apocalypsehownpcs: (Milo | A Friend)
Apocalypse How NPCs ([personal profile] apocalypsehownpcs) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2023-08-01 07:39 am

Into the Wyldwoods

Who: Milo [personal profile] apocalypsehownpcs, Raine Whispers [personal profile] rainestorms, Steve Rogers [personal profile] punched_hitler
When: August 15th
Where: The Wyldwoods
Summary: Raine and Steve have taken it upon themselves to uncover more information about the lower levels of ADI and the illusion that disguises the non-humans at ADI. They encounter Milo, a Perfectly Ordinary Person, who has some information to share.
Warnings: Gaslighting, manipulation, illusions, uncanny valley, potential for loss of name, sense of self, and memory or memory modification

It's not easy getting to the very lowest level of ADI Headquarters. Asking around will indicate that it's where ADI once kept an avatar of the Dark named Katie Dunn. No other prisoners are being kept on that level, but access is severely restricted. By ill-got means or some very serious persuasion, though, two people have managed to gain access to it.

There was also a cryptic bit of guidance found or obtained to 'bring milk and honey,' which may or may not have been listened to.

The elevator door opens to a small, metal room with two sturdy doors leading off from it. The one to the left is labeled Containment. The one to the right is labeled Wyldwoods. Both require keycodes to access, but the infiltrators have acquired those by their various means. Containment is a small cell block with only three cells. There's nothing and no one in here. It seems ADI was telling the truth about Katie Dunn being their only prisoner.

Wyldwoods is a different story, the door opens and the one entering will find themselves immediately hit with the scent of loam and pine. It is pleasantly warm with a blue, partly cloudy sky, and there's the sound of birdsong and wind rustling leaves. It looks to be a full pine forest in the middle of a lovely summer's day. Moving into the room, they'll find themselves stepping out of a door that's appeared in the trunk of a tree. Said door closes and vanishes immediately behind them.

Beyond the trees is a meadow filled with flowers. Sitting in the field is a young and beautiful-looking person. They seem to be lounging and plucking flowers for a chain that they're weaving together. There's a slight frown on their face, though. Approaching, it might become apparent that some of the meadow beyond them isn't meadow at all. It's just metal, much like the walls out in the entry room. The patches flicker and flowers and grass grow back, but more patches appear in other spots, instead.

Raine Whispers (first to arrive and leave)
The person turns to look toward Raine when they approach, whether directly or with stealth. "Ah, hello? You're someone new."

Steve Rogers (second to arrive and leave)
"Two new visitors in one day!" It doesn't matter if Steve is approaching with stealth or not, the person seems to know where he is and looks over at him or whatever hiding spot he's chosen. "I feel very lucky, indeed. Hello? May I have your name?"

(Warning for Both Players: Providing a full name to this character at any point in the conversation will result in negative consequences for Raine and/or Steve.

Additional Information for Raine: In their general exploration and investigation, Raine would have turned up the following information.

1. ADI has not found a way to send people home. Arrivals and disappearances continue to be at random from all paperwork and other documentation that is available. There seems to have been a slow down in recent months, which is concerning to ADI in a different way. Possibly it signals that whatever is doing this has collected what it wants?

2. Artifacts contained by ADI are anything seen in the Dogged event that has not been destroyed or hampered by PCs.

3. Oculus seems to have been a cult that was active several decades ago, particularly in the 1990s. They attempted a ritual in Oracle, AZ that involved the Biosphere 2 experiment. ADI wasn't actually all that involved in disrupting that initiative. They had looked at it and deemed it doomed to failure. And it was. After the failure of that ritual, members of Oculus splintered and there was a lot of in-fighting that ADI watched from afar. Current records indicate that the larger cult is dead with some minor pockets here and there. The largest pocket was dealt with in Gloucester recently. The only other notable grouping of Oculus seems to be out in Arizona where they're trying to get funding for Biosphere 3.

Dogtown has grown increasingly strange since the arrival of the first offworld NPCs. It was always a threat, but it seemed to have Hunt and Dark as the primary Entities lurking within it. 'Primordial' ones, ADI's information calls these. The Wolfe House at the center of Dogtown is a documented site for significant hauntings, but ADI has always dealt with those in the past without too much incident.

Hammond Castle is the only other location of interest. Notes indicate that ADI has a Special Relationship with the castle given the Hammonds' interest in the occult. In the past, ADI has used the castle as a front for acquiring cursed artifacts.)
apocalypsehowmods: (Default)

[personal profile] apocalypsehowmods 2023-08-23 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
No worries! We wanted to make sure you hadn't missed some of those things. If Raine would keep pressing, you're welcome to have them do so. Feel free to stay in character for you character! If Raine is the sort to back off when they're hitting a wall, that's fine. If they're not, that's also absolutely cool!

In terms of finding out what's going to happen for negative consequences (as Eda's player was asking about), this will be dependent on Raine. If they press, they could get some additional information, but at the cost of a more forceful rebuke. This would come in the form of either Raine being unable to ask questions for the next while or being able to ONLY speak in questions. If you would like them to have that sort of consequence, please let us know which would be your preferred.

If you would like them to avoid any further negative consequence, backing off after asking the two questions that Milo offered would let them escape the encounter with minimal trouble.
rainestorms: (Default)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-24 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Ok cool! Sorry this took so long I've been busy with medical things.

I did have one more question: in terms of staying in character, I do think Raine would probably try and not ask, but tell Milo they want to help them in response to what Milo last said. They'd follow along with what Milo asks because frankly they're scared.

But I wanted to ask if that would be something that might be something interesting?
apocalypsehowmods: (Default)

[personal profile] apocalypsehowmods 2023-08-24 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
The interaction with Milo is meant to facilitate giving Raine some info associated with their Player Plot. We will work with whatever you provide in terms of a direction for the the thread. If you're asking if Raine will get specific and detailed answers if they go along with what Milo has said, we cannot promise that just because this NPC is, by their nature, cryptic. But Raine will receive answers with material information of some kind! It just might not be everything they want. (Mainly so that there's still room for additional info to come out in the main event for other players!)