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: Sun Oct 11, 2015 9:01 pm
Lex's phone buzzed as he was just getting out of the grimy a** shower, thoroughly convinced he came out dirtier than when he went it. God, if he could just get back to The Cottage... or at least the second floor.
Missions would help, and they'd take his mind off her. And Canada. What the ******** was Canada. All he could remember were the vines, that big beardy guy. What had happened to Officer Friendly, anyway? Lex hoped he was alright, in the recesses of his mind. But there were more pressing things - like carving a path forward. Proving himself useful to Deus, for once.
Elkmont, Tennessee. Seemed like a typical Tuesday sort of place, but Lex had no understanding of the deep south. Something about a Goat Man, the Parks Service. Heavy stuff, apparently.
Civilian clothes these days were less dressy, more graphic tees and jeans. The nice clothes were still at the cottage. He'd brought along a heavy jacket, due to it being the dead of October, a night mission, and being in the Rockies. He waited in the glow of the portal, wondering who the higher ups grouped him in. Hopefully no one who knew about Ami.
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Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:05 pm
Oliver was not a fan of off-island missions. They were trouble. Always trouble. Bringing fresh nightmares and brand new fears back to the island afterwards, sometimes injuries, but always mental trauma. It was worse being in civilian clothes, without his coat to shield him, it's layers of full pockets giving him that extra sense of preparedness when things went wrong.
When he showed up at the portals, it was with his usual jeans and t-shirt, but also a zip up hoodie and an oversized messenger bag that somehow attempted to make up for his lack of pockets. Oliver clutched at the strap nervously, trying to school his face into some expression of confidence, or at least not abject terror. When he saw Lex, some of the tenseness in his shoulders relaxed.
He joined Lex without a word, naturally deferring to the older man's leadership. Having a familiar face along always put the kid more at ease, every member he knew was one more potential unknown put out of the picture.
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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:32 am
He'd never been to Tennessee, but all the same. He would stick out like a sore thumb, there, with the missing arm and Russian accent, but hopefully they'd not see many civilians.
Looking half wasted away, half damn near homeless, a bearded Kostya showed up at the portal, grim-faced and wordless.
grey dragon
Carhop Cavalier
Quote:
pretend the ref for the beard is messier finding a 100% accurate ref is hard sad
Lex beamed at Oliver when the boy joined him, clapping his shoulder with less force than previous encounters. "Good to see you, buddy." He was affable, if not also a little weary looking.
But at least his beard wasn't as unruly as Kostya's, nor was he missing a limb. How had that even happened? Lex's face grew tight with concern, approaching the Russian with caution. "Y'know, I heard rumors that you were mixed up in that crystal takeover; was that Caelius' punishment?" Lex nodded to the missing arm, trying to be as tactful as possible. He wasn;t trying very hard.
grey dragon
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its me debz rolled 1 100-sided dice:
43Total: 43 (1-100)
Oliver was nothing if not attentive, and being so nervously tuned towards signs of impending danger meant he picked up on Lex's welcome smile as well as his weariness. Taken together it could have indicated any number of things, but the freckled kid got the firm impression it was not something he should bring up.
Kostya's arrival prevented any friendly small talk anyway, the state of his appearance indicating a state of mind that made the boy uncomfortable. Oliver didn't know the Russian man, other than through whispered rumours he didn't quite understand floating around the island. More things he probably shouldn't try to talk about. Even Lex asking about Kostya's arm was enough to make him blush slightly from secondhand embarrassment.
With the full team assembled for the mission, Oliver quickly headed for the portals. Maybe once they were moving the atmosphere would feel a bit less tense.
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YOUR TURN YOU CAN ROLL YAY <333
its me debz rolled 1 100-sided dice:
68Total: 68 (1-100)
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 8:39 pm
With the group prepared Kostya stepped through the portal, alert. He had Syntax summoned, clutching it on his arm to prevent it from slipping out of place.
He looked out to the fog, eyes catching on a figure in the treeline, squinting.
"I see something. Going to check it out."
Kostya approached the edge of the trees, curious because it seemed almost ghostly, but it kept ahead of him and then vanished into nothing, leaving behind no footprints, no trace, and an eerie moment of unsettled silence.
"It's gone," he said, "the goat."
Ghostly indeed.
Quote:
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.
"...Goat?" Lex quirked a brow at Kostya, frowning at the lack of any goat figure on the horizon. Was this going to be yet another mission full of hallucinations and nightmare inducing gasses? OR, maybe Kostya really did just see a goat. This was the "goatman" mission, after all.
"C'mon, we've got surveying to do." Lex tilted his head toward the ATV's provided, straddling one and turning the key, revving the gas. "Don't get separated."
Immediately after driving off, Lex found himself in a clearing, with trees gently rocking back and forth. It would have been a pleasant scene, if the night had a breeze.
Quote:
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.
Kostya had spotted something almost immediately after stepping through the portal, and it did nothing for Oliver's confidence. He said nothing in reply, and nervously headed over to the second ATV. His hands trembled slightly as he fumbled with the key. But despite his shaky demeanour, actually starting and driving the vehicle was very much like games he had played, and after waiting to see if the Russian man was going to catch a ride with him or continue to search the immediate area, it was smooth sailing.
Passing Lex in the clearing, he slowed to a stop outside a small row of cabins. It was time to put his brave face on...
Oliver entered the first broken down building, the small cabin porch creaking, it's door squealing unpleasantly in the silent air. It looked to be just a normal cabin. An old bunk bed, some dressers... All empty. As he stepped back out, he was shocked to realize he had not stepped outside at all. The old screen door had barely shut behind him when he yelped loudly, and stumbled out backwards to fall down the front steps and land on his back on the cold ground. What the hell had just happened?
Quote:
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.
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its me debz rolled 1 100-sided dice:
60Total: 60 (1-100)
Kostya shook his head to clear it, and followed after Lex and Oliver with quiet determination. The woods gave him a feeling that was unsettled, just a subtle sense that something was wrong.
It only continued when he made his way to a cabin in a sad state of affairs. He aimed Syntax at the door as he pushed into it, casting his gaze around the room. The windows were long shattered, the remaining shards crunching beneath his boots. Kostya faced the fireplace, catching something very odd indeed.
His name, in the original Cyrillic-- and next to it Oliver's name, and Lex's too.
Kostya turned on his heel, leaving the room behind, and making his way back to his partners.
"There are," he said, "supernatural thing afoot, to be sure. I saw our names carved into a vall."
Quote:
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'.
Survey Mission 6B
