IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ACTIVITY CHECK.

Activity Check for December 7th, 2018-January 6th, 2019 is complete!

Ready to get spending? The Points Usage page is here. You can check your point totals (by journal name) on the Taken sheet.

As a small reminder, you only get the 10 points made-a-post bonus for open posts! Closed posts still count for regular comment points, however.

AC Warning;

-> blackestwitch
-> blessedprotector_rising
-> dubiouslycthonic
-> familiaridol
-> giltfoil
-> ninjabanish
-> nor_iron_bars
-> ohwhenyouloveit
-> ponyup
-> tannic
-> stormkingofshepherds
-> wearmyface

Characters who haven't met the five comment minimum for AC (and aren't on hiatus) will be listed here. If you're given an AC warning, you have one week (changed!!!) to either get activity or talk with a moderator. People on AC warning will be required to specifically submit activity to the comment header below; the mods aren't going to go looking for you.

Characters who joined the game in the last month are exempt from AC Warning, as are those who have been or are on hiatus for more than two weeks.

Game Updates

As you were: Contrary to previous expectations, there will be a small amount of original content for the next dungeon event, Memoria Fields. Please look forward to it in mid-February!

I haven't actually seen Solo: As you may be aware, Claire has left the Phanrift mod team in the last month! As a result, Nael is running the show alone, so please forgive any slowness in responses! If you'd like to help out as a part of the mod team, please drop him a message.

As always, questions and feedback are welcomed below!

And now, the weather;

February 5-7th: Clear skies. The snow melts away, except for a few places that are in perpetual shadow (behind buildings, inside the lighthouse ruin, etc).
February 8-10: Clouds, occasional sunbreaks.
Feb 11: Icy rain.
Feb 12-15: Largely cloudy. Occasional flurries of snow that don't stick to anything but the metal railings around the deck.
Feb 16-17: Clear and cold.
Feb 18-20: Cold snap! Still clear outside, but chances are that you don't want to be out in it. Windy and frozen. The paths between the station buildings are littered with the mix of warm crystal gravel from the Bellmare paths, but otherwise you're on your own.
Feb 21: Cold snap breaks. Slightly warmer than usual temp (just above freezing at night).
Feb 22-24: Light snow.
Feb 25: Clear, but too cold for the snow to melt.
Feb 26-28: Starts as freezing rain, turns to snow late in the night of the 26th and continues to pile up until the afternoon of the 28th.
Mar 1-3: Chilly but cloudy with breaks. Snow starts to melt away.
Mar 4-5: Abnormally warm; snow melts away entirely.
Mar 6-8: Return to more seasonal temperatures. Cloudy, with occasional flurries or rain.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ACTIVITY CHECK.

Activity Check for December 7th, 2018-January 6th, 2019 is complete!

Ready to get spending? The Points Usage page is here. You can check your point totals (by journal name) on the Taken sheet.

As a small reminder, you only get the 10 points made-a-post bonus for open posts! Closed posts still count for regular comment points, however.

AC Warning;

-> There is no AC warning this month! Happy holidays!

Characters who haven't met the five comment minimum for AC (and aren't on hiatus) will be listed here. If you're given an AC warning, you have one week (changed!!!) to either get activity or talk with a moderator. People on AC warning will be required to specifically submit activity to the comment header below; the mods aren't going to go looking for you.

Characters who joined the game in the last month are exempt from AC Warning, as are those who have been or are on hiatus for more than two weeks.

Game Updates

Mark your calendars!: The game calendar is now updated through the end of April 2018. IC and OOC days now match up thanks to the adjustment of time in the Bellmare Mountains - enjoy the simplicity of it going forward!

Forest of Dreams, revisited: Rather than a full dungeon event in February, we're remixing Amesta Forest with only a handful of new events and regions, in order to give players and mods alike a bit of a break from the metaplot! Look forward to usual dungeon shenanigans making an electrifying return in April!

As always, questions and feedback are welcomed below!

And now, the weather;

January 7th-10th: Chilly and overcast. Just on the edge of frosting at night.
January 11th-13th: Light, cold drizzle.
January 14-18th: COLD SNAP. Clear, but very cold, especially with the usual sea breeze. Further inland is frozen constantly; Keystone thaws a bit in the afternoons, but not much.
January 19th-24th: Clear with some clouds, frosty mornings, occasional drizzle. Morning frost continues unless otherwise noted.
January 25th: Very thick morning fog, clears off by afternoon.
January 26th-28th: Light mix of rain and snowfall.
January 29th-Feb 1st: Increasingly heavy snowfall. While there's only an inch or so by the end of the day on the 29th, by the time the 1st comes to a close, there's a bit over a foot and a half of snow on the ground.
February 2nd-4th: Cloudy. No further snowfall, but what's already on the ground doesn't seem to be going anywhere at a particularly fast pace.
February 5-7th: Clear skies. The snow melts away, except for a few places that are in perpetual shadow (behind buildings, inside the lighthouse ruin, etc).

Hello, and welcome to the OOC Intro for Phantasmal Rift! This post also serves as a CR meme for existing players and new!

Due to the unusual format of this month's dungeon and its extended length, the official IC intro won't be until the first week of January. The usual state-of-the-game update will also be at that time. In the meanwhile, new players can tag into either the first or second part of the dungeon log as they please! (You can also continue tagging your test drive threads, or move them over, as you desire.)

(And yes, you get loot for any further comments you leave on the dungeon log, up to a max of five, same as in-game players. Any loot earned thusly will be appended to the sign-ups under a header with your character's journal name.)

As a reminder, all players get a free pass for activity check this month, so that you can have a relaxing holiday season here at Phantasmal Rift! Points will be tallied as normal on January 7th and posted with the State of the Game update, the in-game weather, and the teaser for the next dungeon at that time. Happy Holidays!

CR MEME FORM;

<b>Your name</b>:<br /><b>Contact info</b>:<br /><b>Who are you?</b>: [Short blurb about yourself goes here!]<br /><b>Character name + Journal</b>:<br /><b>Canon</b>: [If AU or CRAU, that info goes here, too!]<br /><b>Permissions</b>:<br /><b>What's their deal?</b>: [Standard CR meme shitpost about your character blurb goes here]<br /><b>Plotting</b>: [What kinds of things would you like to do in the near future?]<br /><b>Memeingful GIF</b>: [We all know you won't be happy without an excuse to post one of these...]

LET THE SIGN-UPS BEGIN.

BELLMARE MOUNTAINS

Buried deep in the mountains to the north of Keystone, the Bellmare Mountains are a chilly region at the height of summer, the high altitude sapping warmth out of the air. Those with keen eyes will probably have noticed that the mountains are, in fact, perpetually snowcapped in the distance, unlike the lower mountains that are home to the Telovia Mines further south. The alpine heights are mostly evergreen forests, with wide tracts visible from the air that have been cleared in the snow, and the occasional wires of a chairlift visible above the height of the trees. Once upon, this region was home to a profitable tourist resort - hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

The area of Bellmare narrowed down by the androids based upon the descriptions given by those who encountered the Entity (tm) is in the depths of a Fissure (because of course it is) - a Fissure that is, in fact, one of the largest, spanning over a huge amount of that end of the mountains and suspected to be responsible for the perpetual ice and snow. Though the androids will outfit everyone with stabilizers as usual, they note that there's no expectation to get the entire region stabilized - indeed, there's not nearly enough stabilizers to do so. Just get done what you can and find your main objective out there, guys.

The areas for part 1 of the Bellmare Mountains are primarily the forest and the open-air slopes. The former is prone to deep snowbanks with pits around the bases of trees, and is littered with old cabins (perfect for spending a night in!) and magically warmed footpaths that trail up and down the mountains. The slopes, meanwhile, are covered in fresh, even snow, untouched except for the tracks of the local wild animals (who don't seem much inclined to venture out from the safety of the trees if they can help it). Old resort equipment, in reasonably good repair, stands guard over many of these wide open areas, chair-lifts dangling and clanking in the faint breeze.

DUNGEON-WIDE EFFECTS

The major effect of this dungeon is one that characters won't feel while they're inside it - time within the Fissure is slowed down significantly. While characters will only be in the dungeon for ten days from their perspective, a little under five times that will pass outside. While they enter in mid-November, they'll be exiting to the beginning of January - sorry about those Christmas plans!

This effect is visible at the borders of the Fissure, where the snow inside falls so much more slowly than the snow outside - and, depending on the time of day, you might even see a stark difference with night on one side and day on the other! The days within the Bellmare Fissure are still 24 perceived hours, regardless of the time outside. The only clue you'll have to the actual date once you move beyond the borders of this very large Fissure is the network devices from the Station - as they're constantly trying to sync to the time back at Keystone, the clocks on them are going to glitch terribly.

Also, while not a magical effect, it's worth noting that Bellmare is, indeed, a high mountain range in the depths of winter - it's snowy. It's cold. The air is thin, and chances of avalanches exist. Best bring plenty of things to keep you warm.

LOOT

Characters obtain one piece of loot for signing up for the dungeon and an additional roll per 15 comments on the dungeon log. Additionally, characters can receive a bonus loot roll for tagging someone new on the Test Drive! Please also note that comment based loot is capped at eight rolls, making for a total of up to ten pieces of loot that each character can gain.

Newcomers who participate in the dungeon can also receive loot for comments made to the dungeon log after they've been accepted, in addition to their entry loot attached to their acceptance notices. This loot can be found under the sign-ups header at the conclusion of the dungeon, in a comment with their journal name as the subject line.

Please note: Because Bellmare is an extra-long dungeon OOCly, we'll be rolling loot at the very conclusion of the dungeon in January! Please enjoy this opportunity to stuff the heck out of your pockets, especially with a temporarily increased loot cap!

IC LENGTH

The IC length of the dungeon will be ten days, starting on November 15th ICly. However, for the duration of the dungeon, characters will note that their Station-based phones and network devices seem to be having some kind of time glitch (as described above) and therefore aren't wholly accurate as a way of recording the passage of time. Characters will exit the dungeon into the afternoon of January 6th, catching the game up with the OOC calendar.

MID-DUNGEON EVENT

Get ready for a doozy of a mid-dungeon event... Because there's an entire second part of the dungeon coming to you at a later date! After some time exploring and making their way up the mountain, characters will enter into a high alpine valley that was once the seat of the Bellmare Mountain Resort. Exactly what will they find there...?

Please look forward to it.

SIGN-UP FORM

<b>Player name:</b><br /><b>Character name + Journal</b>:<br />

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Life Will Change: The long-awaited World Changes system is now live! Due to the slightly different rules from normal points grants, these High Budget requests have their own page. This also makes it easier for those looking through to see what's been added to the setting, either recently or on a permanent basis, without having to wade through pages of regular points requests.

And now, the weather;

Due to the weirdness of time accompanying this dungeon, dungeon weather is reflected based upon days of the expedition, rather than based upon the calendar. If you'd like to know the weather back as Keystone during this period, please contact a mod.

11/6-8: Rainy, steady drizzle.
11/9-10: Overcast, with both occasional sunbreaks and spotty rain.
11/11-11/13: Clear, temperatures dropping.
11/14: Clear morning; afternoon brings with it tiny hailstones (roughly the size of peas) for an hour or two before turning to rain.
11/15/Expedition day 1: Keystone has cloudy skies. Up in the mountains, the rain that fell on Keystone the day before has become gently falling snow that continues into the night.
Day 2-3: Clear with occasional clouds.
Day 4-5: Steady snow, starting slow in the morning of Day 4 and increasing until night on Day 5. Night on Day 5 is suspiciously clear.
Day 6: Blizzard. In addition to the heavy snowfall, there are periodic bursts of icy rain and gusty winds, blowing both the snow still in the air and the new-fallen powder up and making it nearly impossible to see on the slopes or in other regions where there's little in the way of tree cover to serve as a wind block.
Day 7: The winds decrease, but snowfall remains heavy enough to make vision difficult.
Day 8: Light snowfall.
Day 9: Patchy clouds and sunlight; occasional scatterings of snowfall and frozen rain.
Day 10: Clear skies. As good a chance to return to Keystone as you're likely to get for some time, before the worst of winter locks you in the mountains for who knows how long.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ACTIVITY CHECK.

Activity Check for November 7th-December 6th, 2018 is complete!

Ready to get spending? The Points Usage page is here. You can check your point totals (by journal name) on the Taken sheet.

As a small reminder, you only get the 10 points made-a-post bonus for open posts! Closed posts still count for regular comment points, however.

AC Warning;

-> blackestwitch
-> class_struggle
-> giltfoil
-> hurt_comforting
-> ohwhenyouloveit
-> shatteredeclipse
-> stormkingofshepherds

Characters who haven't met the five comment minimum for AC (and aren't on hiatus) will be listed here. If you're given an AC warning, you have one week (changed!!!) to either get activity or talk with a moderator. People on AC warning will be required to specifically submit activity to the comment header below; the mods aren't going to go looking for you.

Characters who joined the game in the last month are exempt from AC Warning, as are those who have been or are on hiatus for more than two weeks.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ACTIVITY CHECK.

Activity Check for October 7th-Novemeber 6th, 2018 is complete!

Ready to get spending? The Points Usage page is here. You can check your point totals (by journal name) on the Taken sheet.

As a small reminder, you only get the 10 points made-a-post bonus for open posts! Closed posts still count for regular comment points, however.

AC Warning;

-> dragonmouth
-> dralchemist
-> einherjarista
-> herolytical
-> letsplayer
-> matchmakes
-> theserpentsmiles
-> tieleaf

Characters who haven't met the five comment minimum for AC (and aren't on hiatus) will be listed here. If you're given an AC warning, you have one week (changed!!!) to either get activity or talk with a moderator. People on AC warning will be required to specifically submit activity to the comment header below; the mods aren't going to go looking for you.

Characters who joined the game in the last month are exempt from AC Warning, as are those who have been or are on hiatus for more than two weeks.

Game Updates

Nothing to be said this time around.

As always, questions and feedback are welcomed below!

LET THE SIGN-UPS BEGIN.

SILVEREAGLE MANOR

Tucked fairly deep into the mountain foothills, where no roads even reach anymore if any ever did, Silvereagle Manor was once the home of the Ahnrenti family, a house of nobles that rose to their position via clever use of magic and, if historical accounts that border on the mythological are to be believed, a unique position communicating with the spirit of the planet. It's in search of more information about the latter - which may or may not be the same as the entity involved with the magic of the Fissures - that the expedition team has come to the manor.

Surrounded by high stone walls that have mostly withstood the test of time, the castlelike building was well preserved - at least until it, like everything else in the Fissure-ridden world, was abandoned around a century ago. The property still shows many signs - literally - of having been a historically preserved site - the lower floor and outbuildings having many of the trappings of a museum, while a luxury hotel takes up a portion of the upper floors. In addition to the main house - a four story building with a high tower at one end offering views of the whole area around it - the complex boasts a variety of gardens (now overgrown), a gardener's house, and a stable. And that's just what's visible on the surface...

There are very many areas of the manor to explore - two gardens, five floors, the tower, and a special mention to the library! Darkness-related magics seem to prevail here, as well as any number of ghostly and other spooky things. There are also two Subfissures in this dungeon!

• The Entrance Gardens were once a well-maintained carriage track leading up to the manor itself, but they're now incredibly overgrown with strangling (not literally) ivy. This area is home to the first Subfissure effect, which compels characters to honestly.
• The Rear Gardens, on the other hand, are overgrown with something both more beautiful and more dangerous - thorny brambles of rose, dotted with a multitude of late-season blooms. This area is also home to the stables and gardener's house.
• The Ground Floor is home to the massive entrance hall, the kitchens, and numerous sitting rooms that all hold the museum-like trappings of the years the building was maintained for its historic value. In addition, music flows throughout this floor from the grand two-story ballroom immediately off the matching entrance hall - and within are the echoes of dancers, looping through an eternal waltz.
• The Second Floor (the parts of it that aren't the upper halves of the entrance hall and ballroom) was once guest quarters, and afterwards a luxury hotel. There are also converted servants' rooms on this floor, for those who were too cheap for a full guest suite.
• The Third Floor is where the family's more private quarters begin - although there are a handful of guest rooms here, for the highest ranked of visitors and the family's chief servants, the majority of the floor is patrolled by dusty suits of armor that will nonetheless remove any visitors who are in places they shouldn't be.
• Of special note on the third floor is the two-story Library, home to the historical collection of magical books. Was someone else researching here, or is the mess just a side effect of the books flying around as their automatic sorting enchantments go haywire? At least there's no guards.
• The Fourth Floor is home to the second Subfissure effect. If you're familiar with old movies, this one should look familiar... Also patrolled by guards, this is home to the family's personal quarters, including their own magical labs, and the staircase up to the tower.
• The Tower, standing roughly three floors of stairs up above the fourth floor, is home to a telescope observatory! It'll take a good amount of work to get it operational again, but it looks like the massive telescope will still be functional with some polish, thanks to the fact that the roof and windows have all been closed all this time. If you peek out, even without the telescope, it's one hell of a view.
• And then finally, there is the Basement. While a portion of the floor is devoted to cellars of both the wine and vegetable variety - long since empty, sorry to say - a corded-off and locked door leads to a sort of temple, in which someone's left a surprising number of tools and instruments...

DUNGEON-WIDE EFFECTS

The main effect of the dungeon is one you've all been waiting for - that's right, it's our much awaited species swap dungeon! Characters entering the Fissure will find themselves turned into members of some other type of sentient race - aliens, robots, fantasy critters, if it thinks it's probably fair game for this effect. This magic is also more potent than most of the ones characters have dealt with so far - not only does it bring powers to the table for those who are of a species that has powers, but it also does not end in stable areas. Whatever you are, you're stuck as that for the duration of the dungeon, buddy!

Additionally, there are two sub-Fissures in this dungeon. The first, in the entrance gardens, forces characters to speak honestly and prevents them from lying - even going so far as compelling them, if they're trying to hide something intentionally. The second, on the fourth floor, is a suggestion from our very own Eric - it renders the area as something similar to a black-and-white, silent movie, with subtitles when characters blink or close their eyes.

Not sure what counts? There's a comment header below specifically for you to ask the mods if something you have in mind is appropriate!

LOOT

Characters obtain one piece of loot for signing up for the dungeon and an additional roll per 15 comments on the dungeon log. Additionally, characters can receive a bonus loot roll for tagging someone new on the Test Drive! Please also note that comment based loot is capped at five rolls, making for a total of up to seven pieces of loot that each character can gain.

Newcomers who participate in the dungeon can also receive loot for comments made to the last two days of the dungeon log, in addition to their entry loot attached to their acceptance notices. This loot can be found under the sign-ups header at the conclusion of the dungeon, in a comment with their journal name as the subject line.

IC LENGTH

The dungeon will last for six IC days, including travel time. Characters will leave via Incendia on the morning of October 1st and arrive at the manor in the early evening to early night, depending on the exact time they left. They will remain until the morning of October 6th, at which point there is another day's journey back to Incendia and the stations. (That's five nights and four days of actual exploration time!)

MID-DUNGEON EVENT

There is no particular mid-dungeon event this time around! However, there will be two exploration opportunities running the length of the dungeon - one in the library and one in the basement! Rather than having specific headers, mods will keep an eye out for top-levels that include these areas and let you know in-thread if you find anything of interest! For the sake of fairness, we'll be focusing mostly on characters who haven't participated in any explorations or major plot stuff recently.

SIGN-UP FORM

<b>Player name:</b><br /><b>Character name + Journal</b>:<br />

EVERYTHING ELSE:

...Be with you: Fourth character slots are now open for existing players! As with third character slots, there is a maximum of two applications per application cycle. This will probably be the cap going forward until near endgame. Applications open in a week (as usual).

And now, the weather;

9/24-28: Largely clear with stray clouds; breezy, cool.
9/29-30: Overcast, with both occasional sunbreaks and some drizzling.
10/1: Overcast in the morning at the Station; the clouds follow characters into the mountains to Silvereagle Manor, and begin to open up in a steady drizzle there.
10/2-3: Frequent rain; usually drizzle but occasionally pounding. No sunbreaks even during breaks in the rain; remains overcast.
10/4: Rare sunbreaks, overcast.
10/5: Steady rain until late afternoon, heavier than a drizzle but not quite pounding. Overcast after.
10/6: Overcast leading into sunbreaks, with a mostly sunny (though still chilly) afternoon.
10/7-9: Sunny but cool; nights are not yet approaching freezing, but cold enough that most people will want some kind of jacket, especially with the sea breeze.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S ACTIVITY CHECK.

Activity Check for August 7th-September 6th, 2018 is complete!

Ready to get spending? The Points Usage page is here. You can check your point totals (by journal name) on the Taken sheet.

As a small reminder, you only get the 10 points made-a-post bonus for open posts! Closed posts still count for regular comment points, however.

AC Warning;

-> newlawtolight

Characters who haven't met the five comment minimum for AC (and aren't on hiatus) will be listed here. If you're given an AC warning, you have one week (changed!!!) to either get activity or talk with a moderator. People on AC warning will be required to specifically submit activity to the comment header below; the mods aren't going to go looking for you.

Characters who joined the game in the last month are exempt from AC Warning, as are those who have been or are on hiatus for more than two weeks.

Game Updates

Please hold: With apologies from the mods for the delay, new point-spending options will be up by the end of the dungeon! Also, the Mid-dungeon event, as previously planned, is currently [PENDING NOISES], due to some people and their critical success rolls. Please keep an eye on game chat for further information!

It's the little things: Check out some minor updates to the Annex setting page for the new sauna and garage! The lonely treadmill in the AV hall has also been moved to its proper home in the gym, and replaced by a moderately sized piano, if you didn't get that memo.

As always, questions and feedback are welcomed below!