Occasionally mods will be allowing a set number of characters to schedule an involved conversation with a mod regarding the discovery of something in game, as announced on the OOC community or on a mod log. Characters who have signed up for the option will be selected via RNG (with preference given to characters who have not yet had a thread like this), and the thread will be conducted on this page.
You can see a sample thread in the comments below, but in essence, this thread is meant to mimic the conversation a tabletop player might have with their DM. The mod will establish the setting, and you may describe your character's actions and decisions. The mod will respond with reactions and any particular consequences, and the mod and player will move throughout the scenario together, until all questions are satisfied and all actions are taken.
After this informational thread is complete, it's assumed that anything learned within is now common knowledge for the rest of the game. You're still welcome to thread out discussion or discovery of this ICly, but if you'd like to skip ahead to any fallout or follow-up action, that's also fine.
As a note, these threads do not have to be limited to one character in the scene. For the ease of moving threads along quickly, we ask that one player take the reins in terms of writing out the actions of all characters involved in the scene. We have a channel reserved in the Discord channel limited to current thread participants to facilitate OOC discussion of who's doing what for this purpose.
The bugs don’t initially deviate much from their limping and crawling along, but as the group passes them, they do seem to slow, and pause more frequently. There are no other changes in their behavior for the moment.
About two hours into their journey, the black shape resolves itself a little more clearly: it’s a fragment of something larger, in some inorganic material. With just ten minutes left of walking, they crest a hill that brings the rest of that something larger into sight: a crashed ship.
It’s small, and seems to have been a compact but comfortable enough living quarters style ship for one. It’s also in complete ruin. The piece they’d seen previously was a shattered chunk of its outer hull, and similar pieces dot the landscape in a trailing pattern onward for the next mile or so leading up to the battered body of the ship itself. It looks stripped, with large and obvious missing elements, and the only remains are constructed of that same black material — it looks to be some kind of plastic. The hull is intact enough that the interior can’t be seen from the outside, although all of the visible damage promises it will never be spaceworthy again.
They're going to leave Lance in a high spot to act as a watch, Max will give him a piece of the bright red cloth from her dress that he can wave to catch their attention if necessary. Poppy the bird will be flying overhead to look for danger.
The rest of them will be picking their way through the wreckage, looking for an entrance into the actual body of the ship.
Juni and Aang will be touching things as they go because they're terrible children.
The highest spot around is a tree only 10 feet off the ground, with metallic brush creeping in at its base, but it’s all Lance’s. Only one of the little inorganics is still in sight, and it seems to loiter just in sight, at the top of a ridge some distance off.
There is not much of note in the wreckage, it’s mostly the remains of the outer hull and a bit of infrastructure. There is indeed a hatch, which Maya finds first, and in fact it isn’t even closed. It’s particularly damaged, and looks as if it was clawed apart at the bottom and wrenched open. What remains of the door is twisted and warped, and couldn’t be closed even if the ship had the power left to operate it. It will allow the passage of one person bent double, and might snag them with broken, twisted plastic frame, but could probably be wrenched open wider.
Plastic Man is going in! He's durable and bendy so the passageway shouldn't be too much of an issue for him, he'll spend a couple of minutes exploring inside before reporting back. As a note they're going to leave the door as is for now, rather than open it further.
Lance is keeping a watch on the buzzy boy, in case it wants to start shit.
The buzzy boy does not seem to want to start shit, and continues to simply linger.
Plastic Man will find that the interior of the ship is much like the exterior: completely busted. It’s dark, although breaches in the hull let in a little bit of light, and the insides look even more thoroughly stripped than the outside. Anything that might have once been metal is completely removed, from consoles to personal belongings, all throughout the single central room and the small, tight sleeping quarters at the back. But most importantly, it is completely empty.
Alright, Plas is going to wrench open the hatch so the rest of them can poke around inside (they'll take turns I GUESS since its a small ship). Max is telling everyone not to open any sealed containers/doors just in case there's something nasty lurking inside.
Max specifically is looking for any kind of records or computer systems that haven't already been stripped out, but I think everyone will be on the search for something interesting. Supplies or weapons, that kind of thing. Plas is swapping position with Lance, who is a good spaceship boy and might be able to figure out more about what happened.
Juni has dancing lights so they can see, and Max will be glowy to assist with that also.
With a bit of light, it will be clear that a fight went down in this small, enclosed space. Entire walls are crumpled with some kind of force that seems independant of whatever force impact with the ground may have had on the ship, and the claw marks from outside are present inside as well.
Whatever ransacked this place left behind quite the haul, though, so long as no part of it was metal. They will find three weapons throughout the interior: a handgun, a much larger, arm-mounted cannon, and what seems to be a more precise sniper rifle, all made of a synthetic plastic material. They fire plasma, and only the handgun has any charges left, but it seems looking into them might eventually uncover how to recharge them.
There is one set of body armor in pieces throughout the space — the helmet near the door, the chestpiece near the sleeping quarters, both arm guards in the main room. It’s the same plastic, and looks to be fitted to something closer to human shape and size than the denizens of the city behind them.
There is also what seems to be a wrist communicator with one of the arm guards, with a small pink light blinking feebly. Its controls are labeled in a language no one here would understand, also differing from the written language back in the city, but there are 5 buttons on the face of it that could be tried at random, were one in a button-trying mood.
Outside, Plastic Man may note that a second of the small bugs has joined the first in loitering, about half a mile from its location, also just in sight.
They're going to take all the salvageable items with the aim of bringing them back to the city to divide them up/figure them out there. The children are not allowed to touch the weapons but Aang is going to get his grubby mitts on one (1) button on the wrist communicator before someone takes it off him.
Side notes: Max is just double checking the claw marks to see if they're similar to what a blade might do (like the centipede critters) or if they're genuine claws. And Maya is comparing the handgun in the ship to the one she found in the city.
Plas will also be stretching his head in to let them know the bug has a friend.
ETA: Lance is gonna inspect the cockpit--would it look like a standard Earth pilot's array, would the controls be familiar in any way?
The claw marks do look distinctly different than the gouges blades would carve, they look more like animalistic claws. The handgun is very different from the one Maya found in the city; they’re both utilitarian, but look like vastly different gunsmiths designed them, aside from using wholly different ammo.
The button that Aang presses activates something. The communicator whirrs to life, slowly and a little begrudingly, and a small hologram projects about 2 inches above the device. It’s a head and shoulders view of an alien, unlike to any of the images of the previous citizens found within the city. It wears the helmet found near the door, and speaks in a voice automatically translated to their ears:
“You said Deloit-No’Sar’s been dark for a while, right? Yeah, I just picked up a signal. I’m headed in to check it out, I’ll check back in when I got anything to report.”
There’s a beep, and then an automaticed voice: “Message not sent. Retry?”
Group decision: they aren't going to attempt to resend the message at the moment. Plas is voring it for safekeeping and they'll attempt it later, once they're further from the ship.
With that done, they're going to start heading back out of the wreckage. Plas, Maya and Max will be checking the wreck for anything else useful, since Plas can pull out any larger weapons. etc. Juni, Lance and Aang are going to take over bug watching duty.
One last question about the ship interior: was there any blood?
Before Plas vores the communicator for safekeeping (:stare:), the hologram, frozen at the last frame of its recording, flickers, then goes out. The device goes dark, and the little pink light that was blinking is no longer blinking.
There is no blood in the interior, nor even any smears/spatters of a substance that might be thought of if unrecognized as blood. However, Maya will spot one last thing of note, wedged under some plastic wreckage near the sleeping quarters: another intact handheld device. This one is wide and flat, with a screen taking up most of its surface and a few buttons along the side. The screen is cracked and dark, but again, a faint, pink light blinks weakly in the corner.
The third metal bug has appeared, on the opposite side of the crash site from the first two, just at the top of a ridge.
Maya clearly has the best perception of the group. She's going to touch the screen to see if anything happens.
Meanwhile Plas is going to assume a similar shape as the bugs and head on over to investigate them. He got bardic inspiration from Juni before heading out.
The bugs don’t seem to react to Plas. They scuttle in place, nearly quivering with a nervous energy, but stay where they are, and their behavior remains unchanging as he approaches.
The screen comes to life under Maya’s touch, in the same weak, flickering way the wrist communicator had. It stays mostly dark, but two spots of blue bloom to life at the center of it. Then a lighter gray outline forms to the side of them — it corresponds to those standing outside the ship, and the ship’s exterior. It seems to be slowly expanding its radius, and three more blue dots ping to life as its range reaches those at the tree.
The radius does expand, and a blue ping pops up for Plas — and then a smaller one for the bug nearest to him, and then the other two bugs. Then two other smaller dots out past that, beyond the ridge and out of visual sight.
As they continue to watch, a very, very large dot pings into existence, easily eclipsing the cluster of dots near the ship. It seems to be right on top of them.
They're all going to bug out in various ways (airbending, Plas-copter) and regroup a decent distance outside the radius of the very large dot. They're aiming for high ground if there's any available.
They clear out of the area not a moment too soon; the earth shatters, crumbles into a pit as a large, toothy maw claws into the open air. A creature heaves itself partially onto the ground, and what’s visible of it is at least 30 feet long. At least half of that is its wide, long maw. It has no visible eyes, most of its body seems to be dedicated to either armored protection, burrowing, or eating.
The metal bugs spring into the air as one, taking to the sky to circle above the scene — all five of them. At the same time the device in Maya’s hands flickers one more time, then goes dark. The ground continues to rumble, although the creature near the ship has come to a grumbling, rattling rest where it breached.
The creature will snap at anything in range — and does take a bite at Lance as he’s whisked away, although it misses. Finding itself out of range of its attempted prey, it will make a few clumsy attempts to claw over the ground toward them in snapping lunges.
They're gonna get the fuck out of there, running away at top speed but not towards the city just yet (Max is keeping an eye on the direction they're moving using the sun as a guide, so they don't get too lost).
Juni will hit it with an eldritch blast just before they turn tail and go.
Max is going to make sure she's the last in line, so that no one falls behind.
It does a gurgling screech as Juni’s blast hits it, but it doesn’t look very dissuaded. It does attempt a scramble after them, but not very quickly. While it’s scrambling, a second hole begins to form near and left of it, and the top of a second snout breaks the surface. The first creature changes course, instead diving into the freshly made second hole, while the second snout dips back underground again.
There is a lot of it to duck between holes, actually. It’s a little like watching a snake slither from one burrow to the next, and it’s hard to say how much body it really has before it finally fully disappears again.
The five insectoid flyers continue to circle overhead, once again following consistent, looping patterns.
Plas is turning himself into a giant eagle so they can all climb aboard and keep moving away from the ship and the creatures. They're working on the assumption these things detect movement.
There is no sign from the two large creatures, and most of the circling bugs stay as they are. Two of them, however, peel from their patterns to begin trailing after the group.
Both shots hit, and both bugs go down, incapacitated. They smash into pieces on the ground. Simultaneously there is a low, echoing grumble of protest from below ground, while the remaining three dive, funneling into the cracked ground left behind by the larger creatures.
The bugs and the creatures both seem to have had their say, and make no more appearances. If you have no further questions or actions, then please link an example of this information being dispersed or otherwise used within a week of today!
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About two hours into their journey, the black shape resolves itself a little more clearly: it’s a fragment of something larger, in some inorganic material. With just ten minutes left of walking, they crest a hill that brings the rest of that something larger into sight: a crashed ship.
It’s small, and seems to have been a compact but comfortable enough living quarters style ship for one. It’s also in complete ruin. The piece they’d seen previously was a shattered chunk of its outer hull, and similar pieces dot the landscape in a trailing pattern onward for the next mile or so leading up to the battered body of the ship itself. It looks stripped, with large and obvious missing elements, and the only remains are constructed of that same black material — it looks to be some kind of plastic. The hull is intact enough that the interior can’t be seen from the outside, although all of the visible damage promises it will never be spaceworthy again.
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The rest of them will be picking their way through the wreckage, looking for an entrance into the actual body of the ship.
Juni and Aang will be touching things as they go because they're terrible children.
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There is not much of note in the wreckage, it’s mostly the remains of the outer hull and a bit of infrastructure. There is indeed a hatch, which Maya finds first, and in fact it isn’t even closed. It’s particularly damaged, and looks as if it was clawed apart at the bottom and wrenched open. What remains of the door is twisted and warped, and couldn’t be closed even if the ship had the power left to operate it. It will allow the passage of one person bent double, and might snag them with broken, twisted plastic frame, but could probably be wrenched open wider.
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Lance is keeping a watch on the buzzy boy, in case it wants to start shit.
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Plastic Man will find that the interior of the ship is much like the exterior: completely busted. It’s dark, although breaches in the hull let in a little bit of light, and the insides look even more thoroughly stripped than the outside. Anything that might have once been metal is completely removed, from consoles to personal belongings, all throughout the single central room and the small, tight sleeping quarters at the back. But most importantly, it is completely empty.
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Max specifically is looking for any kind of records or computer systems that haven't already been stripped out, but I think everyone will be on the search for something interesting. Supplies or weapons, that kind of thing. Plas is swapping position with Lance, who is a good spaceship boy and might be able to figure out more about what happened.
Juni has dancing lights so they can see, and Max will be glowy to assist with that also.
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Whatever ransacked this place left behind quite the haul, though, so long as no part of it was metal. They will find three weapons throughout the interior: a handgun, a much larger, arm-mounted cannon, and what seems to be a more precise sniper rifle, all made of a synthetic plastic material. They fire plasma, and only the handgun has any charges left, but it seems looking into them might eventually uncover how to recharge them.
There is one set of body armor in pieces throughout the space — the helmet near the door, the chestpiece near the sleeping quarters, both arm guards in the main room. It’s the same plastic, and looks to be fitted to something closer to human shape and size than the denizens of the city behind them.
There is also what seems to be a wrist communicator with one of the arm guards, with a small pink light blinking feebly. Its controls are labeled in a language no one here would understand, also differing from the written language back in the city, but there are 5 buttons on the face of it that could be tried at random, were one in a button-trying mood.
Outside, Plastic Man may note that a second of the small bugs has joined the first in loitering, about half a mile from its location, also just in sight.
no subject
They're going to take all the salvageable items with the aim of bringing them back to the city to divide them up/figure them out there. The children are not allowed to touch the weapons but Aang is going to get his grubby mitts on one (1) button on the wrist communicator before someone takes it off him.
Side notes: Max is just double checking the claw marks to see if they're similar to what a blade might do (like the centipede critters) or if they're genuine claws. And Maya is comparing the handgun in the ship to the one she found in the city.
Plas will also be stretching his head in to let them know the bug has a friend.
ETA: Lance is gonna inspect the cockpit--would it look like a standard Earth pilot's array, would the controls be familiar in any way?
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The button that Aang presses activates something. The communicator whirrs to life, slowly and a little begrudingly, and a small hologram projects about 2 inches above the device. It’s a head and shoulders view of an alien, unlike to any of the images of the previous citizens found within the city. It wears the helmet found near the door, and speaks in a voice automatically translated to their ears:
“You said Deloit-No’Sar’s been dark for a while, right? Yeah, I just picked up a signal. I’m headed in to check it out, I’ll check back in when I got anything to report.”
There’s a beep, and then an automaticed voice: “Message not sent. Retry?”
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With that done, they're going to start heading back out of the wreckage. Plas, Maya and Max will be checking the wreck for anything else useful, since Plas can pull out any larger weapons. etc. Juni, Lance and Aang are going to take over bug watching duty.
One last question about the ship interior: was there any blood?
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There is no blood in the interior, nor even any smears/spatters of a substance that might be thought of if unrecognized as blood. However, Maya will spot one last thing of note, wedged under some plastic wreckage near the sleeping quarters: another intact handheld device. This one is wide and flat, with a screen taking up most of its surface and a few buttons along the side. The screen is cracked and dark, but again, a faint, pink light blinks weakly in the corner.
The third metal bug has appeared, on the opposite side of the crash site from the first two, just at the top of a ridge.
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Meanwhile Plas is going to assume a similar shape as the bugs and head on over to investigate them. He got bardic inspiration from Juni before heading out.
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The screen comes to life under Maya’s touch, in the same weak, flickering way the wrist communicator had. It stays mostly dark, but two spots of blue bloom to life at the center of it. Then a lighter gray outline forms to the side of them — it corresponds to those standing outside the ship, and the ship’s exterior. It seems to be slowly expanding its radius, and three more blue dots ping to life as its range reaches those at the tree.
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As a note, Lance is in sniping position and Max definitely has her handgun drawn in case things go south quickly.
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As they continue to watch, a very, very large dot pings into existence, easily eclipsing the cluster of dots near the ship. It seems to be right on top of them.
The ground rumbles slightly.
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They're all going to bug out in various ways (airbending, Plas-copter) and regroup a decent distance outside the radius of the very large dot. They're aiming for high ground if there's any available.
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The metal bugs spring into the air as one, taking to the sky to circle above the scene — all five of them. At the same time the device in Maya’s hands flickers one more time, then goes dark. The ground continues to rumble, although the creature near the ship has come to a grumbling, rattling rest where it breached.
The creature will snap at anything in range — and does take a bite at Lance as he’s whisked away, although it misses. Finding itself out of range of its attempted prey, it will make a few clumsy attempts to claw over the ground toward them in snapping lunges.
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Juni will hit it with an eldritch blast just before they turn tail and go.
Max is going to make sure she's the last in line, so that no one falls behind.
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There is a lot of it to duck between holes, actually. It’s a little like watching a snake slither from one burrow to the next, and it’s hard to say how much body it really has before it finally fully disappears again.
The five insectoid flyers continue to circle overhead, once again following consistent, looping patterns.
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Plas is turning himself into a giant eagle so they can all climb aboard and keep moving away from the ship and the creatures. They're working on the assumption these things detect movement.
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They're going to keep making their retreat and barring any more activity from the creatures they'll head back towards the city.
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