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phantasmemes2018-12-07 12:25 am
phantasmods) wrote in phantasmemes2018-12-07 12:25 am
Entry tags:
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.
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.
no subject
After the Astral War...the scourge was as prevalent then as it became in the days since Niflheim's war began. Countless innocents were afflicted, dying and worse day after day.
...I was a healer. I had--have a power no one else alive or dead ever manifested, similar to the Oracle line and yet sharply different. No one else could heal those falling to the Starscourge's effects...so I did it. I thought I was to be the king ordained to bring the dawn, given the blessing of the Crystal and its powers.
But unlike the purification of the Oracle line, my healing was...flawed. Injury, broken bones, everything; all I used my power to take from others was reflected upon myself. Even the scourge took root, and body and soul I became corrupted. The gods and Crystal rejected me, my brother tried to have me killed...but I couldn't die. For a Lucian king to die means their soul is granted ascension, and my own so blackened would have surely been a blight on the Crystal and affront to fucking Bahamut, the lying bastard.
[...]
So I was sealed away, for a time. In my eyes I had been turned on and labeled 'Accursed' by all I had known and loved, the scourge and betrayal alike driving me mad with a need for vengeance.
...That was how 'Ardyn Izunia' became what he was. What I was. A monster who desired the end of all things and the burning of whatever stood in my way.
[A pause, and another slow breath.]
I make no excuse for what I was and all I've done, Nyx Ulric. But gods, stars, and all in between, I never wanted this.
no subject
[A soft mutter under his breath as he leans forward, running a hand back through his hair, flicking his braids back over his shoulder.
Isn't that a lot to fucking unpack.
He's quiet for a moment, watching Ardyn, twirling the dagger idly between his hands. What do you even say to that?]
I'd say it sounds like bullshit if I hadn't just- [He trails off with a ragged kind of laugh, something that might be bordering on hysterical if he weren't already too exhausted for the emotional fallout of the last day to catch up with him.]
Still sounds like bullshit, though.
[Because wow super healing powers and then 2 millennia of torment because the Astrals fucked up the process?]
So what, you were like the Oracle prototype and they fucked it up?
no subject
[Ardyn shook his head, pulling his knees to his chest and leaning his head on folded arms.]
I know how unlikely it sounds, and how you're even less likely to believe a word out of my mouth. But it's the truth.
no subject
[He repeats it, sharp and biting.]
Sounds like there was an awful lot of fine print there.
[But he does sigh, silvery blue gaze dull with strain and exhaustion.]
Yeah. It sounds unlikely. But I also just hopped inside a ring to shit talk millennia old spirits of dead kings into animating the statues of themselves to fuck up some daemons so really... Unlikely is turning into the norm. Hell the fact that I'm even alive is unlikely.
no subject
[...]
I'm afraid there isn't much I can do for that. I've curatives to mitigate the worst of it if you like, but even I haven't the power to undo the damage my brother and his descendants cause.
no subject
As absurd as the story should be that sentiment does more to convince him of its truth than any of the rest. It also settles him enough to finally slide the dagger into the thigh sheath, fingers instead moving to pluck at the tattered edges of his uniform.]
Not dead yet. Dunno if there's really anything that can stop it if that's still what's happening...
[He doesn't feel like he's dying any faster here, at least? Not like he had with the wall and the power leeching away his life with every moment. ]
And this doesn't seem... quite so bad? [A gesture at his right leg, which is still bent at a slightly awkward angle. It was hard to say if the power had fixed it or just helped drown it out, especially when the power hadn't faded so he couldn't really assess it or the myriad other wounds. He'd suffered.]
no subject
Would you...let me take a look at it? We've just established I'm a shit healer and not a much better doctor, but I've got potions and most of an infirmary with me.
CW: bullet wounds
[A smirk, a dark snort of laughter and he finally leans back to do the one thing he hadn't dared to do yet. The uniform jacket is to heavy to just lift it so he has to unfasten the buttons, shrugging out of the shredded left side, and tugging up the t-shirt beneath. The shirt was still soaked through with blood, the fabric pierced with two holes and peeling away from his body with a wet sucking sound. The skin beneath, however, is mostly intact, two small round wounds that are scabbed over but nowhere near what they should have been. Even if it was hard to tell with just how much tacky half dried blood there was.]
Okay better than I thought?
[And he sucks in a breath, deep as he physically can, pointedly trying to expand his chest all the way and cringing halfway through.]
Ribs are still banged up and... [His fingers slide over the entry wounds, too neat and small to be believed.] Far as I know nothing came out.
Not much sense trying to heal the little shit if I'm just gonna keel over anyway.
[Because a dislocated knee is totally "little shit".]