NOVEMBER + DECEMBER BULLETIN

[vestigemods]

NOVEMBER + DECEMBER BULLETIN

► OH LOOK, THIS BULLETIN DOES EXIST

Sup, murderfam. Most of you saw on either Discord or the modplurk that things were running a bit late this month, but to the few who didn't: My sincerest apologies. Grad school, the election close-calls, and bronchitis (yeah, like, the bronchitis I had six weeks ago and somehow still fucking have now) kicked my ass in a tag-team cage match.

This bulletin, as you can probably tell by the title, is a bit different from most. I've decided that since November is already halfway gone and December is a lax month, I might as well just save the extra work and just bang both months out in one kick. This will be our last bulletin of 2020! See the last drop-down for a tentative schedule of what to expect throughout the rest of the year.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS OF VARYING IMPORTANCE

• HOUSING PAGE - The HOUSING PAGE is (at long last, months overdue) live! Those who claimed cabins/apartments already are listed. Please note the ( ! ) alert in the opening blurb - now that there's a tangible number of cabins and apartments, characters not listed are henceforth assumed to be homeless, so please go claim somewhere for your character to live if you haven't yet done so!


• PAGE CODING REVAMPS - The Applications + FAQ pages have now had their coding updated! Perusing the FAQ and updating the information is also on my short-list of things to do in the chill month of December - I'll post on Plurk/Discord when it's updated (and probably point out places of specific interest).


• NON-INVITE APPLICANT PERIOD - As a result of the feedback from last month's game/mod HMD, I'm tentatively planning for January to include a period in which individuals can join without being invited by a current player, the idea + nuances of which I addressed over here. This will include a new TDM + some advertising on Plurk + allowing players to recruit via EMP rather than directly amongst their friends.
  
  A number of the concerns expressed in the feedback request echoed the importance of making sure potential new players know precisely what sort of game Vestige is, as the speed/tagging expectations/general mood are somewhat different from other games. Because of this, I plan to put up a What Should Potential Players Know About Vestige? post sometime in December, in which those of you who play here can talk about the game in your own words within the comments. This, to me, seemed much more liable to convey the right message than trying to write something up myself from the bird's-eye mod view.
  
  All in all, I don't anticipate getting swamped with new players like a brand new game might, and I'll definitely take precautions to stem it if that guess turns out to be wrong. The goal definitely isn't to get huge, game-wise. Just a little bit more robust (while also being homey!).


• PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! - In the meantime pre-January, y'all should absolutely invite some of your friends if you haven't already. We're slowing down just the tiniest bit, not enough to worry about but enough that we can definitely stand to draw in a little fresh blood.

 NOVEMBER + DECEMBER IN VESTIGE

OVERVIEW.

NOVEMBER - A far cry from the idyllic-ish summer months, November is damp and chilly and... honestly, kind of dismal. The sunset colors of fall are now muddy leaf slop on the ground, the lake and rivers are deeply unpleasant to do laundry in, and even the town strays seem to have less energy for roaming and raising hell. Though the Thanksgiving feast offers a distinct highlight in the month's dreariness, this month is kind of just something moderately unpleasant to endure. Sometimes it be like that.

DECEMBER - A winter wonderland, quite literally beginning at the month turnover. Somehow, the landscape containment zone has looped back into a sort of idyllic. And there are gifts! Gotta love gifts. And maybe some of you can even have a little bit of Leggy Krampus, as a treat.

WEATHER.

NOVEMBER - Cold. Absolutely cold. You spend the entire month acutely aware that winter is breathing ominously down the back of your neck, the skies almost perpetually grey and cloudy and your breath visible at all but the warmest mid-day hours. The wind seems to have calmed down from October, replaced almost entirely by the air's biting chill. It's not quite as wet as October, either, which would be a good thing but for the fact that when it does precipitate once or twice per week, it's either ice-cold rain or something more in the hail-sleet department. Expect golf-ball-sized hailstones on the 29th, as if firing off one last hurrah before proper winter weather sets in.

DECEMBER - Snow! Immediately snow - like, everyone wakes up on the very first day of December to a blanket of snow about six inches deep. Though it snows off and on throughout the month (from light picturesque sprinklings of snowflakes to heavier snows with somewhat limited visibility), it never seems to grow any deeper than that for much of December. Nor does it seem to melt away any, despite the regular presence of actual fucking sunshine for what feels like the first time in months. The sun is wonderful, bright and unfiltered enough for the warmth to almost balance out the air's ambient chill, but it comes at a cost. Hope y'all weren't fond of your retinas, because sunshine on untouched snow kicks up one hell of a glare.

Oh, and also: The lake's frozen. Do with that as you will.

WILDLIFE.

NOVEMBER - It's as if all of the wildlife in the containment zone is holding its breath, waiting to see quite how harshly winter chooses to rear its head. Nearly all of the herbivores are in a tense sort of flurry, some stockpiling nuts and seeds and such for the colder season, others trying to fatten up in what little time they have left. Most obvious is the deer, which can be seen grazing urgently on any available source of grass before winter steals it away from them. As for carnivores, they're not quite so pressed. The bears have disappeared altogether, likely bedded down to hibernate for the winter, and the rest show no sign yet of struggling to find prey. The town strays are the main exception to that - they seem much, much hungrier than before, enough so to consider attacking for any obvious food you might have.

DECEMBER - Wildlife in December is very, very scarce. Most of the small prey species and herbivores are bedded down somewhere warm and cozy, while the grazing creatures scrape at patches of snow in search of the greenery underneath. The under-porch raccoons disappear for a few days, huddling deep under the cabins for warmth, but by mid-month they've mustered up the courage to tentatively creep up onto the porch to scritch scritch at the door. It's very cold out here, sir or madam, would you please let us in? (A few tablescraps wouldn't be remiss, either.)

Predators, too, are finally starting to show signs of hunger - encounters with wolves, cougars, and even some larger coyotes (most frequently occurring in the woods) are likely to end in some form of attack and attempted consumption. To everyone who thought humans were at the top of the food chain, my condolences.

RESOURCES.

NOVEMBER - On offering at Foodland, you'll find:


• All of the Autumn items listed in the October Bulletin are still in stock! (Underwear are back, though. In case anyone was worried.)
• Food items that one might recognize as 'Thanksgiving-themed' - sweet potatoes and/or yams, cranberry products of various kinds, the fixings for apple pies, etc.
• Thicker jackets! These won't even let the hail in! On the downside, the colors or patterns are not aesthetically pleasing and they make you look like a marshmallow with legs. (e.g. this, for a more merciful option)
• Thought the bears have gone into hibernation, there seems to be an odd surplus of bear mace. I bet it works on wolves and cougars, too?
The gas station has the leftover dregs of last month's candy, and seems to be boarded up entirely after November's event. But it'll open back up eventually... right?

DECEMBER - A list of December's resources will be posted in the December Not-Bulletin, along with any last-minute news or updates and a link to this bulletin.

ANOMALIES.

There will be no 'anomalies' in November or December, aside from that which is listed in the events! These will resume in January.

 EVENTS FOR NOVEMBER + DECEMBER

H̸̠͉͖͌̓̋̽E̵̯͐ͅĻ̵͛̕̚L̶̨͈̪̗͑̀̀̚Ơ̵̢̠̣̐̏̚ PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR, NOV 23RD - 25TH

Remember the increasingly alarming tree? The one that took almost six months of steadily approaching and inflicting escalating mindfuckery before a single person finally said something about it? On the 23rd, it seems to have migrated 50 yards closer again.... Bringing it solidly inside the containment zone's barrier.

The Technicians, if they're to be believed, did not anticipate this. They put out a one-way notice on everyone's phones advising to 'just try not to be noticed' while they sort the mess out, but in the meantime, everyone in the containment zone are in for a bit of a trippy ride as the figures dismount the tree for the first documented time since the tree's appearance and roam the area inside the barrier, distorting all perception of time, space, and reality as they go. (The Technicians do clear it up by the 25th, for whatever that's worth while you're still re-adjusting to a concrete grasp on reality.)

More info on this will go up with the event infopost on the 16th.

PLEASE ACCEPT THESE ROASTED BIRDS THANKSGIVING MINGLE + LOCATION REVEAL, NOV 26TH

On the morning of the 26th, everyone gets an alert that in light of the last few days (and the fact that they're craving turkey but it's pointless to cook a whole thing for just them), they've decided to provide a Thanksgiving Feast. Y'know that locked-up old bar in town? Yeah, it's there - the place is all cleaned up now, and the doors will unlock at 4 PM to a room full of tables covered in as many Thanksgiving foods as anyone could ask for.

The bar is fully-stocked, the jukebox plays music, and overall the atmosphere is just... weirdly uplifting, considering the month and the recent days' visitors. There's a distinct chance that there's a teensy-weensy artificial mood-enhancer in the food - but it's not much! Just a little! They're just trying to help. It's not nearly enough that anyone starts acting unlike themselves. Just... maybe the tiniest bit less weighed down for a couple of hours, y'know?

If nothing else, the Immediate Recompense for the previous few days' chaos lends mild credence to the notion that they sincerely didn't expect that shit to go down quite that way.

(This will also make the bar, #9 in the 'town' section/map, an active location within the game after November 26th. I'm aiming to get the log for this up on the 22nd!)

---

MERRY SHITSCRAM TOTALLY HARMLESS I SWEAR, DEC 9TH

On the 9th, one more post from the Technicians will go live on the network. It's the holiday season, and they're in the alarming benevolent mood to grant some wishes. Characters are welcomed to (publicly or privately) make gift-related wishes, and if it's within the Technicians' scope of possibility (which most things are), they'll grant them.

There are a few provisos - No wishing to go home, that gets ignored and also wastes your wish. No wishing to bring someone else here, because that's not how this works, either. And no wishing to exit the barrier. Believe it or not, it's much safer in here.

All viable wishes made will be granted in some shape or form on the morning of December 15th.

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE PSYCHOLOGICAL/ENVIRONMENTAL HORROR, DECEMBER 16TH - 17TH

This isn't nearly as romantic as it sounds, I promise you. Anytime on the 16th - 17th, some characters begin to experience something... a little strange - they either feel progressively colder or progressively hotter with no discernible explanation.

Those who experience cold find themselves getting colder by the hour or even by the minute despite any attempts to warm up. They can feel the warmth, whether it be a blanket or a fire, but the warmth doesn't seem to reach more than skin-deep no matter how hard they try. This continues on until your character achieves the beginning stages of hypothermia, at which point it can wear off anytime you'd like. If you'd care to take it even further, moderate or even severe hypothermia are also viable options. (A slightly technical list of hypothermic stages and the symptoms thereof, for your reference. Alternatively, these graphics.)

If your character experiences heat instead, it functions much like a steadily-increasing hot flash despite the chilly temperature. They'll find themselves sweating and looking for some way, any way to cool down - potentially even stripping off their clothing, racing out into the snow, and... y'know, getting mild hypothermia this way instead. Other potential effects are colds/flus, frostbite, and distinctly-heightened UST.

YOU'D BETTER WATCH OUT, YOU'D BETTER NOT CRY MONSTER HORROR, DEC 23RD - 25TH

Throughout the couple of days before Christmas, when the snow seems to flurry the hardest, a gentleman I've decided to call Leggy Krampus arrives to do his work. And what is that work, you might ask? To punish those on his Naughty List, of course. That Naughty List is basically just a list of those who haven't yet died here in Vestige. If your character has yet to die and help in the perpetual effort to appease the Elder Gods, you're welcome to opt into Leggy Krampus coming for your character! But he doesn't have time to come after everyone - he's only one excessively-limber man(??), after all - so even if your character has yet to die, you're free to say he passed over them if you'd rather not fuck with it.

For those who do receive a visit, the first sign is the faintest sound on the rooftop, like footsteps but much too light and too numerous. Then, all at once, any fire which may blaze in the fireplace goes out, and down your chimney comes everyone's new least-favorite red-coated monstrosity. Two clawed hands wrap around each side of the fireplace, eyes pale as the snow, the beard around his gaping mouth tinged with the red of blood. But there are more hands now, so many hands, so many too-long arms, peeling himself from your fireplace to attack.

He can be fought off by anyone skilled in combat (especially with help), but not quite so easily as one might think. He's alarmingly quick, both in mobility and in the speed with which he can swipe and grab with his clawed hands. His goal is to drag his victim back up the chimney, at which point he'll try to find a secluded place to wrap his long prehensile tongue around their throat and squeeze until they asphyxiate. If it doesn't seem like an abduction is in the cards, he'll try to draw as much blood as possible with his claws, or even try to tongue-choke them right then and there.

Alas, Leggy Krampus can not die. He can be 'killed' and even dismembered, but somehow, somehow he always finds his way to the next victim on his list.

 TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR THE REST OF 2020

( Dates should be taken as 'give or take a day', generally. )


• NOVEMBER CATCH-ALL LOG, NOV 12 - This month's catch-all log will go up. It'll be pretty short, but it'll do.


• EVENT INFOPOST, NOV 16 - An event infopost for "H̸̠͉͖͌̓̋̽E̵̯͐ͅĻ̵͛̕̚L̶̨͈̪̗͑̀̀̚Ơ̵̢̠̣̐̏̚" will go up, providing more details to work with!


• EVENT LOG, NOV 19 - The event log for "H̸̠͉͖͌̓̋̽E̵̯͐ͅĻ̵͛̕̚L̶̨͈̪̗͑̀̀̚Ơ̵̢̠̣̐̏̚", which spans the IC dates of November 23rd - 25th.


• THANKSGIVING FEAST LOG, NOV 22 - A post-event holiday feast, taking place ICly on November 26th (Thanksgiving).


• DECEMBER CATCH-ALL LOG, DEC 1 - Your typical monthly catch-all. This will probably include prompts for December's events rather than a separate event log, since there's nothing too intense over the holidays. (All relevant info for December's happenings can be found in the above drop-down + the elaboration in the catch-all.)


• DECEMBER NOT-BULLETIN, DEC 3 - Around the same time as the bulletin would usually go up, I plan to put up a tiny mod note with any last-minute updates for December + a link to this bulletin.


• 'MERRY SHITSCRAM' NETWORK POST, DEC 9 - See the description in the event drop-down for more on this.


• 'WHAT SHOULD POTENTIAL PLAYERS KNOW ABOUT VESTIGE?' POST, DEC ??? - This post (as mentioned above in the announcements drop-down) is basically for those who might app in uninvited to hear about the game's slightly unusual pace/style/mood from the players themselves. Participation isn't mandatory but is deeply appreciated.
( ! ) If anything else comes up, I'll note it on Discord/Plurk and edit it into this schedule!

That's it! Feel free to ask any questions on the top-level below.

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