inkveil | Investigations

InvestigationsThe Basics

Once per month, each character in the game will be able to conduct an investigation into a place, person, event, or other subject of interest in Ashbrook. Fill out and post the form in the next section and the mods will respond with a prompt based on your submission.

The primary purpose of investigations is to provide players with thread prompts that they can engage in with other players. Therefore, it's important to note that not every investigation will be 'successful'. Some may net characters small pieces of information about the plot, setting, or NPCs. And some may result in nothing at all - a haunted house might only be 'haunted' by a family of raccoons, mysterious symbols out in the woods might be the work of bored teenagers, and the neighbor peering into your backyard with binoculars might just be an avid birdwatcher. Either way, we will provide some set pieces for you to play with.

Also note that some areas may be difficult or impossible for certain characters to investigate. A 40-year-old that's neither an employee nor a parent won't find it easy to investigate the elementary school, and 15-year-old is going to have a hard time even getting into a local bar.

Investigation results will be posted on the 10th of every month.

Resources

As the game progresses, players may unlock bonuses as a result of event participation. These bonuses will be available to the whole game, and will be listed in detail below. Any player may make use of any of these while conducting an investigation.

Locations

Whispering Pines National Forest

Trail Cameras: Unlocked in the September 2023 event when players voted to assist Sam. Anyone that contacts Sam (or a Visitor that has done the same) will be given a map of various trail cameras throughout the forest. These cameras can be accessed at any time and may net the characters a photograph of their investigation subject.

Form

To conduct an investigation, fill out the following form and post it as a comment.

Character: Your character's name
Subject: Who or what are they investigating?
Goals: Are they looking for information? Trying to get in close with an NPC? Searching for an item? Or just putting out feelers and seeing what they might get?

Method: What methods are they going to use? Will they conduct interviews, hit the library, break into a secure location, bribe someone, or something else?

Bonuses: Role assignments and some events give characters certain advantages or disadvantages. What, if any, will you use?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Character: Kanou Aogu
Subject: That mysterious man found in the trail cams!
Goals: He wants to contact him, but information will suffice at this stage. Getting in good with more NPCs won't hurt, either! Kanou is such a good citizen.

Method: He'll ask Sam for the trail cam locations, pore over it every single night, and then end up isolating a screenshot of the man in black and making a poster in Microsoft Word that's essentially a Missed Connections ad. Something about how alluringly mysterious this man is and how Kanou would looooove to meet him to discuss what he was doing in the forest in a suit, so here's his personal address and phone number.

(update it's not his personal address it's his location daily, which would probably still lead to his address getting found out. also here's the poster)

He's going to become a constant carrier as a result, because he's well aware that this is 'stupid', but also, fuck it it seems funny as hell.

Bonuses: I'm not sure if Kanou's role or AU connections would help him at all, to be honest. Might actually hurt it. Oopsies. We out here trying to date men in black AND Sebastian

Edited (updated with poster and a lil bit of perhaps necessary info?) 2023-10-03 10:02 (UTC)

Despite Kanou's clear mastery over Microsoft Word, no mysterious men in suits contact him. His AU connections don't hurt or help his cause, though Henry will express a mix of concern and disappointment that Kanou is endangering himself over such nonsense.

Kanou does get a reaction, however. After his flyers go up, Kanou will face a sharp increase in the odds that he'll be taken by the men in black. More critically, he can be taken even for actions that aren't witnessed by a townsperson, or that are done completely alone or only in the company of other Visitors.

If Kanou is ever abducted, he'll be able to discover why upon his return: someone bugged his home. Mostly, he'll only be able to find indicators that a bug used to be somewhere, like tiny scratches around the screws of his telephone's base. Seems like whoever was watching him has already tidied up.

However, he'll be able to discover exactly one device that was missed: a tiny wireless microphone planted in a picture frame. Examining this microphone will reveal that it is extremely advanced for the time period, the sort of thing intelligence agencies would do anything to get their hands on. With the right knowhow someone could repurpose it for their own use, though who knows if whoever is on the other side is still listening in...

Kanou will not be able to find any listening devices prior to being taken by the men in black. He may get the vibe that something is slightly off in his home, but he won't be able to pinpoint why. If Kanou is abducted, make sure to report it here!

We hope you enjoy the results of your investigation! If you have any followup questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Character: Reyson (and Siegfried)
Subject: The Goatman
Goals: They want to find his lair or the creature itself so they can battle it and kill it. This is ambitious but they are how they are, so OOCly I will settle for information!

Method: While they are both inclined to use brute force solutions, it's a big forest and they ain't gonna do this going tree by tree. They do have access to the brand new trail cams so they wait around for some Suspicious Activity or another mangled corpse sighting then go there and use Sieg's woodscraft and Reyson's air support/general mystic ability to sense things in order to go hunting around the area.

Apparently SOMEONE is against the idea of Reyson using himself as bait, though.

Bonuses: They're both using roles that are suited for and at home in the wilderness, Siegfried especially has access to his boltholes in case things go south and they have to hole up safely. And they will be using the trail cams from the event.

Through use of the trail cams, investigating other supposed Goatman attacks, and good old fashioned woodsmanship, Reyson and Siegfried will be able to close in on the Goatman's typical stomping grounds in the woods northeast of town. Unfortunately, while they may have several Goatman encounters they won't be able to track down its lair, or determine if it even has a lair.

However, in the process of this they'll learn that the Goatman has a extremely distinctive laugh: four staccato 'ha's, the exact same length with the exact same space between them, rising in pitch with each utterance. Heard once in isolation it can pass as normal, but no matter who the Goatman is imitating its laugh is exactly the same. Once someone knows what to listen for it's an instant tell.

But getting close enough to observe the Goatman means the Goatman gets close enough to observe you. After the conclusion of their investigation, Siegfried and Reyson's acquaintances will report seeing either of them wandering alone in the woods and behaving strangely. It won't be hard to piece together the reason: the Goatman has started to imitate them even when they're not in the forest.

And in case that news wasn't bad enough, the Goatman's imitations of them are much more accurate than it usually manages. Only Reyson and Siegfried's closest friends will have an easy time seeing through the deception. The only saving grace is that the Goatman still can't change its strange laugh.

Investigations

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