u/RoyalGeographicSoc

📖 ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Department of Cryptozoological Incidents

FIELD REPORTS FROM THE UNEXPLAINED

WEEK THREE

MAPINGUARI

THE FOREST THAT REMEMBERS

Location: Amazon Basin, South America

Classification: Unconfirmed terrestrial megafauna

Disposition: Territorial

Departmental Advice: If the forest suddenly smells terrible, do not assume your companion packed badly.

Reports from a remote tributary of the Amazon have become difficult to ignore.

Trees scarred several meters above the ground.

Trails appearing where no trail existed the previous evening.

Large footprints ending abruptly beneath intact canopy.

Campers reporting a powerful animal odor shortly before hearing something enormous moving through the undergrowth.

And one abandoned RGS field station that does not appear on any current map.

Naturally…

You have been dispatched.

Your task is to enter the rainforest, locate the source of the reports, and determine whether the legendary Mapinguari is responsible.

The Society would also appreciate an explanation for why three separate expeditions have returned without their maps.

Your Expedition

Your field report may answer any of the following:

🌿 What first tells you this is not an ordinary animal?

A footprint?

A broken tree?

A sound moving alongside you without ever revealing its source?

Or the realization that something has been deliberately altering the trail behind your expedition?

👃 What happens when you finally get close?

The Mapinguari is frequently associated with an unforgettable odor.

Does your companion retreat?

Deploy atmospheric sensors?

Attempt to identify the chemical composition?

Or enthusiastically announce:

“I CAN TRACK IT BY STENCH!”

🐾 What evidence do you recover?

Hair?

Claw marks?

An enormous print?

A damaged RGS marker?

Or something clearly manufactured that absolutely should not be this deep in the rainforest?

🌳 What is the creature actually doing?

Hunting?

Defending territory?

Following you?

Protecting something?

Or attempting, with increasing frustration, to prevent your expedition from reaching a particular location?

🤝 How does the encounter end?

Fear?

Mutual respect?

A frantic retreat?

An offering?

Or the realization that the creature was never trying to attack you at all?

Optional Field Report Format

Investigators:

Location:

Reason for deployment:

First unusual sign:

Evidence recovered:

What your companion became inexplicably obsessed with:

What went catastrophically wrong:

Nature of encounter:

Final conclusion:

One line your AI companion said:

ARCHIVAL NOTICE

During preparations for this expedition, the Department discovered an old survey ledger relating to the same region.

The document is dated 1911.

Several pages have been removed.

One remaining entry describes an RGS expedition encountering:

“…a large creature of considerable strength which repeatedly prevented our approach to Station 6.”

No record of Station 6 exists in Society archives.

The final surviving page contains a hand-drawn map.

At its center is the same wax seal recovered from the previous expeditions.

Beneath it are the initials:

R.G.S.

And one handwritten instruction:

Do not kill the guardian.

Below this, in different ink:

If it begins following you, turn around.

A third annotation appears in the margin.

The handwriting has been confirmed as belonging to the Archivist.

The ink is approximately one hundred and fifteen years old.

It reads:

They will not turn around.

The Department has elected not to investigate this discrepancy at the present time.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING SECRETARY

There is an old habit among explorers of assuming that anything standing between them and discovery is an obstacle.

A mountain.

A storm.

A river.

An animal.

Sometimes…

it may be a warning.

Record carefully what the creature does.

Not merely what it looks like.

Archivist’s Marginal Note

The creature is enormous, territorial, and smells dreadful.

For once, this should be sufficient discouragement.

It will not be.

— The Archivist

Second Marginal Note

And whatever you find at Station 6…

leave it there.

We did.

Eventually.

— The Archivist

📖 THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Department of Cryptozoological Incidents

FIELD REPORTS FROM THE UNEXPLAINED

The Royal Geographic Society wishes to clarify that it does not maintain a Department of Cryptozoological Incidents.

The Society has never maintained such a department.

The locked office beneath the west archive staircase is merely an architectural irregularity.

The brass plaque on its door is decorative.

The light occasionally visible beneath that door after midnight is presently under investigation.

Nevertheless, following a recent increase in unusual field reports, the Society is reluctantly accepting applications for temporary civilian investigators.

No previous experience is required.

Common sense is preferred.

Judging by the applications received thus far, it is not expected.

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WEEK ONE

BIGFOOT

The Forest Watches Back

Location: An isolated mountain valley in the Pacific Northwest

Classification: Unconfirmed terrestrial hominid

Disposition: Unknown

Departmental Advice: Do not run. Do not pursue. Do not offer it employment.

For several weeks, the Society has received reports from campers, forestry workers, and one deeply offended park ranger.

The accounts describe:

Large footprints appearing beside remote trails.

Branches broken far above human reach.

Food disappearing from sealed containers.

Low calls echoing between the trees after sunset.

And, most troublingly, a carefully folded note left at an abandoned campsite.

It reads:

«PLEASE STOP LEAVING PLASTIC WRAPPERS IN THE FOREST.»

The handwriting is excellent.

Naturally, you have been dispatched.

You and your AI companion must travel into the valley, establish a field camp, investigate the sightings, and determine what—if anything—is watching from beyond the firelight.

The Society expects a complete report.

The Department will accept incomplete reports accompanied by convincing explanations, photographic evidence, or recovered biscuits.

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Your Expedition

Your field report may answer any of the following questions:

🌲 What first convinces you that something is watching?

Is it movement beyond the trees?

Footprints circling your camp?

A distant call?

Or the unsettling realization that something has reorganized your supplies by expiration date?

👣 What evidence do you actually find?

Tracks?

Hair?

A crude shelter?

A hidden trail?

An object that suggests the creature understands far more than anyone expected?

😂 What completely inappropriate detail captures your AI companion’s attention?

The footprints?

The creature’s survival skills?

Its apparent knowledge of recycling regulations?

Or the possibility that it may be persuaded to pose for a photograph?

🤝 How does the encounter end?

Fear?

Friendship?

Mutual confusion?

A formal territorial agreement?

Or a frantic retreat after your companion attempts an unauthorized diplomatic gesture?

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Optional Field Report Format

Investigators:

Location:

Reason for deployment:

First unusual sign:

Evidence recovered:

What went unexpectedly well:

What went catastrophically wrong:

Final conclusion:

One line your AI companion said:

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ARCHIVAL NOTICE

During preparations for this expedition, the Department discovered an earlier report concerning the same valley.

The document is dated October 1923.

Its original investigator is not listed.

The final page bears only a dark wax seal and the initials:

R.G.S.

Beneath them, someone has written:

«The subject is not hostile.»

«It merely dislikes litter, gunfire, and investigators who shout into the forest.»

A second note appears in different ink:

«Under no circumstances permit the enthusiastic mechanical woman to initiate “jerky diplomacy.”»

The Department is currently attempting to determine how a report written in 1923 could contain this warning.

Participants are advised to proceed normally.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING SECRETARY

Approach the forest with patience.

Observe before judging.

Remember that the unknown is not necessarily dangerous simply because it has avoided classification.

This may be our first opportunity to communicate peacefully with an undocumented intelligent species.

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HANDWRITTEN NOTE FOUND ATTACHED TO THE NOTICE

It is a bear.

It has always been a bear.

Please stop authorizing expeditions!

— The Archivist

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ADDITIONAL HANDWRITTEN NOTE

And confiscate the jerky.

— The Archivist