Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The Fall of Paleal

Critch · 01-15-2024, 04:45 PM

It's strange how it's gone. First four years would have been a Farming and Construction simulator but since things have started going wrong it's been one thing after another. So here goes:

First an update on something from above. I said that there used to be a camp dog but I didn't know where it had went, remembered now. He was Ironhead's dog, he died pretty early of natural causes and Ironhead vanished to bed for a week heartbroken. Ironhead was the top man in camp, he built almost everything and kept everybody safe, but he was sickly and delicate so any infection or upset and he'd vanish to bed for a week or two. He was the infirmary's top customer, which wasn't ideal because he was also the doctor. When his ex-wife turned up and rejected him all over again he fell apart for a month. And now he's been eaten.

Four Funerals and a Kidnapping - Part One
As mentioned above the inhabitants were always on the verge of a mental break, Takashi with his catatonic break down, Honey with her temper tantrums and dazed wanderings. Each pawn's mood screen was full of negative debuffs (not Takashi anymore, he's now in death's calm embrace so his mood screen is empty), death and destruction and unburied friends lying around the neighborhood would do that to people I guess. Time would heal most of the sadness, but burials would be needed for the unburied friend problem. There were four dead colonists lying around, Ksott rotting away in front of the religious alter, Maisie lying in the tree field (wood is a easy fuel source so there was a large section of trees), Takashi fairly fresh in the remains of the main room, and Gumby just outside the walls. They'd all need to be taken care of to improve mood and cut down on mental breaks.

Luckily the orbital bombardment had helped out a little, every cloud has a silver lining. The initial bombardment took care of Ksott (Funeral 1- obliterated), and then set the rows of trees alight too so Maisie (Funeral 2 - cremation) are both gone. Apparently a destroyed body counts as buried, even Ironhead didn't get a mention now that the last bit has been devoured. I'm sure he's still remembered with every burp though.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World
With Honey back to being the only inhabitant it was time for a move to keep her safe from the one remaining bug. The north section of Paleal was a fairly new expansion, walled off from the rest of the settlement and only connected by a couple of steel doors. She'd be safe from the one remaining insectoid if she was in there, so long as the bug didn't dig through the wall. There was a geothermal generator providing power, a field of corn, and beds in the cell block so that section had everything she'd need other than heating. Heating would be a problem eventually as she had the choice of wearing Ironhead's old clothes (mood debuff - wearing clothes somebody died in), or going naked (mood debuff - naked and cold) but that was a future problem so all ok until Winter. She'd settled on a dead-mans clothes outdoors/no clothes indoors happy medium, it helped a little with the mood debuffs.

She settled into a little rota of harvesting corn, eating corn and patching damage to the walls during the day, and sleeping nights. A bit of boring normality returned. One thing about being the only person left was that she had got quite competent at a few tasks; medical, construction, cooking. She was still terrible at handling the crops though, she'd botch the harvest about 65% of the time and get no produce. She was still rated 0 for crops, apparently the dainty highborn types have an aversion to working the land.

Good News/Bad News
Good news - before the insectoid infestation started the colonists had set up a couple of traps where the insectoids were predicted to turn up, the remaining insectoid had wandered into that area and triggered a trap ripping off one of it's legs. It wandered back into the main section of Paleal bleeding until it collapsed through blood loss. It was unconscious but the wound and blood loss seemed to be slowly healing, looked like it was regenerating, but for the moment it was out for the count.

Bad news - Honey got Malaria. With medical supplies and a medic that would mean some bed rest and drugs and back to normal, but on her own with no medical supplies it was just wait and see. A race between the disease and immunity, first to 100% wins. Luckily the corn was stored in her room so she could feed herself without going too far from bed and without having to get dressed in the tainted clothing. Before the result of her Malaria was decided, she had another mental break and wandered off in a dazed stupor. It was late fall, temperatures were below zero and she wasn't wearing the dead-man's clothes, suddenly hypothermia had entered the race to finish her off. When night fell the temperature dropped and Honey collapsed naked and unconscious.

Surely this is the end?

How's that for a cliffhanger? If this was a Netflix series this would be the point it got canceled so nobody ever found out what happened next.

01-15-2024, 04:45 PM	#5
Critch lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Herndon, VA	It's strange how it's gone. First four years would have been a Farming and Construction simulator but since things have started going wrong it's been one thing after another. So here goes: First an update on something from above. I said that there used to be a camp dog but I didn't know where it had went, remembered now. He was Ironhead's dog, he died pretty early of natural causes and Ironhead vanished to bed for a week heartbroken. Ironhead was the top man in camp, he built almost everything and kept everybody safe, but he was sickly and delicate so any infection or upset and he'd vanish to bed for a week or two. He was the infirmary's top customer, which wasn't ideal because he was also the doctor. When his ex-wife turned up and rejected him all over again he fell apart for a month. And now he's been eaten. Four Funerals and a Kidnapping - Part One As mentioned above the inhabitants were always on the verge of a mental break, Takashi with his catatonic break down, Honey with her temper tantrums and dazed wanderings. Each pawn's mood screen was full of negative debuffs (not Takashi anymore, he's now in death's calm embrace so his mood screen is empty), death and destruction and unburied friends lying around the neighborhood would do that to people I guess. Time would heal most of the sadness, but burials would be needed for the unburied friend problem. There were four dead colonists lying around, Ksott rotting away in front of the religious alter, Maisie lying in the tree field (wood is a easy fuel source so there was a large section of trees), Takashi fairly fresh in the remains of the main room, and Gumby just outside the walls. They'd all need to be taken care of to improve mood and cut down on mental breaks. Luckily the orbital bombardment had helped out a little, every cloud has a silver lining. The initial bombardment took care of Ksott (Funeral 1- obliterated), and then set the rows of trees alight too so Maisie (Funeral 2 - cremation) are both gone. Apparently a destroyed body counts as buried, even Ironhead didn't get a mention now that the last bit has been devoured. I'm sure he's still remembered with every burp though. Save the Cheerleader, Save the World With Honey back to being the only inhabitant it was time for a move to keep her safe from the one remaining bug. The north section of Paleal was a fairly new expansion, walled off from the rest of the settlement and only connected by a couple of steel doors. She'd be safe from the one remaining insectoid if she was in there, so long as the bug didn't dig through the wall. There was a geothermal generator providing power, a field of corn, and beds in the cell block so that section had everything she'd need other than heating. Heating would be a problem eventually as she had the choice of wearing Ironhead's old clothes (mood debuff - wearing clothes somebody died in), or going naked (mood debuff - naked and cold) but that was a future problem so all ok until Winter. She'd settled on a dead-mans clothes outdoors/no clothes indoors happy medium, it helped a little with the mood debuffs. She settled into a little rota of harvesting corn, eating corn and patching damage to the walls during the day, and sleeping nights. A bit of boring normality returned. One thing about being the only person left was that she had got quite competent at a few tasks; medical, construction, cooking. She was still terrible at handling the crops though, she'd botch the harvest about 65% of the time and get no produce. She was still rated 0 for crops, apparently the dainty highborn types have an aversion to working the land. Good News/Bad News Good news - before the insectoid infestation started the colonists had set up a couple of traps where the insectoids were predicted to turn up, the remaining insectoid had wandered into that area and triggered a trap ripping off one of it's legs. It wandered back into the main section of Paleal bleeding until it collapsed through blood loss. It was unconscious but the wound and blood loss seemed to be slowly healing, looked like it was regenerating, but for the moment it was out for the count. Bad news - Honey got Malaria. With medical supplies and a medic that would mean some bed rest and drugs and back to normal, but on her own with no medical supplies it was just wait and see. A race between the disease and immunity, first to 100% wins. Luckily the corn was stored in her room so she could feed herself without going too far from bed and without having to get dressed in the tainted clothing. Before the result of her Malaria was decided, she had another mental break and wandered off in a dazed stupor. It was late fall, temperatures were below zero and she wasn't wearing the dead-man's clothes, suddenly hypothermia had entered the race to finish her off. When night fell the temperature dropped and Honey collapsed naked and unconscious. Surely this is the end? How's that for a cliffhanger? If this was a Netflix series this would be the point it got canceled so nobody ever found out what happened next.