Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, call to arms

[balancemod]

The absurdities really never do end. NAVIGATION 1. A YARN WE'VE WOVEN Not all yarns are spun with one character's grand idea to change the world, or reach a boiling point with a person's insatiable desire to take advantage of a Grand Relic for their own gain. Not all stories are told to necessarily make a vital point, they don't come with an important moral woven between the climax and the denouement. Life doesn't quite work that way. And sometimes, for no good reason at all, you really just get unlucky. HOW THE HELL WE GOT UP HERE So it goes for the the Lost Mine of Phandelver, which was ripped up and found again as the floating continent of Maru. About a year ago, the pieces of a seriously unlucky break fell into alignment: The dwarves many of you had been speaking with, the ones who refer to themselves as the Rockseekers, had, for several months beforehand, been toiling away to reach what they said is their rightful domain, a powerful forge that allows them to magically enchant weapons and armor. A war had been fought over it once before. They were not keen on losing what they feel was never finished. Vast untold treasures were said to be hidden down in the minds, for those who still remembered it. The goblins are not any of those people: the clan that inhabits Maru had simply stumbled upon it, little opportunistic scavengers that they are, and had largely remained on the perimeters. They pillaged what they could to survive and occasionally endured being used as bowling pins whenever they ventured too close to the general location of the forge. Eh, it's fine, they're durable and dumb enough. A Kenku bard who calls himself Jingler clicked his beak once or twice, his most valuable possessions locked away in his shack, and left, intent on finding a goddamn scheming warlock cat who owes him so much money. Not too far away, a dog that had somehow wandered very, very far away from her master and somehow survived, started playing with a dirty ball of yarn she'd found half buried in the muck from a recent rainfall. And just like that, with a playful bat with her paw, the yarn tumbled down the mineshaft. And a dog who now goes by Cocoa accidentally rolled up the entirety of the mine, the surrounding acres, and the people inhabiting it. The yarn stretched and grew into a magically enhanced rope, and strained to pull the mass together, knitting and weaving itself into a solid new (and inhabitable!) continent, and promptly launched itself toward the stratosphere. KATAMARU By this point, enough data and supplies have been sent back and forth between the Reclaimers and the Moon Base that the Director is able to offer a fairly solid guess on what the Grand Relic that created Maru is. That would be the Yarn of Earth's Binding — when activated, it works something like a last-ditch defense mechanism, an escape pod of sorts that literally builds itself by binding together a massive amount of inanimate matter within several square miles, and shoots itself as far away from danger as possible. It's a testament to the immense power a Grand Relic holds. A testament to how it could all end terribly in the wrong hands. A testament to how even an accident, like a dog finding a new chew toy, could have outrageously lopsided consequences. Lucretia can't help but smile to herself as she goes over her notes. She would never dare breathe a word of this, but it's a distant echo of someone she once knew quite well. A dear colleague, actually, and she's so happy to see that he's doing well. Troubled, of course, that he's quite literally wrapped up in this Grand Relic business, but it figures that Bread would find himself here, chasing a magical ball of yarn. She really can't be surprised by any of this; his will to protect people and keep them safe follows him no matter where he goes. Maybe it was just inevitable that he would end up Captain of the Guard back in New Aspen. Could it have gone any other way? The Yarn's full effects were pretty much immediately obvious — you know, aside from the fact that everyone is now on a landmass floating around all of Faerun. Rope is woven through the mines and nearly all of the underground. Rope is the reason the mountain is still standing to begin with. And somehow, a mountain guardian managed to make her home there as well. A Kenku bard returned to his shack, only to find an enormous gaping hole in the ground where his home once stood. It's quite possibly the most outrageously unlucky thing he's ever seen — and he just knows that bastard Garfield is behind it all. And there, a Kenku bard vowed to make a warlock pay. But perhaps the Reclaimers' — and everyone else on board Maru's — most pressing issue is the forge itself. Hidden beneath the Whomping Willow, it's nearly entirely wrapped in Yarn by now, and what was once a symbiotic relationship of ridiculous magical power between a Grand Relic and a forge has become something far more unstable. It's another awfully bad stroke of luck. With each day that passes, Maru breaks apart further — by the end of the month, the continent will have virtually disintegrated, the sum of its parts falling back down to Faerun. And if you are unable to unravel the Yarn yourselves, the Grand Relic may be lost forever. Here is what you will need to do, Reclaimers: ○ Get everyone the hell off of Maru. This is easier said than done! Wash has suggested the Director provide the resources to do so, and the Bureau has been frantically pulling together what it can — but convincing a bunch of dwarves to leave their forge, and convincing a bunch of goblins to leave their loot, will be the challenge. ○ In knitting, unraveling stitches in order to fix a mistake is called frogging. And boy, is this mistake in desperate need of some frogging. There is a very simple way to do it; the mechanism can be found at the forge. ○ Which means you'll have to find a way to contend with the Whomping Willow, or, if that doesn't work, brute force a new path to the forge. While we do think that the willow would make very neat lumber, and that is certainly a path you could consider taking, it is highly advised that you do not engage with it head-on. ○ Relic retrieval: Once the remains of Maru have fallen to the ground, you must locate the Yarn. This will not be an easy task — the remains of Maru are going to leave behind a huge mess. And the creatures who survived the fall, the ones who were hidden away in the mines, are now out in the open. And they are pissed. 2. WHAT THE BUREAU OF BALANCE DID We hope you enjoyed your stay on Maru! You've uncovered and accomplished so much in such a short span of time. Unfortunately, though, all things must hit the ground eventually, and Maru was never really as stable as it should have been. In an attempt to keep this brief, we'll go with bullet points. Here's what you did over the length of this mission: ○ Vista Virs has been secured enough resources to begin the rebuilding effort, by the hard work of many Reclaimers who have filled the drop bubbles with materials. Salmon is now the official desert food of Vista Virs and will now populate the oasis lake. Some people begin to wonder how Garfield is really running his operation, which how many flyers have been found recently in ancient ruins. ○ You've found out about the history of the Lost Mine of Phandelver, a treasure trove of supplies, and the home to an ancient forge that has the power to enchant magical weapons. A long forgotten battle has occurred here between dwarves and orcs. It looks like both sides lost that battle. ○ The fate of one of the Rockseeker brothers, Tharden, has been sealed. Found dead in the grotto, his body showed signs of magical blunt trauma. The same sort of trauma that Maya endured in a valiant effort to find out what's below the tree. Zelda tried speaking to it, but it seems that its sentience is part of a pact that was formed with its enchanter, and only lives because it protects what's below it. As it currently stands, someone has a bone to pick with the Rockseekers. Mista was possessed by one Mr. Snakgraer Hornbelly, and all he got out of it was a crappy t-shirt. ○ The mountain has been hollowed out and is currently kept together by a lot of magical string. The same string that's found deep below, in the mines- solving the puzzle of getting there by using luminescent fungi from the Wave Echo Cave leads to an empty storeroom where the lines of rope are tangled and strewn about. Terezi's gotten a whiff of what's under the soil of Maru- it seems the only thing keeping this place afloat are all these tangled up pieces of rope. Rope also protrudes out in every direction at the bottom of a hatch under the lake. ○ As for the maze, Lion found a red robed skeleton by the storeroom door, and won a contest of wills against it. They now have a very interesting magical weapon in their hands. Shinjiro, on the other hand, was not a good candidate for that umbrella at all. ○ The gerblins have found new friends, new religions, been sufficiently weirded out and have been publicly shamed in numerous places. Strongmouse was not tickled by Kaede's awful pun attempt. ○ Two additional lost pieces of lore have been recovered, outlining the potential for two new paths to eventually open up. You could say that it was written in the stars. ○ A local idiot has made a lifelong friend of a bear. A local detective and his friend who is definitely not a door, befriend a very cute and very good doggo. ○ Hibiki falls down a waterfall and perishes. ○ An evacuation plan is coming together. This entire floating continent is about to blow once the relic has been recovered, making for a very tricky situation. ○ And Bread has been with you every step of the way. 3. CALL TO ARMS: STITCH BY STITCH Taking in the player feedback we received on the state of the game from the beginning of the year, here are the rules for this round of CTA missions. ○ Utilize this post as a discussion board if you're interested in teaming up! It might help to hit upon your character's path actions, strengths, magic items and abilities. This way you have an idea of what's available to you as a team when the assignments go live. ○ As requested in the SotG, we're going to RNG team rosters if there's overflow. Each of the CTA missions below have the required archetype in the header, along with a maximum group size allowed to undertake the mission. Each group needs at least one character with the required archetype, so keep that in mind when signing up. If one group gets more than the maximum allowed signups, we'll RNG a final group roster for you. ○ Sign ups for the threads will close on Monday, April 22 at 6PM EST. ○ CTA plans are due on Friday, April 26 at 6PM EST. Results will be rolled and posted. ○ The CTA log will go live on Saturday, April 27 at 6PM EST. Remember, if you signed up and submitted plans for a CTA, you must thread it out or you will be considered ineligible for the following mission's CTA plot. ○ Happy hunting! A visual reference of the timeline can be granted by viewing the game calendar. ○ MISSION SUCCESS will be contingent on at least 2 of the 4 CTA's coming back with positive results. blurb code by photosynthesis

Comments

[mccreehaw]

No bones about it, this plan is a BAMF.

[balancemod]

IT'S TIME TO GET FROGGING.

Just a note before we begin, your rolls will be affected by whether the Whomping Willow team is able to clear an easy path for you. That is to say, if their overall CTA is a success, we'll be adding a +2 advantage to all of your rolls. If not, while you will eventually be able to squeeze your way down to the forge, it will cost you time, and that ultimately will affect your final escape roll.

1. Untangling the dwarves should be a more easy feat — we'll give you a DC of 10, with a +2 advantage for McCree being a dexterous farm boy. If you get a failure at this point, we'll try one more time when undoing the yarn around the forge itself, once its bindings around the forge are loosened enough, the yarn will start frogging itself pretty rapidly.

2. Assuming they are freed here, convincing the dwarves to leave is not going to be as easy. You have to understand that this forge is part of their namesake, it's their collective most valuable possession, and even if Maru is splitting apart, they're desperate to ensure that they keep the forge theirs. It'll be a DC of 13, with a +2 advantage for Sans' charisma, to convince all them to evacuate. If that fails, a DC of 9 to intimidate them with bear noises or literally tying them up and carrying them out. We'll do a separate roll here if all else fails, to determine their ultimate fate as Maru falls apart.

3. We'll give you a DC of 11, with the same +2 dex advantage, for untangling the yarn from the forge without any major setbacks. Eventually, as they work, they're going to find that the yarn will start very rapidly rolling itself back up, which is extremely dangerous! A failure of more than 5 may result in severe injury to one or both of them.

A success here is going to give you the cleanest breaking apart of Maru you can get. Frogging, after all, keeps the yarn intact, so that the materials used can be restitched into something else later. It's not going to be some amazingly graceful descent to the ground, but it will be less impactful overall. If this roll fails, we'll do another extra roll to determine how dangerously Maru breaks apart and falls to the ground. If the dwarves aren't free by this point, we'll do a separate, much lower roll, to see if they escape the entanglement unscathed.

4. Escaping, as we noted earlier, is going to be the most dangerous part of the mission, and there is a pretty good chance that one or both of your characters will be killed in the process. Once the yarn starts rewinding itself, you will have a very limited time to escape — even moreso if you had to work your way to the forge yourselves. It will be a DC of 14 to get you both safely to the bubble, with either a +3 advantage (+2 for the Whomping Willow team's success, +1 for making use of the broom and your skills), or just a +1 advantage.

We'll be noting the ultimate fate of the forge in the log on Saturday as well.

[mccreehaw]

This all looks good and we're good to roll! But just as an aside, we'd like to know if the yarn contains any malice towards our characters. We don't want to change our plan based on the answer, but just to know and keep in mind as we RP this out.

[balancemod]

It does not! While the yarn unraveling is a very violent event, it's not done out of malice — if anything, the relic's original intent was to protect. You can think of it as stretching a rubber band, and letting it pop back into place. There's just a lot of force at play.

Here are your results:

1. Honestly, you guys passed this with flying colors. A 13 makes the first step in unraveling the yarn a fairly easy one. The dwarves are now free.

2. Convincing them to leave goes swimmingly, too — maybe McCree, just be being present, seems really trustworthy? It might be the beard. It might be that they're way more apt to listen to a very charismatic skeleton. Either way, with a 16, Sans will be able to convince them to abandon the forge and evacuate with Qrow, with the promise that they'll locate the forge again on the ground.

3. As for unraveling the yarn from the forge itself, the dice is heavily in your favor — you rolled an unnatural 21, meaning that even as the yarn begins to whip around violently, as Maru begins to break apart, Sans and McCree are able to dodge incoming, extremely dangerous slappings from the yarn itself.

It's actually pretty sick looking. Someone ought to be recording this. Also, Miss Zarves is going to be fairly impressed when she catches wind of the incident the Bureau records.

This also means this is the cleanest break of Maru that you're capable of getting. The center, the main meat of Maru, very nearly remains intact as it falls to the ground, finally splitting apart some 100 feet above the earth. This minimizes the damage done to the ground, and also passes forward a +1 advantage to the fight and retrieval teams.

You guys are, quite frankly, heroes.

And one of you will go out as one. The dice bot broke on us, so Jay had to bust out his physical die to roll for you, and, uh.

Even with the advantage (including adding Maya's), this is a bad enough failure that either Sans or McCree will be killed trying to escape. Someone will have to send them back to the Moon Base for revival, and whoever it is will incur a death penalty. A loss of some sort. Whatever that winds up being is up to you!

Please let us know who winds up dying so that it can be added to tonight's log.

Please note, that you will need to thread this out in some capacity in order to receive credit for its completion and receive a fantasy gachapon token for the next Lunar Interlude. The CTA log is going live tonight, 4/27, at 6PM EST

You've provided +1 success to the overall mission.

[mccreehaw]

Hi! The one dying will be McCree.

/sad trombone sounds