march event ooc

[hohnkai]

E V E N T O O C

Since the Moira has arrived on Ceta, things have been (mostly) quiet considering their usual stay on planets before it. The only cruelty about this one is the fact they hunt for both sport and gain, and the creatures of Ceta do not have a voice—or intelligence to defend themselves. However, as the crew of the ship will come to learn, this is an elaborate lie. With the previous problem of the MID malfunctioning, and causing a bit of a miscommunication fiasco, finally solved, it is apparent that whatever had been wrong with this technology had slowly begun to affect the crew prior to exploring Ceta. Only in subtle, unnoticed ways. With everything beginning to run a little more smoothly, a shift in the air overtakes both the Moira and Ceta in the days following. As the translator technology has recently been fixed, the crew will notice that their MID devices now come with an extra feature: a brief explanation of the extra capabilities of the translation technology. Each MID records all language that is spoken near it, stores information on phonetics and linguistics in order to keep each language as current as possible. In the event that an unknown language is encountered, all known languages are applied until the meanings of each sound or word are decoded. In some instances, it’s a long process, and in others, it spans the time of a few weeks. There is a small addendum that states that no conversations are recorded and stored in their entirety in order to protect privacy. Crew may ask themselves why this is there, but all they have to do is get close enough to one of the flying, whale-like creatures to find out. Communication is still not quite perfect, and this is where the translator technology needs the crew’s help. The more two beings interact using speech, the further the database will expand. Attempting communication might be futile at first, but eventually, the low peaceful songs filling the misty air of Ceta are broken with words: a cry for help When the creatures have come close to the temporaries before, it was not out of curiosity; it was an attempt to destroy them and save themselves. But remember, even if you want to help, these creatures are skittish around sudden light and it takes time for them to trust, time the Moira might not have. ( 03.17 - 03.22 ) It’s common knowledge that this universe runs on a system of trade for either goods or services. If you can provide either of those to another, then you can have anything you want. This includes protection. The closest neighboring planet, like so many others, has a variety of groups that can be hired out to perform a number of duties. In an effort to offer the crew peaceful resolution for something that they’ve learned is discomfiting to many Moirans, the hunting and killing of innocent creatures on Ceta, the captains suggest something a little different this time. Contact and an initial payment has been made to a team of soldiers to travel to Ceta to meet with the crew. Essentially, if enough valuable resources are offered to this group, they will do whatever is necessary to rid Ceta of the hunters and declare that Ceta is a protected planet. This means that they will protect these giant creatures from future harm as long as a yearly sum is delivered to them. The captains agree to continue payment as long as the rest of the crew can gather enough for the first year. ( 03.22 - 03.25 ) With everything finally coming to a peaceful close, the Moira and the crew’s routine begin to return to normal. The process for leaving Ceta is spread ship-wide. However, as they leave Ceta’s atmosphere and enter space once more, some odd things appear to have flooded the ship. An infestation of scraplets have led to minor complications that soon start to escalate. Feeding exclusively on metal, they make a mangled mess of the ship's systems, causing them to glitch and stop working altogether as they chew their way through its internal workings. You may notice your door will no longer open or close, or maybe the temperature has gotten unusually warm. Is that a leak? How did that get there? Maybe you happen to be made of metal yourself, or have metallic prosthetics - "living" metal is actually preferred over the walls of the ship. The infestation will start to threaten critical systems if left unchecked and will need to be taken care of as quickly as possible. It is the crew’s responsibility to band together and figure out a way to stop these scraplets from devouring the entirety of the ship and leaving them stranded or worse. ( 03.25 - 03.31 ) For more info (and sign-ups) about this last part of the plot, please go HERE.

Comments

Questions/Comments

[hohnkai]

[bloodbinds]

What sort of items are these people looking for? Do they value machinery over magical items, for example?

[hohnkai]

There are no particular items they deem valuable over another. If someone has it, then it's safe to assume that they want it and will make a deal for it.

[songoftime]

Would the whales react differently to music being played at/for them? :|a Or would they show no real interest?

[hohnkai]

Some of the whales might not show any interest, but others would be very drawn to music as it is a way to comfort themselves and each other. There is also the potential of them getting closer to the one playing the music to listen and/or sing back.

[alan_1]

How sentient ARE the whales? Are they on the level of intelligent and emotive species like chimps and elephants or are they fully sentient on the level of humans?

[hohnkai]

The whales are as sentient as humans are. Communicating the first few days might be strange as the MIDs pickup, but it'll be easy for characters to see how intelligent they are.

Re: Questions/Comments

[niffin]

If asked (assuming sufficient communication levels are reached), will the whales explain why they keep returning through Ceta?

[hohnkai]

If they can be understood fully (or even partially), the whales would only be able to explain that the hunters want them for something that they obviously have, which is unknown to them. As they only witness the killing process and not the actual deconstruction of their friends/family, it would be very difficult for them to know why.

Re: Questions/Comments

[skatebird]

So waiting for the mercenaries is all well and good, but there's still the risk of more of the cool whales dying in the meantime.

First, how violently and how many can things be expected to explode if sparks are set off?

Second, how much will Yata be able to learn about the above, either by reading or asking among the hunters and Moria NPCs?

And third, how heavily guarded are the hunters' ships when they're docked?

[hohnkai]

1). That atmosphere is extremely flammable, so a spark will start a fire that carries on the air until it is put out or finds something to burn. Like a building, etc.

2). If they ask about the flammability, the hunters would tell them that it's extremely dangerous. It would be the one thing that they would actively try to stop someone from doing, hence all the signs and warnings. If something catches fire, then anyone could get hurt, and they wouldn't want that.

3). Each ship is guarded differently. Some leave their stuff with a single person standing watch, and some have groups/patrols, etc. You can decide what kind of protection the hunter's ship would have that your character comes across.

[petridish]

Is there metal in the MIDs for the scraplets to go for?

[hohnkai]

The metal in the MIDs won't attract the scraplets, so those are safe from them!

Re: Questions/Comments

[imaginary_wife]

Would it be possible for Doc Yewll to abscond with some of the substance taken from the whales from one of the hunting ships at some point so she could investigate it on the ship?

She wants to know more about this stuff and what it actually does.

[hohnkai]

Definitely! Characters can steal/trade for the substance however they see fit.

I'm sorry

[aminerproblem]

So what would happen if two of the robots accidentally got swallowed by a whale after getting too close. Would they find anything in there or?

[hohnkai]

The whale digestive system, probably. This, no I'm kidding it'd be like this, it is the inside of a whale beware, which is almost the same thing actually. If they went deep enough, they'd get to the air sacs that create the substance, but they'd have to hurt the whale if they wanted it.

[daintylegs]

grandpa no

[breakin_ur_lore]

What will the hunters say if they are told about the whales' sentience? Were they aware of all this and just didn't care, or were they under the impression that they were just animals?

[hohnkai]

They would explain that it simply wasn't any of their business. If any of them had heard that they weren't typical animals, they ignored it. They are trying to survive, by offering their 'muscle' for a good price. It doesn't leave them a lot of time to do work for free, like protecting the whales. However, they weren't aware of the whale's sentience. The universe is large, and they aren't from this area originally.

[hyperkinesia]

Bruce will be working on devices that would be placed onto the surface of the planet, and once activated, could create a barrier/shield around the planet. This would probably involve like five or six different machines that would link together across the planet, and would make it impossible for anyone to dock onto the planet or come down to the surface. They still can pay the mercenaries to keep an eye on the planet, but they can do so from afar. If they don't manage to gather the necessary payment, this could be a potentially permanent solution to keeping the whales safe.

Let me know if it would be alright for Bruce to get a group of people to work on this? If not, I can definitely handwave they they just didn't manage to finish the devices on time. If yes, I could have Bruce drag in more people to help with the project, and contact the science officers on board so the muns can assume they've been working on this since they started hearing the whales (possibly a little earlier), and we can handwave that the devices are finished, placed on the planet and activated just as they're getting ready to leave.

Re: Questions/Comments

[hellsbel]

Can the valuable whale mineral be replicated synthetically? (If so, could the hunters switch to those methods, or would they be prohibitively expensive/complex/advanced/the hunters just like to hunt?)

Are the hunters individuals under contract or a cohesive group in their own right? Do they have a personal stake in the hunting lifestyle, or is it all about the bounty?

Would the crew have opportunities to discuss the items that have been accepted for trade so they'd know what of their own items to offer, or would all the items be assessed at the same time and accepted or rejected then?

Will the crew have direct contact with the mercs or is all contact happening via the captains?

[needsnoface]

In regards to the scraplets, how much can BB get away in 'hitting the panic button' ie setting off alarms in system and hijacking public notifications to send coordinates of swarms.

Re: Questions/Comments

[warandpeace]

Late on the draw, but some people are going to be scoping the hunters for intel. Things like how many there are, if they have weapons that would be risky in the atmosphere, what sort of defense/surveillance tech they have.

While I know it's not a plan for the Moira merc squad to officially move on anything, but can we get some intel gathered up?

[keelahselai]

sliding in way late since this just came up in a thread:

Tali's just been asked if she has shutdown codes for the engines and life support to try to reduce damage from the Scraplets. I'm right in assuming she wouldn't have any such thing, right?

Or that if she did, it would be like...a Star Trek-style multi-part code with the captains having the other codes? Basically, she totally can't shut the engines down herself, I just want to make sure about it haha