simmingwormly

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 2 (EV): Marketplace

Day 2 begins! (1/3)

I wouldn't say any content warnings apply, but caution is advised.

This is the fifth entry in the expedition log, recorded by Victor Beldine. The first night I have voluteered to keep the watch - normally, we would've switched mid-way through with somebody else, but I have magic to keep me on my feet, so I have selflessly offered to stay awake the whole night long.

I will never make that mistake again.

I report with utmost certainty that I have never been this bored before. The twitchiness in my limbs and restless understimulation in my brain even drove me to forget my disgust and raid the outhouse with cleaning supplies. I have scrubbed and disinfected every last centimeter of the surface. It does not look or smell any better now, but I still feel mildly accomplished.

Technically, I am not the only one awake. Agent Lola has been too unwell to sleep, but I abhor their company, so I keep my distance, and we seldom speak. I have to enter the room their seem to be in, though. I will stop recording. End of the entry 5.

Lola: "Ew. What exactly do you want to do with the trash?"

Victor: "Is it now obvious? It was full. I'm taking it out."

Lola: "...there's a horde of zombies around the outdoor bin."

Victor: "I am well aware of that. It does not mean the indoor bin can be allowed to overflow."

Lola: "Suit yourself."

Leaving the safety of the fenced-in camp is much less daunting when you can fly and teleport. Witch privilege. Priwitchlege.

That's when Victor sees her.

Victor: "Are you not afraid of being outside, alone?"

Serenity: "Oh? Starting off with threats? That's... to be expected, really."

Victor: "I meant the undead, not myself. I am not threatening you, I'm concerned for your safety."

Serenity: "..."

Serenity: "That's... well, unsolicited. I'm fine. I can run faster than them, and the fence I need climb over to be safe is right over there."

Serenity: "Plus..."

Victor: "Plus?"

Serenity: "I don't really care if they get me. Stella..."

Serenity: "Stella is dead, Victor."

Victor: "Serenity... I am so sorry. My condolences. How did it happen?"

Serenity: "A zombie attacked me and Stella threw herself in the way to save me. I got out scott free, but the zombie grappled her and... broke her neck. Bit her, too."

Victor: "I see... so it was fast. She did not feel a lot of pain."

Serenity: "Yeah. We burned the body, so she doesn't get stuck... roaming this horrible hellhole for eternity..."

Victor: "Well, you did the right thing. She is in the Entity now. And she died a hero."

Serenity: "You're right on the latter, but I wish I could say the former with certainty. Nevermind. I don't want to talk about this... with you. What about your party? Have you had any losses?"

Victor: "No, actually. We have a gain."

Having a civil interaction, Victor and Serenity no longer feel that the other is their personal enemy. They keep being political enemies, though, and will be until the war between their clans is over.

Victor: "We have captured a young boy stricken with the madness of this place. I have hope that he might come back to his senses when removed from the domain of the blood gods."

Serenity: "Interesting. Sounds like Nico is gonna have his work cut out for him when we return."

Serenity: "Many of the folks at home won't be stoked about it, though. I can imagine that even my expedition would mostly call you an idiot for that."

Victor: "I believe we're kind enough, as a community, to accept him."

Serenity: "We're also paranoid. But... kind... Huh. It's strange to hear that from you. I don't believe you saved the kid out of empathy either."

Victor: "..."

Victor: "I guess I can be frank with you now. We are both in hell together."

Serenity: "Parallel to one another, more like. But yeah. It's just you and I, and the messed up sky."

Victor: "It all stems from... Balthazar."

Serenity jolts. Her face hardens as she frowns.

Victor: "He changed me significantly. And so did the... guilt."

Victor: "When Nico confronted me about the murder, he told me that instead of punishment, I shall be given a duty. I am to..."

Serenity: "...to embrace kindness."

Victor: "How did you know?"

Serenity: "I've spent a lot of time with Nico."

Victor: "And I try my hardest to do what he told me. I brought a lot of pain and misery into this world."

Serenity: "Yeah, we can agree on that."

Victor: "So now, when I can make the choice, I will always choose compassion and kindness. I know that mercykilling the boy wouldn't have been that wrong, and it would save Wormville some risks and resources, but I believe that facillitaing a chance for a new life for him is the kinder option."

Serenity: "Too bad it took you murdering my brother to come to this attitude."

Victor: "..."

Victor: "And I have not even properly apologized. I-"

Serenity: "Don't waste your breath. Your words mean nothing. Balthazar is dead... and no amount of apologies will change that."

Victor: "I know. But I would like to say that I sincerely regret it. It was the worst mistake I have ever made. If I could travel back in time, I would prevent it. And Aranni has finally seen it, too."

Serenity: "I'm aware of that. She sounded kinda quasi-apologetic last time we spoke."

Victor: "And... I would like you to know that as... strange as it sounds, and unlikely and perhaps unnatural as it might sound also, I want to do whatever I can to soothe your pain. If you ever needed anything, ask Aranni or I. We might still be enemies on paper, but we want to act as friends. Especially now, given that Stella..."

Serenity: "No, Victor. I don't need your help, or your compassion, or your penance or whatever you're attempting to do. But..."

Serenity: "But... I guess... it's appreciated, still."

Serenity: "Now, if you excuse me, I think I want to be alone. Have a... decent rest of the night. Don't get eaten."

He doesn't. Actually, a zombie approaches Victor to have a bite a moment later, but he teleports back behind the fence, eliciting a few sarcastic claps from Lola.

In the end, Victor actually ends up having to cast his spells to take care of his motives. It doesn't go very well. It turns out that his power is truly mostly focused on hurting, and it takes him about seven tries before he can cast a simple beneficial spell. (it doesn't help him with his Energy that much anyway and I end up having to cheat it up, because I really relied on it working)

As the sun comes up and the rest of the worms wake up, Lola disappears in a tent. They will not be adventuring with their expedition today, and elect to sleep instead.

Victor: "Xenia. I believe you owe me an apology."

Xenia: "I don't owe you anything. Now, are you going to nag me about how I don't give you enough respect, or can we just skip this convo, so I may go take a shower?"

Quincy: "And I can join you. Let's go!"

This is the sixth entry in the expedition log, recorded by Victor Beldine. We are about to leave the camp for exploration purposes, but one of our members, Xenia Celwitch, has just passed out from overheating and dehydration. The heat in this place is almost unbearable, and we are quickly burning through the clean water supply we brought. Luckily, Xenia is alive and okay - for now. She even insists on coming with the rest. We are bound for the ruins of one of the local marketplaces, and then we will finally visit the temple. This is the end of entry 6.

+ The company arrives to the marketplace... unhurt! Everybody passed their injury roll! For that, the expedition earns extra +1 point.

Unfortunately, the place was already overrun with undead.

Iulius: "it's hunting season..."

(he looks at the zombie spawned right next to him)

It's Bennett who gets her, though.

But Iulius destroys another.

Victor's group is, in general, much less vulnerable to zombie attacks than Serenity's - with Iulius, Bennett, Quincy and Xenia all having max Body skill, they grew cocky enough to attack the undead first in many cases, clearing the area for the physically weaker members of their company. That doesn't mean that it won't ever backfire... (in my testing expedition I had a Sim with max Body skill lose a fight and die more than one time, and some special undead also have high or even maxed Body, making it much likelier)

+ Today, however, they were lucky. The group gains 14 points for defeating 3 zombies - two of them by guards (5 points) and one additional that attacked Victor. Since Victor isn't a guard, he only gets 4 points, and also earns an injury and costs the group -1 point for that.

Quincy: "C'mere you..."

Xenia (laughing): "Ow, ow, st-o-op! I'm sunburnt, you ass!"

Victor: "There are signs of struggle. Perhaps this is the place where Stella died..."

Quincy: "Stella what?"

Victor: "I spoke to Serenity. Unfortunately, Stella was killed by a zombie."

Quincy: "I see. Well... sucks to suck."

Xenia: "That's the fate of the weak. She shouldn't have come here."

Iulius: "And they only have Cyrus Anora as their guard. I bet he was jerking off in a bush somewhere instead of doing his job when she got attacked."

Bennett: "Don't shittalk Cyrus. He's a good Sim! It's just hard to keep track of all the zombies and stop them all in time. There's three of us and Victor still got attacked."

Victor: "Twice."

Iulius: "Serenity's been here, no doubt. The locks on these are heavily damaged."

Bennett: "Why wouldn't they finish the work?"

Victor: "Stella."

Bennett: "Oh... Yeah. Anyway. Do you need help, Iulius?"

Iulius: "If you could hold it right here..."

Quincy: "I have nothing. Everything's already looted."

Xenia: "Except for the foul fish."

Melody: "Do not trust the fish."

Bennett: "...aaand, done! Look at this!"

Iulius: "That's... that's a..."

Iulius looks at Victor. Everybody actually looks at Victor.

Victor: "I have no clue either!"

Quincy: "It's obvious that there's a place for a Sim to sit, at the very least..."

Xenia: "So we sit somebody in there and find out."

Melody: "Alright. I... I will do it."

Victor: "No. We will test it, but in safe environment. And definitely not on you."

Bennett: "Is it even worth it? It looks unsafe. It seems straight up from Strangetown."

Victor: "Maybe it was patented by L. Beaker of Strangetown. But the knowledge of inventors has never been my forte."

Xenia: "Unlike randomly sharing your useless inside thoughts, which seems to be your strongest suit, darling."

Iulius: "In any case, we're definitely taking it. I can imagine it being... useful. Especially if Bennett's right and it is unsafe."

Xenia: "Okay, have fun carrying it."

Iulius: "I don't see a problem. Ben, Quincy, Mister Victor, to your positions!"

Victor: "I think three people is enough. I am not touching that thing."

+ The group gains no financial loot, but they have unlocked The Eclectic and Enigmatic Energizer!

But. She.

Iulius: "I know that armor!"

Quincy: "That's disgusting!"

The Fieras are just about to drop the machine.

Quincy: "I'll put her out of her misery!"

Iulius: "No! You stay back, I'll do it!"

Victor: "Both of you stop. We have no time! We are continuing to the temple!"

Seeing their dead ancestors takes a toll on Quincy and Iulius, even though they don't end up fighting her. Quincy shakes it off, but Iulius...

As soon as he can safely drop the machine in front of the Temple, he drops as well.

...and he also fails his willpower roll and becomes corrupted. Oh my.

+ The group would've earned another point for nobody getting hurt during travel again, but it loses -3 instead for Iulius getting into aspiration failure and succumbing to corruption.

I apologize for a part where not much happened, but I hoped you've at least enjoyed the additional characterization! By the way, as for the poll, I can spoil that I don't know either. We're just making morbid guesses together.

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 Summary

In pictures! (mostly)

Key:

Corruption: [Name] [Letter] is meant to tease the individual corruption effects on a given character. The letters can be G, O, A or D, and they stand for Grandeour, Obsession, Anger and Despair.

Status: Clean (not corrupted yet and alive). corrupted or dead

Rest is self-explanatory!

The Beldine Expedition

Current Points: 18

Story goals met: 0/4

Zombies destroyed: 2

Ancestral zombies seen: 1/4 (Jilleni)

Cultists met: 2 ("I Slither in Guts" left alive on the Plaza, "May Your Veins Explode" taken captive with the intention of trying to restore his previous identity and give him a second chance at life)

Loot: 7 weapons (Iulius, Victor, Quincy, Bennett, Sophia, Melody, Xenia), 2 sets of armor (Iulius and Quincy), antiques worth 500 Simoleons grabbed from the Fiera Barracks when the Fieras weren't looking (Xenia)*

*Victor's terms and conditions establish individual loot - anyone may keep whatever they find, and in case of a group find, it shall be distributed if possible, if not it belongs to the clan Beldine by default if Victor is present for the discovery, to the clan Fiera if he isn't.

Member status!

The Elaho-Inipp Expedition

Current Points: -3

Story goals met: 1/6

Zombies destroyed: 1

Ancestral zombies seen: 4/5 (Celwitch, Kent, Gere, Anora)

Cultists met: 0

Loot: Homeland's town archives, a SimVac, 1000 Simoleons*

*Serenity's terms and conditions establish shared loot. Everything found, no matter by whom, belongs to the clan Elaho-Inipp. At the end of the expedition, loot may be distributed. Personal family memorabilia are an exception and don't have to be turned in if found.

Member status!

[simmingwormly]

"cozy game" maybe for YOU. I have spreadsheets

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (ES): Evening

3/3

CW: suicidality mention

After Stella's body is taken care of, it dawns on everybody in a definite fashion. She's gone.

This is not going to be fun evening.

In the pressure heightened by witnessing the death of their comrade, Percy and Deborah "finally" make official enemies.

Thus earning the expedition another - 1 point.

The charming mop makes her appearance.

And so does our old friend, prof. von Ball.

Serenity lights the fire. She cannot stop crying.

The fire does provide some comfort, though. The company huddles around (or, at least some of them do) and tries to roast marshmallows and celebrate Stella's life. Serenity tries to keep herself from crying, as she feels ashamed and guilty for it when others can see her, but talking directly about her beloved whom she has just seen die in front of her eyes makes it very hard for her. In the end, Lester changes the subject and starts talking about the afterlife in general, mentioning offhandedly that they're sure Stella at the very least must've rejoiced at being reunited with their dearly departed family dog.

Serenity: "The Sixamese have vastly... different beliefs about life, death and afterlife. She followed the Entity... but..."

Lester: "You can't be sure where she went."

Serenity: "Yeah..."

Cyrus: "Oh no..."

Lester: "I wouldn't worry, Ser... I think that what they call 'the living core' and we call 'the great beyond' can be the same place, just interpreted very differently. You'll be reuinited in the Entity."

Lester actually isn't so sure about that, but they believe it at least in concept. Why wouldn't the choice of the individual soul to dedicate itself to a deity to keep them after death override the spiritual beliefs (and implied afterlife) only imprinted to them by their culture of birth? Actually, when put down like that it sounded less and less convincing. The Sixamese belief of "the living core" was a based in a hivemind-like unity that life separates the individual from and death returns, Many in Life, One in Death. It tied closely to their concept of reincarnation. While being "in the Entity" also encompased the belief in inherent oneness, though to a lesser degree - the dead were bound together in the protective embrace of their deity, but still kept their indentities from life (and therefore could sometimes project themselves into the world of living as ghosts). As far as Lester knew, no cults worshipping the Entity believed in reincarnation. The systems weren't compatible at all. One had to be true, the other one false - or both could be true, but separate.

They knew that similar thoughts ran through Serenity's head as well.

Cyrus: "I mean... when we return home... you can ask Nico. He'll know if Stella's soul went into the Entity or not."

Serenity: "That's actually a good idea! Thank you, Cyrus..."

Cyrus: "No problem, Ser. I'm so sorry for what happened to her. I should've been faster..."

Serenity: "No, it's not... it's not your fault."

Lester: "I don't think we've been properly introduced."

Percy: "Uh... what? I know you."

Lester: "We know each other's name, but not who the other is."

Percy: "...are you making some kind of a point, Mx Devir? I don't understand."

Lester: "Just that you shouldn't be surprised that I'll be watching you. One 'Percy' left a bad aftertaste, and I wouldn't be surprised if the other one turned out to be just as... dangerous."

Percy: "...w-what?"

Lester: "Is it a coincidence that you don't just have his name, but also such a similar styling and cadence? You resemble him in the face a lot, too.

Percy: "I've... I've never even met him!"

Lester: You're innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean that won't be keeping an eye on you."

Lester: "For everybody's sake."

Krystal bravely takes it upon himself to make dinner. With his 3 Cooking points he's confidently the best cook out of the surviving company. Unfortunatelly, his skill won't be enough to provide aspiration increase bonus for good food.

He gets distracted midway anyway.

Krystal: "Keep your hands off! That's mine!"

Percy: "I don't wanna steal your fucking unfinished soup. I'll just finish it before we all die of old age."

Krystal: "Watch how you speak to me!"

Percy (mumbling spitefully while leaving): "Why should I. You're not my real father anyway."

Krystal pretends not to have heard him. He's never been fast to anger - and neither have Percy and him ever been really close. Plus, he has raised his share of teenagers, after all, and he knows they all love to be like that. Getting into an argument with Percy leaves Krystal quite unbothered. And not having to finish the soup is a welcome bonus!

After Percy shoos everybody away from the fireplace, so they stop standing in the way, he gets his first Cooking point!

The Celwitch Collaboration Comfort Soup might've not been exactly delicious, but it seemed to be at least close to edible.

Percy: "Maybe you're right. Maybe I am evil. I didn't even try to prevent Mrs Stella's death."

Deborah: "Here comes captain Edgelord. Entity allmighty."

Percy: "I don't know why I'm even talking to you. Go fuck yourself."

It seemed like Lester would take the first watch, with Serenity sleeping soundly (or, rather pretending to sleep while crying into her sleeping bag), but then Noth decided it was a good idea to join her in the same tent, and that made her immediately crawl out, so I guess the siblings are keeping watch together.

Wanting to be alone, Serenity climbs up the watchtower.

"It's not your fault," she told Cyrus.

She's right. It was not his fault.

Serenity: "It's mine."

She ends the first day of the expedition wishing both for a salvation from death and for its embrace.

(Serenity has actually been rolling wants to become a zombie - which I interpret as a want to die - for at least two whole rotations now, so I read that as her struggling with suicidal ideation. Something tells me that her wife's unexpected and brutal death will not improve things in the slightest.)

During the night, the expedition members roll their first daily willpower checks. Percy, Deborah and Cyrus stay corrupted, and... Lester joins them. Oh boy.

Well... that has been the Day 1 for both groups! On the surface, it seems like both the narration and the dice favor Victor, but I don't think it's true - as I've said before, different locations provide different levels of challenge, and Serenity's starting ones were definitely harder (with the Temple having an automatic aspiration fall due to the desecrated altar and Marketplace requiring the Sims to freerange outside of their safety grouping), which also means that Victor's group is yet to be put through it, and they shall be, soon.

We'll see that, but first, let me do a summary article to keep it orderly and neat.

[simmingwormly]

Found ya!

How in the fresh hell could I have not been aware I had it installed?

Anyway. We're playing with full relationship decay now. (and therefore Long Term Relationship progress, too!)

Actually. We're making it decay more. Make those worms actually have to meet their friends and family from time to time.

...I was today years old when I found out that LTR is supposed to increase/decrease to gradually get closer to STR? Wtf? That would be awesome if it was actually happening in my game.

Raising LTR platonically is actually so hard in my game I have to sometimes cheat it to fit the story.

(example:

Victor Beldine and Bennett Jilleni have actually known each other from (Victor's) birth. Their STR has been consistently 100 since childhood. They're both middle-aged now. But their LTR was stuck at, like, 17? (from Bennett's side, even lower on Victor's) I cheated it, since in my head, those two are close, but now you're telling me that I shouldn't have had to?)

...do I have a "no relationship decay" mod somewhere in my downloads that I got ages ago and forgot about it?

[simmingwormly]

...I was today years old when I found out that LTR is supposed to increase/decrease to gradually get closer to STR? Wtf? That would be awesome if it was actually happening in my game.

Raising LTR platonically is actually so hard in my game I have to sometimes cheat it to fit the story.

(example:

Victor Beldine and Bennett Jilleni have actually known each other from (Victor's) birth. Their STR has been consistently 100 since childhood. They're both middle-aged now. But their LTR was stuck at, like, 17? (from Bennett's side, even lower on Victor's) I cheated it, since in my head, those two are close, but now you're telling me that I shouldn't have had to?)

...do I have a "no relationship decay" mod somewhere in my downloads that I got ages ago and forgot about it?

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (ES): Marketplace

...till the undead do us part... (2/3)

CW: short descriptions of fatal violence, mental breakdowns, mention of slavery

Despite the struggles of young Percy, the expedition returns from the temple basically victorious - they have very important loot to deposit.

Cyrus celebrates by finally making his move on Noth, which is enthusiastically received, but that enthusiasm is very quickly squashed by Lester the Witch clipping into them unsexily.

Lester: "If you haven't noticed, you are on an expedition! Leave it for Wormville!"

What they don't expect is Cyrus, usually quite upbeat and easygoing, barking out at them:

Cyrus: "Or what? What will you do to me if I keep talking to Noth? My life is fucked anyway!"

+ On the way out of the hideout, Cyrus is caught while navigating the zombie horde. He however wins and defeats the zombie for +5 points!

Expedition log, day 1, entry 6. Since it isn't dark yet, we've decided to do one more smaller foray out. On the way to the Temple, we have located a marketplace of sorts. Now we return to inspect it. There still might be useful goods behind – if scavengers haven't looted it bare yet.

The amount of cages around here is disturbing, to say the least. In general, this place unnerves me. Luckily it is fairly small, so we can disperse without losing sight of the others. We'll do that and then compare findings. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

On the way, Noth injured himself. The expedition loses - 1 point.

The company starts ferreting through the abandoned wares. Only Serenity lags behind, staring at the cages. Who used to be put in there? Was this a place where prisoners faced public shame? Or, even worse, did their ancestors practice slavery? She has never heard about it before. She also knows that no mainstream religious doctrine around the Entity condones slavery, but then again, the Entity didn't prohibit much either. Its laws were mostly derived from the morals of its clergy. Serenity feels antsy to delve into the archives they extracted. The answer must be there – and she hopes it's a "no".

Krystal ponders a barrel of fish. Or, more accurately, who could've it been that brought it here, and for whom.

Krystal: "Either the corpses of our ancestors learned to fish, or some of the local cultists like playing shopkeeper."

Lester: "That means we should get out of here as soon as possible, before they return."

Lester: "With some free fish."

Krystal: "I'm not eating stinky cultist fish. Who knows where they've been! We're not running out of provisions any time soon."

Krystal: "Which is, by the way, purely thanks to me."

Deborah: "'I'm so sowwy!' Sorry for what? Your face?"

Percy: "Why are you bothering me?!"

Deborah: "I was just checking on you, in case you wanted to run off and cry again."

Percy: "If you don't leave me alone, you'll know what I was sorry for!"

Deborah: "...what?"

Deborah: "That didn't make any sense."

Percy: "I'll fucking kill you!"

(In the picture, Percy is going through the teenage version of aspiration failure. Unlike adults, teenagers don't seem to fully lose it, just have a violent breakdown.)

Those sure are crates. They're very sturdily locked, and getting into them might take a while...

Unfortunately, a zombie appears and his clothing style and insignia are recognized as of clan Anora. For their first sighting of a dead ancestor, Cyrus and Deborah get another aspiration hit. Luckily, the zombie itself does not attack anybody, it just lurks hungrily in the corner.

On the other side of the market from the crates, there's a big chest. After a while of fiddling with it, Deborah manages to crack it open.

Deborah: "Hey! Come look! There's... a machine?"

Serenity: "Wow. That is certainly... strange. Could it be of Sixamese origin?"

Stella: "No, definitely not. It might take inspiration from Sixamese craft in design, but it's clearly Sim-made. It is definitely meant to be hand-held during usage. The green vials seem to be removable, probably to be filled and exchanged for fresh ones... let me see..."

Stella: "My specialization lies in assisted reproduction and related technology, so my knowledge might not be enough here. I can only assert with certainty that this has nothing to do with procreation."

Serenity: "Well, we'll take it nonetheless. We can test it out later, in a safer environment."

+ Aside from unlocking an aspiration reward, the group also finds 1000 Simoleons in total around the abandoned marketplace. It all goes to a shared expedition stash under Serenity's ownership.

Krystal: "Why are you even here?"

Stella: "I'm inspecting the crates Lester found, too. There is something extraordinary about them."

Krystal facepalms.

Krystal: "That wasn't what I was asking about."

Stella: "I thought of three different interpretations of your-"

Krystal: "Why Wormville? From the entire Simnation, no, the entire galaxy, why choose Wormville?"

Stella: "That is a surprising question coming from you. I've never presumed you would care."

Krystal: "Who said anything about caring? I'm just bored."

Stella: "I appreciate you have decided to entertain yourself by conversing with me."

Krystal: "Okay? Not an answer to my question."

Stella just shakes her head. She would not actually say. The topic deserved a pen, ink and paper. Maybe one day he sates his curiosity. Today is not the day. The small conversation raises Stella's spirits a bit, though.

Krystal is, on the other hand, let's just say, just not doing that great. Although he's yet to have an aspiration failure, he's deep in red. Surprising himself, he finds that he viscerally misses Genevieve. He wasn't even aware she meant that much to him. But now, under the crackling eldritch sky of Homeland, he would like nothing more than to hear her insight. (maybe to receive a hug) (but away from all nosy eyes)

The obscured sun sets, while the expedition continues searching. They haven't gotten into the big crates yet, after all. Although, with darkness quickly enveloping them, Serenity knows they have to retreat soon. Noth tells her so, too. She waves him off, letting him know that his advice is redundant.

How is the guide doing, anyway?

I see. The "no" in "Noth" is short for "no, please, don't even try".

Cyrus: "Boy. Can we talk?"

Percy: "What do... what you want, Mr Anora?"

Cyrus: "I want to apologize for my Debbie."

Percy: "..."

Cyrus: "They can be prickly at first and have a really mean sense of humor, but they're not a bad kid."

Percy: "..."

Cyrus: "You don't need to be best friends, alright? But don't hate them."

Percy: "I-I can't make no promises, sir."

Stella: "Krystal. I detect great distress from your body language. I want to help you."

Krystal: "When I need help, I'll ask."

Stella: "My observations of the Followers of the Entity say otherwise. You consistently neglect asking for assistance in many different matters."

Krystal: "What I've said was polite for, 'get lost'."

Stella: "Your voice is breaking."

Krystal: "No, it isn't! Keep it down, somebody will hear you!"

Stella: "..."

Stella: "I see. Understood. I have never seen you express any emotional turmoil or cry."

She winks. Unsure whether Krystal registered it, she does it again, and then blinks for a good measure.

Krystal: "Yeah."

Stella: "Still, you can find me in the evening at the camp. We can talk, discreetly. You are not alone."

She returns to the main group, checking on the progress of the crates. They seem to be magically sealed, Lester concludes.

Krystal makes sure his face is properly dry, and walks there, too. He... is actually considering Stella's offer.

Noth: "Okay, okay, enough looting, time to return to your enclosure!"

Lester: "We might as well just gift wrap whatever is in these crates up for Victor."

Serenity: "Lester's right. We'll stay for a few more minutes, crack the crates, take what's inside, if it's worth taking, and go."

Just like Noth predicted, the amount of undead sharply increases at night. Additionally, the visibility is getting worse and worse. But the group is undeterred. Cyrus, Stella, Percy and Deborah form a circle around the others, while Serenity, Krystal, Lester and Noth work on opening the huge crate.

Krystal notices his own clan's insignia among the dead. He used to quietly laugh and roll his eyes at his groupmates getting distraught over seeing their ancestors in this state, but now, he finally understands. He gets an aspiration hit. Percy evades it, since he's seen a dead Gere before, so this is not his first undead ancestor.

One ravenous shambling cadaver is different from all the others. A blonde athletically built woman seems to have died in her armor. The red reflects whatever is left of the light. A Fiera – one of the guardians of wormkind, a heroic defender who fought for Homeland and its people until the bitter end. At least, that's what she used to be in life. Now, she is yet another decomposed predator, a desecrated shell, a part of death that walks.

It's just that unlike the others, she's also protected by heavy armor.

The undead guardswoman immediately closes in at the living worms. Her empty eyes are fixed on Serenity...

Before Cyrus and the other guards get to react, Stella, standing the closest, pushes her wife to safety and gets grabbed by the ravenous zombie instead.

Serenity, disoriented and panicking, launches herself forward again, screaming Stella's name. Somebody pulls her back. She doesn't know who. (It was Noth.) The only thing she remembers is Stella crying out in pain.

Lester tries to quickly cast a spell, but a horrid noise of bones breaking destroys their concentration.

Cyrus, Percy and Deborah, even Krystal, run towards Stella to defend her, but there... there is no fight to join anymore. It was over in mere seconds, one or two hits.

Krystal, who stood the closest, just freezes in shock, as Stella's lifeless body collapses at him. He lets her fall, suddenly facing her killer, unable to move.

Percy: "Over here, ugly!"

Getting hit in the back of its head by a pebble, the zombie turns around.

Percy is determined to do his job and neutralize the abomination. He sees Stella on the ground, not knowing whether she's dead or alive, and his heart is racing. He might actually fight someone for the first time! No, not might! He WILL!

But someone pulls him back by the collar of his shirt.

Cyrus: "Get out of the way, boy!"

The Anora guard will not let the child face the monster!

Is Stella really gone? Could that even happen? Cyrus doesn't want to believe it. He feels nothing more than pure rage. The Fiera must die her final death!

Serenity: "Retreat!"

Cyrus: "I'll get her!"

Serenity: "NO! RETREAT!"

Cyrus heeds Serenity's command after all, and doesn't attack. It probably saves his life. He just silently grabs Stella's mangled body and joins the others in running away.

He can feel that he's only carrying the dead shell of a woman he used to know. It's a harrowing, repulsive feeling. Serenity keeps looking back, as if she expected Stella to suddenly spring to life again. But she doesn't.

Back in the safety of their hideout, Cyrus lays the Sixamese scientist gently on the ground. Serenity kneels to her and embraces her.

Everybody else keeps standing around, kinda awkwardly, until Lester tenderly pulls their sister back up and holds her in their embrace, even though she's trying to fight them, weeping loudly.

Stella's body was burnt to prevent her raising as a new zombie, and to allow the Grim Reaper to collect her soul for her to pass to the afterlife. The urn has been stored in the car.

Expedition log, day- day 1, entry-

The recording continues, but there's nothing but sobbing.

The group loses -16 points for this debacle! (-6 for death of a party member, and -2 for every aspiration failure, of which there were 5 of them.) Somehow I feel like the points might be the least that they lost.

I really didn't expect to lose Stella so soon, and it hit me like a truck. I liked her a lot. Though, I dare say she might've been too good for Wormville anyway. RIP, Stella.

[simmingwormly]

💚🐠💙 STELLA! 💙🐠💚

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (ES): Temple

Let's just say that some locations offer a much harder challenge for the Sims than others - and the Desecrated Temple was definitely among the tougher.

Expedition log, day 1, entry 5. After leaving our encampment, we decided to first scout out the Temple. Noth lead us there, but honestly, I don't think we wouldn't have managed even without him. The Temple is absolutely enormous and decorated with lights and colorful crystals. It would be challenging to miss it even from the other side of the city.

It's a well-known fact that temples of our Entity change their shape with every High Priest. Analyzing this one could tell us a lot about the last High Priestess before the Tragedy. It makes me want to step with even more reverence. It's almost as if we were about to enter an extension of her body. I also wonder whether this building would transform in front of our eyes if we brought Nico here. Is the Entity still strong enough here for this temple to recognize the new High Priest?

Anyway, most of us walk. There are obstacles, trash and sharp objects in the way, but it's not that bad, if one looks where they step. Krystal makes it look more hazardous than it looks, though. It seems that while we are on the move, zombies mostly leave us alone. Noth keeps waving a torch around to make them keep their distance. He says it only works for a while. Lester flies on their broom as our scout. Well, time to enter the temple. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

+ the group gains + 2 points for entering a new location, but loses -1 point for Krystal getting injured while travelling.

Deborah: "Wow. Are those skulls real?"

Lester: "Undoubtedly."

Cyrus: "I wonder how did the cultists get them to float."

Serenity: "It wasn't the cultists. I don't think these are... victims. They're guardians and honored guests. It's the traditional way to bury a priest."

Lester: "In the old times, when a high-ranking priest died, they would remove their head, burn the rest of the body on a ritual pyre, so Death Himself had something to collect, clean the head of all meat and soft tissue, and enchant the skull to float around the temple like this."

Cyrus: "That's... I guess I see the poetics in it. I wonder why aren't we doing it anymore. I think my father would've liked that kind of burial."

Serenity: "Nobody knows the exact rites and procedures. They used to be a secret of the higher ranking clergy. I doubt Archibald even knew them, from what I've heard, and even if he did, he was the priest that died first."

The group doesn't stay above ground for long, and immediately makes its way for the catacombs below. Noth seems to be having a whale of a time, the rest of them aren't that stoked.

It turns out that the catacombs are a maze of very tight corridors lined by bookshelves. Some of the walls have been eaten through by time - or perhaps vandalized by the cultists, and allow the wandering worms to orient in the maze a little better. Still, the group disperses. (which, for some reason, doesn't prevent all 8 of them from complaining about routing constantly)

Serenity, Stella, Krystal and Lester chance upon a room with a little bit of open space.

Serenity: "We found it! It must be the archives!"

Lester: "Or at least a part of them."

Krystal: "A small part of them."

Stella: "This is so exciting! Can we transport it to Wormville to document properly?"

Serenity: "I think we have to try. This is too much of our history to leave behind!"

Krystal: "They're community archives. Sure, there must be interesting and historically valuable stuff, but most of it? That's gonna be baby names, marriage records, deaths and whatnot. Just long lists of names, one after the other."

Lester: "Still, that's more than worth it to read through. We just have to figure out how to prevent Victor from getting his slimy hands on it."

Stella: "Isn't he a historian by trade?"

Serenity: "Yeah, but he's also a Sim stain, so I think we'll handle the archive without his expertise. But I won't comment on it further in front of... curious ears."

Stella nods in understanding. Krystal sighs.

Serenity: "This one should have the year of the Tragedy. Oh my..."

Lester: "I have the decade before that. What are we searching for in particular?"

Serenity: "Suspicious behavior. Violent crimes. Clan feuds. Premonitions."

Krystal: "I still think you actually want the priestess's diary, not the town chronicles."

Lester: "There definitely are... many names. But, notable crimes and clan wars are there, too."

Serenity: "It seems like at least four separate clan feuds were still ongoing when the Tragedy happened."

Krystal: "Between whom?"

Serenity: "None of the clans that actually survived. I don't recognize any names."

Stella: "There is a remarkable chance that the traitors we are looking for do not have any living descendants. It could've been a ploy in one of the clan wars that got out of hand."

Serenity: "That would be disappointing, but it's possible. Still, I'll go through the most recent records more throughtfully in the evening in safety. For now, we should look for a way to transport the books."

While they continue exploring the maze, Serenity and Krystal find themselves alone away from the others.

Serenity: "How is your religious purpose coming along?"

Krystal: "Go on and mock me. You're wasting your breath."

Serenity: "I wouldn't be doing that, if you at least told me what it was. I'd even help you."

Krystal: "You, help me? That's not even funny."

Serenity: "You're on my team. It's in my own interest to see to your personal misson, or at least know what you're gonna do, otherwise it could end up complicating this whole expedition. Know what I mean?"

Krystal: "I can tell you, but only if you won't bring the Church into it."

Serenity starts browsing the books.

Serenity: "Are you about to betray the Entity?"

Krystal: "No. Never."

Serenity: "Then Nico doesn't have to know."

Krystal tells her. He describes his conviction he has been chosen by their deity, the something akin to a confirmation he received from Felicia's visions, and finding the bleeding forest. He tells her that the seed wouldn't root where he tried to plant it in Wormville, and that according to the gardener he hired, it needed a warmer climate. It was clear to him it was a sign to travel here!

Serenity: "That's... convoluted. Also a proper stretch with your gardening ineptitude somehow equating 'go to Homeland'. You could've just bought a grow light."

Krystal: "Don't question it. I can feel I'm correct!"

Serenity: "Correct or not, you're already here, so we'll see-"

Krystal: "The red book in the third row. It's fake. That's the lever to open the door."

Serenity: "...the door?"

Serenity: Everyone, to me! We found something amazing!"

Serenity: "...or not."

The secret room Krystal spotted contains a genuine altar dedicated to the Entity. Its presence should've been imposing and provide the same inner warmth as the one in Wormville's temple, but instead of that, the sight only strikes fear and revulsion in hearts of the worms.

The shrine has been awfully desecrated. Seeing that is like a punch to the gut.

And since encountering a desecrated shrine (psst, there are more of them) for the first time means an aspiration drop... Almost everyone fell into a failure on the spot.

The expedition loses -10 points for triggering 5 aspiration failures. That also means 5 Sims take a willpower check, which 3 of them, Percy II., Deborah and Cyrus fail, earning another -3 points. Oh well.

Deborah used the fact their father was having a breakdown to go hide at least for a while. They autonomously stayed hidden until the whole shrine commotion ended.

Krystal: "I haven't come here to clean!"

Percy: "But you started sweeping the trash even before Serenity said anything..."

The expedition decides to restore the desecrated altar, or at least do their best to try.

Percy: "And what should I do?"

Stella: "You can experiment! Test the bathrooms upstairs, whether the waters in them still flow! If so, bring as much water as you can!"

It turned out that Percy had to make way more than one trip for water, and that way more Sims than him had to do the same.

But in the end...

Serenity: "We... we might've done something here."

Krystal: "Yes, like for example wasted so much of our time!"

Serenity: "Yet you were probably the most enthusiastic!"

Krystal: "Don't give me that stupid smirk. I serve the Entity, and I'll clean shrines all day, but that doesn't mean I won't compain about it. I have dignity to uphold!"

+ for a cleaned shrine, the expedition gains +6 points!

Invigorated by having seemingly done something meaningful for their deity, the worms return upstairs.

Serenity: "You see? I told you they won't be cybernetically enhanced. Actually, they don't seem enhanced at all! The first contact was shocking, but..."

Lester: "But from then on, the undead don't seem all that terrifying, yeah. I wonder what my spells would do to them, but I won't risk casting haphazardly around here."

Soon, everybody gathers. The Followers of the Entity, and its lone agent among them, all pray together. With at least one of its shrines reinstated, it actually feels like their prayers might've reached somewhere. Krystal finds that his ankle he injured earlier actually works as normal and doesn't hurt anymore.

As a boon for the shrine (and restoring at least a little glimmer of power of the Entity in this location), the expedition got free healing. Unfortunately, Krystal was the only injured member, so it didn't do much for the others.

Cyrus: "Hey. I think that those discarded shopping carts could come in handy for carrying the books you mentioned!"

(Unfortunately, I forgot to take a decent screenshot of one of those. Cyrus basically refers to shopping carts used by one particular wave of looters that sometimes got half-broken left behind in different locations, including this one.)

The expedition starts working on putting together anything they can salvage to help them move the archives. Percy II. would not willingly stray away, but he sees something strange in the corner of his eye that makes him stay behind in the praying hall.

Percy: "...who are you?"

Shaken, he runs to find the others and warn them against the teleporting black-clad stranger he just encountered.

But finding them in the maze downstairs isn't easy, especially when the boy feels a rising panic take a hold of him.

He only sees glimpses of him.

More scared never to find out what is going on than scared of being hurt by the stranger, Percy starts trying to catch up to him in the maze instead. He has to climb through the holes in the walls and crawl through the openings, but he manages to always catch at least another glance-

Percy: "Wait!"

Unsettled, he finds himself outside of the maze. Strange glasses sprawl on the ground, springing from the holes in the basement floor. The man in black starts running, and Percy instictively runs after him.

Percy: "Please... tell me who are you! What do you want?!"

The stranger stands still in what seems to be an ancient burial ground, overgrown through the decades of abandonment.

Finally, the man turns around. He seems to react to the boy's voice, but doesn't even look at him.

???: "I'm the evil in your veins. I'm your rot."

Percy Kent: "My name, my sins."

Percy Kent: "My name, my guilt."

Percy Kent: "My name, my crimes!"

Percy Kent: "Accept my name, accept the rot!"

Percy II. Celwitch: "..."

Percy II. Celwitch: "I'm so sorry!"

Percy's cry is heard to the archives, and the rest of the expedition is able to locate him. When they find him, trembling and pale, he refuses to tell anybody what he saw.

One day, he's convinced, they will see the rot and evil in him themselves anyway.

I had way too much fun with the Percy and Percy photoshoot <3 (and putting poor Percy Kent into the outfit and makeup)

[simmingwormly]

A quick-ish guide to the culture of The Sims 2 modding community.

Are you new to The Sims 2 community? Are you coming from more modern games, either in The Sims franchise itself or other contemporary games? Are you excited to start your #brand and become a #simfluencer and post your #earlyaccesscontent to support your #sidehustle?

Have a seat, then! Let's chat.

Hello, friend! My name's Pooklet. I've been playing since 2004 and creating since 2007. I'm by no means an expert in most forms of content creation itself, but I've been around since the heyday of The Sims 2, I've watched how community opinions have shifted (or not) since practically the beginning, and I'm hoping to give you a basic outline of the community culture that you can expect to encounter as a newcomer.

A very brief history of Sims 2 content monetization:

People have been trying to monetize content since there has been content to monetize, all the way back in the days of The Sims 1. We tend to call them "pay creators" and their websites "paysites." Some big names in this arena include The Sims Resource (their free-with-ads model is a relatively recent development, which is why you will find people to this day calling them T$R), PeggySims, Newsea, and many others that you can find on this handy website:

Paysites Must Be Destroyed

Now, if you have a glance at that website, you might be saying to yourself:

"But, that's illegal! I own the copyright to my custom content!"

Alas, no! Due to the wording of the End User License Agreement for The Sims 2, no custom content creator owns their creations for this game (or The Sims 1, or 3, or 4, for that matter, but we're talking about 2 right now). It all belongs to EA at the end of the day, and by installing and playing the game, you have agreed to these terms. Which means you have no individual, protected copyright, and it is perfectly legal for someone to download your paywalled content and then reupload it for free for others to enjoy. And they will!

Furthermore,

You are not making anything alone.

Everything from modding resources, to tutorials, to the mods required to fix disastrous glitches in the game code and make it playable at all, to the third party programs used to make any and all custom content, such as SimPE—all of these have been provided to you for free by other creators, many of whom have a usage policy that asks that people not use their freely-provided tools to make a profit. Although no one can be forced to follow a creator's policy, it is generally considered good manners to not try to make a profit off of someone else's free work. And if you are using these tools to make paywalled content, that's exactly what you're doing.

Pay creators have been ignoring these policies since the beginning of time, and so free creators likewise ignore their policies against sharing their paywalled content. Pay creators have also tried lots of different ways to keep their content exclusive, everything from trying to track leaks with slightly altered files to actively filling their content with malicious code. It has never worked.

Free creators have always found a way around these barriers. In fact, it's taken as something of a challenge to undermine monetization efforts. As you can see from Paysites Must Be Destroyed, there are entire teams of players devoted to reuploading paywalled content for free.

A culture of sharing.

The Sims 2 is something of a time capsule. At 20 years old, it predates a lot of the hyper-capitalist hustle culture that has infested every creative hobby. It is from a time when monetization was an outlier rather than the norm, and a much maligned outlier at that. This attitude has persisted for 20 years. Believe me when I say, you won't be the combo breaker. Especially now, given that The Sims 2 is not the most contemporary in the series and the community has shrunk considerably, down to the people who have either been here for a very long time, or newcomers that understand the community culture.

Also, it's just kind of not a great idea in general to try to make money off of a 20-year-old game with a pretty small community?

Like, I get that The Sims 4 is really saturated with pay creators and it's hard to get a foot in the door. I get that you might look at The Sims 2 and think that the small pond will give you room to be a big fish. It won't. You might get a handful of people willing to pay for your content, but at least one of those people will be resharing it for free.

Paywalls vs. optional donations.

Okay, so hopefully you now understand why people don't like it when you put content behind a paywall. But what about those Ko-fi and Paypal donation links you sometimes see at the bottom of people's downloads? Why is that okay, but a locked Patreon tier isn't? Well, because they're voluntary. No one is obligated to pay for that content to be able to download and use it. It's just a way for someone who does have a little extra cash to basically "tip" a creator whose content they like. You have no way of knowing whether the person who posts those links is actually receiving any donations. And that's kind of the point. Whether or not they receive any donations, they are still sharing their content, because they enjoy the hobby of making and sharing content.

"I can't make a living off of that!"

No, you can't. Because that's not what we do here. That is not part of our community culture for all the above reasons. If you want to make a reliable income off of your hobby, you're going to need to get a different hobby. Try Second Life! That is a community that actively encourages monetization. The Sims 4 allows for "early access" monetization. There's options out there for you, if what you want is to make a profit off of your creations for a game.

"Fine, what about monetized link forwarding services?"

Link forwarding services historically have malicious trackers or viruses embedded. People will also strip those and provide direct links to each other. Or they just won't download your content.

"What if I want to make YouTube videos of someone else's written tutorials and I enable ad revenue on them?"

Personally, I still think that's a dick move. I love video tutorials, I'm a very visual learner myself, and although you might feel entitled to compensation for reciting the steps of someone else's tutorial into a microphone and then editing and uploading the video, you're still monetizing someone else's freely-provided content. I would consider this an 'ask permission' scenario, one in which you tell the person, explicitly, that you will be making ad revenue off their work. If they're fine with that, then you're good! (For the record, I'm not fine with that.)

edit: more of of my thoughts on monetized youtube videos over here.

"What if—"

Look, no one can stop you from trying to monetize your content, or worse, someone else's content. But you will have the exact same arc as every pay creator who came before you: your efforts will be undermined at every turn, your reception in the greater community will be chilly at best, and it will become a battle between you and the folks resharing free reuploads of your content until any fun you initially had making content is gone.

"The steady erosion of every known social safety net beneath the crippling weight of end-stage, line-goes-up capitalism and the yawning abyss of poverty over which I am dangling has imbued me with such anxiety that I cannot engage with a hobby that precludes monetization. I am exhausted. I know no other way."

I get it, friend! I have lived in poverty all my life. I do not begrudge the impulse to find a way to make passive income off of your every waking moment. Increasingly, it seems like that is the only way to survive! Unfortunately, you will not be able to do that with this specific community. We know that we have something special here, having resisted monetization's encroach for so long, which makes us fight all the more viciously to maintain it. You are entitled to try to find ways to supplement your income, just not here. Personally, I consider that a feature, not a bug.

Bonus Round: Remember, That's Not Just Yours!

I said it earlier, but I want to reiterate: you are not making any TS2 CC alone. You are making it with tools, resources, knowledge and code that people have provided on the condition that they not be used for pay content.

To use myself as an example, "my" hair textures are a blend of resources provided by other creators. Namely, Nouk's original hair texture was edited by Vintage D, which I then further edited over the years, using parts by the creators Ephemera and Helga. It would be extremely shit of me to say "well, I think that the time that I put into my edit is worth money, so I'm charging for it" when the edits that I made would not exist without the work of those people. And it continues on down the line with edits that other people have made of my texture blends and color actions, and the content they make with them.

(If you see someone charging for these, btw, lemme know. I'd love to have a talk with them.)

In closing,

The knowledge base, the resources, the coding required to make any and all working content for The Sims 2 has been compiled for 20 years. Please understand, I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's creativity when I say: you cannot bring anything wholly "new" to TS2 CC-making, something that uses no one else's resources or programs, something you can point to and say "no one helped me with that. I did it all on my own. It is my property." Nor should you aspire to! The fun of The Sims 2 community is to share and share alike, to credit each other for our contributions, to hype each other up and iterate on shared works and resources. We've been doing it for 20 years, and hopefully we'll be doing it for many more! Wanting to be a #simfluencer is utterly antithetical to the community culture. No one is influencing anyone else. You need to leave that shit at the door if you want to be invited in.

TL;DR:

Don't show up to the commie circle-jerk trying to charge for handjobs. We're already giving them to each other for free, and nothing about your wrist technique is special enough to justify the cost.

edit: a follow-up for those who are feeling personally attacked by this post.

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (EV): Evening

3/3 of the first expedition day for the Beldine group!

Xenia: "What's it gonna be?"

Victor: "Salmon! I do hope everybody likes fish."

Lola: "Mmm, salmon... something's good about this expedition, at least."

Bennett: "It's funny how before you went to college, you couldn't cook at all, and now you're the best chef I know!"

Victor: "Thank you. I took cooking classes as my elective and I fell in love. I hope the others at the table are going to share your positive opinion on my skills. Can someone go get the rest of us?"

Quincy: "Where even are the girls and Iuly?"

Iulius is outside. Spending the whole day with a company of seven, he needs at least some time alone in quiet. Today he stopped Xenia's attempt to incite a mutiny. Why? What does he owe to Victor Beldine that incited his loyalty? He personally agreed with Xenia's opinion, and he feels beholden only to his clan, the Entity, the Church and the Priest. Victor isn't a part of any of that. So why did the thought of wrestling the leadership position from him and physically "punishing" him for his "incompetence" felt so stomach-turningly wrong?

Meanwhile, the other two company members missing from the dinner table hid in the basement.

Melody: "I'm so sorry, Sophie. I don't want to... I think I don't want there to be... this... between us anymore."

Sophia: "W-what do you mean by 'this'?"

Melody: "The flirtatious jokes. The way we touch each other. I liked it at first, but I don't think I do anymore."

Sophia: "Mel, I'm so sorry..."

Melody: "Well, we would've never have worked out."

Sophia: "I... didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I thought you liked me back, because you've always sounded and looked like you did-"

Melody: "Please, don't cry! I-I did! I did until today..."

Sophia: "..."

Melody: "I just can't imagine dating somebody who didn't have any compassion for that possessed boy."

Sophia: "What?! Why do you care so much about him? You don't know him at all! He tried to kill your mom!"

Melody: "I know! And I don't care about him like that! I just care about... kindness. He clearly didn't do it on purpose, a blood god has brainwashed him! And instead of having compassion, you would just murder him!"

Sophia: "..."

Sophia: "...I voted for his death because of you. I knew you would try to help him and heal him, but that means... that means you could let the blood god corruption get to you, too... or, you'd just fail and be heartbroken. He could hurt you, or... or come in between us!

Melody: "What?"

Sophia: Besides, killing him wouldn't even have been unkind!"

Melody: "What the fuck are you saying?"

Sophia: "He's obviously suffering. Killing him would free him from that. It was mercy, you just can't see that because everything's black and white to you!"

Sophia: "You're my best friend, and I don't give a damn if we get together or not. I still care about you. Sorry for trying to protect you, I guess."

Melody: "...I care about you, too. I'm so sorry for..."

Sophia: "Let's go up. I can smell food."

Upstairs, Victor is already making another serving of salmon. After all, one fish doesn't feed the entire company.

Sophia and Melody choose to sit away from the adults. But despite being so close, neither says a word to the other, nor do they contribute to the debate at the table, where the company speculates wildly about their young captive.

Victor portions the second ready-to-eat salmon, washes the tray and takes one of the plates - for himself. At least that's what the company thinks, until they see him climb down the ladder with it.

Victor: "Good evening. Do we have any opinions on fish? With some vegetables, perhaps?"

The boy is silent.

Victor: "Well, salmon is not exactly like Sim meat - I imagine, I have never tried the latter - but it should suffice, if you're hungry enough, right?"

The boy turns towards Victor and growls. When the historian first leans in to pass him the plate through a hole in the fencing, he pounces at the bars, startling Victor and making him jump back. The boy starts speaking, and in every word he says, there is underlying hatred so palpable there is no need to have mastered the ancient tongue to understand him.

Victor tries to answer in the same language, but his vocabulary is extremely limited - he is not fluent, and only knows few words besides those that are used in spells and incantations. He tries to communicate that he's a friend, and that he brought food.

As far as Victor is able to translate, the boy responds with wishing Victor's veins explode. He's not sure whether that is an idiom, or something that actually happens among blood cultists. Do artificial languages believed not to be used for actual communication even have idioms? Philology of the ancient tongue is going to be such a gold mine for his next research!

In the end, the Beldine ends up attempting to pass the food again. This time, the boys actually grabs the plate on the other side! Victor lets go and leaves... for now. He will be trying to interrogate the child further.

Quincy: “You spared the man that tried to kill me.”

Victor: “The boy, you mean. The possessed child that very probably did not even know what he was doing. Yes, I spared him.”

Quincy: “I don't feel safe or wanted in this group.”

Victor: “I assure you, you are. But an attempt on your life that you survived without any issues or major injuries, done under eldritch influence, just does not beget death penalty.”

Quincy: “And being a blood cultist also doesn't?”

Victor: “We do not know whether he even is a blood cultist.”

Quincy: “So, I'm not supposed to blame him, because he's just a poor little brainwashed possessed blood cultist, but I'm not supposed to treat him like a blood cultist either, because he's just so innocent?”

Victor: “First of all, you can be overtaken by the blood gods even without being a cultist. Second of all, he doesn't have any ritual tattoos or other body modification of religious significance. That is suspicious.”

Quincy: “He still tries to bite and claw your face off when you bring him food. He's no longer a Sim, he's just a feral… thing.”

Victor: “Simhood isn't conditional on good behavior. Plus, he is still in Homeland. He will definitely change once he is in Wormville. It is more than likely he will not be well-adjusted, but he has hope.”

Quincy: “I don't care about him, Victor! He tried to kill me!”

Victor: “But you did not die!”

Quincy: "..."

Quincy: “And Aranni forgave you in the end.”

Victor: “What does that have to do with anything?”

Quincy: “Don't play dumb. I have noticed. You've been treating me like shit, and avoiding me like I had the plague! It's because of what we did years ago.”

Victor: “Should I congratulate you for getting the most obvious signals? Yes, I do not like you, and yes, it is because of that.”

Quincy: “And yet you pretended to be my friend all these years!”

Victor: “Your friend? Get real, Quincy, we barely spoke! We called each other friends, and… I actually used to think we were. I was convinced that I had to be your friend."

Victor: "But I was always on edge around you, and lately I have realized that I do not need to do that anymore. I can just not have you in my life!”

Quincy: “Wow. Just wow. That's a lot, Vic. I actually really liked you. I thought you were really smart and fun to talk to.”

Victor: “And I think you have many positive qualities, too. That does not mean I have to like you, or force myself into friendship with you.”

Quincy: “After what you've just told me, I don't think I want to like you or be your friend either.”

Victor: “Then we are on the same page. Great.”

I've actually written an extended version of this dialogue that is a little too long to be included here, and also not entirely thematically fitting. If you're interested in the past of Quincy/Victor/Aranni (and in particular the cheating scandal), you can read the full version here!

After that upsetting conversation, Quincy really needed a morale boost, so she invited Xenia to one of the tents a little bit early.

This is the fourth entry in the expedition log, recorded by Victor Beldine. I am fully aware that my decision was controversial and more or less very poorly received among my company. We have captured a suspected blood cultist instead of killing him. It is a male teenager, severely malnutritioned and with several light surface wounds that seem like scratches and cuts. None of them bleed, but it is very likely only the power of this place prevents them from getting nastily infected.

The boy communicates only in a very limited manner. He is mostly unresponsive to Sim voice, except for rare moments of “clarity” when he appears to experience intense rage, but reacts to his surroundings with full awareness. He speaks a strange combination of the ancient tongue and Simlish. Both languages seem to be atrophied and he struggles to express himself in any sort of coherent manner. From what I managed to translate, he is mostly saying threats. From the nature of said threats and the state we found him in, it is easy to deduct which blood god in particular he worships. I will, however, not say its name out loud. Not in its domain.

The origin of the boy is uncertain. We label him as a blood cultist, but I do not think that is correct. A “blood cultist” is a person who engages in organized and deliberate worship of a blood deity. Those communities are insular, extremely isolated and very specific in their behaviors and customs. Apart from having been obviously touched and damaged by the influence of a blood god, our boy shows no signs of being raised in a blood cult. He has no ritual body modifications, no tattoos, he does not seem to be ritually mutilated either. Plus, his hair is braided. The braid is in a quite gnarly state now, after presumably spending up to several weeks in the pool, but it is still recognizable as what used to be a very neat braid. That would be an extremely atypical hairstyle for a blood cultist.

I will share my theories later, when I have interacted with the boy more. For now, I will only record the summary of today's happennings and turn the device off.

Victor and Lola take the first watch. The guide spends the night inside. The witch uses Magivestigium to teleport on the roof.

No matter how many controversial decisions were made, macabre sights seen and conflicts started, everybody is still alive, and so many things were experienced and learned. It was a good day.

Victor sees that Serenity's camp has also gone sleepy and quiet. He can't help but wonder what kind of day did she have and what horrors and wonders has she found...

During the first night, the first global willpower check takes place!

Victor, Quincy, Iulius, Xenia and Bennett all pass.

Sophia does not and stays corrupted. Melody also fails and joins her.

...Serenity time!

[simmingwormly]

i know there are a billion posts out there like this but i am calling all ts2 and/or ts3 blogs bc i need to follow more of you guys and i KNOW there are veterans/newbies out there i haven’t discovered/rediscovered yet, so can yall reblog this?

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (EV): Fiera Barracks

CW: drowning, unsanitary descriptions, weapons (swords)

Xenia: "Ugly, but majestic."

Quincy and Iulius both seem to brighten up, as the group arrives at the fortress that used to serve as the headquarters of the guardian clan. It's like they can't see the holes in the windows and walls, nor the trash around the building. They are home - and it's ugly, but majestic.

During the travel, Sophia scratches her arm against a sharp wall. -2 points for another teenage injury.

Victor: "It is locked, perhaps even barred! And nobody responds!"

Victor: "...which, now that I'm thinking about it, makes me look very stupid."

Iulius: "Let me open it."

Victor steps aside, thinking Iulius must have some kind of a key that has been passed down in the Fiera family from generation to generation, but-

Iulius just tries to yank on the door handle harder.

Quincy: "You're both lost cases..."

Quincy: "Have you forgotten everything mom told us about this place, Iuly?"

Iulius: "The emergency lockdown measures..."

Quincy: "It makes sense, doesn't it? The Tragedy starts. Everyone who was in the barracks runs out to defend the streets. The general activates lockdown to prevent the enemy from seizing the fortress and taking away the last place for worms to eventually retreat into!"

Victor: "But given that they never return, they all get slaughtered in the open, the house never gets the command to unlock and stays in the emergency mode until today."

Quincy: "Yep. Except for the 'slaughtered in the open' part! Put some respect on the Fiera name!"

Iulius: "Exactly! You should know the best, historian! The clan Fiera didn't get defeated! It sacrificed itself on purpose, charging the enemy that outnumbered them by hundreds, to open an escape path for our grandparents!"

Victor: "...so, in other words, it got slaughtered in the open."

Iulius: "And what did the Beldines do, hm?!"

Victor: "Can you be any louder? I am afraid there might be a zombie or a cultist that hasn't heard you yet!"

Bennett: "Calm down, everybody! Quincy, Iulius, is there a way to disable the lockdown and get inside?"

Quincy: "Of course. One button is inside. The other... must be in the maze! Let's go to the back to find the maze! I wanna see the maze!"

Victor: "The maze?"

Iulius: "Before we had obstacle courses, we used to train our young in the maze. It improves the body, mind and soul!"

Bennett: "Is it supposed to... smell like that?"

Iulius: "No... I think not..."

Quincy: "I must admit, I didn't imagine it so... rank."

The pool hasn't been cleaned for decades. There's a see-through film of something on the water, and underneath... it's hard to tell. The pool is of ominous brown color, and it's impossible to see its floor.

Victor: "Well, one thing is for certain. I will not, under any circumstances, get in."

Quincy: "Rock, paper, scissors, Iuly?"

Iulius just growls affirmatively.

Quincy loses.

Quincy: "Goodbye, skin. Goodbye, hair. Goodbye, general health."

Iulius: "I'm sure you can make it."

Quincy: "I can hear in your voice you're glad you don't have to do it."

Iulius: "I'll jump in for you if you start drowning."

Quincy: "You and I both know that won't happen."

Quincy: "YUCK!"

Melody: "Please, be careful, mom..."

Victor: "This is a completely Fiera-fabricated problem. It is only fair a Fiera sacrifices herself to solve it."

Sophia: "She might die in there."

Victor: "Might, but will not. Is Quincy not the best swimmer in Wormville?"

Bennett: "I'll still try to follow the walls and climb over in case she was drowning."

Victor: "I would avoid that if I were you. If she spies you and Iulius howering around waiting for her to run out of strength, she'll be humiliated."

Victor: "If they trained children on this and were supposed to get to the other side quickly in emergencies, it must be trivial anyway."

Meanwhile, The Trivial Water Maze:

In one thing Victor is right - Quincy is no stranger to swimming and her fitness is unrivaled. If this was a normal, clean pool, she would barely break a sweat.

But she finds it difficult to keep above water like never before. First of all, she refuses to submerge her head, afraid of the foul water getting inside of her head through the ears or nostrils, which complicates swimming immensely and puts a lot more strain on her neck. She feels like she is swiming in a sewer - the noxious, overpowering smell of rot and feces makes it hard for her to breathe, and she has to push back vomiting several times.

Several times, her feet brush against something. Once, Quincy makes the mistakes of trying to see what it was. She is almost sure there is a body, at least one, old enough to sink back down. She feels panic taking over, but tries to cling to sanity as strong as she can.

As she's pushing through the horrible water, a stray thought flashes through Quincy's mind.

Maybe Iulius isn't the one who deserves to be the head of the clan. Maybe he's not the one who should be the general.

Suddenly she hears splashing that isn't hers. Someone else is in the pool! And it's none of her companions...

When she sees him, he is floating in the water, blocking her way in the narrow maze corridor.

Quincy: "Hey! Move aside!"

But instead of that, he swims right at her. One look into his eyes tells Quincy what she should've known a moment ago - this man is one of them. There is nothing in them, just the sickly purple light of eldritch magic.

He's disgusting. His skin is shiny with some kind of nasty slime, and it covers his many fresh wounds. He's very underweight and small in general. A better look at his face hints that he's most probably nowhere near grown yet - a child probably Melody's age, if not even a bit younger.

He doesn't say anything. He doesn't open his mouth. He just breathes heavily and grabs at Quincy.

She is not letting him touch her and immediately wrestles him away. It should be easy! He's so skinny and obviously sick! But something in his blood god madness gives his emaciated body much larger strength. Quincy can't push him off herself.

And pushing, pushing is what he does - she feels him trying to grasp her shoulders or even her head and push it under water.

Suddenly, all the remains and all the human waste make sense.

Quincy: "HELP!"

She hears her companions scream back her name. Splashing, as someone jumps into water.

Melody: "MOM!"

The discordant, unintellegible words of Victor's chanting.

Splashing. Splashing. More splashing.

She struggles.

But suddenly - she manages to grab the cultist's face. She holds him tight, burying her nails into his skin. With all her remaining force, she sharply pushes his head into the wall next to them.

He slides underwater like a rock.

Quincy: "I'm... I'M FINE!"

Shaken, exhausted and filthy, Quincy finishes the maze and stands on the button. It makes a loud click.

Xenia: "Quincy! What happened?!"

Quincy: "There was a... there was a motherfucking cultist!"

Xenia: "What? I can't hear you!"

Victor: "I will teleport for her, like I originally intended."

Xenia: "You could've teleported there this whole time?!"

Victor: "To the goal? No, only now, when Quincy indicated its position. But I wanted to teleport around to locate her when she was calling for help."

Victor uses Magivestigium to get to the island in the maze. Quincy immediatelly hugs him. Half out of knowing that otherwise he wouldn't be able to teleport them both, and half... just out being so out of it she was just that happy to see a friendly face. Victor jolts in disgust, but only pushes her away after they're both standing at the maze's beginning again.

Quincy: "Cultist! There was a cultist! It was a fucking cannibal kid!"

Iulius: "Did you kill him?"

Quincy: "No, just knocked him out. But I guess he drowned."

Victor: "Death Himself is nowhere to be seen, though."

Iulius: "So he's still alive..."

Victor: "And he has seen Quincy. No, most probably, he knows about all of us."

Iulius: "Fuck, I'll have to go in there and finish the job."

Victor: "No, try to pull him on the dry ground. It will be easier for us to be in control of the situation if we are out of the awful water."

Iulius: "There you go. I don't understand how can he be still breathing. Even if I didn't find him underwater, just look at him! He looks like he should've died of hunger or infection a week ago!"

Victor: "He is young. And there is a strange substance all over him."

Iulius: "And on my hands, disgusting!"

Quincy: "You're the one to complain! I have that shit in my HAIR!"

Melody: "I can feel him..."

Everyone looks at her.

Melody: "He's behind a wall of... evil."

Xenia: "He is the evil, darling. This is what you get if you worship evil gods."

Victor: "I might be picking up something as well. There is definitely magic at play in the... slime. Perhaps in his other abilities that helped him live in the pool and breathe underwater, too. The rest seems to be blood god madness. Look at his eyes."

Victor forcibly opens one of the boy's eyes to confirm that it is, indeed, purple and glowing.

Iulius: "Okay. This doesn't make me happy, but we have to end this lad. He's seen us. And... Xenia is right. His filth has no place in this world."

He pulls his sleeves up.

Xenia: "Here. That's for sure quicker."

Xenia hands him a sword.

Iulius: "Where did you get it?"

Xenia: "I took it from home as emotional support. I bought it on a vacation long ago. It's a decoration, would break immediately in combat, but you can stab a fucker with it just right, if he's not putting any resistance."

Bennett: "Wait! Are you both serious? You can't just kill a possessed kid!"

Iulius: "No? Watch me."

Xenia chuckles. Quincy shows him a thumbs up, still trembling.

Victor: "No, Bennett is right. We have to hold onto our principles."

Iulius: "My principles say kill the bastard that tried to drown my sister! Kill all blood cultists!"

Melody: "Then what..."

Melody: "Then what makes you better than him, uncle Iulius?"

Quincy: "You don't mean that, Mel. Apologize!"

Xenia facepalms.

Victor: "No, I agree. As far as we know, this boy did not commit any crime except for getting possessed. Hatred fuels this place! If we kill him, we only hurt ourselves in the long run."

Iulius: "Do I have to be a docent, too, to get your logic, or do you just not make any sense?"

Victor: "Iulius... This would be your first kill, right?"

Victor: "I can assure you, it does not feel good!"

Lola: "Are you going to stand here and fight? Should I fetch myself coffee?"

Everyone falls silent.

Lola: "I don't know, vote about it!"

Victor: "Actually, that is a good idea. Alright. Raise your hand who votes for taking this boy to Wormville with us, removing him from the influence of the blood gods."

Melody and Bennett raise their hands. Victor sighs and does as well.

Victor: "Now... who votes for mercykilling him."

Iulius, Xenia and Quincy raise their hands.

Victor: "Sophia, you must vote."

Sophia: "..."

Bennett: "No, you don't have to. These aren't decisions a teen should have to make!"

Victor: "She is on an adult expedition, she will be treated accordingly. Sophia, vote. That is an order."

Sophia: "I think... I think he should die. He's dangerous and almost killed Melody's mom."

Iulius: "Wisdom from the mouth of youth!"

Xenia: "Voting concluded. It's 4 on 3. Iulius?"

Victor: "Wait! I vetto this! This is MY expedition, and I have the last word!"

Xenia cracks her knuckles. "Maybe it's gonna be three on one, then. We'll see who has the last word when we're done!"

Iulius: "Shut up, Xenia! We won't turn on each other! Victor is... unfortunately... the leader. And we will listen to him."

Victor: "Splendid. Now, let's take our child captive to the hideout, and return for the weapons."

+ the group gains 7 points for this encounter, 3 for Quincy defeating the cultist (it was a roll and there was a chance she'd lose, but she actually won by a lot) and 4 for the group deciding to try to help the boy instead of killing him. It loses -1 point due to Quincy getting nastily scratched and gaining an injury.

Even though these were mostly "scripted" and the random factors were wants and fears, injuries, the Jilleni zombie and other dice rolls, and I've been moving my Sims in a big group (much smaller chance they get picked off by zombies), after depositing (and tying up) the child (and after Quincy took a shower), a zombie actually grabbed Victor!

Luckily, he was able to defend himself. The group gains 4 points for a defeated zombie. Unfortunately, due to not being a guard, Victor gains 1 injury and the group loses -1 point because of that.

(I'm so good at taking screenshots)

The same crowd of zombies also got Iulius!

Iulius: "RUN!"

Everyone else made it behind the fences in time.

And finally, Iulius caught up to them.

Iulius: "What? You thought I'd die?"

+ for another defeated zombie, this time by a proper guard, the group gets 5 more points.

Time to return to the Fiera Barracks and finally enter the fortress.

Iulius: "The armory! It's almost untouched! Someone left trash around, but didn't take anything!"

Iulius reaches out for one of the swords. Victor slaps his hand away.

Victor: "Probably for a reason! Do not touch anything!"

Victor: "There is a curse in the air. I can feel it."

Melody: "Me too..."

Iulius: "Quiet!"

Quincy: "It's true. There's definitely a curse. They wouldn't leave their stuff without any protection."

Bennett: "So the huge locked door wasn't the 'protection'?"

Iulius: "Can you break the curse? Di...dispell it?"

Victor: "I do think so. I will need time, though. It will also take a lot of energy."

Melody: "I could do it faster... but nobody wants to hear it..."

Quincy: "No, Melody, speak!"

Victor: "Yes. I am sorry. We want to hear your suggestion."

Melody: "Curses are just misunderstood tools. They teach us something. If you listen close, you can hear what this one wants from us."

Victor: "I'm afraid you are the only one who hears it, because you are-"

Xenia: "Tired and, or insane?"

Victor: "...trained as a future priestess."

Melody: "It's okay, really. I can tell you. And when we do that, it won't hurt us. We have to prove ourselves."

Iulius: "Bullshit."

Melody: "I thought that you'd be happy to prove that you're the heir to this house."

Iulius: "I am the heir to this house!"

Quincy looks away.

Melody: "But the house doesn't know you. You have to prove it. It has to see that the Fieras are back, and that the treasures it protects are rightfully theirs!"

Little do they know that shortly after they passed, the door became barred once again. This time, from the inside.

Iulius: "Alright, you priestling. What do I need to do?"

Melody: "I'll show you, uncle Iuly. And mom, you too. You're also a Fiera!"

Quincy: "That I am... even though it only tends to be acknowledged when convenient..."

She looks at Iulius harshly. He scoffs.

Melody: "A droplet of blood from your finger..."

Melody: "We'll draw the sigil of your clan!"

Melody: "And it's done! Ta-da!"

Suddenly, the temperature noticeably drops. The sound of very heavy boots fills the hallway leading to the room Melody chose for her ritual circle.

Melody: "Oopsie... must be the guardian."

Quincy: "The guardian?!"

Melody: "Of course you have to defeat the guardian. It's a Fiera house. It wants to see your strength."

Iulius: "Fine! Let him come!"

The guardian walks through the arch. Whatever it is - doubtless NOT a fellow Sim - it's massive. Iulius, the tallest and the most ripped man in Wormville, suddenly looks puny.

Iulius: "Have at you!"

The rest of the company just watches wordlessly. Bennett pulls Melody away from the circle.

Iulius: "I... prevailed!"

He says, and loses balance. He's growling in pain.

His opponent, though, disolves to nothing. A very warm, soothing feeling envelops Iulius and Quincy.

Quincy: "We're home... It recognizes us now..."

Victor: "Bravo! That was a hell of a fight!"

Bennett: "That's our Iulius! Invincible!"

Quincy: "..."

Iulius: "Arms and armor... from our ancestors... the past will protect our future... It's so beautiful..."

Quincy: "Aww, are you gonna start crying?"

Melody: "I think I will have a dagger. The swords are too heavy for me!"

Sophia: "I can hold a sword, but I want a dagger, too! It's handy! And we can have the same ones!"

Iulius: "Bonk, haha!"

Victor: "Did you just hit me in the head with the horizontal side of your sword?"

Iulius: "A gentle reminder to never turn your back to your enemy in battle!"

Victor: "We are not in battle, I was only trying out some postures-"

Iulius: "Life is a battle! En garde, Mister Victor! Sparring match!"

+ for lifting the curse, the group gains 5 points. However, it loses -2 for Iulius gaining 2 injuries from the fight with the guardian.

Part 2/3! The third one will just document the evening, and it's going to be very dialogue-based. (as if this one wasn't) I hope you're enjoying this expedition as much as I am!

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Day 1 (EV): Plaza

Day 1 of Victor's group in Homeland, part 1! I'm so sorry for cutting it to pieces. It would be so long otherwise - and cutting it up also makes me able to use more detailed visuals! (more screenshots per a story beat)

CW: mental breakdowns, memory erasure

Homeland just does thing to you.

This is the third entry in the expedition journal, recorded by Victor Beldine. We have snuck out our hideout and used agent Lola's fire trick to temporarily lose the undead waiting for us outside. As I am recording this, I am flying on my broom above my companions as we walk the dilapidated road to the former city center. I must admit that being a witch lends me many priviliges that the others do not have access to. If zombies were to overwhelm us, it would be so easy for me to just soar away to safety. That is not say I would abandon my comrades... but it is nice to have the option.

Along the way, I am also taking many pictures. If you are listening to this recording, having accessed it through Wormville's archives, you can also view the photos as supporting material. The architectonic style varies, but there is one connecting trait - traces of excessive looting. Debris and trash lines up the streets. We are arriving upon a plaza. I will end this recording. End of the entry 3.

Xenia: "Will you always sit on that obnoxious stick?"

Victor: "While travelling, yes. That 'obnoxious stick' allows me to take better documentation and scout for danger."

Xenia: "Scout for it, and also avoid it all, right?"

Quincy: "Who cares! Stop picking fights!"

Xenia looks at her girlfriend in displeasure.

Bennett: "Let's look around the plaza!"

Melody is limping a bit. She missteped while on the move and gained 1 injury. For an injured teenager, the group loses -2 points.

Melody: "This is so awful... The cultists must've held our people chained to these posts before killing them and putting their heads... on... stakes..."

Victor: "The posts seem to be very firm and sturdy. They certainly do not look like something contructed haphazardly during the Tragedy by a bunch of blood-crazed fanatics."

Melody: "So... the gallows have been here before the attack?"

Bennett: "Or, maybe the pillars used to serve a different purpose!"

Melody: "Yes! They must've! The Entity would never have its followers torture one another, or do public executions!"

Iulius: "I think the Entity is a just god. It would be okay with draconic punishments if the punished really deserved it.

Victor: "Gathering inspiration?"

Iulius: "No, but I'm learning nonetheless."

Melody: "I disagree. It just doesn't make any sense. There's never any justice in cruelty, and the Entity loves us and wants us to prosper! The gallows and all the... remains... it must've been the work of the cultists!"

Victor makes eye contact with Iulius and shakes his head. Getting the message, Iulius just shrugs instead of arguing with the priestess-to-be.

They can both see that some of the skulls and bones around are evidently much older than the Tragedy.

+ for passing the group Logic check (having enough Logic points as a group) and recognizing the gallows as a work of their ancestors, the expedition gains 2 points.

Quincy: "Alert! A man on the horizon! Definitely alive!"

Xenia: "Fuck! The cultists can't know we're here!"

Victor: "Everybody, hide!"

While the expedition members run around trying to find a hiding spot, a zombie wanders close. It's from a different direction than Quincy reported. A second danger.

And what's more, everybody recognizes the insignia on his clothes. Especially Bennett and Sophia. And since seeing their ancestors shambling dead for the first time is an aspiration loss trigger...

Sophia rolls a willpower check, which she fails, and falls into corruption.

Bennett gets beset with an accute thought that while he's away, his oldest daughter Gina starts hating him for leaving her behind. He falls into complete aspiration failure and rolls a willpower check he luckily passes.

For 2 aspiration failures and 1 corruption, the group loses -3 points in total.

The cultist makes a quick work of the lone zombie. From his nimble movement and non-decomposed skin, it's apparent he's still alive, but he still doesn't seem to react to pain. He keeps roaring one phrase over and over, but nobody understands the language.

With their breath baited, the worms cower in their hiding spots, waiting for him to pass.

And he almost does! They made it-

w a i t

Victor (whispering): "Ben!"

But Bennett doesn't listen. He's just mumbling Gina's name.

As the cultist makes his way to the hallucinating, defenseless Bennett, Sophia springs out of hiding, too!

She wants to save her dad!

Nope, she's completely out of it, too, and she's just on her way to stomp on some greenery.

Quincy and Iulius, though, actually run to Bennett's rescue.

Iulius: "You've killed your last worm long ago! Now you die!"

Victor: "Iulius, no! Do not kill him!"

Victor: "Just hold him still for a second!"

Iulius responds to the command and keeps... poking the cultist occupied. And as Victor chants and the cultist speaks and slurs in his peculiar tongue, attentive ears might notice...

...that the language of their words is one and the same.

Victor: "Done and d- ough..."

Casting in Homeland carries a penalty.

The cultist stands there in green light, unmoving.

Iulius: "What did you do?"

Victor is too busy vomiting to respond.

Lola: "Run, you stupid fucks, run!"

+ the group gains +2 points for dealing with Isig the cultist without killing him.

As they quickly vacate the plaza, the cultist still stands paralyzed. Quincy grabs Bennett and helps him walk. Victor, trembling from the spell, can think about only one thing: has the ancient tongue of arcana and the eldritch speech of blood cultists been the same language all along?

Lola: "Did your spell paralyze him for long enough that we'll be back home when he wakes up? Because if not, we're fucked."

Victor: "I did not paralyze him at all. He only froze as his brain... restarted. I am afraid I might have completely erased his memory."

Lola: "Oh, that's fine then."

Melody: "What's gonna happen to him now?"

Xenia: "Hopefully something bad, because all blood cultists deserve to die. Right?"

Victor: "I might have indirectly sentenced him to death. Should we go back for him?"

Xenia, Quincy, Iulius, Lola: NO!

They look at one another.

Victor: "Serenity might find him first, anyway."

Iulius: "We need to put our shit together! We can't rely on magic!"

Iulius: "I know where to go! Our clan must've had barracks! There must still be equipment there!"

Lola: "Well, I know where Fiera barracks are..."

Melody: "But we need to go to the temple as soon as possible..."

Iulius: "Quiet, child!"

Victor: "...we will visit the barracks first, but then go to the temple. It is strategically sounder."

Meanwhile, Bennett is still convinced that his daughter hates him.

Alright, I'm off to write up the next part, Fiera Barracks!

Bonus:

Iulius: "I'd appreaciate we never talked about this again."

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland: Departures

It's time to load the cars and leave the comfort and safety behind...

Even though the bars should keep people out of the camp and not in, let's all enjoy a picture that looks like Victor went to jail.

Colorcoding of characters:

Serenity - Melody

Victor - Cyrus

Lester - Deborah

Krystal

Percy

Noth - Lola

Paragraphs that start without a color are OOC/player speaking.

Expedition log, day 1, entry 1. We have gathered at the meeting point. Our guide should arrive any minute now. They are going to be an expert survivalist and a veteran of a previous Homeland foray. I expect them also to be completely unpredictable, but loyal. After all, they worship the Entity, too. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

"So, you must be my beautiful new boss."

"And you must be our professional guide."

"Haha! No worries! I was just trying to start off with levity! The name's Noth."

"Just Noth?"

"It is not-h enough?"

"...I hope your humor won't leave you in face of danger."

"Me too, honestly. Anyway, it's just a code name. But you're not authorized to know the real one, so let's leave it at Noth."

"Nice to meet you, then. I'm Serenity Elaho-Inipp."

"I would've kissed your hand, but I presume you ain't the type of lady that would appreciate that."

"No, I'm the type of lady who would slap you. Now, let me introduce you to the rest of my company. Let's start with my wife."

Expedition log, day 1, entry 2. I have met agent Noth. He's obnoxious, but apart from his flirtatious demeanor, he appears to be a standard member of his faction. A peculiarity noticed - sometimes, his pupils disappear from him eyes. I asked about his condition, and he explained it was an affliction gained in Homeland. Upon my inquiry whether it causes blindness, his answer was "partial". I hope that by the virtue of hopefully only spending 5 days there, internal physiological impacts won't become a problem for my party. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

As you've probably noticed, Noth is a Romance Sim. (Popularity secondary) He's been to Homeland 3 times, in universe always on hit-and-run scouting missions, out-of-universe he's participated in both test expeditions and some initial set-up tasks even before. He knows his way around. Here are his stats:

"Okay, folks! Time for a group photo. It's for the documentation."

"Mail a copy to Genevieve. Daily Worm could use it."

"No problem. Say cheese, you're going in the newspaper!"

Meanwhile, in a different part of Wormville...

"Docent Victor Beldine, at your service."

"Enchanted, truly. Do I have to use your academic titles every time, or can I just call you Victor?"

"Mr Beldine would be preferable. I do not think we are on a first name basis yet, if you forgive my honesty."

"Well, Victor, call me Lola. Can I have several questions?"

"Aren't I supposed to have questions, and you the answers? One of us is the guide."

"But the other one has a fucked-up face and green sparkles around himself. Or are those a sore topic?"

"No, not in the very least. I am a mage, an arcanist. The physical manifestations you see are inherent to my art. Normally I go the extra step to hide them, however I would realistically not be able to do so in Homeland, and thus I have decided to display them from the beginning."

"Oh. I see. You're one of those people who can say one sentence in three paragraphs. I'm gonna go speak to the others now. Have fun, Victor."

Lola (they/them) is a Family/Fortune Sim. Similarly to Noth, they have a plenty of experience with Homeland. Their personality is 2/1/10/9/2. (without picture or skills, ran out into the picture limits, skills later)

This is the first entry in the expedition journal, recorded by Victor Beldine. Through the partnership of their sect with our Church, we have been able to solicit the help of an agent. I have been forewarned not to expect them to be pleasant, and they are decidedly not. Still, I will act in the best interest of my expedition and look past personal grudges and bruised ego to evaluate their competence fairly. They have recently returned from Homeland, where they were a part of a scouting party. Their survival makes our own chances seem promising. That is not to say that we have not run into issues - "Lola" (I doubt that is anywhere close to their real name) refuses to divulge many details, citing their religious docrine. They also will not give me any identifying details about themselves apart from their codename, making it next to impossible for me to contact their superiors (if they even have any) in case I wanted to file a complaint. That worries me.

Nevertheless, it is time for our departure. I will do my best to herd my companions into one place to take a group photo, a valuable part of the expedition's documentation. End of entry 1.

POV: You've built a spacious safe camp for your Sims to take advantage of...

...but the moment you release them there, all 8 of them insist on bottlenecking in one specific corner instead.

Expedition log, day 1, entry 3. After 37 hours spent on the road, we have arrived. Noth and his people have already found a suitable spot for a campsite. It is behind several rows of tall fencing, and the gate is jammed shut. Noth said, and I quote, "They don't have the agility to climb over. We do." When I asked who is "they", he started laughing. Entity allmighty. This is a trainwreck. It's only the beginning and I'm already losing trust in agent Noth - and I'm not the only one. I can see it on Lester without exchaning one word. Well, I have to stop recording and return to the group. I have a fence to climb. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

The bad vibes Serenity gets from their guide are absolutely lost on Cyrus.

"We've made it in time. We're in before they caught our scent!"

"Stop playing the pronoun game and tell us who you mean!"

"Yeah. You didn't make a deal with our high priest to have some stupid laughs on our expense. Be useful!"

"Well then... it's just a horde of undead."

Expedition log, day 1, entry 4. Okay. We have run into the first unforseen obstacle. The agents who scouted this area purposefully chose not to report the fact it is overrun with walking dead to "foster surprise" and "honor The Lord of Chaos" (that's their preferred way to refer to the Entity). Now, zombies aren't an unheard of arcane phenomenon. According to Lester, they're possible to create with dark magic by preventing Death Himself from collecting the soul of a dead Sim, and completing a ritual. They can be also made when a witch recreates the body of any deceased Sim and forcibly returns their soul. It's a very grim and torturous afterlife. Noth claims that they can also infect and kill a living person, creating a new zombie instanteneously.

But being familiar with the concept of walking dead doesn't remove the anxiety and discomfort I feel. I think we all feel.

Some more than others. But I cannot let this get to me. We expected to have to fend off blood cultists - are the shells of our ancestors any more dangerous? We came here for a purpose, and I'm determined to fullfil it. We shall finish setting up the camp and then climb over the fence out to explore. If we keep together and don't panic, I believe we will be fine. Serenity Elaho-Inipp, signing off.

Krystal calms down fairly soon. After the initial shock, his disgust of zombies inspires him. A part of him wonders how being undead (and therefore practically immortal) could boost his earning potential, and a different part... is remembering old Ares Beldine for some reason and pondering how swell it would be to make an undead slave out of him?

Meanwhile...

This is the second entry in the expedition journal, recorded by Victor Beldine. After an excrutiating journey (Iulius, Quincy, Bennett and Xenia had to all take turns in the driver seat at least once), we have arrived. I do not feel well. There is something in the air that is heavy and unnerving. People have been either overrelying on jokes to compensate, or fallen completely quiet. Luckily, our encampent seems very secure, although extremely run down and unhygienic. Agent Lola led us to a small hole in the fencing. We all had to crawl on the ground to get in.

Inside, we found a primitive common room with an insulated barrel for our provisions and a fireplace to cook. There is also a hatch leading to the basement. Agent Lola says there is enough space to spread our tents - at least two out of three. The third will have to go outside. I have tasked Private Iulius, Bennett and Quincy with building the tents.

As for hygiene facilites, there is an outhouse with a barely functional shower stuck in between two revolting latrines, and a barrel with water outside for additional washing opportunity. I must admit, seeing the state of things took a toll on me. For the upcoming five days, every reminder of needing to use the bathroom will frighten me. Bennett and Sophia both nearly collapsed at the sight, too. I take comfort in the fact I am not alone.

As the others were working, I took on one of the most important tasks of all - inspection and leadership. First I climbed down to check on the progress in the basement. I found the room to be damp, sad and loathsome, but Bennett and Iulius completed their task splendidly. I have even overheard Iulius giving praises to his friend. Such a heartwarming scene. I am certain his kindness was in no part motivated by the drive to recruit Bennett for the army.

Upstairs, Quincy also finished setting up the tent with no issue. I must admit for the sake of posterity that I have no idea how would I fare in her place, I was never taught how to build a tent and only have the faintest idea of the process. I feel like taking the Fieras on board was the best decision I could have made.

Quincy is also equipped with binoculars. I do hope her eyes are as perceptive as she claims.

Anyway, I will stop recording for now. Before we depart for exploration, I will make a thorough inspection of the cooking equipment and provide warm breakfast for my entire company. End of entry 2.

Meanwhile across the road...

(yes, directly across the road)

"Was that... a living person?"

"If it was, it was a cultist. Nobody else is here, trust me, just few of the blood freaks and whole lot of moving corpses."

"They're tearing him apart!"

"Yeap. Welcome to Homeland."

After witnessing the macabre fight (which ended with one more zombie being born, confirming the teory that the infection spreads), the mood in the camp grows ever more dour.

Serenity hasn't touched her recording device yet since informing the future listeners of the undead threat. Instead of that, she's circling the camp, giving orders and dispensing snarky commentary. Breakfast is being made. Tents are being fastened firmly into the ground.

Tensions escalate between the youngest members of the company. Deborah Anora keeps autonomously picking on Percy, pestering him, insulting him and even being physically aggressive.

"What the fuck is your problem?!"

"You are my problem, inbred freak."

"I'm not inbred!"

"Mom says something different. And she's your mom's cousin, she has to know."

"What? What does she know?"

"Like hell I'd tell you, baby face."

Cyrus tries to talk sense into his kid, but he actually doesn't have that high LTR with Deborah and they don't respect him that much. Cyrus is definitely not happy that about them revealing themselves as a bully, but what can he do? What punishment can he give them that would apply to these circumstances and not hinger the expedition?

"Can you put your brat on a leash?"

"Punishing them will make them hate your Percy even more, and be even meaner to him, as an act of rebellion against authority."

"My, we have a psychologist here! Well, the next time they slap my son for no reason, I'm slapping them back!"

Hopefully, actually setting off to explore will give the discordant Sims more to do than start interpersonal drama.

(Deborah's 0 Nice points are showing. 7 Nice points Cyrus is not taking it well, but their fellow 0 Nice points Krystal is ready to throw hands with the kid - and probably lose, since Deborah is much fitter than him and definitely can take an over-aged twink. This expedition truly is a trainwreck.)

The death of the cultist was also witnessed by the opposite camp, in which breakfast is being served and departure from the safety of the fences is imminent. With what they've just seen, though, Victor and his company aren't that overly eager.

"Brutality incarnate. It makes me sick to my stomach. Luckily, it also betrays their lack of strategic thinking. We can fight back."

"I can't, uncle Victor."

"I know. You can stay here."

"No, I don't wanna. I'm just saying that I can't fight... physically. But I think I know what to do."

"Care to share that epiphany?"

"Yes! We need to return the holy light of the Entity! And that's what I'm here for!"

"The holy light of the Entity... I have never heard of the Entity being connected to light."

"Well... it's not officiallly... but it's a metaphor, you see? If we help it regain influence over this horrible place, it's gonna be like light in the darkness!"

"I am not discarding religious solutions completely, but we need to also defend ourselves against mundane violence. Do you remember what you've promised me?"

"Yeah..."

"Repeat it."

Melody sighs. "I'll always stay close to you, uncle Iuly, or my mom."

"Bennett and Xenia would work too, if necessary, but you are correct. Keep that in mind."

"I'll go talk to mom now."

"You go do that. But one more thing."

"..."

"Are you alright, Melody?"

"Yeah... I've seen this before... in my dreams."

Similarly to Victor, Quincy has also seen right through her daughter's disguise. But instead of scorn, her reaction to meeting Melody back in Wormville at the departure point was... pride. Her little girl isn't soft after all. She might be a Devir like Nico, with all that pious talk and soil behind her fingernails, but inside of her ribcage there beats a Fiera heart. Quincy knows that Iulius disagrees and is still mad Victor let Melody join, but she's pretty sure he's just jealous that his progeny was either too young or too incompetent to go.

Unlike Melody, whose shaken face was still hidden by her mask, and her horror dulled by having already experienced this situation in her premonitions, Sophia Jilleni was a normal teen just until now - a normal teen that isn't used to seeing people violently die. She tried to keep a brave face, but inevitably broke down. Her father and uncle comforted her, but after they left to finish their preparations, Melody snuck to her and did everything in her power to make her friend relax and smile again.

Little does Melody know that she's the reason Sophia volunteered in the first place.

Zombies keep gathering around the fences. Both groups will have to push through them.

This is still just a part of the setup, I haven't yet rolled anything, and no points have been awarded, except for calculating the starting amount!

The starting points are 2 for Victor's group and 1 for Serenity's. Coincidentally, they would reach the same number, if not for Percy and Deborah fighting, which counted for "two Sims who don't get along" and cost their expedition a starting point.

Next time we will see the adventures of one of the groups (they will no longer have to share one article) on day 1!

[simmingwormly]

Wormville: Homeland Ruleset

...originally, this was just meant to be an expansion to the ruleset article, but it deserves its own space.

What is Homeland?

The ancestral seat of the cult, a city, razed to the ground in a massacre so shocking it is only spoken about as "the Tragedy" and the name of the place has been forbidden from being said outloud, therefore it is only referred to as "Homeland". 24 Sims (founders of Wormville) escaped the hellscape, and now, their offspring return temporarily to retrieve answers about the Tragedy and the history they've lost.

Preamble

This ruleset is a bit more complex than usual, so it uses some new terminology I made up. It's going to talk about each of these mechanics in depth, but here's a short low-down!

Points: In Homeland, the expeditions are going to collect points. Their point count then decides how well (or horribly) they did.

Story goals: Predetermined story beats for some of the characters that will go down under certain conditions. Not all characters get to get their personal story goal, some have simply enough on their plate as is. (yes, Victor, I’m talking mainly about you) That doesn’t mean no screen time, but no life-altering pre-written events. Apart from Victor, it also concerns Iulius, Quincy and Serenity.

Corruption: Homeland is like a gaping wound, and the influence of the old bloodthirsty gods whose followers destroyed the city still lingers on the air and tries to infect minds of the living. Corrupted Sims are ruled by their darkest urges and worst character traits, they become twisted caricatures of themselves and often sabotage the expedition. (on accident… or even on purpose)

Injuries: Homeland is a genuinely filthy and dangerous place, and many things can just injure a Sim.

Location event: Predetermined story beats that the expeditions encounter in certain areas. They have different consequences depending on the autonomous behaviors, Aspirations, inventory, personalities and mainly skill points of the living Sims in the expedition.

ES/EV: If I need to specify that something concerns only one of the expeditions, I'll use their leader’s name for abbreviation. ES stands for “expedition Serenity” and EV for “expedition Victor”.

2. Anatomy of an Expedition

Wormville is sending 2 expeditions. Both will have 8 members, 6 adults and 2 teens.

Sims who are a part of an expedition have a role to fill.

Leader: The representative of the clan who finances the expedition. As it happens, both are basically glorified researchers role-wise, but other Sims will look to them to call the shots more often. It's Serenity Elaho-Inipp and Victor Beldine.

Guard: Sims excelling at the Body skill (or at least are a little better at it than most) are the shield of the group. Unbeknownst to them, it mostly means fighting off attacking zombies.

EV has Iulius Fiera, Quincy Fiera, Bennett Jilleni and Sophia Jilleni as its guards.

ES has Cyrus Anora, Stella Elaho-Inipp, Percy II. Celwitch and Deborah Anora as guards.

Guide: A non-worm Sim with some useful knowledge of the current state of the area. They will be the main Sim I'll control outside of certain story beats. If the guide survives, they might become a worm, but it's not very likely. Conversely, if the guide dies, the rest of the Sims will be a little less impacted than if it was anybody else, since it was a stranger.

You will meet the guides soon.

Researcher: This role doesn't have to be filled by actual Sims in the science careers or who have explicit academic interest in the Homeland, just those who signed up with exploration and reclamation of knowledge in mind.

EV has Xenia Celwitch.

ES has Stella Elaho-Inipp and Krystal Celwitch.

Witch: That's the expedition’s witch.

It's Victor for EV and Lester for ES.

Medic: Neither of the expeditions are taking an actual doctor, but this Sim might be as close as they get, having the Physiology life skill. They can interact with injuries and heal one per 2 days.

It's Melody Devir for EV and Lester Devir for ES. Both are tragicomically underqualified, but they're the best of the worst.

Some members of the testing expedition finding a useful vantage point.

3. Points (or how to lose them and gain them)

Gain points:

+ any Sim defeats a zombie + 4 Points

+ a guard defeats a zombie + 5 Points

+ move to a different location with zero injuries + 2 Points

+ any Sim reaches platinum aspiration + 3 Points

+ new location visited + 2 Points

+ ancestral home visited + 4 Points

+ Entity's altar cleaned + 6 Points

+ an ancestor communicated with + 4 Points

+ a story goal is fulfilled + 6 Points

+ location events + depends

Lose points:

– the guide dies – 4 Points

– any other adult Sim dies – 6 Points

– any teenage Sim dies – 12 Points

– a Sim gains an injury – 1 Point

– a teenage Sim gains an injury – 2 Points

– any Sim reaches aspiration failure – 1 Point

– a Sim gets corrupted – 1 Point

– a Sim gets cheesed (forcefully switched to the Grilled Cheese Aspiration) – 4 Points

– expedition ends early – 4 Points

Sims become enemies - 1 Point

– location events – depends

Starting points:

–1 Point for every Sim with less than 5 Body skill points

–1 Point for every Sim with less than 5 Logic skill points

–1 Point for every Sim with less than 3 Cleaning skill

–1 Point for every pair of Sims who don't get along in the group

+1 Point for every Sim with more than 5 Cleaning skill

+1 Point for every Sim with more than 8 Charisma skill

+1 Point for every Sim with more than 7 Cooking skill

+1 Point for every Sim with more than 5 Mechanical skill

+0.5 Point for every pair of best friends in the group

4. Points (results)

When an expedition ends, points gained (and lost) throughout the 5 days get counted. Depending on the final amount, the members of the expedition get penalties or loot. Both has tables with different things for different result numbers after rolling a six-sided dice.

20 Points or more: 4 loot rolls, no additional penalties

19 – 16 Points: 3 loot rolls, 1 penalty roll

15 – 12 Points: 2 loot rolls, 1 penalty roll

11 – 10 Points: 1 loot roll, 1 penalty roll

9 – 6 Points: 1 penalty roll

5 – 3 Points: 2 penalty rolls

2 – 0 Points: 3 penalty rolls

any negative number: 4 penalty rolls

Penalties! (roll 1d6)

4 random Sims go into aspiration failure

the group loses 8 Nice points in total

one random Sim permanently loses their memory

2 random Sims become seriously injured and will take a long time to recover their ability to move like they used to. The Sims lose all points of Body Skill, and cannot start earning them back until one rotation passes from their arrival home. Soldiers, athletes and dancers lose their jobs.

one random Sim gets their personality reversed

three random Sims get the Mysterious Disease

Loot! (roll 1d6)

15 000 Simoleons

10 000 Simoleons

7 500 Simoleons

6 arcane reagents

aspiration reward object

a meaningful family heirloom

5. Aspiration in Homeland

Having several Knowledge Sims on board and a lot of unfortunate things happening to them, the testing expedition met prof. Ball many, many times. The zombies weren't particularly impressed.

Homeland is genuinely hard to bear. All Sims start in neutral or red. Every time a Sim triggers one of the conditions for losing aspiration, I'll force-fulfill one of their fears as a hallucination they get. But! There can also be glimmers of hope. Certain actions will invigorate the Sim, and I'll force-fulfill one of their wants!

Conditions for aspiration decrease:

friend dies anywhere

anyone dies in front of their eyes

loved one gains injury

recognizing a dead ancestor

any spell cast

finding a desecrated altar

Conditions for aspiration increase:

new friend made

zombie defeated

food eaten (cooked by somebody with 6+ Cooking)

sleep slept (full energy bar)

story goal fulfilled

woohoo

A homemade meal might make even an abandoned villa full of walking corpses seem less miserable.

The state of one's Aspiration is crucial, especially in Homeland. Many very important checks use so-called "Aspiration bonus". Here it is!

Platinum: +2

Gold: +1

Green: 0

Red: -1

Deep Red (pre-failure or right after): -2

6. Corruption

Homeland is rife with the noxious influence of blood gods, madness of their worshippers and pain of their victims. It endeavours to cloud the characters' minds ceaselessly.

For every finished day in Homeland, every time they have an Aspiration failure, or if an event requires it, Sims roll "willpower checks".

WILLPOWER ROLL = Logic Skill + Aspiration Bonus - Number of Injuries - Trait Penalty + 1d6 (a dice with six sides, or just a randomly generated number 1-6)

(Trait Penalty is -1 for Neurotic and Indecisive/Unstable Sims)

If the result of the roll is 6 or more, the Sim weathers the pressure and nothing happens. If they roll 5 or less, however...

Each worm member of the expeditions has a unique corrupted state based on their worst character flaw. They have out-of-universe names and very in-universe sets of destructive and conflict-seeking behaviors. Some events will be turned upside down by the presence of corrupted characters. Some events trigger only if a certain character is corrupted.

But! Corruption doesn't need to last until the poor worm dies or gets transported home from the expedition. The same conditions for triggering a willpower check for uncorrupted Sims still go for the corrupted ones, and if they pass the check this time, they manage to snap out of it. Plus, corrupted Sims have several more conditions that could trigger the checks:

– a loved one dies

– they're about to seriously hurt a loved one

– they're about to seriously hurt themselves

– a hug from their child/parent/spouse/sibling. Hugs from children give a bonus +2 to their willpower roll.

I'm not going to spoil much, just that I've sorted the corrupted states of the characters into 4 categories: Grandeour, Obsession, Anger and Despair. With some, it's probably very easy to guess where they fall!

7. Injuries

A Sim can accumulate up to 5 injuries. Gaining one is incredibly easy, healing it is very difficult. They are dangerous because of two things - first, if a Sim gets their 6th one, they die. The second has all to do with corruption - the physical pain weighs heavily on one's mental state and complicates willpower checks.

Luckily, there are only 3 ways how to gain an injury!

location events

travel from one location to another

winning a fight with a zombie or a cultist (without being a guard)

When traveling, not everybody gets injured. Enter the "injury check"! Since I envision it as a combination of aletrness, dexterity and pure luck, this is the formula:

INJURY ROLL = Body Skill + Aspiration Bonus + Trait Bonus - Energy Level Penalty

The number needed for success is 5.

You know of Aspiration bonus, what what about the other two? Trait bonus (mostly trait penalty, actually) uses the 3t2 Traits mod.

The modifiers:

Unlucky: - 3

Clumsy: - 2

Absent-Minded: - 1

Lucky: + 2

Energy Level Penalty is the efect of tiredness. Depending on the color of the empty part of the energy meter/the meter itself, it is:

Green (meter is green, empty part is white): 0

Yellowish (meter is green, empty part is yellow): -1

Yellow (meter is yellow): -2

Orange (meter is orange): -3

Red (meter is red): -4

Homeland is pretty much not a party, but that doesn't necessary mean that all the booze kegs in the basements of the rich villas have gotten contaminated, if you know what I mean.

8. Format of play

As I've briefly mentioned, outside of specific situations, I will try to manage the expeditions using only one Sim - the guide. The other Sims are therefore left vulnerable to make mistakes (or achieve triumps!) and be attacked by the roaming undead. More often then not, I will use the social group feature to keep my Sims from dispersing all over the (often very large) lots and to make them actually explore as one big party, but I will also sometimes let them split the party (...stupid decision) and let them worm around in groups of two, or even completely alone and free.

Everytime a zombie or a cultist are defeated, I'll clear them off the lot using Sim Blender.

Everytime any of my Sims are defeated, they are immediately pronounced dead in the story and the survivors react as if they've just seen them die. In game, since death on community lots isn't possible, I will also just clear them off with Sim Blender, and then spawn them again when on the campsite lot and actually kill them dead. The only exception to that are fights between the expedition members - if the story doesn't require it, the winner of such fight of course doesn't kill the loser.

One of the ancestral zombies - Astra Inipp, the sister to Agatha!

Many zombies you'll see will wear very... tourist-y and Three Lakes-y clothing. That's because tourists are more powerful than Visitor Controller and will not let themselves be banned from anywhere, so they had to be all zombified instead. After the Homeland arc ends, I will go through the painstaking process of un-zombifying them one by one again, since if they just spawned in Three Lakes, we could have a zombie apocalypse on our hands, and that's not the direction I want Wormville to go.

All the cultists are custom Sims, they're much rarer and I always control them and hold them on a very tight leash to prevent them from pissing on my script. XD

Mods and cheats I've used to make Homeland work:

Sim Blender, mostly for making Sims controllable/uncontrollable and clearing them off lots. Also works great for manipulating motives, which is great for some events. It's also probably the swiftest for switching aspirations.

Townie Brick for making custom ancestral zombies and confining them in vacation words by setting them as Mountain Locals. (they are banned from appearing in Three Lakes by Visitor Controller)

Visitor Controller for helping me combat Sims crawling where they shouldn't be.

Midgethetree's version of the zombie apocalypse mod for making zombies autonomously aggressive and infectious.

Sim Manipulator for zombifying and de-zombifying Homeland's inhabitants. It was also great for randomizing skills and personalities of the ancestral zombies and the cultists. It's also useful for giving Sims diseases!

boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled false (to enter buy mode on community lots while they're being visited, and on the campsite lot. Changes made in this mode to community lots don't get saved, but it's really useful for many changes of scenery caused by the actions of your characters, and, mostly for posing them when you want fancy story screenshots. Oh, posing, my enemy...)

boolprop testingcheatsenabled true (+ ctrl+click on a Want or a Fear to instantly fulfill it. It's also extremely useful to make Sims furious with each other instantly, unlucking the Attack interaction rather quickly to instigate fights.)

teleporting Sims around past a fence when I wanted them to sleep in a zombie-free location - for some reason, in my game, the option is always on, but I presume it's either the work of the RPC launcher or testing cheats being enabled.

And probably many more. If you're ever curious how I did something you'll see in the gameplay, I'll tell you (hopefully with mod links). Temper your expectations, though. I'm not above describing something in the story that just wasn't possible in game and happened only in my head.

9. Format of posting

So far, I'm thinking about posting 5 articles for every expedition, 1 per an ingame day. Is it too many? Perhaps. Do I care? No. I'm also planning at least one post with some happenings from Wormville itself, while the expeditions are gone! I really hope you'll enjoy the posts. I've very grateful for any engagement and feedback, even if it's only to tell me how boring or cheesy my writing is, and that my screenshots smell like garbage and taste like cough syrup. I'll still be happy to read it!

(however, don't take it as a guilt trip. Even if you don't want to/can't comment or even like, I'm still glad to have you here!)

Love loses. Blood gods win.

Check out the forming of the two expeditions!

Recruitment (Victor)

Recruitment (Serenity)

[simmingwormly]

Outtakes from the first test expedition

Whatever I wrote in the rules is a bunch on hogwash. EVERYTHING needs rebalancing.

The test expedition only managed to get to day 3. They kept dropping like flies, by the end of day one they all kept balancing on the edge of aspiration failure

NOT a good time for proposals.

3. Depite waiting to introduce the point system in the proper ruleset article, I'll just share that the threshold for the expedition to be at least a little successful is 15+ of those points. How many did the test expedition have at noon of day 3?

... -45. yeah.

Beats (/kills) a cultist and goes, "Ahh, it's nice to finally unwind a little."

4. The expedition moved at a very snail-like pace of 1 new location per day. I couldn't make them visit 2 of them no matter how hard I tried.

An unexpected problem that I should've expected is that the biggest, most dangerous enemy of all would be 1 tile wide corridors.

One part of the test expedition's goals was to "catch" unremovable turists, so I could... integrate them in.

Local, turist, townie, dormie, downtownie, NPC... we're all connected by irrational hatred for late Balthazar Elaho-Inipp.

Something tells me that you will. Soon.