balance_logs | Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, Part 1

	Are there really no bananas on board this thing?
	NAVIGATION

1. FIRST, YOU DRAW A CIRCLE

Click here for the RNG thread!

A. IT'S TIME TO GET TO WORK

That certainly isn't to say that your previous efforts have not been hard work. But one half of this mission has been fine tuned, a logistical machine of well-oiled cogs, the creative efforts of a man who has so much to make up for.

After the three-hour journey across the sky, you and the three other Reclaimers you boarded the glass orb with will be deposited right in the dead center of Maru, where the Bureau has set up a small camp for gathering, sorting, and sending off supplies. It's chilly, but not unbearably so. The air is thin, but up here, it's probably the cleanest you've breathed anywhere else in Faerun — new and old Reclaimers alike.

Whatever goal you decide to work toward during your stay here, after a quick rundown of how supply gathering will work (it's pretty simple: You bring supplies, the unnamed Bureau members assigned to the base will send them off), you're turned loose to the gnarling wilds of the floating continent.

Because, as the header says, it's time to get to work.

And you most certainly haven't gone unnoticed.

2. USE YOUR PATH ACTIONS WISELY

B. ROWDY RUMBLE

Those of you who aren't quite combat ready might be getting something of an instant crash course in the art of a hostile encounter — though, perhaps in a bit of a lucky streak, goblins, like the pack of three of them that are leading the charge here, are, uh. Well, they're morons.

But these particular three see a bunch of humanoids flying in on what are very clearly cursed globes, and they see a bunch of humanoids wandering the lands and attempting to cash in on their treasure. They were here first, you know! Even if they don't entirely understand why the mine they were here first in isn't exactly on the ground anymore. Or where exactly they are to begin with now. Or ... well, frankly, nothing about any of this makes any sense.

Whether you're back at the base at the center of Maru, or whether you're out in the fields, toeing at the ground for hints of treasure underneath, you, and whoever you happen to be traveling with, will be approached by a rather bold trio. And whatever treasure you may have on your person? They're rather keen on taking it.

What will you do? Fight? Try to reason with them?

For those of you with the combat experience, there are, of course, much bigger fish to fry. Take a look at the YOLO's guide to monsters for a full list of the hostile critters you can challenge to a wrestle during your stay on Maru.

C. NIGHTLY WHISPERINGS

You've probably heard the rumors by now — the fact that nobody seems interested in going to the small lake and waterfall on Maru once nighttime rolls around. Seems pretty silly, right? Superstitious, even. It's a rather beautiful patch of the floating continent, and if your previous expeditions digging through the ground are any indicator, there's a wealth of valuable items to be had underneath the surface.

Hubris might lead you to camping out near the water's edge, for just one evening.

And sometime around midnight, provided that same hubris hasn't put you to sleep, the light of your campfire, or the light of the moon, suddenly extinguishes. It's like being wrapped up in a cloak of vantablack, in very nearly every single sense, not just sight. No rustling of leaves, no sound of the wind passing through every nook and cranny of the continent. No light. No nothing.

If you decide to book it out of there, be careful, lest you accidentally wander into the lake, without a clear sense of where exactly the exit is. But if you choose to hold steady, after about an hour, the silence and darkness clears — and the scenery returns to normal, as if nothing happened.

Something did happen, however. Whether you stayed there for just a moment, you sat through it, or you slept through it, if you were anywhere near the lake at midnight, you'll be subject to a nightly enchantment coming from an unknown source. You may pick one of the following:

○ The next time you are asked a question, whether it's what you had for dinner or whether you're all right, you will be magically forced to answer it truthfully. The effect wears off after one question.

○ When you speak, you'll hear yourself speaking normally. Everyone else will hear you either making an animal noise, or repeating a sentence you've said before, regardless of its relevance. That goes all the way back to your canon! The effect begins at sunrise, and lasts for three hours.

○ Whenever you try to leave, it feels as if your shoes are suddenly made with two tons of lead. You will not be able to move away normally. Someone's going to have to carry you out of there.

○ When the sun rises, you will be magically reduced to half your height. The effect lasts for five hours.

3. MINE CART MADNESS

D. I'M ABOUT TO LOSE MY MINE, UP IN HERE, UP IN HERE.

Eventually, you'll probably find yourself down in the mine's labyrinthine system of tunnels and networks that seem to sprawl out in nearly endless directions. Be careful when you turn corners, as there may be an Umber Hulk or a Basilisk waiting for you in the darkness, but as you look down, you do notice tracks that head in nearly every direction. Whoever had initially excavated this area was quite laborious and thorough with the pathing down in its deepest delves. One turn leans to another long corridor, and maybe another turn leads you back in a circle. Mining equipment can be found almost everywhere, left to rust and decay with the passage of time that could only indicate hundreds of years of being completely unbothered.

You step forward, and look to see a path that carves out into four directions- straight, left, right, and back.

And you quickly realize something doesn't feel right. That's true- as you begin to step forward and take a path, you find yourself back to where you started after walking for a little while. Turn back, and you might notice that you're in the exact place you just were as well. Maybe you brought some chalk with you, or maybe you managed to drop something here like a breadcrumb trail to tell you which way you've already headed. Or maybe you don't even notice it until you've been walking for hours, but you're stuck in a loop.

Of those four directions, you'll notice something peculiar if you start to take notice.

○ One direction will always lead you back to where you started.

○ If you listen close enough, down one hall you'll be able to hear the sound of a coastline, weak waves echoing and crashing against the shore. Follow that sound and you'll come to the source of it: a large standing pool of water that sits absolutely still, no tide. You can swim to the bottom of it, not a problem. There doesn't seem to be anything there. But the walls are bio-luminescent, coated with weird fungi that you definitely don't want to eat.

○ When you look on the ground, you can always find baby fire beetles at the mouth to one of the spokes. Follow those markings long enough and you'll inexplicably be sent back to the mine's entrance.

○ One direction is completely nondescript, but unlike the first one that sends you to the beginning of the maze, you enter a new area that doesn't hold any of the signs that you were there previously. You can follow this lead for several iterations, and eventually come to a four-way that has no features noticeable whatsoever: no beetles, no sound of rushing water. But you head down one of them and you're back to where you started.

E. I'LL FOLLOW BEHIND YOU ON RAINBOW ROAD.

Mind boggling puzzles aside, you're welcome to explore the depths of the Lost Mine of Phandelver. One of the more ridiculous, albeit, fun adventures you can take is a mine cart ride through the mine down to the farthest reaches. It starts off relatively bumpy and doesn't seem to smooth out at any given point, but it's the closest thing you're going to get to a roller coaster ride down here in Faerun. Reaching the end is a matter of waiting the cruise- and you eventually come to a dead end.

There's stuff you can mine down here as it empties out into a vast, damp cavern. Iron, several types of cheap gemstones, and rocks can be found pretty much anywhere. If you're looking to rebuild Vista Virs, this is a good place to start. If you're looking to make a little cash on the side, that's possible too. We're not here to judge your moral intentions.

Getting back isn't as fun as it was coming down here, as you're pretty much stuck pushing the cart back to where it was if you want to take things out. Don't worry about the logistics too much; there always seems to be a cart available for you to descend, and oddly enough, it never feels like it's the same journey down and back twice in a row.

F. BEEN HERE ALL NIGHT. BEEN HERE ALL DAY.

There are a few notable places to explore while you're down in Phandelver:

○ An administrative office, complete with desks that haven't been touched in years. Several papers are still there, with dates that go far and wide back into the past. Touching them causes it to disintegrate into dust. For anyone who makes it down there, there is a lockbox to be found that can be opened by smashing it on the ground or attempting to unlock it with thieves' tools. While the contents are up to you to decide, nothing in there should be magical beyond a simple potion of healing, aged... several centuries.

○ An old room that seems to be barred from the inside, about an hour's walk past the mine entrance. Outside, you can find several skeleton carcasses of humanoid creatures that have long since died down here. If you try to make it into the room by force, you'll be greeted with a barracks that once housed the dwarves who worked down here. You get the sense that a battle happened in these parts, but beyond that, it's kind of hard to tell what went down.

○ A large quarry with a practically neolithic drill in the center of it. It hasn't seen use in quite some time, but be careful as the drop can be upwards of 100 feet. Another prime locale for mining, this area seems to house sturdier metals. Hence, the drill being necessary. Be careful, this is prime Umber Hulk territory.

○ Various storerooms that housed supplies for the workers of the cavern. You'll find wine and spirits down in the depths, and who wouldn't want to try some 300 year old whiskey? The climate down here is particularly perfect for keeping and storing these rare and fine vittles. Drink up, it's on us.

○ One peculiar room that when you enter, you feel a chill sort of feeling take over your body. There's a bed in here, with a storage chest at the base of it. Attempting to open it or touch it or even having an intention to steal/uncover what's inside will cause you to hear incredibly powerful and loud screaming in your head, enough to make you clutch your ears and take psychic damage from it. Hm.

4. WILDCARD

The floating continent of Maru is your world to explore, and your story to write! You may use any of the prompts we've given you here, or you may come up with your own prompts — you can utilize any part of the setting provided in the OOC post.

If you'd like the outcome of a particular thread randomized, or if you'd like to investigate a particular part of the setting, feel free to drop a note in the RNG thread and we'll set up a roll for you.

As always, be amazing. You're two for two on reclaiming Grand Relics, and we can't wait to see what you do here.

blurb code by photosynthesis

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Qrow, being one of the few smart people in the Bureau, is a good pick here! We'll give you a DC of 11, with a modifier of +3, two for Qrow's two brain cells and one for his Hunstman tracking abilities.

We'll say that only a critical failure would mean losing the locket forever, though other failures mean it may be returned in need of various repairs. Sound good?

Once again Qrow finds himself unwillingly in possession of everyone's collective brain cells...

Let's roll!

It's a good thing Qrow has been holding onto the brain cells for everyone. You rolled an 18 without the modifier, which is pretty damn good!

It takes Qrow all of five minutes to locate the goblins who took Kaede's most prized possession — they are in a group by one of the many entrances to underground, literally holding an auction for it.

Well, it's more like one goblin is holding it high above his head while the other goblins just kind of yell. Nobody's talked to them about how the bidding process actually works. It would be incredibly easy to just walk right up and grab the locket and walk off unscathed. In fact, we wouldn't even ask for a roll for it.

However, this may also be an opportunity to try again with the goblins — maybe make them see the error of their thieving ways so it doesn't happen to anyone else again.

What will they do? Try to figure out the rules of a goblin auction, or just take back what's been stolen?

Kaede is going to do neither of those things... with some inspiring backup music from Minato, reaching a crescendo at the most dramatic part of her speech, she's going to try to convince the goblins that Stealing Is Wrong! It hurt her feelings to have something that means so much to her get stolen like that! If they really want shiny things, maybe they should try asking for them first, or trying to trade some of their own things!

So she'd like her locket back! If they still seem reluctant after the speech, she'll offer them all the snacks in her backpack (mostly Bender-created sweets like cookies and crepes) in exchange for the locket... she does still want to know any information they might have about their time on Maru, too, but getting her locket back is her first priority.

Since you already rolled a smashing success, we'll say that the snacks are enough to at least get the locket back — but we'll offer a DC of 9, with a +2 modifier because she just did the bardy thing with a rousing speech, to convince them to give them some intel/make them think twice about their evil looting ways.

Sound good?

That sounds good!

If the goblins demand a trade for the information, Minato is willing to trade his violin for it... Kaede will strongly oppose this but Minato is his own boy and apparently her bullying has limits!!

It is kind of wild the successes I have been dishing out lately. Congrats, you rolled a 12!

The goblins are successfully cowed into realizing that their thievery has been doing not only harm to others on Maru, but more importantly ... themselves. They are so ashamed. Kaede has such good debating and reasoning skills it's slightly unbelievable.

The DM will remember this! About 10 goblins have been Dangan minigame'd over to the Reclaimers' side.

In repentance, they will reveal to Kaede the location of a small chest deep within the mines. It has everything else they've stolen up to this point, but the items' actual values may be dubious.

*Danganronpa voice* Danganronpa

So about that chest, is there any way of determining the original owners/examples of what they might find? It's a little backwards to do an investigation followed by an argument followed by more investigation, but Kaede can roll (lol) with it.

Most of the stuff in that chest is trinkets and shinies, stolen from the good people of Phandalin. See, there was an outpost near the mine that got swallowed up when Maru became a floating continent- named the Cragmaw Hideout. That's where all the gerblins were living prior, and it's where they were amassing their stolen goods treasure. As it stands right now, the only thing in there that doesn't look quite up to par with the rest of the items in there is a weird glass sphere, no larger than a tennis ball.

When Kaede picks it up, she'll become that adage of the woman looking at mathematics in all directions, because literally in front of her will appear a number of runes that seem to have been magically inscribed into the soul of the crystal she holds in her hand. Each of the shapes are accentuated by pin point anchor dots, almost like they spurn forth images of constellations- but making them out? Seems damn near impossible to do.

You might have a hunch OOCly about what this is, but as for right now, it's probably better to return it to the Moon Base for further research.

Would the effect be the same if any other character held it? Because Minato is really the one who's interested in Treasure for keeping, Kaede's genuinely more concerned about figuring out how to get the chest back to Phandalin, if at all possible.

Yep! It's the same for anyone who picks it up.

Beautiful, arcane runes that look like picaresque constellations.

Neat!!

I like how yall give me enough credit to think I have the faintest idea what this means.

Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, Part 1

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