More Crystal Thefts

[simpathis]

— CRYSTALLIZING CHANGE — Hello everyone, here are your event details for this month. A bullet list will be down at the bottom for quick perusal. The crystal in the observatory has been stolen in the middle of the night of the 16-17th. To recap, some people may wake up in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm. Once she’s been informed herself, Ledwika soon announces that the observatory's crystal has been stolen! Witnesses of the theft say that they saw crystal taken west of Verens, far off into the distance. With the crystal gone, weather is going to be rather wonky in Verens for the next week or so. As everyone knows, the crystal is an important part of stabilizing the environment around the island, to protect it from the erratic atmosphere of the destroyed (yet recovering) planet below. Now that the crystal has been taken, things are going to be wonky. There will be no blue skies and clouds, but reddish orange during the daytime instead. The erratic weather will come and go, one hour rain, the next it could be small ice showers, then sunlight and moisture, the combinations are endless and won’t be the same from one area to another! This won’t be only limited to the weather, as flora and fauna will both be affected by the change in environment. For example, anyone in the forest might be able to spot some trees turning red and see its leaves fall… until the tree becomes green again an hour later and is sprouting fruit. Plants are also either growing wildly or even mutating into other kinds of plants. New hybrid fruit anyone? (You’ve got to think positively sometimes… even in the hard times right?) Animals across the island will be affected as well, since they sense something else coming. This is only the beginning and they know it. Expect animals to be avoidant and aggressive if approached, and this can include native pets that were adopted from the wild. Domesticated pets may just focus on the being nervous side of things. And of course, the crystal being gone will also affect everyone’s emotions! People may suddenly experience a burst of a certain emotion: whether it's calm, anger, joy, fear, you name it! One could be chatting with their friend and talking passionately about music, when they suddenly start yelling at their friend for something very minor. One could also be crying because they're hurt or they're very upset, but suddenly start laughing and cheering as if they just won a million sylvs, and then they're back to crying ten seconds after. For now, there is not much knowledge as to where the crystal was taken, beyond it being carried away to the west. There are rumours sprouting that the crystal was stolen by a device that was aimed down from an airship that circled above. Whether or not that's true is yet to be proven. There will be no log for Part 1. This portion of the event will last until September 20th, so feel free to make your own posts for this part until then. IN BRIEF Crystal Stolen - The observatory crystal has been taken during the night of the 16th/17th. Attack From the West - Those who witnessed the theft saw an Airship use some sort of device to steal the crystal from above and take it west. Erratic Weather - The missing crystal has caused the protections around Empatheias to disappear, exposing the island to the strange environment more familiar to the planet below. Strange weather patterns of all types could occur in all sorts of combinations, examples above. Flora & Fauna - The plants and animals are also affected, causing mutating plants and massive overgrowth to accelerated seasonal behavior. Animals are confused and aggressive at times, but mostly they seem on edge, as though there’s more to come. Emotional Turmoil - Emotions will be extremely out of whack, causing major swings in how people behave and react to even the smallest of things. There are examples above. Time Span - This portion of the event will last until September 20th, where a follow up and mission to explore West in order to retrieve the crystal will occur. The effects on the island will last until at least the conclusion of the full event. No Log - Again, There is no log for this first portion of the event. If you have any further questions about the event, please feel free to ask them in this post!

Comments

[deathboss]

Two questions!

1 - Will the hybrid plants be permanent post event? (I'm just gonna take the positive thing out of this and make up some really silly ones)

2 - You mentioned domesticated animals being nervous, would they try to get closer to their owners for protection and try not to leave their side, or avoid them like their wild counterparts?

[simpathis]

1. the more outrageous combinations will likely wither and die after the duration of the event. more subtle combinations could possibly survive! If in doubt, give us some examples of what you'd like to keep around post event.

2. that is up to you, different pet personalities could make them swing either way. They just won't be aggressive or attack.

[lionhandler]

Just to make sure I'm 100% clear on this, the emotional turmoil is only in effect on the island itself, right? Like, characters could ICly avoid it by going to Shaarnath or Theastai or such?

Also, should this stuff go in the emotion tracker as normal?

[simpathis]

1. Yes, just on the island! The others places won't be affected.

2. If the character's emotional outburst creates an effect, then feel free to put it in the emotion tracker. We won't have a special emotion tracker for this event, since we don't have any special plans related to emotions aside from the sudden mood swings.

We hope this answers your questions!

[zephlyrt]

Does the same go for the weather?

[simpathis]

Yes, it does!

[gottacatch]

A lil' late, but will there be any word going around about any temporary measures being put in place to help stabilise the island while the whereabouts of the missing crystal is investigated?

Edit: For the event log-

1. How do the people dress in this location? Would the PCs/Emp NPCs actually stand out against the fashions of the people here, given their lower quality of living (implied by the buildings)? How would they take to anyone non-human? Is there anything to imply that they might see visitors from other islands?

2. The crystal is said to be in a room, but could we get a better description of the actual building it's to be found in?

3. While chatter for the location of the crystal isn't easy to come by, will any chatter about a crystal around to be heard? Is there any particular subjects that might stand out? Especially wondering if, again, there's anything to imply they have visitors from other locations come by.

[simpathis]

Hello! We're sorry it took so long to get back to you regarding the first part of the event. Temporary measures on the island include encouraging everyone to stay indoors, and getting everyone to safe locations. There are also therapy sessions for animals, so some people may be encouraged to bring their pets there so the animals don't go crazy.

As for part two:

1. Brairlan fashion still follows the same steampunk theme as those of Empatheais. People just dress up with whatever they have available, so their clothing may be mismatched here and there. Some clothes may include patches and stitches everywhere, haphazardly sewn together.

Some might still be surprised to see non-humans, but these are the same sky pirates who came in to Empatheias and stole crystals a few months back. They're fully aware of the Otherworlders and how some of them aren't human. However, there aren't much visitors in Brairlan. They do have visitors occasionally, but it's mostly for shady trades and business, or some other society of mostly hidden people.

2. The facility is underground, so there's no building to be seen on the surface, just entrances and exits. Lots of hallways and everything looks like a maze.

3. The people of Brairlan are happier now that they have a working crystal since it's a symbol of hope and that their community can live peacefully and properly again. They won't talk about it, however, and if brought up, the natives might just exchange looks with one another and move on to a different topic as if the mention of the crystal never truly happened.

We hope these answer your queries!

[gottacatch]

Thank you for your answers! Just for one more: is it easy to tell whether these people are wearing crystals on them, or any sort of device on some part of their body?

[simpathis]

Hello! We're sorry for the late response.

There won't be any signs of these people wearing crystals or any other kind of device. If an unconscious pirate is inspected, there won't be anything unusual on them.

[gottacatch]

Ah, so just to be a 100% sure I understand correctly, the methods of protecting oneself that are known won't be found on the people from Briarlan?

[simpathis]

Nope! Briarlan, despite its economy, has more advanced technology, and the protection comes from something hidden within the island.

[gottacatch]

Alright, thank you very much!

[dyingworld]

For Part Two-

Is it possible to steal one of the smaller pirate airships and keep it?

[simpathis]

It is possible, but the ship that can be stolen will be well hammered down. This is the main way to retrieve items and travel by the people of Brairlan, so it's very used and there are traps inside that make it difficult to pilot. Traps include the control panel having some sort of passcode before flying or having to do a certain number of things before the airship actually takes off. There is no guarantee that the airship will make it throughout the flight, either. It might give up mid-air.

[dyingworld]

Would it be plausible to use a spell like Final Fantasy 12's Charm to get the passcode off one of the pirates?

[simpathis]

That's fine. As mentioned, the airship won't be able to fly very long, though.

[mincingminuet]

Adding to Noel's question. Would a crash-landing outside the city on Verens be acceptable as well?

[simpathis]

That's fine. There will be a lot of malfunctions and troubles throughout the trip, though!

[hopedout]

Question in terms of the guns that they're armed with: if someone managed to disarm someone, would they be able to take the guns with them? Follow up question if there's a yes - what would the guns be like if they were investigated?

[simpathis]

Yes, they would be able to take the guns with them, but will be asked to hand them over to the Enforcers as such weapons are illegal in Verens.

The guns themselves have no crystals and run on tech that relies on an outside source (this being other people's emotions). However, PCs won't be able to actually make use of the gun as it's been coded for use of its owner only.

[lifewithnoconsequence]

Late question~!

Will we be able to disarm/take any weapons from npc's?

[simpathis]

Yes, however the Enforcers will confiscate them as such weapons are illegal. And PCs will also find themselves unable to use the weapon as it's locked to its original owner in terms of use.

[eyeswideopen]

Hey, I'd like to ask what the technology, that is on the table to be traded for, even is. Will they be told this in detail? (I will have Komaeda ask but this directly affects his ic vote.)

[empevents]

Right now they don't have the nitty gritty details, but you can expect to see more ways to use emotions for protection and combat rather than specifically mundane uses. If it's voted for, more details will be revealed since the NPCs are not currently up for threads at this time.

[eyeswideopen]

So to have this correctly. We're to discuss this among ourselves icly with next to no details given and we can't ask npcs for further details. Unless this is the voted for option? I want to be sure I have this correctly.

[empc]

Yes and no. The tech will be based around protective/defensive and combat uses, unlike the way cores and other tech are used in Verens to improve every day life. The reason we're keeping it general at this time is to avoid adding additional work for the mod team where if the option is not chosen, it would go unused. This is due to our current availability issues, unfortunately.

We do not have plans to participate with NPCs in this post, however we will edit the post to reflect the information given here in order to make it so a clearer bit of information is provided.

[eyeswideopen]

I'm a little confused. Do you mean that the information on the tech would be available from npcs (handwaved interactions) during this discussion? Or the tech information isn't to be icly released unless the deal goes ahead.

[empc]

In this situation, handwaved interactions will work! The post is currently being updated to reflect information that can be gathered from these kinds of interactions.

[empc]

The post has been updated, with a bit more information given than the summarized version we gave you here. Hopefully this will provide you with the information you were looking for! Thank you for your question!

[eyeswideopen]

It does. Thank you for clarifying.

[collectsdust]

Are characters able/allowed to not vote?

[empevents]

Of course, they don't have to vote if they don't want to.

[collectsdust]

Awesome! Thank you.