logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: AUGUST

INTRO LOG: AUGUST
KANGAROO COURT

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: august 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. winters introduces himself and explains the situation. also, rats. :(
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

It's dim, and the room won't stop swaying, gently rocking you back and forth. A loud sound startles you fully awake, a deep, moaning call: a foghorn. As your eyes adjust, you note faint red light streaking through the room from a tiny, round window.

You've found yourself in a private room, lying on a bed. The last things you remember are the events that led up to your death. Beside you is a folded tablet and a lantern that glows steadily with a healthy flame.

You're on a ship. And that ship is docking.

Making your way to the deck, and eventually the pier, you find only moonlight to greet you, and a dark forest beyond. There are other people here, each with their own unique lantern, and many of them look just as lost as you are. On the ferry you've just disembarked from, the speaker system begins to play a song.

In the distance, across the waters of the lake, you can see the tall silhouette of a lighthouse, its red light slowly turning.

•••
Maybe you already noticed them while the ship was still on the move. Or maybe you simply heard them, the sound of skittering claws, tiny squeals that sound more like high-pitched hoots. Whatever the case, they're impossible to miss as the ferry docks itself at Beacon's pier.

Rats. Huge ones, the size of small dogs, and tiny ones alike. They come boiling up out of the cargo hold the moment the boat stops moving, a tide of fur and teeth and nails. If you stay out of their way, they'll probably just run past you. But for those unfortunate enough to be in front of them, there's a lot of gnawing and clawing in your future.

The forest spirit rats seem hell-bent on getting off the ferry, but what they've left behind in the cargo hold is a bit of a mess. Crates and boxes have been chewed open and chewed into, as the horde of little beasties searched for anything they could eat. Did you ask Rastus for something edible? Unfortunately, it may have already served that purpose. And if you asked for something else, well, there's a chance it's still been nibbled on. It looks like the general store's supplies were hit the hardest, with about a third of them gone.

Oh, and you thought they were done? No ma'am.

The rats make a beeline for Bonfire Square, separating into smaller mobs to continue their endless quest for food. They slip through doors and windows, rummage through the bar, and generally make a complete nuisance of themselves. It's a plague of truly bubonic proportions, and it might be a good idea to do something about it. But be careful, if you try. Moving with the ravenous tide is a strange and twisted creature, each of its parts larger than the rats around it: the rat king, hungriest of them all. It moves as one unit of goat-sized animals, and it's quite aggressive.

Good luck!

•••
Winters is waiting for the new arrivals on the beach. He flags you down from where he's standing atop a large rock, surveying the gathering crowd. When everyone's made their way over, he speaks:

"First thing's first: I'm sorry you're here. There's no easy way to break this news, so let's just get it over with, hm? You're dead. Or, ah, you've died. Call this the afterlife if you want, or don't if that ain't your thing, but point is, you're here 'cause you died. Those are the facts.

This world's dead, too. You've noticed by now it's pretty dark, yeah? That's 'cause there's no life here, not anymore. And that lantern you've got? That's your life, so to speak. The flame goes out, you die, and vice versa. Keep it close. Should be easy enough to remember on account of how the sun don't rise. You'll need something to see by.

This place is called Beacon, and that's Lake Red Jacket. Town's 'bout a mile down the road, and we've got a bonfire there, but that's the only other light you'll see in this place. Save for the moon and all, though the sky won't do you much good out in the woods. I'll let the folks that's already here explain how the bonfire works to y'all.

Ah, right. I'm Ben Winters—Winters'll do—and you'll find my, er, colleague Will in town. If you've got questions about these tablets, he's your guy. Rastus tends to the fire, and you'll find him in town. He's married to his job in a way. And you may never've seen a person like him back wherever you came from, but don't make a big fuss over it. He's a nice fellow. Mind your manners.

The three of us are leftovers from past resets. We came here on that ferry just like you, but it's just us left now. 'Sides the Lighthouse Keeper, but it'll be a bit before you get to meet her. She's got control over the town, see, and if she ain't satisfied with a group's performance, they get the axe. Town gets reset. If she pulls a reset on you folks, a couple of you might end up like me and Will here, giving this speech to the next crop."

The red beam of the lighthouse pulses over the group, over the trees. Winters glances up to watch it swing out over the bay.

"But don't hold it against her. Ain't her fault we're in this mess, and we've all got a job to do, including you.

For now, concentrate on accepting your lot, yeah? We're here to answer your questions, but we ain't gonna tell you all there is to know just yet. Some things are best learned on your own, and some of it we just don't want to saddle you with yet. There's a limit to how long we can stay here safely, that's true, but thing is, we do got time. Time enough to play this smart. Do better than the folks before us did. Settle in, make peace, explore a bit if you're up for it. Use these first couple weeks to come to grips. You ain't gonna be any good to the town if you don't sort yourself out before worrying about what comes next.

That said, I've got a bit of a plan in the works in terms of getting the Keeper back on the network. More on that in due time, but if you check your tablets, you'll find the network post I put up about it a few days back. If you feel like getting caught up on current events, you'll want to check the weekly bulletins in the post office and the records in town hall.

But most importantly, listen up: You're dead. You died. Whatever your old life was, it's done now. None of us can go back, so all we've got is forward. Welcome to Beacon. Could be worse, yeah?"

Then he turns to address the group of old hats that have come to welcome the newbies.

"You lot have your bearings about you now, right? It won't do us no good moving forward if I'm always the one standing up here answering the questions. Give 'em the rundown, fill 'em in on what you've learned, and help 'em adjust to this place, yeah? Good luck."

With that, he hops down from his perch and heads back into town. You're more than welcome to talk to him or any of the other NPCs through their inboxes, though!

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, Winters will be around to give his spiel, but then he's heading back to town! It's up to the veteran residents to fill in the new folks.

And, um, better deal with that rat problem? The rats will indeed charge into town and cause quite the ruckus (Rastus can be found standing on a chair near the bonfire), but how much trouble they cause is up to you! Feel free to take creative liberties with these forest spirits, and for those of you with packages on the ferry, you're welcome to decide for yourself how damaged your presents may be. Any rats left in town will be driven out once the rain and storms begin on August 5.

Beyond that, please keep an eye out for an upcoming mod announcement, which will involve more housing options, a setting page/map update, a brand new game info page, and some other notes for the month. Stay tuned!

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock (though it looks like about a third of the food has been eaten by rats...)
5 cloth face masks for Coraline
A very big pack of crayons for Mary
A sword and sheath for Boromir
A carton of cigarettes and an assortment of makeup (all the stuff he requested and a bit extra!) for Rosinante
A shield, two hefty log books, and a set of paints for Elden
Roughly a month's supply of the sulfa, penicillin, and morphine, a two month's supply of basic medicine and first aid supplies, and three cartons of cigarettes (Rastus did his best) for Wade
A usb-based GPS tracker for Spiderman Who Is Definitely Not Peter Parker
Two cans of paint, one white and one silver, for Scarlett
Three different styles of wrist blades (seems like Rastus got confused and just wanted to cover all the bases) and ka-bar for Billy
Leave-in conditioner, hair gel, a popsicle stick, a stuffed bird, a french press, a gun cleaning kit, 4 boxes of .45 bullets (though, upon further inspection, they're blanks!), and a literal potato sack full of espresso beans for Rafe
Seven sets of rosary beads, one in each color of the rainbow, for Javert
Six small bags of various blends of coffee (all of which will fit the description of Ebony brand coffee, even if it's not that exact brand) arranged neatly in a gift basket, as well as a flyer advertising a smalltown cafe's coffee flight with the words "Vote for your favorite!" for Noctis
A variety pack of loose leaf tea and a tea set for Kuai
2 scimitars and sheaths for M.K.
A sword, sheath, and set of knight's armor (it will fit her very well) for Brienne
A set of throwing knives and a three-pack of fluorescent spray paint for Antimony
A carton of cigarettes and just a shitload of wood, good luck getting it off the ferry, for Rosalind
Five different star(?) shaped charms for "Dawn"
A high quality fishing rod, line, and a tacklebox with a dozen various lures inside, as well as a giftbag that fits all of this for Ignis
A shotgun, three boxes of ammo, a 4 inch iron knife, and a big honkin' Swiss army knife with a frankly cartoonish amount of stuff in it for Jo
A Morse code chart, 10 fresh watermelons, 10 fresh fish, and a sign for Sora
5 boxes of .45 caliber bullets, 15 boxes of .45 caliber rubber bullets, 5 glock pistols, a big ol' pack of target practice silhouettes, and a wooden sign that reads "ROOTIN' TOOTIN' GUN RANGE", as well as an SD card (which will fit in Raylan's tablet) with a gun safety video from the 80s for Raylan
4 boxes of 9mm bullets, a handgun cleaning kit, a leather cord, a small jewelry cleaning kit, and two bags of M&Ms for Nate
A small wooden box containing a collection of feathers, a trident, and a set of armor for Alexios
A first aid kit fit for a school nurse, a set of craft paints and brushes, three medium-sized painting canvases, three sketchpads, an art supply kit, and a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle for Riku
Two cartons of cigarettes and a, um, well, this for Gene
A week's worth of clothing (in his size and #aesthetic) and a set of neckties, including this one, for Five

QUICKNAV
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Swarms of rats are not exactly what he was expecting to have to fight when it came down to a battle. But it is what it is, and though he's already collected his parcel from the ship and safely stashed it in his room, he doesn't want them eating half their food for the month. Especially if there's any wayward tea in there in addition to what he's received from Rastus. He's a man with priorities.

He's been watching her fight out of the corner of his eye, more so he can avoid any wayward projectiles if she's not diligent in where they're being thrown. She's clearly holding her own, but there's a lot more rats than one person can deal with.

Standing up straight for a moment he holds his hands in front of his chest, palms a few inches apart as a glowing blue ball of ice coalesces between them. Very abruptly he crouches down and slams the ball into the ground causing icicles to burst forth, impaling some rats and freezing others as the icy explosion sends them flying, shattering upon impact with the ground. The icicles very carefully avoid his fighting companion as they shoot out, then retract almost as quickly as they emerged when he stands up, the ice seeming to suck out of the ground and back into his hand.]

Yes, I saw them. [he nods a little smugly about the sudden lack of rats in his vicinity.]

There will be more, unfortunately.

[Neither did she. Xayah respects all animals and nature, but rodents in this amount are not acceptable by any means. She can manage on low food, perhaps she was a bit overexaggerating in her text too, but- that catches other's attention, right?

She's quite precise when it comes to battle, however. Every feather that leaves her hand has a purpose, and even those that don't seem to do much- when they return to her hand, they seem to slice the enemy unexpectedly on their way back to her.

Thankfully, she wasn't moving around too much when the sudden ice appeared out of nowhere. The chill is quite pleasant, along with the sight of rats being frozen and skewered. She waits for the ice to retract before jumping back to be out of his way. She can shoot at the rats from the distance too, that's not a problem for her.]

Where are they coming from? This amount-

[There were some rats on the ferry that brought her here but- that's impossible. The ferry is too small for this amount of rodents.]

I'm unsure. They seem to be coming from the ferry, but it doesn't seem to have the capacity for how many we're seeing.

[He kicks one that managed to avoid the ice. He's not a fan of vermin, but if they weren't threatening to eat all their food he might have ignored them. But a swarm that was endangering their survival would have to be dealt with.]

I don't know where they're going either. We don't have trash or storehouses to attract rats.

[Xayah respects everything that comes from nature, even rats, but there has to be a balance. And this is not it.

Nice kick Kuai. Out of reflex, she instantly follows up with a dagger and shoots it midair. It's, uh... something she did often with Rakan. He'd rile up the enemy, send them flying in the air and she'd shoot them like moving targets. Her hand reacted faster than her brain.

...]

Well- food arrived, didn't it? Rastus said so. They can easily go for grains.

[He nods out of respect for the shot. That's some fancy knifework.]

We haven't retrieved it all from the boat yet so they're abandoning their food supply. Though they're rats, they don't know that.

In any case, they'll need to be eliminated before they do more damage.

You seem up to the challenge.

[That's a compliment in Sub-Zero speak.]

Would it be safe if we left some of it there?

[Because if rats think there's nothing on the boat then they might be able to salvage most of the stuff.

She smirks and cracks her fingers-]

I'm used to dealing with troublesome situations, yes.

You're no slouch yourself.

If they are all leaving, maybe so.

[It might work as a distraction, but he doesn't know enough about rats to know if it's an effective one. He's never had to try and outsmart vermin before.]

Though once they get into the town we'll never be rid of them. Care to take on a few more?

[Xayah smirks and she summons some more feather blades between her fingers, stepping forward and in a stance.]

Always a pleasure to get rid of the rodents.

[Rodents of any kind, not just rats.]

[He's delighted to have a fighting buddy. Generally he fights alone or with Hanzo who's probably skewering rats somewhere nearby. He hasn't checked.

He manifests an ice axe in his hand, nodding to her.]

The more we take out, the less everyone else has to deal with.

[The less skilled warriors he means. Time to go on a rat killing rampage. At least the ones he freezes aren't splattering blood everywhere like the ones he's slicing apart, cleanup is clearly someone elses problem.]

[She gives a nod and a tilt of the head, making this into a small challenge now.]

You take right, I take left. Last one to finish treats a drink. Deal?

[Might as well have some actual fun in this rodent-killing job.]

[Oh, he likes you.]

Agreed. You are lucky the bar does not charge.

[Cocky thing ain't he? Off to the right he goes, freezing and skeweing rats the whole time.]

INTRO LOG: AUGUST

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