Safari Takes a Cure

          The adventure begins each week with a gathering on Francogrid, sitting around on the deck outside the clubhouse. Some strange reason, in all four incarnations of the clubhouse, the group always seems to prefer to be outside. Perhaps it's the adventurous spirit of those brave souls who show up each week to boldly go. 

Aime Socrates, Pathfinder Lester and Snowbody Cortes, waiting for the fun to begin

It's almost Halloween and so that means it's time to go spookily into that dark night... courtesy of the gang over on Kroatan Grid.   The exact HG Address you will find, of course, at the end of this post.       
I say 'gang' but all th eheavy lifting and ingenious work is done by a very restricted group of talented souls. We were invited by Bink Draconia and Kiki Baily to explore the build, which is inspired and informed by a story by Malon Wyngard, well-known especially on the German Grids for his writing - and reading, in Voice.

The backstory is available for you to read here; comes down to this, a dark night, an apparently abandoned hospital on an island. 

 There's a downed plane just offshore... 

         ...and someone called Frank Underwood is lurking out of sight. 

          Are we dreaming him, or is he dreaming us? 

         You, foolhardy and in need of help, go inside, looking for stuff... you get a torch,  read up on the tips and tricks page of the Kroatan website, you start looking for notebooks... and then stuff happens.

Bink Draconia: Welcome, all! This build was the idea of my friend kiki baily and i - we know each other since 2009 in second life - we liked the Madpea hunts in SL, when we moved to opensim we missed these kind of hunts, and decided to create our own one. Our friend Malon Wyngard - a rl writer - made the story and Kiki and I built this region here. Kiki did the most work... gg. You will find some posters which explain the hunt to you, you will find a notepad into each room here - some contains prizes, some a notecard (which you should collect) and some are just decoys.

Thirza Ember: Path! I just found your date! At least, I think it's a girl...
Pathfinder Lester: she's beautiful, my perfect mate

Drang Po: OMG Path
Pathfinder.Lester: dude, i know, it's the burrito i ate
snowbody Cortes: ahahhaha path
Sunbeam Magic: this is wonderful .... Jess and I have been here before for VISIONZ
Pathfinder.Lester: GET OUT SAVE YOURSELF DRANG
Drang Po: Gasp
Freaky Tech: do not forget to flush
Bink Draconia: flush? is out of order :(((
Thirza Ember: what a great hospital... if you don't feel sick
Bink Draconia: ty. kikiy baily mad this hospital building
Malon. Wyngard: this place is good for making you MAD..))) 
Mal Burns: talking of toilets https://t.co/xca57oPs4Y

           

 Likewise, we all had a look at the pizza with an 'extra topping' 

Thirza Ember shouts: anyone want some volcano pizza?
Wizardoz Chrome: why not? :)
Thirza Ember: that pizza has extra protein
Wizardoz Chrome: no dietetic..
Thirza Ember: definitely not vegetarian
snowbody Cortes: anyway I'm quite sure, the murder is the doctor ... it is very well structured, I love it !

          

It's just as much fun to explore even it you're not a hunt kind of a person, the attention to detail - right down to the flies by the bins around the back - is extraordinary.
There was lots of silliness, and not many of us made it through the Maze or through the notecards, but we had a lot of fun, between the flying monkeys, the sight of Drang Po on the gurney, and people saying things like this..

Nara Nook: I just found some rainbow eyes!
snowbody Cortes: I love here, great job !
Pathfinder Lester: yes, this place is outstanding
Praline B: yes really! thank you so much, great build
Sunbeam Magic: me too, or three or four
Nara Nook: it is, perfect asylum

          ...there's still time to return and try again with fewer distractions, the build stays open until November 8. And then what? Is this team tempted to try some more of the same in the future?
Bink.Draconia: i am sure we will do another hunt.... but it will take some time
Praline B: sure it's a big work to do          

Anxious? Stressed? Our second destination is the perfect cure for that. No doctors needed, just try out the Rhuidean build on Isolde Caron's region 'Yes We Can', on Metropolis.

Soaring airy golden spaces, on Metropolis Grid, at the home of Isolde Caron.

          

The build is a lyrical representation of The Wheel of Time fantasy series, begun by Robert Jordan. Rhudean is the city at the center of the books. I wondered how many of the series Isolde has read so far.
Isolde Caron: i have read them all. Had to wait a long time too lol - 15 in the series
Sunbeam Magic: wow ! what a grand idea !
Isolde Caron: it seemed like i could do it sun lol
Nara Nook: It's such a beautiful story build. I was lost earlier and came exploring.

          One of the unusual features of this build is the use of long sound files for the lovely atmospheric music featured all over the sim, helping tell the story of the significant moments in the books. How did Isolde come across this trick?

Isolde Caron: Shelynn Ayres first brought it up in a conversation in G+ . You can read about it here
Thirza Ember: most of us think of sound files as being max 10 seconds, but that is just a SL convention, like the size of prims, etc.
Sunbeam Magic: what is longest time period you have experienced with?
Isolde Caron: I have one with around 15 60 second clips,it's monks chatting - i took most from freesound with proper attribution.

          The soaring build contains a series of intimate scenes, with poses, including this one by the Tree of Life. As you walk around, you find the mood changing with the changes in the sounds. There is a sense of wide open spaces, a joyful solemity among the flowing curtains and soaring peaks.

Thirza Ember: how did you choose which scenes to depict here? are they all from the same, novel, or different parts?
Isolde Caron: no the scenes are just my own idea to add, tho the tree is significant to it: the tree of life - do you all hear the harp /piano music?
Sunbeam Magic: I hear it, very relaxing
snowbody Cortes: yes Isolde
Pathfinder Lester: yes, it's very pretty

         Isolde presented us with a gift of sound to take back to our homes. Sounds with impeccable provenance, from the wonderful website freesound.org
Isolde Caron: other than caming out to see it all that's pretty much it-) Please feel welcome to visit anytime also, i will keep this one up for a time
Sunbeam Magic: Wonderful job!!!
Pathfinder Lester: very peaceful and tranquil - thank you for sharing this place with us!


HG Addresses:
Kroatan Halloween Hunt...  kroatan.de:8002:silent meadow
Isolde's yes we can region... hypergrid.org:8002:yes we can