Field mission 5: Il Prigioniero, OOC post

[balancemod]

If you think about it from a metaphysical perspective, "It's a small world" is awfully presumptuous, isn't it? NAVIGATION 1. IL PRIGIONIERO: WELCOME TO CORMANTHOR BACKGROUND. Although it might feel as if the windfall of events from Lyrabar have barely been laid to rest, the last Lunar Interlude swept in and presented a new host of issues for the Bureau of Balance. A trash chute leading to another dimension had become corrupted, like a virus infecting an entire plane of existence. One that had hosted the Bureau's ridiculous need for pizza sauce removal and old party favors from past celebrations. When things started to go awry, Lucretia had delved into the alternate universe herself, figuring that she should be the one to handle the affairs that plague the Bureau while her Reclaimers get some much needed R&R. What turned out to be a hostage crisis from the inside with not one, but two familiar faces, ended by some really cheesy mechanics that almost have the flavor of video game absurdity baked right into it. A skillful use of a diamond and a revivify spell was all it took to phase out the undead corruption, and with that, it brought Lucretia and one entity who's come to be known simply as "Miss Zarves." You know, of the Zarves' ♥ Scarves variety? A traveler caught between worlds, Miss Zarves possesses intimate knowledge of code, and with her, brings some much needed logical looping and redundancies to Lucas' engineering aboard the Moon Base. Now fastened with a bracer on her arm, which seems to be almost made of shadow itself (how in the hell that happened, who knows)- her and Lucas are arguing constantly. He never wins, really, but he tries. Lucas attempts to sit down with the Director otherwise, telling her, no, imploring her to ask for help when she needs it. They've become close enough over the past few months that he can freely speak to her like this, which is a dramatic turnaround from whence his story with the BoB began. In the meantime, he questions her about the Voidfish. About how their entire program could go down in a raging fire if anything happened to that thing. That they don't understand it or why it's here, or how it got here, or how effectively it has the ability to block out memories across all the planes of existence in this world. She assures him that it's okay, in her usual lilt. Charismatic, calm, and collected, Madame Director assures Lucas that it'll be alright. That their mission is getting ever closer to the day where the Voidfish's powers won't be necessary any longer. And somewhere on base, Johann and Kaede are haunted by the feeling of a melody. One that Kaede remembers a lot more than him. Time comes to pass, however, and without hide nor hair of where the next Grand Relic could be hiding, Lucretia decides to take a step back through her own past. There's one that she's kept close to her heart. One that pains her to think about. And she knows exactly where it is. MISSION BRIEFING. Simulcast onto the bracers and the portals around the Base, Lucretia delivers the details of the next mission from her office. Usually, these announcements are done from the Quad where she can talk to the Reclaimers directly- showing them that she's not some tyrant behind a green curtain. But today, there's something she needs to share with everyone. The danger of the mission ahead. She stands in front of the painting depicting her countenance, located directly behind her desk. Anyone who's visited the Director has seen it; the way its eyes slightly follow you from whatever angle you sit at or the faint magical aura it exudes might've been unsettling to digest at first glance. Either way, she holds her beautiful oak staff in one hand as she starts to speak. "Good morning, Reclaimers. First off, an apology for the events of the previous month. As Lucas has so energetically told me again and again over the last few days, I should be more open to asking... and accepting help when it's needed. And I failed you all. I put myself and this organization in danger by attempting to clean out our closet. Without realizing it, the dimension in which we store junk and other detritus had become corrupted and was in... some serious need of spring cleaning. I should've asked you for help. I'm..." She looks as if she's choosing her words guardedly, and eventually breathes in a sigh, squashing it before it becomes a full on tired expression. "I've never been great at relying on others. My job before becoming the Director was chronicling. I was to observe, not make judgment, and journal the events that happened around me. It made me detached, made me see the world as an outsider, never knowing that there ever were people around me that wanted to pull me up when I fell down. As you all know, when you drink the Voidfish's ichor, you're able to remember the events of things that have passed, things that we've essentially obscured away from this entire world. I think that's necessary, no, vital, to us being able to do what we do. What you do. Before you came to this universe, before I offered a hand to you at the moment of your apocalypse, there was a war that raged on here. People were discovering the Grand Relics, and, through their natural inclinations of greed and domination, wanted to use that power to amass more power. We... fed the events and history of that War to the Voidfish, to wipe the memory of these powerful items out of the consciousness of this reality. To anyone who's come near a Grand Relic, you've felt its innate corrupting power. They have a certain... insistence on their use. A craveability, of some sort. Two years before I started on the path to creating the Bureau of Balance, I discovered a lead about a Grand Relic that had been located in the Forest of Cormanthor. Those of you who have studied the relevance of Myth Drannor to the city of the Netheril know that it was once home to an ancient civilization who wielded great magical prowess. I... I went there to try and attempt to retrieve the Grand Relic. The forest... it's become twisted from the magical imbalance that keeps people out of it. Deep within, there exists a carnival. The town that hosts it, Shadowdale, has all been but stricken from the annals of history, but once I got there, I was amazed at what I had seen. A beautiful, pristine land of wonder. The power of this place lies within its own enchantment. You feel compelled to ride the rides, game the games. I know this sounds ridiculous, and I love a good round of skeeball as much as the next, but... make no mistake. The Grand Relic that hides within there took something very... very precious to me." And rather than continue to talk, she turns to the portrait behind her and bludgeons the ground with her staff. Immediately, the picture's pigments begin to unwind, to undo themselves into something different, but familiar. Before your very own eyes, you see Lucretia as if she were a young woman, no more than in her mid 30s. "Time. I wagered 20 years of my life and lost. I almost died there, before giving up and returning empty handed. Admittedly, I am scared to send any of you there to begin with. But in full transparency, this is the only one we know of, for sure, the location of. Reclaimers, I say this with an extremely heavy heart. I believe you're ready to obtain the Aurelian Compact, the item that fuels the existence of the park and the surrounding town, but if at any point during the mission you place yourself in danger or come close to making an irrecoverable choice. Please. Please come home instead." 2. HOME OF ANCIENT MAGICS A. A LOST FOREST Stuck eternally in a form of blank stasis, the woods of the Cormanthor region are perfectly still and inhospitable to life that wasn't there at the moment of its aetheric destruction. The glass canons cannot penetrate the denseness of the magicked area and, as such, Reclaimers will be shot just towards the perimeter of the area. This is where you'll land, and you'll have to spend a few days wandering deeper into the heart of it. No monsters will attack you, but the experience is awfully lonely aside from you and the few people you've brought with you (a max of 4 can fit in a pod together). Vegetation here is abundant but useless. Attempting to forage for berries or consume them leaves you feeling as if you've eaten nothing at all, provides no satisfaction beyond the cursory taste obtained in the first bite. No birds fly overhead and seeing beyond the canopy of dense trees is hard; night and day are nearly indistinguishable once you make your way deeper and closer to the outskirts of Shadowdale. While traveling within the forest, you can choose whether or not to be affected by an ever-growing, creeping amount of madness. As you get closer, you should start to feel some of your inclinations against things begin to dissolve as your personality begins to shift to its more basal components. Although the effect is not as strong as to turn you against your party, it incites a weird feeling of distrust and amplifies core traits. You may roll a 1d4 at your discretion, if you'd like (feel free to use discord for this or a dice roller) to pick one of the following effects of madness to strike before entering Shadowdale proper: 1: The madness has caused you to forget something once important to you. For the duration of this mission, you are unable to recall it. It is unlike the Voidfish's inoculation effect; where you can remember the space of something existing in your memory that's now blacked out from the Voidfish's power, this form of madness removes the concept completely from your experiences. 2: The madness you’ve experienced has distorted your perception of reality. For the duration of this mission, you see things in the shadows that aren’t there. 3: The madness you’ve experienced has caused you to lose the edge on many of things you were highly trained in. For the duration of this mission, you lose the use of 1d4 path actions. 4: The madness you've experienced has caused you to cling onto a false hope. Choose one item, object, or person you consider important to you. For the duration of this mission, while you're away from your lucky charm, you feel uneasy and look for signs of bad luck to happen to you everywhere. You cannot comprehend that the actions you take may or may not be specifically causing this streak of bad luck. B. SHADOWDALE, THE GREATEST PLACE ON FAERUN It's incredibly hard to miss once you've found it. A sight for truly sore eyes, the town of Shadowdale circularly encompasses a tree made of pure gold that juts out into the sky from the center of its diameter. Stretching well past the canopy, you might wonder how in the hell anyone could miss a theme park this large from the outside world, but you get the inkling that there's a magic distorting it and changing its appearance to anyone outside the hamlet of Shadowdale. Once you step past the border of town, you'll feel a wave of energy ripple past you, almost as if the town is accepting your admission. In and around your new base of operations, the town itself is void of activity and thoroughfare. There are numerous places to set up shop and signs of this place actually being lived in are all but forgotten. Might as well claim a house for the month, as you'll be here for quite some time. No one will stop you, since no one is here. Although quiet, the town is comfortable and should be able to provide most of the bare necessities for your travel needs. Although there are no active workers in and around the area, you can find a number of shops that were left in various abandoned states. Albeit old, if you fancy yourself a blacksmith, a tailor, a baker- all those shops are still equipped to run perfectly fine, as if something had happened here to wipe Shadowdale clean of its inhabitants, yet the town continued to function as it always had regardless of its townsfolk. You'll find a precocious boy and a familiar face wandering around here as well. Check out the NPC's listed below for more information. All in all, while good enough to hold multiple Bureau of Balance populations, the main attraction is the midpoint of town, where entrance to the city is provided via an elevator at the stump of this great, golden tree. Just above the entrance, you'll notice in big, bright and flashing letters: "WONDERLAND! THE GREATEST ADVENTURE." 3. WONDERLAND A. LOOK & FEEL It's amazing. You step out from the elevator ride up and this is the place where dreams are made, and come true, all in one fell swoop. Look to your left, and then to your right, it's the sickest theme park you've ever seen in your entire life. From the entrance as you walk out, you notice a ticketing stand with a anthropomorphic teddy bear manning the front desk. He welcomes you. It might be startling at first to see a giant toy such as this with as much energy, but he's incredibly friendly and helpful. He'll explain the various areas of Wonderland to you, and it's kind of... hard to believe any of this could be evil? Bright colors, happy music, the sound of rides starting and stopping every so often. There's a smell of wonderfully, expertly fried dough that wafts through the air. For a moment, you forget that this is supposed to be a field mission. You can handle the allure of the place however you feel or see fit, depending on how you'd like to play this mission out. If you feel like your character would naturally find a place like this fun, they can take the wonderment of it all in stride and go with it as they normally would. If you feel like your character is too stoic or resistant to its effects, you can assume that there's something about this place that feels almost right. Being here and having some fun here wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to happen. This is an option to allow otherwise dour characters the chance to believe and interact with a setting that they might be paranoid about. Otherwise, feel free to distrust everything you see. On that note, anything you investigate appears to be... pretty legit, actually. Lucretia had spoken of wagering 20 years of her life at Wonderland, but at cursory glance, it doesn't feel like anything that's around here would have that sort of gamble attached to it. Maybe she was wrong? Maybe this place has changed since she first arrived here, before the Bureau of Balance was formed. Either way, the Teddy Bear, who introduces himself as Roland, will point out all the attractions that the park has. If asked about anything weird going on, he'll not quite understand what you mean. This place is awesome. He doesn't know that being a sentient toy is anything but ordinary. Ask him about management here or if there's someone you can speak to, and he'll note that the current owner of Wonderland is out of town at the moment, but the manager's son is often found around the park. Wonderland is comprised of different areas, all existing off the main hub, or tree trunk, of the golden exterior: 1. Terminal Floor - You're here! There's a dot on the map indicating as such. Welcome to Wonderland 2. Speed Square - Where all the roller coasters are 3. Battle Square - Coliseum style events happen here where you can enter to win credits 4. Racing Square - Bet on horse races for credits here 5. Event Square - An entire complex made up of theaters, hosting nightly shows for your pleasure 6. Ghost Square - A haunted house themed attraction, complete with a 5* Zagart hotel! 7. Round Square - A place to take a tram around the entire park. It's highly romantic 8. Wonder Square - Where all the games and attractions are. A sprawling casino for you to bet your hard earned WonderBux on. 9. Food Square - Come here to taste all the delectable treats of Wonderland! B. THE NATIVES So this is where the people of Shadowdale have relocated to, huh? As you look around, there are elves (high, wood, and drow specifically) occupying the entire vicinity of Wonderland. Some of them are employees of Wonderland, running rides and games and keeping the park in good general maintenance. Some of them are here for pleasure and enjoyment of the park. There's a striation of culture here to note, however, that those who are considered affluent are the park-goers and ones that are employed by Wonderland live pretty meager lives, oft secretly complaining about their counterparts. This isn't indentured servitude, however. They're here of their own free will and just needed a place to go after the destruction of their home town by the literal fall of the Netheril empire. Elves have much, much longer lifespans than that of their more frail human counterparts. Mingling your way through society, you find that the way to rise up in the ranks of the social elite is closely aligned with amassing a number of WonderBux, the official currency of the amusement park. Signing up for the program is easy and handled at the information desk, where your picture is taken and an account is created in as easy as a five minute trip. From there, you're handed a colorless gemstone that can be used for all sorts of things: buying food in town, reserving nights at the hotel on board Wonderland, attending live shows, and of course, playing games. It's considered rude to flaunt your gemstone in public, simply because of its innate luster. The more credits you accumulate, the darker the stone glows green. Be careful, though, because you can go in the opposite direction: red. Signifying a negative balance of credits, the stone will take on darker shades of the color until it turns a dark maroon. Congrats! All new visitors to Wonderland start with a beginning credit of 100 WonderBux! 4. PEOPLE TO TALK TO, THINGS TO KILL. NOT IN THAT ORDER. A. FIXED NPC'S ANGUS MCDONALD. The world's greatest detective, in an very pint sized form. He is a very good, well respected, clever, smart, and talented boy. Angus has exceptional deductive reasoning skills and is skilled at solving puzzles and piecing clues together. He uses a book of interception to detect magic used for deception. His current investigation has led him to the town of Shadowdale where he works to uncover what's really going on here. While his efforts are sure to make headway in finding out the truth of Shadowdale, keeping the secret of the Bureau of Balance might be a tall order. Under no circumstance, however, should a Reclaimer attempt to leak information regarding the mission or the intentions of their employing benefactor. Also, make sure to give him a wedgie when you see him. MATTHEW HOLLYWEATHER. The mayor of New New Aspen. Lived a reclusive life with his cat guardian companion, Sil, in a cabin he made for himself outside the main gates of the town. Due to the work of the Reclaimers, they helped him bury the hatchet and ended the cycle of violence that his aunt, the motherly matron of local spiderkind, began. The town since has seen growth and prosperity, mingling its once lilliputian folk with the local arachnid brood of his aunt's offspring. He's currently making his way from New New Aspen to Cormanthor and will aid the Reclaimers for this field mission. B. PILOTABLE NPC'S NIEL GOTTLIEB. Throughout your adventures in Wonderland, you will probably run into Niel constantly. He's the high score in nearly every game (usually with a name like BUTTZ or IBOSS), has terrible luck with roulettes, and really enjoys rides - including roller coasters, which he will always cry after. More than all these, unlike most of the other people staggered around, his favorite thing is experiencing Wonderland with someone else. He will follow you around, beg for prizes, give you cool tips and neat places to visit in exchange, and knows the hands-down BEST place to get deep fried oreos. Everyone else knows him as the little kid who constantly loses his WonderBux gem, but he's a sweetheart so no one minds fronting for him. MARIA. To those of the older crowd, who prefer bars and gambling and throwing their hard-earned WonderBux down the drain to both, Maria's here to help. She runs the casino but spends all her time behind the roulette table, regaling visitors of all kinds with stories she's picked up from all the men she's loved. Or they loved her, it's hard to say. She values nothing except rules - no one below 18 allowed in the casino, she will throw you out herself - but that doesn't make her cruel. Maria is more than happy to lend some extra cash to anyone who suffers a bad luck streak, especially if it's at one of her tables. Just be aware that she'll collect it before you leave. C. YOLO'S GUIDE TO MONSTERS What's going on here? No monsters this mission? You read correctly. Wonderland has a host of regular fair-going people that are looking to escape the harsh realities that their home no longer exists. The forests of Cormanthor are naturally good at keeping predators away from going deeper within, and animals tend to shy away from this forest as it is. Inside the grounds of Wonderland, security ensures that things run smoothly and any form of public debauchery or crime is handled with swiftly. Which is so rare, honestly, that most of the security guards around the place seem to be lax and mostly engage in people watching as a sport of some sort. Wonderland is essentially crime-free. Who wouldn't want to play by the rules if it meant being kicked out? Have you seen that forest? It's awful out there. 5. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT BIAS.Your backpack can be found within your locker at the hangar and contains the following items: ○ A crowbar ○ A hammer ○ 10 pitons ○ 10 torches ○ a tinderbox ○ 9+1 standard days' worth of freeze dried rations ○ a waterskin ○ 50 feet of hempen rope ○ a compass ○ a bedroll All complaints as to the durability of these items can be brought up with the Fantasy Costco Customer Service Delivery Hotline. The average wait time is 3 years. WonderBux. Your currency meter for Wonderland. Shines in variants of severely in debt to ludicrously rich. Hold it up against a WonderBux reader to activate and credits will be assigned or removed. 6. HOW TO USE THIS POST WHERE'S THE HORROR!? WHY DID I DO ALL THAT HOMEWORK FOR NOTHING? ;) This information introduction will serve as your campaign guide throughout the entire month of September. Please utilize this to ask questions from the mod team for clarification, and feel free to discuss your plans for the initial 2 weeks of the Il Prigioniero event. All information in this guide should serve as a creative springboard for your RNG rolls, or allow you the setting in which you can be as creative as you like. We'll post up the IC log with some guided prompts to play out, but by no means is that the be-all, end-all for this mission. We love when you get creative! Have fun and be amazing, Reclaimers. blurb code by photosynthesis lucretia fanart by charlilil