MOD EVENT ↠ Happy Campers

[faderifting]

WHO: A lot of people
WHAT: Wilderness survival practice
WHEN: Drakonis 9:47
WHERE: The Vinmark Mountains, which we will continue to spell that way forever.
NOTES: OOC post. Teams below!

After everyone in need is given a brief overview of wilderness survival skills—how to start a fire, how to craft a basic trap, how to recognize any deadly-toxic local flora, etc.—teams will be transported to a point on a nearby mountainside and told to reach a different mountaintop within five days for pickup. They'll be provided with a knife and a hatchet to get them started but otherwise not permitted to bring anything except anything truly necessary for their health (lyrium for Templars, for example), their sending crystals, and their clothes. But if they hide extra things in those clothes to cheat with, that's between them and their team members and consciences.

The terrain between the two mountains is a woody, hilly, rocky valley, cut through with a river that branches into a few creeks and feeds a few ponds. There are caves, thickets, and a few small open fields, all populated by the expected wildlife and perhaps occasionally a hermit or little group of bandits. A road crosses through the valley, but there are no villages or permanent structures. If at any time the team is in danger they can't solve themselves, they can ask for a griffon rescue.

If they reach their pick-up point before the five-day mark, they have to hang out there and wait anyway, but they'll be able to do it in a nice spacious cave beside a spring, stocked with bedrolls, soap, playing cards, and two bottles of wine.

LOG TEAMS

These teams plan to log out portions of the adventure. Our general advice is to keep it chill and spammy, but you can do serious standard logs if that's what your heart desires. The provided prompts are optional, intended to help you get started, and you're welcome to ignore them or add to them if you want.

• TEAM 1: Gideon, Vanadi, Colin, and Sol might deal with three straight days of unrelenting rain (which may cause floods, depending on where they go and where they set up their camps) and a swarm of furious hornets.
  
• TEAM 2: Petrana, Loxley, Herian, Aenor, and Bastien might deal with a day and night of strong, unpredictable winds that try to topple shelters and whip away anything loose, as well as a patch of wilderness filled with traps left behind by overzealous hunters.
  
• TEAM 3: Benevenuta, Dirghe, Sawbones, and Adrasteia might deal with a heavy, raucous thunderstorm and a rotting rope bridge over a gorge that can only be avoided by either climbing up and down the sides of the gorge or losing half a day of walking.
  
• TEAM 4: Benedict, Marcus, Laura, and Vanya might deal with a rock- and mudslide, caused by previous rains, and a bear scavenging through their food that seems more lost and confused than aggressive.
  
• TEAM 5: Edgard, Sidony, Diana, and Valerius might deal with three straight days of unrelenting rain and a pair of raccoons that follow them for the entire journey, intent on stealing their food.
  
• TEAM 6: Ket, Richard, Barrow, and Erik might deal with a day and night of strong, unpredictable winds that try to topple shelters and whip away anything loose, as well as a flock of extremely loud and somewhat aggressive birds nesting above their camp.

HANDWAVE TEAMS

These teams have opted to handwave. Feel free to just discuss OOC what they would have gotten up to or learned about each other in the process. If you wind up inspired to play something out after all, you will not be arrested.

• TEAM 7: John, Vance, Cosima, and Nell.
  
• TEAM 8: Thais, Derrica, Maud, and Joselyn.
  
• TEAM 9: Ellis, Julius, Mado, and Nadka.

Comments

Sol Noon| Team 1/ota

[noonrodeon]

1. Getting Started

As much as Noon is thoroughly enjoying his retirement, he still jumps at the chance to go on the trip. Or training. He does realize that other people do not have quite the extensive experience living in the woods as he does. The inclusion of a hatchet and knife seem downright charitable, but Noon figured this whole "no other equipment" business was more guidelines than a hard rule.

He waits until they're dropped off and any potential bootlickers well out of the way before he says, "Right, let's see what we have."

The total sum of the illicit supplies stuffed into pockets and boots were:
- 4 greased bow strings
- 1 small whetstone and file ​
- 1 oil skin waterbag, neatly folded
- 2 balls of twine
- 3 additional pairs of socks

He looks back up at his comrades expectantly.

2. Mud

There's angry hornets, which really as far as dangers in the wild go is relatively mild. They escape, one way or another, and then Noon promptly begins gathering up handfuls of mud, what exposed skin he has in a layer of it.

"Good thing it rained after all, eh lads?"

BANTER (for hikes and campfires)
a. Hmmm, shoulda brought a book after all.
b. Reckon all things considered, we got off pretty lucky.
c. [ In the middle of a long hike, through the pouring rain, he has the audacity to start whistling ]

Wildcard

Team 6 (open, brackets or prose is fine, threadjacking is also fine)

[sohighandwild]

I. You'll blow us all away

Ket is in no way an outdoor person, though she does her share of the work without complaint. (Or at least without any external complaint.) One skill she does have, however, is knowing how to tie a wide variety of knots. Granted, she's never needed them to secure tents against huge gusts of wind before, but the basic principles hold. "Hey," she shouts to whoever is nearest as she works her way around the camp. "Come hold this for me, I need another hand." At least the winds aren't constant, but their unpredictability is its own special problem.

II. Mine?

Her hopes that the birds would give up and go away seem to have been dashed after hours of squawking. Not that she's visibly lost her temper; no, instead, Ket is combing the campsite for small, roundish rocks. She's making a little pile of them, which might just be a decorative cairn if not for the dark looks she keeps shooting up at the flock in the trees.

III. Campfire banter

a. Don't tell me that no one remembered to pack any alcohol.
b. What if we all went back to town and entered a pact to swear we were out in the woods the whole time?
c. Wildcard, choose your own adventure

Team 3 OTA: no rules just right

[babewyn]

Storm comin’:

[ The clouds cover came rolling in thick about an hour ago, innocuous at first. The off and on prattle of rain is just a nuisance until the first sizzle of lightning cracks through the canopy, close enough to smell. A bone-rattling boom of thunder cascades through the surrounding hills.

Hatchet in hand, Dirghe has paused mid-whack at a felled tree, blade buried deep in rotten wood.

Hard to say what the metal seams in his broken horn are made of. Silver? Maybe?

He furrows his brow. ]

...This feels kinda like unsafe to me.


Later:

[ The nice thing about the rain is that it’s a reason for them to delay solving the rope bridge problem. The nice thing about the rope bridge problem is that it gives them a reason to stay out of the rain and close to the fire while they think it through.

It’s just visible in the fading light through the rain, old planks flagging in the wind.

This isn’t a cave so much as it is a jumble of rock jutting out of an eroded hillside, the low shelf of basalt overhead broad and flat enough to keep the floor dry.

Mostly dry.

It’s the kind of storm where everything’s a little damp, water coursing down over the shelf around them in curtains of cold runoff -- enough to fog their breaths and numb their toes. There’s room enough for all of them to sleep eventually, but only enough for Sister Sara to stand. Currently Dirghe is hunched over a pile of wet branches like a gorilla in a doghouse, head tilted awkward to keep the one longer horn from scraping while he sorts the soaked through wood from the only kind of wet. ]

I think we got enough if one of you magely types wants to do the honors.


Wildcard?

[ Wildcard! ]

strom

[okayimin]

Reckon most of it is. Which part specifically are you worried about?

[ For someone who's never adapted to things falling out of the sky, she's held up against the rain fairly well. Rain happens and is useful. So it's fine.

Storms are not fine. ]

II CW ANIMAL VIOLENCE

[nonvenomous]

Beneath the tree bearing a load of clamoring birds, there are larger rocks. And among the rocks, a scattering of foraging fowl call up to their brethren overhead with raised voices.

Daylight is fading fast, and there’s no sign that they plan to settle down for the night.

Richard has been a quiet, reserved companion through the woods and in camp. He has a cool, keen eye for navigation and an aversion to small talk.

Presently: he rushes clumsily from the cover of a nearby boulder with a stick, and swats a scraggly grackle flat to its perch, crack. A cry goes up and the flock erupts -- too late -- he catches another mid-flight after a whiffed swing, viper quick, and with enough hostile force to send a puff of downy fluff up on the wind.

Team 5 | OTA free for all

[truthtied]

a. Forest Negotiations

When it is inadvisable to continue traveling and they must stop, Diana attempts parlay with the raccoons. She sits in wet grass across from the raccoons. Between the three of them is a small fish, several mushrooms and five pinecones.

"The raccoons are learning to barter," she says when approached, with the tone of someone who thinks this is a perfectly normal statement, "But I suspect they'll still try to steal if given half a chance. They're not nearly as sneaky as they think they are."

The raccoons chitter. The one on the right takes one of the mushrooms and Diana sighs.

b. Mortality, the weakness of the flesh ect

Caves are not particularly comfortable, but they're a great deal better than trying to sleep out in the rain. Even with her powers as curbed as they are, Diana does not tire easily. The severity of the cold is a new one. As is this rather specific pain. When she tugs off her boot and wet sock to investigate, she lets out a surprised laugh. "I have a blister."

Not surprising, given the weather and the comparative newness of her boots. It's an impressive one, squishy and large. She gives it an experimental poke, clueless as to how one goes about dealing with a blister.

WILDCARD

b. nasty.

[beidhander]

"Let me see."

When questioned about his survival skills, Valerius has half-heartedly mentioned having some medical training. He can patch a wound alright, knows some basic remedies for a myriad of minor illnesses, has helped relocate one bone into a joint in his life under careful instruction. But when he asks this of Diana, let me see, it doesn't really sound like he is concerned so much as, like.

Interested in how big and gross it is.

He navigates his large self through the cavern to sit closer. The cold and the rain in tandem have been absolutely miserable, having endured the unrelenting downpour in sad and sullen silence. Being under shelter is enough to lift his spirits some, and maybe even talk to anyone.

When Diana presents her blister for the viewing, he makes a sound like: not bad.

threadjax

[thereneverwas]

Ever in the process of securing their tents, Barrow is doing that now. And doing that, of course, means standing with both of his feet planted atop their tethers as they attempt to blow away, letting his own weight prevent their destruction as he grudgingly attempts to light a cigarette.

"Get 'em, Dick," he says with no inflection, and, beckoning to Ket, points out another smallish rock back in the other direction.
It's something to watch, anyway.

a

[thereneverwas]

I won't.

[Reaching into his surcoat, a little flask is withdrawn and shaken wryly about.]

...but we have to ration it. By we I mean me.

You can have some if you're nice.

c

[venenifer]

[The look he receives is as cutting as it is miserable, its donor a pale and hunched elf whose robe hangs off him like a wet burlap sack.

And feels like one, too.]

[babewyn]

The part with the lightning.

[ He drags the hatchet out and crunches through the rest of the trunk with a heavy stomp, sending soft splinters every which way. ]

You’re low to the ground. Maybe you should carry this.

[truthtied]

She does duly present her blister. The sound earns him a grin.

"I've never had one before," she says, perhaps unnecessarily, "What are you meant to do with one?" Amazons are warriors with all the basic survival skills that go along with it and Diana's training had been no exception, but she was still both a princess and blessed by the gods. Impressive foot blisters did not factor into that life often.

[okayimin]

[Sawbones squints at him and then up at the sky. ]

The hatchet? What's that got to do with anything?

[ She does have a rather sinking suspicion she isn't going to like it though. ]

[noonrodeon]

[ The look is very impressive, even if it only sways Noon a little bit. He gives the Brother a lopsided grin. ]

It's a marching tune. Sort of thing the pipers strike up when you're on a march like this.

[ He gestures expansively to the soggy forest and their soggy company. ] 'Course, I'd rather be on this than an old forced march. That's real shit, if you'll pardon my saying so, Brother.

[sohighandwild]

When Richard just goes up and swats them, she doesn't quite roll her eyes, though there's a sort of "...I guess" in her look. She nods to Barrow when he points out the rock but goes to her existing pile first, and unties the scrap of fabric that's been holding her hair back at the nape of her neck.

It makes a very effective sling with a quick twist or two. Ket keeps an eye out for the first bird that gets the idea of resettling. Her method is not quite as thorough as Richard's, but her aim is good. She hits the first bird she looses at squarely broadside and it half falls, half flies off its branch with an angry protest.

"If you'd tied those knots properly," Ket says, casually, to Barrow, "you could get more rocks for me instead of just serving as a human stake." It's more in the way of observation than anything else. At least bird control is something to do. (It might get less casual in a moment, but in her defense, Ket is used to city birds that might steal your food but are unlikely to dive bomb you.)

[sohighandwild]

...define "nice."

[babewyn]

[ Dirghe tosses it down at her feet with a dead-weighted whunk. ]

You ain’t ever fought a mage with lightning?

[ A stoop, a grunt, he hauls the severed log up onto his shoulder. ]

It likes metal. And things that are tall.

[okayimin]

Nothin' that comes from the sky is ever good.

[ Is mostly muttered to herself. She does pick up the hatchet though, pragmatism overriding a new concern. It does not fit particularly easily in her hands. ]

And I'm a field medic. If I tried to fight a mage, I'd be dead. [ Statement of fact. She frowns up at his horns. ] Would wrapping your horns help?

[thereneverwas]

Not criticizing a man's knots?

a. raccoons are evil actually

[muckspout]

Edgard watches Diana for a moment, his eyes narrowing and his mouth quirked. He lets out a sigh.

"Those are my mushrooms."

[sohighandwild]

Look, if you prefer standing on a rope at length, I apologize for suggesting a method that would rob you of the pleasure.

[thereneverwas]

I vastly prefer it. ...to chasing birds around, anyway.

[truthtied]

"We're coming to a peaceful arrangement?" Diana tries her most winning smile, indicating the pinecones. But then, because it's wet and miserable and Diana is wholly herself: "I am sorry. I think I can convince them to find more for you, if the talks go well."

Because this is delicate diplomatic work, obviously.

[nonvenomous]

A fourth and fifth swing find only air. The element of surprise is lost, and Richard slides down into a sit against a bird-poop-spattered boulder to the tune of the flock cawing furiously as it scatters. A few brave (stupid?) birds are quick to return, only to think better of it when Ket’s rock slaps the first of them off its branch before it’s settled.

Dick cranes to watch it go.

He seems content to sit while he recovers, breath puffed hard and fast in the cold air, ears red at a distance. With an arm outstretched, he uses the stick to drag one bird corpse closer, as if this was a calculated hunting effort and not a cro-magnon outburst.

[muckspout]

Edgard motions to Diana to lean forward and speaks in a whisper so the raccoons won't hear them.

"How many raccoons have you negotiated with? How many thieves have you negotiated with?"

He doesn't want to doubt her, but he also doesn't want to invite more theft.