookie will be especially… protective, shielding her from dissidents with fervor.
By the standards of the Dream, she is the beloved Queen Consort of Elder Faerie Cookie, but she is new to the title and while she’s a friend to the Silver Forest, some wonder if she’s truly ready to be queen… And more are willing to accept her as a friend and lover to the king, but an outsider being made Queen is ridiculous.
As a note: It is entirely possible to kill White Lily Cookie in this event. Suri will outright be trying to make this happen, even! This will not permanently kill her and will result in a trip to the Garden, but I do want this laid out on the table. Amity is completely fine with this and would not include it if not.
Characters not caught in the dream will find the center of the Grove engulfed in a giant plant bud, with the Dreaming trapped within. If they do try to engage with the bud, please use the Investigations option! The last thing they’ll remember seeing before the Dream begins is a tidal wave of glowing, pure white butterflies.
The Dream’s duration will depend on player action, especially depending on the state of the Lily. It will end before the next month, however! Should it end early there will be a mini-event about this, and life can proceed as usual.
As per usual, the Guardians will be unaffected by this event. Zahliya is actively trying to break into Lily’s house to fix her- /for legal reasons, this is a joke
- They will be doing their usual activities of “trying to rescue you and failing due to plot conveniences”.
Ydalir will make sure your pets are fine. However, you also have the option of having your animals sucked into the dream with you, where they’ll have their own ideal dreams… whatever that may be.

OOC UPDATES

Amity is back from Hiatus as of August! I am Amity. Hi. Thank you so much for your patience while I died for a month, and I’m looking forward to continuing to bully everyone’s muses forever. This month and especially the next month we plan on ramping things up before the holidays!
This is an event I’ve been very excited for for months now, and I hope you have a lot of fun with it!
Summer is summering! Really that’s all we have there — the Grove is awfully quiet with at least half of you trapped in a big plant bulb, isn’t it? While you’re gone, more and more deer will settle into the space. Those who are not dreaming may notice hoards of biblically accurate deer starting to move into any space that’s not “in your house/the inn/a shop”. They think y’all up and left, so this is their house now.
Because summer in real life is summering too, we want to remind you to STAY HYDRATED. This is supposed to be one of the hottest summers on record. DRINK WATER. And also we love you. <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.

sticksandbonesmods

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!

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

The Divine Library has been unlocked! This is a permanent fixture, available through crossing the portal, a doorway standing within the Grove. The Divine Library will always feature a hint of randomness to it when used for explorations and settings on account of it’s very magical and ever-expanding. It’s also run by bibcoons and a mysterious spirit who is reluctant to show themselves.
As Summer hits in full swing, so too does the heat. Residents of the Grove will find it hot, humid and muggy- especially down by the beaches, which are just as pleasant as always. Should you seem like you’re going towards the beaches, the Dragon Hatchlings may bother you to come along.
The mushrooms continue to spread and spore, meaning that the monster transformations remain. This is purely optional, and will continue into July.

PLOT UPDATES

Joshua (Kiryu, not Rosfield), out at Fel's shrine in the forest, has caught glimpses of what's been going on lately with Mr. Bone-Jangles teleporting everyone to a futuristic city and with the efforts made to create a portal to the Library, and… well, let's just say he's intrigued! And inspired to try a bit of magic himself, empowered by his possession of a star shard. So, he tries to reach out to his own world. Naturally, this doesn't go as planned. This means that, surprise! Some of the Grove's residents are kidnapped. Unlike Mr. Bone-Jangles' portal back in April, this kidnapping is entirely random and not isolated to one particular location. Anyone caught in the spell will hear a sound like a staticky tuning radio, and then they disappear.
Meanwhile, throughout the Grove, old oak doors mysteriously begin to appear, some in walls like a door should be and others freestanding. Should a character enter a door, they will hear the same noise as those that have been kidnapped, and also disappear.
Whether they've been picked up by the spell or gone through one of the doors, congratulations! They are now in a small desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while everyone pretends to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale!
Night Vale is a weird place. Like, really weird. It looks like a normal town on the surface, but it's surrounded by an endless desert. If one were to try to walk out of town, they would find themselves walking a while through the desert and looping around and walking right back towards town again. Also, time doesn't work correctly there. In our situation, this translates as sometimes having been in Night Vale for a few days, but back in the Grove it's only been a couple of minutes, or vice versa. Or, time can just work on an even balance! Use this mechanic to your happiness, it's there for fun.
Which leads me to say, you can go back and forth between the Grove and Night Vale! You just need to find an old oak door in Night Vale to get back to the Grove. This is easier said than done, as if/when you enter Night Vale through one, it isn't behind you once you get there. But don't worry! You can find them. Notably, there is always a free-standing door in the Dog Park, but no one is allowed in the Dog Park, not even dogs. It's probably fine.
When entering Night Vale through one of the doors, it will drop you in front of one of several fun locations! This does not mean you are restricted to that location, though. Have fun exploring the town! A map will be provided in the IC log. Deposit locations are as follows:
- The Desert Flower Bowling Alley & Arcade Fun Complex
- The Moonlite All-Nite Diner
- The Hole in the Vacant Lot Out Back of the Ralphs
- THE BROWN STONE SPIRE
- Dark Owl Records
- Big Rico's Pizza
- The Night Vale Public Library
- Gino's Italian Dining Experience & Grill & Bar
- Jackie's Pawn Shop
- Night Vale Community Radio (though, there are no visible doors or windows, so you can't enter)
- The Dog Park
- Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation Area
Also, there are radios everywhere! Both old fashioned and newfangled. They're popping up all over the Grove, too. Most of the time they're quiet, but off and on during the day, a local radio show comes on. Even if a radio is turned off, it will turn on for the broadcast. If a radio is destroyed, a new one will pop up in its place. Apparently, you have to listen to it. And when you do, you might notice a familiar voice. Or don't, I'm not your dad.
If you do notice that familiar voice, though, you might recognize it as Josh! As the instigator of the situation, the world has drawn him in to be the Voice of Night Vale, so he is the voice of each and every broadcast. Which are, like Night Vale, notably weird. He also seems to know what people are doing at any given moment and will openly talk about it on the broadcast, so if you want your character/their behavior to be put on blast on live radio, there will be a submission area for that! I won't be making daily broadcasts ICly though because that's a lot, so the submission area will sort of serve as a collection of things everyone would hear.
There will also be an ultimate conclusion investigation! Because getting Josh out of his new profession is what will trigger the smooth separation of Night Vale from the Grove. Characters will need to break into the Night Vale Community Radio building, which will not be ICly possible until the end of the month, but I'll probably toss the log up for it mid-month or sooner. There are sign ups for this! One character per player, please.

OOC UPDATES

… All this to say, everyone thank Kaed for running this month’s event, a really fun Welcome to Nightvale episode!
Any and all questions and investigations relating to the Nightvale aspect of this event will be handled by Kaed as well.
As mentioned earlier this week, we will be making some minor tweaks to our AC policy:
- Normal AC stays the same (2 threads of 5 comments from you with 2 different characters). However, we're adding something to incentivize helping TDMers. During TDM months, submitting a thread with a new character that reaches app length (5 comments from you, enough for a TDMer to complete their app) will count for your entire AC that month. This is only usable during TDM months, meaning the month the TDM goes up. (During November & December when we don't have TDMs, AC will stay as "check in" like it was last year.)
- Any thread with a TDMed character will count for 2x the threads required for Bonus AC during any month it's redeemed - all you need to do is indicate to the mod team that it's a TDM thread in some way so we can make sure to count it properly.
With summer coming in real life as well, we expect a lot of weather nonsense. Please stay safe and make sure you stay hydrated!

sticksandbonesmods

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.

sticksandbonesmods

OOC UPDATES

Hi. We promised a magic system. This did not wind up happening because real life exploded. Sorgy. Please expect it soon!
This is a long post, so buckle in!
Monster transformation event happens in MAY! You have one-ish more month! May is also a TDM month. I (hi this is Wolfie, this whole post is Wolfie) shared some details in the announcements channel in the Discord a while back so people could work on designs and ideas, so here they are again in a more Official place:
- monster transformations:
  - it's whatever you want as long as it's not too massive (i.e. Just don't be big enough to break the setting, not that I think anyone will be a 200ft giant but y'know). And it can't be overly mechanical. Some mechanics are allowed, but no tvs for heads (cybernetics are fine if you wanted to be a cyborg or steampunky or whatever, just don't make it entirely tech)
  - you can't gain impractical powers (i.e. if your character becomes a cyborg they can't suddenly shoot lasers). Basic powers (having wings gives you flight, being a vampire lets you suck blood, etc) are ok tho. if you aren't sure, ask.
  - you can choose to keep your existing powerset or scrap it/parts of it. the only stipulation is that you cannot gain powersets (again exceptions noted above). we will not be doing hard swaps in powersets either, i.e. if you can shoot fire but wanted to have an aquatic design and shoot water instead, that will not happen unfort. you will be aquatic with fire.
  - your design doesn't have to be animal based, if you wanted to be an eldritch horror that's chill. if you're a nonhuman Thingy you could just be a human person, because the real monster was humanity all along etc
  - if your dragon blessing appearance interferes with your design, they can be hidden if you want. you will still retain the blessing powers.
  - if youre corrupted the design Must include the corruption motifs
  - the marks left on you by the gods (suri or the lesbians) will remain
- event mechanics:
  - will involve a consensual (OOC) transformation, which may not be consensual IC (let's just say it'll involve stepping on something in the woods that triggers the transformation) (I can't tell you all my secrets)
  - multiple transformations are allowed in the case of a) ending the monstery shit early or b) wanting to switch to another monster
  - May will be focused largely on being transformed; June & July will have events that simply include the transformations as a background effect
  - we are not noctium/ryslig/route 666/other monster tf games, this is not permanent and your monster forms cannot be "regained" thru BAC in the future
Reminder to do your AC by Monday night (the 31st)!
This event and the May monster event are all handled by Wolfie entirely; please poke Wolfie with specific questions about the mechanics. The other mods have been relegated to Have Fun Mode. :)

SETTING UPDATES

Clive, Joshua, and Mizuki — with the help of Elsword — have freed the children from the manor. Turns out, the magic only made them look like children (spooky) and they’ve been adults for quite some time.
- Evan and Rillian are in “centuries of magical overload” comas. It will be announced when they wake up.
- Audrey, who had died at the game’s beginning, is a ghost haunting the manor/sometimes haunting Elsword since he gave her a funeral when he was just a PC. Characters with supernatural sensitivity may be able to sense either of these things.
- With the kids free, Rusty will spend his time idling by the General Store nowadays.
- The manor will remain locked INDEFINITELY because Suri doesn’t want y’all getting any funny ideas from the magic inside. This is manifested through black briars and thorny vines blacking all entrances.
  - This information will be reflected on our Locations page when our favouritest list mod Lavvy has time to update our pages.
- The magic vibes in the Grove are now off to say the least; without the kids maintaining the spell that kept the barrier up, magic often warps and warbles. Player characters may notice that their native powers may sometimes come out stronger than intended.
  - The barrier is being maintained by a handful of carefully-placed magic circles, an initiative spearheaded by Clive.
The Renard rescue is underway still at the time of writing. I’ll have another post up with any changes that happen to the Grove when he’s rescued. This is technically backdated to March just in case it doesn't resolve by April.
No more winter, winter gone. Moder is back to growing her flowers and mosses on her hide and in her hoofsteps. The flowers everyone planted last spring and summer are starting to return on their own in the areas they were planted.
Callan has returned to the lake finally; that said, his fishtank is no longer in Siffrin’s (old) room and he has been migrated to the cookie house via Pure Vanilla.
- This will be reflected on NPC Contact shortly.

PLOT UPDATES

I’ve alluded a lot to this event, and if you couldn’t guess my emoji puzzle clue from last night… surprise doesn’t matter because you have the answer right here: We’re going to ~~New York City~~ ~~the game Cyberpunk 2077~~ a secondary location known only as “Neo Eden”.
- I got the idea for this event when I was in a Meow Wolf so this would only be the second event you’ve gotten where I was In A Meow Wolf at the time.
Player characters will yet again be subject to Mr. Bone-jangles attempts to do… something. Try to tell you something, maybe to do with the outside world, maybe with another world entirely. Unfortunately, his attempts at opening a portal under everyone’s feet to plop them into said world is met with some resistance by our token villain, and you’ll instead find yourself in Neo Eden, a fabricated version of what modern life could look like had the Grove not been timebubbled for millennia. Skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and also everything is obnoxiously neon (and capitalist!).
- The portal will open in the middle of the Grove, meaning characters on the outskirts will not fall into it. Static entities (buildings, the well, plants) won't follow.
- A portal back to the Grove can be found in mirrors in your apartment rooms (elaborated on a bit further down the post). Simply stare into them with the intent to return home, and you'll fall forward into it and stumble out of a mirror that was mysteriously placed in your bedroom. To get back to Neo Eden from the Grove, the same route applies.
“What about the NPCs?” The only NPCs following you are Heimr and Ydalir, who will maintain a storefront in the city. This will make all other NPCs uncontactable during April, if you choose to stay in Neo Eden anyway. The Guardians have to guard the Grove.
- Bone-Jangles and his crew of skelemen will be found wandering the city doing work: Most of them take up jobs at the grocery stores and local restaurants, but also act as public transit workers, garbage skelemen, janitors, landlords… they are quite busy.
You are also able to take whatever you want from your usual inventory with you. Weapons, stuffed animals, your dog, whatever you want.
- All players will enter Neo Eden with a debit card in their pockets/hands if you don’t have pockets, and a letter telling them where to seek employment. There are 1,000 Credits on this card. You can ignore this, but money is required for goods and services here, and the stores don’t accept shells…
- Netbooks will magically transform into cellphones with only one function: Group chat. Still no private messaging available, but you do get to send cute stickers and emojis now!
The themes for this event are: Modern, Cyberpunk, Vaporwave, High-Tech, Alien, and Dystopian — which is me giving you blanket permission to make up anything weird enough to fit into those general vibes. Do you want neon body augmentations? Tattoos that move? Your hair and eyes to glow ominously? Robotic police officers and a terrifying state of government surveillance that doesn’t at all make you think of 1984? Go for it!
- The tech-y augmentations will not come back to the Grove with you. Please enjoy them while they last.
Finally, here is a list of Things To See/Other Setting Quirks:
- Neo Eden is empty and has only holograms of people going about their daily lives. All of them are human. None of them respond when interacted with in any capacity.
- You may rent a car from the Rent-A-Ride. You may also drive this car. If you will, you may crash this car and go to the hospital. No one is here to check your lack of driver’s license or your insurance.
- City Park is just a fake forest/”natural” area with a river cutting through it. Any fish you can see are little robots. This also applies to the birds. Other animals simply don’t exist.
- The Mania Square apartment complex borders Central Neo Eden, where a giant fountain big enough to swim in sits in the town square adjacent to a large shopping district. Player characters will have apartments to themselves; each door is marked with their name in what appears to be their own handwriting. Each apartment is a large studio with a kitchenette, bedroom area, and a bathroom. Strangely, each room has already been customized to that player character’s tastes.
- Thrill Point is an amusement park. It has amusement park rides like rollercoasters, drop towers, Ferris wheels, etc etc.
- Arcadia is a nightclub. You can get drunk, you can dance. You cannot do anything NSFW here. Strippers will not be provided. Please behave on the comms.
- Next to Arcadia is a small photo booth that requires two people to operate named "The Swap". If two player characters enter it and hit the two buttons on the photo booth console at the same time, they will be bodyswapped for 12 hours, and the booth will take a nice photo of the two of you and print it as a keepsake. Hooray!
- The law enforcement here are robotic cops. Breaking the law (stealing, littering, dismantling the robot cops ADD) will get you arrested. Luckily, the jail is easy to break out of because no one is watching the prison, if that’s your thing.
At the end of April, Mr. Bone-Jangles will close up the portals and send everyone back to the Grove, making Neo Eden inaccessible from here on. Each player character will receive a hastily-scrawled apology letter that reads “SORY, TRIYD 2 SAV U :(“ afterwards, and he will wander back into the woods with his merry band…
Unlike last year’s April Event, you’re free to take one (1) high-techy cyberpunk item with you when you leave as a memory. THE ITEM HAS TO FIT IN YOUR HANDS IT CANNOT BE A CAR. PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

sticksandbonesmods

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…

sticksandbonesmods

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

sticksandbonesmods

OOC UPDATES

Regular AC will be resuming in January!
January is also a TDM month, so it’s the best time to think about who you may want to bring in or to enable the people you love who aren’t us.
New characters of preexisting players are welcome on this post, for the record!
A new past life plotting meme will be going up January 1st to ring in the new year as well, and hopefully the new format will make it more engaging.
We are going to set 2024 on fire and I am personally holding 2025 at gunpoint on all our behalf. Otherwise, we have a lot of really fun things planned for the year and we are greatly looking forward to playing things out with everyone together this year!
Also there is an end of year love meme for the game. This winter’s been hard. This year’s been hard. Let’s end it with a bit of love and joy.

SETTING UPDATES

Mayoi has built a shrine to Ourania, which doubles as a new home. It is placed in the formerly burnt town!
The weather is going to reach sub-zero temperatures, with raging snowstorms threatening one’s health if they stray too far from the indoors… though with how bitter cold it is, that may not help as much as you might want it to.
The river and lake are both completely frozen over, and not even Terho’s cabin has any light or presence to it. State of the seaborne and fish and Sinann? Frozen.
By nature of their magic, the fruit trees and blackberry bushes are still perfectly fine. It’s just a matter of getting to them at this point.
As the winter progresses, the cold encroaches further and further into where it should not be. Cups from the cabinets are frigid as ice, and any fires you try to keep burning flicker even as you stoke them and feel as if they could go out at any moment- Irene’s fireplace in the inn seems to be the only one that isn’t affected.

PLOT UPDATES

Characters will experience strange dreams of water and something trying to reach out. What could it mean? Great question!
New arrivals will find themselves struggling to get through the storm to safety, and will find themselves drawn to various buildings within the settlement. Hanging from their necks will be a pendant with a heavy snowflake amulet. While they wear these, the wraiths may use their voice to call for their sacrifice, and the new characters will feel incredibly cold even within the hottest places in town until they melt the amulet in a fire.
On top of the awful cold, the Grove and surrounding forest are once again under siege- though this time it doesn’t actually seem to be the Fallen Sun’s fault. The winter comes beckoned by the call of wraiths of frost and ice, and their presence only makes things worse.
They can be fought off with a partner or more- they’re much too strong to face alone- and for a time their defeat will abate the winds, but the howling blizzards return not long after. Working alone may cause a curse similar to last January to befall characters as well, where they slowly turn to ice unless saved by an act of true love (platonic or otherwise). The buddy system is the way to go!
(Mods will not be handling these fights, NPC the wraiths in battle as desired.)
All the while the wraiths call for a sacrifice. They do not elaborate on what they could possibly want, but “to stop this awful winter, sacrifices must be made”. Player characters must decide on their sacrifices and how they make them. The results will impact the end of the month with a small mini-event.

Please use the following form for plotting.

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

sticksandbonesmods

OOC UPDATES

Short update, slow month, happy holidays if you celebrate!
Lavvy has joined the mod team as a list mod! Everyone give it up for your newest overlord Lavvy! Yay!
As a result, some things related to how our pages are maintained and look may be getting a slight overhaul. We will point at them all rapidly as they come because we love and appreciate this.
Wolfie will be taking a full (100%) mod hiatus in December because Wolfie is on fire. Any NPC requests through Wolfie’s NPCs will be handwaved for the month of December; ongoing investigations she ran in November will still be tagged/completed.
We have a page about corruption, draconic blessings and a placeholder for the magic system! Please give it a look if you haven’t already.
Casual reminder that November is a check-in month, aaaand so is December! Historically December always is, so enjoy your two free months. Regular AC will resume in January.

SETTING UPDATES

Winter’s bite is worsening, and the animals are beginning to grow scarce again. The lake and river aren’t frozen over completely yet, but if you remember last year… in any case, there will be blizzards throughout the month, and near the end of it, the cold grows bad enough to where even our native snowbirds might find the temperatures unforgiving.
Dark Cacao and his chosen companions have successfully hatched the seven dragons, and early to mid-month will be safe to move to the Grove.
With this, draconic blessings are fully available to the rest of the game as well (see the above linked page). Draconic blessings have no thread cost but you must speak to the hatchlings for it, and it must be threaded. The thread can be short, don’t worry. As a recap, the blessings are permanent and as follows:
- Strength: horns and scales visually, and increased durability.
- Balance: a tail, possibly prehensile.
- Flight: wings, capable of flight.
- Sight: dragon eyes (either straight up lizard or something akin to the unique eyes in Flight Rising, if you need ideas) with enhanced vision.
Those with keen eyes may note that there seem to be less Seaborn in the river. Weird!
There is a heavy feeling of something watching you from all angles, but it is hard to find the source.

PLOT UPDATES

The merchants- Ydalir especially- will be hosting a feast and something of a cultural exchange, including Ydalir just yoinking things out of her mirror from your world to eat and share. With a bit of magic, everyone can partake in whatever they’d like! Yes even you, Loop.
Everyone is invited and while it’s not enforced, you may make a tall shadow woman sad if you don’t stop by for a bite.
As the temperature drops, the guardians seem to grow drowsy. Callan will temporarily stop living in the lake as he finds the temperatures unforgiving, and will primarily be stationed in Siffrin’s fish tank. Sinann will still be active in the river, but will be seen less frequently. Moder will be active enough to conscript Wolfwood into being Saint Nick again, but otherwise will be sleeping. Aurora will transform into a tiny bird and slip in with the Church pigeons. Zahliya remains semi-active and will conduct his regular patrols, but will stay inside the Church rather than on top of it.
On the topic of a certain gargoyle guest, Zonari will largely sleep in the barn and not be seen much. She’s also hibernating.
We have a Christmas gifts thread below, so feel free to put what your character wants for Christmas down! Providing a brief list is fine; note that the mods will only pick one of these things. It can be an item from home that would cost 5 threads or under, so a medium item regain, or something from the usual BAC store for under 5 threads, or something you completely make up for fun (a niche book, a really cool rock, a plushie, idk your life). If physical items aren’t your character’s thing, we can work with that in some way; just write the idea down anyway.
- Note that we will tally up the gifts the day before the event goes live (Dec. 5th), so if you don’t put anything down, you will receive a handwaved generic gift instead of something personalized to your character.
- These will be delivered by Wolfwood yes Chi we’re conscripting him again (you asked for it).

sticksandbonesmods

OOC UPDATES:

Hi, this section goes first this month (SURPRISE!) mostly for the flow of the post.
The bonus AC store was updated! The following new things are available:
- Ydalir now offers intermediate and major magic enchantments. If you want something enchanted and you’re not sure what “tier” it would be, feel free to ask us on the FAQ or the Discord Q&A. We realize these are kind of a vague way to shoehorn things into a category and our examples aren’t perfect.
- Since all of the Guardians have been assembled/acquired, they’re now offering blessings. These range from 5 to 20 threads total depending on how powerful they are. They’re meant to provide you with either a temporary or permanent boon, depending on the item in question. The effects are detailed on the bonus AC page proper, but the items are:
  - A bottle of Zahliya’s fire
  - A bottle of Sinann’s water
  - A magically enhanced antler from Moder
  - A… mystery organ :) from Callan
  - And a rainbow tailfeather from Aurora.
- After we see how people react to these new items, we will probably add more things in the future that are going to be cheaper. If anyone has something they super want, feel free to reach out to the mod team.
Wolfie will be taking a slight (not full) (but like 50%) mod hiatus during November to recover from burnout. This does not mean that Wolfie’s NPCs will be unavailable entirely, but this does mean that if contacted, responses will be much slower and/or the results of the thread will be handwaved. Unfortunately Wolfie’s brain is at war with Wolfie’s desire to be Doing. The general audience has already noticed this but now it’s ~official~.
- Wolfie’s NPCs for reference are: All 5 Guardians (Moder/Zahliya/Callan/Sinann/Aurora), Zonari, the Behemoth, Ydalir, Beiwe, Elsword (only for those who wind up in the Garden), & Renard when he's unlocked (untreed).
This is a bit in the future, but Wolfie has alluded to doing a monster transformation type of event and the note is being made now because we know having art/designs in place is important to people for these. So far the plans are just “it’s happening” and we don’t want to put any upper limits on what people can and can’t do, but if you’re designing something early: Make it fit in with the setting reasonably. That means no super mechanical designs (mechanics where limbs are missing or existing cybernetics are fine) — no computers for heads! Bonus points if flowers/plants are added, but this is not mandatory at all because it’s not a Corruption event.
- Also as a question for the audience: With an event like this, would you want it to be extended so people are a bit monster-y for longer than a month? Let the mods know, we’ve never done a super extended event so could be fun!
We slightly changed the plotting post template because at this point the old one is, well, old — almost 2 years! — and it’s time to change it to be more robust. Surprise! x2!

SETTING UPDATES:

So, speaking of those Guardians: Pure Vanilla & the other Guardians revived Aurora, the Sky Guardian. She is now available to contact freely on the NPCs page. With that comes a number of changes to the Grove itself:
- The aforementioned blessings become available (others may be added later if you guys decide you really like these).
- The native birds will often fly out and bring player characters mundane gifts (seeds, flowers, shiny things, a really cool stick, etc) as thanks for saving their patron deity.
- The barrier keeping people from flying more than 30 feet up has shattered and reformed higher up. The vertical height limit is now 100 feet from the Grove/150 feet when standing on the lower elevated beach off the cliffside. This does remove the… glitch? From Luca’s bar where the entire world stops rendering after you head 30 feet up and look out the window.
- The sun can occasionally be seen when the weather isn’t bad; it’s no longer almost constantly grey and overcast. One might even say the weather is “normal” and not “sad and depressing”.
Speaking of the weather, though: It’s Winter. It’s getting pretty cold. Throughout the month, small snowstorms will kick up, and this means that everyone’s flowers and vegetables will quit growing and die unless they’re in the greenhouse or otherwise indoors. Don’t worry, they’ll be back next spring, you don’t need to regain more seeds.
Normally, wintertime means that our friend the Black Sun/Forest/the antagonist guy goes into hibernation, and while that’s true this time, he has left one more small gift for everyone before he trundles off to go nap for 3 months.

PLOT UPDATES:

This month is a player plot! Everyone say “thanks Aspen” for the player plot!!
As the Black Sun goes to take his yearly nap, new pathways in the forest will open up, visible with or without the Golden Glasses and looking quite strange and inviting. Characters who walk into these pathways will be met with a dead end, where the fog wall will rush in behind them and trap them. A few hours later, they will emerge unscathed…
…but the characters themselves will be changed, mentally or physically or both. Other characters will still recognize you as “you” no matter what happens, and there’s the potential that other characters will not realise you’ve undergone changes and see you as “normal” (in the way they know you). You may look into the mirror and realise you’ve changed, or you may see nothing wrong and think you’re normal despite everything.
The Grove itself remains unchanged during this event, with only the characters themselves changing in minor to major ways. Memories themselves have been altered, too, with characters being led to believe that something different happened in their pasts. This can range from an early childhood memory being changed, to something within their time in the Grove being altered.
To quote Aspen’s provided example using Vash, some memory and therefore character alterations could be:
- Not following Nai into Tesla's chamber, thus preventing Nai from being able to access the system. The ship never crashed, and they all lived happily ever after.
- After finding his brother in his teens, the two banded together, with Vash believing that purging the world is a form of kindness and mercy for those that were trapped on No Man's Land. No one lived happily ever after.
- Vash decided to stay in the Grove after Wolfwood's death. He was never corrupted, and everyone lived happily ever after.
These AU memories will last for a month, and it can include multiple memories & physical traits being changed. This is your AU, have fun, go wild. The only thing off the table here is turning into another creature if your canon/CRAU doesn’t align with it — so for example, Ryslig CRAUs could be another monster and that would be fine, but Mizuki can’t turn into a Harpy and start flying. That said, if your physical change includes temporary, 1-month long false Corruption and that’s how you become a creature, that’s fine, just hide from Zahliya, he will not hesitate.
With all of that being said, if you re-enter the forest paths, you will come out with a different set of memories/physical changes. This is for all of you who are indecisive and want to play out several AUs, you know who you are.
Characters who are too smart to just walk into the forest may find themselves tempted by a voice calling to them, or see an illusion of someone else wandering in, etc etc. And of course, if this event is uninteresting to you, simply do not have your character walk into the woods and the AUing is avoidable.
Unrelated to the differing paths, we’re holding a lottery for a prophetic vision below as well! Beiwe and Ourania will contact whoever wins, asking them to tend to a newly re-emerged clutch of dragon eggs on the beach — the coming winter is to be harsh, and the eggs are no longer protected from the weather. This will begin the process of unlocking, well, baby dragons, and also draconic blessings aka dragon features.
It feels weird not ending this with the OOC section so OOC section 2: We love you guys, ok thanks.

sticksandbonesmods

Hi players, this post is going to be long because of how Involved™ this event is, please drink water as you read this. Thanks.

SETTING UPDATES:

Happy autumn! Pumpkins are growing out of the ground in completely random spots, and some out of your buildings/houses. Whoops. It’s fine, they won’t damage the buildings thaaaat much, and they can be harvested for pumpkin pie or a snack. Weirdly, some of them contain assorted candy instead of pumpkin guts. Don’t think about it too hard.
Flamebringer has set up a tattoo/piercing shop in the North Grove. That’s it, that’s the update, have fun getting inked by a guy with questionable morals.
Ezell has set up a bunny bakery as well this month. It's a bakery, but there are bunnies running around that you can pick up and love on. 10/10.
We are aware that the Guardians have been up to… many things since our last update, so we thought we’d consolidate recent updates, especially for the new folks:
- Moder is still Moder-ing. With the arrival of autumn, she no longer grows pretty mosses and flowers along her back. Instead, she is sporting a permanent blanket of orange and yellow leaves, but is still about 85% fleshy. She, notably, has started avoiding the barn…
- …because Zonari is sitting on top of it these days. Zonari will mostly continue to file her nails and watch you guys do things, and won’t actively interfere in things. You’re welcome to continue trying to domesticate her. Zonari is not a Guardian, she is The Creature/The Forest/The False God/Suri’s construct; the Zahliyaquest Recap has the whole explanation of her there.
- Zahliya, however, who is a Guardian and is legally her cousin who she calls “brother”, is Not Fucking Happy about her presence here, but he’s learnt to go along with what you guys say. He will be seen on the Church roof, peacocking and raising his wings in a threat display, especially if further monsters happen. (And they will! :) )
- Callan moves between the lake and Siffrin’s room, where he has a fishtank (his “mobile home” he calls it). He is otherwise completely unbothered by Zonari.
- Sinann is, as stated last month, larger and able to talk to people normally without the bone ring. It is happy to have conversation, but still has to keep to the relative region of the river.
- Aurora is still dead. She stirred a bit ago, but she has not yet come back to life. Having a name and Beat’s wish have helped her, though.
Sometimes, players may be lovingly accosted by a group of wandering, sentient skeletons holding trumpets and drums and other band kid instruments. The leader of them is, of course, Mr. Bone-Jangles, who has reappeared several times before (last October and April) and is trying his damn best to spread more joy around because you kids are depressed and he wishes for you to have joy.

PLOT UPDATES:

Unfortunately for Mr. Bonejangles, the depression continues! :) This month’s event is also completely experimental so please bear with us mods, we don’t usually do these.
This month’s event and therefore this month’s cease and desist letter in our inbox is based on a few IPs: Jordan Peele’s “Us”, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Phasmophobia. Mostly the first and last. There will be signups for certain aspects of this event, so please check out those comments if you want to be raffled in for some fun. Also if you haven’t seen “Us” and you want to, close this post and go watch it real quick and come back in 2 hours when you’re done, because there are going to be spoilers for the general ideas, surprise.
At the beginning of the month, your “Others” will appear. They look like you, they act like you, and they talk like you, and they are, as far as you’re aware, “just like you”. Except for the fact they want to murder you and take your place. For the month, characters will have to avoid getting murked by their Others, but the good news is, the Others can be killed! They’ll be difficult to kill off, like all things here are, but that’s a small boon. Your Others are perfectly content to kill others, too, provided they can get them somewhere alone, because their goal…
…is to replace you. Take your life, your identity, and be “you” for the rest of time. Characters who are killed and replaced by their Others will not immediately return to life. Though they won’t suffer death consequences in the Garden, they will temporarily go to A Secondary Location™: A creepy wooden mansion that mysteriously appears somewhere in the middle of the woods. Their spirits will be trapped here, haunting these halls until they’re rescued.
- Some characters will be automatically start the month doppelgangered. Aka, they were killed or captured (depending on player preference, since we don’t want to Force death on anyone) quietly in the night and brought to/woke up in the wooden mansion, unable to leave, where they will haunt the halls. The Others will take their place in the Grove and, preferably, act natural but “slightly off”. Perhaps they don’t remember someone’s birthday, or their relationship with someone, or a fact from the past. We are asking you to play what you think your character’s doppelganger would be!
  - This is based on signups and has an RNG component to it. We’re estimating 3-5 characters that start as their Others this month, but that depends on signups. We will contract the people who get selected to be doppelgangers privately, but please let us know your preferred contact method (and if you prefer Plurk & the mods aren’t on your plurklist, we recommend adding us at wolfchan & amity_rose ASAP).
  - You may sign up as many characters as you want, i.e. Aspen can sign up both Vash and Luca — but unless player engagement is super low for this, only ONE of your characters will be selected. This is so that the odds aren’t stacked against people who play one character. (We will RNG based on player, not character; characters will be RNG’ed afterwards if we land on a winner that has multiple signups.) Signups close Oct. 2nd, at which point we will RNG people.
- We want players who sign up for this to keep the fact that they’re doppelgangered or not secret from the rest of the players! We’d like this information to come out organically through your threads and be discovered ICly through hard work, investigations, or funny slip-ups.
- If you aren’t selected to start the month doppelgangered, you’re still free to be replaced later on in the month, but in the interest of not mucking up the mod-RNG’ed characters, please try to include the doppelganger mention in any toplevels/threads you write. This is our attempt on keeping it fair on all sides, we are welcome to feedback if anyone has a better idea.
As for the rescue, that’s where the second half of the event comes in. Players who sign up for our second round of signups and are not doppelgangers will get to go to the Spooky Mansion to rescue the spirits and return those characters from kidnapping/spirit jail. Of course, that’s easier said than done, considering your own Others might just follow you inside to try killing you off.
- This exploration will be partially mod-guided and will be done in a separate post about mid-month. Characters who are haunting the mansion will feel a burst of ghostly silliness toward the living — you could try to kill them even though they’re here to rescue you, or you could try to jumpscare them, or maybe just throw canned soup at their heads. Other “NPC” spirits filled in by the mod team might be either silly or hostile.
- We encourage toplevelling and tagging on that new post. We want our ghosts to tag our living and vice versa. And, to reiterate: Unless you are our beginning-of-month doppelganger victims OR you decide to doppelganger yourself before we get the post up, your slot in the rescue is guaranteed.
The rescue will take place over the course of… five nights. :) Please laugh.
Spirits will be rescued by finding The Thing Keeping Them Tethered There. More details will be provided on the secondary event log.
This event is very involved and we’re aware of that, so a recap of the “rules” will be posted in a comment below to avoid scrolling. This is our first time trying something like this and we hope it’s fun. If you guys hate it though please let us know, we can handle it.

OOC UPDATES:

This is our last TDM of the year! November and December will not be TDMs, so the next will be in January. In November, we will be running a player plot, and December will be relatively calm to account for the holidays.
The TDM portion is the first log; the rescue log is NOT a TDM and is locked to only active characters/players.
Yes, Wolfie (hi this is Wolfie) is aware that the map is still a mess, please just refer to the Locations page for now and ignore the map until I can get it fixed. I am so sorry.
Any questions/feedback/complaints/suggestions/egg-throwing can be directed to the mods as always!

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.

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Zahliyaquest is almost complete. While we don’t have a full breadth of updates for you now because it’s still in the final phase, we’re noting this here for everyone not involved. There will be a summary posted on OOC plotting after it officially concludes, please look forward to it.
The rains have stopped and the plants have returned back to normal. No harm was done to them during their growing-shrinking phase; they’re just as healthy as they originally were.
Autumn is rolling in! That means the leaves are starting to turn yellow and orange and will soon start falling. If you jump into any piles, mind the two-headed mice that live under them.
Nene has a cute cottage in North Aldric’s Grove now, near the pathway into it and close to the Archives/library.

PLOT UPDATES

Characters will wake up one day- or enter the Grove entirely- to Ydalir getting up to some antics! Specifically, she is running around with a cute poofy witch hat atop her head, and flowy wraps and robes, and handing out enchanted items.
These items will include a wide range of options from a wand that summons a (d20) amount of pigeons, to a goldfish that follows you in a bubble to far more! Players are free to come up with their own enchanted items or roll in the Pain-free gacha (as opposed to the latter event’s very painful gacha) for a mod-generated one.
These items will last for the month. Some may have special rules attached, i.e. the pigeon wand may not summon more than the rolled number of pigeons per day. It also may not summon Passenger. Any extraneous rules will be given upon acquisition; if you make up your own, a good rule of thumb is to not make up items that will give you immortality/a way around plot mechanics easily, and to keep it on the side of silly.
Of course, despite Ydalir’s best efforts, something has set the Black Sun off and he has another game for everyone. One that he’ll be taking much more seriously this time.
This portion of the event will consist of trying to hide from and escape three different entities hunting you down in the forest.
- A very large lichen-covered dragon with many, many legs. (14 or higher)
- A rock-like bear. (12 or higher)
- A giant, mossy frog. (10 or higher)
… and a multitude of small fairies wearing masks with only a single eye painted on. (flip a coin to evade being seen)
To avoid capture, one must roll a die and reach a certain number depending on your encounter(s)- freedom means you can (but are not obliged to) encounter another one of the seekers, up until you are finally caught. Their designated safe rolls are also listed above.
- If you very specifically want your character to be caught by, say, the moss frog — you don’t need to fudge rolls, you can just do it. The rolls exist to give you guys options in case you’re unsure what you want.
Unlike the other three, the fairies are not able to capture you- but they CAN rat you out and sound an alarm to draw one of them to you for capture. However, the fairies can also be bribed with food (honey, flowers, small animals) or sufficiently shiny things. If you wish to bribe a fairy into being your friend, let the mods know! Though… who’s to say how long this will actually last.
Upon capture, player characters will be brought to an enormous tree that seems to be withering. As more players are hooked into the tree, it will begin to drain their life force to reinvigorate itself. The goal of the game is to have at least 10 people free at the end of the game, with victory granting a small boon: every participant will be given a free, small, nonmagical item from home, dropped off via biblically accurate deer courier. If you want to try to free someone from the tree, hash it out with the player in question. If you're unsure or want some randomness to it, hit up a mod! We’ll work with you for a daring rescue. … Or a failed rescue. Depends on the dice.
As a warning, encountering the seekers will include potential mauling, other injuries, and being carried in things’ mouths (Very Gross). Death is only a risk with express player permission, and post-game revival will consist of two things: The first being plantlike scars over the areas where wounds were inflicted — these can either be permanent or impermanent, depending on player, but they will last for at least 24 hours either way. They are non-corrupting and simply meant to scare you. The other is that everyone who dies will be afflicted with 24-hour long total amnesia.
- Remember that deaths caused by a Large Game Event™ do not result in trips to the Garden.
… But, he has always rewarded your survival, and he will continue to do so. As you recover from the lingering effects of Hide and Seek, the entire river will come to a pleasant glow. Investigations will reveal… blinding light that is less pleasant up close!
The river water has always been oddly crisp and clear, but somehow it seems even more so now. Even the most unknowing of people can also tell there is a much wider variety of plant life growing in and around the river, alongside an equally wider variety of animal life.
The lining of the river is also graced with more blessings from the guardians! Alongside the apple tree from Sinann for its initial rescuing and Moder’s blackberry bushes, you can now find a peach tree and an orange tree…
And a durian tree, courtesy of Callan.
… There sure are a lot of small ducks around now, too…
Characters can now unearth more things from their medallion/shell/scale/bone scavenging as well- from the depths of the river and it’s banks, you may now uncover jewelry or old wood or stone toys from a civilization long since passed, or other small items!
And perhaps most importantly, with the river’s growth, Sinnan will undergo some changes itself! It will become much larger (though not quite its true size) — about four feet long now. It will also be able to speak to you guys, without you guys needing a bone ring, hooray! In light of this, it will be bumped up to the Contactable section of NPC contact (along with Callan, because Wolfie forgot to do that last month, rip).

OOC UPDATES:

Wolfie mentioned this in the Discord, but so that it’s on record in a more accessible place: The map is still not updated and I (hi, this is Wolfie) am very sorry about this. The TL;DR is that the program that is used for it is no longer shutting down (yay!) but without Patreon access, the program automatically removes custom-uploaded assets (which the Sticks map has tons of) once the map is loaded. My financial situation is a lot better than it was in summer when the shitstorm of computer/medical bills occurred and this issue will be solved, do not give me money, but unfortunately the OMM team is now having issues syncing up Patreon accounts with client logins. Yes it’s bad, yes I hate the dev team. It will be corrected hopefully this month since I can both afford their Patreon tier and they maybe, probably, will correct their weird issues.
The locations page will continue to be updated in the meantime.
This month and October are double-TDM months because we historically do not run them in Nov-Dec due to the holiday season. TDMs will resume in January!

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Thanks to Beat’s final wish/sacrifice, a small handful of stars have returned to the night sky. They are few in number but shine brightly nonetheless. For the first week of the month, upon seeing the stars, songbirds will sing a non-stop tune to the skies.
A rumbling can be felt beneath the earth as the skeleton of the Sky Guardian starts to regain her willpower to return. The rest of this plot hook will be left up to player action.
Callan’s Corruption has been mostly dealt with. While he is still partly Corrupted, his head is clearer, and he will be able to fulfill his duties as Lake Guardian. This does not mean that he is not still an asshole. He is, in fact, still an asshole.
As is the case with most Guardians, when they are free from their eternal prisons/suffering, they give something special to the Grove. In this case, Callan’s gift… is a month-long torrential downpour. This is what you guys want right? Potential flooding?? Yeah, he knows you do. (He’s pretty sure he’s helping.)
- Even though a normal month-long rainstorm would cause plants to die because Too Much Water, everyone’s plants they’ve worked so hard to raise, as well as their regained buildings and the sort, will be perfectly fine. (Unless you want them to not be fine, then that’s your choice.) In fact, the plants may grow to gargantuan size during the storms — think of Stardew Valley’s giant produce, that’s what we’re going for.
- Plants inside the greenhouse/not exposed to the rains will not be affected by this unnatural growth.
The Burned Town has been cleaned up thanks to Enciodes & a handful of player characters (and Moder)! It will henceforth be called “North Aldric’s Grove”. The map will be updated when Wolfie has a second (as will the locations page, naturally). Players are free to now put buildings in that area thanks to the ground being stable. Enciodes has already installed the Archives/library in there as a treat.
Zahliya has eaten the sun shard he was entrusted with. Thank you Mizuki for the idea. As a result, his ability to cure corruption has been enhanced significantly… and will likely be influenced further by his questline happening later in August.

PLOT UPDATES

Within the Grove, it seems as though furniture is going on strike. Tread cautiously, because even the act of sitting down in a chair or laying in bed may result in you being bucked, rolled or thrown off. Dressers are especially moody, and doors? Oh, they will NOT stop creaking.
Breaking the furniture only makes things worse, so act with caution. Unless you want to play Night of the Living Chairs…
In the end however, all they really want is some TLC. Cleaning, upgrading or repairing the furniture will settle them down. Probably.
Aside from this minor bump in the road, things seem quiet for once. Or, they will, until Suri’s newest gifts to the Grove show up. Every character will receive a small bag of gemstones, each of them randomized ICly — and if you wish to randomize it OOCly, you know the mods will be there for you. Every gemstone has a meaning, a healing effect, or both — but upon contact with the gems, they’ll influence the characters with the opposite meaning. For example, rose quartz is the stone of unconditional love… or, it was. Now? All it brings is hate, and player characters will quickly find themselves under this curse.
- Gem meanings can be found with a quick Google search. We the mods do not have predetermined meanings for you. If you choose to gacha it, we will give you meanings when you gacha, otherwise this is up to your choice.
Discarding the gems only seems to amplify the effects as well, and the curse only seems to worsen as time goes on.
To break the curse, characters must hold the afflicted gemstone and perform a true act of what it embodies. Going back to the rose quartz example, this would mean holding it and performing an act of unconditional love. Anything goes with these acts, so be as creative as you like!
On a truly calmer note, as the skies clear up after the downpour, a few stars now dot the night sky, twinkling in the darkness. This is entirely new after centuries of darkness. A soft rosy joy radiates from the moon, and the night feels peaceful and safe.
Whether you stop by Ydalir’s one night, or Heimr’s as the sun sets, both are quietly emotional and urge you all to spend the night out together, watching the skies. They give you blankets to lay on in the clearing, bring teas and cocoas and dim the few lights that do remain in the Grove. The stars dance in the sky, and you are all here together, for better or for worse.

OOC UPDATES

Remember how Summer was supposed to be chiller? That. Did not happen and Amity is very sorry. Amity promises not to sabotage the next beach episode with Plot. (Wolfie makes no such promises though /s)
The plot for Zahliyaquest is in the post linked above; please do relevant plotting for that event over There, but feel free to mention here if your character will be participating. This is just so that Wolfie has an easier time keeping track of participants, questions, etc etc. Thank u :>
As always, we mods take player feedback, plot suggestions, wishlist items, whatever else, extremely seriously. Feel free to reach out to us with whatever you need! Special thanks to Rubie for the suggestions this month.
If we forgot anything important that happened in July, please let us know so we can edit the post!

sticksandbonesmods

Hello Stickbones, welcome to the plotting post for Zahliyaquest…2! “Wait, what happened in the first Zahliyaquest?” “There was a first one?” Yes, all the way back in [mumblemumble last year], Zahliya’s first appearance was marked by an event spanning over a month, where he kept leaving people creepy DMs from beyond the fog wall while trying to escape it. After being pulled into the Grove by the cast at the time and rescued, a Corrupted Moder attacked the Grove! And was summarily eaten by Mizuki because yeah.

Now everyone is okay again! And now that we have 3 Guardians able to watch over the Grove while Zahliya is gone, he feels comfortable enough to step out in pursuit of something he’s needed for a long time: His own strength.

The goal of this quest is twofold: First is to further arm Zahliya with ~secret cool God swords that won’t break on him~ and convince him of his own strength and power so that his ass stops going “but I’m so normal :/ I’m just a guy :/ I’m not special :/”. The second will influence the rest of the game majorly, and will therefore affect endgame whenever we get there. “When is that Wolfie” no idea just putting it out there.

As for that second point — depending on player actions during this quest, Zahliya will have a personality shift. He can therefore either:

Become more aggressive and more confident. He will be less tolerant of Corruption and Corrupted, less forgiving of people who work with Suri/the False God in the future (starting from the point the quest is officially completed and carrying on from there), and much more likely to act on his desires to protect the people of the Grove. If that means killing the heavily Corrupted if they’re at “the point of no return”, setting the whole forest on (green) fire to burn out the Corruption, slaughtering every monster in sight, or what have you, he will attempt it. This is the option to pick if you want More NPC interaction in plotlines, and the option to pick if you want Zahliya to be the final “say” in the Corruption cure.
- Don’t worry, everyone can still engage in Corruption plotlines and Suri-serving behaviour if this option is chosen! Zahliya can only have so many eyes in so many places; the option to sneak around him and hide from him exists and makes for interesting interactions. I as the mod am not going to metagame your plotlines, I will always ask before I do shit.
Become more passive and less decisive. Zahliya will be more willing to tolerate Corruption and Corrupted only if they exist within the people in the Grove as a whole (monsters and other NPCs do not apply, he is still a Guardian after all). He will become more patient and wait for players to figure out their own battles/cures without stepping in at all, unless asked directly, and will occupy himself with killing Suri’s monster armies in the forest instead of focusing his attention in the Grove as a whole. He will not be sure if this is the correct decision, but is willing to leave important choices in the hands of the players. This is the option to pick if you want Less NPC interaction in plotlines, if you don’t want Zahliya to be the final Corruption cure, or if you want to see the forest passively cleaned of its dangers (off-screen, and fairly slowly).
- Note that if this one is chosen, Zahliya will be moved from a Contactable NPC to Semi-Contactable due to his lack of a presence in the Grove, and he will usually not be found on the roof of the church since he’s out in the woods so much. This also means that the Corruption cure will have to be entirely player-owned.

“Hey Wolfie these options suck” you know where the Discord is, ping me and we can hash out something better. Nothing is set in stone, the things I think are cool might not be cool to you, I was playing Dragon Age when I came up with this you know how it is.

The player actions are both obvious (telling Zahliya to “just kill everyone” will make him more aggressive, for example) and not obvious (surprise!) but I will pulse-check midway through to tell people where we’re at with him before there’s a final verdict.

As for what the log involves, sorry this is so long:

Mod tags (from purifier) will come either a) after everyone involved has tagged in or b) after 24 hours have passed since the last mod tag. This means if you are absent for any reason, the thread WILL move on without you, barring circumstances such as “Wolfie died” or “player requested another day to wait because real life got hands”.
Interaction in this log will be redeemable for MAIN AC, not just Bonus AC like most of our NPC threads.
You will probably find some more sun/moon/star shards. What you do with these is up to you; note that if Zahliya is set on the “aggression” path he will want them by the end of the questline, if they haven’t been turned over to him!
There will be funny little timeline shenanigans happening. Depending on the amount of people who sign up, these will either be interactions in small groups or the larger group as a whole, involving past apparitions of Zahliya at key moments in his life so far. More details will come when the post goes up and we get into the weeds, but this will be primarily where the referenced “character influence” comes in. :)
You will fight something, sorry, I love to write battles. It will be short, theoretically, and probably dramatic.

Sign-ups are below. There is no limit, however please only bring one character per player (so no Sesa and Wolfwood!). Sign-ups for this will close August 2nd, the day the event log is posted.

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES:

The beach is now permanently unlocked! Players may traverse freely between Aldric’s Grove and the seaside at any time via the tipped-over tree, bearing in mind that it’s a 3-day journey. The cabanas can be lived in as well while you’re there. The usual dangers of last month’s log (sirens, leviathans, coconut crabs, high tide) remain.
It’s the hottest point of summer, and temperatures are skyrocketing into the high 90s to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun shines brightly at all hours of the day, even at “night”, where it slightly dips below the horizon line and that’s as much as you get. If you’ve heard of Alaska’s summer solstice causing “two months of daylight”, it’s that.
There is now a tailor shop in the Grove courtesy of Ain, which will pop up about a day or two after everyone returns from the beach. Get your clothes patched up, get something custom-made, whatever you want.
- To avoid making the option to regain entire outfits defunct, requests for full articles through the tailor shop will take an in-game month to complete; if you want something urgently, going through Heimr & Ydalir will be faster (assuming your AC is submitted anyway!). Small requests (stitching up holes, adding embroidery or a patch, whatever) will not be subject to this waiting period.
Enciodes, in tandem with Moder and whoever else has previously volunteered to help, is working on restoring the burned town to a less burned state. While this isn’t completed yet, it will soon be safe to traverse and inhabitable within the coming months.
Mizuki and Livio have contributed to Callan’s corruption cure. At the time of writing, he isn’t quite fixed… but y’all are about 3.5 Guardians saved game-wide right now. The tide turns in your favour.
- The Sky Guardian and Sehul remain dead… for now.

PLOT UPDATES:

At the beginning of July, Moder will have solved the issue with the fog wall and the Creature trapping you all on the beach. The fog wall has yet again been parted like the Red Sea over the cliffside and stretching to the lighthouse, and the tipped-over tree that’s bound with vines is now safe to traverse. Everyone can now go back home! Or they can live at the beach forever, we suppose. The Capybus will reappear briefly to bring everyone back and shorten the usual travel time.
With everything back to normal, life continues as usual… for a period of about two weeks, until the Creature wakes up from its nap and everyone hears a voice in their heads saying, ”Huh… you guys are back already?” and after a string of more complaints about how you all smell like nasty seawater and sand, the world will shift, and suddenly everyone will be underwater in a sea base. A much larger one than that image shows, but a sea base nonetheless. Yes, this is Subnautica. We are aware of the copyright lawsuits in our inbox and we are ignoring them.
The sea base will include food enough for the two weeks you’ll be stuck here (rationed out — so big eaters might need to slow down to ensure survival), uncomfortable beds to sleep on, a handful of indoor planter boxes, and other supplies for survival — equipment to explore the ocean with and the sort. For this event, sea pressure will not be something you have to worry about, you will not be squashed to death while underwater. What you will have to worry about is all of the leviathans and other vicious wildlife that wants to eat you… some of which will happily attack the underwater base in an attempt to get to you.
The goal of this event is simply to survive for two weeks by whatever means characters see fit, whether that means trying to swim back to shore, hanging out in the base and never leaving, or going out to kill the leviathans that attack. The Creature considers this another “game” even though he’s too creeped out by the sea life to check in, and your reward will be another slight area expansion: The Lake will be an accessible location by the end of the month when you all are (yet again) freed from the sea. For those of you who’ve kept up with Callan’s saga, you know this either means something extremely good or extremely bad. :)

OOC UPDATES:

We are Aware that FF14 Dawntrail launches uh (checks notes) tomorrow. For those of you playing: Have fun, mark your spoilers if you talk in the Discord about it… we do expect some slowness while people are gaming so don’t feel rushed with the plot this month, enjoy games as well.
- We have a dedicated thread in the hyperfix channel (the first one) for Dawntrail spoilers. Please review the pinned rules before posting to avoid potentially spoiling anyone who wanders in.
We are currently holding a building in reserve for Enciodes: the archives/library, which will be going in the Burned Town when that’s finished being cleaned up. We make this note so that players don’t try to regain that exact thing since this is Rubie’s specific quest/goal, since we hate saying “no, pick something else” to you guys.
- That said, if other players would like to put a building in reserve, as long as it’s redeemed within a handful of months, we don’t mind working with you.
Starting in August, we will have some plot-heavier months and be going back into the thick of it. There will of course be lulls in between to avoid player burnout. There will also be a side plotline launching in August, which will involve Zahliya. More information will be available as the details are hashed out, but know this will involve limited sign-ups as is the nature of many of our sidequests. If player interest for this is through the roof, however, we will find a solution to make sure everyone can play. :)

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES:

Summer has arrived! It’s sweltering, the sun is shining brightly, and the flowers are in full bloom. Sometimes, biblically accurate bees bumble from flower to flower. They aren’t dangerous, they are important to the ecosystem, please treat them with respect.
Passenger built a cafe. It’s called the Magic Lamp, and it lies south of the therapy building with a riverside view on the deck. When he isn’t attending to it, the spirit of a capitalist can be seen running it. Like with the ghost in Luca’s bar, this one also isn’t capable of communication with you, but understands basic commands (and also begs for tips).
Elsword’s house is gone! Goodbye house! The eyeball lemon trees he planted remain.
SilverAsh is cleaning up the burned town. In a month or two, perhaps it’ll be stable enough to walk on without risking falling into a sinkhole? We’ll see. :)
Callan remains Corrupted, but some progress has been made to fixing him! Hm hmmm.
The Moon Seance (Seeyonce if you want to have a verbal tic for the next week you’re welcome) went well? Or perhaps saying it simply “went” is more accurate. Characters involved have learnt about Ourania, her condition, and how to get home. A short summary lives in the first two comments on this thread. The actual conversation that was threaded out is this way, if you’d like to peruse more.
Mizuki also made friends with the Cosmic Serpent that lives in the whirlpool in the sea, with Sesa as his cohort in this. The Serpent is in possession of a sun artifact from Terra now. Time will tell what this means, if anything.
Affogato has named the Fallen Sun/False God/Creature “Śuri”... time will tell what this means :). This information is not ICly known unless Affogato chooses to share it with the class, which means Zahliya and Nene don’t know, which means Affogato is spared being strangled by two shorties… for now.

PLOT UPDATES:

Run.
…aka we’re going to the beach! The overall map has been updated accordingly — the three new maps for this event are at the bottom of the usual gallery. How we get there is very silly, but know that it involves Moder permanently altering some of the trees with her forest magic to create a permanent (safe) pathway down that isn’t near the Lighthouse where the Danger is.
Unfortunately, the Creature, who is not fond of the ocean, is now tired of y’all and is trapping you down there with its magic. Stay on the beach and go play in your water you’re all weird ewww — yes, Moder will also be stuck on the beach with you. It will take her the month to break through the Creature’s magic to put you all back, but after this, the beach will be permanently accessible.
Other NPCs will be stuck with you — this will include the usual crop of contactable NPCs. Sinann, Callan, and the Behemoth will not be with you, Sinann is a freshwater Guardian you see. That said, if you harass the Cosmic Serpent enough, they might wake up from slumber to ask you wtf you want and babysit you. Heimr and Ydalir’s regular facilities will be accessible — Ydalir’s tent and giant turtle will be the same as always, and Heimr will be set up with his own beachfront store in an old building that looks like it needs some cleaning up. You can help him with this for dad’s love points.
Heimr will provide everyone one (1) swimsuit and one (1) beach outfit in either surfer or boho style, your choice, for free upon arrival.
As for places to live, fret not: Through a low cave filled with corals and glowing crystals is a pier where cute cabanas are set up for you to live in. There are a limited amount of these, so you might have to room with someone. Each has an attached kitchen and bathroom like the picture so that you guys don’t smell like seawater all month and can, y’know, eat food.
The ocean cave will flood with the high tide at night, so unless you can breathe underwater, traversing the cave isn’t recommended. Better get to bed before it floods! Or don’t, we’re not your parents.
This is going to be a “do whatever you want” beach event, please do whatever you want. Climb things, walk to the lighthouse, throw coconuts at each other, again we aren’t your parents.
Yes, there are horrible Subnautica creatures here. More info to come. You theoretically won’t be attacked by the Sticks version of a reaper leviathan… yet.
Next month will have more ocean surprises, stay tuned. :)

OOC UPDATES:

Happy summer! As stated in prior plotting posts, summer is going to involve fun but theoretically low-stress events. You are welcome to shift the plot around while you’re here despite the fact we the mods consider these events plot-light. We’re here for whatever crimes you commit.
Unhappy summer: The program Wolfie uses to make the maps is shutting down in a couple months, meaning future map updates past… July? August? Who even knows anymore man— may be much slower, which says a lot because they’re already pretty darn slow. Wolfie will be learning how to make maps in RPGMaker to compensate because if we don’t have the coolest map in DWRP, Wolfie will blow up. Thank you for coming (if there are easier programs to use please drop Wolfie a DM she’s trying her best).
As always if we forgot something in the plotting post, please let us know so we can edit!

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Kiera built us a barn. It lives in the north of the Grove, Wolfie will update the map when Wolfie has a second. You can house livestock here, as well as catch random biblically accurate animals and stuff them in here. Since the barn is owned by Kiera/Weasel, please ask Weasel’s permission before you start stuffing your own animals in there, unless Weasel wants to give blanket permission. Do not assume, do communicate, etc.
Heimr’s human now! Or human enough. He’s not sure. The name “Aldric” when referring to him is no longer garbled, but it’s also just not who he is anymore.
The Alpha Mart is gone, and the doors are unscrambled. Mr. Bone-Jangles returns to his cryptid status of only showing up during mod-mandated silly time. We miss you every day king.
? ? ? That’s it, we had a chill month last month and no one broke the setting. If we forgot something though… you know where we’re at, we’re happy to edit.

PLOT UPDATES

Spring is in its heights and flowers are blooming everywhere! Butterflies and bees are everywhere, plantimals have stared sprouting accommodating flowers if they haven’t already, and those who are Corrupted may find their flowers seem more vibrant and lively without their suffering.
The fruit trees and bushes seem more full of life as well, and relatedly, Rusty is taking it upon himself to bring residents of the grove baskets of fruits and berries… though you might have to keep him from eating the spoils of his harvest.
But it’s not Aldric’s Grove without something going… wrong. And come nightfall, every night, a shimmering purple mist wafts into the town. Though it doesn’t come into any buildings, looking at it makes you want to step into it, and stepping into it grants you a lovely vision- a perfect daydream, even! Where everything is as it should be.
In reality, as you move through the dream, you will be waltzing right into danger, only to be pulled from the brink of an imminent death at the last minute, with the dream fading. Maybe a Guardian saved you, or maybe you just managed to avoid stepping into Callan’s lake, but a death you would have happily walked into is only narrowly avoided.
The worst part is, with every venture into the mist, the stronger its pull the next night is. Good luck!
You’ve asked, and we’re answering: this month you’ll have prom! Not that… any of the natives know what Prom is. As what should be the equinox approaches, one night a friendly spirit will enter the grove to escort everyone to a secondary location. Fancy outfits, fresh food, a fountain, and even a dance floor under the most beautiful moonlight will be waiting. We assume you’re going to pick your own prom dates, but if you’re feeling unhinged, matchmaking services are available by pinging us in the mod discord.
If you play hankey pankey at Prom, you will be physically thrown out of the venue by a bunch of spirits. Do not do the horizontal tango on the dance floor, take that to the woods or your houses. Points at our eyes points at yours.
This month also doubles as a TDM month which means ? ? ? TDMers get Prom, congrats!

OOC UPDATES

We still have plothooks waiting for pickup!
As a reminder, summer is going to be full of fairly lowkey months save for player-initiated developments.

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES:

A lot happened last month didn’t it (it was Wolfie’s fault) the mod team will not apologise for emotional damages caused by Wolfwood’s death. :)
Moder gave everyone a giant lore drop on the family meeting. If you missed it and want to read her explanation, it’s there. Otherwise, Amity has written a nice recap on this post. That post contains plot hooks that players or the mods have brought up in the past; we are looking for feedback on where to progress from here. If anything strikes you in particular and you haven’t commented, please drop us a line.
With this month complete, it means that all of the Guardians have been discovered, and you have all of their names (minus the Sky Guardian, whose name is lost to time) and Zahliya’s “true” name. That said, Callan is corrupted, Sinann is still too weak to do much, & Sehul and the Sky Guardian are long-dead. You can fix some of this. Or you can ignore this. It’s up to y’all.
Over the course of the month, several characters have influenced the setting significantly:
- Mizuki has placed tiny baby Seaborn in the river. They are not hostile and will not attack anybody (they are babies), but will glow and blorp along through the water. They are under Sinann’s protection. You can feed them if you want. They will eventually grow to match their environment. At any point if the baby Seaborn are threatened, they will cause Nethersea Brand to spread across the river, which is a fun way to say you will be afflicted with temporary paralysis if you touch it. Try not to threaten the babies, they will probably cry.
- Beat & Joshua fixed Beiwe’s statue that was in the Burned Town; with Felicity’s help, they have put it in the middle of the Grove proper, near the well. When prayed to, the surrounding area feels warm for a few seconds before disappearing.
- Beat & several others have planted sunflowers tied with gold ribbons around the Grove. They are strangely immune to weather effects and damage thanks to Ydalir’s magic. These will *video game voice* increase the passive strength of Beiwe in the Grove.
- Vash discovered Ourania’s statue carved into the cliffside underneath the lighthouse; these locations remain inaccessible for now, but she has been cleaned off and is now free of seaside debris. With his return to the Grove, there is now an additional grave next to the Church containing the body of his twin brother. Please do not dig up Millions Knives.
- Vash has also commissioned another statue of Ourania to be created, which now lives near Beiwe’s. They bracket either side of the well.
- A lighthouse and its keeper have been discovered. Unfortunately the lighthouse is now inaccessible, and the keeper is very much a corrupted person who will try to murder anyone who goes in. Vash had a rough month y'all.
Flowers continue to bloom throughout the Grove. Part of this is due to Moder walking everywhere and making flowers bloom in her hoofsteps. Part of this is due to the blood fertilizing the soil. Don’t worry about that last bit, simply thank yourselves for bleeding all over the ground when the Grove was attacked. :)

PLOT UPDATES:

It’s April Fool’s ~~Day~~ Month. Shenanigans are afoot. Yet again, magic in the Grove is going haywire, but not in the way you think. This time, doors, windows, and other entryways are starting to lead to different places than they ordinarily would. For example: You open the front doors to the inn, but instead of being in the lobby, you’re now in the bathhouse. You open the bathhouse door and you’ve been teleported to the General Store. When you try to exit the General Store, you’ve somehow ended up in Pure Vanilla’s bedroom. Things like that will happen to every door and window, creating a confusing loop. Have fun trying to get back to your room, or to the clinic, or anywhere at all.
The only safety from this will be staying outside, where there are no doorways.
Eventually, one of these doors will lead to a very special secret location only accessible during this event: The Alpha Mart. aka Omega Mart under a different name. “Mods what the hell is that” we’re glad you asked!
Omega Mart is an exhibit at Las Vegas' Meow Wolf, and if you've never been to a Meow Wolf please go to one some day. Anyway, that's not what you're here for. You're here for Alpha Mart, which is the same thing but renamed so we don't get shut down by hbomberguy. Essentially, it's a giant grocery store which sells bizarre products (100% salt peanuts, fruit with eyes or mouths, lunchmeats with your faces printed on them, blah blah blah). Some displays might clip out of reality, but don't worry about it.
All of these products are free, probably? edible, probably? won’t kill you, but unfortunately cannot be taken back to the Grove with you if you manage to find your way out. None of the Guardians save Zahliya will be able to follow you in here due to the way this space operates (aka it’s too small for Moder, do not summon Moder into Alpha Mart).
You can go into the fridges and walk through an infinite space of sodas, find a slide made of dish detergent that shoots you into a pool of chocolate… you know, weird things like that. We as the mods are giving you the power to make up anything you want to include in the Alpha Mart no matter how odd or nonsensical. You do not have to ask us if these silly items or scenes exist within the Alpha Mart — have fun with it!
Doors within the Alpha Mart itself lead where they’re supposed to go to, strangely. The exit door, when you find it, will take you back to the Grove, and then you’re back to door hell.
That’s it that’s the event, the doors don’t work and there’s a weird grocery store.

OOC UPDATES:

THE GAME IS A YEAR OLD HAPPY BIRTHDAY STICKS & BONES!!!
A tag on the main comm has been added: “!fammeet”. Please use this for future family meetings.
NPC Contact has been updated with “Semi-Contactable” NPCs: Sinann, Callan, The Behemoth, and Plum. Sinann requires the bone ring to talk to due to its strength being lesser than the other Guardians, therefore it can’t auto-translate language in your head like Moder or Callan. Callan will refuse to entertain conversation, but if for some reason you wanted to try, there is a slim chance he might allow this. The Behemoth and Plum also require a bone ring to speak to as they are respectively an animal and a spirit.
Additional NPCs have been added to the “Uncontactable”/lore reference section: Beiwe, Ourania, the Sky Guardian, the Cosmic Serpent, and Sehul.
The blurb for “The Forest” has been updated on NPC Contact to elaborate on its true nature as the Fallen Sun/False God.
Pronouns have been added at the beginning of each NPC blurb.
People were requesting rock gacha… so we have implemented rock gacha. Simply put, if y’all want rocks that badly, please pay one (1) BAC thread to Ydalir and she will give you a random set of three (3) rocks. The mods will essentially roll a d100. If you get a 100 on the d100 you can have one (1) magical rock from a random player canon, meaning you could get moonstones from Earthbread or moonstones from Elrios or… I’m sure someone’s canon has moonstones also. Otherwise you get a normal rock. “Hey mods why” you ask we give.
Heading into summer, the mod team is going to give you guys “intermission” type events with less of a heavy plot focus. We’re putting this note down early as a heads-up; this is so that the mod team can recalibrate toward certain desired plotlines, and also have something of a brain break. This does not mean we are stopping plot progression entirely, or stopping investigations; we more mean that summer events are going to be structured a bit more like March’s was, where it was more of a “do whatever you want have fun exploring” month. Not that every month isn’t like that, but you know what we mean (we hope).

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 :/

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Wolfwood built us a church. We know you all know because every single one of our characters have made it their personal mission to annoy the man within his own place of worship, but y’know. Zahliya, who is a Gargoyle, will now be stationed on the church roof at all times. Goodbye inn roof he’s moving out.
Elsword has planted lemon trees near his house at the riverbank. They will spring up this month. They have eyeballs on the fruits, because lemons in this canon are just like this. Please partake of the eyeball lemons, thank you.
The fog is going to continue to roll in until it’s back to being the oppressive wall surrounding the Grove that it started as. With it, more monsters will reawaken, though they’re no longer actively out for blood upon entry to the woods. Unless they’re hungry. That’s just hunting though, nothing personal.
Speaking of hunting, remember the little guys from the wish festival? They’re back and breaking into anywhere warm because while the chill should keep them asleep, the forest is waking up and they don’t want to be hunted. And the warmest place? Why, your homes, of course! Characters will be able to engage with the benign plantanimals permanently! Though… with how these guys break into rooms and steal beds and nestle in closets and drawers, they may not have a choice.

PLOT UPDATES

Upon touching another resident of the Grove, characters will find themselves in a space representing both of their hearts. Core memories, emotional states given symbolic form, meaningful items, you name it! The two sections conjoined into one are able to be explored by the two, with the ability to even interact with the space around…
At a cost. Should either of them break something within the heart space, memories related to that something will grow hazy and fade. If you aren’t able to fix it, it will be a permanent loss.
What would cause someone to break anything in there, anyways? Well, maybe you’re just a clutz. Maybe you have strong cat instincts. Or maybe when you touch an item representing a core memory, that core memory plays... There’s a lot of bad ones out there, after all.
(Fixing it is flexible, get creative! Unless you want it to stay gone.)
Meanwhile, Ydalir is handing out candy, some of which is heart shaped, to the residents! This surely has no backfir- oh wait no, no, everyone who partakes is going to feel immensely cuddly, possibly with no reservation as to who they cuddle up to. A warm and fluffy feeling towards their fellow residents will reside in their heart, encouraging affection. Whoops! Turns out mixing magic with creating will turn things into potions.

HEIMR QUEST

Mid-month, an event regarding our shopkeeper, Heimr, will go live! Much like the above event, this will involve matters of the heart on a very metaphysical level. Characters with a positive relationship with Heimr will be brought into Heimr’s heart, with OOC sign ups below.
Though they’ll be split up a little, the goal will be the same across the board: you must help Heimr come to terms with his guilt and the loss of his human identity of Aldric, and guide him to the final steps of embracing “Heimr” without forsaking Aldric’s legacy- this can mean his children, the good he did in the past, or something else!
Upon finishing this event, Heimr will regain a human form, though it will not be the same as Aldric. Though there may be similarities, Heimr and Aldric cannot be one and the same- that is the cost of giving up “Alrdic” to begin with, after all.
“Quest” events function as optional, player-controlled “choose your own adventure (with mod guidance)” type events, usually in a massive group thread and coordinated offline in the discord. They look a bit like this. At this time, signups are not limited to any certain number of characters since we are a small game, but we do have some caveats:
- You can only play ONE character during this event (so Mizuki and N cannot both go)
- As stated, only characters with existing positive CR with Heimr can go; this can range from “we had one nice conversation once” to “literally cried on the man and he’s my dad now”. If signups are non-existent, we will likely waive this requirement.
- Some amount of activity is necessary; we aren’t asking you to tag 18 times a day, but we are asking you to check in at least once every 3-4 days if possible, since this is a plot-important event.
Mod tags will only come after all involved characters have tagged in once, players have said “no skip me”, or 24 hours have passed. That said, there isn’t necessarily a tag order unless the players involved want one. We fully embrace chaos.
If you want to sign up but don’t yet have positive CR with Heimr/have never spoken to the guy in your life, feel free to head to the NPC Contact page and request a thread — last-minute CR absolutely counts.

OOC UPDATES

The school & rec center are now considered “unowned” buildings. They will operate normally despite this. Players are free to take IC control of these locations without sacrificing their spot for owning a building, just yell somewhere that you want to take over.
In light of the fact that we have Church and Church (Catholic), the ruined church in the woods will be noted as “ruined church” on the locations page, and the new church will just be “church” from here on.

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.

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outofsticks

Entries tagged with !plotting

OOC PLOTTING: Once upon a dream...

OOC PLOTTING: IT'S SUMMER! I'VE GOT MY HAT ON BACKWARDS AND IT'S TIME TO FUCKIN PARTY

OOC PLOTTING: YET ANOTHER CEASE & DESIST IN THE MOD TEAM'S INBOX

OOC PLOTTING: MONSTER MASH (GRAVEYARD SMASH??)

OOC PLOTTING: MR BONE-JANGLES 2 - LOST IN NEW YORK

OOC PLOTTING: don't step on snek

OOC PLOTTING: RUBIE IS WRITING THIS ONE /SRS

January Plotting: Bitter Winds Howling

OOC PLOTTING: it crimmus, merry chrysler

OOC PLOTTING: Like Branches on a Tree

OOC PLOTTING: IT'S US

OOC PLOTTING: A CREEPING FURY SETTING IN

OOC PLOTTING: BUY MORE CRYSTALS

OOC PLOTTING: Gee Zahliya, how come your mom lets you have TWO quests?

JULY PLOTTING: HBOMBERGUY HAS RELEASED A VIDEO ESSAY ON US

JUNE PLOTTING: LET'S GO TO THE BEACH, BEACH

OOC PLOTTING: IT'S GONNA BE MAY

OOC PLOTTING: LIFE HAS MANY DOORS, ED-BOY

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

FEBRUARY PLOTTING: RULER OF MY HEART

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