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Priority Log - Part 1
Log 02 Priority (Part I)
The Mine Car
As characters enter the car, their phones will notify them of a new message…
> ▮▮▮▮▮▯▮▮
> ▮▮*
> OVERRIDE: TUTORIAL MODE DEACTIVATED.
> OBJECTIVE:
>
NAME: The Mine Car
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT: Gothic era
DANGER LEVEL: High
GENERAL STINKINESS: High
COMMON DENIZENS: Humans, ornithrops, bearkin
CUISINE: Peasant gruel, bird seed
There is no sender. Or objective?
But that's fine, probably! The car itself is completely functional, and features a fully developed society.
Passengers will arrive in this car and be immediately greeted by a fog that chills them to their core. The car around them is vast, and yet deathly silent. They'll find themselves starting off in a forest of petrified wood, the ground hard and unyielding underneath their feet, with flora and fauna in various stages of decay around them. While the fog around them is thick, the lights of a nearby village can still be seen from a distance, and as they travel, the dirt road will give way to cobblestone.
Eventually they'll be greeted with a signpost, welcoming them to the town of MINECRAFTIA.
While Minecraftia's denizens are harrowed and distressed, they're quick to warn the passengers traveling through of the ailment, a mysterious illness that is plaguing their town. It's been leaving even healthy youths bedridden, and while the town mayor has passionately declared that he will find a solution, it appears that there's no cure in sight.
Locations
Minecraftia is a foreboding little town, even in the daylight, with murky skies above and fog blanketing the roads. Still, the denizens persist through their daily routines, and won't stop the passengers from exploring.
Clinic: The town's only clinic with the town's only doctor. It's a small, rickety building that operates all hours of the day. Between the rapid spread of sickness and the steady depletion of supplies, it's a grim place to be nowadays. Anyone healthy who visits might be roped in to help, and those who look ill will be quarantined with an uncomfortable bedroll and thin blanket.
Cemetery: Located on the outskirts of town, the cemetery is home to dead bodies, even deader earth, and a deadpan gravekeeper. The exit door is here in a flower-covered plot, but cannot be opened.
Chicken House: A barnyard building home to the town's chickens. Lately they've been more worked up than usual, and taken to flying the coop and finding refuge by digging their claws into the scalps of bystanders. Agitating one chicken may cause a whole flock to descend on you!
The Dark Woods: The village is surrounded by what was once lush woods, but the trees now stand dark and eerie, an unusually thick fog rolling between them. While there are some of the usual, woodland creatures chirruping in the dense silence, they're hard to find. Monsters, meanwhile, are much more common.
The Mines: In the heart of the woods are entrances to the town's expansive system of mines. Stepping inside shows that the dirt and stone is laced with beautiful gems and minerals, but passengers will be shooed away by miners if they try to explore any deeper. It seems there's several dangerous mine shafts underfoot, as well as past attacks by what seems to be mole monsters.
Mayor's Mansion: The largest building in Minecraftia, situated on a hill. While Mayor Chadsef's staff welcomes guests, they will be cautioned not to explore past the lobby, which just smells a little like cleaning chemicals thanks to a diligent maid crew.
Denizens
Players may use denizens as convenient in threads, as well as these NPCs, except for the Mayor. He's a very busy man!
Madam Vermeer: The Madam is a human extremely afraid that she'll die before seeing her son marry. Which means that she is hunting the streets for eligible men and women, and whisking them in droves away into her mansion to be made over, trained in the art of serving, etc. before presenting them to her son.
Cassy Cassatt: Cassy is an ornithrop and the owner of the chicken house. She's shorthanded nowadays, but business-savvy enough to prey on considerate bystanders. She'll rope anyone she sees into helping out, whether it's collecting eggs, feeding or breeding.
Turner: Turner is a bearkin, and one of the nurses at the clinic. He's taken to drinking his weight in mead whenever he's off the clock, and it's not uncommon for his body to be seen unconscious on the road. He'll try to flee or swat blindly if anyone tries to help him, but he really does need help getting home.
Chadsef: The mayor of Minecraftia, who is notably wealthier than the rest of the citizens. He's young and inexperienced, but carries a Birds of Economics degree, and is determined to bring jobs to the town. He'll just need to make sure people are alive to do them first!
Other
The longer that passengers remain in the car, the more they'll learn, and soon they'll realize the following:
- They are not immune to the illness. They can't determine what it is that triggers it. At first it's a sense of fatigue, then hunger and irritability. Then, the numbness will begin, starting in their extremities and spreading up their limbs, until that numbness turns into pain. Eventually that pain will lead to madness, a state of delirium where they begin to behave erratically, endangering themselves and those around them.
- There is something in the woods. Though the passengers saw nothing when they arrived in the woods, at night they can hear growling. Venturing outside will reveal grotesque creatures emerging from the fog, rampaging into the town and tearing flesh and stone with their massive claws. These creatures appear rabid, familiar but warped, and they swarm the town with no regard for their own safety or benefit. Examples: (1) (2) (3) (4)
- Corpses are disappearing. Despite deaths, the cemetery isn't seeing any more business. Rumour has it that a certain wealthy denizen has been paying to have the corpses taken away. But to where, and why, remains unknown…
Numbers
Numbers! Everyone starts with one that glows on their bodies — as a fun thread mechanic, we suggest they're somewhere visible, but it's up to you!
Because while this is not IC knowledge yet, numbers are determined by how troubled your character is. This may be based on their past actions and crimes, but also alienating habits, regrets, personality flaws, trauma, etc — a higher number does not necessarily mean they're a bad person, but it may signify a difficult time in their life, or substantial personal issues.
As passengers enter this car, they'll notice that their numbers may begin to change in response to certain actions and decisions. The general rule is that numbers change as characters work through their issues. If they make a decision that serves to better themselves, their number will decrease. But if they make a decision that is ill-intentioned, their number will increase. Players can change their number as they see fit going forward.
OOC Notes
Exploration: Players may submit on-going threads here to get a short mod tag with further discoveries in any given location. Characters can potentially earn items or clues as to the car's objective this way. Please limit your explorations to one per player; we will let you all know if we have the capacity to do more!
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c!
It certainly is. [ Up until this point, he hasn't bothered starting up a conversation despite sitting only a seat away from her at the bar for a while now - he's taking notes, himself. Though with only one hand. ] Is that a natural born skill? Or learned? If you don't mind my asking.
no subject
I don't mind. [A half second later she sets her pen down. She has lots of practice writing under distraction, but it feels rude not to make eye contact with the person talking to her.
Hm. Why are there so many children here?] I think a little bit of both. One of those funny things that you pick up as a kid, and I just kept doing it until I got proficient with it.
no subject
[ He's wondering to himself whether that was out of necessity - some kind of responsibility or job that would require it? Or maybe it only has to do with a passion for writing...? Eventually, he too puts his pen down, deciding it's better not to mull over it on his own for too long. His eyes don't miss that her handwriting seems impeccable with both hands, though - what an interesting person. ]
Are you some kind of scholar, then? [ Closing the notepad in front of him, he drags it closer to his body along the bar, tucking the pen away in his suit pocket. ] I can't imagine you'd get much time to practice such a skill in other professions.
[ He keeps his tone casual - conversational, even, as if there's no pressure to answer. Typically, Kurapika speaks when spoken to, but he also has an eye for people he thinks can be of some kind of aid to him in the future, those being the only people he'd go out of his way to communicate with. The woman before him seems reserved and intelligent, a stark contrast to many of the other people he's met on the train, ranging from mysteriously suspicious to obnoxious. ]
no subject
[One that lasted some odd 99 years but who's counting.] If I didn't learn how to be speedy, I would have spent the whole trip in my cabin.
[Glancing over in his direction, she takes note of his own writing, curious what it was about.]
In this case, I think writing things down is the best way to figure out how to get off of this train. Who knows how many cars we'll see by the end.
no subject
I have to agree.
[ He confirms that he has the same idea - taking notes in each car, that is. ]
Based on the extraordinary powers of the cars and whatever is controlling them, I think amassing as much evidence of what we're experiencing that we can is for the best... some things may only seem like clues in hindsight.
[ He lets out a cut-off sigh, a sound that gives the impression of lamenting over something that's a shame. ]
Even that woman looking for a suitor, for example. [ His eyes wander to some of the other patrons of the tavern - truly believing that everything around them could be a hint hiding in plain sight. ] I wouldn't— or maybe can't — rule out anything as being linked to the objective for us to move forward. Assuming there still is one.
no subject
That is true. All of the others had a clear path but this one...
[She hums and taps her finger on the table.]
Madam Vermeer. The monsters in the forest. The mines. It seems like there's a lot of things pulling us in different directions. It's hard to know what is a red herring.
no subject
Our only choice is to try to attend to the most dangerous matters... I don't want to waste any more time at tea parties.
[ In this sense, based on the things he's been forced to go through at casa de Vermeer, he thinks that place is at the top of the list for Places That Waste Time and Don't Offer Anything Worthwhile Information-Wise in Minecraftia™. ]
If I had to guess, that place is the one meant to deter us. You've been there yourself?