![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seawarden) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
escordviooc2024-11-01 10:34 am
« manta board: november 2024 »
Quests are separated into five categories and all have flat point values: General (4pts), Corsair (4pts), Paladin (4pts), Bounties (6pts), and Specials (12pts). Note: characters helping opposing armada quests will only be rewarded 2pts for participation unless specified otherwise. Special quests won't always be available so it may appear blank at most times. These can range from group quests such as for special ship upgrades or island related quests, or they could be special event quests. All quest points can be used for the Rewards Shop.
If you have any questions, comment to this entry.
Strange red and pink plants are shedding round fruits from their branches this autumn. When these fruits hit the ground, they tend to burst, releasing an unusual, sweet mist that causes anyone who breathes it in to fall in love with the first thing or person they see.
It’s easy to see how this could be a huge issue. Falling for a random rock, wheelbarrow, or even a horse on the road? Or, even worse, another person? It’s a chaotic situation waiting to happen!
People are needed to help gather up these gaseous fruits before things escalate. Be careful not to inhale the sweet mist yourself, and dispose of as many fallen fruits as you can before more people get hearts in their eyes.
A huge boulder has been spotted just outside of Eltrut’s main dock that has a peculiar golden sword sticking out of it. The sword glitters and sparkles under the sunlight. It looks ripe for the taking! … Yet, no matter how hard anyone yanks, the sword never comes out of the stone. It seems permanently stuck.
Some of the locals around Shellton have been muttering that it is a cursed sword and that it should be left alone. While others have been saying that if anyone can pull the sword out of the stone, that they will be bestowed with great fortune. Because of all the mismatched rumours, no one really knows for sure what will happen if the sword is pulled from the stone.
Give your best shot and try to pull the sword from the stone, yourself. Little does anyone know, the sword can only be pulled out by the “pure of heart” or if the puller believes themselves to be a “pure of heart.” What the sword truly detects is if the person’s soul is honest, good and kind.
If the sword can be pulled, it will bestow the puller with a temporary blessing of good fortune before it magically returns to the stone.
Last year, a very curious type of new tree had been discovered on a small walkable island. It seemed to be littered with trees that have the bizarre ability to magically grow fried chicken legs that hang like apples. And some decorated with fully cooked honey-glazed hams. With bark that looks curiously like crispy cooked bacon and leaves that look like perfectly tenderized pork tenderloins. That’s right, the trees grow meat. Somehow. And boy, does it still look delicious.
It’s been a while since anyone has been this way since the discovery. Travelling that way now, you might find that someone has left behind several meat-shaped weapons that are apparently crafted out of the said trees.
Despite being irresistibly delicious looking, try one or two of the weapons out to see if they’re even viable as weapons. It might be the next trend to hit the Leviathans. Or just camp out and cook them and eat them…
There have been various sightings in the ocean of a very large fish with tentacles for a mouth that has been bullying ships and docks alike. While the fish doesn’t seem overtly violent, it does seem to want something…
It keeps spouting out water in the shape of hearts and cooing at sailors sailing by. It flaps its fins and bats its eyelashes flirtatiously at anyone that might give it a morsel of attention.
Maybe this lonely fish just wants a date…? Give this pretty fish a nice night (a dinner, a show, a dance?) and see if that will satisfy it enough for it to stop bullying the surrounding ships. Just be careful you don’t give it too much attention. It might never leave you alone.
A professional dog trainer and breeder is giving away some particularly unique breeds of wild puppies that have something extremely unique about them…
While they are naturally wild creatures that are trained and tamed now, they do tend to still be creatures of instinct. So the breeder cautions that if you adopt one that you are ready for it to grow into the size of a horse and for them to be wildly hard to keep domesticated as they grow older and want to run free. Adoptive dog parents, beware…!
Oh, and did they mention that the puppies have three heads?
Below is the list of available Cerberus Puppies. Comment below to claim one. (on a first come first serve basis. We also ask that if your character already has a Warrior Cat that they do not claim one of these until others have a chance first.) Read More.
Sherlock Holmes needs help with consolidating various enchantments or charms from multiple items into one or two compact objects, to make travel easier for him when visiting other leviathans. If interested, please reach out for further information.
Sherlock wishes to sleep comfortably while away from his apartment but currently needs to carry four to six plushies (including two large ones) and several winged horse feathers to achieve this. He hopes to transfer, copy, or combine whatever enchantments these items hold into one to help him sleep into a more manageable form for travel. This is more than likely a task for the magically-inclined but anyone with any creative solutions are more than welcome to give it a shot.
With magitech becoming more mainstream in the last year, it’s no surprise that all sorts of new inventions have been cropping up. With mechanical advancements included, the paladins have started to put together magitech-powered mechanical golems that they hope to use for all sorts of tasks from farmhand help to security uses.
One steel golem is now in its prototype stage. It has moving legs and arms and looks like a giant suit of armour with moving parts. For the most part, the paladins can get it to move and walk on its own and can lift some heavier items without toppling over.
Unfortunately, the technology is very faulty and not very plausible yet. Because of that, the golem tends to go haywire sometimes and starts to rampage around Elah, crashing into things, smashing through walls and generally being out of control.
If anyone could help stop the rampaging golem, that would be great! Just be careful not to get smashed to bits. And don't smash it to bits, either...
There is a rumour going around that there is a magical well that contains the fabled “Fountain of Youth” hidden somewhere on Elah. It is rumoured that if you drink from this magical well, that you can bring five years of your life back.
But like a lot of rumours that circle the seas, it’s not true. If anyone can find this fabled hidden well, they’ll find that it is a very normal, very basic watering well. And that going up to the well and tampering with it in any way will result in the well magically dragging you in and down to the bottom to be stuck forever.
Either find the well and do some testing about this supposed rumour, or try and find the well to help others who have already been sucked into its depths. It’s probably better to destroy this dangerous well for good too, but … That will be up to you.
With the Ghoul’s Moon festivities wrapping up, it has left Eltrut in a rather messy state. The festival grounds are messy and littered with bits of Eltrut’s shed pumpkin shell and husks of pumpkins that have had all their pumpkin spice sucked out of them.
Because of this, paladins are being asked to be the cleanup crew this year. Equip yourselves with tools, buckets and bags and clean up all the old bits of pumpkin shell. Eltrut’s pumpkin shell can be also be harvested for eating or making turtle pumpkin pies out of, if that’s in the cards. And help rehydrating the dehydrated pumpkins by showering them with fresh fairy-blessed mountain water (provided in big watering cans) to bring them back to life.
Help clean up!
Someone (or someones?) is going around to the farms and ranches around Nogard and is mysteriously setting the barns on fire. No one has been able to catch the culprit just yet but it’s causing some serious concerns. With winter fast approaching, a lot of the rural areas on Nogard rely on those barns to keep their animals warm.
It’s time for the local corsairs to do what they do best. Perform a stake out and catch the dirty rats that are setting the barns on fire and give them a little Nogard-style retribution. Either hang them upside-down from the barn rafters or set their pants on fire and make them go for a nice long run.
These arsons need to be scared into place or Nogard might have some food and produce shortages, come winter. And the corsairs don't want to do extra work by stealing more food and produce when it gets too cold outside.
Being a corsair isn’t always about stealing, thieving and serious swashbuckling. Sometimes it’s about getting in touch with your creative side.
A nice old lady is offering sewing, quilting and stitching classes to corsairs only. And what better way to add to your repertoire as a corsair by learning how to wield the needle too?
She’s offering workshops where corsairs can come together and stitch together pirate flags for you and your ships and crews. Create intricate pirate flags that represent you or represent your crew. Be bold, be creative, show your true personality and let those freak flags fly.
One of the taverns on Nogard is trying to put together some fresh new drinks to put on their menu. They are looking for exciting, new and delicious mixtures and flavours that can debut on their wintertime drink menu. And they’re looking for riftfarers to help them put these drinks together and taste-test them, too. Select a few drinks, test your mixology skills and make something tantalizing and unforgettable.
Below are a few of the drink titles that they’re hoping to make. Use whatever ingredients you might think are great to make them.
Read More.
- Love Potion No. 9: Warm! Makes you feel like you’re in love.
- Sex on the Beach: A beachy, earthy drink. Like drinking a suntan!
- Not the Bees!: Makes you think your name is Nicholas Cage.
- Piña Skullada: A little dry… But coconut-y!!
- Pair of Beer Boots: We want this drink served in a pair of old boots.
- Bone-Hurting Juice: Something that can alleviate arthritis.
- Imagination Shot: Can it give the finest hallucinations?
- Toilet Wine: As it says on the … bowl.
- Loyalty Lemonade: Drinking it will make you a bit clingy!
- Molotov Cocktail: An explosive drink, in all ways.
Someone’s been playing with the alchemy books and tools again. Someone has managed to fuse together a shark and a horse, and now it's on the loose. Please kill it before it can take revenge on us all for its terrible existence?
Read More.
✦ Size: Medium
✦ Type: Aquatic?
✦ Strengths: Razor sharp teeth, strong scent for blood, lazer focused eyes, trampling hooves.
✦ Weaknesses: Lightning magic, earth magic, piercing weapons.
One of the murderous spirits from Ghoul’s Moon has stuck around for much too long. It seems to have possessed some sort of doll and is now terrorizing people. It needs to be destroyed as soon as possible.
Read More.
✦ Size: Small
✦ Type: Doll, Haunted Spirit, Undead
✦ Strengths: Sharp claws, energy-sucking spells, fire magic.
✦ Weaknesses: Light magic, exorcism skills, wolves, granny's apple pie.
Investigations into solving this strange puzzle continues! It has been determined that reflecting light off the mirrors in a certain way will create patterns on the ceiling, and these patterns must match a particular constellation that fits the creature depicted on the wall in the main chamber (image reference here). A crab and snake have been determined. What else can be found?
Refer to the mod notes for further details.
All claims to find a constellation, inquiries, and findings should be posted to the designated toplevel. Reminder, we'd like to limit one constellation per character/group, but will allow more after mid-month.
Recent findings have allowed investigators, bounty hunters, and those participating in uncovering the whale hunting scheme to more directly find target locations. However, as the month goes on and news of raids spread, the targets will start to run and abandon the sites. Time is of the essence as the noose tightens around them...
- Target buyers. Some names have been discovered in relation to this operation, but so far they seem to be aliases, and locations connected to these names are on unknown private islands, of which there are more than just a few in this vast world. It will be easier to lure them out under the pretense of selling the goods using names of captured hunters. Pretend to be a captured (or deceased) hunter and lure out one of these buyers to capture. Do not kill unless necessary—they need to be captured for questioning. It can be expected that these buyers have a lot of money, so the question is—how important are these people? (Players are free to come up with identities for these people, including which Armada. Be as outlandish or as detailed as you want!)
- Raid site locations. Some locations have coordinates figured out, so small groups are assigned to investigate and clear out any illegal operations. Some may be active, others may have been abandoned. However, should a target location be an abandoned mansion that clearly was once occupied but is now trashed, there will be some interesting finds. Not only will there be evidence of goods related to the whales, there will be crystal shards and large broken crystals as if they were once statues found. This may seem familiar...
- Continued whale support. Despite the current operation, the hunters are still daring, and the goods may be marketed at a higher price now. Continue to find and take down hunters while protecting endangered whales. Continued clean up and giving any whale remains last rites will also help earn favor from the whales, which are now helping guide groups to hard to find places.
UNDERWATER RUINS: HIDDEN CHAMBER
Comment here to claim a constellation or if you have any questions or information you'd like us to review. Please provide specific questions and what the character will try to help us formulate specific answers.
Constellation: "lizard"
oh boy this is going to be a fun trip of trial and errorQUESTIONS AND MUSINGS
Okay, here's a list of questions that Lae bid me to post here. None of these necessarily need to be answered but here goes.
- From a lore standpoint, what is known specifically about the Leviathans? Are there any records denoting where they came from or how many of them there are? Do natives only know about the more well-known Leviathans? When questioned, what sort of information would they give?
- Is there any history from before the Leviathans? Were there ever continents and societies on land as opposed to everyone living on Leviathans and scattered islands? Any stories? Legends?
- The presence of these underwater ruins that Darin's been poking around suggests that these leviathans were revered, potentially as gods or totems or something of the like. Since he's found that at last one constellation is linked to a known leviathan, he wonders just how prominently they feature in the world's lore considering most societies will name their constellations around mythological figures and beings.
- There's also the question of sustainability that Darin is wondering about. In the case of the living Leviathans, how do they sustain themselves? He's assuming the answer is some sort of "magic" but beyond that it's not like he's seen them eat.
- And finally, are there any stories of hostile leviathans? Leviathans that have fought each other in the past? Darin finds it hard to believe that every Leviathan has peacefully co-existed with the other.
Darin would love to poke around and talk to anyone he can about the Leviathans. Specifically, he'd like to talk to those who act as caretakers. He'd start on Eltrut since it's where he lives and Eltrut. Is there any way to speak with any of the Primary Keepers since the councils are indisposed due to incompetent bureaucracy?
Besides that, I'm in no rush to find anything other than breadcrumbs here and there but my intent would be to use any info he finds to potentially have him make some MANTA board quests for others to engage with.
no subject
1) There's both a lot and a little known about them, and that mostly depends on which leviathans. The most well known ones, such as Eltrut, Nogard, and Elah, will have more information about their history dating all the way back to the Flood and some time before due to records that were maintained since then. But for the others and more generally, especially for anything before the Flood, such history or "knowledge" is mostly in myths and legends. Even the records of the major leviathans is riddled with contradictory tales, and there's always the question of what's factually correct or what was fabricated or altered over the millennia.
For those asking about the main leviathans, they'll be happy to give information such as their diet, living habits, temperaments, great achievements and feats—things that wouldn't really be considered "secret" or unusual.
2) There were indeed continents and societies that lived on them, as well as other leviathans. However, they were all destroyed in the great flood, something that some call it akin to "divine punishment" by the Ancient Leviathans that were dismayed by wars and corruption that plagued the lands. There are records, but not much that was "original," and the stories are always skewed one way or another, so it's hard to tell what's true or not. Because it happened so long ago, a lot of people today now even debate if it was true or not, however the recent appearance of Norhpip confirming the history has mostly settled that debate.
3) They were very revered and prominent, treated akin to gods. Hence their actions mentioned above. There's also more to it, but... Well, that will be revealed later.
4) It is indeed magic energy that is their main source of sustenance, but they will happily consume other foods like tasty snacks (especially given their size). However they don't really need to eat, if that makes sense. They won't perish if magic suddenly disappeared..
5) Oh yes, there are quite a number and in fact one tried to attack Eltrut before. It just doesn't happen too often, especially these days. But they do exist, and the leviathans themselves try to stay a safe distance away as they don't want their people threatened.
6) The Keepers will be HAPPY to gush about their leviathan! So yes, go visit them and leave a donation. They may even tell more fun tidbits that may or may not be useful.
Constellation - the one that looks like a horse
Questions:
1. Is there an Underwater Chamber 101 deal that Roxas can get to be caught up with everything? What's been found, methods used, current clues, etc.
2. Would searching around the island where the pegasus were or looking in the Paladin archives yield anything?
3. Are there any relevant threads/info areas that I (as a player) should read to get caught up since I'm kinda jumping into this feet first in the middle of it all? I hope it's cool and I'm not just messing up a plot or anything.
+1
Re: Constellation - the one that looks like a horse
As for your questions:
Re: Constellation - the one that looks like a horse
Is it depicted in a certain way? More filled out, pointing at something, interacting with something, etc? Is there something similar about the temples?
Are there any legends around flying horses that might be connected to it?
no subject
In general, however, any constellation imagery would have the typical "artist rendition" where there is a more filled out illustration over the simpler constellation. This would, indeed, be a horned horse. However, it is NOT a unicorn--the horn is curved and will look more like a kirin instead. Some depictions will have wings, others may not but will depict the creature flying with clouds at its hooves. The constellation will have the lines that suggest it may have wings.
As for the temples, while they'll have their own individual styles and embellishments, overall they are fairly similar to each other with clear reverence to all things equine. Not just winged horses, but unicorns, normal horses, even seahorses. One temple may focus on one, another on something different, or one might have multiple. Again we leave it up to player imagination from this point as the finer details aren't so important for this.
For legends, YES there would be plenty of legends! And like others, you are welcome to come up with any you think would be neat. One general theme is that the white steed is the harbinger of hope and a black one is the bringer of despair.
no subject
Are there any specific clues or hints that Roxas should be picking up on or is that something to be left to player decision?
no subject
no subject
no subject
There can be a special music box that is mentioned or referenced a few times in some of the records found around the temples. It is considered a special relic of some kind, though what exactly is not known (and will not be determined until later). Fortunately, there is enough information to locate the temple that houses the music box. The challenge is getting there.
Luck so has it that the temple in question has yet to be reached as it is floating higher up than the others and even using the clouds have proved difficult. So it's been left alone for the time being. Roxas and his partner will have to figure out way up there, and we'll go ahead and pre-approve any means you come up with!
The second issue is that those who did manage to fly up there notice that the building and island are unstable, looking as if it could crumble if disturbed too roughly. They are also met with giant webs and large spiders. While throwing a bomb or something in there would get rid of the creatures easily, it would also threaten the integrity of the temple which looks as if it's being held together by those webs. So extra care will need to be taken.
Once inside, the music box is caught in the webs somewhere with an even larger spider lurking inside. Either sneak in and find the music box without disturbing the spiders, or they have to fight.
no subject
Thank you!
FISH
1. What would lighting up all of the constellations do? As in, does something open up?
2. Is there some sort of significance to those particular constellations?
Re: FISH
1) Have to get all the constellations to find out 👀
2) Sort of, but that's for everyone to figure out 👀