EVENT: Game Start

[glencolans]

EVENT: GAME START

Welcome to Glencola Reef! It's looking to be a beautiful day here on the island - the temperature is mild in spite of it being early morning, the sun just barely cresting over the hazy blue horizon to the east, and the tide is slowly going out no matter what coast you woke up on. But for those of you waking up on the island's shores, soaked to the bone with no idea how you got here (or where here is, exactly), this probably is not a pleasant experience. Thankfully none of you appear to have found yourselves dropped into especially dangerous circumstances, which should give all of you time to assess this new situation and the people that are struggling through it with you.

However, this relative tranquility is unlikely to last long. For those of you traveling through tiles III, VII, or XV, the idle noise of waves and wildlife will be interrupted by the blaring of a crackly message from somewhere in the jungle: UNAUTHORIZED TRANSPORT DETECTED. VIOLATORS WILL BE DETAINED. The message will repeat three times at the start of every even hour, then go silent.

While trying to investigate this strange warning, you might also pick up the sounds of a transient humming or buzzing noise from somewhere nearby. Tile XV seems to have it the worst, with the sound starting and fading and starting up again almost constantly through the day. What could be causing this noise? And is it...following you?

This event will run from IC Morning 001 through IC Night 005, although it may end early based on character actions during this time. More details will be revealed in search requests in the specified areas, but you can use this post for questions, event-related discoveries, and plotting if you'd like!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[glencolans]

Questions about the event? Ask them here!

[aluminumandash]

Arrival questions (sorry if this is more suited to a search request!): What kind of trash is on the beach Rust’s arriving on? Would he find any tracks (human or otherwise) in the vicinity, once he…got out of the water?

Event questions: Does the voice in the message have a particular accent? Is it mechanical?

Do the wildlife react to it in any way that would be observable from Rust’s position (birds taking flight, etc)? If so, could he use that to narrow down where the message is coming from?

If Rust used the walkie to say something along the lines of “checking progress on unauthorized vehicle,” (probably during one of the off hours) would there be any reply?

Thanks, and sorry for the millions of questions!

[glencolans]

Thank you for the questions! Answering in order:

• The trash is a mix of artificial and natural items; specifics will have to be determined via search request, yes. Same goes for potential prints, although I will say that if he does find any, none are distinctly human footprint-like.
• Mechanical. Actually, very similar in tone and timbre to the voice that comes out of the walkie-talkies when they do voice-to-text.
• The local wildlife seems very disturbed by the announcements, but the only direction he could get out of any bird flight/fleeing animals is that they're leaving the inner jungle.
• Rust's message would play publicly over the network, but aside from any replies that he receives from the rest of the characters, he will get nothing from the automated announcer.

[aluminumandash]

/rubs hands together

Thanks very much!

[salamanca]

Arrival question! Please let me know if this would be better-suited to an FAQ instead of an event post...

If Lalo were to let his flip phone dry and clean it, would it display the/a time? Would the time it displayed seem like it might be accurate based on things like position of the sun in the sky, etc, or would it seem off/wrong?

Thank you!

[glencolans]

Interesting question! This is specific enough that I'll keep it here for now, but I might link to it in future if other people ask.

His phone would display whatever time it was just before he woke up here on the beach. It will seem to keep time "correctly" in relationship to the original displayed time for as long as it has battery life, but if it's ever switched off and on again, he'll notice pretty quickly that it isn't keeping track of time while the battery isn't running.

[salamanca]

Thank you! Very helpful.

One more phone-related question: would using the flashlight app to travel at night give any increased visibility, or is it not powerful enough to make a difference?

Just curious!

[glencolans]

The flashlight app might help him see in his immediate vicinity better at night - perhaps while searching for something, or to avoid treacherous terrain - but it would not be powerful enough to increase the standard travel visibility, no.

[salamanca]

Thanks! That's what I figured, but wanted to check.

[hyakuoku]

How many frequencies are accessible on the radios? Is there anything of note being broadcast on any of them? Senku won't have heard the unauthorised transport announcement in the jungle since he's not near there but he will absolutely fiddle around with the radio.

[glencolans]

These devices seem to operate more like simple walkie-talkies rather than adjustable ham radios/complex two-way transceivers, in spite of their appearance. They don't have a frequency dial, nor do they display any frequency/channel information on them anywhere. The fact that characters can broadcast messages to all other callsigns seems to imply some shared frequency, though, with perhaps some kind of alternate frequency channels or encryption method to make the private message system work. Either way, the only broadcasts Senku will receive will be the messages from other characters in public conversations.

[hyakuoku]

Aha, got it. Thank you!