Summer Event 2017

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You hold in your hands a brown envelope, delivered just this morning by a courier on a fast tokota.

The paper is envelope is hefty - whatever's inside must be many pages long - and it's sealed with wax, the emblem showing the official seal of the TCA.

It bears signatures from both a Chief Thunderfeather and a Professor Mitchell on the back side.

You carefully break the seal, and pull out a thick packet of folded paper...

Strictly private and confidential RE: ID-264751TC
 To whom it may concern,

This letter is being sent out on behalf of the Tokotna Cultural Association (TCA) to all registered tokota handlers in Tokotna state and surrounding counties. If you have received this letter in error, please disregard it.
Several years ago, the TCA ventured into the Tartok Mountains on a special expedition to set up a research base to study the native tokota population in greater detail. Though the expedition is over, research has continued, and a major breakthrough has been made. Once again, the TCA is putting out a call for any interested handlers to register their tokotas for a new expedition - a Return to the Tartok Mountains.
Please find enclosed all the information needed to register your beasts to participate. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or email the office (details below).
Signed, Emil Varnava Administrative Official TCA Office of Research and Registration


Side Quest - Path to the Tartoks

"The trail to the Tartoks is long and rough. How prepared were you? The trail is relatively clear on teams' journeys from the villages and cities, but the closer you get to the mountains the weather worsens.

This Prologue Side Quest is optional and will count as a bonus for the Episode 1 event."

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You arrived at the base of the Tartoks only a few days ago with your team. The flurries of snow have finally calmed, leaving the mountains shrouded in a looming, icy fog. The view, though picturesque, is unsettling. Whether you have stood in the shadows of these mountains before, or if your visit to these behemoths is your first, the anxiety of being dwarfed by this landscape is insurmountable.
You are assigned to one of the first expedition teams to scout a path into the mountains. The foothills are dotted with adventurers, handlers and tokotas alike as they prepare for the maiden launch. Riders and TCA officials exchange papers and parcels as Tokotas noisily interact with one another. The sounds and smells of over three hundred occupants at the bustling campsite fills the air. The excited shouts, eager footfalls, and clattering of primed equipment tethered to sleds and camping stakes echoes across the mountains...
All at once, the din from throngs of friends old and new greeting, challenging, eating, playing and racing, crescendos into a joyous uproar as the first team sets off. An unexpected, gut-twisting CRACK instantly suffocates the excitement.
For only a moment, everyone is still. Heads crane upward toward the Tartoks' peaks. The fresh snow on the mountain face ten thousand feet above the outpost, wet and heavy, suddenly shifts. It had been so long since the last one was officially reported, but its name barrels its way into your mind: Avalanche.
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Side Quest - Aftermath

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Your team has been tasked with search and rescue for any missing tokota, peoples, or supplies. Tokotas and handlers help recover any missing goods, be it items or other teammates. Depict your team assisting in the clean-up effort: digging other handlers/tokotas from the snow, aiding (or being tended to) in the medical tent, recovering necessities from the snow, fixing broken supplies, etc. The recovery effort lasts several days. - Professor Mitchell's Side Quest

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Collab with Bezrail

Your team has been tasked to help clean up after the avalanche. Tokotas and handlers help clear obstacles from the path into the Tartoks. Depict your team assisting in the clean-up effort: hauling downed trees, chopping logs, moving boulders, bridging gaps on the trails, etc. The recovery effort lasts several days.

Collection Quests - In The Foothills

Depict your Tokota's effort to join the search in the Tartok foothills and forests for the scientific explanation of which Mitchell speaks. How optimistic is your Tokota?

Taming

EPISODE 2- Mysteries of the Valley

With a modest team hanging back to study the more commonly-seen wild tokotas at the Tartok Research Outpost, the rest of the expedition pushes forward. Up, over, through the mountains you caravan together, setting foot where no one has dared to travel before. The excitement of the unknown is palpable among your expedition team. Sleep is scarce and the speculative stories are plentiful. On the last day as you round the final peak, the unknown lay before you -- completely blanketed in fog, cast in a pink and purple blaze by the setting sun.
It is too late in the day for the fog to evaporate; begrudgingly your team pitches their tents. Settling in for sleep, you have a startling revelation. Several of your team members' tokotas had gathered to the edge of the lookout, staring out into the darkness. Collectively they jump at a distant, ghostly howl.
You're not sure if you would sleep that night.
- - -
Come morning, daylight reveals the expedition's bounty, little by little as the coils of smooth fog rise up the mountain slopes to dissipate in the sun's gleaming wake. First, the evergreen forest, lusher and greener than you've ever seen, but still capped in a fresh blanket of snow. Next, the more summery rolling plains and flower-filled meadows. Nearer to your position on the mountain, a plateau rises, dotted with steaming vents and gushing geysers. You realize some of the puffs of fog all long the cliffs leading into the basin is actually steam billowing from hot springs that gather and flow down into the valley, giving life to a thriving tropical forest. Gaping caverns are visible in the mountains and in the earth below, suggesting and elaborate system of caves yet to be seen by human eyes.
In an instant the fear and sleeplessness of the rough weeks leading up to this very moment vanish with the fog. You've made it.
You look around for the other parties of expeditioners and realize some have already begun their descent.
Collab between DreamingFoxfire , Sims2Freak273 and Abi-Gale

Side Quest - Cartography

Professor Mitchell is awed by the sheer variety of territory within the Valley, and requests help from tokotas and their handlers to help develop an accurate map for the area. Draw or write about your tokota and handler creating a map of the Lost Valley.

Collab with Bezrail

Side Quest - Preservation

Concerned by the sudden influx of humans and domestic Tokotas being put into the newly discovered Valley, Chief Thunderfeather requests help from tokotas and handlers in keeping the Lost Valley clean and preserved as nature intended. Draw or write about your tokota and handler tidying up old campsites and abandoned trash.

Left Top Picture - Collab with Bezrail ;; Right Top Picture - Collab with hildemar

Bottom Picture - Collab with HayleyWolf and Catnipwolf

Collection Quests - In The Valley

The valley is green and inviting after the chill of the scree slopes at the foot of the mountains. As the camp moves in, people around you are shedding their outer clothes, exclaiming at the strange damp air of the place. Tokotas swing their heads and snuff the new scents. It's almost as if someone has caught and cupped the Earth's warm breath and held it here, preserving it. The air smells of rich earth and rain, overlaid by the mineral stench of the bubbling hot springs.
The camp is set up quickly under the guidance of Thunderfeather and her people. No longer just a rag-tag band of explorers, but a small community brought together by the hardship of the avalanche and the strange experiences of the expedition.
But however beautiful the valley, this doesn't feel like the end. There are still many questions hanging over the camp. The lonely howls and strange calls audible on the mountains are even louder in the valley. The mutterings about spirits and ghosts resume. Some of Thunderfeather's people do a lively (albeit secret) trade in amulets and wards designed to bring good luck and scare off evil.
Some of the recent excursions to track the lilac-footed tokota have brought back other items -- huge old bones, visibly scarred and scratched by something which is, you assume, even bigger. Professor Mitchell eagerly gathers as many of these he can find, ignoring the narrow glares from Chief Thunderfeather.
One morning, a few days after the expedition is established in the valley, the two leaders assemble all handlers and tribespeople together to ask for help:

Prehistoric Hunting

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Mitchell addressed the camp, worry etched in his face. "We are outnumbered here. As it has come to pass, the abandoned cubs and calves that we have been finding suggest the population of prehistoric creatures cannot sustain themselves. They compete for resources, resources we too are competing for on our journey into this unknown world." He glanced towards his colleagues from the TCA that accompanied the majority of the group down the mountain slopes into the valley. A few of them nodded solemnly.
He turned to look towards Mikara who stood with her arms folded across her broad chest. She lowered her head in acceptance. The professor cleared his throat. "Therefore, it has been decided. With strict rules and regulations, these beasts may be targeted as new prey. It will be dangerous. Hunt with the utmost caution."
---
The discovery of the hidden valley has unearthed some unexpected surprises -- prehistoric beasts! Long thought dead, these creatures have survived the Ice Age and are thriving in the Tartok mountains.
The TCA have agreed that tokotas may take part in monitored hunts to learn more about these beasts, as well as to supply the expedition with badly needed fresh meat. Anyone may participate in these hunts, regardless if they are participating in the Summer Event or not.

EPISODE 3- A Terrible Encounter

When everyone returned from their tasks at dusk, rumors of more prehistoric monsters swelled. There were two groups, and as each team began to individually recount their stories, it became apparent from the shared details that the camp was not dealing with mere hearsay:

The first party was a large band of hunters that had set out for mammoths and smilodons that morning. The sun was still low in the sky but the rolling tundra was already populated with prey. The party spent an hour coordinating smaller teams to each take down an individual mammoth or saber-tooth cat, and most groups were finding success. Family herds of mammoths ran to and fro, and smilodons roared and hissed to fend off the skilled tokotas that dared to take them on. It was a commotion, but it wasn't quite pandemonium; everything was expertly planned an executed. This lot of tokotas and handlers were typically among the most skilled and most daring, unafraid of anything... except for what stormed onto the planes from the south.
The balanced push and pull of hunter and prey broke into disarray. Mammoths and smilodons peeled back towards their attackers, ultimately blindsiding and escaping many of them. The team captains steadied their tokota mounts and squinted in the direction from which they had fled. Something had made them run.
In a short moment, it would make them run as well.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The second party were the last group of stragglers that had finally made their way through the Tartoks, down into the Valley. They had taken a more leisure pace, and were content to enjoy their surroundings and marvel at the wonders of this newly discovered land. Though many peeled off on independent adventures, the majority kept within earshot of one another, slowly hiking their way towards the main campsite that had been established weeks ago. Following the maps sent from the pioneers who charted the areas before them, they took the route with the shallowest grade to avoid any more mountain climbing, though it was not the swiftest path.
Winding alongside one of the valley's newly named rivers ("Percy's Tail," aptly named for the many-forking and wandering streams,) the head-rider of this particular party quickly halted her Tokota and looked around.
"What is it?" another expeditioner asked, curious of the sudden stop.
"Do you hear that?" the woman asked, peering around them. Several other members stopped their tokotas and waited, listened.
"I don't hear anything," a young man said impatiently.
"...Exactly."
They looked up and around them. Where were the birds and insects they had just heard moments ago? They were mostly out of the jungle, but the area had clearly been populated by a variety of wildlife.
Without warning, their tokotas each tensed themselves as if bracing for impact. "What the--" someone started but his words were drowned out by the thundering footsteps of something huge.
The creature barreled through the treeline into view, a dark blur of muscle and hair. Few handlers could recount what it did then, their tokotas had put so much distance between it and them, all they could focus on was the blur of vegetation that whipped past them as their party ran full-tilt all the way to camp.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now, crowded around the bonfire as you await a verdict, members from the different parties begin chattering excitedly, quelling the fearful tension that had froze the air. There was no doubt both groups encountered the same huge, hulking monster; neither smilodon nor mammoth; nor bear nor Dire tokota. Those who had not seen the creature for themselves had mixed feelings about these stories: some wished they had been there to see the monster, some were glad they had missed it. With the entirety of the expedition party finally together again, the two leaders, Chief Thunderfeather and Team Mitchell, were at last able to address everyone.
Before the crowd could even settle their voices to allow the two a chance to speak, a deep and chilling "HAROOOOO" filled the camp--the very same which had been heard at the edge of the Tartoks before the descent into the valley--but much, much closer.
Empty crates suddenly shattered under the powerful mass of not one but two gargantuan beasts! The grain stores tumbled, spilling wheat and rice, and the scaffolding and camping supplies rattled as tent poles and sleds and shelves spewed in all directions. Screams of the handlers were barely audible over the terrified barks and roars of the tokotas. The beasts tore through camp, wreaking havoc, snarling and scattering the explorers. You could not see them clearly from your vantage, but whatever they were, they were positively massive, bigger than the largest Dire among your group... and those teeth...
At least one thing was certain: the stories were absolutely, regretfully true.
Art Collab between Bluebird, Catnipwolf and I!

Side Quest - Chaos - Lost

You find yourself in the throng of screams and bellows suddenly without leadership. Where is Professor Mitchell? What do you do in this dire moment as all hell breaks loose: do you join Thunderfeather's pupils in trying to still the anarchy, do you panic, or do you try and find your leader? Draw or write about how your tokota and handler react to being caught in the mayhem -- without Professor Mitchell to guide them.
Top Left Picture - Collab with Bezrail ; Top Right Picture - Collab with quailbeast ; Bottom Picture - Collab with BitteRPG


Side Quest - Chaos - Stand Your Ground

In the wake of the chaos sparked by creature's appearance at the camp, supplies have been overturned, expeditioners and tokotas alike have scattered in all directions. Under Thunderfeather's stern leadership, you try to find the strength to remain calm amidst the chaos. Is it easy? Do you regret coming in the first place? How is your team handling the situation? Draw or write about your how your tokota and handler react to being caught in the mayhem.

Left Picture - Collab with Bezrail ;; Right Picture - Collab with Catnipwolf

Collection Quests - Proceed with Caution

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For Mitchell: Depict your Tokota's effort to join the search for Professor Mitchell across the Steam Flats. Be careful of thick brush, acidic pools, pitfalls, quicksand, and jagged obsidian rock.

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