GAME ITINERARY | NOVEMBER 2016

[ironwood]

Hello chelonauts, here is a fresh new itinerary post! Previous months can be found under this tag.

Here's what we've got lined up for November:

Weather

The dry autumn weather continues for most of the month, and the temperature remains relatively stable although it begins to dip in the latter part of November. As the air begins to cool further, winds off the ocean kick up and there are occasionally gusts of 25 miles per hour or more, particularly at sunrise and sunset. This isn’t such a problem in Keeliai, where distance from the shore is enough to reduce the force of the wind, but those traveling to Ioa Elanag may have trouble with sand being blown around. The winds do create large ripple patterns across the scrubland sands, and it’s quite beautiful to look at once the dust has settled. The bibiru appear to quite enjoy the winds, flexing their wings despite being unable to fly.

Kedan/Foreigner Relations

The relationship between the kedan and the Foreigners remains relatively stable this month. The new government council seems to be gaining momentum without much interference from Foreigners, and the apparent resolve to allow the kedan their sovereignty has earned some goodwill. The ceramics painting gatherings in early October helped create a greater sense of unity, as many Foreigners participated side-by-side with kedan and new friendships were made.

With the focus on Ioa Elanag, there’s a sense of curiosity that seems to supercede the possibility of contention between kedan and Foreigners for the moment. Following in Usayi’s footsteps, some kedan will occasionally ask Foreigners to join them on a fishing trip, although they will be expected to help with the work, as it’s not intended to be a pleasure cruise.

Local Events

LUCKY LUCKY - ALL MONTH

The kedan have been taking advantage of the plentiful fauna of Ioa Elanag to provision them for a while, particularly since the extended duration in Tavimbi basically prevented a growing season for this month. Although hunting parties have managed to take down a couple of Aphaufa, albeit with more than a few injuries among the group, they're finding it much easier to corral and capture the more dim-witted Bibiru.

Once the Bibiru have been harvested for their meat, fur and feathers however, the kedan have also decided to make good use of the remains. If pressed, they won't be able to say exactly whom gave them the idea, but they are absolutely certain the the phrase "lucky rabbit's feet" is from the Foreigners, and in the spirit of continuing to improve the Foreigner/Kedanese relationship, have come up with an excellent idea.

Therefore, all month, many kedan shops will be selling (or sometimes given away, in addition to a large purchase of something else, or to regular patrons) brightly coloured Bibiru feet. They come dyed in all the colours of the rainbow and make cute (if macabre) accessories. Those who carry them around will discover that they may indeed bring luck! Of course, it’s good to keep in mind that there are a few different kinds of luck...

Red: Brings either good or bad luck in romantic endeavors.
Orange: Brings either good or bad luck in combat.
Yellow: Brings either good or bad luck in business and money-making endeavors.
Green: Brings either good or bad luck in agriculture/horticulture.
Blue: Brings either good or bad luck in magical/spiritual endeavors.
Indigo: Brings either good or bad luck in creative works.
Purple: Brings either good or bad luck in interpersonal relations.
Pink: Bibiru will follow you everywhere. Like, small swarms of them. Cute but they will wreck your garden or eat all your food. But if treated well, they will bring you small items you may have lost or trinkets of some value.

Log Note: Lucky Bibiru shenanigans will not have a mod-posted event log, but can be referenced in player logs and posts throughout the month.

TTFLN: Turtle Texts from Last Night? - ALL MONTH

( Or today, or possibly the day before.) With the release of the new portable communicator system comes some inevitable hiccups. While the devices will all be capable of sending text, audio, and video messages, sometimes those messages end up getting sent to the wrong people, or with the wrong encryption settings. Text messages in particular seem to be liable to go astray, and video messages will often vanish altogether, only to end up in a random network console a few days later. This occasionally results in personal or embarrassing messages being viewed by an unintended recipient, who may or may not reply. It could be the start of a great friendship, or it could explain why a complete stranger will give you an odd look on the street one day.

Log Note: Turtle Texts will not have a mod-posted event log, but can be referenced in player logs and posts throughout the month.

NPCs & Groups

No major upsets in the political sphere this month, as everyone seems to have carried the goodwill from the previous month, having been calm, productive, and even friendly, forward into November.

AROYAN

The Coin Magician is still largely absent from public view again this month, leaving his protege Odyni to continue covering his duties as liaison between the Merchant's Guild and the Foreigners. The word is that whatever illness he has contracted, it's both severe and resistant to medicine, and that there's been discussion within the Guild itself about possibly reassigning his position to someone else.

KUHIE & KIUEU

Enthusiastically buoyed by the amount of volunteers and positive reception they've received, the siblings have revised the scale of the Great Turtle's Temple, as well as purchased the land adjacent to the building site (at quite a high price, if the grapevine is to be believed) for an expansionary garden. With these additions comes a revised timeline as well, and the Temple and its extra spaces are now on track to be finished around the new year, if everything goes according to plan.

Kuhie spends most of her time on the temple site itself, as the primary architect for the space, and does most of the hiring of construction volunteers. Kiueu is more often found splitting his time between encouraging new converts to their convictions, and heading prayerful times around the Turtle's Head.

KYDE

Kyde will be his usual insufferably cheerful self - at least until he finds out about Milyn’s more ‘practical’ approach to finding an antidote to Dust and Red Mist. His demeanor will take a quick dive to upset and outright livid. The words ‘unethical’ may be uttered repeatedly. The only times he won’t be in his lab or lecture hall is when he’s at the clinic, trying to discourage volunteers by explaining just what the effects of the drugs are.

MILYN

The Healer seems to have had enough of waiting for work to be done on solving the problem of Dust and its nastier cousin, Red Mist, and has elected to take the straightforward approach: testing countergents until she finds one that will work. Unfortunately, she's testing them on live subjects, having put out an open offer to pay people in exchange for letting her expose them to various quantities of Dust. If/when approached, she'll defend her actions, saying that anyone who's been tested on is made fully aware of what she's doing, and it's their choice to go through with it. And she's put in a clause about 'possible unknown side effects', so everything as far as she's concerned, is on the up and up!

ROSYN

The arrival in Ioa Elanag does nothing to disrupt Rosyn’s schedule, nor her business. She doesn’t explicitly forbid her employees from visiting the compound inland, but it’s uncommon to ever see someone under her employ there. On the other hand, she does readily encourage the fishing trips that the kedan are taking, even going so far as to pay some fishers extra for their hauls to use in the Shaded Lantern’s kitchen and cellar (once preserved, of course).

She continues to keep an eye on the construction of the temple, expressing neither outright support nor opposition to the project. Rosyn can also be found visiting the Water and Metal Sectors more often than the others, but she’s made a point to expand her presence all around the city since the council was created, so it’s impossible to tell if she’s after something in particular.

USAYI

Usayi is still organizing the hunting and fishing parties for the mainland for as long as they're there, but he's notably more snappish this month, going so far as to be downright rude even to people he's been on good terms with before. Asking around those people he's generally friendly with won't yield all that much, but someone who's a little more drunk than average will let slip this month holds the anniversary of his brother's death.

Despite his social graces being at an all-time low, Usayi presses on with practical matters as well as he can, spending increasing amounts of time ashore looking for what resources can be put to use for Keeliai. If he's not in the compound itself, he'll be in his shop in Sky, often scowling at a bolt of fabric like it's personally offended him.

[ooc; As before, if your character would be interested in the food gathering trips, feel free to assume they've gone, or to get in touch at ironpeace to arrange a thread.]

Economy

Fresh produce is getting scarcer, though not approaching a level where famine is a real concern, but it’s priced a bit higher for the season, and certain kinds of produce are available in shops on a weekly instead of daily basis. Root vegetables have done reasonably well despite the cool temperature, and they store for a long time, so they’re easier to find than leafy greens, for example.

Hunting, fishing, and foraging on Ioa Elanag have provided new sources of food. Bibiru is available in several preparations, most notably in meat for stews and preserved by salting or smoking for future months. Fish is plentiful, as the schools off the shore of Ioa Elanag still haven’t learned to fear kedan boats or nets and that doesn’t appear as though it will change any time soon. The fish is also available in both fresh and preserved varieties, and is relatively inexpensive.

The kedan are also experimenting with foraged edibles from the scrubland surrounding the city compound. Most of the plants are thin and weedy, but there are some cactus-like plants that, while difficult to prepare, are very nutritious and serve as a good base for spices and sauces. Another plant, short and with periwinkle-colored flowers that only bloom in the morning, have leaves that make great seasoning for soups and other dishes. The seeds of this plant are also edible, and when combined with some grains and dried fruit make for a very tasty granola-like cereal that becomes popular in the markets. Unfortunately, a portion of the kedan population is allergic to this particular plant, and reactions to the seeds are occasionally severe, though most reactions range from a vague itching sensation that lasts for several days to hives on the skin. Labels indicating this plant as an ingredient appear fairly quickly, but labeling is not ubiquitous and some kedan have to be very careful about what they eat.

Crime

With so many people busy on land, there's been a noticeable uptick in petty crimes such as minor thefts and other mischiefs. It can be difficult to tell what's the fault of people and what's the fault of the various treasures found on land, however, as many of the latter are also responsible for small bits of inconvenient chaos. That ominously dripping graffiti might be a prankster's impolite pictograph, or it might be the fault of a pendant that really wasn't partial to being moved.

Some individuals are making a sport of betting on which incidents are paranormal and which are caused by people. This is annoying, but not ultimately illegal.

Technology

Since leaving Tavimbi, the Metalworkers and researchers at the College have been diligently advancing on the prototype portable communicator that Charako provided. Tu Vishan's awakening greatly improved their ability to develop coding compatible with the turtle’s organic signature. Early in the month, the Metalworkers announce that they've completed functional communicators based off the radio handsets that feature text, audio, and video options, as well as support encryption functions. Integration of the portable communicators with the console network is also in it’s final stages, and will be complete by the end of the month. They do caution that it will take time to manufacture larger numbers of the devices, and that there may be some initial bugs that need to be worked out, but overall they're thrilled with their work.

The new handset design is remnisicent of a slide out phone style, in that an integrated keyboard is physical (no touch screens) while retaining a portable size. It's also quite a bit heavier than what people might be used to if they're familiar with more modern cellphones, but a lot of that has to do with their construction, as super light metals are much less common in Keeliai than other worlds. The keyboards can be programmed to function for multiple alphabets (although only one at a time), something particularly necessary to accommodate the fact that kedanese language has 17 dialects that don't all use the same letterings, but it also proves beneficial to Foreigners who want to do their typing in a native language of their own.

The technicians will also note that these handsets are not designed to replace the actual console system, which is indefinitely powered due to being biomechanical and thus tied to Tu Vishan's energy, but more to provide a portable component of them. Each handset only stores about 48 hours worth of charge at a time, and despite numerous attempts to increase that duration, that's as high as they can get it. (The current speculation among the technicians is that's the point at which people removed from Tu Vishan's radius of power also begin experiencing significant symptoms.) Stationary consoles are also being outfitted with a charging dock, and a handset will charge fully in about 8 hours.

(OOC: Information about the new handsets will be updated to the Setting pages and relevant core posts in the near future.)

At the College, research continues into the budding field of computer science, which has also been bolstered by the turtle waking up, allowing the exploration into other kinds of coding and devices like the communicators. The frenetic pace of forensic technology has died down some by now, though steady work continues in an effort to support the police force as well as other investigators interested in upgrading their methods.

Meanwhile, some researchers curious about the city compound on Ioa Elanag have begun to dedicate their time and resources to investigating some of the oddities visitors have found there, and have put out a call for volunteers to temporarily hand over their findings for study. Anyone who heeds the request will have to sign a waiver, since the researchers can’t guarantee the item will be returned to its owner in exactly the same condition (if it’s not accidentally destroyed in the natural course of scientific inquiry).

International

KIN'NAL

With the increasing chill of winter in the air, many of the Kin'nal are having difficulties as the month goes on, becoming more sluggish and lethargic. Things are liable to get worse as the winter goes on, and so there's an understandable push to find some kind of tenable solution: a place the Kin'nal can reasonably call home, or better heating endeavors, perhaps. In addition to the Kin'nal representative raising this issue mid-month, Usayi will be adding this to his plate, and pushing -- if perhaps not politely -- for both kedan and Foreigners to step up. They're part of the city now, after all.

OOC Information

UPCOMING PLOT POLL

One of the draws of the game is that there are always multiple plotlines happening, but as with all good things, sometimes we get a little overambitious! Meaning, the game currently has a LOT of open-ended and unfinished plotlines, and the mods would like to consolidate and focus on fewer at a time; quality over quantity!

In the next couple of days, the mods will be posting a poll with listing of the current "active" plots that have been introduced, for players to vote on for their preferred three. This doesn't mean that plots which aren't chosen will be discontinued, they'll simply be back-burnered for the time being, and when the player chosen focused ones wrap up, more will be brought forward.

Keep an eye out on the OOC comm for the poll post!

So that's our outline for the month of November! If you have any questions about these happenings, please use the Questions comment below. Otherwise, this post is free space for monthly OOC plotting.