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escordviooc2024-12-01 12:19 pm
« manta board: december 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.
For this month's board update, the quests have been updated to reflect progress from last month, with some carrying over as is. To claim a constellation for the Underwater Temple Ruins, comment to this top level.
If you have any questions, comment to this entry.
This posting is listed in big bold swirly letters on all Manta Boards:
AHOY! HELP WANTED. THINK YOU’VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE FACE OF ESCORDVI’S VERY FIRST ADVENT CALENDAR? POST YOUR GLAMOROUS PICTURES TODAY. POST THEM NOW!
A group of collaborators is looking to put together Escordvi’s very first annual advent calendar. For its inaugural year, they want to compile a collection of pictures of beautiful riftfarers to represent each month. These pictures can range anywhere from beauty shots, to thirsty body shots, to tasteful fashion poses. Anything goes!
Have your character post their own (or their friends, enemies, boyfriends, girlfriends, dogs) photos to this network post. NPCS can also be used to post photos. Then feel free to comment around on the photos with which month or season you think would suit them best. Or just comment about how much you like the photos. Who’s hot? Who’s not? Or about how horrified you are that someone posted yours! Any and all feedback is needed so they can create the best calendar ever!
At the end of the month, an advent calendar for 2025 will be created! If there are enough submissions, there will be two calendars. For ease of use, the calendar has been broken down into the four seasons so that multiple themed shots can be posted. Get posting!
It’s the season for gift giving. This year, there is a charity drive happening to create fuzzy magical gifts for the less fortunate. Including the rescued victims of the crystal infection situation a few months back. What better way to cheer up some sad faces by making them a special handcrafted gift for the winter?
Gifts have to be made using special yarn to crochet or knit into toys, plushies, blankets, mittens, hats and more.
But there is a trick. The items must be created with a partner, meaning that one person holds one knitting needle and one person holds the other one. Or in the case of a crochet needle, one person must be holding the yarn in place while the other guides the needle. If partners can pull off this two-way effort, the resulting item will be imbued with a magical fluffy warmth that will leave the item bright, alive and sparkling. The perfect gift!
Feel free to make extras for your gift giving as well!
A local horse ranch wants to give out free sleigh rides this year but is having a serious issue of … having no horses. The horses have escaped and they don’t have enough time to get a hold of more horses for the winter season.
They’re looking for others to bring in their own creatures to train them to pull a sleigh, bells and all. Bring in your beasts no matter what shape or breed or creature they are and train them to pull a sleigh around a snow field.
Alternatively, help train the local beasts they have cornered and train them into perfect sleigh-pulling companions. There are gryphons, chocobos, feathery pegasi, capybaras and more available to try and train. Although, no one guarantees those will be agreeable beasts. Don’t get hurt!
Once the beasts have been trained up, go for a nice sleigh ride around Eltrut’s recently snowed on snowy mountain paths.
A cute tradition has started this year that is all the rage. People are going out to look for the prettiest and shiniest pebble they can find and are gifting it to their most precious person.
The tale is that if you gift someone a special shiny pebble that you found all on your own, that it makes a promise that you’ll be with that person for the rest of your life.
So, go out and find that special shiny pebble and gift it to someone else. No one knows if it will create a real lasting spell but at least it’ll be a cute gift. Also, who said it has to be a pebble? Why not a gemstone?
With winter festivities in full swing, a group of gunpowder makers are looking to come out with a big bang.
They are looking for anyone well versed in magic to give their new special gunpowder fireworks a special kick. The compound is already extremely explosive and dangerous, but they need the gunpowder fireworks to really blast off with a big show this year. Imbue the gunpowder with colourful magic and test the gunpowder to see if it explodes in the sky with brilliant shades of magic and magical effects.
If it works, you’ll be well compensated for the hard work! Just be careful when you’re setting off the fireworks…
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...
A strange little rowboat has washed up on Elah’s shore with no passengers riding along inside it. Upon closer inspection, some of the patrolling paladins have noticed the boat is basically empty save for a single glowing blue spherical stone found tucked under one of the seats.
While nothing happens when it’s touched, the stone does have a strange electrical static to it. And when held, it seems to absorb all magical energy the longer that it is. And stranger still, a faint incomprehensible song can be heard coming from it after a while as well…
It seems dangerous and the paladins aren’t sure they want this stone added to the archive records in case it affects the other magical relics that are stored there. Work together to destroy the strange stone without the use of magic and be done with it!
If the stone is able to be crushed and destroyed, the person who destroyed it will be able to hear a faint creature-like screeching in the back of their head. Then it will be quiet.
The paladin conservatory is fostering a school of adolescent hammerhead sharks. They’re growing fast and the conservatory needs help with building the sharks' confidence so that they will be well-rounded young adults (and confident oceanic hunters!) when they’re returned to the ocean.
Paladins are needed to come swim with the young hammerhead sharks and to show them how to be real hammerheads. That means headbutting them as hard as you can and withstanding any headbutting you get in return. Work with a partner so that if one of you passes out before the lessons are done, they’ll be able to fish you out of the training pool.
Nothing better than a hammerhead shark that knows how to use its hammerhead!
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 here, 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. And the corsairs don't want to do extra work by stealing more food and produce when it gets too cold outside.
A very rich corsair is throwing a very high-end holiday party! And it seems everyone is invited but you. How rude? The corsairs that aren’t invited (that’s you) want to sneak into the party and enjoy all the shrimp cocktails, tins of fish caviar and mugs of frothy grog that can be had.
But the guards at the door are only letting in married pairs. That means in order to get into this little party and enjoy it, pairs will have to act like a fake married couple in order to get in. Get some matching rings, pretend to smooch on each other and giggle and bat your eyelashes at each other until you’re at that horderves table!
If the two of you are already married? Well… That’s just good for you. So happy for you. Must be nice.
A small island with a very small and homey village on it has appeared near Nogard’s shores. They are so small that they don’t often receive any visitors, let alone corsairs. So maybe that’s why no one has noticed the island until now? But upon discovery, the little village has put up a posting on the Manta Board for corsairs to come show off their talents on their little island. They’re hoping that it will be a bit of a tourist attraction to bring other travellers to their little island home.
All they ask is that all acts during the show are done in pairs and that all acts have something to do with the sea. So put on a little play about mermaids or sing a song about the rolling tides. Or shoot a bullet into a shrimp-shaped target. Or even throw sharp daggers at your partner who’s dressed as an eight legged octopus! Whatever you decide to show off, make it fishy!
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.
There's something special in the air, a feeling of warmth and excitement. In the last two weeks of the month, two forms take to the night to deliver small presents, delicious treats, and good tidings to the people of Eltrut. One is large with deep, blue hair and is said to be able to scale buildings with relative ease. The other, slight with a strange ability to transport objects backwards through space. They've been glimpsed wearing festive costumes by the light of the moon and bringing copious amounts of holiday cheer by leaving presents and fixing things up around the homes and apartments of Eltrut. This sets an unfair expectation for the rest of us who can't make homemade presents and treats and have to rely on capitalism to show our love! Bring these two Saccharine Saints, these Holiday Hoodlums, these Merry Marauders to justice quick, before we all look bad by comparison!
Read More.
✦ Size: Human
✦ Type: Humanoid
✦ Strengths: ???
✦ Weaknesses: ???
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. We still have three unclaimed constellations and they are up for grabs by anyone, even if they had worked on a constellation. Still only one at a time!
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.
Re: UNDERWATER RUINS: HIDDEN CHAMBER
Cid and Darin will also look into the fire breathing one in the top corner.
Cid and G'raha will poke at the weird flying one.