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

Michael | The Good Place | Azume CRAU

[eudaimonikos]

Let It Snow

We were never supposed to go somewhere this cold, ever again. Why are we here?

[For all his bitching, this dude is riding on the back of some kind of giant ghost head with claws, and thus not even having to walk through the snow at all.]

Can we get any higher? Might be able to spot some shelter from there, and I think you'd be safest flying in this.

Frosty

[There's three of those big snow creatures in this area, but nonetheless it seems like a fairly safe place to be if you've got to be out here. There's a couple of other monsters fighting them. Both seem entirely too small to be going up against ten-foot snow monsters; one is a hot pink beetle, the other looks like a small furry child of some sort, and neither is even as large as the average adult human.

Like, you know, the guy standing off to the side watching and calling out a command every now and then.]

Take them out at the knees!

[What, they know the moves they can use for that]

let it snow

[hairpincurves]

You're not exactly here on purpose, if it's any consolation.

[That sure is an interesting friend this guy's got. Akira's gaze is drawn to it for a while as she shifts the egg in her arms. Though, she quickly turns her attention back to Michael.]

... And I can direct you towards shelter, if you'd like. Conditions are only going to get worse, I think.

[eudaimonikos]

Sure, sounds good.

[Michael peers down at her over the Haunter's head.]

I've gone a few places on accident, lately. Where's this one?

[hairpincurves]

This world doesn't have a name that anyone dragged here knows of, but it's riddled with a bunch of tears in reality called Fissures that someone's been dragging people through. There's something about an Entity of some sort bringing us here on accident but I am definitely the wrong person to ask about that. But the short version is people have been getting dragged here for months. Like, at least over half a year by now? Newcomers tend to show up in Fissures and anyone showing up here has been brought back to Keystone Station, where everyone's been staying.

[She starts walking along to one of the cabins.]

If you want specifics, this place is the Bellmare Mountain range. Largely abandoned, but that's generally the norm for a lot of places in this world.

[eudaimonikos]

I was supposed to be heading back from getting dragged through dimensions...

[He grumbles, but okay. This is happening, apparently.]

Anything to be done about it?

[hairpincurves]

... Well, at least you're familiar enough with this old song and dance.

[Please don't let it be another murdergame is the first thing she thinks, before internally berating herself a bit. If it was, this is definitely a far better place to end up.]

Well, we're working on it. There's a lot of stuff we don't know about the situation, but we are actively looking for answers and a way home.

[eudaimonikos]

Typical.

[Sigh]

Well, alright. As long as we don't have to deal with any more gods. I'm very done with gods for the time being, unless they're death-related.

[hairpincurves]

I mean, we've got a couple of afterlife deities hanging around here. Well, not here here, but they've been hanging out at the station. Not that they're for this world, but... eh, whatever.

I'm Akira Kurusu by the way.

[eudaimonikos]

...ah.

[Michael's gaze darts for a second before his expression carefully smooths out.]

Uh, Michael, nice to meet you. What...is the deal with the afterlife deities?

snow!

[stavros]

[Sorry, Michael and Jane, some girl in a weird outfit is dropping out of a tree in front of you and brandishing a whip for some reason.]

Who goes there? Are you and your creature the ones who opened that portal?

[eudaimonikos]

[What on earth is this. Michael leans forward with interest, while Jane Doe backs up a little with no apparent input from him, lacing her big ghost claws together.]

No, she can't do portals. Chill out a little - most of the people here probably had the exact same thing happen to them.

[stavros]

[She grimaces and eyes them with suspicion.]

I suppose. Were you sent here in reentry, then?

[eudaimonikos]

I was traveling between dimensions, but I arrived at my destination a few days ago. Wasn't planning on going anywhere else fora while, and as far as I know, no one was capable of following us.

[stavros]

Between dimensions? That isn't what I would call common.

[eudaimonikos]

No, not really.

[stavros]

Even more concerning. And your companion is...?

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, this is Jane Doe. She's a ghost, and we don't know what her name in her previous life was.

Frosty

[blessedprotector_rising]

[Hope you don't mind another trainer - dressed for the weather but still with a cape- and pokemon getting in on the action.

Because where there were three, one snowman's is now buried under a literal mini avalanche that seemingly came out of nowhere. Though the unsettling realistic-ish black skinned jynx might have something to do with it, but it's moving aside as an absol makes itself known with a blast of a flamethrower at the snowman.] If they know fire attacks, I'd use them.

[The shiny heracross does get a doubletake, but that can be addressed later.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Oh? That's...interesting. He looks at her closely for a moment, but she doesn't seem familiar at all. Makes sense; statistically, it might be a little alarming if she were someone he'd met in Sinnoh.]

Lack of fire-types has come back to bite me before. Usually we're with more of a group, so we just do this...

[Taking another Pokeball from his belt, he releases a Chatot and waves a hand at the flamethrowing Absol.] Mimic!

[They have enough of an understanding that the Chatot does it at the snow monsters his teammates are fighting, and not the Absol or Jynx.]

[blessedprotector_rising]

If you were together, the Fissure might have caught them too. Regardless, the perap's a good choice.

[If only because the Mimic's not directed towards her pair.

Sorry Micheal, she doesn't know chatot's English name. Yet that doesn't stop her, and almost in the same breath, she's ordering the next pair of attacks, hand pointed imperiously at 'her' snowman.] Flame Emission! Heart Stamp! Take it out!

[Another blast of a flamethrower's followed by the jynx flinging out a dark pink heart wrapped in light pink. Both attacks hit- and it seems that's the end of that snowman.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Well, he's never seen a Jynx before and finds it at least a little offputting, so we can both not know things.

Between Michael's three Pokemon, his two snowmen go down easily enough. The Heracross and Haunter between them can take one, and a fire-breathing parrot is enough to take the other. Michael isn't calling out a lot of specific directions, himself, but at the very least he must have been the one to teach them their strategies. Double Team is being spammed super liberally here, and two of the three can inflict confusion.]

Ah! [Michael claps his hands together, chuckling a little.] Well done, everyone! Boy, those things were literally just snow, huh?

[blessedprotector_rising]

[The training is noted - and she will ask about it sooner rather than later.

Compared to Micheal's obvious praise, Clair's pokemon only get a nod or two of thanks before she turns her attention to the human.

First things first;] Made of snow or not, we should keep moving; either to one of the cabins or back to base camp. I'm Tatsuno Ibuki, Fusube's Gymleader.

[eudaimonikos]

Michael. I...was in Sinnoh recently?

[He offers a hand, as if to ignore that he doesn't know where Fusube is and also has no normal origin story to provide himself. Obviously he's gonna have to get into that pretty soon here, but it's a long story and - as Clair can tell if she shakes his hand - he is so cold.]

We just arrived out here, some kind of dimensional rift. I'm up for anything out of the snow!

[blessedprotector_rising]

That would be the Fissure.

[She's travelled enough to know when to shake hands - and y e p. Everything else can wait. Both pokemon are recalled into their 'balls, and one very Unhappy dragonair's sent out. Though, the assorted 'balls (one great, two poke, a dusk, luxury, and premier) are somewhat different.] Recall your pokemon; we can ride Senryu and be somewhat warmer for it as we go.

[Just Ignoring the withering look her pokemon's giving her.] Though I'd have you ride in front for safety.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael looks doubtfully at Senryu as he recalls his Chatot and Heracross. He hasn't seen a Dragonair before, but he knows an unhappy Pokemon when he sees it. His Haunter stays hovering close to him for the moment, and he tilts his head towards her.]

Jane can carry me fine, if you'd rather.