balance_logs

Over the last month, the Reclaimers have been trying to investigate and uncover the odd and peculiar power that the Lamp of Unwinding has. You've all come to a town secluded intentionally by the mountains and snow that cover the region of Thay, and have met the best and brightest witch and wizard students the world has to offer. But this town, as you've come to learn, was in a state that can only be defined by the goddess of fate herself- as "time sick." The same set of hours, looped, every single day for the past several years.

You met the Council of Thay: Rainer, Casariel, Gromph and Onerion. They run the affairs of town and are deeply invested in the school's success, each holding several professorial positions to help mold the great thinkers of tomorrow. Each had their own set of personal problems to face, and a long history of deeply troubled pasts. Rainer, the great-granddaughter of the first Headmaster of Boarbumps, had to live up to the expectations her lineage offered. Casariel, a woman who intentionally wormed her way into the school grounds to further her sinister plans, had to weight the conflict of her every day life that she had built and reconcile them with her mission goal. Gromph, an archmagus who summoned demons into the world, sought redemption for the horrible atrocities he committed in the Underdark. And Onerion, an Aasimar who had lost his wings at some point, clung to order and regulation to make sense of a world that once shunned him from existence.

It was relatively quickly discovered that Rainer was the one with the Lamp of Unwinding, the events of which were fated once by the unfortunately all-knowing wizard Karsus. It had been handed down to her through generations past, with the sole intent of ensuring that, when the time came, the Reclaimers would come to town and stop something grave from happening.

Casariel waged a war, fueled on by centuries of hatred and contempt, and made her way to the Wellspring of Magic, deep below the city of Thay. There, she worked her dark powers to twist the intention of the Source of Magic, binding herself to it as a failsafe should anything come to pass that proved... difficulty in her goal. See, Casariel is an ancient being from a lost civilization that wants to see the world burn. Her kind had seen the face of the Hunger, and had worked to bring it ever closer to this plane of existence. Casariel's job was to wave the carrot stick in front of its mouth, to be the harbinger of the Apocalypse and ensure revenge for everyone that had done her wrong.

Which presented an interesting conundrum. Rainer, knowing Casariel was tied to the Wellspring of Magic, was forced to make a choice between letting magic die or letting her go through with her plan to welcome the end of days. An optimist, and someone who poured her heart into the town of Thay, the students she watched over in her career as Headmistress and eventually Regent of the High Council, she believed a middle path to exist.

The Reclaimers, with the aid of several godly blessings, went down to Wellspring of Magic to end this conflict once and for all. Upon arriving, they prepared to battle with an ancient black dragon who had been put there to protect the Wellspring, now under the thrall of the callous Casariel. And from here, everything cascaded downward. The relic was destroyed in the skrimish, the dragon escaped to an unknown fate, and as it turned out, the only way to defeat Casariel was to end her life. And with it, comes the eventual reckoning event that Rainer worked so hard to stop.

The death of all magic in Faerun.

Where do we pick up the pieces? How do we fight against The Hunger without the ability to do so? The Reclaimers head home with a lot on their minds, despondent over the conclusion of this mission. But all is not lost. Yes, it's a setback, but the Bureau of Balance will have to be more resilient than ever to the threat that they face. The threat of this world and every world after depends on them, and now- more than ever, they need each other.

Because the Hunger's here. And it's slowly eating away the Celestial plane.

A. THIS SEEMS SPOOKY

You may remember the band of skeletons Rainer has been using as a cleanup crew for Thay — and you may remember that around 6 p.m. every loop, on the dot, they all suddenly froze in place.

For those of you who are outside, as your fellow Reclaimers attempt to put an end to the Lamp of Unwinding's influence, the first signs that the bubble you've all been trapped in is on the brink of popping suddenly lurch back to life.

Indeed, these once helpful bones, not quite so much under Rainer's necromancy now as they are utterly consumed by it turn hostile, mimicking the movements of a master underground, fighting with everything in their power.

Thay's surface dissolves into chaos once again.

It's up to you to return the skeletons to a rest they once enjoyed.




B. LURCHING FORWARD

And then, just like that, Thay breaks through to 8 p.m. and beyond, the first time it's reached these particular nighttime moments in nearly a decade.

But you see, that's actually a problem in itself.

With the Lamp of Unwinding destroyed, with at least some of Rainer's goals accomplished, replaced with an even worse outcome, within the boundaries of the town exists an anomaly in the flow of time that Istus is finally able to frog, and stitch back together properly.

You Reclaimers, who are something of an anomaly yourselves, enough so that the gods themselves have reached to you, nudged you forward in your attempts to destroy the Hunger, will be able to watch, unaffected, as a time bubble corrects itself to the tune of about six or seven years, in real-time.

In a single split second, the town of Thay, and the inhabitants who were trapped inside from the beginning, age six to seven years. Trees sprout from nothing. Stone buildings, meticulously maintained, suddenly lean, on the verge of crumbling, as if they'd been abandoned for a decade. An overgrown field of flowers bloom where a tidy row of shrines once stood. Residents find themselves suddenly seven years older, inexplicably.

The Lamp of Unwinding has long been considered one of the most dangerous Grand Relics in the set. These are the consequences, this is what has to happen, to correct the damage that messing with the flow of time itself has done.



C. CLEANUP

The Lamp of Unwinding has been destroyed. Casariel is dead. The dragon she was trying to control escaped, ultimately sparing the town of Thay from destruction — at least dragon destruction.

But considering the price you all paid for it, it's difficult to call any of this a success.

In the moments after Thay is returned to the correct point in time, the Bureau of Balance — they were, you're now learning, camping a few leagues away, waiting for the time bubble to finally burst — immediately move in.

Lucretia, Dr. Tank and several assistants are among the travel party, here to tend to the wounded and offer counsel to the Red Mages, to assess their next steps. Thay has lived, but it has lost the magic, quite literally, that so heavily defined it. Without anything to study, and several years of living to make up for, the students of Boarbumps begin to pack their things and leave.

The air is tense. A sense of foreboding looms in the atmosphere itself, as the implications of what's just happened sink in. Nobody immediately blames you for this, of course, but as the hours move forward as intended, Thay's way of life grinds to a halt. There will be a lot of soul-searching to be done in the months and years ahead. It will not be easy.

And then there's you. Without healing magic to patch yourself up instantly, some of you may not be fit to travel for a day or two. The usual orbs that zip you back and forth between locations around Faerun have ceased to function, but those of you desperate to leave immediately will find carriages to take you home, under bright blue skies that don't seem to even realize what's happened on the surface.

Time always moves forward. Regardless of when you depart Thay, you will eventually.



D. WELCOME HOME ...?

New New Aspen, as you may recall, sits directly below the Moon Base. Next to it stands a tree. A Candlenights tree where, an entire year ago, the Reclaimers' very first mission took place — a Candlenights tree that had been, through the magic of the Space Mittens Grand Relic, grown to absolutely outrageous proportions, stretching almost to the Moon Base itself.

And, uh.

Weirdly. That giant tree is still there, giant and festive as ever.

That's not what the residents of New New Aspen find weird, however.

What's actually weird is the entire freaking Moon Base that appears to have gently-but-not-so-gently landed in the expansive field next to town. The loss of magic was enough to knock the base ever so slightly out of orbit, and, well, it went in a logical direction.

As you settle down, you can hear the panicked yelling of a certain completely panicking scientist who may or may not be named Lucas, and the laughter of his technomancer pal, who may or may not go by Miss Zarves:

"I can't believe I had to do that — I can't believe I did that!!!"

"Dude, you landed that better than a gymnastics meet!"



At least some things never change.

Reclaimers, welcome home. The base is intact and will keep you safe now and through the next Interlude.

We've seen and heard some voiced concerns about what to do with magic no longer an option currently. While we understand that this plot event has created a major difficulty for many characters, we want to take a moment and- first of all, thank you for bearing with us.

As this DWRP is highly experimental, we knew that there would be two possible outcomes to this mission. We've prepared for both, and want to assure you that the gears are in place to lead us to end game conditions. With any epic story, there's bound to be hills and valleys that come up in the plot along the way. While this dramatically does change the landscape of the game in the immediate, please rest assured that we have planned out where things are heading. Over the past year we've all written something spectacular together, and this particular point is no different. We honestly think that the upcoming mission and what's in store for you all will be something truly memorable. Remember, this game has always been founded on the idea that character choices and IC mechanics will shape the world and the direction the plot is heading in. And we're seeing that take shape right now, as we speak.

Those of you who have characters that run on magical energy to sustain themselves will still be able to participate- we've baked in something that we plan to share with those individuals in the upcoming few days. Those of you who are worried that your characters will be useless or face severe CR regression from here on out, fear not. The current state of the world is not permanent, nor is it intended to last through to end game.

We will get there. And you're all going to be amazing.

A few very important things we want to note here:

○ Your path actions, abilities and magic items are not gone. To pull back the curtain slightly, and without giving away upcoming plot details, you will be able to use them normally again for the next field mission. One of the major objectives of which will be to return magic to Faerun. These are pretty dire circumstances! But Lucretia seems confident that this will be fixed, and she will happily sit down with and reassure anybody who needs it.

○ To that end, if you participated in the CTA, you can roll for a new gacha item. It just will not function until the next mission.

○ Everything in the Moon Base is intact. That includes simulutions — they are not magic-based, but built on very advanced technology. The only exception at this point are the magic effects of Bender's food.

○ The people of New New Aspen will welcome you into their fold once again, and we will include a few prompts with them in the Interlude. They are not nearly as reliant on magic as the rest of Faerun might be — and they're kind of used to all the weird things you tend to bring with you at this point.

Additionally, we will be accepting re-apps for previously dropped characters who would like to join us for the final mission/game ending! More details on that soon.

A. CRESCENDO; FINALE

The beauty of the sentient mind is that hope is hard to kill. Even living in illusion for so long, the Bureau of Balance as a whole believed to the end that a happy ending was possible in Wonderland. That's a good thing, even if an unrealistic dream. Without that vision, that hope, there's no way to succeed. You all know that, don't you?

You knew it when you went back into the tree to save absolutely anyone that you could. Strangers some of them. Strangers most of them. It didn't matter. There's a happy ending to this story; everyone believed in it as surely as they carried out the innocent, as surely as they carried out each other.

You knew it when you got crafty with needle and thread, trying to reassemble the cruel joke Wonderland made with those who lost their way and fell into debt. Nine bodies are saved — including Henrik's, Henrik whose soul is reattached to his body, Henrik whose shaking arms can finally reach out to hold his son.

You knew it when you spoke to a dying Yggdrasil, Maya taking in the suffering and sickness of its years, listening with an open heart until, suddenly, as the tree's consciousness began to collapse, she was taken Somewhere Else. To speak with a man in a sharp suit with places to be. Things to do. Planar systems to devour. You know how it is. A poisoned arrow to Yggdrasil's open wound brought it down for good, leaving Shuichi to hurriedly plant the new Golden Leaf for a new World Tree; leaving Sayori and Angus McDonald to pick up the pieces of their dazed comrades.

You knew it when you tricked the Mirror Maze into glitching apart, giving it quite simply too much to keep track of. The fact that you found a helper along the way certainly didn't hurt, but let's face it: this was genius. The reward is Niel, crystallized, encasing the Compact. Suffering, as he has been for a very long time.

You knew it when three warlocks and a very angry wizard embarked on an ultimately suicidal mission, which just goes to show that the best-laid plans of mice and men sometimes lead to a 50% vore rate. A desperate attempt to keep Adrian distracted for long enough that the Compact could be retrieved was only able to delay him in the end. Just because success is possible doesn't make it guaranteed. Sometimes a fight with the villain ends in stalemate.

Sometimes a fight with the villain isn't a fight at all. Sometimes it's an outstretched hand (or two, or four), and sacrifices from each member of the party, and pain, and . . . self-awareness. Sometimes the villain just wants to let go. Sometimes there are happy endings, but this time Niel — fused into the Tree itself, his life tied up in the dying Yggdrasil, extended by the Compact — just wants it to stop. He doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore.

His friends are holding his hands as they take the Compact and make it stop.

This isn't a happy ending. But that isn't your fault. Hope for a happy ending has, quite literally, saved the world.

The nightmare is over. Wonderland slips away.

B. THE PEOPLE

And as suddenly as the myriad indulgences of Wonderland went to ... well, complete shit, there's something of a metaphorical blink of light. Those who were meant to be dead are - both your fellow Reclaimers and the Rolands who could not be fixed in time - but there is still many that are saved. Injuries knot back together at the slightest curative magic. Smog and negativity vanish like they never were, taking the last shambling monsters away with it. The souls of Shadowdale that you have returned to their respective bodies have a new life to forge. Things can be fixed.

If only it were that easy.

Shadowdale, for all intents and purposes, is uninhabitable. For the first time since the Bureau's mission began, an entire city population has lost its home, and must move on. No matter how much blame you may place on yourself for the way things turned out, whether it's guilt or hope that drives you forward, time, and the cycle of life itself, spins onward. And the people who live march on.

To New New Aspen.

Matthew has promised to bring the survivors of Shadowdale to his home, to give them a new chance. You have a couple of options here, if you would like to help them. You may serve as guard, helping escort the people of Shadowdale to New New Aspen. Super convenient for you, since it's right by the Moon Base! You may help them build and settle.

The people of New New Aspen, only months away from Candlenights, are hard at work carving their annual ornaments. You may help the new residents acclimate - whether it's helping them work the fields, start a business, or take part in their new home's most coveted tradition. And you'll have a new ornament to bring home with you, too.

C. THE FOREST

The deadened woods you traveled through to reach Shadowdale at the beginning of this mission seem somehow even more silent, cloaked in demise, than when you first stepped in it. The madness is gone, replaced with double the silence, a stillness like nothing you've ever experienced before. It's almost as if your senses, save for however you perceive the light of the sun, are gone.

At least, until someone speaks to you. A wood elf - he doesn't give you his name, but he does identify himself as someone who was trapped. Someone who, through your efforts to restore the Rolands, you gave life to again.

And he does have a request for you.

"This place has little hope for revival," he says, sniffing slightly, taking in the silence around you both. "At least, it has little hope in your lifetime.

But I do have something to ask of you. Give this place life, the way you did for the people here. Even if you, or even I, for that matter, will never likely live long enough to see it."

That's sort of an existential way of asking you to do some hardcore landscaping. But you will be provided with seeds of all sorts, and you will have the opportunity to plant them as you see fit. If you would like to build a shrine, or remember those who lost their lives here in some other way, you are free to do that as well.

There's something else curious, though: literally anything you plant, regardless of what it is, will eventually produce a viable bud sprouting from the gray, dry soil.

What does that even mean? If you plant a book of poems, are you going to get a poetree?

Are you even going to live long enough to see it in full bloom?

D. THE EXHAUSTION

You might not be on Lucretia levels of exhausted (she is, remember, zonked, and will remain so all the way back to the Moon Base and beyond for a while), but this has not been an easy mission for anyone who dared to test this Grand Relic's powers.

Whether you return from New New Aspen, or whether you finally catch a ride back to the Moon Base from the forest, you are now free to return home. This is your welcome home wildcard, a chance for you to try to recuperate, address anything at all before the next Lunar Interlude begins.

You will find that the Moon Base has an awfully somber feel to it, from the inner members of the Bureau to the people serving the Reclaimers in the town. Word is starting to trickle in on what you all went through.

A. A CRASH BETWEEN TWO FERNS

Lucretia has given the orders and locale for the next Grand Relic to be reclaimed and destroyed, a task that will present itself with many new and weird dangers that the Reclaimers haven't come across before. For anyone looking to brush up on their history of Myth Drannor, the Netheril, and the forest of Cormanthor, some of you have already learned a great deal of what occurred here, in bits and pieces. Leon, the Artificer of the Bureau of Balance, had described the tale of a very unfortunate city facing a major energy crisis that was bleeding out the land. You've already met the culprit behind one of the worst decisions humanity has ever made (Spoiler: it's Karsus, a god-tier shit wizard who sacrificed himself to get some of you out of dodge back in Lyrabar), and seen the destruction, first hand, of what happened to the Netheril via the events of Vista Virs. Phew, that's a lot of lore to take in all at once.

But as history would have it, there are always a few sides to every story, and the fall of the Netheril wasn't the only mass of land that had been affected deeply by its twisted magical decay. The forested region of Cormanthor, not far from the source of corruption, did as well. Cormanthor was once home to capital of High Elves. They had resided in a city deep within, warded carefully from the outside world, known as Myth Drannor. Today, it lay in shambles, lost forever and protected by the sickened forest that surrounds it. You see, over 200 years ago, a floating city of Netherese fashion had appeared over the vicinity of Vista Virs. A battle raged on between heroic paladins and the cult that had raised it into this plane of existence. The result of that war sent the planar magics that bound the raised city into turmoil. Its target? Myth Drannor. And what didn't destroy the city from impact damage left a far deeper, darker problem among the elves that lived there. A twisted sickness, a dark corruption, it seeped deeply into the hearts of all that dwelt there. Legend has it that the Tree of Life itself, Yggdrasil, is at the heart of Myth Drannor.

But that's all ancient history at this point. No one's been able to make it deep enough into the woods to find out what really happened. Most often, they find the city of Shadowdale instead, and with that... Wonderland.

Speaking of which, you'll be blasted down to the outskirts of the forest. The entire balance of magic in this area is highly off kilter, which isn't entirely new to some of you veteran Reclaimers. When a Grand Relic is used, it often leaves behind a very distinct path of destruction that makes even the most learned scholars scratch their head. Magical interference runs nigh high throughout all of Cormanthor, which makes this mission particularly dangerous. Bubbles are not able to penetrate the canopy of Cormanthor or land directly at Wonderland. As Lucretia had said a few months ago, these missions are going to get harder and come with higher consequences. She has faith in all of you to make better decisions. You're the most amazing and stalwart people she's ever met, after all.

Blasted down to Cormanthor in parties no more than 4, you land somewhere near the outskirts of the forest. Look behind you, and you can see the yellow-hued mountains of the Netheril behind you, boasting a land of pure desert and its own uniquely cursed roster of flora and fauna.

Pitter patter, Reclaimers.

Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you, smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, "Come and find out."

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

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B. EMPTY WOODS

The woods of Cormanthor were stunningly beautiful once. Before most people who walk among these trees were born, sure — but once upon a time, this was a beautiful place. A living, thriving forest, like any other great wood.

When the Reclaimers enter, however, the first thing they'll notice is the silence. Unnatural, ubiquitous, and oppressive, silence is the single unifying factor throughout these woods. The trees themselves shift, first sparse pines, then white ash and beech, and finally towering oaks, maples, and hickory. The silence doesn't change. There is no noise but the wind rustling the leaves on the trees — and as you get further in, even that begins to fall away.

It will become quickly apparent that there's no animal life here. This is a forest in stasis, certainly, but it's utterly devoid of birds flying overhead, four-legged creatures scurrying through the leaf debris. No deer, no wolves, no bears. No monsters. No insects, even, if you're paying attention. Those with the ability to speak with animals will notice very quickly that life simply doesn't seem to exist here. Those with the ability to speak to plants may be even more alarmed, because while the trees and other plants do respond, their replies are sluggish and distant, somewhat reminiscent of speaking to someone suffering with a severe fever, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Travel through Cormanthor's forest takes a few days' time, and so much time spent in silence begins to take a toll. Never mind the fact that no matter your Boy Scout badges, you can't forage for anything useful out here: nothing from the forest that is eaten provides any sustenance. Eat a bucket full of berries, and you'll still be as hungry as if you hadn't eaten a thing. The trees press in on all sides, and you know each one is different from the last, but after a while they all start to look the same.

Some will be more affected than others. Those with a madness effect (RNG'd or chosen from the list on this mission's dossier) will begin to feel it by the end of the second day. There are infinite options of how to play with this in the frozen forest, but here are a few possibilities:

○ If you have forgotten something important to you (1), it can happen quickly or slowly. Perhaps you're camping with your bubblemates, talking about someone from home. That Greg Grimaldis, was he really that bad? the Reclaimer to your right asks. Who, you ask, perplexed, brow furrowing, is Greg Grimaldis?

○ If reality is beginning to distort (2) for you, you might become abruptly certain that you're going the wrong way. Wonderland is back the way you came. Anyone trying to convince you otherwise is absolutely up to something — trying to make you look bad? Trying to hurt you? Who knows, but they're definitely up to something.

○ If you've lost valuable skills (3), they might drop out from under you at the worst possible moment. Even a forest in stasis has its hazards: pitfalls, roots that disguise holes and twist ankles, flimsy bridges that collapse and leave you hanging perilously over ravines, et cetera. Design peril to fit the skills you've lost. When you reach for your tried-and-tested knowledge, what do you know? It isn't there. You have to figure out another way out of this.

○ If you're feeling unlucky (4), guess what? The one person/thing in this whole realm that was keeping you safe isn't here right now. Everything around you is a portent of awful luck. Is that tree telling you to go die? It probably is! Paranoia creeps up on you from everywhere. Even your teammates. There's something about them that makes you certain everything's going to go to hell any minute now.

C. EMPTY CITY

Before you enter, you can see a town and only a town. Step across the border and you'll feel a barrier, something invisible and not quite permeable. After a pause, it seems to accept you, and your foot touches down in Shadowdale.

Then you look up. You can't help but look up. Stretching so high you've got to crane your neck to see to the top is a great gold tree sprung from the center of town. You couldn't see any of it from outside of Shadowdale's borders, but the town, it seems, wants you here. It wants you to see Wonderland. This could be paradise for a while, a place to stay safe from prying eyes and protected by the vastness of the forest as the Reclaimers track down this latest relic.

Except, not to put too fine a point on it, it's kind of creepy here. The whole place is empty — not everyone-got-up-and-left-in-a-rush empty, but ghost-town empty. Nobody wants to stay here, it seems. Maybe there's somewhere else they'd rather be. Regardless, it leaves you with plenty of lodgings to choose from. If you don't mind making your own fun, there's plenty to do, too: bookshops to visit, bakeries to use, butcher shops to — okay, maybe not that one. There's a courthouse, though. Who wants to play Judge Judy? Consider any shop or government building one might find in a small town to be fair game.

After a few hours, though, it becomes clear that this place isn't quite empty after all. You aren't the only ones investigating.

D. A FAMILIAR FACE (OR TWO)

○ The first face you see is a friendly one. Upon seeing the bracer on your wrist, Matthew Hollyweather walks right up to you, all the more readily if he remembers your face from New New Aspen. Despite the setting, he's clearly and genuinely pleased to see Reclaimers here. To those he's met before, he's eager to share all the positive change going on in New New Aspen: the newfound peace, the booming economy, pictures of one bajillion bouncing new spider-nieces-and-nephews. To those new to him, he introduces himself as Mayor Hollyweather of New New Aspen with just enough good-natured self-derision in his tone that he comes off as authoritative but kind of embarrassed about it.

It becomes obvious pretty quickly that he's been here a while — a few weeks, perhaps, more than long enough to get kind of lonely. Matthew's only company so far has been that kid, who's nice enough, but only showed up a couple days ago. And why is Matthew here? Well, that's where he stops being quite so much of an open book. He's looking for something, that's what he tells you. Something he's missing . . . and that's all. If you want to know more, you're going to roll for it. Everyone can get information from Matthew, but if you were present for the New Aspen mission, you'll get +2 on any DC on top of your existing class or skill bonuses.

○ The kid Matthew is talking about makes himself known soon enough. Perhaps you catch him perusing the bookstore in his fancy-boy suit and spiffy fancy cap, nose deep in a tome his thin arms tremble to hold, clearly paying no attention to you. Or maybe he's chowing down on some truly unusual-looking fried concoction (where did he get that?) in the town square by the fountain, clearly paying no attention to you. Wherever you first see him, he is clearly paying no attention to you.

Once addressed, he will brightly greet you and introduce himself as "Angus McDonald! I'm a little boy, I'm ten years old! Who are you? How did you get here? It's a really nice day, isn't it? It's nice to meet you!" Angus says a lot, actually. But other than giving off a strong vibe of needing to be noogied, nurtured, or both, he doesn't actually tell you much. Asking him anything is a good way to get the question turned right back on you. But then, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? If you can stand listening to him extoll the virtues of Caleb Cleveland, Kid Cop for a few minutes, you might level up enough to actually learn something.

Of course, you can't stay in Shadowdale forever. Literally: you can't. Every Reclaimer's feet are inexorably pulled to the entrance to Wonderland after not very long at all. The golden tree at the center of town is impossible to ignore. Step into the elevator at its base, and you might very well find yourself elbow-to-elbow with Matthew or Angus, staring as the numbers tick up . . . up . . .

Carrying you to Wonderland.

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E. A BEARY GOOD TIME

You arrive in Terminal Square, where you can sign up for a membership with Roland and find out more about this larger-than-life amusement park. The entire theme park city seems to run on a currency known as Wunderbux- directly inscribed via magic into a stone you're handed after filling out a small precursory screening by the giant anthropomorphic bear. Gifted with some starting credits and maybe a really gaudy Roland-eared hat, depending on how much of a good Wonderperson you've been so far, he explains that certain actions in the park will add credits or remove them. He advises against owing Wonderbux to Wonderland, if you can help it. "Wouldn't it be unbearable not to be able to ride the rides!?"

Yeah. You know what this guy is all about.

Chutes and ladders will take you all over the various places of the park, all branching out from Terminal Square. The entirety of the complex is, at scale, ridiculously large. All throughout Wonderland, you'll be treated like a king if you let yourself be pampered. The sheer amount of gilded perfection that went into crafting this place is at a scale even larger than the Moon Base. Gorgeous fountains spouting golden water are not infrequent, stands selling food of every type imaginable pepper anywhere there's space, and often as you pass by, you can hear people having the time of their lives here.

F. PLAY WITH ME IN THE SPACE!

There's so much to do in Wonderland. So much. Honestly, you wouldn't be the first to say it's overwhelming. That's part of the fun! Wonderland sweeps you away with all of the fun it brings. We could fill pages with the wonders in Wonderland, but why don't we stick with a few highlights and let you fill in the rest?

○ Wonder Square: When you first enter the confines of Wonder Square, you'll notice it looks and feels sort of like a casino... minus the strong and pungent smells that usually accompany those types of areas, typically. The wide birth of the room overlooks a beautiful vantage point of the top of Cormanthor's forest; pale greens look out into a sea of leaves for miles on end, as if the rest of the world doesn't exist outside of Wonderland itself. And why would you think it does, when you're here?

Tables are set up for games, games, and- you guessed it- more games. Arm wrestle against a machine to test your strength. Shoot hoops into a basketball for 60 seconds. Engage in a few games of chance: Queen's Call is particularly abundant in this area. You'll notice this is where Maria can most likely be found, surveying the area like a snake mother, carefully winding herself around the pit and ensuring that no one is up to anything less than pure, unadulterated fun around these parts.

You can do you best to scam a few extra Wonderbux here, either through legitimate play at any number of the machines present, or otherwise through less than scrupulous means. Don't get caught, though... it never ends up quite well.

Dodging in and out of the crowds of Wonder Square, often charging forward and giving his best at a VR simulation of as snowboarding game, you might find Niel here as well. He's awfully energetic, a typical cornerstone of youth in the midst of a truly killer arcade.

One thing you might notice, or might... not notice? Every now and then you might look at someone one moment, enjoying themselves thoroughly or getting a little deep into the game they play. You blink, and suddenly they're gone. And so is the recollection of events that've happened the entire last hour of your life. Something tells you not to question it, deep down. If you could only remember what they looked like... or the fact that they were even here to begin with.

Oh well, there are games to be had. Might want to head on over somewhere else. We hear Event Square has a ton of live entertainment for you to check out. Some people are even saying that there's a cactus like creature performing Jazz tonight! Now that's something you've never seen before!

○ Round Square: How did you end up in this luxurious tram? It's truly fantastic. Wheeling around the entirety of Wonderland as night falls, you're swept away with the romance of it all. Look at those stars! Look at that moon! You gaze fondly at the person sharing this ride with you, and—

Wait, who's that? How did they get in here? For that matter, how did you get in here? You don't remember getting on this ride. But here you are, with a fellow Reclaimer and, if you're particularly (un)lucky, a native elf, too. In the latter case, it might be a good time to ask them some questions. In the former case . . . snuggle? We're not your boss or mom.

○ Speed Square: Upon entering the speed square for the first time, another Roland will ask if you got your Roland Racing Registration! Then you'll have a stamp card shoved in your hands. Going on each roller coaster gives you one stamp on your card, which you can then hand in to a friendly Roland for a beary special reward.

○ Ghost Square: While the Ghost Square has many options to take some years off your life — from haunted houses to fortune tellers to wandering workers done up in bedsheets — the main attraction here is the Hall of Mirrors. It boasts of the "longest mirror maze in Faerun!*". Inside, all the mirrors are kept polished to perfection via magic, varying between normal reflections and wavy funhouse style, but some of the mirrors might reflect something... weird. Either a friend from your home world, or a version of you from your past, or even a reflection of the person's soul. It's a fun ghost story everyone shares.

*: The poster has the tiniest print of 'that we know of'. Whoever runs Wonderland has a good lawyer.

○ Reeducation Ride™: Not everyone's the funloving sort we want here in Wonderland, but there are ways to deal with that. For anyone who cheats, is rude to carnival workers, or is a persistent curmudgeon, party pooper, or fun sponge, it's time for the Reeducation Ride™. On this disciplinary ride, you are strapped into a cart that wheels in a wide circle for three hours, during which you are hugged and complimented by a slew of Roland Replicas™. Begone, sour face! Elevate, low self-esteem! Be snuggled! Be huggled! Be happy.

Everyone gets in on the fun here in Wonderland. No matter how reticent one might normally be to do so, something about this place just puts pep in everyone's step. Nine times out of ten you might be the kind of person who finds rides, games, and having fun to be childish or beneath you, but guess what? Here in Wonderland, you're at least a little into it.

So are the few non-natives you see. Angus is here, trying to figure out the rules of all these arcade games. Matthew is here, getting lost in Ghost Square and wandering the food court. A couple of other faces, too. Anything in the dossier is fair game for your use.

But keep in mind, Reclaimers: those madness effects? They're still very much in effect. You're still in Cormanthor forest, after all. The longer you stay, the more you play, the worse it gets. Little by little, hour by hour, day by day.

Have fun, kids. Be yourselves. Don't do anything Lucretia wouldn't do.



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In order to keep to our goal of providing the most personalized Wonderland experience for all of you, we're setting a limit of 3 RNG attempts per character this log. Additionally, please be aware that while more mundane rolls will have standard-level DCs (for this log, anyway), any RNG with the potential to uncover plot information is high-risk high-reward and will have a very high DC along with steep penalties for failure. As always, we will let you know of this before we roll, and you have the option to decline any roll at any time.

Other than that, this is your story to write and your setting to play with! Anything on the OOC post is fair game, and if there's something you'd like to try, please don't hesitate to let us know on the RNG thread.

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