singillppl | November 2023 Event Plotting

NOVEMBER 2023 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — WHITEOUT: Methuselah makes an unexpected early return to Milton to warn Interlopers of an impending monster storm, and boy does it surely come.
WHITEOUT — CONTENT WARNINGS: extreme weather; storms; blizzards; themes of survival; possible character cold-related injuries; possible themes of peril.

PROMPT TWO — A CHOICE: Following the storm, sightings of a mysterious stag prompts a hunt down in the Basin and out in the Outskirts.
A CHOICE — CONTENT WARNINGS: survival themes; themes of hunting; possible animal death.

PROMPT THREE — REST MY WEARY BONES: While the storm causes a great deal of mess, it also uncovers some far more pleasant surprises. Hot springs.
REST MY WEARY BONES — CONTENT WARNINGS: LITERALLY NOTHIN', Y'ALL

WHITEOUT

In the times that he is no longer occupying the Community Hall in the center of town to help tend to the newcomers, Methuselah is out in the wilds. Despite his growing age, he is a hardened survivor, and has been more than accustomed to life living as a nomad, out in the thickest, deepest parts of nature. Sometimes he can be encountered, sheltered in a cave or out in the woods, huddled by a warm campfire, or busying himself with his latest game catch. He seems to be always on the move, never staying for too long, and never coming into town — unless it’s to begin preparations for the latest batch of new arrivals.

To see him returning to Milton outside of these times is a curious sight, and the grim expression he carries is enough to make anyone wary. Even his voice is grave. The warmth and kindness usually found in his expression is gone, replaced with a deathly seriousness. He doesn’t speak in jest.

"I am long used to this world and its weather, even with the changing times to more bitter nights." he will say. "I have seen the years rise and fall, too many to count. Please, I beg that you hear me with this— a storm is coming. Greater than some of you may have ever known. It is in the air, and we must prepare to see it through. We do not have much time. Three days, perhaps. But no more."

He will tell anyone and everyone; encouraging the word to be spread around. He will instruct on what needs to be done, what needs to be gathered. The storm will be long and hard, and will last for some time. With that, Methuselah will begin to prepare the Community Hall as a place of refuge with a stock of food, fuel and water to get through the storm. Interlopers will be free to join Methuselah and bunker down together, or can choose to bunker down on their own in their own homes, or with others.

You have only three days.

And sure enough, the storm comes. Maybe you can notice the signs too: the sudden updraft, the slow gathering of clouds, the drop in temperature, the changes of pressure in the air.

Halfway through the third day, the storm rolls in: a ferocious snow-storm unlike anything you’ve seen before. Even with the fading amount of daylight as mid-winter approaches, the sky turns as dark as night as will stay like night for the duration. Strong howling winds batter the town, and even the sturdiest of buildings creak and groan under the weight. Trees will be felled, some buildings might not fare the storm.

Relentless snow that falls so hard it’s a complete whiteout, and will be impossible to navigate if one were to step outside. Even then, it isn’t advisable. The temperature is bitter, with a frigid windchill. Going out in this kind of storm would be a death sentence. Staying out in it for longer than a half-hour will certainly kill you.

It would be best to wait it out, to huddle around warm fires in the darkness. It may certainly be a test of patience, depending on your choice of place to stay. The storm will last a full week, a stark reminder of what you are, the words you have heard in your arrival: thrown to Mother Nature’s mercy, the Interloper in her design.

But will you persist?

A CHOICE

After the storm passes, there’s a certain kind of hush that falls upon Milton and its surrounding areas as Interlopers are left to pick through the wake. While the temperature certainly doesn’t get that much warmer, there’s days and nights of clear, calm weather — short afternoons of weak sunshine and nights of chilly peace, the moon hung high in the starry skies. Winter is drawing ever-closer, but it’s still for a little while.

In the early evenings, before the sun sets, there’s strange sightings of a particular white stag that can be found roaming the area — particularly down in the Milton Basin. It seems quite elusive, but there’s plenty of Interlopers that have been able to capture a glimpse over the coming days. Even Methuselah himself has seen this beast before, remarking there has long been tall tales of a ghostly stag that roams the Northern Territories and is said to bring good fortune to those who manage to hunt it down.

Perhaps you’re a little low on luck. Perhaps you’re feeling lucky. You’re going to find that stag.

Hunting down the stag, however, will take a great deal of patience and time. You might find yourself waiting several hours to wait for it to appear. Building a snow shelter, or hunkering down in some old shack might be needed in order to keep warm. But if you’re patient enough, and able to withstand the cold for long enough — the beast will soon make an appearance.

In the dying light of the day, it is there. It’s unlike any deer you’ve seen before: tall and majestic, with thick, soft fur of brilliant white. It almost looks ghost-like in some angles, it’s an incredibly beautiful creature. But it seems to have also noticed you, just as you have noticed it. It doesn’t dart away, however. Instead it stands before you, waiting for you to act.

You have a choice: slay the creature, or let it go.

It will not move until you make your decision, holding your gaze until you raise your weapon or until you lower it and give up your hunt. But there is a consequence to either action: if you choose to kill the stag, you will be rewarded with a sizeable bounty of venison. Eating said meat will help you feel fuller for longer, and the meat will keep for far longer than any other deer slain.

However, if you choose to spare the stag, the creature will lower its head, as if bowing to you. Then, it will disappear with a swirling of powdered snow. When you return home for the evening and go to sleep, the next morning you will find a gift at the foot of your bed: a pair of deerskin boots, or a deerskin blanket. These boots are supple, tough and waterproof — allowing for a great balance of mobility and warmth. The blanket is incredibly toasty, and will provide a great deal of comfort in the long nights ahead.

REST MY WEARY BONES

The storm has blown in plenty of snow to make traversing the area much more difficult, but there’s something else of note that comes with its passing. While the storm has brought much devastation, and some places have been buried in snow drifts, plenty of snow in areas has been blown away, uncovering otherwise lost secrets within Milton. Clouds of what looks like steam can be noted not too far from town, towards the mountains of the north.

If Interlopers head to explore the clouds, they will find old trails leading up towards the mountains. It isn’t a particularly difficult journey, for once, and they will soon discover that the storm has blown away the previously blocked access to a cave. It appears that this is the right place.

The air is warm here, pleasantly so. Warm enough that hats and mittens and coats seem a little unnecessary. One might wonder if someone lives within, and that a great fire is stoked to keep the place warm. But there’s no one in sight, no sounds of life: human, animal or otherwise. If they press on, they will discover that the cave floor is well worn with footfall: plenty of people have come here before, and the reason why is soon revealed.

The air grows even warmer, and more humid. The space opening to reveal small pools of slow-flowing water, warm water. The stone houses a natural hot spring, and following the cave out the other side will lead to another space in the rock open to the air, where there are even larger pools of warm water, perfectly sized and deep enough to bathe in. It seems that this place was frequently used by the people of Milton, where their life of hardship could be forgotten for an hour or two.

The water is pleasantly hot, and incredibly inviting. After so long in the freezing cold without modern appliances and utilities, a natural hot spring sounds like an absolute luxury.

FAQs

WHITEOUT

1. Characters are free to play around with this prompt how they want. Maybe they're dumb enough to go into the cold and get injured or sick. Maybe they're stuck in the Community Hall for the week. Fights might break out as tensions run high whilst everyone's stuck together, or maybe you're actually having a nice time.

2. For those stuck in the Community Hall: there are board games and old school textbooks stored in cupboards. There is also a piano.

A CHOICE

1. .... Yes, you can pet the ghost stag.

2. Characters will get one choice only with the ghost stag, meaning they can't keep going back to find it to get extra gifts.

3. If characters can't agree on a course of action, whoever acts first will get their gift. The second character will have a chance to try again another time.

4. If both characters agree on sparing the stag, but players want different gifts (ie. one player wants the boots and one wants the blanket), characters will get the gift the player wants their character to receive.

REST MY WEARY BONES

1. The hot springs will now be a permanent fixture in the Milton Area, enjoy!

PLOTTING FORM

EVENT POST

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Player Name: yasmine
Player Contact: redmaresociety @ discord, pm this journal, pp

bluehellgazette, listed in order of preference.
Pacing: Boomeranging sessions on the weekends and two or three tags during the work week. The ability to dedicate an hour or two to really sit down and tag and move a scene forward is very important to me when looking at RP partners because overlapping schedules and preserving specific blocks of time are how I am able to balance my work/rehabbing my mare/housework and still have time for threads to actually go somewhere.
OOC Limits: Eye/nail/dental trauma, dog/horse death, gratuitous violence towards women. Ask/touch bases before intense dog/horse distress.

Character Name: Vasiliy Yegorovich Ardankin
Canon: original character; he's from the russian 1930s. here's a quick summary of him; the super truncated TLDR is that he's a devout communist born in 1910 who during the russian great purge served as an interrogator in the nkvd (secret police/kgb predecessor). his role was emotional manipulation, not violence - vasiliy posed as a sympathetic figure with prisoners' best interests at heart to convince them to sign falsified confessions that got them sent to the gulag or shot outright, which he rationalized by telling himself they'd still confess in the end if they were tortured. after four years of this the head of the nkvd fell out of stalin's favor and was executed; as was the style of the times the entire bureau was purged, vasiliy among them. he was arrested, interrogated, and shot dead just like all of the people who passed through his hands over the past four years— only to wake up lying in the snow in the middle of nowhere in 2015 with the documents of a man by the same name born in 1985.

while acquainting himself with the modern world and coming to grips with how his actions—and stalin's regime—were remembered, he trained as an EMT and immigrated to the US to avoid being discovered and executed again. three years have since passed, and he's mostly destalinized (though he still grapples with kneejerk feelings of filial loyalty to stalin) although still very much a true believer in communism; vasiliy is constantly followed by an overwhelming sense of guilt over his actions and fear of being discovered, and is incredibly guarded and paranoid as a result. he's continued to work as an EMT with the feeling that he's counterbalancing some of the cosmic harm his four years in the nkvd put out into the world, though realistically nothing will ever actually ease his guilt or his belief that he has no right to be alive.

Wanted CR: Friends, enemies, wary acquaintances, etc! I particularly enjoy having him interact with people who would, to a 20th century Russian, clock as being of either the same class background (factory laborers/tenement dwellers) as himself or notably above it, but I'm open to just about anything. I also always enjoy having him use his medical training and can never have enough 'patching people up' type threads!
Unwanted CR: Not really interested in lengthy ideological debate threads where modern characters lecture him on the evils of the Soviet Union or why Soviet style communism is bad or what have you - it's just not fun to play out from his side of the equation. That's not to say that I'm adverse to ideological discussion threads though - to the contrary! I think it can be interesting when characters who have CR start hashing out or acting on their views of the world, but there's a big difference between a conversation and just like, a one-sided lecture.

Event Ideas:

Whiteout - Vasiliy can be seen outdoors winterizing the house he's taken up residence in, and when he finishes making preparations, he'll offer assistance to anyone nearby who's still in the process. It's very clear that he knows what he's doing on a level that a lot of the people in Milton don't--catch him doing things like shoving towels or socks into windowsills and under doors, saran wrapping the windows, et cetera.

Vasiliy will be happy to accept assistance from anyone who would like to join him in dragging sleds full of stacked firewood across the town and bringing them inside to the community center, and he can also be seen setting up some bedding and towels to make one of the corners his own, with the intent of remaining there to offer medical assistance if it's needed while they're all sheltering.

A Choice/Rest my Weary Bones - I don't have anything in particular in mind for either of these, but I'll be keeping an eye out for toplevels to tag into and am open to having Vasiliy be a part of someone else's plans!

Anything Else?: n/a!

I can throw you a young man (who is probably centuries old but it doesn't quite matter in his world, his experiences are more than limited) who would be 100% down with learning from someone who can apparently survive such harsh enviorment. Like, Erich has been in from the very beginning and he still has no idea what he's doing. He would absolutely find himself staring as Vasiliy makes sure his house stays cold and would definitely study the sleds and how efficients they are.

He's mostly sitting around the communuity center to help around, so he can be found there as well.

I am also open to have him patch Erich's eventual wounds up (Erich would learn like a sponge, there) if that's more what you'd like, looking at the wanted CR. And worry not, no communism talks from this guy. He's from a world where that concept doesn't exists. I'm positive inside the Pandaemonium he didn't even use money because not even Magic!Amazon sends package to the most dangerous prison in the world and that's where he spent his entire life.

November 2023 Event Plotting

vasiliy yegorovich ardankin | original — historical/(secret) revenant

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