Black Moon¶
Ruin
Tonight the moon fell in on itself, and a little town is falling up into it.
| Kind of world | Ruin |
|---|---|
| Serum in the arrival Box | 2 ampoules |
| Native Serum stand-in | None: bring spare Serum |
| Quests | None |
black-moon-skyWhat happens when you arrive¶
The Box sets you down in the park in the middle of Harlan Springs, a little American town at night. Where the moon should be there is a black disk with a burning ring around it. Tonight the moon caved in on itself and became a black hole, and now everything loose is falling up into it: roof tiles, treetops, soil, animals. Slowly at first, then in streams. A title tells you what matters: get back inside the Box before the black hole takes everything.
You have six minutes.
The rule: everything falls up¶
| What happens | When |
|---|---|
| The countdown starts the moment you (or anyone in your party) first arrive, and keeps running even if you log out. | The action bar shows the time left every minute, then every second for the last ten. |
| The ground comes loose. The top blocks of the land around you break off and fall upward: a few a second at first, dozens near the end. | All six minutes, faster as it goes. |
| The town comes apart, one building at a time, roof first. Whatever is still on its shelves spills out and floats up after it. | Each building has its moment, in a different order every time. |
| You grow lighter by the minute, until near the end you go up too. | Toward the end. |
| Animals and dropped items float away. | From the first minutes. |
| Anything you build is taken a little later, sooner the further the collapse has come. | Always, except right by the Box. |
| The end. Three seconds after the countdown, anyone still outside the Box falls up into the black hole and dies. | At six minutes. |
The Box and the ground right around it never move. Inside the Box you are safe, for as long as you stay inside.
This world is one visit only
Once the countdown ends, or once everyone in your party has left (home through the Box, or dead), Black Moon's door in the Corridor will never open for you again. A party member who got out early can still go back in for a friend who is still inside, but once the last of you is out, the door shuts for good.
The town: grab what you can¶
Around the park is a road, and around that the town's buildings. All of them are stocked, and the order they go in is shuffled every time, so you can't plan a route from a previous run.
| Building | What's worth grabbing |
|---|---|
| Grocery | Food for a long time: produce, bread, cooked meat, golden carrots. |
| Diner | Cooked meals, stews, pies and cake. |
| Pharmacy | Potions of Healing (and splash), Regeneration, Swiftness, Fire Resistance, Night Vision, Slow Falling, and golden apples. |
| Hardware store | Iron tools (sometimes a diamond pickaxe), stacks of iron and copper ingots, coal, lanterns, rails. |
| Outfitters | Leather, chainmail and iron armour pieces, bows, arrows, shields, a crossbow, a spyglass. |
| Bank | The vault: gold ingots and blocks, emeralds, diamonds. |
| Gas station | Coal, charcoal, buckets, fire charges. |
| Halvorsen Station (the lab) | Redstone, glowstone, quartz, amethyst, ender pearls, an eye of ender, and the scientists' logs. |
| Houses | Kitchen food, books, candles, the odd iron sword or emerald. |
black-moon-collapseThe people of Harlan Springs¶
Fifteen townspeople stand by their buildings, and each says a few lines to you as you pass: what is worth taking, what they have seen tonight, and, for some of them, a hint that the lab up the street did this. They can't be hurt.
- Most hold their ground by their door: Gus at the grocery, Dolores at the hardware store, June at the pharmacy, Marlene at the diner, Officer Brandt at the bank, Nora at the lab, Walt at his house. Marlene's boy Ricky is on his bike in the park.
- Some are in denial (Harold, Peggy), and some are terrified and run up and down the street (Carl, Amy).
- Looters (Dale, Tess and Lyle) go from building to building emptying the shelves into a bag. They are racing you for the good stuff. When they're lifted, the bag spills.
When a person's building goes, they go up with it, crying out.
The lab logs (spoilers)
Halvorsen Station kept a night log. Four entries, found in the lab, tell you what happened: an array listening to the moon, a "lunar return" that answered back a fraction early, a "field fold" run at full power at 21:14, and one last line: "If anyone reads this: it was only ever supposed to be a measurement."
Serum and getting home¶
- The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules. There is no native ingredient, and no time to brew.
- Drink before the end. Be inside the Box, dosed, with the door shut, well before six minutes are up.
Tips¶
- Decide your targets before you step out. The bank and the pharmacy are the richest per second; the grocery if you're short on food.
- Keep an eye on the countdown and leave yourself a minute to get back: the ground between you and the Box is coming loose too.
- Beat the looters to the shelves. Whatever goes in their bag is gone.
- Don't bother building a bridge or a shelter: whatever you place is taken too.
Birds¶
Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.
- Upfall Swallow: common
- Halvorsen Owl: rare
The traveler's tape¶
Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.
Read the journal (spoilers)
Listen fast. This world's moon caved in on itself tonight and became a black hole. The Box sets you down in the park of a little town, and the town is falling up into the sky, one building at a time. The stores are still stocked: food at the market, tools and metal at the hardware store, medicine at the drugstore, gold in the bank. Grab what you can, but watch the buildings go. Every minute you weigh less. In about six minutes it takes everything that is not inside the Box. Be inside the Box. And the people at that lab were keeping a log. I didn't stay to read it.