{ dream notes: #09 - may 1, 2022 }

[dreamkeepers]

DREAM NOTES #09: MAY 1, 2022

April has ended and now our game must return to its original self. Hope everyone had fun! May is an off month, but we have some interesting stuff popping up…especially in relation to a certain large tree that decided to stick around.

CALENDAR

Here is our current schedule for the month:

5/01: Apps open

5/03: Final apps due, begin processing apps

5/04~05: Player Intro post, CR Meme, and Open log go up

5/20: Player plot; details will go up a few days prior

5/29-31: Activity Check

6/01: Dream Notes #10 and new Dream Board

6/??: Event

6/17: Test Drive

6/24: Reserves Open

6/28-30: Activity Check

DREAM TREND: This month's dream trends may involve any of the following themes: ominous feelings, creepy looking moons

WEATHER: Weather is starting to warm up with a few scattered showers and storms in the afternoon, which can worsen or pass through more quickly depending on the general mood of the population in the area.

OTHER NOTES: As if to contrast the happy atmosphere from last month, this month is looking a little more on the dreary side. In particular, there are a bunch of crow-like birds called the Flock that appear around town. Local fae will tell how it is not multiple animals but one singular creature split among many. It's predatory in nature, however it does not seem to be hunting anything… Yet. Why it's around town can be anyone's guess, but they can be easily shooed away.

The town of Reverein has returned to normal, however there are some new additions to the place that are mentioned in the sections below. The mod notes have also gotten a little bit of style change! Also the moon is still gone. Is its absence related to some of the weird things happening or is it just a coincidence?

As noted on the calendar there will be a player plot around mid-month so keep an eye out for the details to be posted closer to the date!

ACTIVITY CHECK RESULTS

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

Brother!Nier | silentends
Bunta Marui | volleygenius
Daley Vigil | buriedvigil
Jude Mathis | spryite
Kiki Asukai | longsilence
Leia Rolando | ragingscoopaholic
Tsurumaru Kuninaga | cranekin

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 55/75, which means our new player reserve/apps slots are at a maximum 20.

WORLD UPDATES

Be it new NPCs, creatures, places, or some other discovery or creation, the world of Songerein continues to grow! With the upcoming app cycle, the population will rise from ~400 to ~500.

We have also updated the town maps to include map references for each major section of the town! The maps also include specific locations and stores, and currently it only has the places that are NPC run. However, we'll happily add player run locations, we just need you guys to comment to the Locations/Setting Submission thread. The best way to specify the location is to take a cropped screenshot of a small area of the map, put a colored dot on the exact place, and link it in the comment. Make sure the cropped area is recognizable!

Limited to specific locations and not residences. Because characters come and go, for our sanity we'll only add special locations submitted for the World Updates and not for personal residences.

For those who just want to see the maps without clicking through everything, have an album post. "Detailed" maps of portions of the Wildlands are on the docket, but we're prioritizing the town since that's most important.

So here are a few things as a result of the Dream Board and other submissions:

Beastiary:

• Dahnan Owls. Owls that are typically native to the realm of Dahna. They're round, soft and can fly. These owls appear in legends of the past and are also a symbol of history.

Places:

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

  Wild Harvest's specials for the month are:

  
  
  • Luminous Fruit Drinks - Fruit drinks and smoothies made with the glowing fruits that have gone ripe. Some fruits can be a mixture of two different fruits or something else entirely (The glowing dragon fruit for example has an ube/chocolate taste to it). Up to the player's imagination how their fruit drinks taste. Can be alcoholic and non.
    
  • Tonkatsu Ramen - Noodles with a meat bone broth. Topped with sliced meat of the day and vegetables.
    
  • Fruit Sandwich - Sandwiches with fruit and cream. Can be ordered as 1 or in threes.
    
  • Sakura Sugar Cookies and Dawn Flower Butter Cookies will continue to be available this month.
    
  • Dream Ade will be added to the regular menu.

  
  Spaces are being made in the garden to add small ponds in the future.
  
  
• Yujin’s Greenhouse. Yujin is slowly expanding the assortment of flowers in the greenhouse, which is technically publicly accessible, but he would prefer if people ask permission either from himself or one of his housemates before going in there.
  
  
• Reverein Communal Clinic. A clinic set up by Jude and Yujin that's now officially open to the public. It's at the north of town plaza between the residential and market district, close to the riverside. The second floor will be dedicated to research into plants and development of medicine in relation to it. Will probably start providing first aid kits good to travel with down the road, other additions may come depending on IC developments.

Other:

• Otto and Eustace broke one of the elevators in the Verens Observatory. ...Well, Otto broke it before Eustace could stop him, but if anyone asks, Eustace was complicit.
  
  
• Zelda went on the radio to advertise the dreamotion allergy medicine she helped develop for Quest 404.
  
  
• Luca ended up chattering about the generators he was building on public radio.
  
  
• G'raha has completed the Revenytes for people to use and will be monitoring them to make sure they work appropriately. He'll also be making adjustments to make them more efficient as time goes on. Once they're in a good place, he'll expand on making more.
  
  
• Orpihi and Somnus have planted a few of the books that have fallen from the tree! Could they have helped the Tree of Stories to now exist in Songerein!? Or are there just a bunch of books still buried underground? Who knows, it is a mystery—
  

BANK OF LEPRECHAUN

It was a bit difficult for them to get established last month due to the "town makeover" that was going on, but now that everything has returned to normal, there is a new, very noticeable building located southwest of the Markets area. Shaped like a giant pot of gold, a group of leprechauns from March have established a special bank for both Reverein denizens and the fae who live out in the Wildlands.

Although it mainly deals with gold coins, because Reverein and Songerein as a whole still uses the barter system, making everyone adapt to a singular currency would be difficult. Instead the bank serves as an alternate "bartering" system for those who find it difficult to make exchanges for specific services and goods, or for those who miss carrying money to use for purchases.

• Customers can exchange goods or notes of possible services for gold coins
  
• Anyone who receives gold coins for their services can go to the bank and exchange for other goods or services

Thus the bank becomes a more universal lender as they will accept most anything and will send people to do jobs for those seeking it.

The bank can also serve as a security deposit box. For a small fee (usually a couple of gems that can be found in various mines and other places), they will offer small lock boxes that come with a special magic key that will attune to the owner. They guarantee the goods will be safe in their hands…

……………But who's to say this entire business is even safe or trustworthy? While many of the Reverein locals will be quick to deal with them, some of the fae are more hesitant, whispering warily about "leprechaun gold" and openly asking where such gold even came from. The leprechauns will insist it's all legal, but the fae will continue to keep away.

VERENS LEFTOVERS

Since last month wasn't the typical "dreamshift event" month, we do not have specific rewards and instead have a few things that remained and adapted to Verens.

• Regain Bauble. We're still giving out the Regain Bauble! Within the first week of the month, everyone will find a special little bauble next to their pillow with a note that reads, "Hope you had fun during the festival! Throw this into the Wishing Well to receive a special item from home. Just imagine the item and it will appear. (watch out for the glitter)". As briefly described, this bauble is basically the game's "regain token." With this item, characters can throw it into the Wishing Well and receive the item they think about. All regains are manifestations of the item rather than the original and are affected by the game's limitations so nerfs may need to be applied. All regain submissions may be posted to the Regain Wishing Well entry.
  
  
• Item: Costumes. Congratulations, everyone's costume they gained during the Flower Festival can be kept! Whether the character liked it or not, the costume will be found hanging in their closet and will reappear even if they try to destroy it. At least this time if they wear it, the costume won't stick onto them like glue.
  
  
• Creature: Giant Butterflies. The giant butterflies that appeared during the festival can be found in the Wildlands and sometimes in fields or even the treehouses. They love flowers, so anything that has a large enough flower they can feast from will attract their attention. They are friendly and will allow anyone to ride on their backs.
  
  
• Location: Dream Observatory. Situated just outside of town to the south is a tall building called the Dream Observatory that functions similar to how it did in the dreamshift. The telescope can be used to view past dreamshifts and other vague dreams. By using one regain bauble, people can even look through it to catch a glimpse of their world at a certain period of time related to them. It's vague and blurry so it's not the same as a real canon update, but it can give characters a little peace of mind to know they can at least see their home for a minute or so. Alas, it's too quick to let others see it. The second function for this observatory is to look for the moon and in effect the Story Eater. Researchers will look for dreams that feature the moon and see if there are any signs of nightmare corruption.
  
  SIDE NOTE: For some reason one of the lifts in the Observatory is out of order. Should anyone ask, a grumpy technician will mention something about a "weird guy with metal tentacles" and a "guy with wolf ears" being too impatient mutter mutter.
  
  
• Location: Tree of Stories. Everyone's been clamoring for a library and we finally have one! The Tree of Stories is a massive tree situated just outside of town to the north. Like the one in the dreamshift, large books hang from its massive branches, however there are no cages. Inside are many floors lined with shelves filled with books. There is a copy of almost every story out there in all their many versions. For those who do not want to fourth wall their character, their books could be missing or always difficult to find. Alternatively, the books could be seen as an all encompassing record of every world and universe out there so that no one will feel as if they are "fictional." Books related to a character's world can also be incomplete or gibberish so characters don't know the future specific to their world.
  
  Owls serve as the librarians, and there are security owls to help protect the books and the tree from harm. Do not mess with them.
  
  At the top of the Tree is a giant room with stained glass windows…and a nest with two eggs. More on that will be revealed in the Open log after apps!

As mentioned in the World Updates section, the World Directory and the maps have been updated to reflect these changes.

HOT NEW TITLES

Fufufufu did you think we'd forget? As we requested over AC, anyone who participated in the Dreamscape Room story adventure prompt during the event could submit the story they did and they would be canonized into the game setting. Character names could be altered or left as is. These books will be found in the Tree of Stories and in bookstores everywhere. This was mostly for fun, but we'll find a way to have them officially listed somewhere…. Like a new tab in the world directory page.

Those who did not submit or update their comment can still do so! We are contemplating allowing general story submissions to bolster our special little "library," but not sure how much traction it would get. What do you think?

DREAM BOARD: MAY, 2022

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
501	Bookkeeping. Books in the library keep ending up scattered all over the place. After some investigation, it seems that careless readers aren’t the cause—the books themselves are moving around from place to place! Please help keep the library tidy by catching the rogue books and putting them back onto the shelves.	Very grateful owl stewards who are happy to give you a library sticker to show their appreciation.
502	Boardwalk. After the success of the games and food stalls during the Flower Festival, a group of business owners in town have decided that setting up a permanent boardwalk district on the river would be a great idea—especially with warmer weather and late summer nights on their way. They are currently requesting supplies and labor to build the boardwalk itself, and several vendors are looking for people to help stock their wares or work their shops once the boardwalk opens. All hands on deck to make this a success!	New things to do in town and a bag of saltwater taffy from the newly-formed Reverein Boardwalk Commission.
503	Flower Blossom Owls. In addition to the owl stewards in the library, a new group of owls that are covered in pink blossoms can be found around Reverein and the surrounding areas. The owls are friendly, if a bit skittish, and have been nesting in people’s flower beds and crops. It would be better if the owls could be convinced to settle somewhere where they aren’t in danger of choking out plant life. Lure the owls out using fresh fruits and flowers, and help them settle into the treetops instead.	A pretty new owl species around town and uncrushed plant life.
504	Giant Flower Jungle. A jungle of flowers has overrun one of the farm crop fields and needs to be cleared out. Beware the man-eating plants, of which there are several strange and fantastical varieties. One of them, for example, seems to resemble a cow.	Any non-man-eating plants you cut, plus a nice meal from the farmer as thanks.
505	Fae Moon Mirror. The ongoing absence of Songerein’s moon has many of the fae ill-at-ease, and one pixie is taking initiative in trying to solve the problem. She has created a moon mirror, although it shatters and its pieces scatter everywhere upon her initial test run. She is looking for intrepid adventurers to help her find the pieces and put the moon mirror back together for further improvements and additional testing. Songerein will have a new moon again soon, if she has anything to say about it! (Mod note: Threads can be submitted during AC to help determine future happenings. It may also work in tandem with other "moon searching" efforts.)	A small, magical mirror that glows faintly in darkness.
506	Eraser Rat Infestation. Eraser rats are starting to appear in large groups around town, causing minor destruction and corruption in their wake. They aren’t powerful enough to bring about full on nightmares, but they cause negative emotions and change their surroundings to become twisted in some way. The key to getting rid of them is luring them out away from town and into open spaces using a musical instrument (think the Pied Piper), then using positive dreamotion energy or other methods such as the potion from Witch's Brew to neutralize them.	A lack of rats everywhere.
507	Bank Robberies. Not long after the bank opens, some of the leprechauns start posting requests to investigate the fact that their gold coin count always seems to be off. The bank robbers, as it turns out, are some small lizards with aspirations of being dragons. Dragons have hoards, so they’ve started one using the gold coins from the bank. Try to get them to return the ill-gotten money… or join them in their pursuit of draconic greatness.	50 gold coins if you help the leprechauns. New lizard friends if you help the lizards.

END NOTES

And that's it! LOTS OF UPDATES so much fun. As mentioned this month is a bit more chill on our front, and next month will be our big event month fufu. For those of you taking a break this month, enjoy! If you have any questions, be sure to comment to the designated thread here!