Greetings, Pinecones! Welcome to our April event, featuring another mess along with another way to hop on the metaplot. Though the event technically starts today, the first few days are pretty metaplot-free anyway, so there's no rush here. :)
Now, on to the write-up.
WAYWARD FALLS
ENVIRONMENT EVENT: Meltwater Flood EVENT DATE: April 13th - 23th(?)
It begins with a crack, as many alarming and unfortunate things tend to do. Anyone who's ever jumped a little too hard on a frozen river will recognize the sound in an instant: It's the sound of ice caving under pressure, and it echoes through the cozy wooded canyon just in time for the first trickle of water to drip over the face of the northern cliffs. Within the hour, tens of thousands of gallons of water are pouring over the cliff, a waterfall of meltwater finally freed from behind an icy dam.
And it doesn't stop. The woods flood. The north end of town floods. Power flickers. And then comes the debris.
Without any real warning, solid objects come careening over the cliffs, carried in by the runoff cascading down to the forest below. First, it's large rocks, almost boulders in their own right. Then, the debris starts to look a little more... man-made. What has the floodwater brought the little town of Wayward Pines? And possibly more importantly, will the waterfall ever cease?
IN CHARACTER
DON'T GO CHASING WATERFALLS
Yes. Yes it will. But we'll get there later in the write-up.
At midday on the 13th, when the sun is high overhead, the sound of a cracking sheet of ice echoes down into the canyon that houses the town of Wayward Pines. About a half-hour later, meltwater begins to cascade over the north face of the cliffs, thoroughly dousing the forest below. The water is frigid as only glacier water tends to be, warmed just barely by the sun and the journey to the top of the cliffs from whence it came. In fact, with it comes chunks of ice up to the size of a basketball, though only throughout the first day or so.
The flooding is mild at first, not even quite reaching the river, but what area it does reach quickly becomes a lesser swamp. By the 15th, it has reached the river, and by the the 16th, the river has begun to overflow its banks despite the construction crew's best efforts to shore them up.
And that's when things get dodgy.
A handful of things occur on April 17th:
The flooding reaches the town. Individuals who live in the affected areas (most notably the 1BR homes in the northeast corners of town) will find a foot and a half of water on the street in front of their homes, though their actual yards have been largely spared due to the height of the sidewalk, with just a couple of inches of water waiting once you step out your front door.
The waterfall now begins to carry large rocks over the edge of the cliffs, some as big as three feet in diameter. These aren't frequent, just once every few minutes, but they pose a danger to anyone who might come too close to the flooding's source.
Late in the morning, the screech of metal on rock can be heard from the east end of the northern cliffs. From the right vantage point on the south end of town, a large object can be spotted peeking just barely over the top of the cliffs at exactly the place the sound seems to have come from. Whatever it is seems to be diverting some of the water flow to the eastern cliffs instead.
By now, much of the wildlife too small to wade through a foot or more of floodwater can be seen charging through the streets of Wayward Pines in a mad dash toward the thus-far-dry western forest.
Clearly, things are starting to go to hell. Citizens are starting to panic, entire sections of town are without power, and the water creeps deeper into Wayward Pines by the day.
But things are just about to get interesting.
Around 3 AM on the 18th, a large crash sounds from the northeast, though it's nigh impossible to pinpoint the source in the dark of night. Interestingly enough, at around 6 AM the power returns to the darkened section of town, though every few minutes it gives an unsteady flicker. And once the sun rises over the cliffs, the source of the mysterious crash is abundantly obvious: Some sort of mysterious cylindrical wreckage hangs precariously halfway down the face of the cliff, barely visible through the renewed downpour of meltwater now that this piece of trash isn't blocking the water flow. Below it, two more chunks can be spotted high up in the trees, having fallen farther than the first but caught on the thick forest's upper canopy.
Debris from the wreckage can then be found at a number of locations in the northeastern corner of the canyon, though in order to reach the wreckage itself, you're going to have to climb...
Finally, late on the 18th, the downpour begins to slow down. By the end of the 19th, what was once a waterfall has calmed down to about the strength of an obscenely wide showerhead, and the floodwater finally begins to recede.
Things are a little bit damp in our lovely town for a few more days. The weather is warm and sunny, absolutely perfect to witness the wonders of evaporation in action, but a dwindling body of water still pools in the northern streets until the 20th. It'll take a few more days for the forest to dry out, but at the very least, the situation is finally under control.
OUT OF CHARACTER
THE BREAKDOWN
This event has two important features: The flood itself, and the debris hurtling over the cliffs. The former is essentially a free-for-all, do as much with the flood as you'd like. The debris, meanwhile, is our metaplot opportunity, and we'll be taking volunteers to discover it below. It's important to note that while there is plenty to be discovered in this month's metaplot, this series of investigation opportunities will not affect the outcome of the event (like it did in March's Outbreak).
You will find four top-levels below for your plotting and volunteering needs! Feel free to start utilizing them right away, though you can also do so at any point during the event.
Top-level #1 is for players to ask general questions of the mods. Unlike in last month's event, the metaplot investigation will not go here, as it involves less mystery-solving and requires fewer actual questions.
Top-level #2 is where you can volunteer your character for a number of metaplot discovery opportunities! Each opportunity will have a comment under this top-level. You're welcome to volunteer your character for multiple opportunities, provided they fit any necessary criteria. The volunteers will be RNGed on the 15th and will be guided through their segment from there. If your character is chosen but would bring their husband, bestie, roommate, or that stranger down the street, that's entirely fine. You can recruit however many people you'd like to join in the fun. :)
Top-level #3 is where the mods will work with the chosen volunteers on laying out exactly what they're about to discover. If you want to be kept apprised as things occur rather than waiting for the mod-posted summaries, this is the thread to track!
Top-level #4 is for players to plot with each other. Bring the details you receive in top-levels #1 and #3 to discuss them with your fellow players here, and plot out your next move. Conversely, if your character has nothing to do with investigating the debris but you'd like to plot out threads involving the flooding, that goes here too.
A catch-all log will go up sometime today, we're sorry for the brief delay!
I'll explain the last part first: "More modern-looking" here means beyond today's 2017 level of technology. The interior is surprisingly intact, compared to the outside and... the fact that the craft was clearly torn into segments (with the help of a decent quantity of rust). It's muddy and wet, but the gist of it is easy enough to gather. It's somewhere between this and this here in the coach section, though the stairs were farther toward the front of the plane, beyond the point where this section abruptly ends. It looks like the seats are more comfortable (supposedly, though not after all this time) and definitely more individually interactive, with a larger TV on the back of each seat and a guide in the seat-back pouch explaining a number of touch-screen buttons with a number of functions more 'luxury' than coach today would have (eg. customized drink orders, precise A/C controls, tinting and blacking out of their individual window, seat-to-seat video calls, etc). There are supposedly also increased safety measures in case of an emergency, located under and above each seat. Sure enough, some of the underseat and above-seat emergency panels are popped open, the contents missing.
But alright - front to back, huh? It's a good thing she made the rounds. She'll spot what looks like a pair of handcuffs, caught on the armrest nearest the window and wedged down between the seats. The other end is attached to what appears to be a the handle of some kind of case. Too bad the case seems to have broken off at the hinge sometime in the landing.
A few seats back, she'll find... miraculously, half of the case, wedged hard in the open mouth revealed by one of the emptied underseat safety panels. This too must've broken off at the hinge - the other half is nowhere in sight. But that's okay, because nestled into what was likely once an exceptionally high-quality bed of foam padding is a liquid-filled bottle and a syringe. The bottle has a label, but it's just a quick series of numbers and a green dot sticker about a half-inch in diameter.
After a very brief fit of aircraft envy, Aranea takes the bottle and nestles it into her safety compartment (i.e, her cleavage). The syringe can stay where it is, thanks, but she's going to examine the half of the case to check it for any sort of logo or identifying marks.
She's also still thinking about that radio in the cargo hold and looking to see if there are any bags she can snag so she can try to transport it hands-free or, failing that, any loose fabric anywhere she can tear away to fashion into a kind of sling.
There are no identifying marks on this half of the case, unfortunately. Between that and the bottle's label, it almost seems like this (which is to say, the case and the bottle/syringe it held) was a quieter or more 'under the table' sort of deal.
There's no bag unfortunately, but the mesh netting holding it to the wall of the compartment does appear to come off in sections.
WE'RE GOING THROUGH THAT HOLE. If it's low enough for her to reach up and pull herself into it or close enough to one of the seats that she can climb them to give her the extra height she'll do it that way. If not, she's going to cross her fingers and hope she doesn't dislodge the whole shebang, and jump for it.
It's not close enough, unfortunately - the ceiling is low, but it's still a bit out of reach - but the jump isn't high enough to dislodge the wreckage. It gives an ominous creak, but it seems like much ado about nothing, since the structure itself doesn't feel like it moved more than an inch or so.
Still, might want to hurry.
This top level is precisely 200% as fancy as the bottom one, though the areas near each gaping end are unquestionably muddy. The seats are practically recliners, spaced much farther apart for comfort, and buttons imply in-seat temperature and massage functions. Lines run along the ceiling which, upon further investigation, seem to be tracks. The seatback instructions on this level inform of automated flight attendance, with a picture of a cute but sleek little robot (picture a rounder Roomba with four slim arms) running along the tracks, dispensing drinks and meals alike to the people who purchased these blatantly more expensive seats.
While Doranea's been roaming around like it's merc christmas, Nyx is trying to make sure he and Ignis don't die because they've climbed five thousand feet with no actual equipment. Since anchoring their ropes with ice seems to have worked for now, he's been repeatedly freezing the water still pouring down parts of the rock in order to build a kind of shelf for them to sit on.
That creak gives him pause though, looking up to see if the rock holding the wreckage up seems to be weakening at all.
If the seatback instructions are still those little cards you pull out to read, she's going to snag one of them, because that cutiepie robot is incongruous enough to everything in the town that she wants proof. You know, just in case the fact that she made a standing jump up to the lodged wreckage makes people doubt her sanity.
Then she's going to do the same sweep-process she went through on the floor below, checking along each side of anything else of note.
They are indeed those cards, though the material seems more plastic than paper these days.
That's actually all she'll manage to find in that floor. Based on the direction the case on the middle floor seemed to have broken in, most of the luggage and whatnot would've likely pooled in the tail end.... wherever that went.
Hey, a picture of a robot's better than a poke in the eye. That done, she's going to lower herself carefully back through the hole, move back through to the cargo hold to pull away that netting and fashion herself a little sling-type bag to hold the radio and the seatback info.
Provided all that scurrying around didn't dislodge the whole shebang, she'll finally tie off her end of the rope to the debris and prepare to make her way back down.
She makes it most of the way down, until most of her weight rests on the frozen end rather than the end tied to the debris.
At that point, the pressure on the frozen end is just a little too strong to hold. It shatters loose, swinging away from the cliff face and out over the open drop. The debris above gives the faintest creak as her weight swings underneath it.
Step one: swear loudly and fulsomely Step two: look for any kind of ledge or outcropping that she might be able to swing or scramble to from her current position!
After briefly contemplating just letting go to avoid putting Ignis and Nyx at risk, she instead settles for yelling at them to get as far from the possible trajectory of the debris as possible, waits for them to do so, and then makes attempt number two.
This time, her hands get a decent grip and she manages to cling to the side of the cliff face.
Unfortunately, the swing tugs the debris into one final creaking lurch, then a heavy shadow falls over the three of them as it tips down over the edge, flipping end over end toward the ground.
Fortunately, it largely misses them on the way by. One of them (of your choosing, since they're all together) gets a pretty nasty cut up the length of his or her shoulder blade on the way by, but it could be worse - they could've been flattened.
It lands on the ground below them with a loud crash, in significantly worse shape than it was on the cliff. And now comes the task of getting back down to the ground. Their limbs are likely pretty tired from dangling to the side of the cliff all this time, and whoever just got sliced open can expect to have an especially rough time climbing back down with a searing pain in his or her shoulder.
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intothepines2017-04-12 09:24 pm
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But alright - front to back, huh? It's a good thing she made the rounds. She'll spot what looks like a pair of handcuffs, caught on the armrest nearest the window and wedged down between the seats. The other end is attached to what appears to be a the handle of some kind of case. Too bad the case seems to have broken off at the hinge sometime in the landing.
A few seats back, she'll find... miraculously, half of the case, wedged hard in the open mouth revealed by one of the emptied underseat safety panels. This too must've broken off at the hinge - the other half is nowhere in sight. But that's okay, because nestled into what was likely once an exceptionally high-quality bed of foam padding is a liquid-filled bottle and a syringe. The bottle has a label, but it's just a quick series of numbers and a green dot sticker about a half-inch in diameter.
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After a very brief fit of aircraft envy, Aranea takes the bottle and nestles it into her safety compartment (i.e, her cleavage). The syringe can stay where it is, thanks, but she's going to examine the half of the case to check it for any sort of logo or identifying marks.
She's also still thinking about that radio in the cargo hold and looking to see if there are any bags she can snag so she can try to transport it hands-free or, failing that, any loose fabric anywhere she can tear away to fashion into a kind of sling.
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There's no bag unfortunately, but the mesh netting holding it to the wall of the compartment does appear to come off in sections.
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Still, might want to hurry.
This top level is precisely 200% as fancy as the bottom one, though the areas near each gaping end are unquestionably muddy. The seats are practically recliners, spaced much farther apart for comfort, and buttons imply in-seat temperature and massage functions. Lines run along the ceiling which, upon further investigation, seem to be tracks. The seatback instructions on this level inform of automated flight attendance, with a picture of a cute but sleek little robot (picture a rounder Roomba with four slim arms) running along the tracks, dispensing drinks and meals alike to the people who purchased these blatantly more expensive seats.
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While Doranea's been roaming around like it's merc christmas, Nyx is trying to make sure he and Ignis don't die because they've climbed five thousand feet with no actual equipment. Since anchoring their ropes with ice seems to have worked for now, he's been repeatedly freezing the water still pouring down parts of the rock in order to build a kind of shelf for them to sit on.
That creak gives him pause though, looking up to see if the rock holding the wreckage up seems to be weakening at all.
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If the seatback instructions are still those little cards you pull out to read, she's going to snag one of them, because that cutiepie robot is incongruous enough to everything in the town that she wants proof. You know, just in case the fact that she made a standing jump up to the lodged wreckage makes people doubt her sanity.
Then she's going to do the same sweep-process she went through on the floor below, checking along each side of anything else of note.
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That's actually all she'll manage to find in that floor. Based on the direction the case on the middle floor seemed to have broken in, most of the luggage and whatnot would've likely pooled in the tail end.... wherever that went.
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Provided all that scurrying around didn't dislodge the whole shebang, she'll finally tie off her end of the rope to the debris and prepare to make her way back down.
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Ready to climb, Aranea?
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At that point, the pressure on the frozen end is just a little too strong to hold. It shatters loose, swinging away from the cliff face and out over the open drop. The debris above gives the faintest creak as her weight swings underneath it.
Your move, Aranea.
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Step two: look for any kind of ledge or outcropping that she might be able to swing or scramble to from her current position!
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Does she try?
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Then, yes, she swings and tries to grab on to the cliff.
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The debris gives an extremely ominous metallic creak. Maybe she's imagining it, but it feels an awful lot like she just dropped an couple of feet.
PINK SPARKLY YIKES
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Unfortunately, the swing tugs the debris into one final creaking lurch, then a heavy shadow falls over the three of them as it tips down over the edge, flipping end over end toward the ground.
Fortunately, it largely misses them on the way by. One of them (of your choosing, since they're all together) gets a pretty nasty cut up the length of his or her shoulder blade on the way by, but it could be worse - they could've been flattened.
It lands on the ground below them with a loud crash, in significantly worse shape than it was on the cliff. And now comes the task of getting back down to the ground. Their limbs are likely pretty tired from dangling to the side of the cliff all this time, and whoever just got sliced open can expect to have an especially rough time climbing back down with a searing pain in his or her shoulder.
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