DUNGEON SIGN-UPS: TELOVIA MINES

[phantasmods]

LET THE SIGN-UPS BEGIN.

TELOVIA MINES

Originally owned by the Telovia Mining Company based out of Incendia (you might have seen their corporate headquarters, if you'd thought to go looking at skyscrapers), these mines have been abandoned and left to go wild for over a century. Unlike Incendia, there's no time loop of magic preserving things here - every year's passage shows both in the mines themselves and the remains of the town outside that once provided home and hearth to the miners and others who worked on the site.

The primary objective of the mission is the location and retrieval of the android Neutrino, who just up and ran off from Lodestone Station for reasons unknown, and has been missing ever since - a time period now over two months. It's impossible to say exactly where they are or what they're doing in the mines, but the exploratory drone tucked into a sheltered part of the mountainside is as good an indication that you're at the right place as anything.

Aside from that, there's the usual objective of stabilizing as much of the area's Fissure as you can. The mines are split into three main areas, plus two smaller ones and a Subfissure, for a total of six locations;

• MINER'S TOWN: The above-ground area that was once where the mine-workers lived. It's primarily housing, at least as far as you can tell from what parts of the buildings haven't been totally reclaimed by nature.
• SORTING AND SURVEYING ZONE: The area around the mine entrance that was once used to organize the crystals and minerals pulled out of it. While the sections outside are as grown-over as the town, the section inside the mine might still be usable, with a little polish.
• MAIN TUNNELS: The majority of the area is, of course, the mines themselves, which are full of twisting tunnels and the very occasional larger cavern. While the majority of the mine is on one level, there are the remains of elevators that you can use to go further down... If you're willing to risk it. A Subfissure has taken over the eastern section.
• BRILLIANT CAVERN: A strange, more-open section of cave where the conditions are just right to allow the plants and seeds that have come in through the Fissure to not only grow, but absolutely thrive, fed by the magical crystals here.
• DEEP SHAFT: The lowest and deepest shaft of the mine, which is accessible by elevator shaft - only by the shaft, unless you know of some way to get the elevator Neutrino used back to the top. More information to come as a part of the mid-dungeon event!

DUNGEON-WIDE EFFECTS

There's one bothersome effect across the entire Fissure area, which is detailed below. In addition, there's a Subfissure in the eastern section of the mines.

Dungeon-Wide Effect: Those entering this Fissure will find that they've lost some degree of mundane ability. It might be a sense - either one of the Big Five or a more esoteric sense such as balance or temperature. It might be the ability to speak, or recognize people's faces and voices. The important thing is that it's an ability that is not magical or supernatural in any way and is instead something that is so mundane that the person losing it doesn't even think about it until it's gone. (As always, dungeon effects are opt-in.)

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

ICly, the dungeon will run for four days, from August 16th to 20th. The mid-dungeon event will ICly take place on the last day. OOCly, the dungeon will run from September 7-16.

MID-DUNGEON EVENT

Due to a combination of it having worked better last dungeon to have the end of dungeon event on Wednesday, and the fact that Nai will be gone for a significant part of the weekend, end dungeon event is now mid-dungeon event! It will be going up on Wednesday again, same as last time.

The mid-dungeon event will be a descent to the very lowest part of the mine in search of missing android Neutrino. While anyone is welcome to tag in to the event header, actually locating Neutrino will only be available to characters who did not participate in the rescue at Lodestone Station, in order to keep from concentrating too much plot activity in one place.

SIGN-UP FORM

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

EVERYTHING ELSE:

AC changes reminder!: Don't forget! Activity check has changed to a monthly cycle, on the 7th of each month! (Which means, this time, that you get your points exactly on dungeon day! How's that for handy?) In addition, with this activity check, the mods will be introducing two cool new ways to spend your points - Setting Additions and Temporary Effects! Please look forward to it!

And now, the weather;

8/9: Stormy morning, fading into overcast throughout the day and eventually sun in the late afternoon. Heat wave ends, leaving the area much cooler.
8/10-13: Sunny and relatively cool.
8/14-16: Sunny, hot, and humid. Prepare to get sticky.
8/17: Hard rain at the Station in the morning moves up to the mountains by afternoon, and continues through the night. Occasional thunder, but no lightning hazard.
8/18: Overcast all day, with the occasional drizzle.
8/19: Overcast morning, with slowly increasing sunbreaks until an eventual clear afternoon.
8/20-22: Sunny and bright; warm but not baking.
8/23-25: Hot, but with low humidity and a constant breeze.

TEST DRIVE 006

[phantasmods]

Hello and welcome to Phantasmal Rift's Test Drive Meme!

Test drive threads are assumed to be game canon for accepted characters unless otherwise noted, so don't feel like you'll have to introduce yourself a second time to everyone you meet! As an added bonus, participation in the test drive comes with the chance to earn up to two items of loot for your trouble! Characters who are accepted can earn one item for having a top level, and one for tagging out to someone else's top level! Your SWEET LOOT will be included with your acceptance notice.

Additionally, characters currently in game can earn themselves a piece of bonus loot for the dungeon by tagging people's top-levels on the test drive! Existing characters get their bonus loot along with the rest of their loot at the conclusion of the dungeon.

This test drive takes place in the Telovia Mines, an extremely abandoned magical crystal mine and the town and infrastructure that one supported it. The tunnels are in reasonably good condition and would be reasonably navigable... Except for one thing.

ONE MINOR THING

The magical effects of the Fissure cause those within it to lose something when they arrive - for most people, it's a sense such as touch or hearing, but it's also possible to lose a more esoteric sense (such as your sense of balance or temperature, but NOT things like "sense of morals" or "sense of style"), the ability to speak, or the ability to recognize faces. As a general guideline, whatever characters lose should be non-supernatural in nature, and something they would have taken for granted as a part of their ability to function.

ODDS AND ENDS

Just because the mines are empty of people doesn't mean that they've gone still. While for the most part, the carts full of crystals remain in one place, the huge amount of magic has left more than a few of the miners' abandoned tools still going through their motions. Rusted pickaxes swing at the walls, and dead lanterns swing from the ceiling. Crystals occasionally free themselves from shards of rock to pile into bins, which then empty into already-overflowing mine carts.

As long as you leave them to their jobs, everything will be fine. If you try to stop the tools (and it is the tools themselves, for anyone who might be looking for ghosts) from doing their jobs, they'll chase you down until you leave their general vicinity.

Of course, the eternally working tools don't care much about the structural integrity of the mine tunnels...

THEY ALL PILE UP

...And so, inevitably, there are cave-ins.

Most of them are fairly minor, and you can see them (well, if you can see) enough to just work around them. Some of them are big enough that you're going to have to dig through them first, if you can.

And then there's the handful that block passages entirely. But don't panic! The tunnels are designed around the possibility of this happening - rather than coming to an end, the majority of them loop back around to the main arteries of the mine.

E... ventually...

But you and whoever is stuck with you on this side of the cave-in might be wandering for quite a while before you get there. Hopefully one of you still has a sense of direction, assuming either of you ever had one in the first place.