MAY MISSION PLOTTING

[etrayamods]

⏵ mission prep ⏴ As the inhabitants of Etraya go about their daily routines, a strange phenomenon unfolds before them. Visible from the rooftops of taller facilities, an eerie sight emerges: a vast Labyrinth materializes just beyond the atmospheric bubble enclosing the city. The scale is impossible to discern from within the city, but Aurora has also made an announcement regarding the next mission and the tasks they must complete: make their way to the exit of the Labyrinth which wraps back around into the city before the oxygen levels in Etraya diminish entirely. Only by reaching the exit quickly can characters ensure their city will not crumble. Additionally, those who pass through the exit first will help in choosing the next mission. How they choose is not clarified. Aurora will reach out to them after the mission with details. Characters who walk into the Labyrinth will find the pathway behind them changing as soon as they step into it, making returning the way they entered impossible. Within its walls, they’ll find numerous challenges to face. Some creatures may be familiar, ones they recognize from their home worlds, favorite fairy tale books, or perhaps from the invasion that hit just weeks ago. Mimics lurk in shadowy corners among treasure boxes full of useful items, waiting for people to approach them so they can capture those who aren’t careful. They’ll have to be careful while making their way through it. Nothing is as it seems within these walls. The first group of characters to reach the exit will do so after just under two weeks. The mission time frame is May 3rd - May 15th. You can sign up to have your character chosen as a victor here. If your character is not chosen to complete the Labyrinth first, they are welcome to continue struggling through it until May 28th when it sinks back into the dirt covering the empty zone of Etraya. Companion bots will make sure every citizen is removed before this if any still linger behind. Once characters go through the exit, they cannot go back in. Ear pieces will still function, but their mapping capabilities will be disabled. No one will know how far along they are or how close to any of the others they may be. Characters are encouraged to bring along their pets or leave them in Aurora's care until they return. ⏵ entering the labyrinth ⏴ As Aurora had warned in her announcement, the Labyrinth tends to mess with superhuman abilities. How much this affects your character is up to you. Our goal is to ensure that the Labyrinth is a challenge for characters to complete. We wouldn’t want Superman flying through at superhuman speeds, avoiding all obstacles, and completing it before those without super speed even get a chance to explore, for example. All healing abilities will be active, regardless of whether it’s regenerative or healing spells to assist others. Every other ability may be limited. If someone does have super speed, they may find that their super speed only works when they’re facing beasts capable of keeping up with them, and as soon as they walk through another corridor, their speed diminishes once more. You're welcome to play with this to your preference! Your character can be limited to only having their abilities affect the area around them, having them when moving through the Labyrinth but losing them when fighting opponents, or have them only when fighting opponents. We want this to be fun for you, our players, while keeping the challenging nature as intended. Questions regarding the power cap, or if you would like some guidance on how to apply this to your character, can be directed here. We’ll do our best to guide you! ⏵ labyrinth challenges ⏴ The Labyrinth feels alive, as if it’s responding to those who enter its domain. The walls around characters shift, change, and adapt to create new obstacles for them to face. In addition to this, it will work hard to separate characters from one another and to bring them into the pathway of others who are also working to reach the finish line. You may walk through the entrance with full intentions of sticking close to a partner, or a group of friends - the Labyrinth will do everything it can to pull you apart, to force you out of your comfort zone. Teamwork is necessary, as many challenges are meant to be completed by two or more. Please note that the challenges listed are a guideline. The Labyrinth is a massive web of challenges and opponents to battle, and we invite you to create your own as well as utilize the ones offered. The limitation is that characters must remain themselves throughout the challenges. There are no mirror replicas, nothing within the Labyrinth will affect their personalities or core values. It’s meant to challenge, not change them. If you have an idea and want to double-check that it falls within the lines of the mission, please feel free to drop it here. The Labyrinth opens into a massive, open space with an obstacle course. The obstacle course itself doesn't look too difficult: many of the tasks involve climbing over a wall (but needing to help one another as the rope needs to be held by both ends; otherwise both parties will fall), carefully crossing a balance beam without offsetting the weight and causing both parties to tip off the edge and into icy waters below, and building a bridge to cross over a river with only a few pieces of wood. A pathway opens into what appears to be a large garden. One companion bot lays on the grass, ketchup covering their abdomen. They state that they are injured, bleeding profusely, and require immediate medical assistance. The companion bot carries a bag of medical supplies and MREs, which player characters are welcome to utilize. The pathway out of this section will not open until the companion bot states that they are no longer in danger of dying. How characters get to this point is up to you - perhaps they put the companion bot out of their misery or roleplay patching them up. A glass box drops down to barricade characters into the area they have entered. In front of them is a pedestal with two buttons: one red, one green, as well as a tablet above it displaying the image of another group of characters. The tablet states hindering them will help you. You may either choose to make the second group's time through the maze more difficult, or you may hinder your progress by pressing the green button and helping the other group forward. Pressing the green button will drop several squishmallows into the glass box. Inside one of them is a key that unlocks the roof of the glass box. Pressing the red button, while it promises to hinder the other group, actually. . . causes a toxic yellow gas to flood the glass box. The gas will burn the lungs of those who breathe it in, but it also begins slowly melting the glass box. This gas will make breathing difficult for the next 24 hours, but will not kill those who inhale it. Healing factors will not offset the gas. Groups of two characters will walk through one corridor and find themselves strapped to two chairs, the backs of which are leaning against each other. In front of the both of them are drills, slowly approaching their chests. They cannot go sideways but can push forward and backward. They can push backward and get themselves further away from the threat of injury - forcing the person behind them to suffer but allowing themselves to escape - or they can push into the drill and free the person they're with. Alternatively, they can choose not to push either way, potentially sacrificing them both. The floor falls away, revealing a body of water and - no solid ground to walk on. Within the water are numerous Sirens - beautiful androgynous creatures that sing soft songs meant to entice others into following them deep into the water. While they may look beautiful, their mouths are full of razor-sharp teeth, and their intentions certainly aren't innocent. However, the sirens cannot touch competitors until they have initiated touch first. They will do their best to encourage this: holding out their hands, crying out for help, pretending to drown, or trying to coax them into coming in close enough for a kiss. As long as they remain on path, they're harmless. But the moment they reach out for the sirens... getting away from them will not be easy. Their tails are powerful, built for moving swiftly throughout the water and dragging others along with them. They bite hard and will dig their teeth deep into flesh to discourage struggling. If one gets captured by them? They're lunch. Or worse yet: if they get bitten but manage to escape, they may find themselves becoming a bit.. scaley around the neck as their eyes shift color to a too-soft green and they develop an almost impossible-to-resist urge to take a bite out of their friends. This effect will continue until May 28th regardless of when the character reaches the end of the Labyrinth. Numerous beasts roam the corridors of the Labyrinth: mimics, dragons of all shapes and sizes, centaurs, ogres, mutated wolves, ghouls, zombies, dryads, etc. They lurk around corners, waiting for unsuspecting characters to approach so they can attack. ⏵ NOTES ⏴ May's mission is the completion of a massive Labyrinth. All characters must enter the Labyrinth; whether or not they participate once they're inside is up to them, but no one will be permitted to stay behind in the city. The duo who completes the Labyrinth first will be allowed to assist in choosing the next mission. Sign-ups for this are here. We will reach out to the chosen characters on May 13th. This mission will cover the time between May 3rd and May 28th. After May 28th, any characters who have not yet exited the Labyrinth will be gathered by the companion bots and brought back into the city. The first to exit will be returning to the city on May 15th. There will be powercapping during this mission, but the extent of which is fully up to players. We want the Labyrinth to be challenging but don't want to hinder gameplay too much. If you have any questions relating to this or want assistance coming up with ways to powercap your character, please feel free to ask us here. We will be largely leaving this up to player discretion. Food is scarce within the Labyrinth, but not impossible to find. There are chests (or maybe they're mimics?) strewn throughout with various useful items. One might have a sword, another might have a fresh chicken nugget Happy Meal from McDonalds. Or an entire birthday cake, candles included. Large vehicles will not fit in the Labyrinth and will need to be left behind in the city. Numerous challenges are throughout the Labyrinth. You are welcome to make your own, but we will also provide several you may utilize! Deaths that occur within the Labyrinth will last 24 hours. Please make sure to report these on our Death Tracker. All current pending new locations will be going up after player characters have returned to the city. ⏵ plotting form ⏴ <b>PLAYER:</b> <b>CHARACTER:</b> who are you plotting for? <b>ENTERING THE LABYRINTH:</b> how's your character going to feel about the labyrinth? are there people they're going to try to stick with? <b>CHALLENGES:</b> what challenges are you interested in playing? are there ones you think would be fun to bring into play but weren't mentioned? <b>CR GOALS:</b> what are you looking to get out of this event? new friends? enemies? frenemies? ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

[upbyone]

Kyra needs to meet Dick as he really is lol. Is there anything in particular speaking to you?

[cohero]

They can always find some monsters to fight together, or a puzzle to solve. I'm not sure what her strengths are. I'm really up to do anything.

[upbyone]

She's the team hacker so her strength is more puzzle-solving than fighting.

[cohero]

Maybe we should combine the two. She's got a puzzle to solve which unlocks a door with a monster behind it. They have to get past both to get out of wherever they end up locked together? Or it could be a series of them as they go through a corridor. back and forth... one fights, one works, protecting the other. They could be elemental puzzles, or logic, or get the key in the right door, who knows. i'm not great with the brainstorming today.

[upbyone]

That sounds great. I have something like that on her top level. We can add extra complexity to the door puzzle or remove some of the other elements if needed!