Wilderlands Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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wilderooc2018-05-06 02:19 am
wildermods) wrote in wilderooc2018-05-06 02:19 am
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CAMP ※ 2 ※ THE CITY OF FRATERNAL AMITY
CAMP ※ 2 ※ THE CITY OF FRATERNAL AMITY
Refuge can be found in the forest beyond Weathertop. No matter what path they all take, everyone somehow finds their way to the ruins of the long-lost mystical city of...
Philadelphia?
Wait, what?
The forest gives way to ruins that are clearly a chunk of Center City from the US city of Philadelphia. The ruins are very strange due to their placement: the trees of the forest are large and ancient but not large enough to hide the chunk of city, yet here it is, cradled in a secret place in the forest's center even though it wasn't visible from a distance.
Many of the buildings are overgrown with massive vines that have threaded in and around their structures. Most of the streets are broken up, with plants growing between cracks of asphalt. A long stretch of Market Street is now one long grass-filled path.
The sky seems caught in a strange eternal twilight, forever early evening, as if the city has decided it will be rush hour until the end of time. There's always enough light to move around in but the sun never sets or rises or any higher. The crescent moon is always just slightly visible in the sky above, never shifting its place. An effect that looks like a green aurora can always be seen in the sky ahead. This is the only part of the sky that moves, shifting like a normal aurora. Sometimes it crackles slightly and briefly changes blue or red.
The section of Center City that's in this strange refuge contains a small chunk of downtown Philly, along some of the lengths of Market Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway. This means the enclave rests in the shadow of the city's few skyscrapers. Only a few major landmarks are contained here:
City Hall: These ruins can't be safely accessed due to sinking craters in the center where the Broad Street and Market Street subway lines have caved in.
Love Park: The park is almost completely overgrown with grass and planets and the famous "Love" sign has fallen over on its side into pieces.
The Philadelphia Free Library: This is one of the only safe and mostly whole buildings left.
Some landmarks that should be there, like the Franklin Institute, are mysteriously missing, with carved out craters where they once were, now overgrown with grasses and trees.
Mysteriously, all the cars have disappeared from the streets just like the people.
A feeling of compulsion will guide the group to the Parkway Central Library Branch of the Philly Free Library. When the majority of the of the group gets there, others may find themselves teleported from elsewhere in the forest and hills by the quest bond.
The Free Library has been gutted in some of its main areas, book-stacks and books ripped out like someone wanted to turn the space into something else. Whether this renovation was occurring when the city was devastated or it happened after its fall is impossible to tell.
The library has many rooms and floors, providing multiple entrances and exits. Some areas are good places for the group to barricade themselves in, with enough potential exits to allow them to run if they need to but not so many they'd be difficult to guard. Bookcases and rotting furniture can be moved around as wanted to create barricades and other barriers of protection in case characters want to safeguard against attack.
In a few areas the book stacks are still in place, albeit worn and falling apart. Many of the books are moldy, though some can be found intact here and there.
If one wanders far enough into the stacks of the Philly Free Library, something...changes. The library starts to blend, looking disjointed, as if sections of it have morphed into different libraries. This is because books in the Wilderlands are powerful and warp time and space around themselves. Knowledge is power.
...Literally. The forces in play here follow the following equation:
BOOKS = KNOWLEDGE = POWER = (FORCE X DISTANCE ÷ TIME)
This means that characters that wander far enough may start to find books that seem to talk of worlds other than Earth. They also may find very helpful books with information on the mage archetypes and magical weapons found in-game. Characters can use these books to improve skills with their spells or gain some understanding of the nature of the weapon they hold. Alchemist mages may find books on their Alchemy particularly helpful in starting to learn the world's secret language and how to create crafted spells.
Characters this deep in the stacks may sometimes see strange little fox spirits running around. These knowledge-seekers ignore any strangers as they go about their business shelving books they've found. Sometimes, the backs of a massive black owl or an average-sized orange orangutan can be seen disappearing down a hall, but characters will never meet them face to face and they will never answer if called.
Occasionally they may pass by the corpse of a man with an unknown origin, who died in some unknown way, at an unknown time.
It's possible to get temporarily lost in L-Space but characters can only wander so far into L-space before the quest bond teleports them back to the main group and normal Philly library, preventing them from getting lost permanently.
✦ Rest Period: Characters will have 2 full IC days to rest before moving on (though the passage of time will be difficult to tell without the rise and set of the sun). OOCly, the game will allow for downtime SOL threading here until 5/21/18. This will be lengthened if the playerbase wants a little more downtime. After this camp period, the quest will move on to Rivendell.
✦ Safety. The characters will not be attacked by anything in the Philly enclave. They have been led here by an unknown force that is actually looking out for them. Somewhat.
✦ Fauna. Many animals and spirits have taken up residence in the city. Strange many-eyed lizards and frogs seem to exist in droves. Massive white owl spirits, larger than people, also seems to live here in the hollows of buildings. Normal birds live here in abundance as well, such as pigeons and sparrows and wilder birds like falcons. Very large rats can sometimes be seen scurrying around. The air is abuzz with insects, especially cicadas droning loudly.
There are even some enchanted creatures that seem to have evolved from cars, each with four massive chitinous legs that have sprouted from the place their wheels were once mounted. The car-bugs wander around the city, eternally without drivers, and tend to leave everything else alone. Whenever they run into any humans, their headlights turn an angry red and they run away, as if scared of them. All of these animals and spirits are content to go about their business and avoid humans and other beings.
There are no people in the city other than the characters.
✦ Flora. Deciduous trees, vines, moss, grass, shrubs. Patches of sweet-smelling athelas grow in Love Park. This is the only thing that can be used to fully cure the Black Breath, though healing spells can help with it somewhat. This can also ease the effects of a Morgul-blade wound, but cannot cure it until the splinter is removed, which is difficult without actual surgery.
✦ Non-magical Books. Characters can find any book currently in the catalog of the real-world Philly Free Library, as long as the following conditions are met:
- The book is a physical book (no ebooks obviously)
- The book is not about the canon of any character currently in game. (For instance, there will be no DC Comics-based books or comics or Star Wars based books or comics.)
- The book currently has copies available at the Parkway Central Library branch at the time of the player's search
Players may handwave that these books contain any knowledge that could reasonably exist in them based on their descriptions.
Characters may keep these books but players must keep in mind their limitations as they'll have to carry the weight with them. Many of the characters left behind what few bags or baskets they had on Weathertop. Bags can be scavenged from one of the nearby shops but will not be able to carry much due to being moldy and worn. Characters will also be weak from fighting, physical exertion, illness and injuries, and a relative lack of food and water, so carrying extra may be difficult.
Of the game settings, characters can look up books on canons they recognized so far, such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Wizard of Oz, but players cannot have characters happen upon any books that are mentioned as showing up in the future (like Discworld) or of canons mentioned on npc pages that have not shown up yet. This is to limit any characters from gaining meta knowledge on every setting due to show up in game but allow them to look up ones they might reasonably look up after recognizing them in game.
The only exception is "The Never-Ending Story." One unusual aspect of the library is that among the normal books that are there, there are an overabundance of copies of it, misfiled everywhere. In some cases, a whole stack of shelves may be completely filled with copies of the book, all with the same variant of the cover. However, if the book is opened, the writing inside is garbled and unreadable. Unlike the other books, copies of this book cannot be removed from the library. They simply disappear if taken outside.
There is also one particular book that can't be found in the library. Due to nobody in the game having any reason to look for it, the mods need not mention its name. (For now.) This same book cannot be found in any library in the entire Wilderlands. (Yes, this is meant to sound enigmatic. Maybe it means something.)
✦ Centralized Healing Log. There will be one centralized camp log that is only for post-fight healing for those who need it. Players can either post prompts with their injured/ill/Black Breath'd/whatever character or post prompts to offer someone who can provide healing, first aid, or simple emotional comfort or interaction. Please limit top-levels to either injured/ill/Black Breath'd/emotionally distraught characters or people that can offer healing spells or some kind of aid. Everyone else can tag around.
Beyond the healing log, players are free to treat the camp location as the setting for normal CR-building and create their own open posts set in the city.
✦ Weird Physics. Something seems inherently broken about this place. In some areas, gravity simply does not work right, causing characters to briefly float off the ground before landing again. In other areas, the sounds of traffic, the hiss of stopping buses, and crowds of people can be heard but never come into view.
✦ Bankable Magic. Archivist mage types can find some bankable spells in books in L-space. One of these spells allows the wielder to summon a bow made of glowing blue energy for two minutes per casting that shoots magic arrows. These arrows strike and cause the same damage as a normal arrow. The draw of the bow is about as difficult as that of a real bow, however, and the character will have only as much skill with it as they would any other bow.
Another spell summons a hot Philly cheesesteak out of nowhere. The cheesesteak is made with beef and tastes like the best cheesesteak ever made. The combinations of cheese and toppings are random. Three varieties of cheese sometimes show: provolone, American, or cheese whiz. Toppings can be: fried onions, mustard, or ketchup. The rolls they're on are amazing. These cheesesteaks are entirely edible, safe, filling, wonderfully greasy, and are otherwise completely unremarkable other than being really fucking delicious.
The book with the cheesesteak spell, however, can only be found and banked from once during the camp period, meaning the Archivist can only bank as many cheesesteak spells as they have open slots, and after those spells are used, they will never find the book to bank from again. Therefore, they cannot go back to get more cheesesteak spells after the first time they found it.
✦ NPCing. There are no NPCs in this particular camp setting.
✦ Supplies. The restrooms of the Philly Free Library are pretty filthy but usable. The toilets don't flush but the toilet bowls are at least empty. Beyond what's at the Wawa (see "Stores" below) there are no sources of water other than what waterskins were made, filled, and saved from the last camp. Other than what food was saved from the last camp, characters can potentially eat pigeons, lizards, or rats but they're the only potential food sources that can be hunted or trapped.
Books can be used for campfires. Small holes in the roof and the size of Free Library allow smoke to safely vent. Books can also be used for toilet paper.
✦ Stores. There are a few stores that can be scavenged from nearby.
- Wawa: This only has convenience store food like chips and Tastykakes. Most of the Wawa has been cleared out. Most of the refrigerated drinks with sugar have gone bad but there are a few scant bottles of water that are unexpired.
- Ross: Every single article of clothing and shoe has been cleared out of here or has rotted to the point of uselessness, but there's a rack that has some moldy purses and messenger bags that are worn but usable. These purses and bags are only women's style purses and bags.
- Dollar Tree: No food can be found here but many of the typical odds and ends found at dollar stores can be found here, like shampoo and conditioner. Supplies, however, are limited, as the place has been mostly cleared out.
All other stores and restaurants are either collapsed and rotten, overgrown with plant life, or completely cleared out.
✦ Weather. The climate in the area is temperate. Due to always being evening, it's slightly on the cool side. It will not rain while the characters are there.
✦ Backthreading. Players can backthread older threads from however long they want and when the camp period is over, they can backthread their camp threads as long as they want.
MOD QUESTIONS/ISSUES
Re: MOD QUESTIONS/ISSUES
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Once they know to look, athelas is very fragrant and sweet-smelling so characters with a good sense of smell can hunt for it. Even characters without a good sense of smell can smell it just from being in the vicinity. The scent is very distinct and one of the only really sweet-smelling plants in the area.
MAGICAL BOOK REQUESTS
Nonmagical books can be whatever is found in the real catalog of the Philly Free library.
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- the underlying language of the world Alchemy messes with
- Spell-weaving: some information on how to spellweave and about how Alchemy uses different writing for the spells as the spells being woven get more powerful. Some information about how to spell-weave faster. Some information about how the Alchemist can combine the same spells for slightly altered effects depending on what the Alchemist does (ie what spell language they use)
- Crafted spells: How crafted spells often take up space but smaller ones can be put on objects for a future one time use.
STORE REQUESTS
The Ross contains only bags and handbags. Players do not have to request these and can just god their character finding one.
No other stocked stores exist in the area.
Re: STORE REQUESTS
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- sunglasses
- lighters
- playing cards
- whistle
- pens
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- 1 pair sunglasses
- 1 lighter
- 1 pack of playing cards
- 1 pen
Re: STORE REQUESTS
Also, does The Ross carry fanny packs among their handbags?
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One small bar of Ivory bar soap, 1 baby toothbrush, 1 small travel sized tube of colgate toothpaste.
Yes, on the squirt gun and expires soda.
And yes, he can find a fanny pack.
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HEALING LOG PLAYER PLOTTING
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She's also got an impeccable bedside manner and is pretty good at offering comfort of the vaguely mystical mumbo-jumbo, 'the universe is a wonderful place where sometimes bad things happen' variety.
Doesn't matter if she knows you or not, if she can help, she will, so anyone is welcome to tag her or ask for her to tag in somewhere else.
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Re: HEALING LOG PLAYER PLOTTING
Re: HEALING LOG PLAYER PLOTTING
That being said, Tim is the better option for the "surgery" option if it's needed. He's not Brainy, but he has a working knowledge of where organs are and how to stitch deep wounds.
So, if you'd like one of these options, let me know.
Re: HEALING LOG PLAYER PLOTTING