1.1 Event Plotting & Monthly Happenings

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1.1 Plotting & Happenings

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Welcome to Well!

The game is officially open! We (the mods) are so glad that y'all decided to join us. We hope y'all enjoy the game, and find fun and interesting things to do with the setting and mechanics. If you see anything amiss / inconsistent / confusing, or have questions about how the game works or how you can use the setting, let us know on the relevant page.

You all can now invite folks into the game. You get one invite per cycle: people you invite this cycle can apply at the end of February, or the end of April. We're planning to be flexible with the player cap for now, so feel free to bring folks in!

Damage in Well is permanent (mostly). Fill out a damage report with any major damage and post it to wellcome so we all know what's been broken.

There's also an IC bulletin board for your characters' use. Post under the monthly comment, and feel free to interact with one another! Probably best to post your notes to Plurk too, in case folks aren't tracking the post.

The first month is structured with the event dropping on the 1st (or now, if you're reading this on the 31st, shh), and a mini-event mingle log mid-month. There will be no IC event post. Y'all can post your event TLs and any other prompts you want to add in individual logs in wellstone. wellstone is private, so be as wild and wacky as you want to be! Part of our reasoning for having no IC event post is to try to prevent folks feeling like they're late to the party. Post your log whenever is convenient for you, and folks will see it on the comm.

The monthly happenings encompass the month 1.1's events and effects. Use this post to plot with each other, using the form provided if you so choose.

Plotting/CR form <b>Your name:</b> <b>Your pronouns:</b> <b>Contact:</b> <user name=USERNAME site=plurk.com> or PM <b>OOC limitations:</b> <b>Character name:</b> <b>Permissions:</b> <b>General impressions of your character:</b> What will people know without talking to them? Looks, vibes, etc. <b>CR you're interested in:</b> <b>CR you're not interested in:</b> <b>General ideas or plans for the month:</b> <b>Event ideas:</b> <b>Are you planning to create a log this month?</b> Y/N

New this month

The dining hall features one long table and the same meals every day: a nice, continental breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and a roast for dinner.

The diner’s special for the month: shoefly pie, with caramelized raisins and a flaky, buttery crust.

If you want to go for a swim, this month you’ll find an “Out of Order” sign on the door. Inside, the pool is bone dry.

When you visit the few other locations in town, you’ll find the employees friendly and welcoming, although they may say some strange things, in addition to the handful of phrases they usually say:

The receptionist: “It’s good to see such a lively crop this month!”

Owner of the General Store: “Hope you staywell outta the graveyard, you hear me?”

The bartender: “Don’t be expectin’ any free drinks.”

The waiter: “Oh, I’m so excited you’re here! Here, on the house.” He serves you a milkshake in your favorite flavor.

The gravedigger: She watches you ominously.

The General Store is running a sale on walkie talkies. These two-way radios work within about the distance of 50 ft. You can share secrets with a friend!

Sleep when you're dead

Content warnings: Insomnia, nightmares

The beds are comfortable. Your sheets are cool and refreshing after another hot day in the desert, the only lights are those distant lights in the desert on the horizon, and even those aren’t very bright. Everything seems made for you to get a comfortable night of rest.

And yet, no matter what you try, this month, it will be hard to fall asleep. Your thoughts will chase themselves in frantic anxious circles; you’ll be itchy, or too hot, or too cold.

When you do finally manage to dull your thoughts and get to sleep, you’ll be haunted by vivid nightmares: You’ll dream about your own death, or the deaths of people you may or may not remember. You’ll dream about your fears becoming very real. You’ll dream about a massive storm, wiping you and everyone you love off the map. You’ll dream about endless watching eyes, seeing right past your body right down into your soul. When you wake, these nightmares will cling to you.

Talking about what you dreamt with other people diminishes their power a little, and even makes it easier to fall asleep the next night. Curling up in the same bed as someone, or staying up late and talking about your circling worries, is the most reliable way to get a peaceful, easy night of sleep this month.

tl;dr:

• You can't sleep!
• When you finally do sleep, you have terrible nightmares.
• Talking about your nightmares, or sharing intimacy (physical, emotional) with another person lets you get to sleep.

Meddling Kids

Content warnings: Stalking

You see it out of the corner of your eye, or in the mirror just behind you: a white figure with dark pits for eyes, staring at you. By the time you whip around, it’s gone, leaving only the flutter of a curtain or a disturbed bit of dust. Did you see anything at all?

You start to think that you probably did. There’s this pervasive feeling that you’re being watched, and it only gets more intense the longer the month drags on. Was that a curtain waving in the window in town, or that same figure? What is that white spot in the crowd? Is that just a bag clinging to a cactus, fluttering in the breeze? It shows up in the mirror. It shows up in your dreams. It hovers at the dark ends of hallways and around corners.

The more you see this figure, the more paranoid you get. You see malicious intent everywhere you look. Is your friend trying to mess with you? Suddenly, everyone’s a suspect. You have to catch this thing, you start to think. If you catch it, you can unmask it and make it leave you alone.

It will be hard to catch alone. You might want to team up with a friend, even if you don’t really trust them—what if they’re the ghost? Working together, you’ll eventually be able to corner the thing, and when you do, you’ll even be able to unmask it. You can grab a handful of the white fabric it’s draped in and yank it off.

Underneath is a desert animal.

Nothing scary or supernatural: just a skinny coyote or a large-eyed hare or a raccoon. It’s just a normal animal, probably pretty scared from getting cornered like this. With a little growl or whimper, it’ll scamper off into the desert, leaving you and your buddy with a handful of cut-up bedsheet, complete with cartoon eyeholes.

Was this really what was stalking you all month…?

This can happen as many times as you’d like. Removing the bedsheet will make your suspicious paranoia disappear, but it will build back up again if another ghost starts haunting you.

tl;dr:

• You see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you look there's nothing there.
• You get more paranoid as the month progresses, seeing malicious intent in those around you.
• If you catch and unmask the being, it leaves you alone... for a while. But it's hard to do alone.
• Unmasked, the being is a desert animal who was wearing a white bed sheet. The animal will run away once unmasked.

See Mystery Lights

Content warnings: Potential drowning in sand

Just as dusk is falling, you see a sign: SEE MYSTERY LIGHTS. When you see this sign, your body follows the arrow, no matter if you want to or not. You can't keep track of where you're walking, and time seems to stretch and pull and then you see red, bright light, before the light settles and you’re sitting in front of a flickering, smoky campfire, glowing red-orange in impenetrable darkness. You sit on a log, a pile of firewood, a flint, and several torches at your side. Above, the sky is dark and starless.

Someone else is at the campfire with you, the firelight playing over their face. You have a sense that you two are the only people in the world, trapped in this endless desert alone, together.

The only other presence is those flashes of light, flicking just beyond the fire’s light. The lights have a soft presence to them, and seem friendly, and buzz softly. They try to tempt you from the fire with comfort, with a guide to bring you back home.

You can follow the lights, follow that friendly feeling. The buzzing grows louder, and vibrates like a purr through your bones. But as soon as you’re out of sight of the fire, the sand begins to sink under your feet, swallowing you up. When the sand consumes you, you’ve lost, falling prey to the desert, which delights in your death, the lights laughing gleefully.

You can stay at the campfire, feeding the flames with the pile of dry wood next to you to keep the darkness at bay, but you find if you do, the night seems to stretch on forever. As the night stretches on, the lights buzz louder, more agitated, calling you to them. Hours seem like days, and the dawn never arrives, until you’re out of firewood. The night bears in around you like a vacuum, sucking the life from your body. The only way to fight back is fire, lighting a new fire to keep the darkness at bay.

The last choice is to break out on your own: you and your partner making your way into the desert without a guide, but with fire to help you. Light a torch and carry it with you. The further you go from the fire, the lights following you become more and more agitated as you go. The buzzing turns to wailing, screaming, pleading for you to come back. The wind whips sand in your face, threatening to snuff your torches. If your torch is snuffed, the desert will consume you. The light grows too bright, and when you look behind you, the dawn is at your back, and the town of Wellstone is within sight.

You made it back home.

If you fail this prompt, by giving in to the lights, or staying at the campfire, you lose a memory point.

If you succeed, and get back to Wellstone, gain a memory point.

This prompt doesn't happen every night, but can happen to your character multiple times. You and your partner don't need to choose the same direction, but the likelihood of death increases.

You may use this prompt up to three (3) times to gain or lose points. Submit these gains or losses on the memory mechanics page.

tl;dr:

• You see a sign saying "SEE MYSTERY LIGHTS" and are compelled to follow it. You can't remember how you got there, but suddenly you're in front of a campfire, it's pitch black outside, and another character is there.
• Beyond the fire, you see lights that try to get you to follow them, seemingly promising to bring you to safety.
• You have three choices of how to proceed:
1. You can follow the lights, but once you're out of sight of the fire, the sand will consume you.
2. You can stay at the fire, but the night will be endless. When you run out of firewood, and no longer have a fire lit, the darkness will kill you.
3. You can reject the lights and the fire, and break out on your own with a torch to guide you. If you fight against the temptation of the lights, you will make it back to Wellstone.
• Gain a memory point if you survive. Lose one if you die.