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beautifuldreamermods) wrote2023-03-24 06:15 pm
beautifuldreamermods) wrote2023-03-24 06:15 pm
Excursions & Torment Hunts
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.
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.
no subject
the gang's gonna grab some makeshift boards and snowboard along the spiraling path!!!
this is mostly because Sonic doesn't know the word "danger", Chaosbringer thinks it's cool, Miraidon is feeling confident now that he's actually dodged death, and Hanako actually had some common sense for a second but then joined everyone else because he felt left out 8'(
anyway, my money is on at least one of them beefing it on the way down
probably Hanako nglno subject
Against all odds (i will not tell you how high everyone had to roll to clear this), the gang somehow make it to the bottom without any casualties!!! That doesn't mean they don't have any disasters, though - around halfway down, Chaosbringer's board catches on a snag in the ice that sends him rocketing into the air and over the edge Uzumaki episode 4 style. Hanako loses control of his board momentarily while weaving to avoid the same fissure. To make matters worse, a huge tremor ripples through the volcano, causing shards of ice to rain down like daggers and the three remaining Dreamers have to dodge and dive around them...!
Eventually, the tremors cease and the slope evens out into a vast, mirror-like expanse of black ice. It'd be pitch black down here if it wasn't for the faint blue glow pulsing under the glassy ice, just barely illuminating their surroundings. If you squint, it looks like there's another incline you can take further down into the volcano... but it might be a one-way trip.
Oh, uh. Chaosbringer's down here too, as it happens?! Unscathed, apparently. Looks like he landed with a thump and then he was just kind of chillin waiting for you guys to get here too. Anyway.
Proceed...?
no subject
But the group is going to proceed... sort of! Miraidon has (understandable) concerns about going down into mysterious craters and would prefer to hang back, so Chaosbringer and Sonic are going to go on ahead to investigate while Hanako stays behind to make sure Miraidon is safe! He is going to be sending an orby boi along with the scouting team so he can still keep a remote eye on things, though!
no subject
Sonic and Chaosbringer, on the other hand...
The path narrows as they plunge into the darkness with nothing but a yawning void on either side of them. Ice and rock break away on either side, sending chunks tumbling into the unseen depths and though their boards scrape smoothly across the ice at first, they increasingly find themselves jarred by cracks and uneven ground the further they go - and when another tremor strikes, a section of the ground splinters with a sickening crack into a massive fissure that threatens to swallow them whole...!
Thankfully, Sonic and Chaosbringer are both skater bois in their own right and manage to get through unscathed! Chaosbringer shouts a warning as he swerves to the right, narrowly dodging the yawning crevasse. His board slides along the ice at an angle, sending him skidding dangerously close to the edge of the rift but he just about manages to regain his balance and recover before any further disasters occur. Sonic, meanwhile, decides to show off by launching off a ridge of ice and spinning mid-air to avoid the chasm below. Almost like the kind of trick that would net you a whole lot of style points in a video game. You know, hypothetically.
Of course, Hanako's orby boi is just shooting through the air after them mostly unencumbered aside from having to dodge the occasional bit of falling debris. Some people have it so easy...
Eventually, the ice begins to thin out under their feet as the temperature in the air starts to rise. A hot, sulfurous wind rises from below, the faint sound of bubbling lava and the occasional gush of superhot steam bursting from cracks in the ground.
It's getting extremely risky from here on out... but will you proceed anyway?
no subject
Meanwhile, Hanako and Miraidon... (although Hanako's at least getting some play-by-play action via Orby Boi and relaying as much to "Turo" as he can, anyway!)
no subject
The descent slows as the icy path gives way to rough, uneven rock, forcing them to abandon their boards. No surprise that the ice has all melted - this deep into the volcano, the air has grown suffocatingly hot. Each breath feeling like it’s searing their lungs and the faint sulfurous tang clings to the back of their throats. Cracks spiderweb across the rocky floor, glowing faintly with the molten magma some ten feet below, casting a flickering, hellish light that makes every shadow seem alive.
As they travel deeper, shapes seem to resolve out of the darkness. Twisted, ten-foot-tall stakes of dark metal pierce the ground at irregular intervals, resembling some grotesque imitation of Stabilizers. Their warped forms radiate a faint hum that makes the air around them vibrate and the closer you get more oppressively the heat seems to swell. Everything about this place screams go back. don't come any closer.
So of course, the boys draw closer, eventually finding themselves at the edge of a crevasse that drops a nauseatingly steep and deep distance - a good couple hundred feet or more. It doesn't look like there's any way to safely descend but you can always peek, right?
A blast of scorching air greets them as they make their way to the edge... and then they see it.
It sits at the heart of the cavern, a writhing, formless mass of darkness that seems to drink in the light from the ocean of lava swimming below it. Looking at it feels... wrong. A wave of nausea and cold dread washes over the group - even Hanako, who's only remote viewing - spurred by some primal instinct screaming at them to look away. It shifts constantly, forming and dissolving shapes that might be faces, hands, or... honestly, you don't want to know. And though it doesn’t move, the Dreamers can feel its pull, a gravity that tugs on your heart, calling them closer with every beat.
But of course, it's impossible to descend safely from this height. There's no footholds or pathways down, even if you wanted to. ... unless you had a free-flying orby boi.
You shouldn't be here. You should run, screaming, as far as your legs will carry you. Nothing born from a good dream rests in this place. No good will come of this.
𝖣𝝤 𝝪𝝤ꓴ 𝘞𝖠𝖭ꔋ ꔋ𝝤 𝝦𝙍𝝤Ⲥ𝗘𝗘𝖣?
no subject
... that said. Hanako's going to use his orby boi's free-flying ability to his advantage and have it travel a little further down the crevasse so it can get one final look at... whatever the fuck is lurking down there, for reference sake! He's not exactly thrilled about looking at the void dead-on (even remotely), but he may as well do SOMETHING considering he's not actually with Sonic and Chaosbringer! (Though whether or not this is a good thing is... debatable lmao)
no subject
Sonic and Chaosbringer will be having a harder time for a few reasons. Their descent was more or less a one-way trip, so they might be forced to wake up and return to reality if they want to get out of here without getting creative. But before they can make a decision as to what to do, Hanako's orby boi goes ptchooing off the edge of the crevasse so it can get a closer peek at the horrors. For a few seconds, it seems like the Hakujoudai’s descent will go unnoticed... but then the cavern shudders violently, as if the volcano itself has drawn breath in outrage.
The formless mass of darkness reacts immediately, writhing and twisting with an unnatural speed that makes it seem far more alive than it should. Tendrils of shadow lash out like living things, impossibly fast, swiping the Hakujoudai with what look like scrabbling fingers. The force of the collision sends it careening wildly through the air and the connection flickers violently, its usual clear feed now marred by static and warped, incomprehensible images of twisting shadows and flashes of light.
The tendrils don’t stop there - several slam into the cavern walls, sending chunks of molten rock flying, while others recoil into the shadowy core, dragging trails of distorted light behind them like oil spreading across water. Then the sound hits. It’s not a roar, necessarily - it’s a low, pulsating frequency that bypasses the ears entirely and slams directly into your skull. Poor Hanako in particular will be subjected to an up-close burst of it straight to the noggin, as if his brain is being squeezed, every pulse of the core’s reaction hammering into his mind like a war drum.
Jagged cracks race across the cavern floor, splitting open with terrifying speed to reveal veins of molten magma glowing ominously below. Heat and light surge upward as superheated steam bursts from the fissures, hissing violently and filling the air with a choking, sulfuric stench. The massive stakes that litter the cavern shudder violently, their twisted forms vibrating as if struggling against some unseen force.
You need to escape, now.