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EXPLORE: RUINS.
Photo by Simon Pither
RUINS EXPLORATION.
Welcome to our first round of exploration!
Our worldbuilding is player informed, which means all of you have the chance to submit things you'd like to see in a given environment. This includes fauna, flora, and things that aren't quite either (think strange weather patterns, odd terrain, buried treasure, incongruities with the rest of the setting; whatever your heart desires).
For this location, submissions are open until June 28th, aka the day before our next log, and the location itself opens for gameplay on June 29th, once the log is live. Each player can submit three items: one fauna, one flora, and one feature that belongs in a general other category.
Submission guidelines:
We may tweak submissions, to ensure they meet the location's necessary criteria. But once we've gone through everything, we'll compile them in an archive here. Characters will not know this information until they learn through trial and error. This includes names, which really comes down to what you guys want to call something for player ease or what you think your character will call it ICly.
If you're confused about anything, please ask!
Our worldbuilding is player informed, which means all of you have the chance to submit things you'd like to see in a given environment. This includes fauna, flora, and things that aren't quite either (think strange weather patterns, odd terrain, buried treasure, incongruities with the rest of the setting; whatever your heart desires).
For this location, submissions are open until June 28th, aka the day before our next log, and the location itself opens for gameplay on June 29th, once the log is live. Each player can submit three items: one fauna, one flora, and one feature that belongs in a general other category.
Submission guidelines:
- Please keep submissions to things that fit within this environment, based on the above descriptions.
- Do not submit anything smarter than, say, an elephant.
- Avoid anything that is only fun for one character or one canon, or can only be used for sexual scenarios (no sex pollen, please, especially since we don't have an IC age limit).
- You don't need to submit something if it's a generic feature, not permanent or recurring, and won't interfere with other players' fun (e.g., random fruit trees, nondescript rodents, general weather).
We may tweak submissions, to ensure they meet the location's necessary criteria. But once we've gone through everything, we'll compile them in an archive here. Characters will not know this information until they learn through trial and error. This includes names, which really comes down to what you guys want to call something for player ease or what you think your character will call it ICly.
If you're confused about anything, please ask!
Photo by Wei Liu
OVERVIEW.
The ruins are exactly as the name implies: A sprawl of rotting architecture, overgrown and long abandoned. In sharp contrast to the dreariness of the world's core, the ruins are wild and organic, brown and green to the point it drowns out other colors. It's impossible to see the sky overhead and you can't quite tell where one tree ends and another begins. Attempting to find an end to the forest will inevitably lead you in circles.
Stairwells poke through the overgrowth, glaringly out of place, but they all lead back to the core. It's roughly an hour walk, but it sometimes it takes much longer, depending on the whims of the world.
Gravity remains unpredictable and might send you sprawling into branches and masonry. The overgrown buildings themselves are mostly rough-hewn stonework. Once, they might have made a magnificent sight; there's certainly a sense of lost scale. But now, whoever lived here is nothing more than memory and moss.
Stairwells poke through the overgrowth, glaringly out of place, but they all lead back to the core. It's roughly an hour walk, but it sometimes it takes much longer, depending on the whims of the world.
Gravity remains unpredictable and might send you sprawling into branches and masonry. The overgrown buildings themselves are mostly rough-hewn stonework. Once, they might have made a magnificent sight; there's certainly a sense of lost scale. But now, whoever lived here is nothing more than memory and moss.
GEOGRAPHY.
Akin to the core, the landscape rearranges itself on the regular, giving the impression of a forest more than alive. It's earth and trees tangled as far as the eye can see, inseparable from the ruins that root them in place. However, there are more landmarks than a radio tower.
The ruins themselves form the heart of this location, nestled within the forest. In some spots, they make absurd tree houses, brick and mortar suspended by leaves. More importantly, around the outside of the ruins is a series of partial walls, overgrown by vines and stacked one within the other like architectural matryoshka. The outermost wall features a single doorway, with a single line of script in an unknown alphabet.
It remains fixed in place, along with anything else in the other category (unless stated otherwise).
The ruins themselves form the heart of this location, nestled within the forest. In some spots, they make absurd tree houses, brick and mortar suspended by leaves. More importantly, around the outside of the ruins is a series of partial walls, overgrown by vines and stacked one within the other like architectural matryoshka. The outermost wall features a single doorway, with a single line of script in an unknown alphabet.
It remains fixed in place, along with anything else in the other category (unless stated otherwise).
ENVIRONMENT.
The climate would be temperate, if seasons meant anything here. As it is, the trees are an eternal green, like a deciduous rainforest frozen in time. It's cloaked in a weird haze that gives it a feeling of unreality, like a forest on a foggy morning. Sounds are peculiarly muffled, though it's impossible to tell whether it's by something in the air or a byproduct of so much greenery.
The air is mostly still, but somehow fresh. Temperatures remain a fairly constant 10°C (50°F) to 15°C (60°F), though it's humid, as the constant haze would imply. Sometimes, the humidity turns into light rain. You'll probably want to bring a jacket, or an umbrella if that's your thing.
There is currently no day-night cycle, but it does sometimes get brighter or darker. This doesn't seem to follow a set clock, however, and whether it's influenced by the rising or setting of a sun at all is unknown. Permanent sunlight spills from somewhere, but it's impossible to find the source when up and down make no sense. However, in darker locations, even the most ordinary of plants seem to glow.
Text is rare, but exists in a few scattered locations. It isn't an alphabet any of you know, however.
The air is mostly still, but somehow fresh. Temperatures remain a fairly constant 10°C (50°F) to 15°C (60°F), though it's humid, as the constant haze would imply. Sometimes, the humidity turns into light rain. You'll probably want to bring a jacket, or an umbrella if that's your thing.
There is currently no day-night cycle, but it does sometimes get brighter or darker. This doesn't seem to follow a set clock, however, and whether it's influenced by the rising or setting of a sun at all is unknown. Permanent sunlight spills from somewhere, but it's impossible to find the source when up and down make no sense. However, in darker locations, even the most ordinary of plants seem to glow.
Text is rare, but exists in a few scattered locations. It isn't an alphabet any of you know, however.
BIODIVERSITY.
Vegetation grows everywhere, sometimes to incredible sizes. It's overwhelmingly green and brown; little comes in colors other than that. Moss is especially plentiful and trees, while occasionally familiar like oaks and pines, twist themselves into outrageous shapes and glow in the dark. However, no matter what they look like on the outside, if you cut or break open any plant, they bleed black sap. Many of them also smell of rot, even if they taste fine.
There are animals, but they rarely grow larger than a medium-sized dog; only a few species cross this threshold and they're uncommon sights, especially in denser ruins. For the most part, animals are elusive and mammalian in nature. Insects and other invertebrates are also common, while amphibians are uncommon. Reptiles are rare and birds even rarer. None of them take well to non-native species; all characters can expect to be treated as either predators or prey. And like the plants, they bleed black and may smell misleading, whatever their taste.
All of these plants and animals are strictly native to this location. Attempting to take anything living into the stairwells and hallways that lead away from the ruins will result in a painful demise; it drives animals mad and both they and plants will literally decay to death before characters' eyes.
Shadows also roam the forest, though they're less common than in the world's core. This is probably for the best, since none of the ruins' thresholds will stop them. Here, they'll gladly travel indoors and out.
Most notably, despite its wildlife population, the forest is unnaturally quiet.
There are animals, but they rarely grow larger than a medium-sized dog; only a few species cross this threshold and they're uncommon sights, especially in denser ruins. For the most part, animals are elusive and mammalian in nature. Insects and other invertebrates are also common, while amphibians are uncommon. Reptiles are rare and birds even rarer. None of them take well to non-native species; all characters can expect to be treated as either predators or prey. And like the plants, they bleed black and may smell misleading, whatever their taste.
All of these plants and animals are strictly native to this location. Attempting to take anything living into the stairwells and hallways that lead away from the ruins will result in a painful demise; it drives animals mad and both they and plants will literally decay to death before characters' eyes.
Shadows also roam the forest, though they're less common than in the world's core. This is probably for the best, since none of the ruins' thresholds will stop them. Here, they'll gladly travel indoors and out.
Most notably, despite its wildlife population, the forest is unnaturally quiet.
RESOURCES.
There is little by way of man-made artifacts outside of the ruins, and what the ruins contain is old, tattered, and probably moldy. It's significantly less advanced than the world's core; most artifacts seem to have been crafted by hand. There is no modern technology besides the inexplicably common (and inexplicably working) radios.
Food is only available through hunting and foraging, although if you're really lucky (or unlucky, depending), you might scrounge up a jar of mystery preserves. Only handmade weapons exist, like wooden spearheads without shafts and knives sharpened from stone. Slings and arrowheads are plentiful.
The ruins themselves provide adequate shelter, but have no working utilities, so you'll want to charge any mobile devices ahead of time. Some buildings may have had electricity once—in general, there's an incongruity with how advanced some buildings seem compared to the rest of their surroundings—but it's long gone now.
Given the forest's penchant for rearranging itself, whatever you find is liable to disappear without warning.
Food is only available through hunting and foraging, although if you're really lucky (or unlucky, depending), you might scrounge up a jar of mystery preserves. Only handmade weapons exist, like wooden spearheads without shafts and knives sharpened from stone. Slings and arrowheads are plentiful.
The ruins themselves provide adequate shelter, but have no working utilities, so you'll want to charge any mobile devices ahead of time. Some buildings may have had electricity once—in general, there's an incongruity with how advanced some buildings seem compared to the rest of their surroundings—but it's long gone now.
Given the forest's penchant for rearranging itself, whatever you find is liable to disappear without warning.
( RUINS ARCHIVE )
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, WTF IS THIS NEW COMMENT BOX.
Re: QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, WTF IS THIS NEW COMMENT BOX.
Attempting to take anything living into the stairwells and hallways that lead away from the ruins will result in a painful demise; it drives animals mad and both they and plants will literally decay to death before characters' eyes.
Does this only count for living animals, i.e. can dead animals and plants/fruits that have been picked be taken into the core?
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Yes, dead things can be taken to the core, but any special magical or medicinal qualities of plants or animals will dissipate unless 'cured' (cooked, boiled, treated, what have you).
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Does that mean the healing properties of the glowing ooze only work inside the ruins?
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Obviously you can't translate the entire phrase via magical translation wall. Could you, however, try forming your own words in that language using the letters available...would that be translated.
I KNOW I HATE MYSELF TOO
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Anyway, no, sorry, that won't help you translate it faster; in general, anything magical won't work on it. You'll have to do it the old fashioned way, by looking for patterns and extrapolating.
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Okay but what if he programmed a translation bot.FINE!!! Fine.
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what would happen if one were to ingest it?
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it's gonna be stress tested. :)
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Also, just for your stress-testing exercise, no matter what you do, it always tastes (and smells) like fingernails.
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pel 🔪 mod 🔪 ellie.: ask on the ask page if herbs and spices are handwavableso. yeah. what's the answer?
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The shadows will definitely be immune to acid, however. They may simply walk right through it. Or crawl. Or run. You get the picture.
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How would the shadow parasites interact with Logan's healing factor? Would his physiology "detect" it as an infection, or is it like a magical thing that overrides physiological reactions?
Do specific shadow personalities have relationships with other shadow personalities? Like could two people be possessed by two lovers/enemies etc?
Do the nonhuman skeletons look recognisable as any other creatures at all?
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Alternatively, you could possibly compare them to a Yeerk I mean wait what?That said, we'd leave this up to you to handle as you like! Even if Logan's healing factor protects him, the inconsistency of how powers react in the setting leave this pretty flexible.2) It is 100% possible for two characters to become possessed by shadows like this. It might seem odd, however, more like a recited script than anything genuine. Other times, it could come across as disturbingly real.
3) They might! Basically, how familiar (or unfamiliar) they are is up to you.
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If a wounded char is possessed, will there be any effect on the wound?
Can an infested character...uh, infest another character? Say Sung-Hoon was possessed and William decided it was a perfect moment to hold hands, could William become possessed as well? And what effect would this have on Sung-Hoon (if any)?
How does the language barrier work for possessed characters? Also, what would entranceways, etc. feel like to them?
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If you want there to be an effect! It's up to you.
If both players want that to go down, totally. This won't change the already-possessed character; at most they'll get to hang out and be creepy together.
The language barrier would work same way it usually does; a radio transmission will auto-translate. However, if a shadow happens to cover a character's mouth (ew), other characters may notice that they can understand them, regardless of their native languages. Similarly, if a possessed character's ears are covered by a shadow, they'll understand any language spoken to them.
Possessed characters will have no issue with thresholds in the ruins, but will find themselves averse to them in the core. If taken across the thresholds in the core, you can expect a lot of incoherent screaming. It'll eventually subside, but don't expect them to be happy about it.
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A...few more questions: what's the post-possession recovery process like? Are there any lasting effects?
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