On day twenty three of the month of Grasshopper the train will announce that the Voidtreckers are visiting a world for a three day holiday, as it is clear they are all in need of a break. Their SCA’s will glow the colour of the void and the following information will appear:

World #2554098133741: A world once inhabited by an ancient civilisation and now preserved as a historical site, nature reserve and well-being retreat. It is famous for its relaxing hot springs, calming atmosphere and beautiful beaches.

It is a popular void-traveller destination, particularly among void missionaries as a place to rest and recuperate after difficult missions.

The Voidtrecker Express will spend three days here, arriving today and leaving on day twenty six of the month of Grasshopper. The dressing carriage is open for your convenience.

Indeed they will have a few hours before arriving on the world.

World #2554098133741

Geography

Jema’grethy is an isolated resort island surrounded by rich reefs and several natural lagoons. 

The north is dominated by a mountainous volcano-like rupture that spills a delicious juice-like blue and pink liquid (‘Jema syrup’) rather than the lava one would expect. A large hot spring is built into the southern face of the mountain. Ruins of stone and wood dot the island, partially preserved as historical sites and free for exploration. An old fortress stands on the western cliffs overlooking the largest lagoon, also host to the main harbour.

The sky is silver, deepening to lilac and then to a dark purple throughout the day. The sun is pure white, its light soft, and rises and sets very slowly over the course of two hours. The ocean is likewise a purplish hue, though the multicoloured reefs and stones beneath the waves throw up a variety of colours in the light with the crystal clarity of the seawater.

Amenities

The hot springs have both outdoor and indoor areas; the indoor areas being wooden loghouse saunas, changing rooms and storage sheds, whilst the outdoor areas are a tiered series of pools spilling down the side of the mountain and shaded by brightly flowering trees. The waters are hot, mineral-rich and soothing.

The eastern beaches have racks of shallow boats, both canoes and one- or two-person sailing dinghies. There is also a small building in which scuba gear is stored, along with several waterproofed manuals and instructional literature.

The ruins are scattered across the island, but the main settlement is built into a rocky section in the north-west that has been secured with ropes and stairways cut into the cliffs, perfect for scrambles and hikes.

In the mornings and evenings, the lagoons fill with a variety of sea life, and shacks along the harbour contain all the fishing gear one would need to catch some of it, and a long outdoor barbeque pit set further back into the interior for the cooking thereof. None of the creatures that can enter the shallow entrance to the lagoon are threatening in any way to anything larger than an anchovy. 

There are no living quarters, but there are sheltered sections with basic toilet facilities marked as camping grounds in five different sections of the island - by the hot springs, within the ruined fortress, beside the harbour, on the eastern beaches, and on the northern face of the mountain.

The summit of the mountain is clearly a gathering place; there are worn wooden benches spaced around the lip of the caldera in concentric circles, the centre set up like an amphitheatre. The Jema syrup spills from crevices around the edges, running down from the peak in well-worn grooves and channels.

Train Preparations

They will have a few hours to get ready for their time there though the train will remain with them on the island for those that wish to sleep in their own beds! Wherever they sleep passengers will find their dreams pleasant and wake each day feeling relaxed and refreshed.

The dressing car is once again open with a variety of beachwear and wetsuits, as well as a pile of tents and groundsheets in all four team colours. One cabinet is exclusively filled with beach towels, in a kaleidoscope of colours, designs and patterns. Another is filled with different shapes and sizes of plain towel dressing gowns. There is even a cabinet with buckets, spades and small rock-pooling nets.

If this all sounds perfect then it can be, your character can have a three day holiday and rest from the madness of their time on the train.

However, as some characters will discover in the duration of the event, there is a little more going on than a relaxing holiday. During this time some passengers will begin to share memories with another one of their fellow voidtreckers. If this sounds interesting to you go here to learn more about that!

For those that are not taking part in the memory-share, don’t worry. Characters will not be physically separated from their friends on the island. The memory sharing will be more spiritual in nature- characters taking part can still take part in the other things the island has to offer and those not taking part will not have to worry about missing friends.

The event will run from 15th-20th August.. Sign ups for the memory-share part are open between now and the 9th August.

Any questions please ask below, you can use this post to plot your holiday as well!

On day twenty three characters wake up in their beds to the morning announcement. They can understand it and each other. The chaos of the day before is behind them. All the translation is back to normal and life can continue.

Any passengers looking on the ICP will find no trace of the report from the void ministry. It is like such a message never existed.

However they might discover something that wasn't there before...

The mission is now live. This initial post covers their arrival on world and the beginning of their adventures. An 'onward' set of team mission posts will go up on 13th May as missions continue. There will be climax set of posts on the 17th May and then a final conclusion post on the 21st May. You are very welcome to put up your own posts for the mission in middleofsomewhere just be clear which team your character is working on!

Remember for the plotting and planning only the information in the blockquoted area of this post is available to the characters before their arrival on world.

Dressing Car

The dressing car is open. Each passenger will find a wet suit in their team colour, a pair of flippers if they want them and a helmet. These are clear bubble helmets, the seals are in team colours. For a visual imagine something like this!

The tube can be attached to a small square contraption. It is wore like a backpack and has a strap that fastens around the torso for extra security. It looks almost like a fan. When switched on it pulls air through allowing passengers to breathe in the helmet, when submerged in water it works almost like gills, allowing passengers to breathe. All of this equipment comes in necessary adapted means for those passengers who are not human shaped and sized.

There is a simple instructional leaflet within the packs explaining how to attach the tube and the best way to breathe. It also explains that the helmets contain a simple short distance communication system. If they talk normally it will be broadcast to other helmets in a normal speaking distance.

There are also waterproof bags available in team colours, for supplies to be taken.

Lay of the Land

The world, or at least the bit of the world they have arrived in is predominantly water. There are a lot of islands, mostly very small but covering a large area. The climate is hot though a cold wind can blow at night. The water is cold enough that those wet suits are welcome even for those not diving.

The island of Gyueran is small and has a populace of a few hundred- though many have been reported missing. The world has a very low level of technology and people here are mostly fishers and farmers. Homes are simple one or two roomed cottages. The community is strong and that is clear from the start. The island is ruled by the spiritual leaders- a position that they are voted into though due to them receiving the blessing of the gods as part of their induction, is for life.

Powers

Please see this post for a detailed explanation of what powers are affected by whatever is going on in this world.

Routes

Blue

The island slopes into the sea with sandy beaches apart from the northern edge of the island which is rugged cliffs.

The islanders live spread about the island and indeed move from place to place quite often, housing and shelter is considered for the most part communal and islanders live where they need to be for the task they are doing. The largest cluster of homes is in the south east where there is a large sandy bay. There is a school house and houses where children and those who look after them live. Many of the fishers live here too as do traders who would normally trade with the people of Bui.

The monsters have been emerging from the sea at sunset each day, all around the island. The islanders have been holding them off as best they can, but they are not traditionally warriors. Many of the monsters have gotten onto the island and so they can appear from the jungle or further inland. There is worry about an inland community of elderly islanders who live near the centre of the island, a retirement village almost.

The islanders, especially the younger ones, are eager to protect their home but they need greater numbers and people who understand battle and how to deal with a monster invasion. The beaches need patrolled and monsters that have gotten further inland need dealing with. People need protecting and the many, many children probably need something useful to do before they try and take the monsters on themselves.

Red

The four sacred rock pools are scattered across the island, roughly at cardinal points, though the northern one is a bit off due to the cliffs! Their SCA maps will have them pinpointed and so they can find them.

They are obvious because of unlike the other rockpools they look man made, built up and hold water at about two feet high.

They don't have to wait very long to see that something very strange is happening, every ten or so minutes there is a rumbling and water shoots up into the air, to about ten feet.

The instructions say to enter. If they do they will find the water cold but not too much so. When the water shoots up they shoot up with it and when the water dies down again, to those watching it is as if they have disappeared.

Purple

The entrance to the underwater caves is at the base of the cliffs on the northern side of the island. The entrance goes into the cliff face but then twists sharply with steps that go downwards and out under the sea.

The spiritual leaders know the way and purple teams SCA's have a route planned out on the map. The terrain is tough, there are steps, tunnels to scramble up and down. Sometimes there are pools to swim across, sometimes underwater tunnels to navigate through. Sometimes they emerge onto the surface and there are sand banks to wade across.

It would be a challenging treck even without the monsters.

Orange

The voidtrecker will land in a patch of ocean, activating an inflatable platform around the train, wide enough for people to walk around, with basic rope ladders that can be used to get from the ocean to the platform. The only doors that will open to the outside will be those of the luggage and dressing rooms.

The SCA will show the city of Bui on their location. It is about one hundred metres under water. Those passengers who know anything about the ocean may be worried about the pressure levels, but it seems that something is protecting them from such forces.

Hopefully they remember, or are reminded by their fellow passengers about the light on their SCA, because it will be necessary for anyone who cannot see in the dark. When they do have light there is a lot to see. Coral, interesting plant life, fish of all shape and sizes.

The city of Bui rises from the sand. In fact it seems to be made of sand, sand and shells. Columns and spires, domes of sand and rock that almost seem to float in the water. The entrances of these domes are from the bottom and if they swim up into them they will find bubbles of breathable air.

Inside and outside of the buildings they will find the people of Bui, a people who look almost like mermaids, however though their torso, arms and faces are human shaped they are still scaled. Their scales are iridescent. They have long hair of every colour that can be thought of.

They are all sleeping. A simple check will tell that they are breathing and alive but no attempt at waking them will work.

It seems whatever happened here happened swiftly. People have fallen in front of tasks, meals left half uneaten. There doesn't seem to be any sense of panic, just an eerie silence that penetrates the whole city.

Anyone who evacuates using their SCA will end in luggage as usual and though they won't be able to get back to the island (unless they are prepared for a very long swim) they can join orange in their endeavours.

Monsters

These monsters are found invading the island and also in the tunnels purple team are travelling down.

Giant Crabs Pretty much what it says on the tin. Giant crabs about the size of a five year old child. They have pincers, are fast moving and have tough shells that work like armour.

Animated Seaweed Will tangle around legs to trap people to the floor. Can be cut or burned away, they don't damage anyone themselves but will hold voidtreckers in place and make them vulnerable to other monsters.

Shark head beasts These creatures have the legs and arms of a bear, they are strong and have sharp claws. Their torso and head is a shark. The most terrifying and dangerous of the monsters they are fast moving and incredibly deadly.

Giant Squid These don't leave the ocean, but their tentacles do, reaching forth and grabbing victims to drag them into the ocean to drown.

Water Snakes Slithering creatures that can suck in sea water and fire it like a water canon, strong enough to knock people off their feet. Their bite is a poison that immobilises but does not kill their prey, which they prefer to swallow whole.

People and NPCs

The people of the islands are good natured and very community driven. They focus on those who need their help and their culture is one where everyone does what they can, when they can. At first it might seem a confusing bubble of people, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of nuclear family and children mingle and mix, trusting many of the adults. As the void treckers get to know them better they will soon be able to pick out families and groups, people are in relationships, children have parents and sibling groups but the survival and welfare of the whole community as one is the priority.

The spiritual leaders are very stoic, they have been voted to lead and they take that duty seriously. They live with and work as hard as any other member of the community but they hold themselves apart. They are there to ensure the balance of the islands with nature and the gods and now that something has happened to the power that helps them do their job, they are determined to fix it.

Though they are indeed low-technology they seem to know about the void. If asked they will say that visitors from the void appear in many of their stories, helping in times of trouble, once even arriving just in time to move the whole populace to the highest point of the island before tsunami struck, averting what could have been one of the greatest disasters of their people's history.

As ever if you want to interact with an NPC please fill out the form below.

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 will also earn you 10 team points. To claim those please fill in the form below and reply to the rewards header!

<b>Characters:</b> <b>Mission goal colour:</b> <b>Link:</b>

If you have any questions just ask! Have fun!

On Day 21, no matter where they fell, passengers will wake up in their beds to the morning announcement. The whole day and night of day twenty has passed whilst they slept.

For those that go to inspect the train they will see that the window in the games carriage is as good as new, there is no evidence that it was cracked. Because of the emergency shutdown there is no damage around the train, ovens and water supplies switched off to prevent fire or flooding.

The only evidence that anything happened are small things, a book dropped by a sleeping passenger. A half eaten meal left in the dining cart.

For some passengers waking up is simple. They move from the last dream they were in to waking. The dreams will be a swirl in their mind but they will remember bits and pieces of them. Sometimes vividly, sometimes more vaguely.

For some passengers however there is a final dream, just before they wake:

You are lying on your back looking up at the sky. You are comfortable. It may be that you lie on a soft patch of grass, on a sandy beach or in your bed from home. It may even be that you float in water, lie on a rooftop or on the branch of a tree. The important thing is that you feel safe here, you feel comfortable, the temperature is just right.

You are looking up at the most beautiful sky you have ever seen. It may be the bluest of blue. It may be a night sky pricked with a million stars. You may be in space itself. It may even be softly raining or a sky of dark tumultuous storm clouds. But it is beautiful, whatever you deem to be so.

For a moment everything is just right with the world. But then, from the edges of your vision, there are dark shapes. You can't quite name them. But dark, jagged, wrong. They blot out your perfect sky.

You are falling. The ground beneath you has vanished. Falling not just downwards but upwards, outwards. Your consciousness has shattered and you are falling in every direction that ever was, falling through reality itself.

There is a scream, a scream of a million voices. A scream that fills every sense of you and you realise that one of the voices in the scream is your own.

You wake up.

This dream is optional. You as a player can decide whether your character dreams this before they wake up. Even if you opted not to take part in the dream event and had your character sleep dreamlessly they can still see this final dream before they wake, if you wish.

Any questions ask below!

On Day 25 passengers are woken to be informed that they have been borded by ticket inspectors. Cabin doors are locked and so passengers are trapped in their rooms. If a character can walk through walls/teleport etc that power is still active, however if they are wearing their SCA it will begin blinking orange the moment they do so. If they still wish to continue out of their rooms please let me know!

The event has gone up slightly early to give characters time for initial reactions. NPC threads will start tomorrow.

Trapped!

Feel free to react and interact with your roommates in individual or joint threads to the feeling of dread and being trapped before their cabin door opens and the inspector enters. Just post under your room number to start! The event log is here!

Ticket Inspection.

Inspectors will be travelling down the carriages starting at 1:A but all threads will be written at the same time.

Inspectors will start a new top level underneath the Room top level. When the inspector tags the room thread each member of the room can reply in any order but please keep it in one thread! Once everyone has replied or enough time has passed the inspector will tag again. Please only tag once per 'round' to keep things simple. Tagging order between roommates does not need to be the same each round, just tag when you are able! Don't worry if you miss a round, just jump in the next one.

As an example:

Inspector Initial start> Character A> Character B> Character C> Character D> Inspector> Character D> Character B> Character A> Character C> Inspector> Character B> Character D> Character C> Character A etc

Onward

Characters will be trapped in their rooms for the majority of Day 25, there is an aftermath thread on the event post for when the inspectors leave and characters are released.

For some that is the end of the ordeal, the feeling of dread fades, they can no longer hear the creepy music unless they are in the spaces between the carriages. Life goes back to normal.

For others however the feeling lingers, they find themselves on edge, jumping at the slightest sound. A heightened sense of anticipation. The music can be heard in moments of quiet and sometimes if they pass a window they may swear that out of the corner of their eye they can see figures staring in at them from the void. If they spin around, look out of the window, there is nothing. Just the shifting colours.

This feeling might be constant, it might come and go. It is up to you as a writer but effects will be in place to play with until the turn of the month. Distractions might be in order...