♥ November Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

November (Malom) Event Log
The chaos of Lasohm's invasion is still fresh in the mind, but it's over. The ugly scar of the hole in Havenwell's wall is a jarring reminder that this world is dying and nothing goes quietly into that dark night. The phantom is gone as Malom overtakes Lasohm, the weather turning colder and chillier with each passing day. Still, the city of Havenwell has all of you offworlders to thank for its survival, and the fearful citizens make sure you know just how much they appreciate you by stopping you on the street to say their thanks. Your new home still needs your help to recover from their ordeal though, so will you lend them your strength once more?

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❥ PROMPT I: Rebuilding Effort

The magic barrier over the hole that unknown monster punched through Havenwell's wall is repaired, stopping the onslaught and encouraging any other nightmares that lurk outside to move on and away, but the hole itself remains. Throughout the month of Malom, robot natives are working tirelessly to gather bricks and stone and patch the breach, but they could use some help. Work together with other offworlders and natives alike to repair the wall and be rewarded with a handsome bump to the Dora in your bank account. They need all sorts of help, from clearing away the dead bodies of the spider-like creatures for cremation, to retrieving and hauling stone for the wall, to actually slotting the heavy blocks into place to cement them back together.

Outside the barrier, now clearly visible through the hole, a storm rages on, obscuring the view of the world beyond it. Gray and black clouds whip against the invisible barrier, and occasional debris slams into it, causing the impact site to light up with silver, pink, blue, or white hues before it fades away again. It seems even without monsters, the world outside is as inhospitable as was rumored.

Work together or take a break along the base of the wall and get to know your fellow offworlders a little better. It's going to take a while before this mess is cleaned up.

❥ PROMPT II: Air Sickness

Those who worked at or were near the breach in the wall for any extended period of time will notice that, over time, it gets harder to breathe. Then they begin to feel feverish, even if they don't have flesh bodies or are immune to disease. Their bodies ache and groan and it gets harder to move about without help. Once the natives notice, they set up a recovery area away from where the breach occurred: a giant tent with cots and pillows, thick rugs and blankets to keep the chill away. Unfortunately, they don't have medicines available to treat flesh bodied people, so they're at a loss of what to do otherwise. The priests gather anyone who is ill and brings them here...which is when a curious thing occurs.

While conventional medicines and healing spells seem to have no effect on the illness, staying in contact with another person alleviates the symptoms. After a period of contact with another person or persons, the fever breaks and it's like you were never sick at all.

Return to the wall, however, and you'll notice your symptoms coming back with a vengeance after a few days. It seems that making regular trips between the wall and this recovery tent is the only way to keep working. At least it's an easy fix so long as you're not a germaphobe.

❥ PROMPT III: A Tasty(?) Reward

Toward the end of the month as the hole in the wall is completely repaired and the risk of illness declines, a message is sent to all the offworlders' communication devices. Those who choose to open it will find a very official looking message from The Havenwell Council that reads:

Greetings, Saviours of Havenwell!
We of the Havenwell Council greet you and wish to express our eternal gratitude for your valiant efforts to keep our wonderful home safe. Without you, we would not have survived this terrible onslaught. As such, we wish to express our gratitude in a more concrete form. Your emissary, Magolor, has been in contact with this venerable Council and has brought to our attention that your greatest concern is for the food available. We apologize that due to our inability to taste we have been unable to supply you with satisfactory meals.

To that end, we invite you to work with our scientists to improve upon the taste of currently available offerings from our replicators. Please come to the Northern Research Tower (map included) at any time this month to sample what our replicators can produce and give us feedback on their flavour and textures. We ask that you be as specific as possible in your criticisms so we may improve upon your general quality of life. Please feel free to bring as many friends as you wish.

May the Gods Protect You,
Havenwell Council, Community Liaisons

Those who take the invitation will arrive at the Northern Research Tower and be taken directly to the 40th floor, where a large banquet hall has been laid out. Five rectangular tables, over 5 meters long each, stretch down the room, creating aisles for people to walk down. At the far end are several high round tables, covered in white cloth, and high round stools for those who wish them. The tables are overflowing with food, much like the welcome dinner, but at each table and scattered throughout the room are scientist robots with arm bands that read "Experiment 73" in that peculiar Aellyn script you saw during your time at the Archives. They invite you to taste the foods - both raw and cooked - and to give your very honest opinions.

Enjoy the food, help them improve the flavours, and walk the room to talk with the others who have come. Those who participate will receive a small synthetic fruit basket to take home with them on their first visit. Feel free to come back as often as you like, however! Each time, they'll be changing and adjusting the food available so your first and last visit may be very different. Perhaps that strawberry actually even tastes sweet, finally.

❥ PROMPT IV: A Virtual Spa

The VR cafes are uncharacteristically quiet while the rebuilding effort goes on, but there are still those who come to plug in to unwind after a day of intensive labor. And what better way to unwind than with a hot bath, right? Since the people of Havenwell can't actually submerge themselves in water, they're doing the next best thing: going to a virtual hot spring. There are several types to choose from and despite being digital, their calming and soothing effects on the body seem very real. Choose from:

• The Classic Outdoors: a rock lined hot spring with natural rock floors and steamy mineral infused waters nestled in the mountains. All around you is beautiful greenery like a sweeping pine and low fragrant bushes. The serene air and the calm forest is only occasionally broken by the sound of a wooden pipe thudding hollowly against a rock at a steady interval or the sound of birdsong off in the trees. The relaxing atmosphere is enough to set even the tightest wound nerves at ease.
  
  
• The Marbled Columns: white and painted marble columns lead to a series of different shaped baths with statues of the gods pouring water into them. Each bath has a different healing property, which is clearly marked with a plaque at the rim of each: good for your circulation, your bones, your aches and pains, even acne and metabolic rate. The columns support a beautiful open ceiling that shows the perfectly blue sky overhead dotted with the occasional cloud.
  
  
• The Steamy Sauna: though seemingly austere in their white tile and deep blue bath basins, the air here is thick and steamy and the baths are deep with hand-rails leading down steps to help you enter. All around the basins are stone or wooden benches with towels laid down for those who wish to simply sit and let the warm air open their lungs. If you get too hot? Grab a bucketful of cold water from one of the freestanding tubs and douse yourself to get a shock and cool off.
  
  
• The Milk-and-Honey: a beautifully tiled bath with a large shallow rectangular basin. The surrounding walls and ceilings have blue, white, and gold geometric designs laid out with loving care in pleasant designs that ease the mind. The bath water here is filled with a concoction of milk and honey to soothe and smooth the skin, filling the air with a pleasing sweet scent. The effects of these baths on a person's skin is said to make them glow from the inside out for at least a day after bathing.
  
  
• The Theme Park: the first thing to greet you is the comically oversized bottle of red wine tipped to pour a continuous stream of red liquid into the large crystalline bath basin. The smell of wine is heavy but pleasant in the air and the crystalline basin is round and shaped like a wine glass. Climb up the glass steps and give yourself a good old soak in the red water. You might even find that taking a dip here gives you a heady happiness that lasts all day. And if it feels like you're a little drunk while there? That has to be your imagination! ...Maybe.

Hot springs are great to experience with friends to deepen that feeling of skinship you have with each other, and several Havenwell natives are doing just that. But what about those who don't have a friend to log in with? Don't worry! The game will randomly select another player from this or another facility and match you together. Isn't that nice? We're sure it is! Who doesn't want to talk to someone else while naked, right?

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This event will run from November 14th to the 31st. Click on each prompt's title to see the text. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread here.

Comments

[unsunderworld]

Alas - in this world, at least, my aether is far too limited to create anything much larger than furniture. Something like this- well, even outside of all that I've just described, it's almost certain that the material is of some nature beyond the mundane, that it functions as a whole with the barrier above, and to Create of that material would take a great deal of research. Research that I have my doubts our hosts would allow me to conduct upon it, assuming it not to be merely divine blessing.

[He says it with no small amount of disappointment. He does so very much miss the ability to simply create, without having to so carefully measure his strength.]

Even at the height of my power, to Create the entire span of the wall would be beyond me. A space such as this gap would be about the limit of what I could manage from scratch, and would leave me able to do little but recover for some days. Easier to create a framework and then fill it out, much as they do in mundane construction. Far easier, perhaps, depending on the level of detail involved; a wall is nothing so complex, but something such as the temples would be far too much detail for even one such as I to hold in the mind at once.

1/4

[iustaegis]

[ Something in the beginning portion of what he's said seems to have caught her attention-- moreso than it had before, but then her expression shifts once more, sorrowful. ]

[iustaegis]

[ She appears sympathetic, thoughtful.

It must be disappointing to have an ability, an adored one at that, and then, upon arrival, not be able to exercise it...

She understands, she feels the same, but expressing her understanding won't help him, so she doesn't. ]

[iustaegis]

[ ...Wait. ]

done

[iustaegis]

---Emet-Selch!

[ Her head snaps up, looking at him. ] Emet-Selch, [ She repeats this with a smile. ] It might not be the same thing, but...

Perhaps, virtual reality will give you chance to enjoy Creating once again! [ She steps up to him with a bounce. Hi, hello there. Pyra is here. ] I've heard from someone that there were virtual games for things like dancing in their world, and if there are games like that, then there could be something for building, too!

[ She claps her hands together. ]

Think of it-- [ She encourages this softly, voice imbued with hope for him. ] Entire cities to draft, at your fingertips!

[unsunderworld]

[He still smiles, more than faintly.]

I've indeed considered the matter; I might well take up the challenge, if such a thing does not already exist, for I've some understanding of such code.

[Look, Allag had reasonably complex AI, they almost certainly had Minecraft.]

But I fear it will never be quite so seamless. No matter what substitutes I might find, true Creation has ever been its own entity. Coming as close as I might is a worthy challenge of its own, but those systems were not created with entities such as I in mind. They've no ability to represent aether, which feels not unlike saying "they were created with every sense but one."

[iustaegis]

[ What tragic irony it is, that a creator such as him helped birth a god that ultimately led to destruction.

She takes a step back from him, a hand going to her chin. ]

"Entities such as I"...? [ A soft laugh tickles past her lips. ] Are you above having a little fun?

[ OKAY she knows he means it in the sense of what he is, but she can't help the jest. He just sounds so posh while saying it! ]

[unsunderworld]

[His smile remains in place, though it is faint.]

When you've as much experience as I moving among those who are so unlike yourself - [And for a moment, just a flicker, but one that she will almost certainly not miss, as focused on his eyes as she always is, his gaze drops, to that core of light that forms her chest.] - then you too will come to understand the need for a different set of standards.

The people of this world have no experience manipulating aether, or so it seems to me from the forms their technologies take. So of course they would not include it. But the resulting landscape within those simulations is... unsettling, from my perspective.

[iustaegis]

[ While she catches the flit of his gaze down to the crystal, she does not remark upon it.

Virtual reality would not be the same as creating a true landscape, but she knows many might enjoy the opportunity to devise a city, even in a game. As for Emet-Selch and what he may accomplish within actual reality...

It saddens her to hear he isn’t able to do as he’s done in his own world. She is not either. The power to create suns is beyond her now. But perhaps together... . ]

Emet-Selch. [ The hand that had been upon his chest returns to hers, fingers delicately curling inward. ]

Not now, but in the future.... Let us Create something together.