April Intro: Better Get to Digging

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: APRIL

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: April 4th and onward
Where: Cahypdo
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Waking up to the gentle proddings of what appears to be very curious, sentient trees isn't the worst wake up call LifeAftr has to offer. For our newest arrivals, however, it may be a tad…odd.

Situated in the valley between two mountains, Elower is a scenic village filled with the friendly Roaka, tree-like beings that are rather peaceable and happy to assist those who have just arrived. I'’s a peaceful location for one to start their adventures - though, unfortunately, it doesn't stay peaceful for long.

Cahypdo: You'll Bury Me Low
Those who have explored the new island of Cahypdo in the last month will undoubtedly recall the series of quakes that shook the island throughout March. With the arrival of LifeAftr's newest adventurers comes Cahypdo's largest tremor to date, striking without warning and more than enough force to throw even the steadiest and sturdiest of your number to the ground. With a low rumble, the mountains heaped on either side of the island will start to shed an abundance of slag and debris, pouring down their slopes. Anyone who's scaling those peaks risks being flung bodily off them when the outpouring of shale comes roaring down those mountains, and anyone at the mountain bases risks being crushed beneath.

As one might expect, unsuspecting newcomers aren't all that have been shaken up. Though protected by netting and retaining walls, the cliffs around and above the village of Elower can only take so much pressure before giving way - a threshold that has been crossed entirely. With a sound like thunder, rocks fall.

Everyone dies? Only if you don't act quickly. Roaka housing is sturdy in build, enough to protect a decidedly less sturdy body from all but the heaviest of boulders. Hiding inside any of their village constructs built into the sides of the mountains will certainly save you from taking a new weight onto your shoulders. They will not, however, save you from being buried alive.

For those who become trapped inside any of those abodes, your options appear limited. Work to free yourself, or wait for help to arrive. Though, speaking of help, those outside may think to offer the Roaka a helping hand in getting their trapped people - and yours, at that - a few breaths of fresh air.

Before you suffocate.

Cahypdo: Stay Acting Brave
Such seismic activity will also stir up the local wildlife, of course. Those unfortunate enough to come across them will recognize the restless shark-dragon hybrids, hydrac, now prowling across the shorelines, while the wickedly fanged wabbits will also be far more frequent, traveling in larger numbers in the jungle and at the bases of the mountains. Taking care to avoid them would be wise - though another creature may make that venture much more difficult.

Lorbies have been unlocked in the bestiary! A strange mix between owl and serpent, the recent quake has clearly startled these usually reclusive creatures into the open. Alone, a lorby is a rather skittish animal, prone to hiding from most perceived threats. Useless for food due to the toxicity of their flesh, lorbies do have the potential to be tamed...but this comes with its own risks.

A lorby may be prone to flight rather than fight when encountered solo, but in groups, these feathery critters are far more hostile. A defensive lorby emits a piercing cry alone, but a group is an almost ear-piercing experience, capable of rendering the unfortunate unstable on their feet at best, and unconscious at worst. For the days that follow the severe earthquake that so rocked everyone's foundations, any hope for silence is lost in the infrequent bursts of almighty screeching by colonies of lorbies who have so rudely had their homes overturned and disturbed.

While the lorby is omnivorous, it may not think to take a bite at anything so much larger than them. That doesn't mean that conflict with these fluffy creatures won't attract something much more willing to take advantage of the fact that you may or may not have been reduced to a prone sack of meat. If something else does arrive, you best hope that it's a friendly face.

If you're interested in keeping a lorby for your own, bear LifeAftr's companion limit in mind - two per character, and no more. The lorby is omnivorous and can survive off of most odds and ends: insects, fruits, berries, critters it can dig up in the sand, and more. However, the process of trying to tame a lorby is not always successful. We recommend use of a d10, with the following guidelines:

Rolling a 10: Critical success! This lorby will love and adore you, and may even feel comfortable enough to drape itself along your neck like a beautiful, furry scarf, churring softly all the way.
Rolling 7-9: This lorby will prove high-strung and timid, even if safely befriended, and will take several weeks to warm up to you. But once it does, it's yours!
Rolling 2-6: Failure. The lorby enters a state of distress and starts screaming. Hope you brought earplugs, or you'll be snoozing for several long hours for your efforts.
Rolling a 1: Critical failure. Not only does the lorby start screaming, but its panic attracts a colony of its friends, and they all start screaming too.

Bear in mind that these are only guidelines; you are free to predetermine successes or failures as you'd like, presuming your character can sustain the companion! Our discord channel has a room for dice-rolls, if you prefer.

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All new arrivals will awake with knapsacks, their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can all be found in your acceptance notices!

As a final note to those who participated in the Test Drive Meme, bear in mind that those threads, if all parties involved would like, can be game canon in the form of dream-like memories involving a place very much like this one, though the layout is considerably different.

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Feeling a tad adrift? Make sure to check the Locations Page, which has details regarding the starting areas and a handy map for those who feel better with a bird's eye view!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Michael | OTA

[eudaimonikos]

a: way down in hadestown

[So. There was an earthquake. And now Michael's trapped in a tree-person house that's been entombed in the earth.

All in all, Michael is fairly calm about this!

He paces around to investigate all the potentially-weakest spots, looking more annoyed at the inconvenience than anything. As far as he knows, it's not like he can suffocate or anything; he just doesn't wanna be stuck in this dumb house.]

Okay. This is fine. Someone's going to come get us out eventually. Just gotta chill out until then. [what's a normal thing to do in this circumstance...] Anybody got a deck of cards?

b: this is the bad place

[After extricating himself (or, more likely, being extricated) from the house he was buried in, Michael brushes himself off and goes to walk around the island some more. Maybe some of his friends ended up here too. Failing that, maybe he can help dig some other people out of the earth or something.

Instead of either of those, he encounters the greatest thing he's ever seen.

His gasp at seeing the lone lorby could be taken as one of horror, except that he immediately crouches down to try to coax the thing over. This thing is already hanging out behind him, so it looks like we're just collecting an army of hellish followers here.]

Oh, look at you! You're horrendous! It's okay, come here...

[He doesn't have any food or anything. He's just waving a hand at it like a guy who's apparently so much as interacted with a cat in his life.]

c: wildcard

[come at me bro]

B

[everylittlesecret]

[Well, Nari guesses someone has to find these abominations "cute". Was this the situation going on right now? Who knows. She certainly doesn't. She's just been watching these fubr-monstrosities exist and studying how to best avoid them.]

Careful. You never know if they might be potentially lethal.

[eudaimonikos]

Basically everything is, if it tries hard enough.

[He replies, not looking up from his attempts to get the lorby to come closer. He wants to looooook at it! Maybe...does he have food? He has this jug.]

Do you want some... [He sniffs it and frowns.] ...I think this is rubbing alcohol.

[everylittlesecret]

True. That's why I only keep a pet cat back home.

[Though house cats could kill their owners.]

Rubbing alcohol tends to be deadly in large amounts, so might want to hold off on that. Animals shouldn't have alcohol anyways.

[eudaimonikos]

[...

........

Michael tastes the rubbing alcohol.]

Ugh. Why did they give me this? [whatever. back to the lorby.] It's not impossible for a cat to kill a human.

[everylittlesecret]

[Oh yikes. Shouldn't have done that.]

Fuck if I know. This place gave me a giant candy cane, and it's not even edible.

[Back to the alien ferret-looking thing sure.] I know. But to prevent that I keep her well fed and entertained. This thing doesn't look as easy to please.

bad place

[scourgingstars]

[And then there's this amalgamation of malice in an entirely absurd outfit and a hat. This is fine.]

You do realize that thing's liable to sprout a thousand teeth and rip your arms off. Far be it from me to discourage you, but if you get horribly maimed someone's going to lecture me about doing a silly thing like warning people of dangerous wildlife.

[eudaimonikos]

No problem, I can make new -

[He glances up, does a double-take, and sits up on his heels.]

- what the fuck are you?

[scourgingstars]

...Pardon?

[Ardyn frowned sharply, tilting his hat back enough to look at Michael with decidedly not human yellow eyes.]

Some people at least start with 'hello'.

[eudaimonikos]

[That...is true.

Michael's unbothered by the yellow eyes; he's more concerned about, you know, every other thing going on there. There's - it's not a demon like him, but it's also not exactly not. Weird demonic hivemind, maybe?]

...fair enough. Hi, I'm Michael.

[scourgingstars]

Ardyn.

[He didn't really get casual conversation in a general sense, but that had obviously caught him off guard as an opener.]

You aren't seriously going to try taming that thing, are you?

a:

[a_shadow]

[ Tex is ignorant of Michael's pacing and bloviating inside the house. She just knows when she's spots it that it's yet another roof line of a place that's been buried in the rock slide.

Tex is tired by now. She's been moving rocks for quite a while. But she's not ready to give up and rest, not yet. She might soon, but not yet.

She approaches the roof line and tries to find a dormer window she can shout through. ]

Anyone in this one?

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah! Just me.

[Michael's still pretty chill about this, even if he's pretty bored by this point.]

[a_shadow]

[ Tex studies the pile of rocks. This one's going to be tricky. ]

You might have to squeeze out of a little space. I don't know if I can move the rock covering the left half of the window.

[ The stuff on the right half should be cake, though. ]

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael contemplates the space. He might be able to move the other rock, but not from this angle; there's really nowhere to brace himself well enough to push.

Well, the skinniness had to come in handy sometime.]

I'll give it a shot.

B

[in4apounding]

Are you sure that's safe, sir?!

[They're cute, sure, but they're still wild animals, jeeze.]

[eudaimonikos]

Not really. But it's not like I'm going to die.

[He's done so, so many worse things than this]

the bad place

[galrarm]

[ So far, it looks like things have calmed down... for now. Shiro still isn't ready to lower his guard. But the ground beneath his feet isn't currently crumbling, so he counts that as a good thing.

What he doesn't count as a good thing is that. Shiro feels a paralyzing dread wash over him. Something terrible has happened here. This is... familiar. The thing that Michael is speaking to is too familiar. It sets his nerves on edge, and he keeps his distance like the thing's going to look at him and start attacking.

Or spouting information about different realities. ]

Are you sure you should try to make friends with it?

[eudaimonikos]

[Looks like he's well on his way to doing so; he's already coaxed it over and has it...not quite in his arms, but he's trying to creep towards that.]

Yeah, why not?

[galrarm]

We don't know anything about them.

[ Why is he so resistant? Usually he wouldn't be, but... ]

They don't seem too friendly.

[ Or maybe it's just Shiro projecting. ]

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael looks down at the lorby peacefully nibbling on the food he's offered for a moment, doing absolutely nothing to anyone, and then back at Shiro.]

How'd you figure?

B!

[deathfindsaway]

[Kravitz had come over to the island to assist with the earthquake, but he... could not have predicted this. He's seen a pretty fair amount of animals here on the islands, and not to say he knows things about animals- he doesn't- but usually they make sense.

He cannot figure out the purpose of these animals. Not even a bit.

He happens to be nearby when Micheal starts making noises at one, and he figures it's as good a time as any to see if maybe someone knows these things' function. He emerges from the trees, clearing his throat a bit as he tries to catch Micheal's attention and not that of the Lorby enough to startle it.]

Uhm-- excuse me-- do you know what that is, exactly? Or if you should be getting that close?

[eudaimonikos]

It looks like a very long Furby.

[Which is probably, uh, a good reason to not get near it but here he goes.]

[deathfindsaway]

[Kravitz pauses for a second, trying to determine if this is going to make him sound worse, and decides to just go for it.]

And if you were to explain what a Furby is...?

[He should probably have all the facts when they're up against... something, here. Just in case.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael snaps his fingers. Kravitz is now holding a Furby. Its eyes light up and it makes one of those sounds. Fucking congrats.

It'll vanish in 24 hours but nobody here knows that yet, so.]