achatesooc | game pages update

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A handful of pages have been updated as of 10/10/24 to reflect questions and investigations from the event logs and the game discord: rules/game info, locations, and demon compendium. The additions are listed below; please take a look!

Rules/Game Info

COMMUNICATION
Characters do not have usernames on their COMPs. Display names will be the character's own names according to how they introduced themselves or how they are known to the person in question, although they can be changed to a stupid nickname if they ask their AI. Text can be formatted with color, font, and various symbols for all your kaomoji needs.

Inactive COMPs can be found on the bodies of the deceased from other worlds (not town residents), but these COMPs will not turn on. Similarly, upon a character's death, their COMP will deactivate and lose connection to the AI. Searching amongst these non-resident bodies will reveal no full intact gemstones, but it may be possible to spot some gemstone dust or fragment no larger than a grain of sand. According to the AIs, characters have been brought here from other worlds in the past, although it was a long time ago and death came quickly for them. There was a fire. It's you guys' turn now, so try to do better!

Locations

During the day, a red sun hangs in the sky without much of a shine; at dusk and twilight, the sky appears darker than expected, as if the sun's rays don't reach as far as they should. At night, the stars that appear are much fewer than expected at well, and there are no recognizable constellations or other planets in the sky. Although rare, cars and trailers can be found, though tend towards trucks and vehicles used on farmland. There is no normal wildlife to be seen other than the cat found in the train; even small insects are their demon counterpart.

WALL
It takes about 6 hours via Bicorn U-Haul to ride along the entire length of the wall.

TRAIN
A small black cat with golden eyes wanders the train, typically lurking towards the front inside the driver's cabin on the northern end (implying that the train would have been travelling clockwise on the rails). Her favorite scritching spots are under the chin and at the base of the tail, and she likes any sort of meat. Characters can carry the cat outside of the train, but she will attempt to return as soon as she can. The train itself seems to be a regular train, and does not contain anything technologically advanced.

Snacks and meals can be found inside the dining car, although without power any perishables will soon spoil if they aren't eaten. Characters may also find toiletries and cleaning supplies inside the train. The luggage inside the train is full of clothes that are mostly modern, but include a spread of fashion from different countries and time eras. Tags on the clothing can be translated via COMP, and reveal countries from rl modern day Earth, familiar countries from canons of in-game characters, as well as unfamiliar countries from other canons. None of the clothing will be recognizable as being unique to a character (canonmate or otherwise) unless it is the sentimental object specified in your app, or belongs to your characters.

FOREST
At normal walking speed, this (travelling from the train to the school) would take roughly 5-6 hours without interruption.

SCHOOL
Crying can be heard on the third floor from both the left and right wings of the building. The left wing ends in a science lab that is currently locked by a barrier, behind which is strong demon presence. The right wing ends in a set of bathroom doors, with the crying heard from behind the girl's bathroom door. Everybody so far has decided to be polite and not bother who/whatever this is.

Outside the principal's office on the ground floor, a blizzard blows through the entire hallway. Time seems to pass abnormally within the blizzard, with time stretching far longer than expected, and Moh Shuvuu can be found within the storm.

Information in the books generally match up with modern day knowledge, with anything supernatural being only in fiction books. A desktop computer has been relocated from the computer lab inside the library over to the church.

A map of the town used to be in the library, although it has since then been removed. A copy of this map has been sent to each character's COMP for reference, and depicts a full map of their current location before the east half was taken over by the void. In this map, the missing eastern half was largely residential and was situated next to an "Achates River." There is no wall depicted surrounding the town; instead, the train tracks enter town from the southeast, passes town on the southern side, loops up to the west, then exits on the northeast, essentially forming a cul-de-sac. A dead end. No town name is given.

GREENHOUSE
The greenery is wild and overgrown, but there are no signs of fighting inside. Footprints— small, bare foot, probably human— can be seen scattered about, starting from a cellar door towards the northeast corner, crowding around a large fruit tree towards the center of the greenhouse, and returning to that same cellar door. The door does not open, and is currently locked by a barrier.

HOSPITAL
Photos from Ruka's Camera Obscura suggest the hospital had a different layout in the past, with evidence of burn damage to the interior structure.

The stairwell leading down to the basement level is guarded by many demons, and the stairs are littered with broken glass from the exploded lightbulbs on the ceiling. The basement door is currently locked by a barrier, behind which is a powerful presence, and supposedly laboratories and the morgue.

Most recent medical records from the hospital reveal an increase of post-mortem diagnoses of SADS ("Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome" or "Sudden Adult Death Syndrome", aka inexplicable death in a person's sleep from unknown causes). These cases seemed to be uniform across the town, with no apparent epicenter(s).

CONCERT HALL
A hauntingly beautiful lullaby can be heard from within the building, putting anybody within the vicinity to sleep. High Pixies appear to guard the hall from the doorways and windows of the many entrances and exits, attacking those who ignore the lullaby's warning and come too close. A faerie queen rules over the demons inside the concert hall, and is described as strong, powerful, and wise, and does not think very highly of humans unless they've demonstrated their strength. She is single.

There is a roughed up grand piano in front of the concert hall, although characters will have to block out the Lullaby in order to approach it.

CHURCH
Don't dig up the cemetery. First of all, that's rude. Second of all, it seems to be a mass grave underneath, filled with remains of the dead scattered amongst little demon larvae of all sorts.

Some religious scriptures and books can be found inside the church, although the bulk of these are hymnals. Followers of this church appear to be polytheistic, and interior artwork depict ash trees, landscapes of golden hills or dunes of sand, and a triplet of angels which look similar to the angel statue in front of the building.

POWER PLANT
The entire first floor is occupied by a giant Ooze, preventing people from going upstairs to the higher levels. This demon has gotten so large from ingesting so many other people and demons it can no longer leave the building without damaging the structure, trapping the demons on the upper level upstairs. It is always hungry, as if there were an empty void that it cannot fill no matter how much it eats. Perhaps what it is afflicted with is "hunger of the soul" ...

Demon Compendium

Most demons seem to have a taste for blood (player's choice re. tastiness), although will just as eagerly feed off of a character's magical energy (SP, MP, etc). Demons tend to be more active during the nighttime compared to the day, and are at their most dangerous on the night of the full moon (IC Day 0-1, Day 30, Day 60, etc), and cannot be negotiated with on those dates. While wild demons won't be found in certain areas (train, greenhouse, church), contracted demons can still be summoned in those locations.

Once a demon is released, it can no longer be summoned by the COMP but that particular demon can still be re-encountered out in the wild.