logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: SEPTEMBER

INTRO LOG: SEPTEMBER

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: september 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. everyone gets a special gift, courtesy of the lighthouse keeper.
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.

•••

Unlike the past two months, there's not a whole lot happening down at the dock today. It's quiet, disconcertingly so, after the foghorn blows once and then twice to signal the ferry's arrival. Winters is dead, and as such there's no one around to dole out the "need to know" info for the new arrivals.

Luckily, the tablet and the town do have some resources available for playing catch up! The Keeper's recent network post is available for everyone to read, and newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records in town hall. Everyone's also welcome to get in touch with the NPCs through their inboxes, too.

But, oh! In the ferry's cargo hold is a rather large crate addressed to the Postmaster General, and inside? A bunch of ocarinas! The Postmaster General, set up at their little stall, will be passing out ocarinas (free of charge!) to everyone that happens by. Anyone who doesn't come by the stall will receive one in their mailbox.

Shortly after the ferry arrives, a new message from the Lighthouse Keeper appears on the network:

Did everyone get their ocarinas? If you didn't, check your mailbox at the post office. There's plenty to go around. The extras will be in the general store.

You can use these to communicate with the forest spirits. Their language is based on musical notes, so you have to play little songs for them. Here's a couple of basic translations that should help you guys out:

The rest of the message contains playing instructions and example audio files for the following messages:

- A friendly greeting!
- An assurance that equates to "I come in peace".
- A short melody that translates roughly to polite terms like please, thank you, and you're welcome.
- A shrill note that asks for help.

Characters can use the ocarinas to communicate these phrases to the forest spirits (and are welcome to try learning or communicating other phrases), but keep in mind that there's not much plot info to be learned from the forest spirits, at least not for right now. These ocarinas won't exactly help you translate anything the forest spirits might say back, after all.

The Lighthouse Keeper won't be responding to that network post, but she can be contacted through her inbox!

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, you are officially without a chaperone. Rastus is back at the bonfire, Will is characteristically elusive, and Robin is, well, you know where she's at. It's up to the veteran residents to fill in the new folks.

We're also happy to introduce the YARD SARD... The Postmaster General will be appearing in any intro logs where a player formerly in the game has ordered something through Rastus but is no longer around to claim it! These items will still come in, but since they have no owner, they'll be available for other characters to claim. It's usually a first come, first serve situation, though the Postmaster General may turn folks away for any number of weird reasons. (OOCly, it's us attempting to spread the wealth among the playerbase.)

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
Two silver prosthetic pieces (they aren't a perfect fit, but they work well enough) for Polnareff
A few bottles of holy water, a pouch of powdered silver, and a magic wand (the wand doesn't have the permanence spell Elden was looking for, unfortunately; instead, it will temporarily change the color of its target to either pink or blue!) for Elden
Webfluid components (about a three month's supply) for Peter
A spice rack for Davina, and one for Ignis as well, plus a little geology kit with both of their names scribbled on the package and crossed out various times. Looks like these orders got a little mixed up! Everything each of them requested (plus a little extra) can be found among these packages, but they'll have to sort out what goes where
2 cartons of cigarettes, a flintlock pistol, and 100 rounds of ammo for it (though none for the shotgun, hm!) for Rosinante
A small assortment of dreamcatchers, all with a lot of feathers for Xayah
A flash drive (on which is a very simple app for Morse code translation! this can be passed around or uploaded to the network for many users to download) for Matt
A bounce house (small and with quite a few holes that need patching, but it'll get the job done; it's deflated, but it does have a built-in fan!) for Lunafreya

If you submitted an item request last month and we've missed it here, let us know!

YARD SARD

The Postmaster General is here! They've set up a little stall on the dock, and have a couple of items for... sard?

~~A carton of cigarettes~~
4 2 boxes of .45 bullets
~~A sewing kit~~

If you would like to purchase an item from the Postmaster General, you can haggle with them below!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not sure we can leave? Since the dead coming back to life isn't something that, uhm, happens all that much? Or at all.

I've been. Here? Yes. Most of the time. But, oh, that's fine, I-- Eliot is the one who's been, like, finding things? We have food. And. Stuff?

[Stuff, what stuff? It could be anything, but Eliot drags it back to the cabin and Quentin is all too happy to let him figure out what to eat, so they aren't forced to eat cereal dry out of the box or refurbish the bedspreads for toilet paper.] But thanks, though.

[ That's an acceptable alternative. ]

Oh, alright. Eliot is your roommate, I presume?

[ Just checking. Could be a spirit or something, who knows around here? ]

He's-- yeah, you could say that. [You could say a lot of things about Eliot, really.] We're from the same place? Back home? Not that we died together or anything, and I'm still not all that convinced that someone didn't make a mistake when they sent him here? But. Yes. So, we live together. And he gets things.

[That isn't so hard to follow, is it? Quentin sips his tea.]

Oh, you're friends from home! That's lovely. Ah, yes, and very interesting. I've met a few people who have one of those. You'd think we wouldn't.

Very funny coincidence, that.

I know, right? It's like, are they doing it on purpose? And why, though? Why bring more people in from the same place? World? Timeline? I don't even know what to call it, but that.

What is?

That so many of us should be in that situation.

I wonder... Perhaps the portal that brought us here is trying to encourage us to be successful.

Wait, what?

[Aziraphale has all of Quentin's attention now, head snapping up to stare straight at him and Quentin is breathing just a little too hard, like he has to force it in and out of his lungs.]

Portal? Tell me. Do you remember one? Did you see one? [and after a beat] Do you feel one?

No, no, I've just heard it referenced. I'm not sure if there's a physical portal, I only remember waking up on the ferry.

[ He frowns. ]

I'm very sorry to have gotten your hopes up like that, dear boy. Unfortunately I know only about as much as you do, though I must say - the ferry, the forgetting. Does sound very Greek.

Oh.

Oh, well. That's-- that's okay. [it's really not but, that's just how it is apparently] It was stupid anyway. Yeah, sure. Greeks were the only ones who, uhm, believed in a boat or a ferry to the afterlife? They are just the most popular ones? I should check on that, maybe this library has books on it?

[That last bit might sound like Quentin is talking more to himself than to anyone else]

Yes, the Greeks did but the Egyptians as well, burying boats with their dead.

I wasn't buried and I can't say anyone would've thrown a boat in the flames with me, but also there is the river.

According to the Greeks, there was the river Lethe, of forgetfulness. Perhaps something similar has happened, though... I am not missing any memories of my life. Come to think of it.

If you're missing memories, how would you know? Isn't that the whole point of missing memories, that-- that you don't even know that they're missing? You could be missing, like, years and you'd never even know it? Maybe it's the river the myth was based on, but it changed over time? It wouldn't be the first time that legends changed. It's also a matter of perspective? I mean, I've met Gods. Uhm, before? And they were not as cool or awesome as the stories would like you to believe.

Just, they weren't. They were actually kind of dicks, like on average.

You have? Which ones? That's very fascinating. I had no idea they were real!

[ He doesn't realize Quentin's not from his Earth. And, well, you'd think he'd have met other immortals in his lifespan. ]

And I do believe people misread those stories, or misremembered them. The whole point of the Gods was that, because they were so powerful and immortal, that they could be a little... callous towards humans and each other. Bored, so to speak.

[ He certainly knows what that's like. ]

Oh, they got bored alright. [Quentin huffs, still sore about the whole thing that lead to that other thing that lead to castle Blackspire and that whole shitshow.] Well, uhm, Ember and Umber for one. I mean, they're twins so they're practically one God? And Reynard? He was a colossal dick. [He ticks the Gods off on his fingers] Prometheus? Not a complete dick. Persephone and her dick husband Hades. Oh, and there was also the Old Gods, but they refused to show themselves and just fucked everything up remotely?

This would be just like them to do something like this for kicks.

What do you mean old Gods?

[ Does he mean God God, because if he means God God, Aziraphale can guarantee to Quentin that She had absolutely nothing to do with this, unfortunately. ]

Honestly, I have no idea. That's what they call themselves and they had, like, this fancy office? And the best cake I've ever-- they had cake and those people were also dicks for no reason. They're the ones who made magic? And probably everything else, but-- I don't know. I could just be talking out of my ass about this, because it's not like any of the Gods ever actually explained any of this to us.

[So many Gods, all assholes and the only one who wasn't, had been one before she turned in to a Goddess. Or, she was just Julia now.]

[ Yes, Quentin. That was. Not remotely helpful. ]

Could you slow down and start from the beginning? Where was the fancy office?

Uhm, with the Old Gods? [he's not saying it because Aziraphale is a new person, but he's thinking duh! so very loudly.] There was a scroll with a spell on it? And it-- it led us to the office of the Old Gods, only they weren't there? Some office flunky was, though, and he's the one who brought us cake? Didn't want to help us at all, because-- dick? But. Uhm, he ended up telling us something, but.

[Which is all just a bunch of fancy words to say that Quentin has no idea where they went except for the scroll saying they'd go to the Old Gods.]

[ Quentin. Aziraphale speaks over forty languages and he still has no idea what you just said. ]

Right. That's.

Very unfortunate. Sorry to hear it.

[That was clear as mud!]

So. That's the Old Gods. A bunch of dicks. Which, is not the same as a bag of them? because I think only Margo would think up something like that and, like, take it literally. But I guess you haven't met them?

Uh. No. I can safely say I have only met the one God, and we never formally. Well, I haven't seen Her, it's very rare to behold The Almighty, you know.

Even as a -- faithful -- servant, myself.

Servant? [Quentin looks him over, because- this does not look like a priest. Maybe he's some strange kind of British Mormon.] Do you-- did you work for a church?

No-- quite different. Suppose you could say I was a missionary of sorts.

[ A missionary with no proselytization... ]

You were a missionary?

[This gets Aziraphale a long look over, like. He doesn't look like any missionary Quentin has ever seen. At all.]

Which god did you do it for? I mean, if that's okay to ask?

Uh. Just God. The Abrahamic God if you prefer.

[ Welp, this is going to get confusing if people start asking him what religion he belongs to. ]

Oh. Uhm, I know about that god. From, you know, church? And-- [a million little things, all seeped through most layers of the society he grew up in. From televangelists to the pledge of allegiance they had to recite at school. Who didn't know about that one god, even if every other one seemed to do a whole lot more godlike things.]

Well, everywhere? So. You were spreading the word of god. That wasn't what killed-- I'm sorry, stupid question. Not everyone wants to talk about how they-- how they died.

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