Plotting Post: Land of the Dead
PORT: Land of the Dead
Dates: 11/17-11/20
GET YOUR GUNS READY, BECAUSE WE'RE HEADING INTO A SETTLEMENT THAT'S BEEN OVERRUN WITH THE LIVING DEAD--
No, sorry, zombie enthusiasts, this isn't actually a George Romero port. What's actually happening is this:
We're visiting an afterlife. Specifically, this afterlife:
Welcome to the Land of the Dead
That's right, it's a Grim Fandango port, although you don't have to have played the game to get it. This is going to be a slightly weird port with a new twist, so be sure to read everything before plotting!
BACKGROUND
The Admiral's decided that everybody could use some R&R after last month's ordeal. He's set sail for a perfectly normal, peaceful port, just in time for some Dia de los Muertos celebrations because we're time traveling back to November 2, shut up. That's right, it's time to PARTY!
Except that once people depart, Rex, Perry and Ana are going to do this to the Barge and ruin everything. Once the Barge is partially-destroyed, everyone's link to the world is ripped away, annnnd you'll all find yourselves dead.
Like, totally dead. Luckily, that's where the fun begins. (and no, this isn't an ANNNNGST GRIMDARK port, so don't worry :V)
WHY ARE THE NANOMITES BACK?
(You can skip this part if you don't really care about the why's of it, since honestly, nanomites are completely secondary to the port itself. They're just a plot device to get the ball rolling. I just thought I'd explain the background for interested parties since there will need to be a quick takedown.
THE SHORT OF IT: a wizard Flagg did it.)
Sometime after Mirrorverse, Rex started seriously looking into escape again, because screw the Barge, it sucks. He's contemplated past escape attempts, trying to figure out what worked and what didn't, and he came to the conclusion that the Barge itself is what keeps thwarting them. After all, it pulls people back to it, or it follows them across time and space. So, the only way to keep it from interfering in escape? Is to completely eradicate the Barge.
WITH NANOMITES, BECAUSE NANOMITES SOLVE ALL OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS.
Of course, it was only a pipe dream, since he was pretty much banned from touching any nanomite equipment ever again. It was all locked up in the lab beyond his reach. But he considered it, vocally (in private conversations to Perry), repeatedly, and that caught Flagg's attention. Always up for a little mischief, he started unlocking obstacles for Rex, compelling him to follow the whistling up to the warden-only areas and into the lab...
And, well, he knew it was sketchy as hell, but Rex can never say no to mad science. So, he started working in secret, late at night when nobody was around, and the "Admiral" tampered with security to make everything seem hunky dory. (Note: I did send a message to all lab folks about this after it was cleared with the mods, just so they weren't blindsided by this. The mods and I figured Admiral Ex Machina would be the best way to do things so that none of the wardens were shoehorned into incompetence.)
Once he had his makeshift bomb built, Rex just sort of hid it in his room for a rainy day, longing for a particle accelerator to actually weaponize the damn thing. Luckily, there's a particle acceleration lab in Paris, and the rest is history.
So, yeah, the reason why Rex has been super critical of everyone who took Flagg's offer? Was because he was projecting his own insecurity over potentially making a deal with the devil, himself.
OOC reasons for all of this? Rex needs to learn that he can't just use science to smash things he can't control. He's learned that mind control is bad and all that, but he still thinks that Might Makes Right (especially when you have science on your side), and this is going to make him realize that no, even if he's just lashing out at inanimate objects instead of people, he's still taking really stupid, destructive paths that don't actually help anybody, including himself. Sure, we could do this port without nanomites eating the Barge, but character conflict is sometimes necessary to push inmates past their final hurdles.
ANYWAY. Now you have the convoluted background for the nanomites, so we can move on.
ONCE THE BOMB GOES OFF...
The nanomite explosion is going to be a brief event to kick off the port, and it's not really a part of the port itself. In game-time, it should only take an hour max. What's going to happen is: everyone gets off the Barge, and Rex detonates the bomb. He and his pals are going to try to make a run for it, and he'll need to be stopped before the nanomites actually devour the entirety of the Barge. Luckily, the nanomites have a kill switch (since otherwise, they'd just eat everything forever). Rex will push the kill switch if:
1. He's caught and somebody takes it from him and does it themselves/forces him to do it.
2. He's talked down.
3. If those two fail, he'll stop it himself if he realizes it'll eat the TARDIS. HE LIKES HER.
Regardless, the damage is going to be done to the deck and large swathes of the hull, more severe than it was in Masterworld (where the Barge was damaged from a crash, not actually getting large chunks of it eaten away). Although the Barge isn't completely destroyed, it's enough to sever the Barge's reality-bending ties and pull everybody into the Land of the Dead.
In order to restore the Barge and get back to the land of the living (or... relatively living), the Admiral's going to be sending everybody on FETCH QUESTS. Each character will be tasked to retrieve something from port which will be used by the Admiral to fix the Barge. Why?
BECAUSE THIS IS AN ADVENTURE GAME PORT, THAT'S WHY.
Anyway, the objects can range from the practical (metal rod) to something completely nonsensical (a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle) because that's how this genre rolls. You guys can pick what the Admiral's asked you to find, and you can play out your misadventures retrieving this object, since you'll likely have to combine a bunch of other silly bits and bobs to give to some guy, so he'll give you a balloon, which you can then pop to scare some pigeons, who were guarding a loaf of bread you needed to...
Well, you get the picture.
SETTING
Here's a playlist to get you in the mood.
The Land of the Dead is where the recently departed go to make their journey to the Ninth Underworld, their final resting place. It's a perilous, four-year journey, but luckily, good souls are given a leg up over the others. Depending on the life you've led, you can qualify for a nice car, passage on a ship or, if you're particularly saintly, a ticket to the Number Nine train, which will shoot you to the Ninth Underworld in minutes. Many people are out of luck and end up having to take the journey on foot. Most never make it, either dying (yes, the dead can die) along the way or giving up/getting sidetracked and making a life for themselves in the Land of the Dead. Aside from the lost souls inhabiting the Land of the Dead, there are also demons, who have been summoned to perform specific, often menial tasks, like car repair, plumbing, things like that.
And what's the Land of the Dead itself like? A sort of film noir world filled with crime, corruption, danger and Aztec-inspired art deco.
Be sure to read the Grim Fandango wiki entry for some more details on the setting. There's also the locations category on the Grim Fandango wikia, which provides an overview of the three main places your character can venture during port. The only significant difference between port as we'll be doing it versus the game itself? Is that everybody, including port locals, looks human, not like a calaca figure as awesome as they are. Also, we'll be using our own NPCs, rather than characters from the game.
We'll be starting in the port (like, an actual port, not a Barge port) city of Rubacava. You can see a bunch of screenshots of it here, here and here. It was once a sleepy, foggy city without much action to speak of, but these days it's got a pretty active nightlife, complete with gambling and a seedy underbelly of crime. Here's an example of one of Rubacava's clubs. And here's another example, showing some of the architecture and the overall feel of the setting. Also, yeah, there are cat tracks. You can bet on cat races. AND ANOTHER SETTING VIDEO. This is the high roller's lounge.
Outside of Rubacava is the Petrified Forest. It's a hazardous place, full of uh, giant spider-bats and evil beavers. So, if your character heads out to the forest, be prepared to outwit the critters.
Beyond the Petrified Forest is the city of El Marrow, which is just a big city full of art deco-style buildings. IDK, IT'S A CITY, FOLKS.
WAIT, DIDN'T YOU SAY WE'RE ALL DEAD?
Oh yeah, everyone's dead. Super dead. No pulse or vital signs dead. No powers, magic, anything dead. In fact, if you get a cut? You won't heal. The plus side is you won't bleed, either, or really feel any pain. You can lose and arm and keep on with your bad self. This does mean that everybody is effectively human (or, uh, UNDEAD) for port. If you're a cyborg or something, you can come up with a creative alternative, but everyone's basically undead for the duration of port.
However, the dead CAN die. You can be eaten by monsters or killed by your fellow lost souls via "sprouting." Instead of using bullets to kill, the criminals of the Land of the Dead carry sproutella-filled darts, which basically turn the dead into fertilizer.
At least it's a pretty way to go.
If you get sprouted in port, you're dead until it ends. Once port's over, all port-related injuries go away and AS A SPECIAL BONUS, nobody who dies in port will have any Death Toll to deal with.
THINGS TO DO IN PORT
Aside from trying to interact with the locals to get the items the Admiral's requested, your character can also get involved in the criminal underbelly (or, alternately, fight crime), try to escape further into port (through the Petrified Forest or one of the ships leaving Rubicava), seek out the Ninth Underworld for your final resting place. Or, hell, have an existential crisis. It's a noir world, so there are conspiracies afoot, which you guys are welcome to craft out.
Also, there will need to be a tiny takedown for Rex, Perry and Ana at the beginning of port, but after that, you're free to do what you want with it.
You really don't have to play out the Admiral's fetch quest; it's just there to add an extra element to port. It can be assumed, or you could turn it into an epic adventure. As for getting involved with the locals...
PORT NPCs
Since we're in the Land of the Dead, we're doing something special for NPCs this go-around. FORMER BARGE CHARACTERS CAN RETURN AS NPCs. Restrictions are as follows:
Former Bargemates lingering around the Land of the Dead may be attempting to get to the Ninth Underworld or they, like many others, have given up on the journey and have decided to just make due. If they find out the Barge is here, they may try to escape back onto it, or maybe they'll sit back and brag about how much more awesome the Land of the Dead is.
EXAMPLE: You can run into Eddie Brock as a cab driver in El Marrow. He'll rant about how much HE HATES THOSE GODDAMN SPIDERBATS IN THE PETRIFIED FOREST RGAHRGAHGG (because he picked up an irrational hate for the Bats on the Barge :V), and he may pick fights with some people.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS IN NO WAY SETTING UP A DEFINITE, "CANON" AFTERLIFE FOR CHARACTERS WHO POOF OFF THE BARGE. The Land of the Dead is intended to be one of many afterlives, just as the Barge is one of many. However, to avoid characters getting broken beyond repair by seeing somebody who they really shouldn't, players will be able to opt-out characters they don't want to see, just like in Fourth Wall Day.
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE ANY FORMER BARGEMATES/DON'T WANT TO BRING ANY?
You can make OCs to interact with people; just make sure they FIT IN THE SETTING. If you're making an NPC for port, please give an overview about them and say which role you'd like them to fill. The goal is to make this port as populated with unique characters as possible, so NPCs are going to be a little less disposable/generic in this port than in some of the others. (Although, naturally, you still have leeway for throwaway NPCs like "GUY ON THE STREET")
While you can hash out ideas here, there's going to be a separate plotting post specifically so people can claim their NPCs, whether they're Bargemates or OCs. Basically, ONCE YOU KNOW WHO YOU WANT TO PLAY, you can toss it into that particular post. I figure a separate post for that will make it easier to keep track of who's playing who.
SO THAT'S IT.
Sorry for the super convoluted post. Hopefully it makes sense. I'M SURE THERE ARE GAPING PLOT HOLES, so feel free to ask any questions now!
EDIT: No characters are keeping their powers so just to be clear, that means vampires and other undead folk will not have powers either.
EDIT PART DEUX: Although it will be heavily damaged, the Barge itself is still going to be inhabitable during port. It just won't be able to move. So your character can totally stay on board the Barge and laugh at everyone scrabbling around for fetch quest items or whatever if that's what you want them to do!
PLOTTING THREADS:
Dates: 11/17-11/20
GET YOUR GUNS READY, BECAUSE WE'RE HEADING INTO A SETTLEMENT THAT'S BEEN OVERRUN WITH THE LIVING DEAD--
No, sorry, zombie enthusiasts, this isn't actually a George Romero port. What's actually happening is this:
We're visiting an afterlife. Specifically, this afterlife:
Click to viewWelcome to the Land of the Dead
That's right, it's a Grim Fandango port, although you don't have to have played the game to get it. This is going to be a slightly weird port with a new twist, so be sure to read everything before plotting!
BACKGROUND
The Admiral's decided that everybody could use some R&R after last month's ordeal. He's set sail for a perfectly normal, peaceful port, just in time for some Dia de los Muertos celebrations because we're time traveling back to November 2, shut up. That's right, it's time to PARTY!
Except that once people depart, Rex, Perry and Ana are going to do this to the Barge and ruin everything. Once the Barge is partially-destroyed, everyone's link to the world is ripped away, annnnd you'll all find yourselves dead.
Like, totally dead. Luckily, that's where the fun begins. (and no, this isn't an ANNNNGST GRIMDARK port, so don't worry :V)
WHY ARE THE NANOMITES BACK?
(You can skip this part if you don't really care about the why's of it, since honestly, nanomites are completely secondary to the port itself. They're just a plot device to get the ball rolling. I just thought I'd explain the background for interested parties since there will need to be a quick takedown.
THE SHORT OF IT: a wizard Flagg did it.)
Sometime after Mirrorverse, Rex started seriously looking into escape again, because screw the Barge, it sucks. He's contemplated past escape attempts, trying to figure out what worked and what didn't, and he came to the conclusion that the Barge itself is what keeps thwarting them. After all, it pulls people back to it, or it follows them across time and space. So, the only way to keep it from interfering in escape? Is to completely eradicate the Barge.
WITH NANOMITES, BECAUSE NANOMITES SOLVE ALL OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS.
Of course, it was only a pipe dream, since he was pretty much banned from touching any nanomite equipment ever again. It was all locked up in the lab beyond his reach. But he considered it, vocally (in private conversations to Perry), repeatedly, and that caught Flagg's attention. Always up for a little mischief, he started unlocking obstacles for Rex, compelling him to follow the whistling up to the warden-only areas and into the lab...
And, well, he knew it was sketchy as hell, but Rex can never say no to mad science. So, he started working in secret, late at night when nobody was around, and the "Admiral" tampered with security to make everything seem hunky dory. (Note: I did send a message to all lab folks about this after it was cleared with the mods, just so they weren't blindsided by this. The mods and I figured Admiral Ex Machina would be the best way to do things so that none of the wardens were shoehorned into incompetence.)
Once he had his makeshift bomb built, Rex just sort of hid it in his room for a rainy day, longing for a particle accelerator to actually weaponize the damn thing. Luckily, there's a particle acceleration lab in Paris, and the rest is history.
So, yeah, the reason why Rex has been super critical of everyone who took Flagg's offer? Was because he was projecting his own insecurity over potentially making a deal with the devil, himself.
OOC reasons for all of this? Rex needs to learn that he can't just use science to smash things he can't control. He's learned that mind control is bad and all that, but he still thinks that Might Makes Right (especially when you have science on your side), and this is going to make him realize that no, even if he's just lashing out at inanimate objects instead of people, he's still taking really stupid, destructive paths that don't actually help anybody, including himself. Sure, we could do this port without nanomites eating the Barge, but character conflict is sometimes necessary to push inmates past their final hurdles.
ANYWAY. Now you have the convoluted background for the nanomites, so we can move on.
ONCE THE BOMB GOES OFF...
The nanomite explosion is going to be a brief event to kick off the port, and it's not really a part of the port itself. In game-time, it should only take an hour max. What's going to happen is: everyone gets off the Barge, and Rex detonates the bomb. He and his pals are going to try to make a run for it, and he'll need to be stopped before the nanomites actually devour the entirety of the Barge. Luckily, the nanomites have a kill switch (since otherwise, they'd just eat everything forever). Rex will push the kill switch if:
1. He's caught and somebody takes it from him and does it themselves/forces him to do it.
2. He's talked down.
3. If those two fail, he'll stop it himself if he realizes it'll eat the TARDIS. HE LIKES HER.
Regardless, the damage is going to be done to the deck and large swathes of the hull, more severe than it was in Masterworld (where the Barge was damaged from a crash, not actually getting large chunks of it eaten away). Although the Barge isn't completely destroyed, it's enough to sever the Barge's reality-bending ties and pull everybody into the Land of the Dead.
In order to restore the Barge and get back to the land of the living (or... relatively living), the Admiral's going to be sending everybody on FETCH QUESTS. Each character will be tasked to retrieve something from port which will be used by the Admiral to fix the Barge. Why?
BECAUSE THIS IS AN ADVENTURE GAME PORT, THAT'S WHY.
Anyway, the objects can range from the practical (metal rod) to something completely nonsensical (a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle) because that's how this genre rolls. You guys can pick what the Admiral's asked you to find, and you can play out your misadventures retrieving this object, since you'll likely have to combine a bunch of other silly bits and bobs to give to some guy, so he'll give you a balloon, which you can then pop to scare some pigeons, who were guarding a loaf of bread you needed to...
Well, you get the picture.
SETTING
Here's a playlist to get you in the mood.
The Land of the Dead is where the recently departed go to make their journey to the Ninth Underworld, their final resting place. It's a perilous, four-year journey, but luckily, good souls are given a leg up over the others. Depending on the life you've led, you can qualify for a nice car, passage on a ship or, if you're particularly saintly, a ticket to the Number Nine train, which will shoot you to the Ninth Underworld in minutes. Many people are out of luck and end up having to take the journey on foot. Most never make it, either dying (yes, the dead can die) along the way or giving up/getting sidetracked and making a life for themselves in the Land of the Dead. Aside from the lost souls inhabiting the Land of the Dead, there are also demons, who have been summoned to perform specific, often menial tasks, like car repair, plumbing, things like that.
And what's the Land of the Dead itself like? A sort of film noir world filled with crime, corruption, danger and Aztec-inspired art deco.
Be sure to read the Grim Fandango wiki entry for some more details on the setting. There's also the locations category on the Grim Fandango wikia, which provides an overview of the three main places your character can venture during port. The only significant difference between port as we'll be doing it versus the game itself? Is that everybody, including port locals, looks human, not like a calaca figure as awesome as they are. Also, we'll be using our own NPCs, rather than characters from the game.
We'll be starting in the port (like, an actual port, not a Barge port) city of Rubacava. You can see a bunch of screenshots of it here, here and here. It was once a sleepy, foggy city without much action to speak of, but these days it's got a pretty active nightlife, complete with gambling and a seedy underbelly of crime. Here's an example of one of Rubacava's clubs. And here's another example, showing some of the architecture and the overall feel of the setting. Also, yeah, there are cat tracks. You can bet on cat races. AND ANOTHER SETTING VIDEO. This is the high roller's lounge.
Outside of Rubacava is the Petrified Forest. It's a hazardous place, full of uh, giant spider-bats and evil beavers. So, if your character heads out to the forest, be prepared to outwit the critters.
Beyond the Petrified Forest is the city of El Marrow, which is just a big city full of art deco-style buildings. IDK, IT'S A CITY, FOLKS.
WAIT, DIDN'T YOU SAY WE'RE ALL DEAD?
Oh yeah, everyone's dead. Super dead. No pulse or vital signs dead. No powers, magic, anything dead. In fact, if you get a cut? You won't heal. The plus side is you won't bleed, either, or really feel any pain. You can lose and arm and keep on with your bad self. This does mean that everybody is effectively human (or, uh, UNDEAD) for port. If you're a cyborg or something, you can come up with a creative alternative, but everyone's basically undead for the duration of port.
However, the dead CAN die. You can be eaten by monsters or killed by your fellow lost souls via "sprouting." Instead of using bullets to kill, the criminals of the Land of the Dead carry sproutella-filled darts, which basically turn the dead into fertilizer.
At least it's a pretty way to go.
If you get sprouted in port, you're dead until it ends. Once port's over, all port-related injuries go away and AS A SPECIAL BONUS, nobody who dies in port will have any Death Toll to deal with.
THINGS TO DO IN PORT
Aside from trying to interact with the locals to get the items the Admiral's requested, your character can also get involved in the criminal underbelly (or, alternately, fight crime), try to escape further into port (through the Petrified Forest or one of the ships leaving Rubicava), seek out the Ninth Underworld for your final resting place. Or, hell, have an existential crisis. It's a noir world, so there are conspiracies afoot, which you guys are welcome to craft out.
Also, there will need to be a tiny takedown for Rex, Perry and Ana at the beginning of port, but after that, you're free to do what you want with it.
You really don't have to play out the Admiral's fetch quest; it's just there to add an extra element to port. It can be assumed, or you could turn it into an epic adventure. As for getting involved with the locals...
PORT NPCs
Since we're in the Land of the Dead, we're doing something special for NPCs this go-around. FORMER BARGE CHARACTERS CAN RETURN AS NPCs. Restrictions are as follows:
- One former Bargemate per player.
- The character has to be dead (so, mainly inmates, although there are dead wardens, too. "Dead" in this case does include inmates whose histories were tweaked to make them eligible for the Barge).
- It has to be a character you apped and played at TLV. No fandom characters that weren't played by you in TLV allowed.
- Former characters can have hazy recollections of the Barge. They may remember some people/events, may think they imagined it, or may not remember anything at all. It's up to you.
Former Bargemates lingering around the Land of the Dead may be attempting to get to the Ninth Underworld or they, like many others, have given up on the journey and have decided to just make due. If they find out the Barge is here, they may try to escape back onto it, or maybe they'll sit back and brag about how much more awesome the Land of the Dead is.
EXAMPLE: You can run into Eddie Brock as a cab driver in El Marrow. He'll rant about how much HE HATES THOSE GODDAMN SPIDERBATS IN THE PETRIFIED FOREST RGAHRGAHGG (because he picked up an irrational hate for the Bats on the Barge :V), and he may pick fights with some people.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS IN NO WAY SETTING UP A DEFINITE, "CANON" AFTERLIFE FOR CHARACTERS WHO POOF OFF THE BARGE. The Land of the Dead is intended to be one of many afterlives, just as the Barge is one of many. However, to avoid characters getting broken beyond repair by seeing somebody who they really shouldn't, players will be able to opt-out characters they don't want to see, just like in Fourth Wall Day.
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE ANY FORMER BARGEMATES/DON'T WANT TO BRING ANY?
You can make OCs to interact with people; just make sure they FIT IN THE SETTING. If you're making an NPC for port, please give an overview about them and say which role you'd like them to fill. The goal is to make this port as populated with unique characters as possible, so NPCs are going to be a little less disposable/generic in this port than in some of the others. (Although, naturally, you still have leeway for throwaway NPCs like "GUY ON THE STREET")
While you can hash out ideas here, there's going to be a separate plotting post specifically so people can claim their NPCs, whether they're Bargemates or OCs. Basically, ONCE YOU KNOW WHO YOU WANT TO PLAY, you can toss it into that particular post. I figure a separate post for that will make it easier to keep track of who's playing who.
SO THAT'S IT.
Sorry for the super convoluted post. Hopefully it makes sense. I'M SURE THERE ARE GAPING PLOT HOLES, so feel free to ask any questions now!
EDIT: No characters are keeping their powers so just to be clear, that means vampires and other undead folk will not have powers either.
EDIT PART DEUX: Although it will be heavily damaged, the Barge itself is still going to be inhabitable during port. It just won't be able to move. So your character can totally stay on board the Barge and laugh at everyone scrabbling around for fetch quest items or whatever if that's what you want them to do!
PLOTTING THREADS: