Previous Thread: http://anonpone.pineapplecomputing.com/across/
Two foals set out on an adventure to explore the islands and oceans off the coast of Baltimare. What strange and interesting places lie beyond the horizon?
In the last thread:
>Be the filly Dawn, an aspiring explorer without a craft
>Dawn asks her Pegasus friend Bodi to help her make a raft
>Dawn and Bodi make a raft out of a table, barrels, and a toybox.
>Y'all name the raft and design a cool flag
>The foals do some chores for bits
>Meet shopkeep, get some stuff, and explore butt island
>Meet Bodi's zebra guardian Koko
>Learn about maps and ask about the rumors surrounding strange magical storms known as Meallán.
>Return to shop, upgrade knife, get lantern
It's still somewhat light outside when you and Bodi return home from the store. Placing your newly upgraded knife and recently purchased lantern into the raft Horizon, you both head inside for a quick meal with your mom Heartwine.
After finishing the last of the colecannon and helping clean up dishes, you figure that there's just enough time left to go back to butt island for an hour or so before it starts getting dark.
"Where're you two headed now?" Heartwine asks when she sees you leaving. "Um, we're going back to butt island!" You beam at your mom while slowly backing out the door.
"Oh... Well, be sure to come back before it gets too dark! Love you, dear."
"Love you too mommy," you reply before bolting back to the Horizon.
"Well..." Bodi asks, snickering a bit as you both climb onboard. "Ready for booty?"
"Aaarg," You reply with a cheezy growl and a snicker. "Gonna get some booty!"
It isn't long before you find yourselves back on the aptly named butt island. You have about an hour left of daylight for exploration. What do you do?
>>25928647
Go innawoods and scout out resources to build our fort
>>25928647
We need enough time to get back before dark. Let's make a map of the island so we can plan where our fort will be.
planning is best
>>25928904
dis
>>25928879
((eeee once again, thanks! And I do that to keep you guessing and not cuz I forget details a lot? Yeah... let's go with that.))
>>25928839
>>25928904
>>25929074
>>25929108
You decide that for the betterment of your status as an awesome adventurer that you need to build a fort on butt island. That, and it's funny to say that you made a buttfort. Stupid puns, ahoy.
The waning daylight puts a bit of a damper on your immediate plans for the fort, as actual construction will have to wait for another day. You don't have time to do much work tonight.
Instead, you and Bodi decide to go exploring a bit. Maybe you can find some neat stuff to build a fort out of!
After a bit of exploration, you find that the island isn't as resource-laden as you would have hoped. The island is decorated mostly by scrappy shrubs and driftwood, with a few rock formations and overhangs to break the scene a bit.
Maybe you could make your fort out of driftwood scraps? The next question would be where to build. Maybe near the rocks? You spend some time scouting around the overhangs, looking for possible shelter spots.
"Hey, should we be making a map of this?" you ask Bodi.
"Ah. Yeah, good plan, man."
You retrieve some scrap cloth from the Horizon and draw a crude map of the area as you go, just marking key areas for now. You return to the rocky area with the "map" as you continue looking for a shelter area. You also figure you have maybe twenty minutes before you need to leave. What do you do?
>>25929403
grab driftwood and stick it into the hole that's near that rock. Also using rock is a good idea to use as part of the fort.
We can build around it and lean other things against it and then just put a blanket or something above us.
>>25929403
Are those animal tracks?
>>25929403at the base of the rightmost rock, i can't tell if that's a hole or another rock that's just overlapping the ground
since we have a map, i think we can head out early. since resources appear to be scarce here, we might be able to scavenge some from our town instead.
>>25929481
>>25929598
>>25929756
You notice a small hole near the base of one of the rocks. Upon closer inspection, it seems that there's a bit of drying mud around the hole that's been disturbed somewhat recently.
"Huh..." Bodi grunts as he looks at the muddy entrance. "Hey man, look at this. Tracks."
You trot over to where Bodi is and look at the mud. Sure enough, there looks to be small hooflike imprints leading in and out of the hole. The tracks themselves are a little hard to clearly identify, and they don't lead far from the entrance, but it looks like the tracks belong to a pony, and a small one at that.
"What do we do now?" you ask, resting a piece of driftwood to one side of the hole. "Like... should we explore it? I mean if there's tracks, then something's gotta fit in there, right? Think we could?"
"Dunno..." Bodi looks closer at the hole. "Maybe we could. I mean we could squeeze in there if we wanted to. I think we should get the lanturn though if we're gonna go in..."
"What about the map?" You ask. "Think it'd be better to wait till tomorrow to explore?"
"Eh, it's your call, man."
Well, explorers, what do you do? Do you find out what may or may not lay inside the hole?
>>25929847
Just shout hello and listen out. No need to even think about proceeding downunless the reply is a cry for help.
If there's no response, save exploration for tomorrow.
>>25929847
I want to dig a little and try to make the hole bigger so it isn't such a tight fit.
We can use the driftwood as an improvised shovel if it's wide enough.
We can also just say "hello"
>>25929847
A rescue operation would cemet you as the premiere captain of these seas.
You should call out to see if anypony needs help.
>>25929891
>>25929914
>>25929927
((Last one for the night, dudes))
"Hello?"
You call out into the hole, leaning your head to try and hear anything. When nothing but a slight echo of your own voice answers you, you look at Bodi, then back down into the hole. "Hello? HELLO?"
Nothing. Nothing at all. Well, there's an echo, but that's about it. You wonder why you haven't seen this hole before, and you also wonder how big it is if it can return an echo.
"Think we should dig it out a bit?"
"Yeah, maybe," Bodi says with a nod. "Hey, I can dig it out a bit. Maybe that would help?"
"Sure," you reply, scraping at the muddy ground with your hooves. Bodi joins in with the piece of driftwood you propped near the hole, and after a few minutes you manage to make the hole a bit bigger.
"Hello?" You call into the hole.
"HELLO?" you both call. "Anypony in there?"
You... you thought you heard something! It wasn't a voice per se, but you thought you heard the sound of scuffling or scampering combined with an audible breathy noise. It was muted and faint, but this time something other than your own echo responded to your call.
What do you do?
>>25930192
Aw shit. How much tie do we have left before we planned to head back? Might still be best to save exploration until tomorrow at this rate, but have Bodi fetch the lantern so we can have a better look into the crevice.
Alsosleep tight, sleepymint.
>>25930192
Maybe come back tomorrow...and make sure we have the knife on us when we investigate.
Well whatever is in there has to be small.
beb
Hope we have rope.
I'm betting there is a friend in there.
bumping up
A magical bump
Page 10
>>25930369
>>25930544
>>25931204
>>25934026
>>25935808
You can't believe it! You heard something moving in there!
"Wanna go after it?" You ask, looking at Bodi expectantly.
"Well, if we're gonna, we need to like now." He pauses, looking up at the dimming sky. "Though... maybe we should save this for later?"
"Aww... okay I guess." you respond. "Hey, wanna get the lantern so we can see inside a little bit?"
Bodi nods and scurries back to the Horizon to retrieve the lantern, lighting it when he returns. You can see a good twenty or so feet into the hole. It looks like a small tunnel was carved by water at some point by some now-dried up channel or something.
You can't hear much of anything from inside: it seems that whatever is inside must have either retreated far into the cave, or left through some unknown exit.
"Huh..." you both say as you look into the slightly better lit hole under the rock.
"You know, we could almost fit in there, if we duck a little" You mention, leaning in a little to gauge the width of the tunnel.
"We might need some rope," Bodi mentions. "And we don't have much extra on the Horizon now, I think." Looks like you might want to pack some extra rope tomorrow if you're planning on going home before exploring the cave.
You look up at the sky, realizing that the sun is nearing the horizon. You don't have much daylight left at all, even if you left now to go home. Do you try and explore the cave anyway?
>>25939365
Head home so we can prepare for some spelunking.
>>25939365
Let's go home since that's what our mom told us to do. Chores took up most of our adventuring time today but they shouldn't tomorrow.
And we can bring rope too!
>>25939427
>>25939432
You both agree that it's time to go. As cool and tempting as it is to adventure now, it'd be best done during the day. That, and you need to get home while you can still somewhat see. Spelunking butt island's depths will have to wait till tomorrow.
Hopping in the Horizon, you and Bodi set sail towards home. It's a lot darker than you realized, and the wind is picking up a bit - while it slightly concerns you, it's also pushing you homeward faster.
Looking towards the north, you can see dark clouds forming off in the far distance. Strange. You don't remember seeing any signs of storms earlier.
"See that?" You ask Bodi as you grab the lanturn and gaze over at the forming storm.
"Yeah." Bodi nods, and although you can't see the expression on his face well, you can tell by the tone in his voice that he's a bit more serious than normal.
"That wasn't there an hour ago."
"Look at the colours!" You stare in curious wonder at the multicoloured clouds and occasional sparks that illuminate the breezy twilit sky in different hues of yellow and purple off in the distance.
"I've never seen purple lightning, Bodi."
"Nor I," he replies with a pensive hum, glancing at the distant stormclouds. "Dawn, I think we might need to tell Koko about this. Like, it's a little weird, man."
As interesting and slightly offsetting as the storm looks, it thankfully stays in the distance as you make your way back to your home island. Nighttime has set in as you safely moor the Horizon for the night back in the little inlet near your home.
Now that you're both safely home, what do you do? It isn't quite bedtime yet, so you can still do some prepwork for tomorrow if you want to.
>>25939927
Look for the money that we left behind. Did our mom pay us?
We need to pay those 3 bits we owe. We also need to do some chores so that we can buy some rope in case we don't have it. Say good bye to Bodi since he needs to tell Koko about that weird stuff we saw today.
>>25939927
Let's go search around the house for some rope but besides that lets go eat dinner
>>25939927
Ask mom about her knowledge/experiences with the neighboring islands over dinner.
Also, bid Bodi farewell for the night. We do need him to tell Koko about what happened.
>>25940003
>>25940016
>>25940546
(1/2)
Bodi says that he needs to get back home to Koko and talk about what you both saw. You nod and wave, and Bodi takes his leave for the evening. He'll most likely be meditating at his usual spot in the morning when you need to get ahold of him again.
After Bodi leaves, you decide to look around your workshop a bit for some rope, or anything else that you could use, really. You find some medium-gauge twine, and while it wouldn't be good to use spelunking for an adult pony, you and Bodi aren't nearly as heavy so it should work fine.
>Item get: coil of twine
Well, that was handy. Although the twine is lightweight, you shouldn't need to buy any from the store unless you want something sturdier. You don't have any bits, so you'll have to do some chores for bits or ask for the five bits Bodi has from earlier today.
After getting that cleared, you trot inside your house to see your mom sitting at the table, drinking what looks like coffee from a mug with a flower on it. Heartwine greets you with a concerned expression that changes to relief.
"Oh, there you are, honey. I'm glad you made it home safely. I knew you both were out playing, but I didn't know you'd be out so late. Were you out on your raft again?"
>>25940716
(2/2)
((Also, last one for the night, fellas. I'll try to pick up tomorrow, but I might be late again cuz New Year's eve stuff with the family.))
You nod as you make your way into the kitchen to see what you can raid for a snack. "Yep! Bodi and I saw a bunch of cool stuff! We were on this island and then we got some stuff, and we saw this storm... hey mommy? what does it mean when lightning's purple?"
Your mom looks over at you in curious concern. "Purple lightning? I can't say I know what that means, Dawn. Did you see any outside?"
You tell her about the clouds you saw in the distance. Your mom frowns a bit before responding. "I'm not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good. You make sure you stay safe, you hear me sweetie?"
"Mhm, we'll stay safe mommy."
"Love you, Dawn."
"Love you too, mommy!"
You then ask what's for dinner. Your mom responds by saying that she hadn't gotten around to making anything yet, but was about to once she knew you and Bodi were alright.
"How do cheesy noodles sound?"
After a fast and tasty dinner of mac & cheese with some veggies, you head back up to your room for the evening. You figure you'll ask your mom more about the neighboring islands tomorrow morning before you set out with Bodi. That way he can be there too to hear so you won't have to repeat everything your mom says back to him.
Once in your room, you look over your crude map of butt island and plan out your attack for the morning. Light? Lantern, check. Rope? You have the twine, so check. Weapon in case things get weird? Well, there's the knife, so check to that too.
You can't think of anithing else that's essential to bring tomorrow, so you stow the list away for now. With that out of the way, what do you do? You could always go to bed and be ready for tomorrow, but you could always add notes to your map or spiff up your hat to make you look more formidible or cool. What do you do?
We need to explore the island more so that we can mark possible fort locations.
>>25940743
Sleep tight sleepymint
sleep tight sleepydawn
We should bring food so that we can try to feed whatever is down there.
