GAMEPLAN: OCTOBER

[nextnightmods]

GAMEPLAN: OCTOBER
We're on the eve of Spooky Month! Taking into account our State of The Game post, there are a few changes we'd like to address in this post.

First and foremost, we have already implemented the idea of rolling apps. Now, prospective and current players can put in applications whenever they have one ready. In lieu of monthly intro posts, TDMs will be used as a ground for new players to dig into the setting and existing players to have new prompts to play with between big monthly events.

Secondly, starting with October, we will be instating a limited ac policy. All players not on hiatus are expected to show proof of activity, even if it is just a single comment. We want to see increased engagement with events and players. Interactions on TDM posts and participation in explores will both count for a proof.

Lastly, we are working on a Cat Herd to show what progress has been made and what directions are lingering for players to explore. It's a work in progress so please give us a bit of time to get it finished and presentable! We welcome and expect dialogue and questions, and are excited to share it with you soon.

With those announcements, let's get into the October Game Plan!

OCTOBER 1 - 18

The first half of the month will be a quiet start. The weather is cool, and supplies arrive per the usual schedule. Characters might have to deal with a few tricksters feeling the spooky season, as spirits are leaving trick versions of the supplies and personalized requests.

On top of that, there will be a sudden influx of pumpkins into Beacon. Big ones, small ones, hideous ones, doesn't matter. They're everywhere, with vines curling and curving and carpeting just about everything. It's strange how they all seem to already have faces carved in the front... and it's strange how they don't seem to stick to one place, too.

Longtime residents of Beacon might remember that graves have a peculiar trick this time of year. In a flashback to the Graves event of In The Night, characters new and old will have a chance to see their own grave, as well as to share the experience of exactly how they landed in one... whether they like it or not.

Lastly, in a gesture that is more treat that trick, some spirits have provided tools to repair a handcart recently discovered at the Trainyard. Characters are welcome to put a little elbow grease into fixing it. Might be easier than roughing their way down the track... as the group that explored in that direction believes that the Mine is at the end of the track, and multiple people from Beacon will be needed to explore the structure at the end of the month.

All these prompts and a few more will be available to all players, prospective and existing, on the TDM that will be posted October 1.

On October 5, expect an NPC post - it seems one of the spirits from the HUNGER AND THIRST event got its hands on a tablet, and they have some thanks to give for all the gifts, as well as a little bit more.

OCTOBER 19 - 31

Speaking of exploring the mine, anyone who wishes to take part will head off down the track on October 19th. This will be the kick-off of the event A MONSTER'S HERE. There will be no obvious signs of threat at the outset; however, characters that head down into the mine will find themselves trapped in the mine, full of opportunities to explore what happened there as they fight to survive in a confined, dangerous space with plenty of feral, violent spirits.

While we don't want to give everything away too soon, this event will require the group that goes to the mine to make a decision on how to proceed with the spirits they are trapped with. There will be risk of injury and death as well as plot information to characters that brave the event.

Whether you've gone to the mine or stayed back in Beacon, you'll still have to face your fears - and so will everyone else, as everyone's personal worst fears become exposed to one another.

The event will end ICly on October 23rd, allowing time for characters to thoroughly explore, find their way out again, and return to Beacon to share what they've learned. A post will be provided for sharing information, recovering and discussion around the bonfire.

ooc news

There are some updates to pages reflecting the changes in AC expectations, new app cycles, and Calendar changes. Remember to look out for the Cat Herd! And if you haven't completed the September check-in yet, please do so soon!

In the comments below, you'll find the LOOKING FOR GROUP header. If you're interested in doing any kind of exploration in the coming month, go ahead and fill out the posted form under that header, and then comment amongst yourselves to make arrangements! Of course, this isn't required—it's just another way to plot stuff with other players. Maybe you've already got a plan and want some brave souls along on the journey with you, or maybe you're just looking to toss your character into an existing group. Whatever you're interested in, feel free to hit up the LFG thread if you'd like to plot exploration stuff for the month!

•••
As always, players are welcome to use this post for OOC event plotting! In fact, please do, as not everyone in the game has access to each other's plurks! If you'd like, you can use the small form below to kickstart your plotting plans:

<b>player:</b> (feel free to put your contact info here if you like!) <b>character(s):</b> <b>plans:</b> (have any plans already? or do you have plans you'd like to make? let the world know!) <b>notes:</b> (anything else worth mentioning, like permissions/opt-outs/hiatuses/etc.?)

the tl;dr

• October 1: TDM Post + Item Delivery post


• October 5: Spirit NPC network post


• October 15: A Monster's Here event info


• October 19: A Monster's Here begins


• October 21: Check-in begins


• October 27: A Monster's Here wrap-up


• October 31: Check-in ends

QUICKNAV
comms	|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

LOOKING FOR GROUP

[nextnightmods]

YO HELIX

[pure_havoc]

player: Gemini
character(s): Cao Pi
plans: going back to Helix Station! I've been slow/slacking on this but let's get it rolling. Cao Pi would not go down with less than three people (Weaver not included even though she's automatically included) and at last count he had himself and Danse, if Danse is still down for that. He wants Law but hasn't gone to recruit him for it yet.
notes: I want to try to get this settled so we can do the explore in the first half of October and get everyone back to play with monsters and fears. We can backdate it. When we get a group ready, I'll use this thread to keep everyone posted on the explore progress for easy tracking purposes.

Re: YO HELIX

[worthallthis]

Soldat's already promised Weaver he'd come and try to talk to the body-wearing spirit, and stomp on mimic-spirits for her. As long as they only stay for like 3 days max (he can't sleep down there, but 3 days is okay to go without), he's in.

[pure_havoc]

eyyyy good work Soldat, he's in. They probably won't linger since they had so much time to walk around the safe areas before and cleared most of them of usefulness, it's mostly about getting into the inaccessible areas if they can, and double-checking for anywhere they missed before.

[pure_havoc]

points you this way to get started!

[callada]

Here for it!! Which means Law is probably also here for it, last I heard. And I think Mary might be brought along now that the station is presumably safe but I gotta double-check with Danielle.

[pure_havoc]

Good yes. Is six people good or should we take on any more, in the interest of staying focused?

[callada]

Well, it's Soldat, Rosi, Cao Pi, and (probably) Law mostly, right? I know Danielle is super busy so Mary may not be visibly present much, and Danse dropped. I bet we can take one or two more if anyone is more interested in this than the power station.

[worthallthis]

We could probably get Javert or Misty since Soldat is coming, if we do want more.

[immortalaccursed]

Link is definitely interested in going back if Cao Pi is willing to take him along.

[pure_havoc]

HELL YEAH LINK

Excellent! I think that might be a good group, then. Cao Pi, Javert, Soldat, Link, Rosinante, Law...yeah that's six. Oh and Weaver of course.

[pure_havoc]

psst here you go

[pure_havoc]

All right, using this subthread right here to organize the explore itself. I will write up the post and submit it, so to get started everyone can give me a quick rundown of what their character's intentions are: which rooms, objects, or hints they are most keen on exploring. I'll write it up for the toplevel and link it once it's up.

After that I suggest tracking this thread, so that as I get responses from the mods, I can make a note and ask what everyone wants to do next. If you need me to quickly get to something to edit it, it's best to PM so I get the notif.

SO to start off Cao Pi wants to find the lab that was under water last time, and see if the power restoration means there's a way to pump the water out so they can explore it. Any papers will obviously be useless but there may be tools and objects there to look for and collect. His second priority is making sure they collect all of Alastair's research into the portal and how to yeet World Eaters into it.

[worthallthis]

Soldat's goals are basically extermination of mimic spirits (or negotiation and removal which he will try first, but he doubts they'll listen this time when they didn't last time), and finding the body-wearing spirit to negotiate either a return to the surface or a truce/protective relationship with Weaver, and hopefully a release of the (now severely decomposed) bodies. Otherwise, he's just backup for everybody else.

He fully supports Cao Pi's second priority. Let us yeet World Eaters into a dead dimension or something pls. If he gets the chance, he'd also like to collect any information on World Eater language and behavior, if there is any.

He comes fully armed with two handguns, lots of knives, a variety of snacks to maybe bribe mimic spirits with and also eat himself, moderately fluent command of the spirit language, and origami paper.

[callada]

Rosi is going along mostly as backup/support in case any hostile spirits are still lurking around plus if anything heavy needs moving or tall needs reached haha. He does have a very old top secret folder to search for now, but there's no guarantee it's still in the station after all this time and he doesn't know where to look. Maybe Pluto's quarters, maybe it's just stuffed away in a corner of some lab somewhere.

He does figure some smart people better go have a look at the Helix Station's portal setup since that portal is the actual big real portal that gets good and accurate equipment from specific worlds, and if the World Eater still has a corpse present stuck in that portal he can uh... help move it I guess, if that needs to be done, ew. But he wants to help Weaver rebuild, and to make this place a useful resource for her and them alike, and she told him the key to that is to get that portal fired up and working again, so that's what he'll be sure to tell the others.

[immortalaccursed]

Link is mostly going to help protect people and assist in figuring things out.

One major goal of his is to deal with a spirit in the power wing that Weaver had mentioned to him. He will attempt wolf form conversation (or letting Soldat converse if they're together) first and if that doesn't work he'll use force.

[worthallthis]

That's basically first on Soldat's list, since he's spoken with this spirit before, so maybe they can trot on down there together?

[immortalaccursed]

Yes! Soldier-types roll out!

[policier]

javert's priority is going to be to investigate the labs and see if there's any further research on how to stun or weaken the world eaters or green-eyed spirits. he'll especially be looking for some sort of recipe to create the potion they used in the world eater fight. if there are any directions on how to construct a bomb or weapon, he'll be interested in that, too.

he'll more than likely help cao pi get the underwater lab unflooded, since there should be some good information there.

he will have his two pistols with him and his sword, along with the notebook he found during the key retrieval explore.

[donttalktome]

WELL seeing as how Will is mostly useless when it comes to protecting anybody else, he's here for smarts reasons. He'll probably be able to work any intact computers or equipment, and he'll be able to tell which information is actually helpful data and which is trash. He does have his trusty knife but he's mostly relying on everybody else to make sure he doesn't get eaten by anything.

As for priorities, his #1 goal is to Find That Folder, the file that he and Rosi were shown by the dragon spirit. They have a rough location to go off of, so there's that. He'd also like to find out if all those weapons are still there from before, but he doesn't super want to go back into that room.

[countershocks]

Law's main goal here is to get to the room that Cao Pi was talking about, because he really wants to see the equipment that's in there, hopefully it'll be something more usable than what he was able to get from the hospital.

Aside from that, he's also here for Powers, meaning cutting locks or shamblesing people from one place to another within the station, if need be.

[pure_havoc]

ALL RIGHT posted now to the correct comm and I hope yall have this thread tracked. Rather than reply to one I replied to myself. I'll ping for mod responses and solicit our reactions, and then probably keep that pattern: once everyone has chimed in somehow, I'll reply to myself with the new response.

[pure_havoc]

first response is up! what does everybody want to do for reactions and plans going forward?

[callada]

The contents of the folder are sort of disheartening but not surprising. Rosi figures, yeah, survival of life itself by killing the threat they faced probably is a reasonable priority for those people to have had. Shame it doesn't seem to have worked out in the end.

Despite the really bad reaction to going close to world eater bits and pieces, he's even more convinced now they need to get rid of this stuff if they want to be able to use this room. He'll volunteer to look for some sort of container to put it in that might be relatively shielded, like an entire one of those lockers from the computer room or maybe something else large and metal from R&D, and will take any suggestions as to what to do with it then. Is it worth studying? Is it better to pitch it into the lake or that pit trap in the tunnel to Solis' lab? Smart science people please advise, because you are smart but also he wants you all safe and this stuff doesn't seem very safe.

[donttalktome]

Well it's a good thing "big time Physics and Math" is Will's middle name!!! Actually it's Halston and he didn't major in physics but whatever!!! This portal stuff from Alistair definitely seems like a "read at later leisure" kind of thing, so yeah he'll copy it.

Is it possible he could also copy from the computers in the R&D section? Or like, steal a hard drive? He'd love to have access to everything in there, even if it takes him ages to sort through it all. As for particulars, he wants anything related to World Eater destruction methods or anything about the town/world history that the Night Market may have dug up. Also, is there anything left of the original pre-apocalypse scientists' research? Because that seems like it could be relevant. The dragon spirit sent them there for a reason, after all.

Wait quick edit to add: did the Night Market ever experiment with sending things through the portal from this end? Like, other than Alistair's hail mary? If so, Will is Intently interested in that.

Other than that, I apologize for the fact that he will literally never shut up about getting the portal working again.