Survey Mission 6B Location: Elkmont, TN (United States) Images:: x, x, x General debriefing: In the rural outskirts of Elkmont, among the Smoky Mountains, there is a swath of land occupied by abandoned frontier cabins as well as some more modern abandoned homes. Local lover's lane legend of "The Goat Man" has recently spiked and been accompanied by some isolated substantial reports of suspicious activity after nightfall. This would ordinarily be deprioritized, but the recent decision of the National Park Service to catalog the abandoned cabins and decide which will be destroyed and which preserved necessitates expedited investigations.
Due to the distance between cabins and the wooded terrain, two civilian ATVs will be supplied. Although the area is abandoned, the possibility of the ATVs drawing attention necessitates civilian clothing. Interference is unlikely, but if you are caught by local authorities, have a cover story of being tourists exploring out of bounds due to the local ghost stories. * C class difficulty level (must have a team of three, at least one of them must be an intermediate trainee)
MECHANICS
* MECHANICS: RP assembling a team, as necessary, before heading towards the Lighthouse portal to request a portal to Survey Mission 6B. Once there, roll a 100-sided dice and match the roleplay to the results below, as well as any reactions. Players can continue rolling until any of the players roll a BOSS ENCOUNTER, in which case the BATTLE PHASE begins. See below for battle phase mechanics. 1- 10: The dilapidated one-room cabin you investigate appears to be empty of anything of interest. You turn to go through the single door, and when you step back into the darkness outside--you find yourself in the room you just left, as though you'd just stepped through the door in the other direction. A second attempt to leave is uneventful, and puts you outside as expected. 11 - 20: A cabin is already occupied by a skinny stray dog. It is not vicious but it is cringing and terrified, and if you attempt to catch it it will run outside and disappear into the trees. The windows and doors of the cabin were all closed when you approached. 21 - 40: The cabin here is reduced to a chimney and some foundation stones, but a rickety barn still stands. Should you choose to investigate, see below.
The barn appears, despite the general disrepair, to have been used recently for something. You find the following things in a row: an empty plastic container of the kind used to transport small animals, a small plastic kennel, a large crate of the sort used to house a dog (there is a very worn leather collar hanging on the corner), a pen with a dirt floor covered in the hoofprints of a goat or sheep, a stall full of fresh hay and the droppings of either a cow or a horse, and finally, a stall with an old farmer's jacket hung from the corner and a coil of rope in the center, cut cleanly through. There is, in the back of the barn, an old, crumbling table tilted slightly upwards, scored with a deep groove that is stained a dark reddish-brown.
41 - 50: You pass through a clearing. The distant trees silhouetted against the sky toss gently back and forth. It's quite lovely, really, until you realize that there is no wind. 51 - 60: A cabin with broken-in windows yields a plethora of graffiti. Most of it is unremarkable, but you find a heart with an arrow through it carved onto a crumbling mantlepiece and realize that the names inside of it are yours and your mission partners'. 61 - 70: You see very distinctly, passing through a close cluster of trees, the white shape of what at first appears to be a dog. Drawing up closer, it appears to be a stray goat, walking in a purposeful straight line directly away from you. Should you attempt to follow it, you will find that it always somehow manages to remain approximately twenty feet ahead of you despite never changing its speed, before it enters a copse and disappears entirely. It leaves no footprints. 71 - 80: You find what appears to be the remains of some squatters' party: empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, a cluster of dusty blankets, and some blurry, badly-exposed polaroids of partying twenty-somethings in a loose stack. In the background of about a third of these is the face of a handsome, bearded, but inexplicably strange-looking man that is always perfectly in focus and always staring at the camera. The final photo at the bottom of the stack was taken from the front door of the cabin: it depicts you, examining the photos. 81- 100: BOSS ENCOUNTER: - You load up onto the ATV to set off to the next cabin, but its engine sputters and dies in classic horror movie fashion halfway to the next destination, near a small tree. The tree shifts in a wind that you do not feel, and you realize that it is no tree at all, but a writhing shape something like a tree and something like the thrashing legs of a dozen goats. It immediately attacks. Occasionally you see in your peripheral vision the stock-still shape of a handsome, bearded, but inexplicably odd-looking man dressed in jeans and flannel, his hands in his pockets. As soon as you attempt to focus on him you find that he is no longer there.
- BOSS MECHANICS: This boss has 100 HP. Every time you attack it (following the general battle rules), you TAKE 8 damage. It appears by turns to bite you with heavily-toothed mouths on the ends of branches and to assault you with thrashing hooves. If no team member is defending you, you may feel a blow to your FEAR shield from behind or off to the side--only to find nothing there. Make sure to tally the boss's total HP (the damage you did to it) at the bottom of your post as well as your total HP and the damage you did that round. If the boss's HP hits 0, you have defeated it, and your team can now take the portal back.
* 2 mission reward points for completing this successfully
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:19 am
Cee stood with hands on her hips and looked rather pleased with herself. she was perfectly prepared for the mission, as far as clothing choices, and in front of where the portal dropped them were two slightly used and muddy SUV's.
"Oh-ho s**t.." She made prayer hands and looked to the sky, "I ain't driven in so long, thankye fake lord."
"Nice boots," came a drawled, highly amused voice over Cee's left shoulder before Zeke was stepping up to her side, bumping her with his elbow. "very practical this time." And he actually meant that. Knowing Cee, having seen a fair amount of her wardrobe, she'd actually dressed appropriately for a mission, for a change.
He glanced over her head at Matt, flicked his gaze towards the two cars, and then back again. "So who's driving the other one?"
iloveyouDIE
hanging gallow
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:26 am
For once Matt wasn’t dressed in a suit but something still in the familiar black and dark greys but a little more comfortable with boots of his own and considering all the mud he was a little appreciative that he hadn’t worn dress shoes.
“Can you drive?” Matt returned Zeke’s look not wanting to come across demanding in wanting to drive once again, even if the vehicle was almost two times the size of his last sports car.
"That's between youse.." Cee smirked before looking down at her boots and doing a bit of a model pose, leg crooked and balanced on the toe several times before she was moving to the vehicles.
"Someone's gotta ride b***h-" She lowered herself onto the ATV with a bounce. It was a shame they were both mud-splattered black. She'd have preferred a color selection.
hanging gallow
beejoux
fixed this post
Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2017 4:44 pm
Zeke glanced at Matt, and then grinned at Cee's comment. "Guess that'll be you, then?" But there wasn't any bite to it, no malice. Just a bit of innocent ribbing as he clapped the other man on the shoulder before throwing his leg over the other ATV and settling on the seat. It had been a while since he'd driven one, but they'd had four-wheelers back in Salt Lake City when he was growing up, and the controls all seemed to be in the usual places.
There was room behind him for Matt, but he wasn't expecting it. There was more room with Cee. Though of the two of them, it was debatable which would be the more responsible driver.
"So where are we headed, princess?"
iloveyoudie
hanging gallow
Beejoux
Wrathful Demigod
Offline
stella cinere
Ice-Cold Codger
Offline
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:29 am
Matt simply shrugged, if he was really concerned with driving he would have fought more but it at least helped that the other driver was at least Cee, whom he without hesitation took a seat behind on the ATV. Anyone else and he would have likely have attempted to put up more of a struggle. Wrapping his arms around Cee’s waist he leaned forward along her back, seemed familiar.
“Try not to kill me ok.” Not entirely sure that she would listened to his suggestion.
"Well I got a rough overview of the area in the mission info thinger-" She was so very technical in her explanations. "Supposed to be a ghost legend around here so watch out. I think we're just gonna check out some of these cabins till we find what's up..?"
Cee waited until Matt settled, she scooted so he could get a good hold of her waist, and then they were off. She probably drove too fast and perhaps a bit recklessly, but she was grinning to zoom along the dirt roads and through the trees regardless of mess and mud and the possibility of monsters.
Quote:
11 - 20: A cabin is already occupied by a skinny stray dog. It is not vicious but it is cringing and terrified, and if you attempt to catch it it will run outside and disappear into the trees. The windows and doors of the cabin were all closed when you approached.
She slowed at the first cabin the came to, spotting the dog and giving it a smoochy sound and a wiggle of fingers but it seemed scared, and hungry, and ran off.
"Anyone got something we can leave that dog to eat?" She didn't bring snacks this time. "Cabins closed up though-" She peered in the windows and tested the doors.
21 - 40: The cabin here is reduced to a chimney and some foundation stones, but a rickety barn still stands. Should you choose to investigate, see below.
The barn appears, despite the general disrepair, to have been used recently for something. You find the following things in a row: an empty plastic container of the kind used to transport small animals, a small plastic kennel, a large crate of the sort used to house a dog (there is a very worn leather collar hanging on the corner), a pen with a dirt floor covered in the hoofprints of a goat or sheep, a stall full of fresh hay and the droppings of either a cow or a horse, and finally, a stall with an old farmer's jacket hung from the corner and a coil of rope in the center, cut cleanly through. There is, in the back of the barn, an old, crumbling table tilted slightly upwards, scored with a deep groove that is stained a dark reddish-brown.
"I didn't bring any snacks with me, sorry doll." Broad shoulders hiked up in a shrug as he watched her peering in the windows of the first cabin. "Maybe he's used to being out here." It had seemed fairly feral. Probably it knew how to fend for itself.
Or so he told himself. "Let's keep moving?" It was posed as a question, but he gave the throttle of his ATV a prod, gears shifting, before leading the way along a well worn trail towards, well, it wasn't a cabin anymore.
The bare bones of what might have been at one point, but certainly wasn't now. Zeke rolled to a stop, frowning at the ruins, before craning his head to peer through the gloom and darkness at the structure standing a little ways behind it. "What is that, a barn? Should we check it out?"
Survey Mission 6B
