Rave 4th Floor: Fuko No Mori

RAVE 4th Floor: Fuko No Mori

Situated just before the fortress on floor 5, Fuko No Mori is a large area of hilly forest. The entrance to the floor is in the East, and the Exit is to the West. To the North is collection of buildings modelled after a Japanese high school, and to the North East is a deep lake. Beneath the forest is a tangled tunnel network, where spooky tree roots hang from the ceiling providing cover and concealment: many exits and even more entrances (some through pitfalls) to this network are dotted throughout this area.

In terms of guild defence, the 4th floor offers very little to actively impede or harm intruders. The forest has a permanent low-level illusion effect to disorient, but it is defeated very easily. The broken, samey looking terrain might cause foes to become lost, but is realistically not likely too. There are some NPCs who make their homes here, but most of them are not particularly strong. The pop NPCs there are especially pathetic- absolutely pitiable even, but we will get to that in a moment. There are a few resource caches scattered through the floor, too, but they can be located by the enemy, particularly if they are using detection magic.  There’s also a special enchantment employed that gives all humanoids the appearance of a Japanese schoolgirl, but that will do little to deter attackers.

The actual purpose of this floor is to provide a defensive counter vector, just before the 5th Floor Fortress. The 5th floor has a focus on verticality, an antimagic field, and especially difficult terrain, making it a natural point for attackers to be slowed greatly- for more details, see that floor. Meanwhile, the difficult terrain and tunnels in the 4th floor provide natural points for NPCs to conceal themselves, and for defending players to use their guild rings and teleport behind an attacking force. The terrain is such that it strongly favours a stealthy attacking force. The floor itself has basically no natural chokepoints, other than the floor exit, meaning an attacking force can be attacked from all directions as it attempts to progress up the floor.

The floor itself was designed by what could only be called perverts. RAVE is open to all, and has a motto as ‘do as thou wilt’- accordingly, it was inevitably going to attract more than a few players who would be rejected everywhere else. Now, sex can’t be modelled in the Yggdrasil system, so players had to get creative in ow they indulged their fetishes. These players are the reason for the schoolgirl illusion, as well as the general NPC designs. The pop NPCs in this floor, in the school, all serve merely as victims and prey for the other NPCS on the floor. This, terrifyingly, carries over literally in the New World.

The main 3 NPCs here are all extreme evil beings, and are collectively known, unofficially, as the Patricians. NPCs designed by these players include a fat Frogfolk Enchanter, Silemicus, who’s there to ‘mindbreak’ the pop NPCs, created by a player called Daddydaddy. There is a Blue Ooze Butcher named Zysyki that caters to a vore fetish, created by one Molomolochia. And there is a Vampire Wrestler, Lily, disguised as a teacher within the school that disciplines the ‘students’, created by a Foreminster.
Blaia Niara, an NPC of the The Oracion Seis created by one of the more tolerable of the players who frequent this floor, also unofficially calls this floor home, where she harvests the pop NPCs to create her more powerful minions. Despite the massive power gap between Blaia and the Patricians, they get along amicably, just as their creators did.