PLOT PART 2
TODAY'S THE DAY. The bomb has struck! Sketchiness is afoot! Your very lives are in-- oh look an ox.
Now that your characters have seen exactly why they should leave, they're probably heeding Q's advice. And if you're still undecided where to go, you can still comment to the plotting post to see where your CR is going.
BUT MOST OF YOU HAVE DONE THAT SO HOORAY! Now comes the journeys themselves:
Discedo
Ohhh Discedo. You are going to see a few things familiar to you in the upcoming days. The first 24 hours in the city won't be anything out of the ordinary. After that though, if you're not out, you're going to wish you were. You know how the weather report says it's going to rain tomorrow? Yep. Say hello again to your good ol' friend acid rain.
This bout is going to be worse than even the first days people were imported into the city. Surface burns aren't your biggest concern. Radiation poisoning is. If you're not in an sealed-off area, let alone caught outside, you'll have exposed your body to concentrated fallout. Vomiting, diarrhea, and your hair falling out are just the beginning. After a few hours your skin will blister and your organs will fail. It's a slow, painful death that no one wants to experience. Luckily there is that fallout shelter under the museum. No one has really cleaned up the blood (or corpses to my knowledge), but if you gather your food and water you'll be safe down there until the storm passes.
The water (surface or ground), surviving plants, and any dead monsters are completely unsafe to ingest. Many monsters are going to be dropping dead around the city, and those that weren't caught outside can be found holed up inside buildings and in the underground subway system. As already said, the subway is going to be where characters can find sealed food and bottled water until the weather improves... well, if they get to it before the monsters do. They're hungry too.
The atmosphere will continue to decline in the following week. Plants will die, corroded buildings will collapse and, in some cases, spontaneous fires may occur due to absorbed thermal radiation (though this should only happen with liquids and objects that are easily flammable). Windy days will kick up irradiated dust and dirt. Lungs are particularly susceptible to fallout effects, so even a little haze or dust will cause restricted airways, inflammation, and internal damage. This, combined with the possibility of failing electricity and the climbing heat of summer will make living in Discedo a chore. A very unpleasant one.
Spero
Travel time: 6 days
This route is relatively straightforward. With favorable winds, you're going to get there in a little under 5 days. But then again, when have we ever made anything favorable. Ever.
The good news is there will be quite a lot of wind. The bad news is that some of that wind is coming from the North. While the effects won't nearly be as bad as those in Discedo, you're still going to get hit by trace amounts of fallout. So let's say everyone leaves (ICly) today: On the first day of sailing, it will be in the form of acid rain. It won't be bad enough to give you radiation burns, but staying above-deck will still be uncomfortable and will burn after prolonged exposure. Stay out long enough and you'll also have some temporary hair loss. The second day and third days will be sporadic ash (which won't be scorching to the touch, but it still isn't advised that you roll around in it), then it's pretty normal sailing the rest of the way.
The lake water is definitely polluted by this point. Anyone who falls overboard isn't going to immediately melt or anything like that, but swallowing the water will make you violently sick. Monsters are still aplenty, but now you may find as many dead ones as those willing to attack. And yes, there are still some willing to attack. HAVE FUN WITH THAT.
The water is going to be corroding ships too. Repairs may be in order once you hit the midway mark, and if your boat is wooden, you'll definitely want to pull your boat ashore once you hit Spero. Luckily, there will be some materials for you in Spero to make repairs or even upgrade your boats.
Dissimulo
Estimated travel time: 6 days (due to complications below)
SO YOU'RE HEADING SOUTHEAST. If you travel down Brebo avenue with your fancy oxen and wagons (which can be found hitched up at the High School with a note that reads TO DISSIMULO), you'll be able to travel a few miles without much incident. You may start to notice some abandoned cars on the side of the road. Most are empty, save a few miscellaneous items that basically everyone leaves lying around in their car (read: fast food receipts). The amount of abandoned cars will become more and more frequent until, about twelve miles out of Discedo, the road will become absolutely jam packed with abandoned cars. Again, most are empty, but every once in a while you may find a forgotten box of food, gun, or any items that wouldn't be useful to travel with (such as coffee makers, although the possibilities are really endless). You may even find a body or two.
But, as much fun as it is, you don't have time to search every car. You'll head offroad into the mountains. It will be rough for a while, but eventually you'll find some unmarked dirt roads, likely made by other escapees or farming equipment back in the day. On the plus side, you won't be dealing with any funky weather. It's going to be hot but at least you don't have acid rain falling all over you.
The bad news is the path has a ton of cougars. It's just fucking riddled with them. And believe me, it's not fun hunting monsters, so they're looking for some easier prey. On top of that there will be the usual assortment of venomous snakes, dirty puddles of water teeming with disease-carrying mosquitoes, and the most dreaded of them all: sunburn. There will be some shade in the mountains, but once you're over, it's mostly former farmland turned plains. On the plus side, the plants growing over here seem green and healthy, but there will be more on that once you actually reach the town.
Dealing with the wildlife and the taking the longer off road route (in addition to any time spent scavenging or complications like a broken wagon or dysentery) will add about a day to travel. If someone breaks their arm though just keep going. They'll deal.
???
Estimated travel time: 12 days
MYSTERY TIME. Equipped with your carts and donkeys (and the llama), anyone set to explore should probably start by traveling on the raised highway out East. Your first challenge will be getting across a ravine a few miles outside of Discedo, since the bridge has collapsed, but with some careful footing you should manage. The first three day will be trying to navigate through the woods. Everything is overgrown and covered with leaves, but you can still see concrete and remnants of a road to serve as a guide. Again, the weather won't be anything detrimental, since the winds seem to be heading Southwest, but rain will still make conditions wet and uncomfortable.
About four days out, the terrain will become more wet and swampy. Trees are still abundant, but now you'll be trying to drag your carts through mud while dodging insects. With a lot of perseverance you'll be able to make it out of this mosquito-hell within a day or two. Once you're out, the path is once again clear.
Well, perhaps better than clear. The farther out you go, the more the path seems managed. Recently too. By day six of traveling, you'll see some other curious signs that someone has been in the area recently: chopped trees, litter (such as broken water bottles), and animal traps. Oh, yeah, be careful where you step unless you want to get caught in a bear trap or rabbit snare. There won't be any road signs, or even an indication that it's a road, but that's what it's starting to look like. And if you camp out on top of a hill at the end of the week, you'll see that the Eastern mountains are getting closer. At night, you might even be able to see a dot in the distance. It's light. Since it's still a ways away, you won't be able to tell if it's artificial or natural, but by the way it remains in a contained area and is constant through the night, you can probably guess that it's due to some sort of human activity.
More details will be given the closer you go, but for now ENJOY TREES.
AND ONE MORE THING...
This will apply to all routes, regardless of where your character goes. This is something you've probably experience in your real life. You're alone, it's dark, and you jump at something you thought was there. Luckily it turns out to be a harmless every day object, or just nothing at all. Night rolls around and you're out of the city. With that in mind, imagine you're in your character's place.
Maybe you're on a boat, maybe you've just set up camp in the woods or in the mountains. You're exhausted and all you want to do is talk to your friends. You think you see one of them standing in the dark in the corner of your vision, out of the light. But they're just standing there, so your eyes flick to get a better look at them.
Oh. There's nothing there. Must be your imagination. Look away, and the same figure will be in the corner of your eyes. Again, directly look at it, and it disappears. More of the same figures may appear in your peripheral vision as the night goes on. You can't really make out any features, other than they all appear to be humanoid. By this point you're probably really looking forward to it being light outside.
Try not to jump if you see the same thing in the shadow, in the shape of the trees, or in the reflection of light on the water.
Whatever these things are, they seem to be following you. Watching you. And you can only see them in your peripheral vision, and only for a few moments. If you look away there's no guarantee that they won't move. They're probably moving around anyway. You can try to get close to them, but look directly at them and they'll disappear. Or maybe they'll duck into your "blind spot" and get away that way.
Creepy, right? The good news is these shady folks are not going to make any moves on you. They're just going to stand there.
Watching.
8)
REMEMBER: Your characters have a 10-12 hour IC window to get far enough away from the city. OOCly... I just posted this, so obviously you can backdate posts a bit if you want them in this time frame. Otherwise you can assume that they've already left. The 10-12 hour window is optimal, but not required. Anything after that just risks exposure to intense acid rain. Apps will not be run this weekend, but will resume on a normal schedule after this.
Maps of the locations and further details on what to do in each place will come in a follow-up post, which should be in a few days.
Now that your characters have seen exactly why they should leave, they're probably heeding Q's advice. And if you're still undecided where to go, you can still comment to the plotting post to see where your CR is going.
BUT MOST OF YOU HAVE DONE THAT SO HOORAY! Now comes the journeys themselves:
Discedo
Ohhh Discedo. You are going to see a few things familiar to you in the upcoming days. The first 24 hours in the city won't be anything out of the ordinary. After that though, if you're not out, you're going to wish you were. You know how the weather report says it's going to rain tomorrow? Yep. Say hello again to your good ol' friend acid rain.
This bout is going to be worse than even the first days people were imported into the city. Surface burns aren't your biggest concern. Radiation poisoning is. If you're not in an sealed-off area, let alone caught outside, you'll have exposed your body to concentrated fallout. Vomiting, diarrhea, and your hair falling out are just the beginning. After a few hours your skin will blister and your organs will fail. It's a slow, painful death that no one wants to experience. Luckily there is that fallout shelter under the museum. No one has really cleaned up the blood (or corpses to my knowledge), but if you gather your food and water you'll be safe down there until the storm passes.
The water (surface or ground), surviving plants, and any dead monsters are completely unsafe to ingest. Many monsters are going to be dropping dead around the city, and those that weren't caught outside can be found holed up inside buildings and in the underground subway system. As already said, the subway is going to be where characters can find sealed food and bottled water until the weather improves... well, if they get to it before the monsters do. They're hungry too.
The atmosphere will continue to decline in the following week. Plants will die, corroded buildings will collapse and, in some cases, spontaneous fires may occur due to absorbed thermal radiation (though this should only happen with liquids and objects that are easily flammable). Windy days will kick up irradiated dust and dirt. Lungs are particularly susceptible to fallout effects, so even a little haze or dust will cause restricted airways, inflammation, and internal damage. This, combined with the possibility of failing electricity and the climbing heat of summer will make living in Discedo a chore. A very unpleasant one.
Spero
Travel time: 6 days
This route is relatively straightforward. With favorable winds, you're going to get there in a little under 5 days. But then again, when have we ever made anything favorable. Ever.
The good news is there will be quite a lot of wind. The bad news is that some of that wind is coming from the North. While the effects won't nearly be as bad as those in Discedo, you're still going to get hit by trace amounts of fallout. So let's say everyone leaves (ICly) today: On the first day of sailing, it will be in the form of acid rain. It won't be bad enough to give you radiation burns, but staying above-deck will still be uncomfortable and will burn after prolonged exposure. Stay out long enough and you'll also have some temporary hair loss. The second day and third days will be sporadic ash (which won't be scorching to the touch, but it still isn't advised that you roll around in it), then it's pretty normal sailing the rest of the way.
The lake water is definitely polluted by this point. Anyone who falls overboard isn't going to immediately melt or anything like that, but swallowing the water will make you violently sick. Monsters are still aplenty, but now you may find as many dead ones as those willing to attack. And yes, there are still some willing to attack. HAVE FUN WITH THAT.
The water is going to be corroding ships too. Repairs may be in order once you hit the midway mark, and if your boat is wooden, you'll definitely want to pull your boat ashore once you hit Spero. Luckily, there will be some materials for you in Spero to make repairs or even upgrade your boats.
Dissimulo
Estimated travel time: 6 days (due to complications below)
SO YOU'RE HEADING SOUTHEAST. If you travel down Brebo avenue with your fancy oxen and wagons (which can be found hitched up at the High School with a note that reads TO DISSIMULO), you'll be able to travel a few miles without much incident. You may start to notice some abandoned cars on the side of the road. Most are empty, save a few miscellaneous items that basically everyone leaves lying around in their car (read: fast food receipts). The amount of abandoned cars will become more and more frequent until, about twelve miles out of Discedo, the road will become absolutely jam packed with abandoned cars. Again, most are empty, but every once in a while you may find a forgotten box of food, gun, or any items that wouldn't be useful to travel with (such as coffee makers, although the possibilities are really endless). You may even find a body or two.
But, as much fun as it is, you don't have time to search every car. You'll head offroad into the mountains. It will be rough for a while, but eventually you'll find some unmarked dirt roads, likely made by other escapees or farming equipment back in the day. On the plus side, you won't be dealing with any funky weather. It's going to be hot but at least you don't have acid rain falling all over you.
The bad news is the path has a ton of cougars. It's just fucking riddled with them. And believe me, it's not fun hunting monsters, so they're looking for some easier prey. On top of that there will be the usual assortment of venomous snakes, dirty puddles of water teeming with disease-carrying mosquitoes, and the most dreaded of them all: sunburn. There will be some shade in the mountains, but once you're over, it's mostly former farmland turned plains. On the plus side, the plants growing over here seem green and healthy, but there will be more on that once you actually reach the town.
Dealing with the wildlife and the taking the longer off road route (in addition to any time spent scavenging or complications like a broken wagon or dysentery) will add about a day to travel. If someone breaks their arm though just keep going. They'll deal.
???
Estimated travel time: 12 days
MYSTERY TIME. Equipped with your carts and donkeys (and the llama), anyone set to explore should probably start by traveling on the raised highway out East. Your first challenge will be getting across a ravine a few miles outside of Discedo, since the bridge has collapsed, but with some careful footing you should manage. The first three day will be trying to navigate through the woods. Everything is overgrown and covered with leaves, but you can still see concrete and remnants of a road to serve as a guide. Again, the weather won't be anything detrimental, since the winds seem to be heading Southwest, but rain will still make conditions wet and uncomfortable.
About four days out, the terrain will become more wet and swampy. Trees are still abundant, but now you'll be trying to drag your carts through mud while dodging insects. With a lot of perseverance you'll be able to make it out of this mosquito-hell within a day or two. Once you're out, the path is once again clear.
Well, perhaps better than clear. The farther out you go, the more the path seems managed. Recently too. By day six of traveling, you'll see some other curious signs that someone has been in the area recently: chopped trees, litter (such as broken water bottles), and animal traps. Oh, yeah, be careful where you step unless you want to get caught in a bear trap or rabbit snare. There won't be any road signs, or even an indication that it's a road, but that's what it's starting to look like. And if you camp out on top of a hill at the end of the week, you'll see that the Eastern mountains are getting closer. At night, you might even be able to see a dot in the distance. It's light. Since it's still a ways away, you won't be able to tell if it's artificial or natural, but by the way it remains in a contained area and is constant through the night, you can probably guess that it's due to some sort of human activity.
More details will be given the closer you go, but for now ENJOY TREES.
AND ONE MORE THING...
This will apply to all routes, regardless of where your character goes. This is something you've probably experience in your real life. You're alone, it's dark, and you jump at something you thought was there. Luckily it turns out to be a harmless every day object, or just nothing at all. Night rolls around and you're out of the city. With that in mind, imagine you're in your character's place.
Maybe you're on a boat, maybe you've just set up camp in the woods or in the mountains. You're exhausted and all you want to do is talk to your friends. You think you see one of them standing in the dark in the corner of your vision, out of the light. But they're just standing there, so your eyes flick to get a better look at them.
Oh. There's nothing there. Must be your imagination. Look away, and the same figure will be in the corner of your eyes. Again, directly look at it, and it disappears. More of the same figures may appear in your peripheral vision as the night goes on. You can't really make out any features, other than they all appear to be humanoid. By this point you're probably really looking forward to it being light outside.
Try not to jump if you see the same thing in the shadow, in the shape of the trees, or in the reflection of light on the water.
Whatever these things are, they seem to be following you. Watching you. And you can only see them in your peripheral vision, and only for a few moments. If you look away there's no guarantee that they won't move. They're probably moving around anyway. You can try to get close to them, but look directly at them and they'll disappear. Or maybe they'll duck into your "blind spot" and get away that way.
Creepy, right? The good news is these shady folks are not going to make any moves on you. They're just going to stand there.
Watching.
8)
REMEMBER: Your characters have a 10-12 hour IC window to get far enough away from the city. OOCly... I just posted this, so obviously you can backdate posts a bit if you want them in this time frame. Otherwise you can assume that they've already left. The 10-12 hour window is optimal, but not required. Anything after that just risks exposure to intense acid rain. Apps will not be run this weekend, but will resume on a normal schedule after this.
Maps of the locations and further details on what to do in each place will come in a follow-up post, which should be in a few days.