Base Camp

The camp itself is raised above the ground by a network of supporting stone pillars carved from the local mountains, and the wooden platforms on top are linked together by small footbridges. Ladders that can be rolled up and tied when not in use provide access to the ground.

There are four boats moored at the edge of the lake, each able to seat four people comfortably. Made of monster bone with hide sails, each boat carries oars and an item box for supplies. A woven blanket is also provided, should hunters or other personnel want to sleep in the boats.

The lake takes half a day to cross to the other edge at its widest point. Walking takes most of a day, which is good for exercise and night hunting.

A basic pulley lift has been provided, to aid with receiving supplies and other items that are too unwieldy to carry up a ladder. Up to four people at once can help pull up the lift and its contents.

Base camp contains:

-A basic, open-air kitchen with a stove, a medium-sized ingredients and utensils cabinet, an icebox, and several movable cooktops. It has a hide cover that can be pulled over to protect the equipment from rain and general weather. It has a collapsible hide tub about the size of a kitchen sink that can be used to do dishes.

There is a large, circular table that can seat up to eight people comfortably, four benches for that table, and two long benches for extras. No cover is available for the canteen area; if it rains, seek shelter, or just eat anyway.

A felyne chef from the Guild is in charge of basic cooking.

-A large living area covered with monster hide that's resistant to slipping, even in wet weather. Tents and shelters are set out here. There are some communal shelters. All shelters and tents come with bug nets, or are provided with them to screen out small and large insects.

-Two large, roughly carved stone baths each able to comfortably hold approximately 8 people each, and separated by a screen. They're shielded from the elements by a large hide that can be rolled out and extended to give people some privacy when bathing. (Ignore the fact that the hide in its entirety appears to have been stitched from the spare skins of several Rathalos. Or don't. It's interesting to look at, at least.)

The bathing area also has an extension for keeping clothing dry, a small alcove covered by a waterproofed skin for changing, and a basic supply of soap along with two hard brushes. There are also some spare towels, which have the guild logo on them.

Water must be manually pumped from the lake to fill the baths, but a heater attached to the pump (it runs on coal and needs to be lit beforehand) heats the water as it's pumped through; the simple pump also acts as a bellows for the coals, making it easier to get a fire going that's hot enough to heat the water.

The area for changing and keeping clothes has its own platform, footbridge access, and ladder. The baths have their own separate platform, covered in monster hide that will absorb heat and stop the wooden platform from burning.

-Communal storage for armor, weaponry and items. There are four item boxes, eight cases that are 'one-size-fits-all' for weapons, and four very basic wooden poles for armor stands. If you didn't bring a means of keeping your own items, you're free to use what's provided to you by the guild, but they can't be locked.

On the other hand, it'll probably be really easy to find whoever stole your stuff...

-A quest board and a small sheltered area for the guild representative to sit. The shelter contains a small supply of writing utensils, stamps, and paper, a small desk, and a stool. A trained messenger bird on a perch also lives here, for emergencies. You can send letters off with the guild lady's permission, but you're better off just giving it to the caravan when it comes by.

-A small pen for domesticated animals to be kept in and fed. Used for the supply caravan's hard-working Aptonoth team, characters can keep pets or other animals they find and tame in the jungle in this pen. It has a collapsible shelter that can be used to keep the rain off.

Naturally, this pen is on ground level.

-An iron trough one of the guild members salvaged and repaired. Good for washing clothes. Washing lines are staked out nearby, and the guild has also provided a waterproofed cabinet attached to a burner, that can be heated with coal or with monster materials. This cabinet dries clothing quickly.

The settings for the burner are as follows: low (warm), high (hot), and 'empty the flame sac into the funnel and back away just in case' (very hot). The guild advises users to be careful opening the cabinet.

-A basic forge. A young Wyverian woman and her Felyne assistant take care of extensive repairs and strengthening on armor and weapons, as well as the forging and crafting of new ones.

-A basic infirmary. It contains four cots and has a shelter cover that works like a large tent. It comes equipped with a box with basic medical supplies like bandages and poultices, a box for waste and 'spare parts' (scale shrapnel, claw fragments, etc) and has its own small furnace and equipment to boil water for sterilising tools and washing wounds.

-An empty platform, similar to the living area, for workshops and shopkeeper stalls.

-A pit latrine has been dug some way away from the lake. A shelter for privacy and to keep the rain off has been constructed above it. It has its own platform, and is much lower to the ground.

The shelter can hold four people at once, and has dividers to serve as 'stalls'. There is also a bucket of water in each stall.

-A large rainwater tank with sand filters and a screen to keep out trash.

-Two watchtowers at opposite sides of the camp. They are 'walking watchtowers', which means they can be disassembled and set up again as needed.

Quests, AC and Rare Eco Discovery

Quests

What is a quest?
A quest is a major undertaking for the character in question. Hunting a large monster, exploring and expanding the map, rescues, harvesting rare ingredients for synthesis, holding a party for the camp, finding an injured monster and caring for it, taming an animal, fitting someone for clothing...as long as it takes a significant amount of effort and is a log that includes more than one person, it counts as a quest.

You need one finished quest, as well as at least two threads with different characters (you cannot use two threads with the same character), to make AC. The threads have no comment count, but they need to show the character was doing something other than go on their quest, even if it was just making small talk, falling into marsh mud, etc. Talking about their quest after it's happened (or before it's happened) is fine.

Caravan posts will be made twice a month to provide opportunities to mingle, but characters can also meet in other logs or through living area visits (the equivalent of the ic inbox).

What counts as a finished quest?
The quest log has come to a conclusion and accomplished the goal. As long as the quest is finished before AC is tallied, tagging can go on for as long as is necessary, but it needs to be concluded to count as AC.

Remember, it's a monumental effort. A monumental effort shouldn't take like five comments to finish.

What about party logs?
Your character should be active in the log itself. If they were cooking for the party, they should be personally involved even if it's just to ask people if they liked the food or to ask for help in cleaning up - after all, that's a lot of effort!

What if I'm away for the entire month?
Sometimes, quests can take a very long time. A character might be hunting the trail of an unknown monster or be lost in a labyrinth of broken ruins.

Provided that the quest itself is finished by the end of the month, you can submit the month-long quest as your sole AC proof.

However:
-You will need to provide three different threads in the following month.
-Your character cannot take another quest that month due to the guild's concerns about your character's health in a harsh environment.
-If your character is away when the caravan tallies the report at the end of the month, they cannot submit their quest docket for that month and can't use the results of their quest to help anyone or build anything - they're not physically there to haul in their items. They also can't spend their spare income - they're not there to use it!

Your character will pick up their pay and be able to use their materials from the previous month, though, so they have more to spend in the coming month.

About exploration: the Rare Eco Discovery mechanic
The map will start small, as representation that you're in unknown lands. The only way it will get bigger is with exploring. Explorations can be mounted directly as the main point of a quest, or done in the process of doing other things, like hunting monsters, gathering ingredients, etc.

Characters can explore in any direction and find what they like on the map. Once per quest, every character involved in the log can find something significant.

When they're starting out, this can be anything from monster signs and trails to discoveries of paths that might lead to ancient ruins.

When the activity check rolls around, submit a description of the discovery with evidence linked, and the discovery will be catalogued in some way.

This gives your character a single 'rank' in discovery. This is the Rare Eco Discovery scale, and it increases as characters make successive discoveries (it increases until it hits 4). It represents your character's persistence and progress at tracking down the source of the mystery item they found.

For an example of how the discovery scale works, let's say a character discovered signs of an unknown monster.

Rank 1: The character finds strange tracks, odd castoffs from the unknown monster, or evidence of monster activity they haven't seen before.
Rank 2: Now the character knows what to look for, they can identify further signs. They can begin to narrow down an idea of where this monster may be found, and find more evidence to support their claim (fresher castoffs, fresher evidence, etc).
Rank 3: The character is getting closer to their goal of finding the unknown monster's territory. They can begin to make semi-accurate guesses about what the monster might be like, what it's most likely to eat, or where it's likely to be found.
Rank 4: The character tracks down the monster in its lair, territory or in pursuit of a food source. A new monster has been discovered and will be NPCed by the monster mod; the character may be chased, engaged in combat or even be totally ignored. In any case, the character has gotten the very first glimpse of the new monster, and can add it to the bestiary! The guild lady will be happy to write down the details for them, or they can submit the report themselves.

After Rank 4, the rank resets to zero, until a character finds something else.

What if I have more than two threads because I'm submitting evidence?
Submit them anyway. You're not limited to two threads and your log - that's just the minimum you need to make AC.