locomo | Priority Log

Log 02 Priority (Part I)
The Mine Car

As characters enter the car, their phones will notify them of a new message…

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> OVERRIDE: TUTORIAL MODE DEACTIVATED.
> OBJECTIVE:

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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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[ Sticks my nose in around here. ]

[ For a myriad of miserable reasons, the clinic is the place to be these days. And unsurprisingly pinning the lone doctor down for more than a handful of seconds is going about as well as vying for an audience with the king and his full royal court. They’ll talk once the patients are fed. They’ll talk once the linens are changed. They’ll talk once the supplies are inventoried, not just anyone can do that, you know! One thing after another. Excuse, excuse, excuse. ]

[ They’re valid excuses. Mostly. That doesn’t stop them contributing to his burgeoning headache. Whatever’s next on the goddamn docket, Doc’s gonna have to learn the ol’ walk-and-talk, but inventory... He’ll leave them to it. For now, considering Vidal is probably actually more qualified than this medieval quack, the least he can do is intercept the not-so-plague-ridden patients and let the good doctor finish running his numbers uninterrupted. ]

[ That’s how he’s wound up half sat on a table with a screaming child hooked under the arms with one of his own, free hand attempting to clean some pretty nasty-looking claw marks raked across her scalp and shoulder. Poor thing must’ve run afoul of a chicken or several, and she is simply not having it with this burning antiseptic business, no matter how adamantly he shushes and soothes. ]

Sweetie— I know— Come on, hey. I said it was gonna sting a little, it’s gonna sting a lot more if we don’t get this clean, all right hon? You don’t know where that chicken’s been.

[ Admittedly, he’s not very good at it. She is, quite staunchly, not impressed by his efforts, and has chosen to make a noise like he is murdering her in cold blood in the middle of the clinic instead. Harmonizing with some placating okay okays, he puts a pause on the efforts to glance around. ]

Hey, [ Vidal shoots toward the first tall, out-of-place, hale and hearty-looking youngster he lays eyes on. He himself looks about to snap; not his temper, nor his patience, just… Yeah. ] I dunno if you’re here to help or for help, but gimme a hand, kid.

[ You know. As long as you’re not sick. ]

[ Scott's never been particularly good with people in ordinary social settings. He wasn't particularly good with other children when he was an actual child, which isn't entirely his fault— it's hard to argue with a ten-year-old's unerring instinct for finding the person with The Most Issues and targeting them.

But he does remember, vividly, what it was like to be small, and frightened, in a world full of grown-ups whose motives seemed obscure even as they insisted they were trying to help. So while he'd like, maybe, to just stick with the inventory and preparations— ]

Oh, uh— sure, I can do that— just hold off for a minute?

[ Scott comes around to the front, dropping to his haunches in front of the snotty, tear-stained little girl. Whose screams devolve into little hiccuping sobs as soon as the would-be nurse stops trying to scrub her arm off with...well, something. ]

Hey. [ Hard to make eye contact when your eyes aren't visible, but he tries. ] Hey...I can see you're not having a very good day, are you?

[ The girl sniffles, rubs at her eyes with the heel of one slightly-grubby hand, and mumbles no. ]

You had a fight with a... [ He fumbles, and the girl goes a chicken. ] Oh, a chicken? I see.

[ The words that follow aren't entirely articulate, but they don't have to be. Scott nods like he understands perfectly. ]

You were very brave. And you should get a bandage, right? To show everyone how brave you were.

[ More wiping away snot, and then a little I don't want, but it hurts— ]

I know. But the bandage won't go on if this gentleman— [ Look very gentlemanly, Vidal— ] Doesn't wipe away all the blood. And I won't pretend it won't hurt...but it'll only for a little bit. Then he'll cover it up and it will feel much better. Do you think you could let him do that?

[ A little wavering I don't know— ]

That's okay. It's okay. What about— could you do it if you held onto me— [ With Scott's very thick, very engineered costume, and its very long sleeves. ] And squeezed my arm really hard? If he promises to be very fast? [ Glancing up over the little girl's head, to make eye contact with Vidal. Even if Vidal doesn't understand how to make eye contact with those opaque ruby lenses. ] Which he can do, if you hold very still.

[ Now is the time to provide reassurance, right now. ]

Priority Log - Part 1

"seek the paleblood" and all that in this weird ass clinic

I was gonna go for something something sand pest, but either way,

well this became a one-shot unto itself, but