phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] phantasmemes2018-12-07 12:25 am
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TEST DRIVE - BELLMARE MOUNTAINS

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.
eudaimonikos: (consequences)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-10 06:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Michael's a little bemused by the onslaught of questions. Normally he'd be more wary of another demon, but this one seems so...young?

Young. He turns that over in his head a little. It's been a long time since any of his own kind were that. But what else to make of this?]


Humans wouldn't be able to handle my normal form very well, so I'm inhabiting this body to interact with them. It's artificially created, doesn't share all the same internal structures, but it looks like them. That's mostly what counts. You...might be able to do it if we had another one? I'm not sure if we're exactly the same type of demon...

[The Haunter, having dealt with the snow monster, comes floating back over. She seems content to observe the conversation for the moment.]
whatsa: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-10 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. I guess we might not be. [It's more than a little disappointed by the idea - the prospect of answers starting to slip away so soon. But only starting to slip away? He could still be the same kind of demon - or similar enough to give it some answers. They don't know for sure yet.] I can kind of change my shape, but I have to stretch myself out to get any bigger. I've never tried inhabiting anything. Not since I left the dead bird.
eudaimonikos: (madness and civilization)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-11 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like a rough body to live in.

[Kinda gross, tbh. The little thing seems a bit let down, though. Michael isn't exactly the most empathetic person around, but at the very least that seems like something easily addressed.]

But hey, it's no big deal! A demon's a demon, right?
whatsa: (shadows age like wine)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-11 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
It was ok until the blowflies got loud.

[It perks up again, though. It's still not entirely sure, but this is a better lead than it's found yet, and anyway, Michael seems nice. Congratulations, Michael, you have successfully empathized.] Yeah! Maybe I can still learn. Most of what I know how to do I figured out on my own.
eudaimonikos: (consequences)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-11 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
[Lord, does he try.]

Guess you'd have to, with no other demons around. What do you know how to do other than stretch out?
whatsa: (beam!)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-12 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
I can tell what kind of shadows people have on them! Kind of. I'm not very good at figuring out details unless it's something really weird, like how Murai has something else's shadow on her mind.
eudaimonikos: (I got dreams of my own)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-13 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Like their general aura, you mean...?

[Michael gestures, with his three-dimensional human hand, at the dimension where all that stuff is. Which is to say that he waves a little nonsensically.]

Sounds bad for her.
whatsa: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-15 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Kind of? More like marks on their aura. Things that are wrong. I don't think human languages can really describe it.

Murai said hers was because she got broken by a goddess. I don't think she liked it much.
eudaimonikos: (utilitarianism)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-16 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, like the... [Michael cuts off his gesture and looks down at his hands.] Yeah, that doesn't really work.

Oh. Gods. I've met one or two gods who were alright, but most of them suck. They definitely screw with humans like that.
whatsa: (shadows age like wine)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-16 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
[The Shadowchild nods enthusiastically. It's hard talking about metaphysical stuff when all you've got is mortal words to do it with! Just the fact that Michael seems to get what it's talking about is encouraging.]

Ganesh seems ok, but his temple's too bright for me to get close to. And he's the only god Digger seems to like at all. I'm not even sure she likes him.
eudaimonikos: (please come through)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-16 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
Ah - never really had that problem myself. My world hasn't got any native gods, and the ones from other worlds I met didn't give me any trouble. They were more...connected to nature, I guess?

[Nothing that would harm a demon by its mere proximity, at any rate, no matter how strong they were.]

Who's Digger?
whatsa: (inkblot)

[personal profile] whatsa 2018-12-16 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
She's my friend! She's kind of grumpy but she's always really nice about answering questions. When she can, anyway. She's not from the Cerulean Hills so she doesn't always know what's going on, either.
eudaimonikos: (madness and civilization)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2018-12-16 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh!

[He clasps his hands together.]

Oh, friends are fun to have, aren't they? I've got some human friends, they're very good.