The Chained Watcher

Moon Big.

~~~

So far, all Grian knew was that 'moon big' wasn't any of the hermit's fault. Not even Doc, who was the most likely out of all of them to have something to do with it, could figure out why the moon was big.

Seeing as none of them knew what caused it or how to fix it, what happened next was only natural for the Hermitcraft server. They started a cult.

In an attempt to appease the moon, or so it was claimed, some of the hermits created/joined a cult called the "Mooners". The one rule they all abided by was no sleeping through the night, which was probably not the best of ideas. Sleep deprived hermits crossed with whatever weirdness was surrounding the moon? Simply a disaster just waiting to happen.

Small earthquakes had started appearing on occasion, which was more than mildly concerning considering how servers usually behaved. Poor Xisuma had been stressing himself out over this, especially since no other servers had reported something like this happening before. 

On a less serious note, the Midnight Alley was coming along quite nicely! Sure, there's no back to the mountain just yet, but he'll get around to it eventually. It's not like he's ever left the back of his bases unfinished before, his track record is flawless in that regard.

(I just realized I've been kind of ignoring the content creation thing I mentioned a while ago. It's actually a pretty good way to include the Life series, with them collabing because chat *demanded* suggested it. Timeline isn't quite going to line up to when it started irl, but I suppose that's the good thing about being the author!)

Ironically, their fans were theorizing about the moon and its glitches, believing it to be on purpose and looking for lore. The other hermits had been kind enough to not talk about the search for his secret on camera, which considering how... enthusiastic chat can be is probably for the best. Most popular among the multitude of theories was that the moon was getting bigger because it was getting closer. Now wasn't that a terrifying thought?

You know what, maybe if he pretends it's not happening it'll go away. Chat has been trying to get a lot of the members of Hermitcraft to do some kind of collab with other servers for a while now, so why not give them what they want? Most of his time would still be dedicated to Hermitcraft, so it can't be something that'll go on indefinitely. Something limited, adding an interesting twist to normal playstyles.

Hardcore is the first thing that comes to mind, but the amount of episodes that would be cut short with only one life isn't ideal. Maybe... multiple lives? But even then, there wouldn't be much tension. What if those with fewer lives were more hostile? That would keep things interesting, plus it would encourage interaction between different groups.

Now all he needs is members.

~~~

He ended up with 13 other players joining him for his mini-series, totaling up to 14 with him included. The border was also heavily restricted to promote more interaction with the other players, greatly limiting the available resources.

Now, Grian might not be the most experienced as far as admins go, but with a little help from his friends in setting it up, he was ready to go. He made sure to welcome all the non-hermits when they arrived, before they went off to go do their intros. If this turned out well, coming back to it again sometime wouldn't be a bad idea, and the chances of doing another collab with one of the new people some other time are pretty decent.

Greeting them as they arrived, Grian noticed two of them were a little skittish around him. The two, what did they go by again? Checking the server list, he found their player names, Solidarity and InTheLittleWood. Those two, when they shook his hand, had flinched slightly for some reason. Weird. Eh, maybe they sprained their wrists or something.