TEST DRIVE - BELLMARE MOUNTAINS

[phantasmods]

Hello and welcome to Phantasmal Rift's Test Drive Meme!

Test drive threads are assumed to be game canon for accepted characters unless otherwise noted, so don't feel like you'll have to introduce yourself a second time to everyone you meet! As an added bonus, participation in the test drive comes with the chance to earn up to two items of loot for your trouble! Characters who are accepted can earn one item for having a top level, and one for tagging out to someone else's top level! Your SWEET LOOT will be included with your acceptance notice.

Additionally, characters currently in game can earn themselves a piece of bonus loot for the dungeon by tagging people's top-levels on the test drive! Existing characters get their bonus loot along with the rest of their loot at the conclusion of the dungeon.

This test drive takes place in the Bellmare Mountain range, a chilly environment even when it's not locked in the dead of winter. Considering that November is just starting to bite - or is it, with the Fissure's time-displacement effect in place? - that makes for an extremely chilly reception for all of the new arrivals. If you're a person at risk of frostbite, you'd better hunker down in one of the scattered mountain cabins or find someone with extra snow gear, and quick.

Once you're a bit more warmed up, exploration of the area will reveal that it's largely abandoned, but there's still some evidence of past human habitation. Old chair lifts stand guard over untouched ski slopes, the remains of what was once a resort, and a handful of hiking paths twist back and forth through the mountain forests, the snow melting off them due to the magical crystals in the gravel that lines the paths.

LET IT SNOW

Chances are that, upon arriving, you find yourself outside in the snowfall. Hopefully you weren't from somewhere too terribly warm, but chances are that unless you were specifically in a cold environment before, you're going to be feeling the chill now. (Unless, of course, you're not human and don't get bothered by the cold. That happens.)

Fortunately, there are plenty of paths scattered around that are warm enough to keep the snow melted off of them - it shouldn't be that hard to stumble across one. The question then becomes, which way to shelter and civilization? You'll have to take a bit of a gamble, but it's almost certainly better than staying where you are and freezing.

LOCKED IN

How fortunate, then, that you were able to find shelter against the cold - at least for the time being. The wooden cabin is the exact opposite of luxury, but there's a bed and wood to make a fire in the fireplace, so you can't ask for terribly much else. Especially once night falls - or when the snow outside begins to fall in more than flurries - it's far better to be outside than in. Even if you can't figure out how to start the fire, the dimly glowing crystals that serve as fire starter will at least keep your hands warm.

Of course, with only a limited amount of shelter to go around in these mountain trails, it's fairly inevitable that you would have to share with someone... Hope they're friendly, otherwise this place is going to get awkward fast.

FROSTY THE - OH, MAN!

And if you're still running around outside, sooner or later you're almost certain to run into a deep patch of snow that rises up to meet you. These giant snowmen, ten feet tall and aggressive, stand up in response to anything that isn't the local wildlife approaching - and their goal is quite simple. Better watch out, because these guys are your own personal avalanche, seeking to bury you under themselves until either the cold or the weight saps the life out of you.

One's dangerous, but it's not uncommon to find them in groups of 3-5, either, which is where things start getting to be a problem. Luckily, it's possible to melt them down to nothing, or just blast them apart with pure force - the scattered snow won't rise again, at least not any time soon.

Comments

[reforgeries]

[Great. Probably a magic user.]

I'll share what I have in exchange for information, if you have any.

[foolishjustice]

I've been here since people started arriving, so I know a fair bit. Not how to leave, but...I know as much as anyone about the situation in general.

[reforgeries]

Come in, then.

[He steps aside so Goro can enter past him.]

The weather doesn't seem to be giving you much trouble.

[foolishjustice]

That's thanks to my psychic abilities, I'm immune to cold-based dangers right now.

[He takes the invitation, pushing his mask up onto the top of his head as he enters.]

Unfortunately, that's not a protection I can give to other people, but I do have blankets with me.

[reforgeries]

I don't need any myself, but that's good to know. We may run into others who lack those kind of abilities.

[It's only a few strides to what passes for the cabin's kitchen.]

You said you wanted food? It's the most basic kind of stew, but it should keep a normal human going.

[foolishjustice]

I'm not at all picky, so basic stew is fine. I also have some food of my own, but it's also fairly simple.

Ah, would you like some coffee, though? I can conjure harmless liquids easily.

[reforgeries]

...

No, thank you.

[foolishjustice]

You don't like coffee?

[Well, he does, so he's going to create a cup of Leblanc coffee to sip from.]

[reforgeries]

It's not that I don't like coffee. I just think food and drink should be prepared properly, without using the supernatural as a shortcut.

[Anyway, here's the stew. You heathen.]

[foolishjustice]

[He accepts the stew with a word of thanks.]

Oh, I certainly agree that it's better to make it properly...but this specific blend is unique to a cafe from back home, so this is the only way I have access to it. If you're willing to try a more common blend, I also know how to make it by hand.

[reforgeries]

You don't have to worry about it. I have what I need; I'd rather be repaid in information I don't have than in foodstuff I can make myself.

[foolishjustice]

Alright.

[Just...a bite of the stew first. A Wilcard's gotta eat, okay?]

Right now, we're in a Fissure, an area of unstable reality caused by an oversaturation of uncontrolled magic. We currently believe they're caused by a fragment of an entity that's considered the source of magic in this world, stolen from it over a century ago. The entity is looking for this missing piece, which it thinks is outside of this world, and pulling through things and people indiscriminately.

We're working to stabilize as much of the world as possible while we search for this fragment in the hopes of a more permanent solution, and we have the entire immediate area around our base of operations stable now. Unfortunately, that means it's a bit of a trek to get back from here, but we're working with a small group of androids that has transport drones useful for carrying new arrivals to the station we live at.

[reforgeries]

...I see. Are these searches random, or is there a recognizable pattern of instability you follow? A planet is far too great an area to cover, even with much greater resources than it seems your group has.

[foolishjustice]

Originally, it was based on proximity. Now that our efforts have become more exploratory, we follow leads on information. The last one was because it was over a building that had information on the recently discovered entity, and this time we're acting on suspicions of the entity itself.

If we ever hit a dead end, presumably we would go in order of either proximity or likelihood of whatever's in the Fissure to be useful in some way.

[reforgeries]

Fair enough. That's reasonable progress for a small group. You have reason to suspect this entity is here, though? I didn't expect it would be so close.

[Y'all don't act like you're practically sitting on top of something big and scary enough to be called an Entity, capital E.]

[foolishjustice]

From what we've been able to tell, it's wherever it wants to be. Think of it like a sentient force of nature, it might as well be everywhere.

There's actually an object a manageable distance away from our base of operations that can be used to speak with it directly. It seems to be benign, but afraid of humans and so frantic in its search that it's bringing people in by accident.

[reforgeries]

You said it suspects this fragment is in another world. What will you do if it is? Searching this world would be pointless in that case, unless it turned up something with which we could access other worlds ourselves. Such a thing would probably have to be just as powerful as the entity in question, correct? I hardly think that sort of ability common.

[foolishjustice]

Not common, no, but...not impossible, either. I technically have an ability that I could use to travel to different worlds, but it would weaken me to the point that I might not be able to do it again for decades. Assuming it works properly at all...my interdimensional phone app hasn't been working right since I got here.

If it is right about its missing piece being in a different world, our focus would have to turn more toward finding a way to narrow that down. Searching the entire multiverse by hand is an impossible task, even with free travel between worlds. But we do have reason to think that the Fissures are...somehow close to it.

[reforgeries]

I suppose that would follow, if it's the cause of these Fissures.

Would you mind explaining what an 'interdimensional phone app' is?

[foolishjustice]

It's a program on my phone that lets me send texts and calls to other worlds. Or, it would, if something wasn't stopping the signal.

[He has magic cell phone reception, from the thing in the place that one time.]

[reforgeries]

If this is the only world you've encountered such blockage, I'd assume this entity of yours is the cause. Interference from its efforts to locate what's missing, perhaps.

[foolishjustice]

I'd considered that, myself. It could also be a result of the Fissures, since they scramble the different levels of reality. Put simply...it's like the world is a series of radio stations, but the Fissures compress everything inside them so that it's all trying to play on a single frequency. Even stabilized, they're not completely gone, so it might still be enough to interfere with reception.

[reforgeries]

Understood. In that case, I'm not sure how something like me can retain its composition in one of these areas of scrambled, uncontrolled magic, as I am constructed almost entirely of magical energy myself. Not that it matters much; it's simply idle wondering.