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

[balancemod]

Apologies on the delay!

You rolled a 12 in total, which beats the DC that we've set up for this challenge. You notice that they don't seem to have any idea what's going about the information you've presented to them, and their beguilement over it seems genuine- to the point where it's disarming. They've never heard of Hornbelly before, which is odd... considering that Mista is still on a quest for vengeance against the people who brought about his demise.

You have the option, still, to kill them, if you'd like, but maybe a little bit of research would do Mista some good before making a decision. You take it to the record room of Phandalin's only temple, a place considered holy to the followers of Tymora.

There, you'll find records of the man you're looking for: Snaekgraer Hornbelly. The date of death on the gentleman goes back centuries; and quickly you realize that it was the great ancestor of the Rockseekers that had originally contributed to his death. Which, the record states, was due to a cave-in.

Who's to say whether or not the ancestral Rockseeker was truly at fault. He probably pushed too hard on the workers whom he hired. Idle hands, fervent paces- all it takes is one wrong step for a mine to come collapsing down. The records here are also not all that great; it's hard to even tell if this is legitimate or just an approximation of the events. It wasn't long after the event that the mines were raided by orcs and no one in town would've known much about the events that led to the mine becoming lost over time. The Rockseekers never were great at creating contingency plans and had a habit of being particularly cagey with their business ideas.

It poses a moral conundrum to Mista. Avenging Hornbelly would mean taking the life of someone that had nothing to do with his death, but you've promised to do... well, something, to soothe his wayward soul.

We'll stop here, since this is a good time to ask.

What are you thinking of doing?

[protegge]

well, mista is definitely not gonna kill somebody whose great great great grandfather maybe fucked up a mine shaft, that would kind of suck. intergenerational strife only leads to innocent people getting hurt #jojosbizarreadventure

since the rockseekers seem to be totally uninvolved after all, mista will consider going back to them for more answers but ultimately deem it too dangerous and try to communicate with hornbelly's spirit himself. if that is possible, he'll try to explain the situation to hornbelly and the fact that those who are responsible for his death are long dead, which would make current rockseeker murder pretty much just murder, which he is not into. he will ask if there is anything else he can do for hornbelly's spirit to help him rest, like religious ceremonies or trying to find his remains, something i know he will not be able to do but which he will offer.

if contacting hornbelly is not possible i will

think of something else.

[balancemod]

The funny thing about dead people is that their understanding of time is rather warped. To someone like Hornbelly, a minute might as well have been a hundred years, but the wounds and injuries that the Rockseekers had left on his mortal coil still feel fresh. Ultimately, he's utterly confused by Mista attempting to tell him that the Rockseeker he seeks died a whole number of years ago. There's not a whole lot of time for this interaction to go down, considering the state of Maru and what's going to end up happening to it.

But he ultimately understands. He thought those Rockseekers looked different. His mind is starting to lose some of its sharpness, and he knows that.

He asks one last favor and it's a two-parter. One, is to take the remains of the note and bury it in Phandalin to put his soul to rest. The other, is to check up on the descendant of Julius Neverember and see if the augmented staff wound up working to allow contact with the Elemental Plane of Water. He tells you that you're off the hook, and he won't be haunting you anymore, but it's a request from an "old dead miner who watched a forge for nearly a decade."

Whatever comes out of this for Mista, he probably won't be able to communicate with Hornbelly after he's laid the letter to rest. It's more of a personal mission if he decides to take it, at that point.

[protegge]

oh no :( he's . . . gonna feel kind of bad for hornbelly. the idea of being dead but sentient for so long that you can no longer really track time is pretty upsetting.

so, obviously, he's going to do as hornbelly asks, out of respect for the dead and also feeling a little guilty that he can't do more. he wishes hornbelly the best, somewhat awkwardly, and once he's able, makes his way to phandalin. he would attempt to check in with neverember's descendent before burying the note, because he wants to take hornbelly with him to figure that out. admittedly that doesn't make much sense, but it's mista.

so! if he's able to, he would ask that question of neverember the 15th or whatever.

[balancemod]

The Neverember line would take Mista to a quest in Waterdeep, where the note had originated from. We'll make this a sort of mini mission for you that you can complete throughout the lifespan of Balance!

[protegge]

>:0 AWESOME, this is exciting

from a logistical perspective (because that's always the part i'm unsure about lol), how should i best pursue this oocly? like, check in during interludes to continue it when they're not on relic missions? wait for a mission to take us to waterdeep? mista wouldn't, like, duck out of extant missions to go somewhere else unless there was literally nothing else to do, so :|a

also, is it fair to assume that mista can find an extremely waterproof bag in fantasy costco that will keep hornbelly's letter from getting crunched up or otherwise damaged while he looks for neverember jr?

[balancemod]

We talked about this privately but for the record:

-this will be a long play quest over the span of interludes
-we will continue working with you with the breadcrumb trail
-yes, you can find a waterproof bag to keep Hornbelly's spirit safe
-yes, you will eventually be able to travel to Waterdeep