voidtreckermods: (voidtrain)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] voidtreckerooc2022-03-08 05:55 am

Mission: Swirling Consequences

MISSION 17: OOC DETAILS

It's that time again. Mission begins 13th March (7 Quicksand) and lasts until the 26th. There will be a start log on the 13th, and then Ongoing on the 21st (11 Quicksand). A conclusion post will go up on the 26th March.

But before we get into the mission itself, we do need to address a change being made.

!! PLEASE READ !! NOTE: A NEW MISSION SYSTEM.

ABOUT ¤ As you saw above, there is no finale post mentioned. That's because we're testing out a new system, where we will be putting more emphasis on the completion of team goals deciding a mission's outcome without a big boss battle. We want to reward people's efforts for threading, and to give more breathing room to do tasks. This is not planned to completely take over our normal mission system, but if it works we will look into using both, depending on which one works best for the plot of the mission we have planned.

MORE OBJECTIVES ¤ Since we're trying something new, we will be keeping this mission simple, with no escalation on our parts - promise! There will be additional choices to choose between from team objectives (a maximum of three), to hopefully give more for characters to pick from. If your character has the idea to do something not listed but that's helpful, let us know - we will be calculating what's being done and what isn't to decide the mission's outcome.

As such, during Ongoing, we will give an idea of areas that are getting better, but what might be lacking. So most objectives will carry over, but we may throw in a few more.

PROOF ¤ We will have a post where people can let us know what tasks their characters are focusing on, or have worked towards.

This is what we're looking for:
  • A check-in that tells us what your character focused on during Starting and Ongoing. No links required.
  • Link to all threads done, who with and which task(s). Any length is fine, but threads with five comments is perfect! If you don't have a thread for a task your character would have done, just note it down.
10 comment threads are for mission rewards only!

Some tasks will have a higher priority over others, and it will usually depend on the mission and objectives which will be more important.

REWARDS ¤ Characters will still only receive points for threads with 10 comments total. We hope the new list of objectives will give people better ideas of what Team Colour the task they're doing falls under. (We also want to properly reward the cooks and healers for their jobs!)

Thanks for reading the above. You can leave us any questions below, but for now - click below for your mission of Quicksand!


MINISTRY MESSAGE ~ TEAM OBJECTIVES ~ LOCATION INFORMATION ~ OTHER DETAILS
ASK QUESTIONS ~ SHENANIGANS ~ TEAM PLOTTING ~ MISSION TASKS/REWARDS






SUMMARY: On the 7th of Quicksand, the Voidtrecker Express shares a message from Commander Orlaith from the Void Ministry. They commend the Voidtreckers for working to help each other, but also bring unfortunate news: the train's attempts to send everyone home resulted in void ripples. These have brought trouble to other systems, causing voidtears and bad dreams, and most symptoms from being exposed to the void.

They ask for the Voidtreckers to take on a mission to one such location, and ask them not to cause any trouble. This message ends, and the train assumes passengers will agree, and so pass on the mission details.

Click for full version.


On day 7 of Quicksand, the train makes an announcement.

Attention voidtreckers and passengers of the Voidtrecker Express. Please give your attention to the following message from the void ministry.

[A blurring of the screen and it fades into a video of an elderly woman, skin a swirl of purple and blue sat behind a dark wooden desk, hands folded neatly in front of her.]

Greetings crew of the Voidtrecker Express. I am commander Orlaith of the void ministry. As you will be very aware, you were recently involved in a dangerous and somewhat foolish experiment of the tethering system, which we assume was initiated by your voidcraft. We received your call for emergency assistance and were able to stabilise your craft enough to allow it to focus on ensuring crew safety. We are under the understanding that it was a crew member who used the emergency signal given by the Inspection Arm of the ministry, and that member should be commended. So too should you all; we have reports that the crew of the Voidtrecker Express took part in a risky and difficult anchoring task to ensure the safety of all. As ever, the crew of the Voidtrecker Express exceed expectations for a crew with no formal training.

However, in less positive news, the actions of your voidcraft have had a rippling effect throughout the void. Worlds that are non-void active have reports of seeing void activity in their skies, with residents reporting dreams and uneasy feelings. In void active worlds, there are more serious incidents. We have voidcrews in thousands of systems working towards stabilising these void access points.

We understand that after such an ordeal, your crew may be exhausted. However, we do need your help. System #5739 is a hub world that is extremely void active, and is used to weathering void storms and the barrier between the world and the void is thin. However, it is currently experiencing an unprecedented amount of void activity and world bleeding effects. We need a team to go in and help the citizens there, clearing out any issues and helping to stabilise things from within.

The people there know about the void, and are used to void travellers. However, try not to stir up any extra trouble. [The last sounds almost exhausted. Their reputation may precede them.

The video ends.]


I assume no one has any objections as voidtreckers have chosen to work with the Void Ministry. Please see your mission briefs.

[Their SCAs then glow with the colours of the void...]



System hub #5739. Known to its local population by the common name of ‘earth’. This world is prone to void storms, bringing creatures and peoples from many lands to it and taking others away again.

You will be dropped in the Yelling Heights at the foot of a mountain called Ciyesia. Those who have been on board since the month of Apple will recognise this world from the training mission that month. This will be your base for the mission though some tasks may take you further afield. We have received a lot of tasks from the Void Ministry and you will find them listed below.

Red Team
    1. Hunt down and take out voidblobs.
    2. Set up safe perimeters around communities.
    3. Locate and close up voidtears.
Orange Team
    1. Search and collect the herbs listed below and help to craft potions as needed to be distributed among local people.
    2. Help farmers locate and secure their herds, seeing to the safe delivery of any young and the general health of the animals.
    3. Help dralites and their young by helping dralites nest, and ensuring the safety of any abandoned eggs.
Blue Team
    1. Find people and communities in need and help deliver aid to those who are cut off because of landslides.
    2. Seek out any people who are displaced from other worlds. Try and find a location for them to gather.
    3. Help escort dralite chicks back to their nests or out of danger zones.
Purple Team
    1. Help protect travelling civilians and other team members.
    2. Help to move debris in communities and along paths, ensuring safe roads and access points.
    3. Help clear the farm lands of horned goats and giant chinchillas, driving them back into the forests.
All Teams
    1. Help to send displaced people home.
    2. Help in the closing of voidtears.
    3. Provide care to one another through medical help and distributing food, and emotionally.
Notes. A map has been included with early known information to be studied before arrival. Updates will be made as more data comes in. Information on healing voidtears has been included.

The luggage carriage will be opened with earbuds, tents, camping stoves, and climbing equipment. There are reports of regular storms, so please take your weather-protective clothing.


DEALING WITH VOIDTEARS: (Click to open details) Voidtears are a phenomenon that occur where the void can be seen through 'tears' in reality, usually appearing in areas exposed to regular void travel or with large clusters of living populations come together. If no other equipment is available, a void missionary may use the anchor function on their SCA, but must take extreme caution in doing so.

When they find a spot where the tear is the most exposed, they should press the anchor option on their SCA and keep it pressed down. From there, their SCA will start to mend a tear by using the wearer's own energy in the process. For this reason, it is highly recommended for there to be more than one person participating in this, for a rotation to be taking place, and for breaks to be taken to help close the tear. Those who do this will be exposed to the usual side-effects connected to the void.


➜ LANDSCAPE, SETTING.

SUMMARY: Voidtreckers will start off near the base of a mountain, before a forest that climbs some way up it. There will be an inn they can stop at and use as a base of operations initially, but not everyone will be able to stay close. The forest is where the dralites live, and where most of Blue and Oranges tasks will take them, including up into the scrublands. A lot of the land has suffered landslides, and even the lower plains have ruined roads, since most of it is hilly terrain.

Purple and Red's tasks will spread them out more (especially with Purple acting as guards), but will mainly lead them into the lower plains, towards the farmsteads.

Click for full version.

  • The STARTING POINT is at the foot of a large mountain and a thick spread of forest that climbs its lower half. This mountain is called Ciyesia, the travelling point of the original mission. At its base is an inn called The Weary Wanderer, ran by a woman named Albany and her two small children, Maia and Enero. This is a typical fantasy-style inn, though notable are the anachronisms: some of the candles are battery powered, and there is a coffee machine behind the bar. She will do her best to house and feed anyone who need it, and letting her inn act as a base for voidtreckers to plan in.

  • CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN will start with the FOREST. There are clearly defined paths and some more overgrown routes. Most of the trees are tall and large, making the forest floor quite dark and shaded. Wildlife is what you might expect from high up in a place with a generally warm climate. As the paths wind higher the trees give way to SCRUBLAND. Grazing animals are seen a plenty- goats, sheep and antelope primarily. There are a few streams running down the mountain, a couple of large ones near the farmer tracks.

  • Nearer the TOP OF CIYESIA, the air gets thinner, nowhere bad enough to be dangerous, but enough to give pause to those not used to such altitudes. The final approach is rougher, paths become less defined until it becomes a crag. The last hundred meters is a climb whichever route you take.

  • The FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN is by no means in the low lands. It is primarily surrounded by the forest, though there are a couple of roads and tracks leading down through the hills, as well as a railway. It is about half a days walk to the next inhabited area, a cluster of farmsteads where the forest gives way to fields, and beyond that is a small town. Indeed, one of the challenges of this area is that there are no major population centres, people are spread out and harder to protect.

  • UP OR DOWN, it is clear that this world is one that exists in close proximity to the void. Streaks of colours show through the clouds and in the sky, often just thin ribbons but wider in parts. During their time on the world, there will be storms in the sky, crashes of thunder and the choral singing often heard on the train. Being outside during the storms will feel uneasy and lead to vivid dreams and restlessness. Sometimes the earth itself seems to move, rumblings and earth quakes. Landslides have meant that communities are cut off from each other.




  • ➜ FAUNA.

    SUMMARY: The dralites are bat-birds with a screech that can floor most people and disorient them (adults) or stun them temporarily (chicks). There will eggs to find, and also nests to fix up and to take the dralites back to. The adults will also need to be calmed, by finding their young.

    The main antagonist creatures are monkeys, horn-crowned goats, great chinchillas, and voidblobs. All of these are native except the latter. Monkeys are mainly pests that try to steal and mess around, horn-crowned goats are temperamental and will attempt to knock you over. Great chinchillas are dangerous, capable of leaps of 12 feet and with sharp claws, and hunt in packs.

    Voidblobs are the most dangerous, and unpredictable. A fusion of creatures, they move like "blobs" and rampage and destroy whatever's in their way. They don't react to pain, and will only stop once they're dead.

    Click for full version.


  • DRALITE: As chicks, they are about the size of a beachball. However, it soon becomes apparent that they are predominantly made of wings. Unfurled, the creature is tiny with massive wings, spanning a meter long each. They cannot yet fly, and their movement is severely hampered by their disproportionate wing size. They will happily cling to any friendly creatures- often wrapping their wings around their face.

    Adult dralite are about the size of a sheep with large wings and large claws. They are territorial, but not overtly hostile unless provoked.

    Dralite have a screech that will floor most creatures, knocking them down disoriented. As chicks their screech will stun, giving them time to escape from danger. Usually these live predominantly in the forests and summit of mount Ciyesia but the current storms have clashed with this worlds equivalent of spring and led to chaos. Tiny chicks have been scared from their nests, adult dralite roam looking for them. Some chicks have not yet hatched and are in danger from predators. Other dralites have not yet laid their eggs and have been chased from their nests.

  • MONKEYS: In the forest there are many creatures but the ones to be concerned about are the monkeys. They aren’t violent but they are mischievous and hold little fear of anything. They will throw rocks or try and take off with anything they can pilfer.

  • HORN-CROWNED GOATS: In the scrublands there are plenty of goats, sheep and antelope but one breed of goats stands out. Instead of regular horns, they have a crown of bone spikes and if you are close enough to see that then they are probably already charging at you. They are bad tempered and will attack practically on sight. They are always trouble but the voidstorms have made them even more trouble.

  • GREAT CHINCHILLAS: Soft, very fluffy and the size of a Yorkshire Terrier. Unlike the earth-based species you know these creatures are predators. They can jump distances of ten to twelve feet, their teeth are sharp and they hunt in packs. They plague the farmer tracks and feed off any lambs and kids that they can cut off from the herds. If you get close to one you will see dark ripples in their fur, dark shadows that seem to be coming from within the creatures themselves.

  • VOIDBLOBS: These, anyone will tell them, are new. Coming through with the storms. Whereas some creatures end up in the void hub from elsewhere well and fine these creatures… have not. Often two or three beasts fused together, thick veins of colour running through them these creatures are feral. They don’t hunt so much as rampage. They attack people and animals, tear up crops and barrel through buildings. Notably they kill just to kill, they seem to have no interest in eating any of the creatures or indeed plants that they wreck. Taking them down is difficult, not because they are unkillable but because they will not stop until they are dead, injury doesn’t seem to phase them.

  • As well as the above there are a range of ordinary creatures. Most the farmers here rear goats and sheep as they are best suited to the scrublands and mountains.




  • ➜ FLORA.

    SUMMARY: There are three plants of interest, mainly found around the forest and scrublands. The Purple Star is a leaf found in certain trees that's used for poison healing; the Fruit Cup is a flower found amongst a sticky, vine-y mess; and the craggle leaf are dock leaf-like plants with a brother that looks near-exactly the same. The difference is, one helps with anxiety and stress, the other gives you itchy, painful rashes.

    Click for full version.As well as a range of trees and plants suited to the warm climate there are three plants of interest.

  • THE PURPLE STAR: A star shaped leaf with purple veins. A poultice of this leaf will draw out even the most potent poison from a wound. The trees are tall with very few branches until their very tops and so the hardest art of gathering Purple Stars is reaching them.

  • FRUIT CUP: Not a fruit at all but an orange cup shaped flower. A potion made of Fruit Cups will heal all but the most serious of wounds. Unfortunately these grow alongside a plant known as the spider bush, named for it’s vine like leaves whose sticky sap is reminiscent of a spider web.

    Spider bushes are not dangerous by themselves, but getting caught in one is to become hapless prey for any hungry creature that comes across you.

  • CRAGGLE LEAF: Found in the scrublands, they're an inconspicuous plant that only stand out by their wrinkly leafs, otherwise looking like dock leaves. One must be careful not to confuse them for their brother-plant, the only difference being a black outline to the leaves. One helps with soothing anxiety, the other gives anyone a rash that touches it.




  • ➜ PEOPLE.

    In general, the people in this area of the void hub are farmers and those who work the land. There are also adventurers- people from further afield who travel to Ciyesia to prove themselves. Those who are around will muck in, helping to protect people and animals.

    Though it is a very rural area the people are used to visitors both from their own world and also the void. They are friendly and hardworking, will appreciate any help and generally have a positive attitude towards the storms. After all these happen a lot, they will happily use an extra pair of hands or two.




    ➜ PACING, VOIDTEARS. As the areas are largely spread out, we aren't expecting characters to be able to touch on everything at once. In particular, dealing with the voidtears and sending displaced people home are more likely to happen around the time of ongoing (10-11 Quicksand). While some people can play with this earlier if they like (and if they have the IC means to do so!), ICly, this time frame should be considered - it will be difficult to locate the exact location to work on the tears!

    ➜ POWER RESTRICTIONS. None. As the world is void active, there is nothing to worry about powers, any healing or otherwise.

    ➜ LOOTING, SCAVENGING. As can be expected, traditional farm equipment can be found, along with any farm animals or the creatures noted above. Trees can be cut, plants taken.

    ➜ NPCS, CIVILIANS. If you wish to have an NPC thread with any of the civilians please reply in the comment below! Feel free to handwave or write in minor npcs of your own if you wish for the farmers and shepherds your characters may encounter.

    ➜ SCA. Not wearing their SCAs on this world will, as well as the ordinary communication issues, mean that dreams and other effects from proximity to the void will be worse. Going out in a voidstorm will result in serious headaches that will need sleeping off.

    ➜ REWARDS. Taking part in a mission in any way will earn you five team points. You claim those by submitting a link during AC.

    Also threads of 10 comments or more where mission goals are being worked towards, helping with preparation or the execution of mission goals will also earn you 10 team points. To claim those please fill in the form below and reply to the rewards header.



    Please feel free to use this as a plotting post. Remember there is nothing forcing your character to do the task assigned to their group so if you wish to do a different one, feel free! If your character decides to not do any of the tasks at all, that’s fine too!

    For those who are new or who want a bit more guidance, please check out our mission guide!

    Have fun plotting!
    gathersnomoss: ({h yay)

    [personal profile] gathersnomoss 2022-03-09 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
    If all else fails, that is what the Ongoing post can be fore.
    redprayer: (for your selfportraits sign another name)

    [personal profile] redprayer 2022-03-09 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
    Sounds good~ We shall find a way to continue to complicate Zelgadis's life!
    redprayer: (for your selfportraits sign another name)

    [personal profile] redprayer 2022-03-14 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
    Woo! ty~