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.
Everything seems to be above board at the moment, for an abandoned mine; it's a fairly monotonous, downward sloping tunnel.
Another of Marti's logs ends, and when his voice resumes the next one it sounds very different. It's the same speaker, but he's lost any of that cheery enthusiasm he previously had. He says that he knows Balance has fallen, and he knows Sola is dead, he got the news last month. But he's decided to continue recording this log for her, because it makes him feel close to her. He goes on to describe the recent troubles the mine has had: miners are beginning to disappear, and there are rumors that "things are starting to come up." The next log mentions "contamination concerns", and that miners have been beginning to be detained in the mines. He says he hasn't been back to his apartment in a week, but the supervisors are trying to make their on-site accomodations comfortable.
a hush falls over the group because that's... sketchy??? shuzo will suggest that maybe they stop for a while and listen to the rest of the logs — jester & trevor thinks this is boring but agree, julian's lowkey on the hunt for the "comfortable accommodations", but won't actually be leaving the group.
jester's gonna be on High Alert for anything moving since she has dark vision.
They stop near an intersection, and one of the branches has four notches dug into the stone walls, as if something was once mounted on either side. Marti's voice goes on. In a fearful, shaken voice he describes the thing he saw today: he never got a clear look, but it was fast and silvery, and very sharp. He says it carved through five of his coworkers, and he's only alive because he dove into one of the track carts, pulled it closed, and stayed silent until long after the screaming stopped. He says he's sorry, Sola always told him to be brave, but he wasn't brave today.
His next log sounds tentatively optimistic: today they found the source of the contaminant! It was in tunnel 2-E-21, and a team installed a locking mechanism to seal it up tight. Sounding relieved, he says he thinks he might get to go home soon where he can finally water his plants, if any of them are still alive.
Marti's next log is recorded in a low, quiet voice. He says that the containment didn't work; they think it was installed hastily and incorrectly. He says the mines are flooding with a black, viscous substance, and anyone who falls into it doesn't come out of it again. No one can find a way to drain it, it seems to have a life of its own, and so no one can reach the mechanism to correct it. He says the only solution is to seal off the entire mines, even though it will cost them all the resources from them. It's for the sake of all of Bastion, so it's worth it. The other miners are all leaving, he says, because Marti decided to be the one to close the door. He says, with words that sound much braver than his voice, that he has no family left, so he knew it had to be him. He says he hopes Sola will be proud.
Ahead of them, set into the shaft wall, is a complex, mounted thing of interlocking plastic and stone, not unlike the locked door at the entrance. It's bolted into the wall on four sides, leaving grooves similar to the mouth of the tunnel they've just entered. That same black goop that's throughout the city leaks in a thin stream from one corner of it, pooling on the floor and draining into small cracks from there.
The playback ends with a click, and the automated voice sounds again: "Playback complete. Replay?"
jester is going to whip out her marvelous pigments, and paint what is essentially stone floors to cover all the cracks she can see. she'll try her best to avoid the goop but if she has to step in it she'll do it for marti 8(
The pool is relatively small, and she should be able to make the reach without doing more than possibly dipping the toe of a boot. The stone forms over the leaks, and the flow along the wall seems to taper off, and then stop entirely.
They make it almost to the entrance of this particular tunnel, and another of those earthquakes comes. This one doesn't feel quite as subtle as the others have, perhaps it's enhanced by being down in the mines. It strengthens rather than fading out, and in a few seconds it's strong enough to make footing difficult.
Behind them comes a heavy clank sound, followed by a viscous, fluid sound, like thick liquid sloshing and splashing over itself.
shuzo and jester ( and reluctantly, julian ) , will go down a tiiiiny bit to see how Bad it is. trevor's staying up at the top naked and annoyed and ready to book it in case all of them die.
The answer comes in a wave of roiling black sludge. The earthquake has let up somewhat, but its strength seems to have transferred into this wall of inky darkness. It surges up toward them, clawing along the walls like something living. It will take some fairly fast reactions to avoid getting hit by it.
They make it back to the main tunnel, just a handful of seconds ahead of the wave behind them, which continues to surge upward. The light brings a figure into sight in the tunnel between them and the main entrance, hunching, gleaming eyes just catching the torchlight as it stares in their direction. Down the tunnel the opposite direction are the two unexplored tunnels.
This tunnel is similarly empty and featureless, but it's also leading upward. After about five minutes at a run, it empties into a small, cleared out area, filled with the refuse of what looks like it may once have been a camp, with the flaps of tents crumpled on the ground. At the end of the room is a large, empty shafted drilled into the rock. It looks like it may once have been an elevator shaft, but all of the mental components, which was the entire thing, have been stripped away. It's now simply empty rock, six by four feet, leading straight up into darkness.
jester's painting a giant trench in the floor of the tunnel they came from to effectively let the goop pool, hopefully making the area safe for the time being
trevor's gonna climb up the shaft to see if it leads out of the tunnels. jester will waste a few level 1 cure wounds to ungoop themselves 8(
The goop begins to pool, seeming to claw up the sides in an attempt to fill it more quickly and flow onward, but they've bought at least a few minutes.
The climb is about 30 feet straight up, but it does eventually lead to another tunnel, this one also angled upwards. Meanwhile, the areas of skin touched by the black fluid are beginning to change. The first sensation is that of a loss — from tingling to simply nothing, as if the area is gone. By the time they've made it to this room, the skin touched begins to harden. Julian's affected eye begins to take on a yellow tinge.
The sludge below overflows its trench just as the last of them makes it to the top of the shaft, and is beginning to pool into the shaft as Jester paints over it. The tunnel that stretches ahead of them is similarly empty to those they've come through, but a very faint light gleams ahead of them, around a corner.
When they make it to the light, it's actually from a vent in the wall. The tunnel leads on into darkness ahead of them. The vent is just large enough to be crawled through, and about 5 feet off the ground. Would they climb into it?
It's a fairly long and uncomfortable climb, but at the end of it whoever is in the lead will discover: a view of the cavern half of the city. The vent ends in a grate with about a ten foot drop below it, leading to a precipice in the cavern wall that affords a rather good look of the city below. The fancy fountain can be seen some distance off, and a casino featuring an outdoor zoo (empty now, save for bones in glass enclosures) glows not far from the base of this precipice. A closer look shows a lot more of that black substance than there ever had been before, gushing up from cracks in the ground with a vengeance, all over the city.
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Another of Marti's logs ends, and when his voice resumes the next one it sounds very different. It's the same speaker, but he's lost any of that cheery enthusiasm he previously had. He says that he knows Balance has fallen, and he knows Sola is dead, he got the news last month. But he's decided to continue recording this log for her, because it makes him feel close to her. He goes on to describe the recent troubles the mine has had: miners are beginning to disappear, and there are rumors that "things are starting to come up." The next log mentions "contamination concerns", and that miners have been beginning to be detained in the mines. He says he hasn't been back to his apartment in a week, but the supervisors are trying to make their on-site accomodations comfortable.
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jester's gonna be on High Alert for anything moving since she has dark vision.
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His next log sounds tentatively optimistic: today they found the source of the contaminant! It was in tunnel 2-E-21, and a team installed a locking mechanism to seal it up tight. Sounding relieved, he says he thinks he might get to go home soon where he can finally water his plants, if any of them are still alive.
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julian's still on the hunt for accommodations, jester's on the hunt for "fast silvery things".
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Ahead of them, set into the shaft wall, is a complex, mounted thing of interlocking plastic and stone, not unlike the locked door at the entrance. It's bolted into the wall on four sides, leaving grooves similar to the mouth of the tunnel they've just entered. That same black goop that's throughout the city leaks in a thin stream from one corner of it, pooling on the floor and draining into small cracks from there.
The playback ends with a click, and the automated voice sounds again: "Playback complete. Replay?"
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jester is going to whip out her marvelous pigments, and paint what is essentially stone floors to cover all the cracks she can see. she'll try her best to avoid the goop but if she has to step in it she'll do it for marti 8(
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that said when jester shakes the goop off of her boots it's landing on trevor's pants. trevor will take off his pants now.
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Behind them comes a heavy clank sound, followed by a viscous, fluid sound, like thick liquid sloshing and splashing over itself.
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also they grabbed marti's clothes on the way out if they can
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they're looking for a safe place if possible
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trevor's gonna climb up the shaft to see if it leads out of the tunnels. jester will waste a few level 1 cure wounds to ungoop themselves 8(
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The climb is about 30 feet straight up, but it does eventually lead to another tunnel, this one also angled upwards. Meanwhile, the areas of skin touched by the black fluid are beginning to change. The first sensation is that of a loss — from tingling to simply nothing, as if the area is gone. By the time they've made it to this room, the skin touched begins to harden. Julian's affected eye begins to take on a yellow tinge.
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once they're Out, they're gonna try to knock out some rocks and stuff in the hopes that it'll collapse for Extra Insurance
( also for any people reading this later: trevor got goop on his legs, both jester and shuzo got their left arm covered. )
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