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

[maru_kyutie]

Yep, you got it. Naoto-kun's a Persona user too. Sukuna Hikona, a Light Dark Almighty Persona. Fortune Arcana, no weaknesses, resists Light and Dark.

[foolishjustice]

[...Just a moment, he seems to be bluescreening and needs to reboot. And even once he manages to get his mouth moving, he's sounding very awkward and stammery.]

B-bless, Curse, and Almighty? Th-that's...she...I-I hadn't even decided to follow in her footsteps back then...

[maru_kyutie]

Is it the same as one of your Personas?

[foolishjustice]

M-my first one, Robin Hood. He doesn't resist anything, but those are the elements he uses.

[maru_kyutie]

Huh, I guess you really are the "second coming of the Detective Prince."

[foolishjustice]

W-we probably shouldn't read too much into something like Persona elements. There are only so many options, after all.

[maru_kyutie]

I suppose, it's only when Arcana matches too that it really gets freaky.

[foolishjustice]

And Robin is Justice Arcana. I don't even have any Fortune Personas on me right now.

[maru_kyutie]

...So, mind giving me an explanation about this place? I've heard a bit, but it's probably far from the big picture.

[foolishjustice]

I don't think we actually have the big picture yet, but I can tell you what anyone here knows.

[He holds out his hands and a folding chair appears, then disappears as he grumbles. A second later, he has his hot chocolate back.]

This is a Fissure, an unstable area suspected to be caused by power leaking from a stolen fragment of an entity that seems to be the source of magic here. The entity is looking for its missing piece in other worlds, and just leaves the things it grabs in its search behind in the Fissure...that's us, and the random objects you'll find scattered around.

We have technology that can stabilize these areas, so we're working on restoring as much as we can to normal while also trying to find the entity's missing piece. Speaking of which, since you're a Navigator, I'd suggest being careful about scanning the Fissure itself too closely. It's been known to startle the entity, and that's quite unpleasant for nearby telepaths.

[maru_kyutie]

So the goal is: stabilize this world, find the missing piece of the entity, and discover just what took that piece.

[foolishjustice]

Assuming whatever took that piece is still around. Fissures have been appearing for around a hundred years, so the cause might be long dead.

If not, assuming it was caused by a human, they'd be in stasis now.

[maru_kyutie]

It's always worth investigating a mystery to the very end. That's the only way to get the full truth.

[foolishjustice]

[He nods.]

If we assume the culprit is already neutralized, something similar could happen once we think we're in the clear. And...we can't yet rule out a situation like Shido, where what seems to be human action is really the result of a deity's schemes.

[maru_kyutie]

That's what happened back in Inaba. If Yu-senpai hadn't gone after every aspect of the mystery, Izanami would have won.

[foolishjustice]

And if Akira-kun hadn't investigated why people were behaving strangely, Yaldabaoth would have won. Conspiracies rarely end with the first obvious ringleader.

[maru_kyutie]

That's definitely true. So, can I call us the Fissure Investigation Team?

[foolishjustice]

I guess you might as well, it's become more accurate than saying our mission is simply stabilization.

I'll have to introduce you to Kurama and Jailbreak. They're the ones who initially discovered the entity, and made first contact with it.

[maru_kyutie]

I'm sure Himiko can help. There's not much she can't do if I put my resolve into it.

[foolishjustice]

Just be careful, someone startling the entity gave me a horrible headache, and my scanning abilities are nothing compared to a Navigator.

[maru_kyutie]

I'll be careful then, Himiko can be very gentle if need be.

[foolishjustice]

It's not entirely about forcefulness. It's scared of humans.

[maru_kyutie]

So it's reasonable to assume that it was a human that took that piece of it.

[foolishjustice]

At the very least, that's what it believes. I have some theories as to why, but nothing concrete.

[maru_kyutie]

Go ahead and tell me them, no speculation is irrelevant in situations like this.