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.
matchmakes: (013)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-05 07:45 am (UTC)(link)
There's that much, at least. What kind of magic do you have?
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-05 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not going to sit here and list all the categories of spells I know. My combat magic is mainly lightning and wind, though.
matchmakes: (003)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-05 08:13 am (UTC)(link)
Lightning and wind, huh... Good to know!

[Seems like they're pretty set just in case. Robin's confident enough in his own magic that between the two of them they should be able to tackle any potential threat... Probably.]

... Ah, all this and I didn't even introduce myself. My name's Robin.
Edited 2018-03-05 10:04 (UTC)
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 06:38 am (UTC)(link)
I'm Alastor.

[He peers ahead, where the tunnel curves out of sight, and huffs.]

Normally I also have teleportation magic, but apparently I can't get to anywhere I could visualize as a target location.
matchmakes: (006)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-06 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
That would be too convenient, wouldn't it?

[He sighs. Weird cave, why are you like this? He really hopes they're not just getting more lost. It's gonna suck if they have to backtrack.]
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course, there's no tension if one person's powers can completely bypass the obstacle. Kind of a cheap way to prevent that, though.
matchmakes: (011)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
[... Well, he's heard odder things from Owain, so he lets the remark pass without comment.

He takes a few steps ahead to where the tunnel curves, frowning and trying to peer further.]


... Ah, it looks like the path splits up ahead...
superstylishsquid: (Can we not talk about it?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Just wonderful...if we pick the wrong path, I should be able to teleport us back here easily enough. That way we'd only waste half the time...
matchmakes: (013)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that's something at least... In that case... left or right?
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
Lessee...eenie meenie minie mo...

[He points back and forth a few times, before settling on one path.]

Left it is.
matchmakes: (009)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
[Left! Hopefully this isn't some manner of terrible decision on their part.]

This really isn't how I was expecting to spend my day when I got up this morning...
superstylishsquid: (Can we not talk about it?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
Me neither, but I guess when life decides to throw curve balls, it doesn't play around. I just hope it doesn't take too long to figure out how to get home, I can already imagine the earful I'm going to get from Sprocket.
matchmakes: (012)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
Seriously... [He grimaces.]

I'm not really too worried about things back home--my sister's more than a capable tactician and can handle things without me--but the timing...

[This was the worst time for Chrom's army to lose anyone...]
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 06:57 am (UTC)(link)
I know what you mean. I'm supposed to have a showdown with my rival soon...and honestly? I have extreme doubts anyone else in my organization is anywhere close to a match for him, short of our Almighty Leader himself.

Plus, if by some miracle they did manage to take him down without me, I'd have to kick their butts.
matchmakes: (002)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
That certainly sounds... dramatic.

[... And also like something he'd hear from Owain. Or his nephew after said nephew has been hanging out with Owain.]
superstylishsquid: (As if.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
I should hope it does, it is the big climactic duel between the hero and his rival. If it didn't sound dramatic, I'd have to consider the whole thing a disappointment.
matchmakes: (007)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
[... Would letting this guy meet Owain and Cynthia be a mistake or the most entertaining thing ever? ... He's not sure.]

I can only imagine it'd be impressive to watch.
superstylishsquid: (As if.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sure it will be. He's picked up some pretty nice moves...and I'm a spectacular fighter, if I do say so myself. It'll be one for the history books...heh, if not the geography ones.
matchmakes: (013)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
One for the history books, huh...

[Honestly, he likes the sound of that regardless of the context.]

Makes me almost wish I had something I was looking forward to going back...

[Well, he'll look forward to the payoff of a good plan, but the circumstances around it...]
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
Uh, well...

[He rubs he back of his helmet.]

If things are rough wherever you're from, you could consider this a breather before you get whatever you have to do over with?
matchmakes: (006)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
Honestly, I'd rather have the breather afterward.

[When he doesn't have the impending apocalypse hanging over his head. And, okay, he'd really like to at least have some chance to bash Validar's face in himself, but...]

Well, if I go home and the plan's been carried out, I can rest easy, I guess... Gods forbid my sister ended up here, too.
superstylishsquid: (Huh?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 08:51 am (UTC)(link)
I guess it's a different sort of situation when you're the one on the mission, instead of the one having missions run against. All I have to worry about is if Viewtiful Joe lucks his way into finding our HQ and goes on a victory vacation somewhere I can't find him.
matchmakes: (013)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-07 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
Something like that. Not to mention, being the tactician comes with its own burden...

[One he's shared, thankfully, but it is a lot to worry about!]

Would he really be that difficult to track down?
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
If he leaves Movieland, yeah. We know what city he lives in, but it's not exactly a small town. Besides, his powers wouldn't even work there, and it just wouldn't be satisfying to crush him while he's helpless.
matchmakes: (007)

[personal profile] matchmakes 2018-03-08 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
[He can't help but side-eye a little for the wording, but...]

I think that if it's that important, you won't have anything to worry about.

[Probably.]

Stuff like that has a way of working out.

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