12 . (player plot) the academy expedition

[clocktowers]

Who: Those who are joining Ozpin's expedition! Network post here, or handwave an invite. OPEN to all.
What: A dungeon crawl with optional dice rolls.
When: Throughout October. You can state when your character goes, or keep it vague.
Where: The forest past the eastern edge of Prufrock.

THE BASICS

At the easternmost edge of Prufrock is a stone fortress, abandoned and overgrown. This place was once a shelter for Hunters in times of rampant Beasthood: it is highly defensible and hewn from the same pale stone as the Gate. These days, it's fallen into disrepair, overrun with monsters and choked by hostile plant life.

If the road can be cleared, the monsters evicted, and the damage repaired, this place could become the site of Ozpin's new combat academy and hub for Hunters. That's why he's sending you in.

These prompts will span September 30 - October 30, 2022. Many different groups can tackle the same hazards until the danger is fully cleared out.

HOW TO PLAY

This part is optional. You can always ignore the rolls and just use the log like a normal log.

Each character gets three stats:

• Might (ability to withstand physical damage)
  
• Speed (ability to dodge hazards)
  
• Stability (ability to resist Corruption)

• If your character is average in a stat, +0.
  
• If they're very skilled, +2.
  
• If they're godlike at it, +4.
  
• If they suck at something, -2.
  
• If you're just being mean, -4.

At each step of the quest is a prompt with dice challenges. You roll a d20, add your character's stat bonus, then use your total to fail or succeed at the task.

Thanks for participating!

Comments

(1/4) The Forest (cw: parasitic plants)

[clocktowers]

At the eastern edge of Prufrock stands the dark and tangled forest. The road is completely overgrown, but be careful if you hack your way through the plants - contact with the sap will encourage simmering Corruption.

[ For those who touch the sap, roll Stability 10 or higher, or your Corruption will begin to rise throughout the log. ]

As you venture deeper, it grows intensely dark and Sleepers will need to provide illumination.

Lurking at the bases of trees are Imposter Plants, already in hibernation with the cooler weather. If you step on the Imposter Plants, they will attempt to infect you, slowly creeping up your legs under your clothes.

[ For those who step on Imposter Plants, roll Might 10 or higher, or you will grow infected throughout the log. Symptoms include weakness and intoxication as though drunk, and a friend will need to scrub the plants off your legs in cold water. ]

(2/4) The Dungeons (cw: hallucinatory spores)

[clocktowers]

The keep is still flooded with icy, muddy, uncomfortably oily-looking water. Watch out for sudden gaps in the floor that drop into flooded, pitch-black tunnels beneath this level. A Sleeper could easily drown down there. Worse, this water is clearly tainted by the Corrupting sap of the forest.

[ Roll Speed 10 or higher to avoid falling into the deeper water. If you fail, roll Stability 12 or higher to avoid a rapid jump in Corruption. ]

With all this damp, mushrooms are growing early in the season. There is a bounty of edible mushrooms bursting from the floors and walls, and Omens are particularly good at sniffing them out.

Unfortunately, not all of the mushrooms are safe. If you enter a room with Walking Terrors, you will immediately be exposed to their hallucinogenic spores. But if you can manage to pick the caps, they make a fantastic treatment for Corruption...

[ Roll Might 10 or higher to avoid suffering hallucinations of your fears (duration is player's choice). If you fail, roll Stability 12 or higher to avoid a rapid jump in Corruption. ]

(3/4) The Keep (cw: spiders)

[clocktowers]

As you ascend the stone steps to the upper levels of the keep, you'll find the damage more extensive up here. Whole rooms have caved in and will need to be cleared and restored. Worse, the floor isn't stable.

[ Roll Speed 10 or higher to avoid falling through the floor. If you fail, you could easily be trapped under rubble. ]

And the most stable rooms are already home to something. Dark and oily spiderwebs, the silk as thick as a human finger, fill the dark corridors. Each Beast-spider is the size of a boar and horrifyingly aggressive.

[ Roll Speed 10 or higher to avoid touching the spidersilk. If you fail, roll Might 12 or higher to wrestle free before a Beast-spider arrives. ]

(4/4) The Tower (cw: eyes, tentacles)

[clocktowers]

From the highest level, a turret which looks out over all of Trench, comes an eerie and warped song. It seems to call you up to the final room.

As you climb the stone steps, the song builds and builds. Out the turret windows, the world has gone indistinct, and it feels almost like you're dreaming. Exposure to this song can induce Corruption: those who have already suffered Corruption risk being turned to Beasts and turning on their allies on the threshold of the fight.

[ Roll Stability 12 or higher to avoid a rapid jump in Corruption. ]

At the center of the room is the singing thing, undulating like a jellyfish: it is all tentacles, a hideous bulbous head, and clustered milky eyes. Its paralyzing gaze can freeze a Sleeper in place until the line of sight is broken.

[ Roll Speed 12 or higher to avoid temporary paralysis. ]

The Beast lashes out with stinging tentacles. Those ensnared by the tentacles will feel the song reverberating, louder and worse, threatening to pitch them into Beasthood.

[ Roll Might 12 or higher to avoid being ensnared in tentacles. If you fail, roll Stability 14 or higher to avoid a rapid jump in Corruption. ]

Once cut down, the Beast seems to shiver out of reality, and a sense of clarity returns. The song dies out, and the view outside the windows is restored. There's no carcass, no way to tell whether the thing is gone for good... and it will manifest again, eventually, with the growing sound of singing. It can be fought and dispelled by multiple groups.