2023 Quest Calendar 13: Putting on the Brakes

   Today I am Feeling: Excited and Energized    

Truceday, Nebulis 31

Reaching the far side of the comet, Brokvar and I began to set up the equipment we'd been sent out to set up. He asked me what I knew about astrophysics. I laughed, but he kept staring at me, so I guess it wasn't supposed to be a joke.

I looked at the "brakes" that we had, and I figured out that they are pretty much just rockets that push against the way the comet is otherwise going to stop it and/or to have it go the way we want it to go. I told Brokvar this and then we worked together to guide and build the brake. I got so excited about the progress that

2023 Quest Calendar 12: The Long Dark of the Comet

       Today I am feeling: Tired and Worn Out       

Moonsday, Nebulis 30

Brokvar finally made it across to the comet, just happening to land after I'd dealt with the animatronic alien attack. I'm sure it was just a coincidence. Brokvar told me we had to put the equipment down on the other side of the comet. I thought this was no problem, but boy was I wrong.

I couldn't tell from the entry to the anti-grav room, but the comet set was massive. It took hours, maybe even days, to get to the other side. I had to use two space rations for fear of survival! 

Brokvar had asked me if I'd wanted to take the path through the mountain or the valley. I chose the valley. I'm not sure if it was any faster or not. We did see another alien creature. This one was rock like and made hissing noises at us. I used what little I knew of working with animals to try to calm it, and then it ran off away from us somewhere. I counted that as a win.

 

2023 Quest Calendar 11: Uhm...what?

Today I am Feeling: Relieved

Starday, Nebulis 28/Sunsday, Nebulis 29

Monsters! Alien space fish monsters! I guess the way the story goes, they're supposed to be inhabiting the comet that we took? Either way, three of these things came at me with their razor sharp teeth. Brokvar hadn't yet made his way across to the comet, so I was on my own facing them.

Terror filled me. The fear was so real that I almost started to think the "immersive experience" wasn't a tourist trip at all.

I want to say that I don't know how I survived the assault of the creatures unscathed, but the truth is

2023 Quest Calendar 10: Ouch!

Today I am Feeling: Angry

Fruitsday, Nebulis 27

What the hell is going on? Brokvar went through the airlock out into "space." I'm hoping it's just a big anti-grav room that's painted to look like space, but it is really convincing. 

It would have been really cool and inspiring and all those other adjectives, except for the fact that I was immediately off balance and sick. I'm sure lots of people get space sick, so I can't really fault the tour company for that. But I asked to go back and Brokvar insisted I keep going, stressing the importance of the mission.

The mission? It's just a fake experience. If one of your customers isn't having a good time, you let them go. That's just good business sense.

As I was climbing across the rope toward the comet, the supplies slipped out of my hand. I reached out to grab them, but in my dizzy and nauseous state, I ended up letting go of the rope to the comet. My safety cord caught me and kept me from going off into space (or falling to the far down ground of the anti-grav chamber.) But it catching me HURT. A lot. I almost threw up in my helmet (I know that Brokvar had joked that Ascel had thrown up in his (which might be the same one as mine) previously, but I never thought it was a real risk. 

I feel like all I ever did since getting on this cruise was get hurt. I am tired of it. Next spaceport we get to, I'm going to try to get off this ship and find other transportation. Hopefully they'll refund my ticket. They better, or I'll pursue legal action against them. That'll teach them to have such an unsafe and painful trip.

Although...I guess I should look back at the paperwork and make sure I didn't sign any sort of waiver before I start trying to go for legal action.

 

First Entry: https://goalworlds.blogspot.com/2023/01/Quest-Calendar-2023-01-17.html

Previous Entry: https://goalworlds.blogspot.com/2023/01/Quest-Calendar-2023-01-26.html

Next Entry: https://goalworlds.blogspot.com/2023/01/Quest-Calendar-2023-01-28.html

Links

Sundial Games: https://www.sundialgames.com/

2023 Quest Calendar: https://www.sundialgames.com/2023

Character Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yD3TLLBGO3uOpqRKtj8uOk3Tyy6lhXaDgDIUqT-hjQ0/edit?usp=sharing  

2023 Quest Calendar 9: Spacesuits and Anxiety

Today I am Feeling: Afraid

Thornsday, Nebulis 26

I'm a bit worried about this one. The way the experience goes, apparently I'm supposed to go outside the ship, to the comet, with Brokvar, to place some equipment on the comet. This has to be a joke, right? There's no way any sort of self-respecting cruise company is going to risk putting their customers on a space walk. There's way too much that could go wrong with that.

Plus, there's not really a comet, right? They wouldn't have been able to plan an immersive experience around the idea of a comet that may or may not be there when the plans are made. Alright, so, two possibilities. The first and more risky possibility is that the "comet" was already on board the ship and that they just let it out for this part of the adventure. But that still involves customers like me going out into space. The second, hopefully more likely situation is

2023 Quest Calendar 8: Comet Catchers

 

Windsday, Nebulis 25

We closed in on the comet and prepared the ships weapon systems to launch grappling hooks at it. Naylee let me man the guns, presumably because I'm the passenger who is paying for the experience and this is part of the experience. 

Although, it makes me wonder where all the other passengers are. Maybe meeting the crew is on a rotation thing and so other people are meeting other crew members that i've already met or have yet to meet. Or maybe we're going to pick up new passengers at our next stop. I don't know, I just figured the halls would be more crowded. I also figured the halls would be larger to better accommodate crowds of tourists, so I guess I was wrong on both accounts.

Regardless, the comet catching mini-game like experience was pretty fun! I got to fly the ship in close to the comet.

2023 Quest Calendar 7: Flying the Karnak

Today I am Feeling: Pretty good! I didn't get hurt,
and I'm starting to actually enjoy myself. Maybe
this "immersive experience" will be okay afterall.

 Truceday, Nebulis 24

I finally met the ship's pilot, Naylee. I had, of course, seen Naylee briefly the at dinner the previous day, but now I met her for real. She is a member of the frosk species, a pink-skinned species that is decended from amphibians. 

Of all the members of the ship I've interacted with so far, Naylee is by far the friendliest and the most welcoming. She said that she could use a good co-pilot and asked me to take over flying to our mission.

Oh, yeah, our "mission," apparently, is to

2023 Quest Calendar 6: The Cooking?

Moonsday, Nebulis 23

Today, I met Ascel, a Husqel man (identifiable by his blue-grey skin and the ridges on the top of his head.) It sounds like Ascel tries to a little of everything on board the ship. He does things that have no one else to fill the roll, like cooking and finances, but he also helps the others as a 2ndary on their positions as well.

It sounds like Ascel and SD-113 don't exactly get along. SD-113 doesn't like

2023 Quest Calendar 5: Engineering

Starday, Nebulis 21/Sunsday, Nebulis 22

Today, I met the ship's engineer, SD-113, a robot. SD-113 acted (no doubt was programmed to act) frustrated that Captain Cayliss had sent me to aid him. I wonder if, in his programming, he has awareness that he is an actor playing a role, or if they programmed him to believe this is all real.

SD-113 was working to repair a terminal. He said that if the captain wished it, he would let me try to help, starting with the wiring. I looked at the wiring and had no idea what to do with any of it. I was hoping that, as part of the experience, there was no real right or wrong way to do it and that I would just get a pat on the back for getting it right no matter what I did.

Man, was I wrong about that! I put one wire in the wrong place and was shocked BAD. I imagine it's just supposed to be a mild buzz to let the person going through the experience know that they solved the puzzle incorrectly, but it just HURT so much. I can't imagine how

2023 Quest Calendar 4: Target Practice (And I'm the Target!?)

Today I am feeling: Surprised and injured

Fruitsday, Nebulis 20

I met the first mate, a Gunnbaar man with green skin and spikes on his head who stood a foot or two taller than me. He introduced himself as Brokvar and asked for my assistance in the training room. I thought he just wanted my help calibrating a machine or something (a puzzle or mini-game that was supposed to be an engaging part of the interactive experience.)

No. He took me into a room full of targets and of training combat bots. He tossed me into the middle of the room and then turned the bots on! He said that he wanted to test my combat abilities to see how useful I would be in the field. I tried to protest that I didn't have a weapon, but this apparently did not matter to Mr. Brokvar. 

Lasers began firing in all directions. I dropped to the ground as I noticed

2023 Calendar 3: Work?

Today I am feeling: Anxious that this
"experience" might get in the way of
my enjoying my cruise.

Thornsday, Nebulis 19

Today, Captain Cayless told me that we, the crew of the Karnak, had been hired for a mission, and that my skills would be useful for it. This must be the first location on the cruise and the first part of the interactive experience. While I think it'll be fun to play at being an adventurer, I do hope that they still have planned in time for me to see the sights and landmarks at our first planet.

Captain Cayless also said that I should meet with others on the ship and try to help them with their duties. I realize that this is mostly a "meet the cast before the exciting bit starts" part of the experience, but I'm hoping that

2023 Quest Calendar 2: All Aboard

Today I am feeling: Excited but nervous

Windsday, Nebulis 18

Apparently the cruise I signed up for is one of those 'immersive live-action interactive experience' type deals. You know, where everyone wears costumes and you're supposed to pretend to be a part of the story. I did a murder mystery dinner thing once, but that was like a few hours. This is an extended cruise! Seems almost crazy that they'd plan one of these to go on this long. But I'm not complaining.

I don't remember scheduling one of these themed cruises when I signed on, but apparently that's what it was. Maybe that was just in the fine print. You'd think it would have been a bigger part of the advertising.

2023 Quest Calendar 1: Introducing Harvel

Truceday, Nebulis 17

Arrived today at the spaceport. I'm excited to set off on this new adventure! I know that some people have frowned on me taking a year off after school to travel the galaxy, but they weren't invited anyway!

A year long space cruise seems like just the thing to take my mind off of things. Prepaid and all-inclusive, I should be good to go! If, for some reason, I do need to make some extra credits, I'm sure that there are some odd jobs the crew will need done around the ship.

Now I just need to find the ship. It's supposed to be the Kartick or something. I lost my boarding papers, but