Moon Cycle 00 + Event Details
❖ MOON CYCLE 00 ❂ 12/28/09 - 01/03/10
Phase: New
Weather: Miserable; High winds, freezing temperatures, with 70% chance of sleeting rain.
Effect: There's No Place Like Home (details below)
Notes: The sky is black and the moon is virtually invisible.
❖ secret santa results
The Secret Santa event is over, and we are pleased to announce the grand winner for the best present given to those who participated:
No one.
Confused? So will your characters be when they realize they were all tricked. There really was no contest, nor was there an actual prize for the event. That mysterious call? That wasn't the Overlord, as most probably suspected. So who was it? You all will find out soon enough!
So what happens now? How do your characters know what's going on? That brings us to our next event.
❖ there's no place like home
All right, so that call and the grand prize wasn't a complete lie. There's a bit of truth to the "visit home" business. Falling in line with our new Moon Cycle mechanic, from Monday, December 28th until Sunday, January 3rd, your characters will actually believe they are home. Here's how it works:
Event tag should be labeled as !moon: cycle 00.
A "plotting" post has been created for any casts or other players who may want to collaborate with each other. It can be found here.
❖ that giant mountain thing
As stated in the previous event post, a giant mountain will be "docking" just above Lake Meridian in the Residential District (first) on Thursday, December 31. It will be high above, with the distance between the ground to the base at about 3000 feet. The mountain itself is about 5000 feet high, so it's not a super huge mountain, but it is rather wide. A mile long in fact, which is about as wide as the lake, so it's more like a mountain range. This also means that it also has a small valley and a deep forest inside it.
It's actually easy to access. No pass will be necessary. The moment the mountain docks, a strange, circular teleportation pad will appear by southwest corner of the lake with two golems beside it. When your character steps on the pad, the golems will raise their arms and something like a giant bubble will form around the characters and they will float to the mountain, landing on another pad that is there. The pad will be part of what looks like a very small research base that had been destroyed. All the buildings are crumbled and there is nothing left to help give further proof that anyone had been there. The only thing functioning is the pad.
The new landscapes also house more animals, such as deer, moose, goats, bears, eagles, badgers, squirrels, raccoons, etc. Basically the normal animals you'd find in a temperate forest and valleys around mountains. There is snow on the top peaks, and it is normally chilly due to the higher elevation. There are also several caverns. Feel free to explore, however there seems to be something sealed inside it. A plot point? Oh yes. We will deal with this at a later date. But for now, if your characters somehow manage to get to the center of the mountain through the caverns, they'd just find huge sealed double doors with strange writing encrypted on it. Also, there is a plot reason as to why the mountian has appeared when it did, but again that will be revealed at a later date.
The mountain is also special in how it works with the barrier. It's actually sitting right in the middle of it, and it is possible to go all the way around and outside of the mountain. This means you could technically get past the barrier. However, if anyone were to attempt flying or jumping off the other side, they would not land in the desert. They would instead fall into the lake back inside the barrier. The only exception to this would be those who have the Desert Pass. They would be able to pass through without any problem.
Note: The teleportation cards can be used to access the mountain.
❖ final rewards + future missions
A lot of things have happened and it is the season to be giving. Every character in the game has been rewarded two credits. Please make a note of this in your Dream Bank Accounts. Note: the credits are blank, meaning they have no charge. They can be used for whatever purpose.
Also, once this event is over, expect to see some mission posts and more uses for the credits. Our plan is to make them more well-known ICly to encourage characters to start using them, either for plot purposes or IC purposes. These are of course not mandatory, but they are just another little something that will be further incorporated into the game and help give characters something to do.
We also have a credit use suggestion post here. Feel free to post there with ideas!
As always, if you have any questions about anything, please feel free to comment here.
Phase: New
Weather: Miserable; High winds, freezing temperatures, with 70% chance of sleeting rain.
Effect: There's No Place Like Home (details below)
Notes: The sky is black and the moon is virtually invisible.
❖ secret santa results
The Secret Santa event is over, and we are pleased to announce the grand winner for the best present given to those who participated:
No one.
Confused? So will your characters be when they realize they were all tricked. There really was no contest, nor was there an actual prize for the event. That mysterious call? That wasn't the Overlord, as most probably suspected. So who was it? You all will find out soon enough!
So what happens now? How do your characters know what's going on? That brings us to our next event.
❖ there's no place like home
All right, so that call and the grand prize wasn't a complete lie. There's a bit of truth to the "visit home" business. Falling in line with our new Moon Cycle mechanic, from Monday, December 28th until Sunday, January 3rd, your characters will actually believe they are home. Here's how it works:
- The set-up
Your character will not physically go anywhere. Instead, just before they wake up the morning of the 28th, they will dream of a soft voice - much like the Overlord's - whispering to them:
Thank you... Your gift was... wonderful.... I hope this is not too late for you...
Upon waking, affected characters will wake up in a very familiar place. Somarium itself will initially feel like a distant dream. When they look out the window, they will see nothing but a peaceful, quiet, tranquil, empty little homeworld. - ... Wait a minute.
That's right. Though characters will see their homes/homeworlds, something is not quite right. No one is out in the streets. There are no sounds or sights of life. Famous landmarks, well-known comforts are in a state of disrepair and decay, and they seem to be getting worse before your character's very eyes. Your 'home' will not necessarily have the same familiar faces as the last time you woke up in the morning. - Hallucinations
It's all a hallucination. A dream-manipulation, if you will, and it is unique to every affected character in Somarium. Each character has the ability of running into others, but they will merely see these characters displaced into their own home settings. - Effects
For the duration of this event, affected characters will be living in a hallucination produced by their own minds.
The hallucinations will create an illusion confined to the character's mind of being someplace other than Somarium. Their sensory perceptions will be fooled into believing that they are back in their home worlds. Only the environment surrounding the character will appear to have changed. No living or sentient beings from the home world will be seen. Somarium's other citizens will not disappear. They will visually take the role of someone who belongs in each illusion.
Example: Gregory House is actually inside an abandoned building somewhere in Somni, but his hallucination creates the Princeton-Plainsborough Hospital. Though he is still in the abandoned building, he will see his office, smell the sterility of the rooms, feel the rug beneath his feet, etc. At the same time, Harry Potter wanders through that same building, seeing it as one of the castles of Hogwarts. House and Harry can run into each other, but House might see Harry dressed as a sick patient, and Harry might see House wearing the robes of a professor. In reality, they will both remain in Somni. In their own minds, they will think they are home.
Please note that all affected characters will have no memory of their time in Somarium.
The longer a character remains stuck in their home-illusion, the weaker and paler your character will be. - Unaffected characters will simply see their affected Sommunists wandering around in a maddened daze.
- Interactions
As mentioned before, when two affected characters meet, they will perceive the other to be in their world. This will of course cause confusing conversations to occur. Since the character will be talking in reference to their own world, whatever the other affected character says will not make sense to the other person.
Example:
House: This is a hospital.
Harry: No, this is Hogwarts.
House: You're obviously sick and delusional, get back on the table.
Harry: Are you bloody mad?!
*note: characterization is probably off, but it works for example purposes.
If an unaffected character tries to talk to an affected character, it will be along the same lines. However, the affected character will most likely think the unaffected character is either lying or crazy.
Note: Affected castmates will see each other in the same setting. So they are in a sense sharing the hallucination. Unaffected castmates will also be visible to the affected, but the hallucination is not shared. - No Dreamberries for the affected
Since they believe they are back home, the Dreamberries will be rendered useless for the affected. They will not be able to make any voice posts or dream posts, nor will they be able to respond to any. It just does not exist for them in their mind. In reality it will be on them, but it's blank, as if broken.
This also means they will not have any dreams at all while they are hallucinating.
This will limit the characters to just the main logging community, somarium.
Unaffected characters will still have full access to their Dreamberry and can post like normal. - Waking out
It is possible for your strong-of-will characters to realize they are stuck in a hallucination, particularly if unaffected characters attempt to convince them as such, but cognizance will not be enough to rid themselves of horrific decaying images.
There are two ways to break the hallucination and 'see' Somarium once more.- It wears off
First, their perceived home must either crumble to nothing with the passage of time at the end of the event, Sunday, January 3rd, at which point your character will fall unconscious for several hours and wake up with a muscle-weakening illness similar to the flu. No other Payment or After-Affect is required with this option. - Antidote
The second option is to visit the Peddler. The Peddler NPC will make an announcement advertising an antidote to the current Somarium affliction in the form of a Dreamberry card on Tuesday night, December 29th. The Peddler will hand out antidotes for seemingly no cost, and characters will snap out of it after a single use of the antidote card. They, too, will also be overcome with the same muscle-weakening illness upon 'waking' from the hallucination. The antidote comes with a price, however: Any character that chooses to deal with the Peddler will be plagued with a horrific nightmare for their next dream. This cannot be canceled or altered in any way.
- It wears off
Event tag should be labeled as !moon: cycle 00.
A "plotting" post has been created for any casts or other players who may want to collaborate with each other. It can be found here.
❖ that giant mountain thing
As stated in the previous event post, a giant mountain will be "docking" just above Lake Meridian in the Residential District (first) on Thursday, December 31. It will be high above, with the distance between the ground to the base at about 3000 feet. The mountain itself is about 5000 feet high, so it's not a super huge mountain, but it is rather wide. A mile long in fact, which is about as wide as the lake, so it's more like a mountain range. This also means that it also has a small valley and a deep forest inside it.
It's actually easy to access. No pass will be necessary. The moment the mountain docks, a strange, circular teleportation pad will appear by southwest corner of the lake with two golems beside it. When your character steps on the pad, the golems will raise their arms and something like a giant bubble will form around the characters and they will float to the mountain, landing on another pad that is there. The pad will be part of what looks like a very small research base that had been destroyed. All the buildings are crumbled and there is nothing left to help give further proof that anyone had been there. The only thing functioning is the pad.
The new landscapes also house more animals, such as deer, moose, goats, bears, eagles, badgers, squirrels, raccoons, etc. Basically the normal animals you'd find in a temperate forest and valleys around mountains. There is snow on the top peaks, and it is normally chilly due to the higher elevation. There are also several caverns. Feel free to explore, however there seems to be something sealed inside it. A plot point? Oh yes. We will deal with this at a later date. But for now, if your characters somehow manage to get to the center of the mountain through the caverns, they'd just find huge sealed double doors with strange writing encrypted on it. Also, there is a plot reason as to why the mountian has appeared when it did, but again that will be revealed at a later date.
The mountain is also special in how it works with the barrier. It's actually sitting right in the middle of it, and it is possible to go all the way around and outside of the mountain. This means you could technically get past the barrier. However, if anyone were to attempt flying or jumping off the other side, they would not land in the desert. They would instead fall into the lake back inside the barrier. The only exception to this would be those who have the Desert Pass. They would be able to pass through without any problem.
Note: The teleportation cards can be used to access the mountain.
❖ final rewards + future missions
A lot of things have happened and it is the season to be giving. Every character in the game has been rewarded two credits. Please make a note of this in your Dream Bank Accounts. Note: the credits are blank, meaning they have no charge. They can be used for whatever purpose.
Also, once this event is over, expect to see some mission posts and more uses for the credits. Our plan is to make them more well-known ICly to encourage characters to start using them, either for plot purposes or IC purposes. These are of course not mandatory, but they are just another little something that will be further incorporated into the game and help give characters something to do.
We also have a credit use suggestion post here. Feel free to post there with ideas!
As always, if you have any questions about anything, please feel free to comment here.