north, south, west, ea...

Hi folks! Apologies for the one-day below, but all ducks should be quacking in order now.

Marty McFly | Back to the Future
Anthony Lockwood | Lockwood & Co — RECLAIMED
Bucky Barnes | MCU — RECLAIMED
Yelena Belova | MCU — RECLAIMED
Beitang Moran | Oh! My Emperor — RECLAIMED
Jiang Cheng | The Untamed — RECLAIMED
Wen Ning | The Untamed — RECLAIMED
Wen Qing | The Untamed — RECLAIMED
Nynaeve | Wheel of Time — RECLAIMED

Shout by 23:59 GMT on 5 November if proofs were missed, or if you’d like to discuss reclaiming.

Please don’t forget to use your character tags on communities, it really helps with finding AC!

■ Say hi to our new additions or shop some new CR at the latest meme!

■ Our latest log event is live.

■ The calendar and Story So Far recaps have been updated.

■ A player plot discussion post will go up on 16 November to for everyone to chime in on steps forward, especially as some folks were interested in running a coup!

■ Timeline update: we’re looking en route to finish Arc VII by or during early December, and the rest of next month will probably be a more cooldown / CR-oriented travel event. The holidays tend to be busy for everyone. That means we should have a last application session late December or early January, and our final Arc over January-February!

Happy August! Stay safe in the swelter, folks! A bit of admin for your pleasure:

■ August calendar dates, with a small revision and two-day postponement to when applications open.

■ An enabling meme where you can also discuss game invites (every existing player gets one & previous players don't need one) will go up on 3 August.

■ Our event & test drive meme is still ongoing, shiny and chrome! Say hi to all the tourists!

■ The Story So Far has now been updated with the entire Arc VI summary.

■ Voting opens for the Arc VII destination over 20-25 August. As usual, this is done with a few weeks ahead of the Arc commencement to fit in mod prep work.

■ Shout if you'd like to canon update your character after leaving the House of Manouk.

Lastly, ( activity results | july )
Thanks!

Hi folks, welcome to summer! Sufficient activity wasn't found in April for:

Jinx (Arcane) | hexgem
Kim Wexler (Better Call Saul) | saintclaire — RECLAIMED
Jon Snow (Game of Thrones) | northerndragon — RECLAIMED
Tess Servopoulos (Last of Us) | dog_eat_dog — RECLAIMED
Yelena Belova (MCU) | vdovy — RECLAIMED

Holler by 23:59 GMT on 5 June if you have've got activity that wasn't factored in, or if you'd like to discuss reclaiming. Thanks!

UPDATES

■ The June calendar now among us!

■ Story So Far update covering the start of Arc VI: Yancai!

■ Applications are currently open, due to close at 18:00 BST on 3 June.

■ Feel free to hit up the new NPC inbox at your leisure to start gathering clues!

Hi everyone — a day late with admin, so no one would assume April Fool's!

Sufficient activity wasn't found for the following characters in March:

Sarah Bishop | All Souls Trilogy — RECLAIMED
Jinx | Arcane — RECLAIMED
Viktor | Arcane — RECLAIMED
The Doctor | Doctor Who activity produced
Mo Ran | Husky and His White Cat Shizun — RECLAIMED
Vanessa Ives | Penny Dreadful activity produced
Cassian Andor | Star Wars
Jiang Cheng | The Untamed — RECLAIMED, for 150% activity across May-June.

Reclaims have been discussed for Pietro Maximoff (MCU) and Lan Sizhui (The Untamed) for 150% of regular activity across April-May.

Shout by 5 April, if you have activity that wasn’t factored, or if you'd like to reclaim!


UPDATES

■ Story so Far: updated with the March installments and the end of Arc V!

■ April calendar now up! You will see there is a second part to the travel arc event, which is so far planned for around 6 weeks.

■ Apologies for the ambiguity on posting the first train log — the aim is to get it up tomorrow, 3 April, but your mod has unfortunately fallen a bit under the weather these past few days. It is looking likely to be up tomorrow, but just in case.

■ Options for the Arc VI destination should go up on 8 April. Arc V badges will appear around that time too!

■ Since we haven't had one of these in a while: please don't hesitate to check in on the screened mod contact post if you suffer from any phobias that could be easily triggered by visual or written content. While avoiding the content might not always be possible, every effort will be made to trigger warn and keep the topic out of visible pictures. Thank you!

Lastly: eastbound is now officially a proper toddler, aged two! Thank you to everyone who's brought laughter, fun and creativity to the game — some still around from day I! If you look through the Story So Far, it's filled with people doing a lot of cool and amazing things, and that's honestly just down to you guys. You're all pretty awesome. In conclusion:

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a delightful, lucky, healthy and cheerful 2023!

Short and sweet on the admin update this round:

■ December was AC-free, but we return to regular activity requirements for January.

■ UPDATED: Story So Far with the last Arc IV + January calendar

■ The sand worms, desert & definitely-not-Sarlacc pit event of 6 January will double as a test drive meme... and an IC chance to get some valuable leverage, going into Arc V. Apps follow on 16-21 January — this time, they'll be open for anyone who has an invite or participates in the test drive meme.

Because of the tighter scheduled span of Arc V, this will probably be the only app cycle we hold until we’ve exited the Siege.

Speaking of...

ARC V: THE SIEGE

...is going to play out a little bit differently, over six to eight weeks. You’ll get full details later in the month, but a ticking countdown and territorial distribution across levels means small teams will have to take on a variety of mini-assignments against a backdrop of fusillades, ramming, curses and shattering defences. All hands on deck!

Not at all binding, but to get a sense of areas at interest — factor in your own OOC enthusiasm, and check in each of your characters at one of the relevant links below by 23:59 GMT on 22 January, if you play a character who:

■ Would manage to broker a cutthroat deal with ruthless passing merchants

■ Can & would play bodyguard to a king/prince

■ Is a medic, and wouldn’t mind spying on a patient

■ Would investigate supernatural murders at potential risk to oneself

■ Would stay behind to bitter end to hold up swarmed defences, to bide other people time to flee.

■ Can & would get actively involved in manipulating succession games, if needed last-minute.

■ Would try to run, in a cowardly but sensible manner.

■ Would go into the depths of local hell (note: this option is the most dangerous out of all of them.)

To confirm, this is just to give an indication of where to position your character and what to call on them for. You are not obliged to accept the mission just because you checked in here. It also doesn’t mean you cannot play something you didn’t check in for, later.

Separately, if you don’t mind providing some additional details, to help prep your character for the Siege...

Many thanks!

Hi everyone — happy NaNo, if you’re doing it! Just a bit of admin with your Tuesday...

ACTIVITY CHECK

Sufficient activity wasn’t found for the following characters in October. Holler by 5 November to reclaim or if any of their proofs were missed!

Marcos Diaz | The Gifted — RECLAIMED
Winnifred Prismall | Original Character — RECLAIMED

( october event & clue summary )


ADMIN

■ A very loose November calendar. You’ll notice it’s quite breezy in there — this is because of the vote of 4-9 November, which could set us up for two completely different directions.

■ THE VOTE: an OOC post will go up on 4 November, outlining what characters can see about the extent of undeath in Serthica, once Karsa’s spell activates. ( Don’t forget to link your talisman burning threads to help with the spell’s long-term potency!). You will be asked to vote on an IC basis until 23:59 GMT on 9 November, based on what your characters would want done. Results will determine next steps in Serthica.

■ With Kaneki Ken’s drop, there is now a haunted doll up for grabs. She is has a lot of plot potential, but… is very, very creepy, randomly cackles and cries and... exudes all the bad vibes. But hey, if anyone wants her, drop a line by 5 November. If there is somehow a wealth of interest, we will RNG for her. Dear God.

■ December and January are both interesting months: either absurdly busy or wastelands, for most folks. We'll have to decide closer to closing Arc IV (likely in early December) in which of the two months we'll reopen applications.

■ And as a refresher for our newbies: you can always hit up the NPC inbox if you’ve got anything you want to ask ICly!

Salut, September — it’s only been a thousand years since August began!

To keep things short and brief: characters for whom insufficient activity was found are listed below. Comment if you’d like to reclaim one by 23:59 on 5 September — you’ll have to produce regular activity over September and October, in exchange!

Jens Macher | arsmechanica — RECLAIMED
Magnus Bane | incantates — RECLAIMED

Please flag if any activity was missed. Don’t forget to use your character tags when you comment into posts or logs, to help find your activity proofs — thank you!

ADMIN

First off, just wanted to thank everyone for your time, energy and feedback in the last post — it’s so much more helpful than you probably realise, and some great suggestions were put forward!

■ PLAYER CAP: we currently have 42 players in game, and we will cap at 55. This excludes any returning players.

■ With a cap in place, obligatory reminder: eastbound is a primarily plot-geared game, and it's at its most fun when you can jump right in. If you’ve felt a bit shy about getting involved with the plot — and we’ve all been there! — don’t hesitate to reach out, and we’ll figure something out!

■ ACTIVITY: a suggestion was made to consider log top levels with at least one open prompt as an activity proof. This makes sense. Adding that in, you can now meet monthly activity requirements by producing one of:

a network post OR
a log top level with open prompts OR
10 network/inbox-style comments OR
5 log comments

Standard disclaimer: please don’t repeatedly meet your activity requirements by tagging inboxes/just castmates or the same players. This can require more proofs in future months.

■ UPDATED: the September calendar.

■ ...yes, ‘Dragon Bachelor’ will be a monthly fixture during the Serthica arc, purely for everyone’s entertainment and for character incursions into gambling.

■ We'll hold our next test drive meme (and game-wide log) in late September.

■ As we cozily settle into Arc IV, your character might end up called on by NPCs, or dragged into various plot rolls. Please do not hesitate to opt out if you're not feeling that vibe!

■ THE STORY SO FAR: Arc IV summaries have nowkicked off, and you can catch up on anything you missed in September below:

Newcomers arrived ahead of the remaining, seaborne party, securing passport papers into Clockwork Serthica — a citadel divided in two adversarial halves: dragon and magic-loving Eidris and disciplinarian, tech-geared Minaras. Everything in Serthica feels alive, including the recently dead. Serthica was splintered by a now-gone plague, who killed all those whom it infected, the Doctor learned. Currently, Eidris emerges from the underground depths over 6:00-18:00, while Minaras surfaces nocturnally between 18:00-6:00. The two citadel halves meet overground over 6:00-7:00 and 18:00-19:00, with natives occupying spaces in the Neutral Zone bridges and Sanctuary.

The party joined a trade summit at the Sanctuary, where attendants from which side briefly... glitched for a series of moments of jarring, puppet-like behaviour. The terrorist group Remembrance attempted to kidnap Minaras' high councillor Arabella. Escorting her to safety, Wrathion, Licyn and Beitang Moran found a key pointing towards the inherited factories of Eidris dragon warlord Cain d'Ubiq and to Serthica's impoverished underground world, the Mouse House. Wrath and Emilia read out an anonymous note Arabella received, which triggered her into possessed behaviour.

Party members were assigned a stay in one of the two halves of Serthica: in Eidris, a dragon went berserk and the party helped recover her hatching eggs, following injury to her mate — at the presumed hands of a Minaras scout ship, whose reconnaissance work was decommissioned days before the incident. In Minaras, the local indoctrination centre sought to cure the rot of citizens. Meanwhile, Kaneki Ken discovered some Minaras morgue corpses have a strange, unexpected 'rot'-like sickness inside their bodies...

All hail, spring is over — happy June! A bit of admin with your day:

ACTIVITY CHECK

To pass activity requirements, you need to have produced one of: 1 network post or 5 log comments or 10 network/text-style comments in the month of check. Activity can be carried out in game communities or in character inboxes.

In May, insufficient activity was found for:

Cato | unpurposed
Delilah | alterare — RECLAIMED
Slick | sergeant_slick — swept as a result of two consecutive strikes.

Drop a line by 23:59 on 5 June to reclaim a character, or if they have activity that wasn't appropriately recorded.


ADMIN & ARC IV

■ By a wide vote margin, the people have spoken, and our Arc IV destination is A Tale of Two Cities — expect steampunk, otherness, very strange architecture, a diplomatic school, and two cities intermittently occupying the same structures, their residents accusing each other of being... inhuman.

■ Ahead of that, the group sets out on a roughly six-week pirate journey at sea, ICly announced by our very own Sumeragi Subaru.

■ Sea sickness brews, feeding for Kaneki Ken and balance for Viktor's limp are already accounted for — but please holler if your character also needs accommodations at sea.

■ To celebrate the very first time the party leaves an Arc location in a better state than they found it, please check out individual character gifts. An attempt was made to make these fun, unique and a memento of some plot involvement, but if you're not having fun with your character's gift, give a shout!

■ Our upcoming event, due live on 3 June, doubles as a test drive meme (TDM). It will be open publicly, and anyone who plays on the TDM will not require an invite during the 10-17 June application session. Apps will once again briefly open in late July, but will be invite-only at the time.

■ UPDATED: the June calendar, alongside the Story So far summary of Arc III and the Undead Lieges write-up with the latest reveals.


ARC III BADGES

They're here, have no fear! If you've never played this: you can grab a wallet and cram it with general mood badges or Arc-specific ones. This is purely for fun, and you can pick whatever badges you think describe the trolling adventures your character got up to in Arc III.

( that arc iii goodie bag )

Hey everyone make heart eyes at February! January activity results are in below for you — as are a few preparatory questions to get us all ready for Arc III: The House of Ravens.

( activity check; )

A CURSE UPON YOUR COW

The House of Ravens will revolve around the theme of Redemption and feature... a great deal of curses that characters must break. Further details will become available on arrival, but fresh entrants to the villages will each receive two curses over the duration of the Arc: an "ancestral curse" that will command them to pay for the sins of a village elder, and a later curse that will require them to compensate for their own wrongdoings.

For both curses, you can choose between sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony/drunkenness, wrath or sloth/indifference. Characters will have to devise ways to make up for these faults, depending on the storyline given to them. ( ex: choosing 'gluttony' could task your character to make up for a man who condemned a poor family to starvation by stealing all their grains during a period of famine. )

Earn your character's curse here.

OTHER NOTES

■ The February calendar is now up! The locations and Story So Far pages will be updated mid-February once the Ellethia travel arc has ended.

■ We could carry out an end-February test drive meme, coinciding with the new Arc arrival. Or we could hold one in late March or early April, when everyone's a bit more settled. What's your preference?

Thank you, everyone!

Hi guys! Happy December — we’ve made it, the end of 2021 is nigh. Here are the latest activity check (AC) results and admin notes, along with a predictable December announcement:

( activity check; )

DECEMBER ACTIVITY

As the prophecy foretold, in recognition of the end-year bustle that consumes our hopes, dream and livers, there shall be no activity check for December. This excludes reclaimed characters, who will only have to produce regular AC, rather than the 1.5 x compensation. Go forth, make merry. Kick 2021 in the shin on its way out.


OTHER NOTES

■ As a brief overview, our only plot-linked event of the month launches on 2 December and also subs as a test drive meme. It lasts until 22 December. An aftermath post detailing the outcome of the event and the remainder of everyone’s stay in Arc II: Taravast will go up on 23 December.

■ The 23 December post will include an attempt to open the Taravast beacon. Any characters who leave the game in the 20 November – 22 December period will be sent home through the beacon.

■ Anyone who wishes to canon update the timeline point of their character can also do so through the beacon, which will glitch and return them back to Akhuras. Give a shout here by 15 December if you want your character to do this, please.

■ An OOC vote will go up somewhere in the 10-20 December period, to decide the destination of Arc III. This will likely include two options, along with a ‘travel’ mini-Arc that is less plot-intense but feeds into the impending Arc III storyline. Apologies for the wide date range.

■ Bear and badges will both turn up.

Thank you, everyone!