Priority Log - Part 1

[locomodo]

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:

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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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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)
   
   
3. 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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locomo e2 traincation

FAQ & Game Info / Calendar / Taken
Applications / Reserves / Hiatus & Drops



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Comments

[soulshard]

[ It's not as if the information they're given isn't useful, though Ardbert would have liked to question the old raven a bit more intently before letting him go. Not much to be done about it when he's got those wings, though. Even Ardbert wouldn't be able to keep up with him, and there doesn't seem to be much point in pursuing when he's already told them everything he knows.

Unless he's hiding something or lying, as Beatrix suggests. Maybe she's not so naïve after all...

Ardbert kneels down to pick up a stray feather that the gravekeeper left behind, sighing to himself as he can't help but think of Seto and the other amaro of Wolekdorf. After a few seconds, he lets it flutter back to the ground. ]

Maybe so. It was odd that he hadn't already taken note of the lack of bodies, what with the sickness that's ravaging this place.

[ He begins to walk through the cemetery, taking care for where he steps so that he isn't doing any disrespect to the recently buried. There do seem to be quite a few open graves, though. ]

If it was the miners who fell prey to the illness first, I wonder if it's possible that it originated there?

[ And how exactly was it spreading? Still so many questions left unanswered. ]

[sociably]

[ That is pretty weird, all things considered, but no matter how she tries, Beatrix can't come up with a good answer that succinctly explains the problem at hand. Not that such a thing will stop her from ruminating idly to herself. ]

Maybe he's been worried about something else...or maybe he's like that nurse at the clinic [ Turner ] and keeps forgetting things because he's drunk too much.

[ Except that he'd been perfectly lucid for the duration of their short exchange.

Well, they're not going to get much out of him now, unless they want to track him down later. Beatrix squints off in a direction that she thinks might be the direction of the mines. It'd be so much easier if Zeta or Vaseraga or Ilsa were here. One of them would be able to figure this right out. ]

Do you think we should check out the mines after we look around here? There could be something underground making everyone sick. Some sort of chemical or something. [ She failed both mathematics and chemistry, but sometimes a few tidbits of knowledge stick around in her head. ] And it keeps spreading because they keep digging down?

[soulshard]

That bearkin, you mean?

[ Ardbert's helped Turner out once already, though this is his first confirmation that he is in fact a nurse. It isn't particularly reassuring to know that one of the people who's meant to help with the illness running its way through this town is also falling down drunk every other night, but...

The gravekeeper hadn't seemed as if he was hammered, though perhaps he merely made sure to stay sober during working hours. The possibility that he's been distracted by something makes a bit more sense, however.

At the other passenger's suggestion, Ardbert glances over to take her in once more before he nods firmly. ] Aye, I was wondering the same. Though if we do so, we'll need to take care not to fall ill ourselves. [ The last thing he wants is to put further burden on this town.

It isn't long into his wandering of the cemetery that he spots the exit door, set into the ground and covered with flowers. He quickly waves Beatrix over. ] Come look at this!

[ He can already guess it won't open, but at least they'll know where to check. ]

[sociably]

[ His words have merit; it would be pretty depressing if they also fell sick. The sad thing she wants to do is shamble around town feeling sad about the lack of good restaurants and sad about her own ailing body. Oh, but hmm— ]

Maybe I could help heal us, if that happened. Not [ she adds hastily ] that I want either of us to get sick, or anyone else, but the train gave me some sort of magic accessory for my sword. Supposedly it can heal people, though I'm not sure if it's just from injuries or from other stuff too.

[ She chatters as they walk along, surprisingly upbeat given the overall gloomy atmosphere of the city. That's always been her charm point though, too stupid perservering to give up easily. Her attention's pulled towards the cemetary exit when Ardbert gestures towards them, her gaze refocusing. ]

Oh! Look at the flowers. They're so pretty!

[soulshard]

[ A sword that could heal wounds and possibly even diseases? That's not the sort of thing one comes across every day, and it's even more interesting that the train apparently granted it to her. ]

I imagine there's only one way to find out for certain. How does that... work, exactly? [ Does she just slice into someone like she would if she was going to harm them? It's difficult to conjure up a mental image here. Ardbert draws closer to Beatrix for a moment, casting a glance down to her sword in its scabbard. ] And when you said the train gave it to you, what does that mean?

[ The flowers are pretty, and Ardbert is planning to inspect the exit door with a bit more care, but he's been briefly derailed by all this healing sword talk. ]

[sociably]

[ Ardbert is a man of great (?) talent, surely he is more than capable of inspecting flowers and holding a conversation about a completely different topic at the same time.

Unlike Beatrix, whose singular brain cell can only handle one thing at a time. She peeps over her shoulder at Embrasque, soothed by its familiar weight and comforting sight. ]

I think it had to do with the survey the train sent out awhile back. You know, the one that called us weird names?

[ Hers called her something weird, at least. Maybe his was nicer about it. Maybe he also got the (faked by Gojo) result that he's perfect. ]

Well, I did everything it told me to do and then my phone told me later to go to the shopping mall app and I got a fancy pommel and a note that said if I put it on Embrasque that I could heal people with it.

[ Holy run-on sentence Batman. ]

Anyway, I'm not sure how it works yet. The note only said to put it on. Maybe I just have to hit someone very lightly?

[soulshard]

[ Don't give Ardbert too much credit.

He does remember the survey and had taken it for lack of any other option. It had called him a strange name, a "scrub" if he recalls correctly. He's not sure what that's supposed to mean in the given context. Scrubbing was something you did while cleaning, was it not? ]

I thought about doing as it said, but didn't get around to it. [ The admission comes with a sheepish smile as he rubs at the back of my neck. ] It seems you were at least rewarded for your hard work.

[ He has no idea what a shopping mall app is, but he gets the general idea now and that's good enough for him. He shifts around so that he can get a better look at the sword and its pommel, head tilting this way and that as he considers how it might function. Some manner of magic must be involved... ]

Only one way to find out, I suppose. And that's assuming that this isn't some cruel prank and it doesn't actually do as they claim.

[ He'd like to hope not, but it isn't as if they know the true motivations of the people sending them cryptic messages. ]

[sociably]

[ Ardbert and Beatrix, Team Scrub, blasting off again.....

She is more than happy to let him inspect the sword, Embrasque glowing a little brighter under all the attention. Swords probably aren't supposed to glow usually, but it's not like Embrasque is a normal, every day sword either. ]

I'm sure there'll be more chances in the future to get stuff! It wouldn't make sense for the little shopping thing to still be there otherwise.

[ That's what she thinks at least but she's also not very bright, so maybe there's some other reason it's still sticking around. But she should probably focus on what they're here to do, which is not to talk about winning prizes from dubious surveys. ]

Do you think we should do something about the flowers though? I haven't really seen anything like them growing here. [ Everything else looks so dead and gloomy.... ] Maybe we can use them for something.

[ She is no wildlife herbal expert, but she's been on enough survival expeditions as part of drill camp training that she knows that some flora is way more useful than others.

If nothing else, they're pretty! Maybe just the sight of them will cheer up some of the patients. ]

[soulshard]

[ Ardbert has seen plenty of glowing weapons and so that aspect of Beatrix's sword doesn't throw him off in the slightest. He does keep in mind that they may find other opportunities to earn rewards from the train, though he isn't someone who's particularly set on material items.

As much as he'd like to get to the bottom of how Beatrix's sword works, it's true that they should finish their search of the cemetery before the gravekeeper returns and shoos them off.

He moves over to the exit door and crouches down to begin collecting the flowers that are arranged almost purposefully around it. ]

I don't know that much about the medicinal properties of plants, I'll admit, but we could take these to the clinic and see if they can make use of them.

[ It's true; even if these don't have any healing properties, they still might be enough to make someone feel a bit better. In that sense, he and Beatrix are on the same page. ]

And after that, to the mines? [ He glances up from his collecting and then realizes that he hasn't even asked his fellow passenger's name. ] I'm Ardbert, by the way.