Excursions & Torment Hunts

[beautifuldreamermods]

EXPLORING DREAMS

The Dream Sphere is a place full of mysteries and for Dreamers, it's theirs to explore as they see fit. Exploring the Dream Sphere, experimenting with their powers and battling it out with Torments and Nightmares is how Dreamers grow their magic after all - and come on. Admit it. It's pretty fun. Players are, of course, free to goof around in logs at their own pace but for formalized investigation and exploration of the Dream Sphere, this is the place to do it!

Dreamers can investigate the Dream Sphere in two main ways; Excursions and Torment Hunts. All Dreamers are encouraged to take part in Excursions and Torment Hunts and OOCly, the process can be rewarded with points that can go towards... well, rewards!

EXCURSIONS

Excursions are when a Dreamer explores the Dream Sphere with the specific goal of finding and investigating new locations. They may find new and interesting locales or stumble across trouble in the making and take care of it.

Currently, these new locations will disperse and become inaccessible once the Dreamer leaves it behind, but characters will unlock the option to Stablize a location in an event in the near future, so they can permanently add one to the Outlying Locations page if they so wish.

It's important to note that, like Outlying Locations, Excursions also come with an element of Risk. You're heading out into the unknown, after all! You can indicate in your comment what Risk level you would be comfortable with, which will correlate with how far into the Dream Sphere your character is choosing to go. Some of this Risk can be mitigated by going on an Excursion with multiple characters (up to three at a time) but you still might run into some trouble and should be aware that your character could end up hurt or potentially failing out of the Excursion at higher Risk. Take care out there!

To head out on an Excursion, fill out the form below and submit it in the comments. The mods will reply with the results of your Excursion and what cool things your character may have encountered. You're free to leave things there... but! If you use the results of the Excursion as the basis for a log or thread and submit it as a reply to the Excursion result, you'll receive points! As with AC bonus threads, these completed Excursion results must be AC length and you can submit two per month. On top of this, each character can head out on an Excursion twice per month - though this is an OOC limit and you're free to play out and handwave other IC explorations even if they aren't officially an Excursion.

EXCURSION FORM:

<b>Character(s):</b> (List the characters taking part in the Excursion) <b>Archetype(s):</b> (Note the Archetypes of all the characters taking part) <b>Maximum Risk:</b> (Note if you would like the potential Risk to cap out at Low, Medium, High or Very High) <b>Keywords:</b> (The fun part! Let us know what sort of thing your character is looking for – but more importantly, what sort of feelings and thoughts are on their mind as they explore. This will affect the Excursion Result!)

TORMENT HUNTS

Torment Hunts are the main method of keeping the Torment and Nightmare populations of the Dream Sphere under control. In contrast to Excursions, Torment Hunts consist of Dreamers going into known locations and hunting down any Torments that have spawned there. Without Dreamers to keep them in check, Torments would eventually form into Nightmares and so, Torment Hunts are the most proactive way of keeping peace in the Dream Sphere while getting to grips with your magic.

Like Excursions, you can complete Torment Hunts by filling out the form below and submitting it in the comments. The mods will reply with a result, taking into account things such as the Outlying Location's overall Risk factor and how many characters took place in the Torment Hunt. You're free to head out on Torment Hunt solo, or with others. Having friends along makes the whole thing safer, of course, but you don't need anyone else to join you - however, higher Risk locations will be much more difficult without the proper backup and should a Dreamer be unlucky enough to be overwhelmed while on their own, they will fail out of the Torment Hunt.

Once again, if you use the results of the Torment Hunt as the basis for a log or thread and submit it as a reply to the Torment Hunt result, you'll receive points! The above limitations on submissions also apply to Torment Hunts though you are, again, free to thread out unofficial Torment Hunts between characters just for fun.

TORMENT HUNT FORM:

<b>Character(s):</b> (List the characters taking part in the Excursion) <b>Archetype(s):</b> (Note the Archetypes of all the characters taking part) <b>Outlying Location:</b> (Where is this Torment Hunt taking place?) <b>Strategy:</b> (How exactly are the characters managing this Hunt? Are they being very precise or a little haphazard? Are they attacking on sight or taking their time? Go into detail here, as it'll affect the results!)

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Comments

EXCURSION

[greaterspeed]

Character(s): Sonic and Chaosbringer
Archetype(s): Striker only no items, Final Destination
Maximum Risk: High+, because it's Sonic and Chaosbringer...
Keywords: Sonic has no idea about Crimson or Reverie or anything like that. He's just here to explore man. And with Chaosbringer tagging along, it's gotta be pretty funny, right? Who just dies from comedic falling debris in the middle of a boss fight anyway? (famous last thoughts before someone drops their ring and just perishes)

Basically, no thoughts, head empty, WE'RE LIVING LIFE ON THE EDGE, BABY!!

EXCURSION FAILURE

[beautifuldreamermods]

During their Excursion, Sonic's group come across... a new location!

When the dream stabilizes, the two of them find themselves at the foot of a jagged, crystalline monolith split into floating fragments, each shard tethered to the next by shimmering bridges of light which pulse faintly to the rhythm of an otherworldly hum. The only way to proceed up the spire seems to be with some sick parkour moves, which most Dreamers should be at least reasonably proficient with at this point. However, gravity becomes unstable at higher altitudes, forcing them to leap between floating shards that twist and rotate unpredictably. The air grows thinner and vibrates with the resonance of the crystals, which intensifies as they near the spire's apex. Even stranger still are the translucent images they see playing across the crystal surfaces - fragments of not just their memories but some of their friends and family who've also been to the Dream Sphere. And occasionally, a suspicious flash of pale blue and a familiar flicker of crimson... though to investigate that a little further, you'd probably need more time that you don't have this trip!

The Torments that occupy this place are pretty nasty, towering constructs formed of jagged crystal shards, with a pulsing core that lights their massive frames - their primary method of attack is slamming the ground to create shockwaves that shattering nearby platforms and launch the razor-sharp crystals as projectiles. Sonic gets taken out this way when a platform crumbles out from under him and he drops, hits the killplane and is promptly booted back to reality.

Chaosbringer manages to hold out for a bit longer, though! Thanks to his mobility and durability, he's able to do some platforming better than our actual platform mascot and makes his way a good two thirds up the spire before he, too, gets shwapped by a Torment determined to paste him. But there's a good ten seconds of falling before he's booted from the Dream Sphere and as Chaosbringer watches his form tumbling in the reflections of the spire, his image abruptly shifts - a memory flashes across the crystal. An image of Dreamer Crimson in much the same situation as him, tumbling helplessly through the air... while fending off something that makes his head hurt just trying to take it in. But if he squints, he sees tendrils formed from pure blackness, way too many eyes in all the wrong places and look at me look at me look at me look at me PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LOOK AT ME WHY WON'T YOU

And then, of course, he wakes up.

Our condolences on your Excursion failure! Every member of the group will be unable to return to the Dream Sphere for three days to one week following this Excursion and will suffer some minor moment-to-moment vertigo in the Waking World for up to a week afterwards. As this was an Excursion failure, you are not eligible for any additional rewards but may still use this as the basis for a log/thread if you please and any threads that meet bonus criteria there are still eligible for submission. And you can always come back for a revenge trip if you think there's more investigating to do...