[1] overview
[2] new players and characters
[3] plotline // the wildcard network
[4] plotline // offline (aeonis)
[5] simulation summary // eclipsed
[6] plotline summary // story
[7] plotline summary // time table
[8] contest results



[1] overview

First of all, sorry for the nearly four day delay. Ideally, that'll never happen again. I managed to brick-wall myself with assignments - in the end, none of them got done until I decided not to care today.

As usual, we have tl;dr versions of this newsletter and the long, detailed run for those of you who want to know everything (hi, Moons!). This time, however, the summaries are split into two sections because even those are a little lengthy.

The simulation summary focusses on the way the simulation works, the background mythology involved, thus explaining much of the terminology - whereas the plotline summary leaves almost all the terminology away and instead strips it down to the barebones of what has actually happened.

Within that, story is a text/blurb variant, the time table on the other hand is more for dates and the chronological relation of events.

If you've been playing in Eclipsed at all, I recommend you skip the simulation summary and just read the plotline summary of your choice.



[2] new players and characters

Moons has a new NPC at his hands called Andrew Grey, who so happens to be Dread's psychologist. I badgered him for this long enough that he caved to my demands. I mean. Uh. He's enjoying himself immensely.

Beyond that, we have had no new character introductions. This tells me it's time for: Using this section as intended next time! Basically, in future newsletters, I'll be keeping track of new sign-ups and created characters, whether they've been roleplayed or not.

That way people can keep an eye out for new additions they'd like to connect their own characters with.



[3] plotline // the wildcard network

The end of Necropolis was drawn out due to Elizabeth's care for the two vanished Citizens - Patches and Frederick - which rooted the Citizens in place in and near the Necropolis Tower while they gave them the opportunity to - and waited for them to - come to their senses and head to the Tower. No such thing happened. Instead, Dread had to appear to Elizabeth, once more directing her to Frederick's whereabouts [#027]. She found the two (3rd of April) and brought them back [#028].

On the 4th of April, the Citizens completed the Necropolis puzzle and ended up in Eclipsed, a sim that on first inspection simply seemed like a complex structure of caverns. Exploration soon yielded a shred of civilisation, though, and the revelation of the simulation's deep mythological basis by a dracoraptor going by Avik [#029].

Avik explains to them that their world, generally populated by scaleys of all sorts, lives underground because 'there is no surface'. The culture obtains its light primarily from 'sun stones', by ways of mythology fragments of their destroyed sun, which seem to be in peril depending on whom you ask (Avik was convinced of this, but no subsequent inhabitant seems to think much of the occasional dead sunstone). Adrethyrian is mentioned as a Demon God, who apparently ate the sun; as well as the whole civilisation. In that, the cavern system, by rights of mythology, are Adrethyrian's innards.

The lack of belief in the surface does not stop Avik from abruptly changing her mind one night, and ushering the Citizens to start a trek up through the cavern system. This is when the Citizens begin their travels. Avik keeps them updated on the names of the different caverns - or 'layers' - which all contain one larger sunstone that is protected and worshipped by a guardian or priest, much like Avik guarded the Dusk stone at the bottom level.

In the third level, 'Moon', a creature manifests itself out of nowhere and is swift to kill Avik [#031 and #032]. It becomes clear rather quickly that it is the mythical Adrethyrian. It is Sirena who realises that the sunstone he holds in his muzzle - previously on Avik's staff - is precious to him because he is metaphysically attached to it at that point in time. With that crucial clue spoken, Noko, Rapture and Patches manage to wrestle the stone from Adrethyrian and shatter it, dispelling that avatar. Avik, however, remains quite dead.

The citizens track back a few hundred metres to Moon's grand sun stone, and pick up Tathun, its guardian, as their new guide through the cavern system. While it's mostly straight forward, Avik's proven her use in the past by making them not explore dead ends - Tathun proves equally useful, even if his personality is vastly different. Where Avik was mostly introverted, slightly bristly, but overall helpful (even if not always immediately verbally informative), Tathun is more social but seems to be a smidgeon insane, in that he's quick to get agitated and refuses to consider any other viewpoint to the point of seeming utterly oblivious.

A second combat encounter with Adrethyrian, thankfully without any casualties and not even scratches of note - through a collaborative feat of skill and luck, keeping in mind what they'd learnt during their previous encounter - occurs in the section between the very populated 'Dust' and the agricultural 'Seed'. Both of these encounters bother Sirena something fierce, especially the one with Avik, where she was confronted with death online. Of course, Avik is a Puppet, not a Citizen, but it hasn't lessened the impact, and Sirena's been jittery ever since.

In 'Spore', while away from the group, exploring, Frederick encounters Adrethyrian by himself. In a twist of events, instead of trying to kill the boy for his previous close involvement in combat and general level of caused trouble for the Demon God, Adrethyrian begins a conversation. It turns out Adrethyrian does not speak English, forcing the two to converse in pictograms on the soft ground. [#033] It turns out that the deity no longer wishes to fight them, giving them the chance to change their quest from 'reaching the surface' (which he seems quite afraid of, though only by implication) to 'finding a means to save the sunstones'.

Frederick returns to the group with information on the conversation [#034] and is met largely with incredulity, fostered in particular by Byelobog and Tathun, former on basis of practicality - believing it easier to head up to the surface than to get sidetracked now, and that both are without a doubt a solution to the simulation - latter on basis of gross mistrust for what is in essence the devil of their mythology. Disgruntled, Frederick leaves the group.

Despite Elizabeth's protests, no one heads off to see Frederick back to the group. The threat of Adrethyrian is seen as too large for a small group of any size to wander off on their own, and no one feels like squandering time (again, especially due to Adrethyrian).

On the 18th of April, while taking a rest in the connecting caverns and paths between 'Crystal' and 'Fire', the group is stumbled across by Rasim, who had actually entered the simulation before them, but was then passed while they meandered through one of the populated layers, only to by chance catch up to them in that particular narrow. Elizabeth, of course, is delighted that another familiar face from Darkscape has found its way back to the main group - but on the other hand, the lack of MekkaByte, whom Rasim informs went separate ways, as well as (obviously) the persisting lack of Frederick since Tathun perceivedly ran him off, dull the enthusiasm somewhat.


[4] plotline // offline (aeonis)

Aeonis is mostly waiting with baited breath for the phenomenom to reoccur. They've contacted other ISPs by now, making them tentatively aware of the issue and how it seems to be quite indiscriminate in who's customers it hits.

While the rivalry between Monsoon and Aeonis remains unbroken, their respective research teams are by now quite close and files flow freely between these two ISPs in that particular regard, though it took some convincing from Teo to get there.

Unfortunately, theories are yet to be formed, last but not least because the batch entrapment seems to be less absolute, with a connection from Scandinavia having been tracked down to the Omdahl family, which to Teo and his crew reeks like the Britannia case.

Due to his reclusion, no one's aware of Joshua Bergström's case. The formal body count is thus still at one (Michael Andreas).



[5] simulation summary // eclipsed

Eclipsed is a heavily mythological simulation populated with dragons, raptorians, and all kinds of in-between scalies, such as dracoraptors, gargoyle-esque monsters, and Adrethyrian, who's something of his own thing.

According to mythology, Adrethyrian ate the sun and swallowed civilisation, forever banning them to the caverns. Commonly, the inhabitants of the simulation simply believe there is no surface, excepting those taking the mythology entirely literally.

He's manifested himself corporeally and killed the group's first guide, Avik. They were fortunately quick to find out that he tends to link to a sunstone, which when shattered destroys that avatar. A second combat situation resulted a while later, but they bested that with nary a scratch, though with difficulty.

According to Frederick, short of some issue with Avik, all the 'Demon God' wants is them to change their course from looking for the surface as they are now to looking for a cure for the dying sunstones.

Sunstones? They're luminescent stones claimed by the inhabitants of the sim to be living creatures. The Citizens have seen some of the smaller ones having evidently expired, but until Frederick mentioned they needed a cure hadn't even considered it anything unnatural. (The inhabitants seem to concur that it's natural; or at least nothing they can fix.)



[6] plotline summary // story

Online, after linking in from Necropolis - aside from beginning a trek up through the cavern system from the lowest reaches of it to what the Citizens hope is near the surface - the most notable events are the demon god Adrethyrian killing their first guide (Avik) [09 APR, #031 and #032], a later combat encounter while they were between two levels (dubbed 'Dust' and 'Seed' respectively by their new guide, Tathun), and Frederick's apparently encounter with him, after which he stormed off by his own.

Consensus is that Frederick is not as insane as Tathun makes him out to be (the priest/guide had explained Frederick had had hallucinations due to accidentally ingesting what he called 'Vision Mushrooms'), but that despite the validity of the other quest, the faster way out of the sim is without a doubt the way to the surface. No serious attempts have been made to recover Frederick as a team member.

Offline, only subtle changes are to be noted, none of which deserve mention in this section.



[7] plotline summary // time table

Note: This time table strives for completion, but most days are just a progress update on the trek of the Citizens, so this looks longer than it is.

APR 02: Patches and Frederick notwithstanding, people are in the Necropolis Tower
APR 03: Dread appears to Elizabeth in the Necropolis tower and shows her the way to the where Frederick and Patches are. She grabs a hold of them and brings them back.
APR 04: People link into Eclipsed.
APR 05: Avik, having taken them in, explains the basic mythology of Eclipsed. (See simulation summary, first two paragraphs). They suggest looking for the surface. She remarks that it's silly, since such a thing doesn't exist.
APR 06: In the middle of the night, Avik wakes them and ushers them to begin their trek.
APR 07: The group passes through 'Dark'.
APR 08: The group reaches the beginnings of 'Moon'.
APR 09: In 'Moon', Adrethyrian is encountered for the first time and Avik killed. The Citizens, beyond now being able to recognise him, make the connection of him being attached to a sunstone in close vicinity, and that destroying the sunstone destroys that temporary avatar of his. After combat, Tathun joins the group as the new guide.
APR 10: The group passes through 'Star'.
APR 11: The group passes through 'Dust', a populated layer.
APR 12: At the starting edge of 'Seed', the group encounters Adrethyrian a second time and master the fight with nary a scratch; though it's not easy.
APR 13: The group passes through 'Seed'.
APR 14: With the group in 'Spore', Adrethyrian and Noko have a talk. As Frederick returns to explain the Demon God's motives, Tathun discredits Frederick and he scoots off.
APR 15: The group passes through 'Cinnamon', another populated layer.
APR 16: The group passes through 'Dawn'.
APR 17: The group passes through 'Crystal'.
APR 18: The group begins to enter 'Fire' and meets up with Rasim, much to Elizabeth's surprise. It turns out he and MekkaByte parted ways and he ended up in Eclipsed a notch before them, but was overtaken on April 16th unbeknownst to both sides of the equation, only to catch up with them by luck on this day.



[8] contest results

Since the entirety of three people partook, they're all getting pictures from me; but it's Moons who wins the main prize with his so-far unnamed simulation, simply because he's bothered to weave a perfectly unique idea in astonishing detail even just in the sketchy variant of the sim I have.

Congratulations, Moons!

All participants should poke me for what they'd like their picture to be. Moons, you get to force me at gunpoint to make a character and play them as you wish, for whatever plotline you fancy.