Jul. 25th, 2019

trainmasters: (Default)
[personal profile] trainmasters
Who: Everyone
When: Day 36, early morning
Where: around :)

[In the wee hours of the night, you may be woken by an increasingly loud clear, bell-like tone, a beautiful resonating sound that fills the air. Then, suddenly, a flood of strange square-shaped sparkles appear, floating around like magical fireflies, bringing with them a pleasant warmth. They increase in size and volume until the air itself whites out with a bright but pleasant light. While you can't see, you can hear the bell, and the distant rushing of water.

Abruptly, the sound stops, and the bright light fades to reveal... no particular changes in the immediate area. No visible ones, anyway, besides a break in the rain. Audibly, on the other hand... suddenly, the air is full of birdsong. While a few tropical birds already existed in the nearby jungle, there are far more of them now, especially in the direction of the abandoned town.

Should you head that way, you'll find that the area has been purified -- while the buildings are still a bit damaged and overgrown, the monsters have been replaced by normal lizards and a few chattering monkeys, and the plantlife is now mostly harmless. As the sun rises, millions of new flowers will bloom in its warm rays. Unfortunately, there are still no residents. But their belongings are now yours to shuffle through, or to preserve for their potential return -- it's up to you!

Past the town you'll see that the wetlands on the opposite coast of the island have also been revived. A mangrove swamp grows lush and mossy, with remarkably clear waters full of tasty fish. Wetland birds nest in the trees, and frogs (now without any poisonous ones mixed in) chirp away in the night. This area, however, is not completely harmless -- while free of corruption, there are still perfectly normal alligators!

Head back towards the Prism on the beach, and you'll see that it's now glowing green, and the sea is clear and beautiful much further out than before. In fact, it seems the entire island you're on is now purified -- you can swim all the way around with no trouble. The island itself turns out to be about 8km in diameter -- the rest of the surface is taken up by ocean, now full of healthy fish and even some dolphins!

However, you haven't cleared this Star yet... about 2km from the Prism shore there's another, smaller island, mostly taken up by a some kind of ancient ruin, the sea immediately near the island is black and oddly still -- should you enter it, you'll find the water is still alive, reaching up to try to drag you down into the waiting mouths of unseen horrors. Get past this and you'll find the ruin a trap-filled nest of corrupted snakes, tiger monsters, giant man-eating geckos, and an overgrowth of plants that are almost entirely deeply poisonous. The halls and passages are full of caustic slimes that take on the form of your fears -- basically every enemy you've faced so far is now concentrated on this tiny island. The last baston of Malice on this Star is a deadly one.

But you've made some amazing progress! Almost as if in celebration, a flock of little blue birds settles in the Aurora's clearing, chirping away in the trees. Their song makes you feel celebratory, too -- hearing it greatly increases one of your positive emotions. Joy, love, trust -- some part of you is feeling great!

What a good time to respond to that ChainChat Message asking for upgrade suggestions...]

[[OOC NOTES: CONGRATULATIONS on your TWO levels of Prism purification, guys! There is a toplevel for ICly suggesting train upgrades here, so check it out! You can submit more than one suggestion if you wish, as there will be two upgrades added. Next week we'll post a poll, and the week after the upgrade will be implemented.

The updates to the Setting page to reflect this post will be made soon, so keep an eye out!]]

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