etrayaooc | Mission 13 Plotting

Entry tags:

mission plotting

Mission 13 Plotting

Mission Summary

Genre: Survival / Exploration / Spooky

Premise: Mesa is a wild, lawless land of megafauna, from feathered dinosaurs to redwoods soaring stories high. Etrayans must document what remains of a world on its way out and then get out alive, surviving in the wilderness for two weeks while fighting off a hostile environment. Most importantly of all: beware the dark.

Tone: Dark and philosophical. Is this a world worth saving?

Objectives: Take samples and record for posterity what happened on Mesa. Demonstrate appreciation of what is lost and the capacity to preserve it.

❬ ALL YESTERDAYS ❭

Have you read the notes? If you have, you'd know that Echo can only prop up so many worlds' existence at once. Sometimes, Echo has to let one go. This world is on the chopping block, and Etrayans are asked to take samples and preserve what they can before it goes.

Mesa is a planet composed of biomes with strangely precise borders, like the natural version of a jigsaw puzzle. Grasslands will change to swamp or snow within steps of one another, the temperature shooting up or down, the air drying or growing humid. The vegetation changes just as abruptly, most of it larger in scale than normal: woodlands aren't just forests but redwood forests; bodies of water are massive, inland seas or full-on oceans; swamps stretch endlessly for miles, pitiless and damp.

The primary inhabitants of Mesa are enormous animals: woolly mammoths, feathered dinosaurs, megalodons and more. There's some smaller wildlife around, but it's nowhere near as prevalent as Earth. Everything does, however, seem to stay within the realm of scientific possibility, and the megafauna stay to their preferred biomes and rarely cross to another.

Here and there, characters might find traces of civilization, abandoned outposts like ranger stations or research labs. An advanced level of technology is present, but nothing is currently functional. Some of them might even be inhabited by sentient locals, all of them standard humans and none of them friendly. They are opportunistic predators of their own, long since abandoned on Mesa and carving out a meager existence with fiercely defended territories and partly-functioning sci-fi weaponry.

The remaining local inhabitants do not travel far from their settlements, because they know that the biggest threat of all is the dark. Staying out in the darkness each night will cause increasing psychological and eventually physical effects. Some of the creatures lurking in the dark seem like they could have once been human...

Better stay together and huddle around a light source each night.

❬ LOOKING FOR GROUP ❭

Characters will be assembled into teams, determined out of character in this post, and each team will be given an assignment. OOCly, players can choose the assignments from a list of ideas below -- or make up your own.

Players can decide for themselves what their team composition will be, or can ask to be randomized by the mods to a team. We encourage players to use this as a chance to initiate or deepen character relationships.

If you know who you want on your team, report groups here; if you're looking for a group to join, comment to the looking for group thread; and sign up to be randomized here. Please note you have until January 21st at 12 AM PST to sign up for randomization, and you will be told which team your character is placed in when the log goes up. Anyone late is welcome to still post to the above threads and see if others are also still looking!

Now with a DIRECTORY of people still looking!
There are four members per team, with the following roles:

    (1) Navigator -- Responsible for getting their team to the assignment destination and back. This is a whole planet, and navigators will be equipped with maps and a GPS locator.
    (2) Naturalist -- Takes archival samples of flora and fauna, potentially alive if possible, and captures records of the native life whether through video, photographs, illustration or journaling.
    (3) Survivalist -- Away from home base where they all arrive, the team will depend on the survivalist to establish camp every night and provide sustenance as well as protection from the elements. They are also responsible for maintaining light sources at night.
    (4) Sentinel -- Much of the wildlife is hostile, some of it animalistic and some of it still discernibly human. Then there's the locals who have gotten this far by being opportunistic hunters. The sentinel defends the team and keeps them alive against varying threats.

If your character is not suited for any of the above -- or if you, as the player, want to minimize involvement with this mission -- your character may ICly opt out and stay at the base. There they will provide respite between expeditions for the teams, from medical attention to food to establishing shelter. Alternately, characters without pre-arranged teams can wander around base looking to form a group of four so that they can receive an assignment.

Characters may journey out away from base and into the wilds without being organized into teams, but they will not receive an assignment and accordingly will not be accomplishing any of the mission objectives.

Assignment Ideas
Although teams don't change composition once assigned, teams can complete multiple assignments. Feel free to make up your own; this list is to just help you get started.

Locate, identify and retrieve samples of specific species of the various wildlife.
Retrieve a specific piece of scientific equipment left behind that holds valuable records.
Collect a dinosaur egg for conservation efforts.
Befriend the herbivores to see if they can be lured off-planet for conservation efforts. Or can they be used to lure the carnivores...?
Travel to a specific destination and catalog the local flora and fauna as an ecology study.
Create star charts from varying positions on the planet.

❬ DELAYING THE INEVITABLE ❭

Characters will arrive via portal to a bare-bones base camp, where Aurora has provided a permanent light fixture that will prevent darkness effects. This takes the form of a spire that operates as a high-tech stationary lighthouse, and needs regular maintenance and guarding. The top level can be used as a lookout point.

All other amenities at base are up to characters to establish. Anyone direly affected by the conditions on Mesa can return to base and stay there for the remainder of the mission. (Though they won't make a great showing for their own world, of course.)

Teams out on assignment will want to be sure to have reliable light sources packed, and should stay together throughout the night while camping.

Darkness Effects
Since Mesa has no moons, the period of nighttime is unrelentingly dark, and staying out in the darkness has consequences. This progresses with increased exposure: stronger, closer light sources negate the effects, but wandering around alone with a flashlight is not sufficient to completely prevent a build-up of the darkness effects.

Note that although characters are warned not to stay out in the dark, they are not explicitly told why, and must discover this for themselves.

The stages below occur along an evolving spectrum rather than being discrete stages.

Stage 1: Psychological effects similar to a lobotomy, including intense apathy, loss of intellectual reasoning and executive functioning, and a pleasant affect. Upon wandering off into the darkness, it can become difficult to see yourself back. Effects improve when returned to light sources.

Stage 2: Psychological changes worsen, evolving from apathy to a kind of aggrieved nihilism -- they still can't follow reasoning, but increasingly find that irritating and upsetting. Physical illness including hair loss, fatigue, brittle nails, dry cracking skin, and severe lack of appetite.

Stage 3: Irreversible physical transformation into a predatory creature that must exist solely in darkness. The creature varies and likely reflects the nature of the individual changing. If any character gets to this stage, they will probably revert to normal upon return to Etraya. Players may choose to keep some lingering effects if they wish.

Exploratory Leads
These serve as optional narrative pathways that, when explored, will reveal more information about the world of Mesa and potentially about the meta-plot itself. If your character goes down any of these pathways, let us know precisely what actions they take in the major events thread, and we'll tell you the outcome.

1. Research Stations

Dotted throughout Mesa are empty, desolate research stations, all currently inoperable -- but for crafty characters, it may be possible to get some of them working again, at least enough to access computer records or unlock the specimen libraries. Each station is clearly situated to study the biome in which it's located, with scientific equipment and formerly-occupied study habitats appropriate to the area.

There's no real survival supplies to be scavenged here as they've been thoroughly picked over, but they do make for a decent temporary shelter -- it's just that the locals know where they all are, and patrols check them regularly for stragglers and outcasts.

2. Terraforming Plants

Apart from the research stations and the ramshackle dwellings of the locals, the other notable buildings that can be found are tall, imposing concrete structures. Inside are abandoned terraforming operations, far-future processing plants with on-site power stations, all currently defunct and thoroughly infested with wildlife.

Characters exploring the plants and savvy enough to pick up on their purpose may reasonably conclude that the sharp borders between the biomes are man-made. Perhaps one of them could even be made operational again.

3. Shifty Locals

The inhabitants are suspicious and hostile to outsiders, but they are human. It stands to reason that not every single one of them would be impossibly aggressive, and they probably have information about Mesa, what happened here, and even leads on their assignments.

Characters who are particularly determined to seek out their settlements can use the translator function of the earpiece to open communications. Provided they can give them reason to listen in the first place, that is.

4. Make It a Rescue

Not everyone will be totally accepting of the idea that this world will go up in smoke once they leave. Could it be possible to rescue those stuck here before that happens? Didn't Tatianna bring refugees of her own to Etraya recently, and weren't the Fae kidnapping others? Cross-world travel must happen beyond what Aurora provides for them.

Several questions would have to be answered first:

What would be used to transport them across worlds?
Where would they go? Could Echo (or Aurora) be convinced to let them stay in Etraya -- and even if they could, would the Etrayans want them there?
How do they convince the locals to leave?
Do they try to take the transformed people with them as well, positing that the effects would fade away from Mesa?

❬ MISSION NOTES ❭

📌 — We encourage players to contribute ideas for others to use regarding flora and fauna that can be encountered.

📌 — You can engage with spookier themes or meta-plot mystery to whatever extent you prefer on this mission. Keeping it nature and exploration focused is completely fine for characters better suited to that.

📌 — There is no power nerfing for this mission, and the network functions normally via their earpieces while on Mesa.

📌 — Please make sure to use the major events comment thread specifically to announce character actions that have a significant impact on the mission outcome or other characters, or to inquire about the optional exploratory leads.

📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the mission queries comment on this post. Other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

❬ PLOTTING FORM ❭

🔵FULL NAVIGATION🔵