EVENT ★ MAT GATHERING

[futurologists]

The investigations in the sungazing log have lead to a number of discoveries, including trace amounts of solar radiation and seemingly temporary lights in the sky that match no known star charts currently in Chantes. On the 15th, Rick will announce via the verdict over the network: the sun isn’t gone. un: 82736775 Those of you who actually did your job instead of screwing off (and breaking my shit! Yes, I know all about it), congrats. We've made headway on our dumbass situation. The sun isn't gone (obviously). There are radiation levels suggesting that it's still there somewhere, but it's weirdly faint. Concerning item number one. Concerning item number two: there are lights in the sky but they're not native stars. They're red in the west in the morning, and in the east in the evening. This suggests a solar cycle that we just can't observe (with a western sunrise apparently). There are no moons visible; supposedly there should be two. Go figure. The most interesting observations came from the storm, during which the "star" readings went off the charts, dawg. All lit up like Christmas and shit. Hypothesis: the darkness is not because homeboy made anything "vanish with magic," but because he stuck a big "blanket" between the planet and the sky. The "stars" are likely just holes in his dumb bullshit. So let's get this solution rolling so we can get off this godforsaken rock. This is where you losers come in. I need things . . . The mystery of the disappearing sun might be clear, but that doesn’t mean the problem’s solved. Now’s the hard part: creating something that will dispel the darkness. Fortunately, with the right ingredients, science might be able to win the daylight back. All recruits will be encouraged to help with some good, old-fashioned teamwork and fetch quests. SCAVENGER HUNT The list is as follows: Iron ore. Collecting it seems easy enough, but a dangerous serpentine creature capable of breathing electricity known as a Behir lairs nearby. If hungry, it will ambush characters and will not stop unless it succeeds or is slain. Following the rich iron supply, characters will also find a series of winding underground caves and caverns. Inside are items such as glowing cave mushrooms that are likely radioactive. Blue mushrooms maintain their coloring due to a rare solute in the cave water, helpful for optimizing fuel. Green mushrooms are useless and if you collect them you should feel bad. Bat guano. Bats indigenous to the caves also seem to be affected by the contaminated cave water, however -- they’re enormous, blood-sucking, and have developed a mild venom. While one bite won’t kill anyone, the bats have numbers, ultrasonic screeches, and bad tempers. Plutonic rocks. The source of the odd cave life, an ancient scattering of some massive meteorite resides deep inside the cave. They’ve got rich veins and chunks of crystal, the bigger the better. (We’d tell you what these space oddities are for, but we think it’d blow your minds.) Cave Minnows. The fish inside the cave lakes are easy to spot since they’re bioluminescent, but only the small, quick ones metabolize the correct oils for this project. The large ones will simply try to drag you into a death roll the -- surprisingly deep -- waters. Glowworms. See those lights hanging overhead? They’re not bulbs, but bundles of strange, glowing cave worms. Reaching and handling them might be tricky, and keep careful watch of them. They’ll burrow into anything, including your packs, your collected materials, or worst of all, you. Rock salt. Delicious! Potassium nitrate. This one is easier to find in Chantes itself: an old woman in town has a giant jar of it that she uses for pickling. Recruits may attempt to wile her out of a cup, or steal from the elderly. Wildcard. If you don't mind volatile reactions, go ahead and science on your own. Or see anything else that might be useful? Grab it and go. As a side-mission for the cave items, it seems the 15th is also the only day of the year that the night-blooming cereus plants are open around the cavern entrances. These flowers must be handled very delicately or they’ll wither and die, and local insects of all shapes, sizes, and aggressiveness will be drawn to them, so collectors beware. These flowers will have no bearing on the sun solution, but the goblin church will ask outgoing adventurers to bring some back with them. These items may come into play in February depending on IC actions, but otherwise they make for some pretty decorations! And finally, a big thanks to ricksybusiness for submitting their player plot and working with us. You go, Rick Sanchez.

Comments

[grunehexe]

As much as can go in this jar.

[It really was overpowering, wasn't it? Sieglinde was accustomed to some rather nasty scents- heck, she'd even inhaled mild poisonous gases on more than one occasion when conducting her experiments, but.

Phew.

She pulled said jar from her satchel, about 36 ounces, unscrewing the lid and staring at her gloved hands a moment before... diving in.]

Euch-

[Noted, the ammonia would probably damage their eyes if they stayed too long.]

[digophelia]

That's quite a bit.

[ She wasn't too thrilled with the idea of Sieglinde carrying it, while Alice herself had to carry it. The stench was starting to cause Alice to cough; she ends up taking a handkerchief and covering it over her mouth for some mild relief from the potent ammonia in the air.

Somehow, under her breath, Alice mutters- ]

It's almost bad as an asylum.

[ It may not be low enough for Sieglinde not to hear, Alice is simply musing to herself while she holds her handkerchief over her mouth for relief. It wasn't as if staff cared about cleanliness back in Rutledge. Memories flooding back, Alice goes back to focusing to the bats on the wall. ]

We're lucky; at least these little fellows aren't aggressive.

[grunehexe]

[Luckily? for the both of them, Sieglinde doesn't quite catch Alice's mutter over the squelching sound of bat guano. Not wanting to hang around such a chemical-filled area for too long, she is doing her best to work quickly, digging deep for the older desposits and taking double fistfuls to deposit in the jar.

At the comment she does hear, though, Sieglinde turns a somewhat nervous glance upwards to the darkness of the ceiling, the sound of fluttering wings.]

- are they not?

[digophelia]

They must be like bees.

[ Alice still isn't bothered by bats -- she's not bothered by a lot of animals most people found creepy or gross, save a few things she would find when she played out in the backyard of her home. ]

Bees will never hurt you, unless you hurt them.

[ She remembers that much from playing in the garden, too, eager to collect flowers. Friendly advice from her past experiences in her youth. ]

And besides, we're big and scary to them; if they really meant any harm, they would have attacked us by now. They're cute, in an odd way.

[ Especially how she's watching one clean it's face and fidget on the walls. It almost reminds her of a cat. ]

[grunehexe]

[What she says about bees is true, at least- the women of her village had kept them, and she'd watched them tend them, harvest their honey and the like. But she couldn't compare them that easily]

Bats carry disease, though- to cattle, and the like... that's why people spread those rumors about them.

[About them being the devil, vampires... all that foolishness.

She takes a big whiff of her herb satchel for a moment before continuing in her task.]

[digophelia]

That may be, but so do rats and people.

[ There are plenty of rats and people, dirty and filthy. Once again, Alice presses her face against the smelling herbs, inhaling deeper. ]

This is nothing; there are worst places than this, you know, much worse. Even some corners of London can be this terrible. Still-

[ Her love of animals is far too strong. ]

They may carry disease, but are they really that malicious?

[grunehexe]

There are plenty of equally nasty rumors about rats, as well...

[And about people- those poor souls with physical deformities, lepers, the touched...]

They're not malicious, of course, but-

[But she had to cut herself off and gag a bit, waving a hand in front of her nose with a wrinkling of brow and a frown- this was possibly the foulest material harvest she'd ever been on, and as lucrative as it would prove...

She hastily finished filling the jar, stripped off her gloves and bagged them, and carefully stood back up to make it easier to lift her.]

Let us depart from here.

[digophelia]

Gladly.

[ She won't stay to argue the nature of nasty rumors and creatures feared, having a sense of pity and even empathy to them. Black cats, bats, and rats... all those creatures with folklore attached to them and with plenty of plagues. What mattered now was getting out of the cave. Carefully, Alice holds her feet to the ground and swoops up Sieglinde in her arms and begins the tentative walk back, out to the maw of the cave.

Sudden movements seem to startle the bats, a few of them swooping too close to comfort, snagging Alice's hair.

All Alice can do is heave a sigh. ]

Don't worry, we're not staying very long. You can have the cave, for all that we care.

[ She'll just wear better boots next time, almost stumbling against jagged rocks and guano, Alice has to stop a moment to re-center herself before she can continue onward. ]

The point is, I always thought people were afraid of things that aren't very scary.

[grunehexe]

[Though Sieglinde had no particular fear of bats, she didn't exactly appreciate the swooping, flinching a bit and ducking her head as they made their passes. Really, bats- Play nice.

She waits until they're out of the guano filled portion of the cave to straighten up, nodding along with a little frown.]

For some people, perhaps bats are the scariest things they've seen.

[Some people, she supposed, had never seen werewolves, or tanks, or known whatever it was that Alice had.

But... that was probably for the best. Let them be afraid of bats and spiders.]

[digophelia]

[ Getting out of the cave was Alice's priority now; making this much noise trying to climb up a small hill to the opening was a bit of a challenge. The Chantes were dark and bats, she knew, seemed to thrive in darkness. That was to say, as Alice was getting out of there and away from the guano filled portion, the bats were becoming more lively, passing in and out and passing them both. ]

Poor dears.

[ Alice was sure she was waking them up, smashing through the rocks of the cave and out of there. ]

If bats are the scariest things they've seen in their lives, then they must live simple lives.

[ It was one of the few dark things Alice would ever say around Sieglinde. She couldn't begin to imagine how some of those people would perceive horrors around them that weren't bats. Maybe they would faint or lose their minds. Still, to Alice, they were cute and still very harmless. But they wouldn't stay for much longer, she was making sure of that. As Alice moved out of the cave, quite a number of them started to spill out. Alice, of course, had to stop and look at them flee out of the cave.

She was curious, always curious. ]

Where to now, Sieglinde?

[grunehexe]

[Simple lives. Could she envy those people, who were afraid of bats and spiders because they didn't have anything else to terrify them? Those people were probably "happy". They likely had loving families and safe homes and didn't need to know anything about the horrors of the world.

Sometimes she felt jealous of that- but she couldn't bring herself to actually want it, to want a life that wasn't filled with her arcane research, with the so many things she still wanted to learn.

And now the bats were... there was no blotting out the moon or stars, not in this darkness, but they were a different shade of dark, beating their way through the night.]

... let us go back to my workshop. Thank you, Alice.