phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] phantasmemes2018-03-01 07:08 am
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TEST DRIVE 002

Hello, and welcome to the second test drive for Phantasmal Rift!

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 is based in the Fissure nearest to the Station, same as last time! But this time you're coming at the shoreline from a bit of a different angle...

If you really want, though, you can reuse prompts from the first test drive! In particular, there's still landsharks around the new area of beach. Otherwise, here's three new prompts!

OPTION ONE: OCEAN BREEZE

The cavern you find yourself in smells of the sea... And looks like it, too. Large crystal formations, usually in blue or a light yellow-green, glow along the walls and ceiling of the cavern, providing more than enough light to see by. The whole place is damp and a little chilly, and occasional pools of water rise and fall with gentle waves - some outside tide flowing in through underground passages.

More chilling, though, is the wind that flows through the caves, never ever quite going still but varying wildly in intensity. In fact, characters will discover that they have some control over the intensity of the wind - or perhaps some lack of control, depending on their exact response to waking up in an unexpected place. Strong emotions of any sort make the wind stronger in turn; while calm leaves the wind gentle, panic will send it whipping around corners and drive already-distressed characters to take whatever shelter they can, lest they get blown into some cavern wall.

Other than the wind and the crystals, the caverns seem mostly normal for a place that's clearly underwater at least part of the time. The lower reaches of the caverns are full of barnacles, mussels, and other shellfish that await the rising of the tide for their survival, as well as the occasional crab (some of them surprisingly large, up to about the same of a man's head), and bits of seaweed catch on rocky corners.

OPTION TWO: SAY NYA

What's that sound? Is it... a cat?

... No, it's not. It's a meowing seagull, for some reason.

Except for their strange vocalizations (all feline in nature), the seagulls found outside around the cliffs and beaches are all reasonably normal. (Specifically, anyone familiar with the Gulf Coast on Earth will find that they look much like Laughing Gulls in their black-headed plumage.) They're normal-sized and not at all afraid of people...

In fact, they're so unafraid of people, that they'll come right up close to you and nick your stuff! And not just food, mind. Anything they can carry that isn't attached is fair game to be taken and winged up the cliffs to their roosts. Magpies have nothing on these guys.

Good luck chasing them down for whatever it is they've taken, or climbing up the cliffs to get it back. It belongs to the seacats now.

OPTION THREE: ALL THAT GLITTERS

This gravel beach is absolutely splendid in the sunlight, looking like someone shattered a thousand stained glass windows and left the wreckage to sparkle. Protected from the worst of the waves by some rocky outcrops in the distance, the water here is gentle and doesn't disturb the beach much.

Luckily, the glitter does not, in fact, come from glass. Close examination will reveal that the gravel of the beach contains an impressive number of fragments of some kind of hard scale - about a third, if one's going by volume. They vary in size from a large thumb-nail down to nothing, and most transparent in every color imaginable. They're quite hard, and more likely to break into fragments than they are to be ground down by the sand.

But what is it that these scales come from? The answer can be found only at night, when the sun's light disappears. Then, large reptilian-looking creatures - somewhere between snakes and fish - make their way out of the crannies hidden in the rocks around and across from the small beach. In many different colors, they glow beneath the waves, some internal light filtered through their skin and scales to make each appear a different color.

The serpents aren't violent, at least for now, but given that the largest of them is at least twenty feet long... Perhaps it's best not to hassle them.
riderofcharlemagne: (somebodys gonna get stabbed)

1

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-02 12:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[Astolfo clumsily moves aside as the stranger passes through. Having not seen her before, he can only assume she's a newcomer to this place. So, of course, he has to introduce himself immediately.]

Hey! Are you new? My name's Astolfo, what about you?
newlawtolight: (cloying poisonous spirits)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-02 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm.

[Interesting. Is this naivety? She lets some warmth into her smile. Perhaps this one might be worth looking into.

She holds out her hand as a means of genteel greeting.]


Letitia Genesister.
riderofcharlemagne: (i eat stickers all the time dude)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-02 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[He gladly takes her hand and gives it an enthusiastic shake.

With his excitement, a gust of wind barrels past the two of them and throws Astolfo's cape over his head, though it's not strong enough to move him. He breaks the handshake to brush the cape off and lightly laughs.]


Nice to meet you, Letitia! How're you faring here?
newlawtolight: (cloying poisonous spirits)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-02 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
As well as can be expected with this water.

[Her shake is like gripping warm iron.

There is the slightest of nose crinkles, as she readjusts her hat from the gusting wind.]


And wind. You haven't happened to see any wax flying in with it, by any chance? I would not wish to ruin my hair so soon, you see.
Edited 2018-03-02 18:20 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (i will smack your face into tiny little)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-02 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Why- have you got a fear of water?

[He turns and looks around him for a moment before turning back to her.]

Nope, no wax as far as I know. We can fix your hair up at the station, if need be.

newlawtolight: (touched by god)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-02 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
A distaste for it. My skin so wrinkles in it.

[Surely that will suffice? She smiles.]

Oh, that would be lovely. And good. If such winds blew from the South here, well, who knows what might happen, hm?
riderofcharlemagne: (guh)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-02 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
You don't have to go in it if you don't want to.

[It's a little lame of an excuse, but he'll take it.]

Say, what kind of place did you come from?
newlawtolight: (speak to you)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-02 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I shall have to wait until the tide lessens before I can venture out, then.

[She sighs, but her smile is still present.]

I come from Hell, and Fallen London of late. Mayhaps you've heard of it? One or either, of course.
Edited 2018-03-02 22:41 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (uwah)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-03 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Well I've heard of regular London, unless something happened to it...

[Wait-]

You're from Hell?!

[How does that work?]
newlawtolight: (abstraction)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course I am. Surely that isn't a problem?

[A calculated blink.]

It depends. Did it Fall in your city?
riderofcharlemagne: (guh)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-03 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Doesn't that mean you should be dead?

[He's more confused than he is afraid, at this point.]

I think London was pretty intact, last I remember... [Intact enough for the Mage's Association to plant its roots there, at least.]
newlawtolight: (speak to you)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-03 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Fallen London is still intact, quite intact. It simply Fell.

As for myself? I am a devil. I simply do not die.

[Not like humans at least but...he doesn't need to know that.]

[She watches his reaction to her admission.]
Edited 2018-03-03 23:46 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (uwah)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-04 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
How could it fall but still be intact?

[You're losing him here.]

A devil? [This is an absurd situation even to him, and he has barely an idea of how to react.] Should I be scared of you?
newlawtolight: (the art of beauty)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-04 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
I see you are not familiar with the concept of Fallen Cities.

[In due time, then.]

Oh, hardly. We're mostly harmless! Not at all like what the claptrap used to say about us having horns and the like.

[She scoffs at that word.]
Edited 2018-03-04 00:17 (UTC)
riderofcharlemagne: (uwah)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-05 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Really? [Well that's a relief.] What makes you different from humans, then?
newlawtolight: (abstraction)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-05 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[The smile sharpens, just a bit.]

Souls. Perhaps the greatest difference. And Death's treatment of us. A few other sundry things.
riderofcharlemagne: (i eat stickers all the time dude)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-05 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh? What about them?

[The wind picks up with his curiosity.]
newlawtolight: (buzz in the air)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-06 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
Have you ever tried Amanita Sherry?
riderofcharlemagne: (guh)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-06 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
I've never heard of it. Why?
newlawtolight: (your acquaintance)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-07 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a drink that few humans could stand. That's a difference.
riderofcharlemagne: (queen of annoying people)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-07 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[He might not be human, but that still sounds like a challenge.]

You have any on you?
newlawtolight: (a certain fondness)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-07 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[A sharpening of her smile.]

I do.
riderofcharlemagne: (queen of annoying people)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-08 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
What do you say we share a drink, then?

[Evaporation of Sanity D+: Activated]
newlawtolight: (cloying poisonous spirits)

[personal profile] newlawtolight 2018-03-09 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh my.

She takes out a bottle of what looks to be a very, very red sherry. She takes the waxy cap off, and pours just enough into it, before offering it.

Her smile is wide, almost toothy.]


In vino veritas.
riderofcharlemagne: (Default)

[personal profile] riderofcharlemagne 2018-03-09 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[He takes the cap of drink and holds it up in cheers.]

In vino veritas!

[He repeats her words, despite having no idea what they mean, and determinedly downs the drink.]

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