Welcome to our new minigame, that is the mini round!
A mini round is a simpler and shorter version of the main round, specifically designed to celebrate events, in time where the main round have yet to finish, but we want to celebrate the event with another game.
It’s a little different this time, because the mini round meant to celebrate summer holiday and was planned to be opened few months earlier, on July. However since we’re still busy with the main round at that time, we have no choice but to postpone this until the new thread were ready, which it is now.
On the original idea, we’re going to celebrate summer holiday with a “beach episode” of EBG. However, summer already end for most part of the world, changing to autumn. Even so, we still need a mini round to fill the gap between round, and everyone already worked hard for the the summer-themed mini round. That’s why, instead on disposing them, we’re going to celebrate BOTH summer and autumn now!
In order to do that, the focus is no longer about the seasons, but more about nature itself. Fortunately, we got the right person for that. We’re going to implement the brand new hosting system that never used in EBG before! Presenting, @MistickMage and @Sandcat as the host of the round!
A host doesn’t need to be a mod and a mod doesn’t need to be a host. Being a host means receiving the honor to helped us designing the round, which is normally not possible as a round cannot be influenced by the player to avoid bias. However, the hosting system now allow us to create an entire round that represent the said host, allowing us to create a round that’s specifically aligned with their style and preference.
For that, this round will be solely dedicated on a cause that matters for them. Our nature lover duo surely would be glad to talk about environmental awareness, including about important topics that’s currently relevant to the real world, such as climate change, plastic that pollutes the ocean, and the hazard of oil drilling to the world.
The setting of the round is mainly the idea of @MistickMage as based on Dungeons & Dragons concepts, while the round also highly inspired by Ouroboros by @Sandcat which also the winner of National Geographic’s “Planet or Plastic” contest!
Other than the two host above, the round receive help from @litericy and @Logia-senpai as they contribute their opinion on our round creation. (Although Logia already retired so we can’t really ask for his help on modding the game) For this mini round, Ricy will be my main assistance on the modding part, because I’m still busy with the main round. Yes we’re still going to continue the main round, and I’m still writing the battle scene, so don’t worry about the mini round distracting the real round.
As a rule of thumb, remember that joining a mini round is not obligatory. If you’re already occupied with the main round, you don’t need to push yourself here. However, there’s nothing wrong on joining the mini round if you’re interested. A mini round is simpler, easier to do, so it won’t be taxing nor demanding.
Also, because the main round already went way too high in the power level, we’re trying to keep this round grounded and realistic. The round will focus more on environmental issues while still retaining our epic fantasy vibe. How that will go? Let’s dive down below to find out!
The Story of the Round
It’s always summer in the world known as Somerset. As a world predominantly of tropical and subtropical climate, regardless of rain or drought season, there won’t ever comes the day where snow would blanket the land. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbow here.
Somerset considered as an oceanic planet although not technically true, because there’s landmass, only that they’re all sunk beneath the surface. Ever since the glacier melt due to an inevitable global warming, the sea level rise and earth are now underwater. The only islands left are the back of gigantic turtles known as Zaratan, also known as the world turtles, as the shell of these creatures can host an ecosystem on its own, essentially becoming a moving islands after centuries passed. Each zaratans can live for many thousands of years, and they grew in size the older they become. They’re considered the largest creature on this world, as the greatest of zaratans can dwarf down mountains.
The Zaratan is an example on how nature adjust itself to disaster. The climate change has spelled an extinction for many, however new ecosystem born, and life continue to thrive above the back of the world turtles. Humanity and any other land dweller, and so new ecosystem established.
The harmony last for millennia until the greed of humanity summoned yet another calamity. As society prosper, civilization advances, and economy demand resources. Mankind cause harm to nature that supported them for ages, as forest burned and the world littered in waste. However the worst comes when they decide to dive into the abyss and drill through the seabed for the coveted black substance known as petroleum, to create a highly valuable oil for modern technologies, from gasoline to kerosene.
The quest for fossil fuel leads to irresponsible exploitation that cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem. However, many selfish people wouldn’t care, until they witnessed what kind of horror they brought to the world, when they awakened the primordial pestilence, the bane of the living…
When the drill pierced the earth, something else other than oil leaks to the ocean. An ancient creature of the old world, prehistoric predator that meant to sleep for eternity, now awakened. The Petrolith, or so scientist refer to the black monsters of tar and slime. They thought they were extinct long ago, during the ice age, however, many of them still survived under the tectonic plate, awaiting for the day when the gate opened. And now, thanks to the foolish decision of human’s leaders, they returned.
The Petrolith sprung from the bottom of the ocean, to the surface that’s rich with life. Fueled by their hatred to nature itself, they corrupts the cycle of life, tainting everything that was pure with their poisonous ooze that spreads like plague, which toxic for every known environment to the earth. The ecosystem collapsed as the green of trees slowly withers, changing to the yellow of autumn, as if signing that the eternal summer is coming to an end.
The Zaratan, the home for many beings are now threatened. The blight began to infect every organism in the ocean, including the food source of the great turtles. Starved while the oceans rots around them, the poisoned zaratans are gradually dying, and so they wish to migrate to cleaner ocean, untouched by the corruption. However, it would took dozens of years for the young turtles to migrate, and the elders are so huge that their migration could last for centuries.
Meanwhile, the petrolith ravages environment, turned everything into toxic sludge, as their very existence that’s harmful to every living being in nature. Now, every races and every creatures in the world of Somerset desperately delays the impending extinction and death of the ecosystem.
Because when the turtles dies, there wouldn’t be any land left to call home.
Objective of the Round
- Join the battle against the Petrolith! Regardless if you’re in side of humanity or not, the Petrolith did not discriminate as they’ll harm any living being. For sake of discussion, there’s going to be unlimited number (as realistically possible in natural environment) of Petrolith, so we’re not going to run out of enemies to fight.
- Protect the world turtles, Zaratan! The polluted ocean and the rampaging monsters will slowly weaken them. Depend on the age of the zaratans, some of them would be vulnerable enough to be dying in several weeks or month, especially those with age under one thousand of years. It would took years for the greater zaratans (those that are millions years old, explanation later) to ever die because how tough they are, so don’t worry about the largest turtles because no one on the current power level can remotely harm them. Focus on saving the younger one, since they’re still somewhat vulnerable. However, the older zaratans might be ridiculously durable, but they’re so slow that they could never ever defend themselves. Keep an eye on the biggest turtles out there.
- At the start of the round, every players will participate in a battle against several “Scylla Class” (explained later) of Petrolith that will aim to attack the larger Zaratan among the migration group. Each player will be assigned to fight each one of them at separated location, to protect the Zaratan, otherwise an entire region will get infected. Details regarding the enemy, the arena, and the mission conditions will be explained later when the game begin.
- Optionally, you’re encouraged to save as much as animals as possible, and to protect the natural ecosystem such as the forest and the lakes from being tainted. In case there’s any players who ended up submitting characters that aim to purge the corruption, you’re allowed to traverse in surrounding world in attempt to do so. You’re also allowed to influence any other zaratans around you, if there’s a way for you to relieve them from their suffering.
- Humanity predict that there’s going to be a “hive” or source of the Petrolith. This being will be the boss battle later. It’s theorized that the being will appear later on, and will attack on the largest Zaratan in the universe of Somerset. If the largest of Zaratan died, it considered game over and we’ll automatically enter the bad ending.
REMINDER: Other than the boss, no one on the round would be able to physically harm the zaratans because that would require an even higher power level, which isn’t available on the round. This is important because so you know that you don’t need to hold back, and you don’t need to worry about some powerful enemies easily killing any of those turtles.
More info on the next post!
Creatures & Environments
Normally, we wouldn’t create an entire different post just for describing the creatures and the environment, but because the ENTIRE round going to focus on them, and because they’re especially important for the story (also the gameplay), then I’m going to go extra detailed this time.
First to explains is the Zaratan as an organism by itself. Though there’s many different types that exist in Somerset, they’re all generally the same, other than some minor details (by means “minor details” here, it’s like different breed of dogs, or cats, et cetera) which makes them differ in colors and patterns. Their scale are generally the same, and their size are more determined by their age than their gene, or gender, to keep this simple and easy to remember.
Zaratans are literally as large as islands, with some being pretty small and some larger than mountains, depend on their age. A zaratan born every few centuries or even millenia, because it took years for their eggs to hatch (each are like large buildings) which hidden inside their colossal body. Afterward, the newborn will live around their mother, which function as an island by itself, until they’re ready for adventure, centuries years later. Young zaratans are about several hundreds years old and about the size of small islands, like those in Micronesia. An adult zaratan ranges between many thousands years old, usually around medium-sized islands like in Japan or Philippines. The greatest of these turtles been around millions of years old, carrying shell that’s larger than Honshu island (Japan), with their typical size ranging between Great Britain to Sumatra (Indonesia’s largest island). The millions-years old zaratans are the largest living organism on both land and ocean, on the entire world of Somerset.
The largest of Zaratan has no predator because there’s no animals on this world that can threaten their rock hard body. There’s countless amount of creatures that rely on their existence as food source, though the colossal turtles doesn’t bothered by such parasites, as they’re already too durable to be hurt even if there’s thousands and possibly millions of organism latching and munching on their island-like body. This doesn’t meant they’re invulnerable, as even though they’re nearly impervious to anything in the wilderness, there’s still virus and such microbes that can affect them. It’s just that they’re so huge, it would took ages for them to die by sickness.
The mobility of a zaratan also depend on their size, because larger means carrying more burden. Younger zaratan (hundreds of years or younger) can move fast enough to be compared to large vehicles ships such as a tanker or cruise ships (yep, that’s still really slow), while the adult only move few miles/kilometers per year, depend on their size. The most ancient, which also the largest of zaratans, is nearly immobile and doesn’t bother with migration. Zaratans migrates periodically, sometimes each several hundreds of years, some other migrates almost every years. This factor depends more on age than personality, as younger zaratans are smaller and thus can move faster, while older zaratans barely seems to move if we observe them with naked eyes.
Every zaratans favor tropical (or subtropical) climate than any others, which is why they used to settle in equator region before the climate change. After the glacier melt and sea level rise, zaratans can go to almost any ocean in Somerset because the global climate are either tropical or subtropical, which makes it feels like it’s eternally summer there. Though climate doesn’t bother the largest of zaratans, as they’re nearly immobile and been surviving through many extreme disaster after millions of years.
Their threat meant to extinct long ago in the prehistoric era, until it turned out that they didn’t…
Hidden under the seabed, dwelling inside the earth’s crust, are creature of black ooze and slimy tentacles. Petrolith, that’s how humanity named them, as they thrive in any place with crude oil exist. Scientist still yet to understand whether they required hydrocarbon to live, which is the essence of petroleum, or this outside the scope of chemistry. What they know is that these creatures inhabit the inner sanctum of the planet where fossil fuel were extracted, and out of coincidence, freed when one of the largest offshore drilling penetrates the underworld where they meant to be sealed.
It seems that these creatures harbor deep hatred to nature itself, or they simply mindlessly spread cause havoc without a care of other beings, as their primal desire is to conquer the world, invading and infesting the surrounding ecosystem with their toxic goo that’s poisonous to any other living being, simply because they’re mainly composed of petroleum, crude oil, which proven to be hazardous to any known earthly environment.
Petrolith is not a race of single species, as there’s many type of these monsters down there. Their size and appearance varies one to another, but in general, they’re all in dark color with tentacles, leaving excessive oily sludge that spills and contaminate anything in the ecosystem, leading to blight and pestilence. (Though, other than their serious environmental jeopardy through infection and pollution, most of them aren’t really that strong)
Mankind of Somerset categorize Petrolith to three classification based on the threat they pose.
- Nymph Class: A title given to the weakest of the Petrolith creatures, also called merman or seaman by some. The Nymph class are powerless “fodder enemies” like what you can find in typical fantasy RPG at the lowest level, unless they looks too really demented and gross. Most of these beings are in size smaller than wild animals, with few of them being close enough to be humanoid, though still with tentacles and aquatic features. Many of them are amorphous, or like bloated mutated mollusk with bulging eyes, with some of them instead looking wormy. All in all, they pose minimum threat to both peoples and the environment, as they can be killed by even ordinary weapons. They got low intelligence, sluggish and has no combat capabilities, though comes in large swarms, almost seemingly unlimited in numbers.
- Hydra Class: Not as scary as their names, but not to be underestimated. Hydra class petrolian are quite large, threatening and monstrous, enough to crush and devour peoples or animals easily due to their size. They’re not very powerful, but still strong enough to break down trees and walls, while also tough enough to withstand at least several shots of small explosives. Their threat level are like, above the average beast, but below dragons. So they’re like dinosaur such as tyrannosaurus, just that they’re not lizards or birds. Much like any other Petrolith, Hydra class are sea monsters with tentacles, slimy and oily as usual. There’s no specific species to list here, since there’s many kind of them.
- Scylla Class: The highest known class for the Petrolith to ever be documented so far, and considered to be their chief, their leader and captain. The Scylla class is highly dangerous even to armed soldiers, or even to other monsters, as not only they’re huge, strong and deadly, they’re also notably intellectual, much like what happened if octopus evolved into a predator and can now terrorize the land. There’s many size and type of Scylla class, but in general, they’re larger than most animals (size ranging between elephants to houses) and unbelievably tough, shrugging off most firearm and mundane weapons, saves for those that could blow large boulders. There’s only several Scylla class to ever appeared yet, with every one of them differs in abilities and specialties.
On this round, the Scylla class is pretty much the only thing that can challenge the players on the round, because Hydra class are easy to beat, and Nymph class are practically harmless for the player because they barely pose enough threat even to average human being, and can be killed by ordinary soldiers. This is why each players would fight a single Scylla class later on the game.
Although, the leading researcher of Somerset believes that there’s another class above the Scylla, as the one who controls the rest of the Petrolith. Though merely a theory that have yet to be proven, the government given special designation for the being, a code for emergency in case it ever appear: The Charybdis Class.
Humanity has yet to gain any concrete proof of the being yet, but if a single Scylla class could ruin an entire town and potentially cause a nationwide damage, then they can’t imagine how much danger do a Charybdis class can offer, and how to stop them. Mankind of Somerset might got an army with firearms and battleships, but their technology barely can fend off the Scylla class and never could kill any of them, let alone something worse…
(More details about the Scylla will be given later when the game begin, with possible hint of the Charybdis as well)
Other than any of the direct threat of Petrolith in combat, they also contaminate the entire world given enough time, as their very existence is walking living oil tank. Not only that they’re toxic, they also enhance many carbon-based environmental issues that’s already present, due to their close connection to carbon dioxide, which is a negative byproduct of fossil fuel, and what the Petrolith release if they hit with flame, just like when wildfire happens. Even with modern technology, humanity struggled to stop creatures that infest the entire ocean, especially when mankind’s main weapon that is firearm only makes things goes worse. Each attempt to eliminate the creatures only leads to explosions and wildfire, that damage the surrounding land even more.
In worst case scenario where the Petrolith dominates enough region to claim at least a local area in the world map, their infection would spread to the globe in less than ten years, without them need to directly attacked anyone outside of their domain, as their existence itself cause environmental disasters. This ranges from accelerating the greenhouse effect to centuries sooner than what it should be, amplifying the ocean acidification that coral reef and many other marine animals went extinct, to even cause the entire ecosystem to be rotten and completely inhospitable due to the oil spills contamination.
Basically, any careless usage of oil product backfire against humanity now, including all the non-recyclable plastic that pollutes the ocean. As plastic mainly composed by petroleum and natural gas, the Petrolith can digest them to strengthen their hazardous properties, which makes it worse for everyone. Though of course, not every petroleum usage is bad for nature, and it’s unavoidable that humanity need some oil to makes progress, the moral message is that some people really didn’t give a damn about the environment, about animals, or even climate itself, as usage of fossil fuel keeps on worsening the global warming, and that offshore oil drilling often cause disastrous oil spills that destroy ocean life. It’s not like using oil is bad, it’s the greedy people who exploits nature heartlessly… And now, they’ll learned their lesson.
The Petrolith symbolize human’s sin against nature, such as plastic that chokes marine animals, carbon emission that leads to global warming, and punishment for greedy government that continue to drill for oil despite the obvious harm that they caused. The goal of the round is not only to focus on nature, but implementing a realistic and relatable consequence of human’s action based on our real world issues.
As a disclaimer, the design and concept of the round is not done by me alone. There’s lots of contribution and support done by both host and mods. For example, Mistick want something that looks like the Kraken with poisonous slime, while Sandy likes the idea as well, but been thinking of something wormy. Meanwhile, Logia said that there’s nothing better with fossil fuel than fossil itself, with added note that he likes me idea about the pestilence that hateful toward living and the nature. Mistick agrees with the nod, suggesting something oily that mindlessly destroying the ocean. So in the end, we go toward this path.
Least but not least, special thanks and mentions!
- @MistickMage for the round idea, especially about the Zaratan!
- @Sandcat for a huge help with the marine ecosystem!
- @litericy for the creatures names, especially Petrolith and Charybdis!
- @Logia-senpai for the monsters design and abilities!
Character Requirement of the Round!
Minimum player: Forget about the rules of minimum player! A mini round doesn’t require a minimum player, because we can start with as much player as we got, EVEN if the current number of players are on odds number.
Max player: There’s no maximum number in a mini round either!
Special Requirement: Although this round accepts almost any kind of characters, we want to focus on nature, or at least protecting the world. Try to get a character that align with that motive, so we can fight in unity for the same cause. So definitely not someone who would intentionally hurt innocent life without a good reason. Though everyone allowed to slaughter the monsters, and environmental destruction is allowed within reasonable threshold.
Power Level: Average!
Originally, Mistick suggest a round with very lower power level, but if the power level is too low, we wouldn’t stand a chance here. The power level carefully designed so that the players would be strong enough to fight the tentacle monsters, but wouldn’t be powerful enough to hurt the gigantic turtles. Because there’s no point on protecting them if we ended up hurting them in the process.
An “average” power level is actually above the average human being, and instead is the average of most action-oriented stories out there. We’re not talking about Hollywood action movies with guns and bombs, of course. We’re not talking about traditional fantasy in ancient days either. We’re talking about modern interpretation of fantasy stories with awesome action package, from video games to superhero movies, from anime to manga. Of course this doesn’t meant to be inclusive, as there’s many epic fantasy out there that didn’t follow the modern formula. We’re here just making examples.
This means, an “average” power level allows characters above the norm, in superhuman standard, with feature such as supernatural strength and speed, among many other possibilities to mention here. Same goes with magical powers, whether they’re actually magic or not. Measurement of damage can be applied to almost anything, may you bring fireballs or lightning bolt, may you cast deadly curse or summon natural disaster.
For those who already know how EBG worked, sure you’re familiar with this power level. Blowing boulders, crushing vehicles, houses explodes. You know the drill. However, there’s something that worked differently on this round, and that is, to be responsible with your power. Normally, when a power level labeled as “building busting” then you’re going to ruin the entire neighbor in each of your battle. On this round, you need to be extra careful on not to cause needless damage to the environment, and be especially mindful before you ended up causing death of the innocent.
That being said, veteran player should know what’s acceptable for the power level. You just need to keep in mind that you’re fighting on top of gigantic turtles, that carry an entire nation behind their back. That’s why the power level set to average, so there’s no way anyone could break them down. Because it would be too restraining if you need to worry about the Zaratan while you’re fighting thousands of monsters all over the place.
Beside, neither you nor the Petrolith can physically harmed the Zaratan that’s absurdly colossal, especially the oldest one of them. Sure it’s possible to hurt the young one, but they’re still as large as island, even if it’s just a small island. And all of your fight would be on adult Zaratan, which pretty much mountainous in scale.
The only one who could threatens the Zaratans are the Scylla class, and each player will only fight one of them. Don’t mistaken them as being supremely powerful, as they’re as equally as strong as the players. It’s just that Petrolith are deadly to the ecosystem, so if a Scylla class leave untouched, they can eventually poison the zaratans.
As for the Charybdis class… We’ll keep it for later.
For now, just pack your character and get ready for EBG beach episode!
TAGLIST!
@ZacKember @Royal_Rebel @mxdnightstar @Tim_the_Enchanter @Bronze-Metal @ImperialSun @BookRight @Yasinthus @R15K3R @Makewarnotpeace @brizingr1 @alternative520 @Knight_AdamThe2nd @FutureStories123 @Shadowdrakon99 @Kyle1029 @TheDonnster @MadHatterAddy @Canislupus54 @Zythe @LifeAsTheMoon @TheFantasyIncentive @Nightgraydawg @princesscamillia13 @GarrettJoe @HisHighnessRicmar @some_aspiring_writer @Sandcat– @Redhairedsniper @9GhostWriter9 @Capitandelasnubes @galaxi– @Nightfright136 @timewinder_ @describethesunset @thegreatcycle @BookRyt @crimson_mystery_cake @iamnotasmartguy @HadianClarke @WyvernShadow @FayfayAhmadi @suanlt @Ramenraged @Chaaruzu_Corner @bloodyrogue17 @emberkitty @crimson_mystery_cake @DarkLordSpada @Leon_desmelenado @Lucky_Lightning @MistickMage @blue_jay @TheTrueTerrydactyl @RealBiWizardGavilan @CMGrey @-Leyza- @user26423447 @Takira_The_Only_One @IJustWannaChange @Logia-senpai @Aero_Gottesbesitz @Inked_Insane @Illness_of_mind1 @AAJamesOFFICIAL @nighted @Spider-Hawk @Oblivionyx @Eternal_Foxglove @14DragonTime @DannyH31 @chillaxsz10 @Roak_G
WE’RE ALWAYS OPEN FOR NEW PLAYERS!!
Please don’t be shy, tell me if you want to be added to the taglist! ^-^ (Also please remind me if I forgot to tag someone)
For those who got tagged and didn’t read the round intro yet, click the link below to jump to the beginning:
BONUS!
As the tradition goes, I’m going to share more awesome art for the round, that I have to use. Not like they’re any less better, it’s just that we run out of space, or these pics aren’t really relatable to the setting of the game. Anyway, here goes the bonus pics!
(Fair warning, when anyone talked about “anime beach episode” then obviously some of the pics could be getting somewhat suggestive. There’s nothing explicitly sexual and that’s for sure, but some of the pics below might be kinda lewd, though not really NSFW pictures so don’t worry)
Epic Battle Game 