Editing Questions/Question 270

{{Question
|QuestionFaqPage=Log - August 2025/Event FAQ
|Link=https://enochlesis.dreamwidth.org/12058.html?thread=3564570#cmt3564570
|AskedBy=mrblueeyes
|DateAsked=2025-08-08
|QuestionText=Hello, my darlings. So for Gojo and teams exploring outside of Karteria for the month, he'd like to push a bit farther--<br><br>Team Peachy (Momo, Chuuya, and Dazai), as the fastest-moving team, will be trying to reach Doxa. The discussed route was along the edge of the woods and the swamp, the route Gojo and his team previously took to the Blood Lake, and then pretty much a straight line from the north side of Blood Lake to Doxa.<br><br>Team Sneeze Smash (Tartaglia, Izuku, and Blade) will be scouting the Kelesis Environs and Lake Telos. A few trips of, idk, 3 days each? [https://images.plurk.com/1E9o2dCEjCcDNkIUPRy3Wi.png Proposed routes.]<br><br>Team Boyfriends (Gojo, Felwinter, and Choso) will be following up (belatedly) on the Brickston Intel (specifically the [https://historicallyloaded.dreamwidth.org/15187.html?thread=61779#cmt61779 version Gojo got from him and suggested strategy]) and searching more thoroughly along that coast and near the creepy cabins they found on earlier explorations. [https://images.plurk.com/4iBmkxPJFozLsWqIZCIPyC.png Hereabouts].<br><br>Please let me know if this is too much (i know this is a LOT to ask for, but it's on behalf of, uh, the nine of us?) or if you'd like more information about their strategy or approach to any region. <br><br>Thank you wonderful mods ❤️❤️❤️
|DateAnswered=2025-08-19
|AnswerText=Sorry about the delay this was a bit to pull together....<br><b>cw: animal remains, implied experimentation, bugs</b><br><br><div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"  style="overflow:auto;"><div style="font-weight:bold" class="mw-collapsible-header"><b>Doxa</b></div><div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br><br>1. The path to Doxa is a straightforward one. There's even some decaying evidence of roadwork having existed at some point in the past, but it's intermittent- suggesting that a connection to this corner of Orexis had never been completed, rather than it having only gone neglected and overgrown. Katalyth is present, in unremarkable amounts, and once they're past the edges of Asphodel Fields, the ground- while still <i>moist</i>- is nicely traversable. It should make for an uneventful journey to the borders of Doxa. <br><br>Unfortunately, the explorers will not find any human, nor human-shaped-entity left alive in the town. There is no sign of any attempt to build a barrier, nor any kind of generator; this was not a place anyone tried to protect. Thankfully, there also aren't any signs of mass death, though there are certainly a few human-belonging bones here and there, lain in moldering beds, or dragged into the street. Many have visible signs of being chewed on. But there's not so many to suggest that the entire town had stricken and died; instead, the majority of the inhabitants chose to leave. <br><br>The buildings haven't had time to collapse for the most part, but nature has begun its work on reclaiming them, turning green the skeleton of the town. Many of the buildings remain furnished, mostly with larger pieces that would have been difficult to transport across the island. Most small, personal belongings are gone- perhaps suggesting that the people who left here knew they weren't coming back.<br><br>There are quite a few sailing ships in the harbor, in varying stages of decay. Doxa had once been a modest harbor town, with a sub-5000 population at its height. Being the closest point (relatively speaking) to the island of Ekklisis is why the settlement sprang up in the first place. People dreamed of regular (even easy) travel between the islands, and a properly connected, international Pathos, but even these early stages were never given the opportunity to see fruit. Sailing has been a dangerous profession for longer than living memory, and as arcane radiation made it utterly unfeasible for the indefinite future, what point is there in a harbor town?<br><br>There are also plenty of signs of wildlife having taken over residence of Doxa, with the most notable being a pack of <b>feral dogs.</b> Or rather, the descendants of once domesticated canines, pets that were left behind when the town was abandoned. Karteria is rather strict with pet ownership, after all.... Several generations onward, these dogs have survived, and with some interbreeding with local wolves, are even thriving in their way. But it's not without some changes. <br><br>Similar to what's happened around the cenote, the dogs are notably mutated, particularly around their faces- which are now equipped with numerous black tentacle-like growths. It doesn't seem to interfere with their lives too badly, though you'll sometimes catch a dog trying to scrape one of them off against the side of a tree, or some other hard surface. If the characters noticed bits of blackened dropped-off flesh and smears of blood against the lower parts of trees on their way into Doxa... well, that would be where it came from.<br><br>The other animals in the area are largely normal, showing the occasional visible mutation, but nothing on the systemic level as the dogs.<br><br>If there ever became a time where reaching Ekklisis was pressing, Doxa could become an important- or at least <i>convenient</i>- staging point. Until then, it is full of tentacled-dogs and rotting ships. </div></div><br><br><div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style=" overflow:auto;"><div style="font-weight:bold" class="mw-collapsible-header"><b>Kelesis Environs</b></div><div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br><br>1. <b>The most Northern route.</b> <br>The forests directly to the Northeast of Kelesis are quite nice. They're not as dark as the Woods outside Karteria, so there's plenty of light dappling through the leaves. There's no sign of people having been out this way in years, as might be expected, and most paths have been consumed by the forest around them. But there's always <i>some</i> sort of path, and it seems to always lead in the direction they want to go...? (Maybe it's nothing, and this had simply been the most popular route in the past, so it's faded the least.) If one were imagining an idyllic, peaceful slice of nature, the forests outside of Kelesis would match it exactly. The birds sound... odd, or rather, there's birdsong even when there's no birds around. Their music also doesn't match the kind of birds found on this part of the island either. But there's no denying it adds to the ambiance.<br><br>Once they leave the treeline, they'll have a relatively easy path northward across grassy fields. As just about anywhere <i>flat</i> in Pathos, the ground is moist, but it hasn't yet given way entirely to proper marsh or bogland. It remains safe and reasonably traversable. There is no sign of any past travel past this point, or if something had been there, it was so irregularly trod that it's disappeared entirely.<br><br>The next bout of woods is denser, though still lighter than the Karterian woods. It also functions more 'normally', in terms of ambient noise and ability to pick a way through it. There is no sign of any human-made path, though there's some places that deer seem to have trod something of their own. The deer are normal. There is nothing unusual out this way, no signs of human habitation or human remains. The levels of mutation in the wildlife is akin to that found in Orexis. This part of Eparsis, at least, has neither been spared the spread of arcane radiation, nor been harder hit.<br><br>Overall, the amount of Katalyth in the environment is unremarkable. There is plenty of it around, but it's neither infesting anywhere in particular, nor failing to grow anywhere else.<br><br>2. <b>Lake Telos</b>.<br>The land moistens to the point of turning back into proper wetlands on the approach to Lake Telos, and the region is absolutely <i>teeming</i> with wildlife. It's less of a dreary-feeling place than the Orexian equivalents, but it doesn't make it any easier going. <br><br>Once they reach the lake, they'll see that it's not necessarily one made to swim in, but is [https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/file/115799.jpg quite] [https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/file/116205.jpg beautiful] in its own right. There's an immense amount of flora blooming across its surface, in bright shades to contrast the deep blue of the water. Colorful fish dart about underneath, hunted by a variety of birds and aquatic-lizards (just as colorful as the plants, as though designed to blend in). The insects are similarly dazzling, and give off an ever-present hum in these summer months. Telos is thriving.<br><br>The majority of the lake's surrounds (including the lake itself) have the average concentrations of Katalyth. However, at the Southeast corner the exploration party will come across obvious signs of a past human presence. A camp, of sorts, rather than a town- but here, every structure has been absolutely <i>consumed</i> by Katalyth. It'll be very noticeable even from a distance, both visually and especially emotionally, as the sense of absolute dread coming from that corner of the lake is not a subtle thing. The buildings themselves look like they're beginning to collapse under the weight of the mineral (or maybe even inorganic structures can get depressed...?), which at least offers a glimpse of what's inside without getting too close.<br><br>As it would be next-to-impossible for most characters to enter the habitations without losing themselves to the oppressive madness the Katalyth emanates. A Golem-type would have the best shot at it, especially if full-shifted, but even they shouldn't linger there.<br><br>But it looks like someone had set up a <b>laboratory space</b> here. There's wrecked computers, books that have faded to illegibility (or otherwise ruined by water-damage). Lots of broken glass, with unknown substances dried in them- or in some cases, still oddly <i>sticky</i>, after all this time. Metal cages, large enough to contain something on par with a large dog (or average human), with various damage to the bars of them. Bite marks, claws, burns.... There's collections of bones, both inside and outside of the cages. Overturned tables, and even more chemical residue. Should they find some means to explore inside, there's nothing left in terms of usable equipment.<br><br>If characters have the means to date anything in the area, it seems to have been abandoned in the early-to-pre-arcane radiation lockdown days. Where everywhere else in the wetland is full of activity, this place is avoided by the local wildlife. The few plants whose seeds have landed nearby have grown up into oddly twisted things, their colors and shapes distorted in comparison to their nearby kin.<br><br>3. <b>Southern route, skirting the mountains, all the way to another lake</b>.<br>There is nothing particularly remarkable about this path, but the mountains will look quite lovely as they shuffle past them. That Southern lake is a bit like a smaller version of Telos in terms of appearance and wildlife presentation, but there's no record of humans having settled here, or done anything questionable. Hopefully the exploration crew can spend some time appreciating the sights along with just surveying them!<br><br>Though it is still rather moist, so sticking around for too long might be uncomfortable in its own right.... </div></div><br><br><div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"  overflow:auto;"><div style="font-weight:bold" class="mw-collapsible-header"><b>Team Boyfriends Route</b></div><div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br><br>The uncanny cabins are right where they had left them, looking... basically untouched, with barely any more leaf litter or dust or animal tracks or anything. It feels like everything has abandoned this place. <br><br>The area around it is more normal, the forest becoming patchier as they close in on the coast. And with all their detailed searching, this team is rewarded by coming across <b>signs of a shipwreck</b>. At first it's fragments of wood, rotting and soft. Bits of planks, things too clearly <i>made</i> to be the result of a collapsed tree. There's pieces of metal too, rusted to uselessness, warped and occasionally gnawed. The further up the coast they go, the larger pieces they'll find, caught against the rocky shore (and the occasional spike of Katalyth, jutting up out of the water, uncomfortably smooth, suggesting its erosion into the ocean). <br><br>The largest find is fabric: thick stretches of coarse wool, sturdy and water-repellant. It lays torn and tangled up amidst rocks, as an evidence of sails (though of a different style and quality to the sailing ships that rot in Karteria's and Doxa's harbors). Apart from being cut up in places, it's in fairly good condition, though if there had ever been any sort of marking upon it, it's long since been bleached away by the sun. There's fragments of wooden masts around it, in far worse condition, turned into the nests of sea-happy bugs and marine mice.<br><br>There's nothing to suggest that the ship collided with the West coast of Orexis, and it seems far more likely that something caused it to sink further out to sea, and then washed up here. Given the condition of the materials, this probably took place within the past decade or so. There are no human remains (or non-human remains).<br><br>Besides the materials of the ship itself, there's the remnants of <i>luggage</i>, or at least cargo. There's several wood-like chests strewn along the coast, and unlike the rotting remnants of the ship, these are surprisingly intact. Though there's signs of having been battered against rock, there's no record of anything alive having tried to open them. If anything, nature is giving them a wide berth. <br><br>A couple have popped open, revealing insides that look like they've been gnawed away, scraped at in splinters at a time. There is no blood, no gore, nothing organic left at all. Three chests remain intact, and... are bulging, slightly. There is no sign of movement, but on approach it'll be impossible to miss that they smell <i>awful</i>. Absolutely wretched. It'll take a strong constitution (or no sense of smell) to even get close enough to try and open one without being sick. Not that you'd want to open one. Why would you?<br><br>On their inevitable opening: a <b>cloud of thick, hand-sized black flies</b> will emerge. They emit no sound in their flight, and if the container had smelled bad before... it's worse now. It's real bad. The flies will immediately try and escape into the woods, in search of a better life than being trapped inside lost luggage....<br><br>(If the party manages to grab and kill any individual fly, it will explode into a mess of murky blood and foam. If they capture an individual fly without killing it, the same thing will happen once the escaping swarm is far enough away. The fly residue also smells terrible, clings to anything it touches, but is otherwise both harmless and useless.)<br><br>All three chests contain the same fly-prize.<br><br>Unfortunately, there's nothing in the area that suggests anything from Brickston's intel is around here.</div></div>
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