I don't actually agree with "looking bleak", given that Melia herself didn't panic too hard when she let herself, and bleakness is about outlook. Perhaps a careful understatement like "things are challenging", if we decide to make such a statement at all.
[x] Ask Morgan if you can take a training orb with you.
[x] Gather your supplies, say goodbye to Morgan, and break the anchor early.
-[x] Explain the reasoning - you have a feeling that there's something Going On, and unless he can gather some significant extra supplies in the next 24 hours you're better off following your apparent new instincts.
-[x] Let him watch.
Alright, next post is mostly done based on the following:
[x] Ask Morgan if you can take a training orb with you.
[x] Gather your supplies, say goodbye to Morgan, and break the anchor early.
-[x] Explain the reasoning - you have a feeling that there's something Going On, and unless he can gather some significant extra supplies in the next 24 hours you're better off following your apparent new instincts.
-[x] Let him watch.
I'll probably have it finished tomorrow, but would y'all prefer I post your potential destinations now so you have some extra time to discuss them? 1.5 voting would lock if I do so and you wouldn't be able to cast votes for destination quite yet.
I don't actually agree with "looking bleak", given that Melia herself didn't panic too hard when she let herself, and bleakness is about outlook. Perhaps a careful understatement like "things are challenging", if we decide to make such a statement at all.
Just chopped that half off. The important part was saying we'd repay him given the opportunity, but it's not a big deal because I figure we're going to want to do that regardless of whether we say it here or not.
Actually, have we mentioned that healing is possible without a Talent in our world? Simply knowing that it's possible (well... on our world) could get their research headed in the right direction, though we're sadly lacking in details.
Alright, next post is mostly done based on the following:
I'll probably have it finished tomorrow, but would y'all prefer I post your potential destinations now so you have some extra time to discuss them? 1.5 voting would lock if I do so and you wouldn't be able to cast votes for destination quite yet.
[x] Ask Morgan if you can take a training orb with you.
[x] Gather your supplies, say goodbye to Morgan, and break the anchor early.
-[x] Explain the reasoning - you have a feeling that there's something Going On, and unless he can gather some significant extra supplies in the next 24 hours you're better off following your apparent new instincts.
-[x] Let him watch.
The following is a preview of your available destinations. I realize many of you may change your choices based on the other update contents, but this should at least help you get a head start on analysis and such. Do not vote yet.
Yes, you're viewing all four at once as divided sections of the same rift. Morgan can't see what you can and you don't believe you have enough time to explain. He's also holding a rat cage (on a stick) in the middle of the rift, but explaining that will be part of the main update.
For supplies from Morgan, you'll have a week's worth of food, five days of water, a thin bronze armband which updates with the locations of nearby, non-human, moving creatures every 4-6 seconds while active, lightweight cooking supplies, a raincloak, a few metal jars, four changes of clothing with none of them as nice as what you're currently wearing, a one-use protective barrier which also serves as a clearly artificial signal to any mages within a few kilometers, and a sack full of assorted coins you have yet to count out. You only see two or three small gold coins among them; you're pretty sure the rest are silver.
[] A pool of blood.
...Admittedly, "pool" might be a bit of an understatement. You don't think it's even possible to gather all the blood you can see without the assistance of magic. It'd dry up long before this, wouldn't it?
The pool itself seems to be in a darkened stone cavern. The roof is shaped like an upside-down bowl while the ground seems to slope upward the further away you go from the blood pool.
Upon further inspection, the red glow illuminating the room is coming from the blood itself. You think you can be forgiven for not noticing it the first time around. The beach of smaller rocks along the outside should be close enough to your window for you to land on it instead of inside the pool itself - at least, if your portal doesn't decide to propel you through it. You'll need to be careful.
Sniffing the air in front of the window is more than enough for you to estimate the cavern's ambient mana level: huge. Only, the mana you just breathed seems pretty weird? It actually takes you a few seconds to even find the new beads, and even once you do, you're not quite sure what to make of them. They're much, much closer to 'normal' than they should be. In fact, you're pretty sure they'll just be added to your current mana supply after only a few minutes. Normal environmental mana is completely used up by the walls of your network instead of replacing your current reserves.
There's only one thing keeping you from completely disregarding the window's contents as something out of a nightmare. Well, exempting your curiosity. Anyway, you can hear soft, sad singing from somewhere outside of your window's range of view. Maybe from the unseen center of the pool? Either way, you can't identify the singer's gender.
"Do you know a fairy tale I've yet to hear?
"Together, we can forget about the fear.
"...No? You can't remember?
"Then maybe we could—no, that doesn't rhyme and it's too long. Something with 'bringer?' 'Singer?' 'Chamber' might work..."
You vaguely wonder if this sort of thing is what people were thinking of when they claimed 'curiosity kills.' It's a room full ofblood. Shouldn't you be running away (screaming is optional) instead of seriously considering it?
[] A stone road.
"Boring" may be an appropriate descriptor for this window. The grey stone looks unusually well-maintained with a small herd of deer munching on the nearby plants. Apart from that, you can't really see anything interesting. It looks to be around midday and the road is shaded by a number of trees on either side. The ambient mana levels are minimal.
On the bright side, "boring" also means "safe(ish)." You think you can live with that.
[] A bustling marketplace.
Numerous temporary stalls line the sides of the market, most of them selling some food or another. While it's still pretty loud, you don't think it's as smelly as the town you're currently in, Strausile. The clothing of the people you can see is much, much more colorful than the drab attire worn by people here. You can't see anyone with a skin color far different from your own, a clear contrast to the unnatural colors—you still think purple skin is weird—of those in Strausile. On the other hand, too much similarity is itself strange; you don't see anyone with the normal shades of brown.
Given as your landing site would plant you in an empty space right next to a large water fountain, you're pretty sure you'll attract quite a bit of attention during your entry.
The ambient mana level seems surprisingly high for an occupied area, yet the only magical things you can see are a few water elementals playing in the fountain. You don't think that's unusual; magic is expensive.
It looks like it's about noon in the market.
[] A magical demonstration...?
...Or a massive assault on something in the starless skies above. Either/or. Streamers of multicolored light spread out from central detonations, which are themselves accompanied by a horrifically loud whistling noise. Upon review, the whistling should be accompanying each projectile as it travels into the skies above, with a BOOM accompanying each explosion. You suppose they're similar to lightning strikes, then? Those are the only phenomena you can think of which are something similarly out of sync.
The grass field in front of your entry point is unnaturally blackened and dry. You think you might even be able to see a few orange embers lingering among similarly-charred deadwood. While your view is mostly blocked by the nearby trees, you think you can see a few artificial structures closer to where the explosions are. One of them even looks like it could have nine floors, which you're guessing would be the local mage's guild or some equivalent. You'd been under the impression it was flat-out impossible to build that high, but maybe magic can take care of that particular problem?
QM's Note: Unlike the original world selection, options are not automatically equal and it is possible for you to end up someplace particularly unpleasant, the potential to be unpleasant if you do something foolish, etc. The same holds true in the future unless other factors negate it. You are (IC), however, fairly certain that your rifts wouldn't send you anywhere instantly fatal; even if you end up somewhere dangerous, you're fairly certain you should be able to get out of it alive. 'Unharmed' might be a different story.
Posting this early so I'm A, not so anxious to get the next update out and can include more detail, and B, so you have time to discuss it. Mostly B. I'll be using preference voting and it's hard to dislodge that. The first QM note has a list of your supplies.
I repeat: Do not vote yet. Update may be up tomorrow.
...Or a massive assault on something in the starless skies above. Either/or. Streamers of multicolored light spread out from central detonations, which are themselves accompanied by a horrifically loud whistling noise. Upon review, the whistling should be accompanying each projectile as it travels into the skies above, with a BOOM accompanying each explosion. You suppose they're similar to lightning strikes, then? Those are the only phenomena you can think of which are something similarly out of sync.
The grass field in front of your entry point is unnaturally blackened and dry. You think you might even be able to see a few orange embers lingering among similarly-charred deadwood. While your view is mostly blocked by the nearby trees, you think you can see a few artificial structures closer to where the explosions are. One of them even looks like it could have nine floors, which you're guessing would be the local mage's guild or some equivalent. You'd been under the impression it was flat-out impossible to build that high, but maybe magic can take care of that particular problem?
Numerous temporary stalls line the sides of the market, most of them selling some food or another. While it's still pretty loud, you don't think it's as smelly as the town you're currently in, Strausile. The clothing of the people you can see is much, much more colorful than the drab attire worn by people here. You can't see anyone with a skin color far different from your own, a clear contrast to the unnatural colors—you still think purple skin is weird—of those in Strausile. On the other hand, too much similarity is itself strange; you don't see anyone with the normal shades of brown.
Given as your landing site would plant you in an empty space right next to a large water fountain, you're pretty sure you'll attract quite a bit of attention during your entry.
The ambient mana level seems surprisingly high for an occupied area, yet the only magical things you can see are a few water elementals playing in the fountain. You don't think that's unusual; magic is expensive.
"Boring" may be an appropriate descriptor for this window. The grey stone looks unusually well-maintained with a small herd of deer munching on the nearby plants. Apart from that, you can't really see anything interesting. It looks to be around midday and the road is shaded by a number of trees on either side. The ambient mana levels are minimal.
On the bright side, "boring" also means "safe(ish)." You think you can live with that.
...Admittedly, "pool" might be a bit of an understatement. You don't think it's even possible to gather all the blood you can see without the assistance of magic. It'd dry up long before this, wouldn't it?
The pool itself seems to be in a darkened stone cavern. The roof is shaped like an upside-down bowl while the ground seems to slope upward the further away you go from the blood pool.
Upon further inspection, the red glow illuminating the room is coming from the blood itself. You think you can be forgiven for not noticing it the first time around. The beach of smaller rocks along the outside should be close enough to your window for you to land on it instead of inside the pool itself - at least, if your portal doesn't decide to propel you through it. You'll need to be careful.
Sniffing the air in front of the window is more than enough for you to estimate the cavern's ambient mana level: huge. Only, the mana you just breathed seems pretty weird? It actually takes you a few seconds to even find the new beads, and even once you do, you're not quite sure what to make of them. They're much, much closer to 'normal' than they should be. In fact, you're pretty sure they'll just be added to your current mana supply after only a few minutes. Normal environmental mana is completely used up by the walls of your network instead of replacing your current reserves.
There's only one thing keeping you from completely disregarding the window's contents as something out of a nightmare. Well, exempting your curiosity. Anyway, you can hear soft, sad singing from somewhere outside of your window's range of view. Maybe from the unseen center of the pool? Either way, you can't identify the singer's gender.
"Do you know a fairy tale I've yet to hear?
"Together, we can forget about the fear.
"...No? You can't remember?
"Then maybe we could—no, that doesn't rhyme and it's too long. Something with 'bringer?' 'Singer?' 'Chamber' might work..."
You vaguely wonder if this sort of thing is what people were thinking of when they claimed 'curiosity kills.' It's a room full ofblood. Shouldn't you be running away (screaming is optional) instead of seriously considering it?
I want to go here! At least we know it's obviously weird. I also like the reinforcement idea of the mana here, seems like it's yet another different set of minorly different physics here.
On the one hand, attention. On the other, civilization. Given she doesn't have any means of defense beyond magic I'm not really sure about the road. The last option seems dangerously flammable. The first option sounds a bit too high risk, if likely also offering a reward if we diplomacy successfully.
Blood pool is shiny. Fireworks/possible magic weapons are shiny. Marketplace is somewhat shiny, also more elementals is nice. Road is not shiny, do not want. Other then the road I'd be ok with any of these choices.
[] A pool of blood.
We've just received a warning that there are bad choices. Hell no.
[] A stone road.
Boring, but... probably safe? We've got supplies picked up some survival skills - honestly, this one's pretty tempting as a safe way to get a decent grasp on our magic and practice orienteering safely. There's nothing stopping us from going to the more exciting ones when we aren't a complete neophyte.
[] A bustling marketplace.
A High-magic marketplace, complete with native elementals. Not the worst choice, unless random teleportation is sufficiently alarming to the residents of the world, and nothing in particular gives off that vibe. That being said, we could easily just end up in a jail or a less sympathetic mage's guild, waiting out our anchor - we're on a time limit, and bureaucracy is a thing. We also don't have very much money, really. I think this one would be best left until we've got enough currency we can purchase something worth purchasing, or all the other ones suck.
[] A magical demonstration...?
This just seems like a modern-day locale, which might be surprisingly dangerous if it's a no-magic world - it only takes one panicky idiot with a gun.
Overall, I'm leaning heavily towards being as safe as possible and reaching a basic level of competence in survival skills, fighting and magic before we try for anything more exciting. So, probably the stone road.
Does the stone road make anyone else think "modern setting, that's asphalt" or am I guessing too hard? Fireworks could be one too.
My heart is telling me blood blood and my brain is mercilessly pummeling it. We're way too weak to be taking that kind of risk.
If we go for the market, what should our first action be? Just sit down by the fountain while we wait for our translation start working?
Can we get an emergency addition of "a small bag of sweets" to that equipment list, please? Pretty please? I want treats to feed elementals. The combined magical barrier + SOS beacon is really cool, btw.
Was the blood pool's description SO HUGE because the ambient mana levels were so large? That and the much lower road's short description being side by side makes me think so.
Let's look at this from the perspective of having Opportunities. Are any of these time-limited, and if so, how?
If the singer isn't a permanent fixture of the pool of blood - a prisoner? - that's a very obvious example of something that might be very good that'd also go away pretty rapidly.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the road is probably pretty static.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the marketplace is probably pretty static.
The "demonstration", which may I remind you appears to have lit the ground on fire and is therefore more likely to be an artillery bombardment, is definitely something happening.
I'm somewhat tempted to think that the pool of blood is the opportunity that we might have gotten by going a day early. :/
Fireworks seems like a sure thing for "modern, no magic" given the tall buildings. I think asphalt would look pretty odd to someone from a low-tech setting - stone doesn't look like quite like that. It would have to be really very rural too, for deer to be wandering nearby.
Let's look at this from the perspective of having Opportunities. Are any of these time-limited, and if so, how?
If the singer isn't a permanent fixture of the pool of blood - a prisoner? - that's a very obvious example of something that might be very good that'd also go away pretty rapidly.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the road is probably pretty static.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the marketplace is probably pretty static.
The "demonstration", which may I remind you appears to have lit the ground on fire and is therefore more likely to be an artillery bombardment, is definitely something happening.
I'm somewhat tempted to think that the pool of blood is the opportunity that we might have gotten by going a day early. :/
I disagree regarding the last choice - I thought the same for a minute, but I'm pretty sure it's just the ground in front of her that's burnt, and given the deadwood I think there's been a bonfire there. If I really had to guess, I'd say it's modern-day UK on the 5th of November.
As for the opportunity, my guess is that we don't usually have this much choice in destinations - we either have more information and/or more potential destinations than usual, or it's entirely possible that if we leave it too long we lose any choice in the matter at all.
How about we pick somewhere nice and safe, like the road, and next time do some experimentation as to what changes occur to this process as time passes?
Let's look at this from the perspective of having Opportunities. Are any of these time-limited, and if so, how?
If the singer isn't a permanent fixture of the pool of blood - a prisoner? - that's a very obvious example of something that might be very good that'd also go away pretty rapidly.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the road is probably pretty static.
Unless there's some kind of event coming up, the marketplace is probably pretty static.
The "demonstration", which may I remind you appears to have lit the ground on fire and is therefore more likely to be an artillery bombardment, is definitely something happening.
I'm somewhat tempted to think that the pool of blood is the opportunity that we might have gotten by going a day early. :/
If she is a prisoner, and that thought did cross my mind too, I don't think we're capable of freeing her or really doing anything other than gagging at the overpowering stench of blood right now. It doesn't matter if that's the opportunity we gained if we have no ability to grasp it.
Eh. We just answer them honestly. Even if they're massive jerks, I don't see them doing anything super mean to someone who is willingly and peacefully going along with whatever they ask. Worst I expect is they nullify our elementals, slap magic restricting restraints on us, and let us cool our head for a bit until they can have someone talk to us to straighten things out.
My first choice dangerous most likely given all the blood however Melia has an affinity with necromancy and if there a chance to learn it, it is going to be a place covered with blood and creepy singing
Oddly enough, you barely even smell the blood and you don't think any of the other windows dampened their smells. That portion of the rift smells more like you and you don't know why. You don't even know how you smell in the first place; how are you supposed to know the cavern smells like you?
Oddly enough, you barely even smell the blood and you don't think any of the other windows dampened their smells. That portion of the rift smells more like you and you don't know why. You don't even know how you smell in the first place; how are you supposed to know the cavern smells like you?
My first choice dangerous most likely given all the blood however Melia has an affinity with necromancy and if there a chance to learn it, it is going to be a place covered with blood and creepy singing
Oddly enough, you barely even smell the blood and you don't think any of the other windows dampened their smells. That portion of the rift smells more like you and you don't know why. You don't even know how you smell in the first place; how are you supposed to know the cavern smells like you?
Seriously though - what makes me wonder about it is the singer/poem. They mention bringer and new fairy tales like they KNOW we are coming. They might have a way to draw us to a location if thats true.
The place smelling like us does explain why the mana gets absorbed so quickly. I'm more than a little worried if Melia's mindscape/soulscape/whatever looks like this, tho.
