DREAM NOTES #27: November 1, 2023

CALENDAR

ACTIVITY CHECK

WORLD UPDATES

ORKILI: ONGOING

A BIT LEAFY

DREAM BOARD

END NOTES

The Official Calendar has been updated. Here is our current schedule for the month:

11/01: Apps open

11/03: Final apps due, begin processing apps

11/04~5: Player Intro, Open Log, Cr Meme

11/28-30: Activity Check

12/01: New Mod Notes, Plot With Me Meme

12/05: EMP/ATP

12/??: Event/TDM

12/25: Reserves Open

12/29-31: Activity Check

DREAM TREND: This month's dream trends may involve any of the following themes: feasts of any kind; homesickness, and sheep.

WEATHER: It is official fall season and that means crisp, chilly sweater weather! And leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. In fact it's raining leaves for the first week of the month!

OTHER NOTES: N/A

This month will be another "chill" month so nothing too heavy again! With the holiday season rolling in and our retailers about to hit the trenches, we just want everyone to be able to relax and focus on whatever personal plots and things they'd like to do!

So with that in mind, some important reminders:

• Free passes for 2023 will expire after December, so if you haven't used one and feel like either this or next month will be hectic, please consider using it!
  
  
• December is HALF AC! That means you only need one thread of 5 comments to pass. If you submit the full proofs of two threads, you will earn a free pass for 2024. Free passes are changing to be player bound for better upkeep.
  
  
• Precautionary hiatuses are okay and encouraged! As mentioned, we know the holiday season can be hectic for everyone. If you think life will get in the way, we encourage you to go ahead and place a precautionary hiatus early in the month so that you don't end up scrambling at the end. And if you end up tagging around and making up AC, you can still submit it and it will effectively wipe the hiatus away.

Hope this helps folks as they try to plan things out! We do have a lot more planned for December, so look forward to it!

Congratulations to everyone who commented on our Activity Check! The following characters were removed from the game:

Vash the Stampede | bountyfull
Toge Inumaki | fishflakes
Jason Grace | oursavinggrace
Dante Sparda | strawberryredgrave
Octavia | systemofadowny

If anyone was swept because they missed AC, you can reapply in the next cycle. Just fair warning, we will notice if this happens more than once and we may not allow immediate reapplication the next time.

This puts our player population to 69/90, which means our new player reserve/apps slots are at a maximum 21.

Be it new NPCs, creatures, places, or some other discovery or creation, the world of Songerein continues to grow! For official lists and information, refer to the World Directory and Bestiary. So here are a few things as a result of the Dream Board and other submissions:

Places:
The Wild Harvest serves various western and eastern style earth-based street food dishes. A special menu is rotated every month.

Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew and Latte: Smooth with deep flavors of vanilla, the cold brew coffee mixes well with cinnamon, clove, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg to help blend the flavors of a pumpkin pie together with a slight nutty note. Topped with a pumpkin cream foam that ties it all together. While the latte is light and creamy in flavor. It has more of a punch of sweetness and notes of caramel with the usual pumpkin spice flavor. Topped with a sweet whipped pumpkin cream sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Can come hot or cold.

Tater Tot Hotdish: Made and served casserole style; cooked tender meat and vegetables in a flavorful gravy that helps bring all of it together, topped with a mix of creamy mashed potatoes and wonderfully crispy homemade tater tots. Warm and filling.

Pozole Stew: A satisfying soup with a smoky flavor with the somewhat thick chile broth, an aromatic sweet taste of hominy, and wonderfully intensely spiced pork. Garnished with a limes, chili peppers, radishes for a nice crunch, and a side of avocado for those that may need it to tame a little of the heat this traditional Mexican soup brings with it.

Marmalade Sponge Pudding: A steamed fruity and sweet dessert that can be as light as a feather, and a delight on the tongue. The fruity flavor depending on what marmalade may be used that day, this is a pudding that will leave you wanting more.

With the weather starting to turn even colder, the fireplaces are lit to try and help knock the chill out of the air inside of The Wild Harvest. Blankets and scarves are on offer to all patrons if they are still feeling the chill while inside. Candles are placed on the tables, the flames flickering within to help further bring a warm and cozy atmosphere within. A few tables have even been worked to turn them into kotatsu for that extra cozy feeling for those having a more difficult time with the cold.

A few maple leaf kittens can be seem curled up or romping about, and some may even seek a patrons' lap for their own warm resting spot.

The menu specials this month brought to you by 76 and Reaper. Be sure to wish them both congratulations if you see them. There's even a banner up dead center of the restaurant for all to see that says "Congratulations 76 and Reaper!" Have no idea what we're congratulating them for? Don't worry about it, congratulate them anyway!

Just a few quick updates regarding the city of Orkili. The Reactor is still under repairs, but things have stabilized significantly compared to the beginning of October, with all the help and efforts in keeping a barrier and a temporary supply of crystals provided. More importantly, various investigations and discoveries were made by those who volunteered, and we're listing out a quick overview of their findings!

However, we do encourage players to share their information ICly if possible! Those who wish to continue looking into things or wish for a follow-up may contact us and we'll organize something. Because threads and such are still ongoing, we're putting a small "pause" and will return in December. This will be important as it will help lead us to the events coming in the new year… 👀

Vanitas and Riku investigated cracks along the pipes of the reactor and sensed nightmare energy. Due to the nature of the damage, they suspected sabotage.

Ryu and Joshua explored some of the caves and found a mole with a large crystal as well as a monster centipede that exuded nightmare energy. They found a crystal of nightmare energy and took it back for research.

Alastor and Madhuri explored the caves and found a large supply of dream crystals. They also encountered a strong noctaere whose claw marks match the ones from the caves outside the city. Due to its strength, they fled.

OoT Link and Sheik went spelunking in the Orkili caves and found a mole grabbing crystals and will eventually encounter a turtle that may help with the dream crystals.

Tifa and Eustace went down to investigate the caves and discovered aggressive bats had some sort of tag on them and brought them back to the researchers to look into. They also found a lair of sorts with scratch marks all over the walls, and black crystals that appeared to absorb dreamotion energy and exuded nightmare energy.

Oooh aaaah. Some very interesting things and more still to come~

October has come and gone, and the Halloween carnival will have also returned to its mysterious origins, the carnival now returned to its original state. With the Christmas holidays looming and Orkili still recovering, one would hope November will be a little calmer. And it is—mostly. While all of the following is happening throughout the month, they will also be featured in the upcoming open log.

Here's the general overview:

Leaf Storm. A mysterious "storm" made entirely of leaves will fall on Reverein for the first full week of November. It's just leaves constantly falling from the sky, perhaps carried by the strong winds or even from Drajefell, the dragon island that sometimes floats past. Small leaves, big leaves, brown leaves, colorful leaves, they all come down in various amounts like scattered showers. Sometimes small, like a drizzle, and sometimes there's a giant "downpour" that covers everything in seconds.

Leaf Monsters. As the leaves pile up, some piles are actually taking a life of their own, gathering up in enormous piles and some even coming alive to try and bury anything in their path with leaves. Just blowing them will only scatter them, and even have a hydra effect where they spawn multiple more. Turns out a kind of creature disguised as leaves has infiltrated the town through the rain and is wreaking havoc, and the only real way to get rid of it is to burn the leaves.

Leafever. With the leaves a strange illness is passing through the town. Fortunately it's nothing too serious and is more like a bad cold. However, the effects vary. Some are mild and only cause strange dreamotion effects, such as sneezing bubbles large enough to trap objects (ew) or hair changing colors. Others are more severe where the individual will start to have tree-like qualities, such as bark skin or leafy hair. They might even turn into a complete dryad type creature for while they are sick. There is a cure, and it's from the very same leaves causing it all. Burning them like an incense for a few days will relieve the symptoms, and certain sap harvested from the leaf monsters themselves will get rid of it all in a few days. Unfortunately it's easily caught, so it's possible to catch it again until better immunity is built up.

Buggy Out There. The bugs are also active and those living in treehouses may find themselves needing to fend off a few, such as ladybugs, crickets, and the return of the giant beetles. Of course, this being Songerein, the insects will be anything but normal. Those ladybugs? Have very high standards and not above critiquing one's etiquette. Crickets? Perhaps some music will convince current tenants to let them stay…? Who knows what else will show up, this is just a preview.

Harvest Season. Finally, it's harvest season! With everything else happening it might be a bit tough, and hopefully the crops aren't also having anything strange going on… What was that? The scarecrows are rebelling?

How the Dream Board works:

• This is all optional, the quests are just extra content for players and while they can sometimes relate to upcoming or current events, they're just kind of "filler" stuff. Some will be set out in Songerein proper while others may involve dreams.
  
• The Dream Board can be found at the Plaza and quests will automatically appear on it like a bulletin board. Some will also appear in the journals. Anyone can accept them and rewards automatically generated upon completion of the task. It's a dream world, it's full of magic, it just knows.
  
• Quests can be done as many times as a character would do them and rewards will be delivered to the character upon completion.
  
• If you have any questions, comment to the designated subthread.

ID	QUEST	REWARD
1111	Gourdzilla Galore. Strange massive pumpkins have appeared seemingly overnight! They are so huge that they are blocking pathways, growing through storefront windows and walls and attracting hungry critters by the hundreds. Attempt to harvest these colossal pumpkins and start making as many pies and cakes as you can! No one likes food waste so just figure out a way to use the pumpkins and get them out of the way before the problem gets worse!	As much pumpkin puree as you could ever want.
1112	The Mysterious Case of the Catfish Couturiers. Have you noticed some of your clothing has gone missing as of late? Everything from your pants to your jackets and socks too. Whoever or whatever is stealing everyone’s clothing needs to be stopped! Investigate and follow the trail of lost clothing articles to a mysterious tree hollow in the wilds. It’s big enough to crawl into. Find the creature that has been hoarding the stolen clothing inside of this tunnel and stop it from stealing again. But… It seems that the deeper you go the more of the clothing you’re currently wearing suddenly vanishes too. It seems you’ll have to stop this pesky creature in your skivvies!	A handy stress ball in the shape of a catterfish. If you squeeze it the eyes bulge out.
1113	Mirror-Shifted: Kemonomimi. Seemingly throughout the month any mirror that you might look into will show your beautiful face but with one or two things changed. It’s you but with animal ears and a tail! The longer you look the more it actually feels like you have new ears and a tail. And if you look long enough it will become reality. You’ll be stuck with those ears and fluffy tail for an entire week! Unless you can use dreamotion to magic them away? Good luck, nya?	A whole week with a cute set of animal ears and a tail of your choice.
1114	Chicken Little. Someone left an old statue from an estate cleaning in the middle of town. It’s an ugly-looking statue in the shape of a chicken. It’s so heavy that most people are just leaving it where it is. Someone has to get this ugly thing out of the way... If the statue is moved too much or damaged in any way it seems to attract the wrath of the local chickens in the area. Hit or damage it too much and you might find a vengeful swarm of chickens coming to peck at your head. Be careful!	A small wooden statuette of a chicken.
1115	Dream Weaving. Rumours say that if you can find a way to ride a cloud you can manipulate it like cotton candy fluff. Find a way to climb up on a cloud and use the fluff to start knitting into fluffy cloud-cotton scarves and mittens. They will sparkle with the weaver’s hopes and wishes. Perfect gifts for the approaching cold months.	The ability to weave fabric out of clouds.
1116	Scattered Stone Bugs. A curious mind in town is requesting help in collecting some special bugs from the wild areas outside of Reverein. These special bugs appear to be little glowing insects made of precious stones. The bugs thrive the best in their natural habitat, be it in lava, water, dirt, ice and more. Collect as many varieties of these bugs as you can and return with them for a nice reward.	A glowing necklace made out of several precious stones.

And that should be it! If you have any questions, just comment here.