Long Game 105: Obliteration

[|TJ| he/him]

Me and Ash were at the Lighthouse together. We picked up a family portrait of some kind lol

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Here’s a full outline of my trip:

1. Arrived at the topographical anomaly 
   1. With the Biologist
2. Never described in previous missions 
   1. disc of stone protruding from the ground 
   2. on top of the disc
      1. rectangular opening
      2. spiral staircase leading down
         1. Leads to landings with arched doorways 
         2. No other significance 
   3. Re-described as a tunnel on map
      1. done crudely, but the surveyor will fix it at base camp
      2. Surveyor: were you notified?
3. I stopped descending 
   1. The biologist continued alone
      1. Returns with samples
      2. Quivil: What did you retrieve?

idk why it’s so big but I can’t change it on mobile

Thank you to @The Unknown Area for PMing me the necessary markup

Edited April 27, 2025 by KelsierApologist
size

[Quivil]

1 hour ago, KelsierApologist said:

@Quivil and I went to the Anomaly. Quivil, could we compare the basic facts of our GMPMs for any discrepancies?

Sure. Give me a moment, I'll edit it in.

@KelsierApologist Is it okay if I reference your list and match up the points (and add anything else I find significant, as well as anything different)?

Edited April 27, 2025 by Quivil
Ed1t: Question.

[Ashbringer he/him]

… huh. So how closely are we sticking to the plot here?

I went to the Lighthouse with TJ and found squat.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

30 minutes ago, Quivil said:

Sure. Give me a moment, I'll edit it in.

@KelsierApologist Is it okay if I reference your list and match up the points (and add anything else I find significant, as well as anything different)?

Sure!

[OoklaApologist She/her]

2 hours ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

I went to the village with somebody else and we didn't find anything useful this time but we could next time. Though we could have also unleashed the dopplegangers as the people were like shadows there 

Who exactly did you go with?

24 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

… huh. So how closely are we sticking to the plot here?

I went to the Lighthouse with TJ and found squat.

I’m wondering, if two people go to a location, does only one person get something?

@Hoid Slayer, and @RoyalBeeMage, care to comment? 

Sorry for the double post

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

1 minute ago, KelsierApologist said:

Who exactly did you go with?

28 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

I don't know, I was only told that a second person went with me. I'd like to know who went with me though.

[Quivil]

Imma put the summary in a spoilerbox so it'll be shorter, k? (I'm also on mobile. We'll see how this goes.)

Spoiler

1. I arrive at the Topographical Anomaly.
   1. With the Psychologist (without whom I would not have gone anywhere bc I forgot to put anything in my GMPM. Schade.)
   2. Anomaly was hinted at but never truly mentioned in previous team's reports.
2. Anomaly consists of short, cylindrical pedestal.
   1. Rectangular opening in the pedestal
   2. Spiral stairs downwards
   3. Cracked, once-white (I'm guessing) walls.
   4. Every so often, landings with arched doorways branch off from the Topographical Anomaly Tunnel Inverted Tower.
3. Psychologist stops, I continue alone. I descend a few more landings.
   1. There is writing on the wall.
      1. Writing references many jealous searchers, searching for --- despite their continued failure.
      2. Sentence never seems to end. I stop reading before seeing what the searchers seek.
   2. Writing is textured. I look closer.
      1. The writing is, in fact, fungus.
      2. It spits spores at me when I look closer.
      3. This, and the Tunnel Inverted Tower in general, give me the heebie-jeebies and I skedaddle.
4. I discover the “Return Anew” wincon.
   1. I don't have said wincon. Others will.
   2. I would guess that the doppelgangers get the “Return Anew” wincon.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

4 minutes ago, Quivil said:

(without whom I would not have gone anywhere bc I forgot to put anything in my GMPM. Schade.)

You said you were going to the anomaly. I believed you. 

Anyway, the spores are pretty sus, but the fact that you admitted that they existed means you probably don't have Return Anew. 

At least I think

Can you tell me about the sample you collected? Do you know anything more about it?

[Quivil]

Remember, the italics are flavor text.

Though I suppose you could say the spores that got on (and, likely, in) me are a sample (of sorts), the only official sample I collected was - I think - the knowledge of the Return Anew wincon.

Edit: And no, I don't know anything about the spores other than that they came from creepy, semi-sensical-sentence-shaped fungus.

Edited April 27, 2025 by Quivil

[OoklaApologist She/her]

Weird. I definitely expected them to at least match up. 

[Quivil]

They mostly did. And if you assume a thing or two, they entirely do.

[Ashbringer he/him]

So we are sticking to the plot. Interesting.

@Quivil, any insight into whether anyone currently does have the Return Anew wincon, or if they simply will have it? Or could have it?

And have fun being Brightness 

[Quivil]

In non-italicized text, I was told both that I don't have the Return Anew wincon and that others will. I don't know if that's a current-type "will," like "they will by the time you get back to camp today," or a future-type "will," like "nobody has this wincon yet but just you wait."

[Ashbringer he/him]

@RoyalBeeMage / @Hoid Slayer, where’d ya go?

[Quivil]

Based on how TUA phrased it, I got the impression that it'll be a specific person who gets the Return Anew wincon first instead of it being assigned randomly.

Also --

11 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

And have fun being Brightness 

[request for explanation]?

Edited April 27, 2025 by Quivil
spelling (added an -s which didn't change the meaning))

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

11 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

@RoyalBeeMage / @Hoid Slayer, where’d ya go?

One of them went to the village with me I think, not one hundred percent certain on that.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

2 hours ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

I went to the village with somebody else and we didn't find anything useful this time but we could next time. Though we could have also unleashed the dopplegangers as the people were like shadows there 

I went to the village. It was interesting. Filled with people frozen mid moment as plants… maybe victims of the return anew

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

Just now, RoyalBeeMage said:

I went to the village. It was interesting. Filled with people frozen mid moment as plants… maybe victims of the return anew

Yeah it was weird. Did you actually find anything? Cuz I didn't but someone else might if they go visit again.

[Quivil]

Question. Could the rest of y'all also mayyybe summarize your trips in a longer fashion, kind of like Polly did?

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

7 minutes ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

Yeah it was weird. Did you actually find anything? Cuz I didn't but someone else might if they go visit again.

I was told that mechanically nothing happened 

 

1 minute ago, Quivil said:

Question. Could the rest of y'all also mayyybe summarize your trips in a longer fashion, kind of like Polly did?

Spoiler

  - me and surveyor arrived at abandoned village 

         - surveyor had large detached maps that was specially mentioned to be surprising to me

  - all the buildings in the village look like they have been decaying for far longer than the supposed 30 years that area x has exsisted for

the buildings are collapsed and destroyed 

 

that was apparently not the strangest bit…

there were people… not real people. They were as like people as a mannequin was. 
they were everywhere. They were plants that had grown into the shape of people mid stride 

 

I now feel uneasy 

 

I collect a sample for the biologist

 

nothing mechanically changes 

Sorry for the bad formatting 

@Quivil Roy told the biologist his experience and handed over the strange plant samples to see if they could do anything with it

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Alright

Sorry everyone for the delay (and the inactivity last round, I had life stuff going on)

Adam entered the communal area as the sun set shaken, but confident. He picked at his food alone as the others began to explain their daily experiences, his mind elsewhere. Adam had a... different approach to investigation than most people. It made him good; but it was also why many of his employers were often frustrated with him. He worked off of his feelings. And today, Adam just hadn't felt like doing any investigating.

Instead, he had stayed at the base camp. He had taken a walk, thought, and finally, he had gone into the cabin of another.

Ever since his session last night, Adam had been intrigued by the psychologist. And so today, while the others were out exploring, he had stayed behind and gone through the doctor's tent, searching for anything of interest about his co-worker. While the thrill of the experience was a little much for him, what he had found didn't particularly alarm him.

So... yeah. I stayed behind and snooped in Polly's tent (sorry Polly, but you are objectively the most dangerous seeming person here). I wasn't planning on sharing this, but since the Return Anew wincon was only discovered now, I think that likely means that we were all on the same side in the first round.

I don't want to share exactly what type of stuff I found, cause I don't want to give away the extent of my power for obvious reasons, but suffice it to say Polly isn't as dangerous as we all think she is, or at least, that's the impression I got from my investigation.

He listened with interest to the discussions of the so called doppelgangers, in particular the comments of the Biologist. While Adam did find it possible that the Biologist would be so open regarding her findings even as a doppelganger, either as an elaborate clearing tactic or through sheer naivete, he found it more likely that she was innocent thus far.

As for the others... it seemed these doppelgangers would only be active from this moment forth. That meant people couldn't be judged for their actions in the past; only for their behavior in the future.

Adam wasn't particularly affected by the revelation of the existence of the doppelgangers. They were told strange things would happen here; he had expected something similar. If anything, it was a little thrilling. Like a delivery on a promise.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

1 hour ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

Cuz I didn't but someone else might if they go visit again.

You’ve said that twice now. Was there anything in your PM that made you think that?

1 hour ago, Hoid Slayer said:

sorry Polly, but you are objectively the most dangerous seeming person here

muahaha

Anyway, what you’re saying is that your ability affects tent searches?

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

50 minutes ago, KelsierApologist said:

You’ve said that twice now. Was there anything in your PM that made you think that?

muahaha

Anyway, what you’re saying is that your ability affects tent searches?

...

shoot

wait

so not everyone's ability affects tent searches?

I guess that makes sense, and I'm just stupid 

[OoklaApologist She/her]

33 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

...

shoot

wait

so not everyone's ability affects tent searches?

I guess that makes sense, and I'm just stupid 

Yeah, for example, I can make someone do whatever I’m doing