[F20-NK-PP] Exploring the Wonders of Aincrad (Vale, Thorsten)

[Thorsten 0]

Spoiler

Floor 20 Description: Floor 20 is a very sunny and relaxing floor. The brightly lit mountains that surround the floor have been terraced on the interior facing slope to provide farmland above the large but dangerous clearings that lie in the valleys such as the deceptively named Sunshine Forest, a dungeon within the floor known to be inhabited by giant insects. These terraces provide safe places for the NPC farmers of the floor to harvest their crops and adventurer's to find their rest.

At the top of many of these terraced mountains lay small villages, home mostly to the NPCs of the floor, rather than any larger, secondary settlements as found on other floors. In the center of this ring of mountains lies one peak taller than the others, with the settlement built of stone that rises high above the others.

While the terraces are free of land based giant insects that plague the plains and forests that need to be traversed between the peaks, flying giant insects and brigands prowl the higher levels, stalking the stairs and terraces themselves. The trees of the forest below are wider than a man with his arms stretched out, and reach dozens of meters into the air without any branches until the very top, though the canopy is not thick enough to block out the sunlight.

Main Settlements: 

Inti- The main settlement of the floor, Inti rests at the top of the peak in the very center where it commands a panoramic view of the entire floor. All roads on floor 20 run towards Inti. The stone settlement itself is built up in tiers, with smaller, more modest buildings and homes at the lower levels around the perimeter of the floor, and the largest and most grand homes and guild houses near the very peak, with the church itself at the apex, and the teleport plaza being towards the top on the northern side of the city. Access between each tier of Inti is restricted to a handful of gates at cardinal directions, and to the highest tier by two gates, one which lines up with the sunrise, and the second which lines up with the sunset. The human NPCs of the city dress in a vaguely ancient south american style, wearing bowl shaped hats and very brightly colored shawls, robes, and dresses.

Sub-Settlements:

Puma: The remote village of Puma is on the western most slope of the western most mountain, and as such it gets very little sunlight until the very end of the day, leaving the village almost hidden in the mists until the afternoon sun arrives to burn it off. The city of Puma has both animal themes that give it its name, but also seems to be aligned with the setting sun and the moon. It is a modest size village as far as sub-settlements go, but the only way in or out of the village is via a rope bridge across a steep valley. It is not for the faint of heart.

Condor: The village of Condor lies Puma, on the eastern most side of the eastern most mountain. It gets bright sunlight in the morning that warms the city and its inhabitants, and they worship the dawn and the sun, along with the Condor motif. The village, while being much smaller than Inti, is also heavily decorate with gold, and thus has the appearance of being incredibly rich and fancy. The people of Condor also appear to be religious than the other villages, and each dawn they villagers will ascend the mountain to the peak for a daily ritual. 

Notable Locations:

Sunshine Forest: The forest is filled with giant trees and giant insects, though it is sparse enough to not develop a canopy blocking out the sunlight, thus giving it its name. Players who venture into the forest find that it is inhabited by monsters more powerful than that reflected by the rest of the floor.

Edge of the world: One of the curiosities of the floor is a mountain which has been cut in half at the very edge. It is one of the few places that give some kind of clue as to the genesis of the floating castle. The mountain, cut in half, faces inwards, while walking up to the cut you could see the floor below, and beyond that the world which Aincrad floats above.

The Great Compass: At each primary cardinal point of the compass, there appears to be a giant stone sun dial. The largest one lies in Inti, but smaller and still impressive ones exist in both Puma and Condor. If there is one at the north and south points, then adventurers would have to find them the hard way.

Mobs:

Giant Insects: The valley and forests below the mountains are filled with giant insects of all kinds, such a beetles, praying mantis, ants, and centipedes. 

Giant Flying Insects: Flying giant insects, such as bees, flies, mosquitos, etc... infest the areas above the treeline.

Giant Predators: Giant Puma, Condors, and other such predators stalk the high mountain passes and the peaks, many of which only come out at night.

Standard Wildlife:

Typical forest and mountain critters unburdened by size populate the floor.

Silver sat atop a building on the twentieth floor of the strange new world of Aincrad. He watched as the psutoplayers farmed their land and observed how they did so. Taking a second to thing he reconciled the things he had done to bring him to the point he sat. The wondrous time he had with the group of players that lead him to explore the land and the wondrous things he had seen. As he sat, a thought began to glow in the back of his mind. Perhaps he would be wise to contact the wonderful neko woman he had met that day. Though he was unsure of how messaging worked fully, he never had the privilege of doing so in the real world, his only friend was Katherine and she was always unannounced in her showing up to his presence, as he was with her. A slight breeze brushed past his person, ruffiling the cloth he wore. He opened his HUD and picked Vale from his friend list, accidently pressing a button it transfer coin that he did not have. An Error message popped up, he dismissed it laughing slightly, bdeofr opening the messanger. 

“Good Morning my catlike friend,
 I hope this marvelous day fares thee well. I ask with joy if you find yourself with the time to come and explore this fantastical world with me once more. I find myself on the twentieth floor of the land our minds call home. 
Sincerely yours,
Silver “Thorsten” Zevulum”

He sent the message before closing his HUD and looking to the sky. He hoped today would be a magnificent day and was eager to find out more about the world.
@Vale

Edited September 29, 2017 by Thorsten

[Vale 1]

The Panther-woman was laying down in her bed, Eclipse her recently obtained pet being oddly very cuddly while she laid on the soft comfortable surface. Vale looked at the normally grumpy and lethargic feline, "When did you become a cuddle muffin?" She asked Eclipse, the Cat looked at her with one then promptly huffed got up and walked off the bed, "Well, if you're just going to be rude about it, then never mind with you... Moody." She finished saying under her breath as Eclipse exited the room. At that moment a little yellow symbol indicating she had a personal message delivered to her. Curious she opened the message from Thorston, "Oh yeah, Silvy-san. I haven't heard from him since the dungeon delving we did." Vale read the message and promptly replied,

"Good morrow Silvy-san,
it does, I had a spa day yesterday for my one day held off from Training. I personally have never been to the 20th floor, I would love to explore the land with you. I'll meet you at the front gates in the near.
Blessings to you,
Vale"

After the message was finished being typed she sent it, "Hey Eclipse, get yourself ready we're going out for some land exploration on the twentieth floor!" She shouted for the cat as she took off her oversized sweater and began to equip her armor like a normal human would. She found this to be much more enjoyable than having the system do it for her. Eclipse yawned loudly to inform her he was pretty much always ready to move.

 

[Thorsten 0]

Silver was pleased to have such a prompt and cheery response. It was simply marvelous how kind people could be. Not to mention that Silver was curious as to the origins of the woman’s catlike being. He wondered if it would be rude of him to ask, though he figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask, surely the worst response would be for her to express that she didn’t wish to speak about it. With haste he used the rooftops to jump around Inti until he found a tree to climb down. Gracefully he used the branches to swing to the ground, landing slightly harder than usual, before making his way to the gate. He noted that he had gotten there before Vale though he felt that was to be expected. It was uncommon for someone on a lower floor to beat someone else to the gates of a town if the second person was already in the town, and Silver tended to be swift. He decided to climb to the top of the gates where he perched and observed, watching and waiting for Vale, and wondering if he would find any goings on that would peek his interest.Silver was pleased to have such a prompt and cheery response. It was simply marvelous how kind people could be. Not to mention that Silver was curious as to the origins of the woman’s catlike being. He wondered if it would be rude of him to ask, though he figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask, surely the worst response would be for her to express that she didn’t wish to speak about it. With haste he used the rooftops to jump around Inti until he found a tree to climb down. Gracefully he used the branches to swing to the ground, landing slightly harder than usual, before making his way to the gate. He noted that he had gotten there before Vale though he felt that was to be expected. It was uncommon for someone on a lower floor to beat someone else to the gates of a town if the second person was already in the town, and Silver tended to be swift. He decided to climb to the top of the gates where he perched and observed, watching and waiting for Vale, and wondering if he would find any goings on that would peek his interest.

@Vale