apocalypsehowcomm | Event - Appalachia: Remember Basic Safety

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Event - Appalachia: Remember Basic Safety

Appalachia: Remember Basic Safety

➥ Going on a Bear Hunt

Black and white photo of a canine snout in profile. The mouth is open and the teeth slightly bared.
(cw: animal attack, violence associated with monstrous animals, mauling, potential for severe injury, including lacerations from fangs and claws, and broken bones)

It's not just one White Thing or a few of them, it seems. No. With the number of potential victims on the rise, the pack seems to have expanded to match their new, fear-rich quarries: the visitors to Wolf Pen. Sheriff Ron Porter is able to provide local knowledge that gets everyone to some general spots that are likely to be day-time denning locations for the White Things. There are numerous nooks and crannies to check within a large patch of forest near Silver Lake, and each might require different tactics… or not, depending on the people who decide to take on the task of re-entering the woods to dispatch the beasts.

Some of the dens have an easy enough entry point, while others might call for dropping in from above, and there are even a few that lurk beneath waterfalls in some of the creeks in the area. Those investigating the creek-based dens may find entry especially unpleasant as they'll have to take a dousing to do it. The ground is also slick with scum and liable to trip up the unwary. There's no telling if this is more polluted water, but it certainly doesn't smell great.

Wherever the dens are found, they contain two to four slumbering White Things along with a few carcasses, but much less than you might expect for beasts this large. Some of the carcasses do look human, though, and later analysis might find they belong to a variety of people who have gone missing… even one native ADI employee.

Those who choose stealth may be able to slay the creatures before they can even wake. During the day, they seem to have no more supernatural protection than the standard wild animal. But if one wakes? If one wakes, it will scream. A shrill and human-sounding noise that wakes all others in the den and maybe even some from the surrounding dens. The White Things are less coordinated, but no less savage when woken, seeming to be able to read the minds of their fellows to attempt to outmaneuver those breaking into their dens. They will bite and rip, attempting to slam characters against walls in confined spaces or against the ground or trees if moving outside the dens. To those who might feed on such things, it may be clear that there is fear here, a significant amount from the White Things, themselves. They were clearly not expecting this retaliation, and those left on their own may attempt to flee into the woods, rather than face enemies on their own.

Run, rabbit… Run.

➥ Odds and Ends

Photo of trees and a clearing completely carpeted by kudzu.
(cw: fire, including the potential for severe burns and environmental damage; mind control; severe pollution)

Aside from the looming ritual and the danger in the woods, ADI has deemed a variety of other ongoing issues around Wolf Pen worth at least attempting to resolve during everyone's remaining time here. Characters will have support from ADI in the form of whatever equipment was brought from home as well as a small amount of funding for buying whatever else is needed. Based on investigations and suggestions from the off-world agents, work may include…

Cleaning up the Town Dump: …Or at least neutralizing the danger it poses to the unwary. Under the guise of an environmental volunteer group, ADI employees have unfettered access and a modicum of authority, at least for now. It's a flimsy ruse put together on the fly and it won't hold up to close examination, but fortunately anyone who shows up to the dump looking at least somewhat official likely won't be asked too many questions (plus it's not as though the sheriff is going to investigate them for it). What they'll actually do about the dump…well, that's still slightly up in the air. One avenue might be to appeal to the EPA for a landfill cleanup grant, though that's a solution that won't come to fruition until long after ADI leaves Wolf Pen, if at all. Another approach might entail mass destruction… though, ADI is officially less keen on the "light it on fire" approach for what should be obvious reasons. Still, if there's a plan in place to contain the blaze, they might look the other way if anyone should requisition accelerants.
Unraveling the Woven Isle: How is a goat like a flamethrower? They're both finalist suggestions regarding how to put an end to the macabre puppet shows on the Woven Isle, and it turns out both are legal in West Virginia. Best not to use both at the same time, though! Also, that flamethrower is a rental and ADI will deduct it from your pay if it goes missing. The previous challenges of Woven Isle are still in play: set foot on the island alongside another person, and the vines will snare and puppet the both of you, impervious against damage. Light the vines on fire from a short distance away, though, and they're not quite so fireproof when they aren't in control of the situation. Watch out, though, for kudzu sneaking its way through the water to wrap around ankles and force its attackers to attack one another. Maybe the goats were a better idea? Except there's the matter of getting the goats to the island. It's hard enough to tote a goat onto a boat even before you try to float the goat boat to the other side of a moat. Good luck!
Testing the Waters, literally. Scientifically-minded (or at least methodical) characters may find themselves recruited and issued suitable PPE for a mission to sample and test the contaminated water of Silver Lake. Caution is advised, as the purpose is to discover whether any aspect of the poison is supernatural–and because even non-supernatural runoff from a mine can wreak havoc on a human body. Back at the lab, the samples will be subjected to a variety of tests, some scientific in nature, others perhaps a little weirder (ever watch a literal glass of water on CCTV for hours on end to see if it does anything unnatural? Now's your chance!).
Bringing a Family Home - It will take a lot of legwork and negotiations, but thanks to the contacts they've made, characters will be able to bring Ruth, Robin, and Noah back from Plessy's Holler and set them up with a home in town. The first step is finding a property with an owner willing to sell at a low price for a good cause. The next step is, unfortunately, making that property livable–the house they'll be able to secure on behalf of the family has seen better days, to say the least. This is a project beyond the scope of ADI's visit, but they'll at least be able to enlist help and get the ball rolling. Roll up your shirtsleeves and hit the local hardware store. At least the community seems willing to pitch in, bringing supplies, food, and their own skills once they've been told what's happening.
Launching a Political Career for Cindy Parsons…if they'll agree to it. ADI higher-ups are still more than a little reluctant to bring the newscaster on board, and the hope is that aiding them in ousting Mayor Greg Campbell will distract Cindy from the supernatural goings-on in Wolf Pen and empower them to focus on helping their community. They're easy enough to find, lurking about the Howling Moon Inn, peering into windows and hiding in bushes. Intrepid reporter Cindy is out for a story, their phone in hand, ready to film anyone they can spot, and maybe catch enough for a soundbite. Try to ice them out? They'll see about that.

➥ Bait and Switch

Photo of people cleaning debris from a creek bank and putting it into garbage bags. There is a caucasian woman in a red cap and navy blue outfit bending down for some trash. She is in profile.
(cw: severe pollution)

A plan to stop the ritual is in place: dead fish. LOTS of dead fish.

Of course, there are also a lot of logistics that need to go into pulling off a disruption like this. Not the least of which is actually GETTING the fish in the first place. It’s absolutely not the sexiest or the most appealing part of the operation, but someone(s) has got to do it. Gloves and masks and maybe even shifts will be necessary to collect everything. Hopefully everyone has a really strong stomach. But it’s the least dangerous part of the job!

Then there’s the issue of exactly how to transport that much awful smelling cargo without anyone asking any questions. What’s being used? What’s the cover story (if there’s a cover story)? These are questions that need an answer before the plan can move forward. Outside help can be recruited around town, depending on the explanation.

Finally, there’s the actual infiltration of the Bluestone and Keppler mines and the planting of the fish. Timing matters, and so does location. Dumping the fish into the Cathedral itself might be a little too obvious and certainly difficult, but it’s not out of the question. There are also the tunnels that lead to the main event space, whose multitude make them much harder to police. Keppler, being a working mine, is impossible to sneak into now that everyone is on high alert for “OSHA” personnel, which means either traversing the tunnels that have been made to link the two mines together or coming up with some other kind of bluff. After all that, there’s nothing left to do but to distribute the stinky surprise and hope that it wrecks the appropriate havoc.

➥ Ritual of the Black Seal

Photo of three older caucasian men in miner's garb from the shoulders up. The man in the center of the photo has white hair and a mutton chop-style beard.
(cw: emetophobia/gagging/vomiting, elevator disaster, death, severe burns to the face, monsters in the dark, claustrophobia, physical violence and potential for severe injury, in general)

The stench from the mines forces everyone out, many gagging, some outright throwing up not far from the entrance. Todd and other workers at the Bluestone Mine hurry out after them, trying to reassure, trying to keep them there with promises that they'll fix this. They just need a little time to find what the source is. Children are crying, people are getting angry. There had already been a sudden change with the bluegrass band canceling without warning, and now this? A few note they'd heard about the potential for a smaller concert in town from a few local bands, and people start moving away. The longer the delay, the thinner the crowd. Todd begins to sweat profusely, but all employee's doggedly try to hold the crowd's attention with basic party games and Interesting Mine Facts that fall progressively more and more flat.

Katie Dunn
Harlow and the Undertones may not be real musicians, but they certainly sang when ADI scooped them up in the night. There's a hidey hole deep in the Keppler Mine where they were meant to ride out the "fireworks" in safety–or is it in the Bluestone Mine? Perhaps it's either or both, now that the two mines are connected by a branching network of tunnels carved or clawed through the rock. It's there that Katie Dunn began her evening, but by the time anyone finds that little cavern she and Deepthi are gone from it, leaving only a couple of camping cots and other meager creature comforts as evidence it had been recently occupied.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. The shadows are deep and wrathful, strings of lights flickering in Katie's wake. In all of her wakes. She's on the prowl, splitting into many once more so she can go looking down tunnels for the saboteurs responsible for the stench that forces her to cover her nose with her shirt in a failing attempt to block it out. She may not have been the one who made these tunnels, but she knows them well and she is powerful here, where the sun has never shone.

She's out for blood and she can appear and disappear in any shadow. The safety lights remain on for now, but…well, that may not remain the case if one of her reaches the breaker. ADI may have shut down the party, but the night is still young and they can always make it up to her by taking the partygoers' places.

Deepthi Anand
Below the Cathedral, below the stench (but not that far below), in the middle of a warren of tunnels and surrounded by rock: there’s still a threat. The party may be a disaster, but the explosives that have gone missing from Keppler Mines are still - presumably - a danger. So is the woman who lurks there. Someone needs to ensure that their plans don’t go even further awry by the removal of the explosives.

The ways into the cavern below are fewer than before, for anyone who goes looking, but they still exist. It’s hard-going in every sense. The shafts that lead there are narrow and rough. Single-file is the only way to go, which presents the issue of a potential bottleneck once the chamber is reached: one at a time out of one hole might not be the best plan of attack, if that attack might be anticipated. And the weight. Each step forward comes with the awareness of what you move through. Tons and tons and tons of rock, pressing in around you (is the tunnel getting narrower, will it get narrower?) The warrens of tunnels. More than that: is it too much? Is it too tiring, working against such powerful forces? A bone-deep tiredness seems to settle over anyone who presses forwards.

Despite all that, the cavern can be reached. Where it once was empty, there are now piles of explosives heaped around it, mostly oriented in front of the openings. In the middle of that, there’s a woman. When the first person steps - or crawls - into the chamber, she doesn’t react immediately. Even in the low light, her expression can be made out as steady. Unworried but also contemptuous.

It’s only after a moment that she sweeps her hand up to send a spike of rock erupting out of the ground near the feet of the intruder. And then the next. Attacks from multiple sides seem to be more effective - Deepthi can’t focus her attention everywhere at once - but her powers seem to be almost effortless. And that heavy weight on her attackers remains.

Maybe if she can be drawn or forced out of the seat of her power…

Jimmy Bryant
Fish. Fucking fish. The man calling himself Jimmy Bryant is seething, boiling with rage, when he reports to the Keppler Mine after the disastrous escape of so many people from the Bluestone Mine. Todd is out entertaining the crowds, but there is still an opportunity here. They'd planned for a little 'apocalypse disruption initiative,' hadn't they? But given ADI's previous tactics, their known willingness to cause destruction and even death on their own terms, fish had been low on the list of expected options.

There's time to salvage this. There are plenty of terrified men at Keppler, ones already ground into the earth they make their living from. He'd made the call as soon as it had become apparent things were going wrong. Everyone was required to show up to the mine. Call up the boys outside their work shift. This party business is just draining their money with the tourists slipping away. Put the men to work.

Carls Watts said jump, and everyone asked how fucking high. Unfortunately, Carl Watts would just cause confusion showing up at the Keppler Mine. So, here is earnest Jimmy Bryant, arriving fashionably late for work and finding many miners milling at the entrance to the mine. Anyone here to see what's going on from ADI will have an easy time of stealthing their way into the crowd. Ethan Boss is there, too, looking warily into the dimness of the mines he supposedly runs. Useless bastard. Or mostly useless. It looks like the last of the miners are queuing up, heading down in the rickety elevator in spite of a distinctly fishy smell wafting up from below. There must be at least a hundred men down in that mine already. Maybe not all that he'd hoped for, but enough. They had to be enough for this. Too much work had gone into setting it up with Anand and Dunn.

It's as he's tampering with the mechanisms next to the elevator that there's a sharp, "Hey!" from Boss. "What the hell are you doing? Trying to break the elevator? Get outta there, you."

Which is the point that Jimmy notices not all of these people are familiar faces. Or not the kind of familiar he wants. He doesn't reply to Boss verbally, just smiles, and then punches him in the face. Sort of. His fist spreads across Boss' mouth as the man tries to pull away, screaming, the hot wax trying to force its way past his teeth and down his throat. Jimmy's other hand stretches unnaturally, and wraps around a cable, sending the lift and everyone in it plunging to the depths as it snaps for the heat. Screeching metal and men and a resounding crash.

The remaining miners seem divided, some fleeing and others grabbing whatever weapons they can to hand. "Y'all are a right thorn in my side," the molten man says, face melting and reforming into a generic white man that some might recognize from the news.

➥ And In the End

Photo of a very young caucasian boy playing in a pine forest. He is crouched while he plays, and there are green camping tents nearby.
(cw: existential dread, economic hardship)

In the end, Carl Watts vanishes, seemingly without a trace. Some miners claim he transformed into lava and flowed back into the mine, others say he just ran off in shame when his big party failed thanks to someone's fish prank. What's clear, though, is that the mining mogul is nowhere to be found. And it's in the week following his disappearance that everything changes. In the blink of an eye, the money funding FYRE, all of its liquid assets, seems to vanish into thin air. 'Too heavily invested in the cryptocurrency market,' some will say. There are reasonable explanations, but while some of that money might find its way somewhere else thanks to ADI's meddling, the majority of it really does seem to be lost to the ether. And with it… jobs. So, so many jobs.

Work is halted at the Keppler Mine, as much out of respect for those injured and killed, as because corporate tells them no one is getting paid. FYRE is declaring bankruptcy. All across Appalachia, the mines close, people are sent home, and the future is a frightening and uncertain thing, too vast to fully wrap the arms around. Without FYRE, the field is wide open… and sometimes, that can be more terrifying than anything else.

In Wolf Pen, there are few pleased by the developments, but most think someone will come in to sweep up FYRE's assets. Maybe it will be a better company, but few are holding their breaths as they dig into their meager savings and just try to scrape by.

ADI isn't here for much longer–there's news of trouble back at Gloucester now to tend to–but those hoping to check in once more with those they've met or just have a farewell drink at the pub will be able to find what they want. The Blue Dog Pub is even sponsoring a farewell karaoke night with discounted drinks and a sound system that's likely to spill outside and into the streets. It's a wake for those who have been lost and a farewell to the owner and the pub itself. They'll be moving on to Beckley where they think they'll find more stability. Wolf Pen isn't a place they can rely on anymore, much as they might love it. Come drink and be… melancholy. Take one of the photos of the dogs of Wolf Pen down from the walls to take home with you. There's a tomorrow coming, thanks to ADI's efforts, but whether it's a bright one? Well… the rain comes and it goes.

And there's always a storm brewing on the horizon if you look out far enough.

➥ Mod Notes

GENERAL - Players are welcome to play NPCs for themselves when they are needed in a thread. If you need more information on general behavior for these types of NPCs, please feel free to ask! In general, the information provided in the prompt should be sufficient and you're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. Please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
GOING ON A BEAR HUNT (15-30 June) - Characters will be briefed by Sheriff Ron ahead of time on the White Things and where they could be found denning… according to the stories he knows and his own experiences. All characters going out with Ron to take on the White Things will be provided with a weapon by ADI, whether that's a gun (for those who have the experience to use it) or some other common modern weapon. ADI personnel will strongly discourage anyone who isn't an experienced fighter from taking part in this mission. While the White Things lack a human level of intelligence, they display the same level of intelligence as pack-based animals that have clearly worked together a lot. Lone White Things would also rather flee toward others of their kind or away all together than face down more than one character on their own. White Things that are killed in daytime will crumble away to dust, but will not return again. On the flip side, injuries the White Things inflict in daytime are real and leave real wounds. Attempts to collect tissue samples from the White Things will result in those samples disappearing before much useful can be done with them.
ODDS AND ENDS (15-30 June) - Characters interested in stopping the town dump from eating people are free to try a variety of methods. This could be as mundane as navigating federal grant applications for an incineration system, as wild as literally setting the whole dump on fire (though there will be fallout if they do so), or anything in between. At the Woven Isle, characters may come supplied with flamethrowers, or they may requisition funding to go buy some goats. Goats are immune to the machinations of the Woven Isle. Unfortunately, goats are also immune to commands and/or pleading from anyone trying to get them to cooperate with the process of getting them to the island. Characters who test the contaminated water will discover that the poison in the water is entirely mundane, the result of indiscriminate dumping of waste material from the Keppler Mine. The housing project for the family that had been living at Plessy's Holler can entail identifying the property, hands-on work in home repair, and enlisting (unnamed) NPCs to assist.
BAIT AND SWITCH (15-30 June) - Unnamed NPCs from around town can be recruited to help with all aspects of the plan to disrupt the party, including any plans to obfuscate exactly who is responsible for the disruptions.
RITUAL OF THE BLACK SEAL (15-30 June) - Each character may participate in one fight thread, as these events will occur more or less simultaneously. OOCly, players are free to have their characters gunning for one avatar only to run into another and get caught up in a different fight than ICly planned. Per a tactical suggestion from Yelena, characters will be advised to seek out and kill Deepthi first, which will have an effect on the other fights. For Katie Dunn, players should assume that she will attack characters on sight with the exception of characters who were successful in killing one or more of her shades in a previous encounter (those folks she will flee from on sight). For Deepthi Anand, characters with supernatural/magical abilities may have some trouble actually accessing them for this fight if they have any fear reserves to start with. Non-powered characters will have less trouble with fatigue, but not none; all who fight her will find that their energy and/or powers are being sapped and dampened. For Jimmy/Carl Watts, characters may attempt to fight him, talk to him, rescue Ethan Boss, or attempt to get Carl away from the elevator to try to help trapped miners, or even attempt to find a way into Keppler through the Bluestone Mine. Those who try to fight him can kill him, but there is the potential for severe injury.
AND IN THE END (15-30 June) - The last hurrah for Wolf Pen, at least for now. Characters are welcome to take part in the festivities, drinking and singing or even doing their own instrumental performances, if they're so inclined. There will be an opportunity to reach out to NPCs that have been met during their time in Wolf Pen as most will be present at the farewell party in one capacity or another. After that, ADI will be loading everyone back onto trains to ship back to Gloucester. While there are major economic headwinds they leave behind them, ADI will do what they can for the people of Wolf Pen. There's trouble brewing at home, though, and everyone will be told to be prepared to be on their game when they return. Ain't no rest for the wicked.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. Bear Hunt

First things first: clearing the woods of the lesser evils. Winter's run afoul of them a couple times, but clearly tracking them at night hadn't worked. With some intel on the area's most likely places for dens, he straps on his tac gear, his mask, his goggles, and all his guns, and he goes hunting.

It's a relief, after a week of trying to be inconspicuous and polite and normal to finally do what he was programmed to do: track and kill dangerous targets. And he doesn't even have to pretend to be a person for a bunch of stupid beasts. He's not going to feed the Stranger by killing them.

He takes the waterfall den, because it will mask the sound of his approach, his combat boots are meant specifically for difficult surfaces, and also the water will make him harder to bite down on. He'll take company, too, if anyone wants to be his strike team for this little jaunt-- but he's going in first, which he makes clear more with gestures than words, pointing firmly behind him as they approach the stream and its watery cave.

II. Odds and Ends - Goats

While Winter didn't wind up going to the leafy island in the previous weeks, focusing instead on hunting white things, finishing recovering from his fight with Penny, and trying to listen to people's conversations without being creepy, once someone has a plan for dealing with... whatever the problem is, he's glad to help out.

Today, that means holding a struggling goat under the metal arm as he splashes across the ford in the lake. Are you helping, dragging your own goat across, or are you watching and laughing as he tries to fend off flailing hooves and horns with increasing irritation.

III. Bait and Switch - Fish

Winter's been in smellier situations before. He's sure of it. Something about a hot, smelly trench with a couple dead people.

He sticks a small packet of smelly herbs into a handkerchief, not sure how he remembered it but knowing it would work well enough, and sticks it in his face mask. Then he starts hauling buckets of decomposing fish in the dead of night. Or during the day, if someone other than him has a good cover story.

And while he's down there, he explores as many tunnels as he can find. There might be a fight down here-- it's the most strategically sound choice-- so he needs to know as much about them as possible. He's tried before, and had a little luck, but not a lot, and he needs to map them out in his head. He won't say no to some company while he does so, so long as nobody minds the smell.

Kate isn't allowed to handle the flame-thrower. Who made that decision? Someone higher up than her. It may have something to do with a beach party last summer and a drunken Kate having way too much fun burning the marshmallows.

She's helping with the goats! She has two on a leash. She is trying to work out on how to get them to the island when she sees Winter struggling. Kate doesn't mean to laugh, she truly doesn't. However, she simply cannot help it.

It's funny.

Winter shoots her a little glare, but it's more hang-dog than actually offended. "I'd like to see you to better," he calls over. Since he, at least, is still carrying the stupid animal, unlike Kate who is just standing on the shore with hers.

"I will do better," Kate calls out. She's wearing chest-high waders and gloves so that the water and (let's be honest) the goats don't get on her. She has come prepared if not overly so.

She ties the lead of one goat to a fallen branch, convinced it won't go anywhere. Kate then tries to pick the goat up. It's not as easy as Winter made it look. It takes her a few moments to figure out the right way to pick it up safely. But she does figure out and up comes the goat who bleats its displeasure.

Kate then starts across the stream. She appears to be making good progress but the kudzu on the island has grown hip to Kate and Winter's jive. Underneath the surface of the water, vines snake out. One of them manages to loop around Kate's ankle where it gives a quick tug.

The goat and Kate go down.

Winter sighs. He wades a couple steps towards the island and tosses the goat down. It's nearer to free food than it is to the mainland shore, now, so with luck the stupid thing will go the right way and start eating.

Then he turns back to where Katie went down and sloshes that way. Katie's goat has already surfaced, bleating pathetically.

The water is not that deep. Kate surfaces shortly after the goat does looking every bit the mess. She gasps for air and then coughs because some of the water has gone down her throat and into her nose. It's not funny to her but she certainly does look funny.

"Something tripped me!"

Bucky/Winter | OTA

you goat to be kidding me

everybody wants the goats XD

everyone is secretly el chupacabra

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Goats

all the goats!

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Get your goat

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bear hunt (feel free to ignore if this tag is too late)

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