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.
founderinglight: ([hold])

[Sea at night]

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-06 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
[And, here along the beach, a somewhat different flash of light -

And then another, which concludes in a tall man - human? looks human - standing just a few rocks down from Alastor. He twirls a single dagger before letting it vanish in a spark of the same blue that marked his teleportation.]


Good evening!
superstylishsquid: (Huh?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Looks human, but reeks of magic. Then again, mortal sorcerers do exist, so...eh.]

Evening. That's a fancy looking trick, short-range teleportation?
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-06 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Via thrown objects, yes. Family talent.

[Just going to climb up to the next rock and sit there with his legs swinging.]
superstylishsquid: (As if.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 08:33 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds fun, but I think I prefer long-range portals.

So, you one of the locals?
founderinglight: ([my place plz])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-06 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
Don't make any decisions before you've tried it.

[Warping is real fun once you're used to the sensation and not at risk of getting sick.]

Not exactly, but I've been here longer than you, I imagine.
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 08:46 am (UTC)(link)
Well, considering I've been here for all of a few hours, that doesn't exactly say much.
founderinglight: ([late with spacebucks])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-06 08:52 am (UTC)(link)
A few weeks, perhaps a month? I don't tend to keep perfect track of days at my age, I'm afraid.
superstylishsquid: (Oh yeah...)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-06 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, you don't smell like a human that's been sleeping outside for almost a month...please tell me that means there's somewhere with a roof, bathroom, and maybe a kitchen nearby, and not that another of your family talents is magical showers?
founderinglight: ([late with spacebucks])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
True, though I should note that I do also carry soap.

[Another of those little blue flashes - he tosses a bar of some light orange soap from one hand to the other - and makes it vanish again.]

That section of cliffs there - with the ruins of the lighthouse sticking out against the starlight? On the other side of it, there's a research station where we've all been staying.
superstylishsquid: (I don't know what to make of it.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
[He turns to look at the indicated area.]

Alright then...what, uh...kind of payment is expected for staying there?
founderinglight: ([beep])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
It's free!

[Cheerful, almost delighted, but then sobering up again.]

...Which, honestly, is the least they can do, considering that they can't send us home. The exact terms are generally along the lines of "if you would help us with our reality being broken we'd be very grateful," but thus far, there's been no pushing of the issue.
superstylishsquid: (Can we not talk about it?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
There's no such thing as a free lunch. If they're not demanding anything now, then that just means they'll be expecting something later.

...Helping them out with a long-term problem seems like a reasonable trade, though.
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Sure there is. Speaking of which, care for a sandwich?

[If not he's gonna just eat the one he calls up for himself. Who needs pocket space when you have an Armiger?]
superstylishsquid: (As if.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
[He stares for a bit...then chuckles.]

Humans are so weird...alright, sure. Beats getting myself all wet going fishing without a rod.
founderinglight: ([sketchyplaceholder])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
[Look, Izunia is a responsible grandpa who always packs extras. Obtained one (1) turkey sandwich!]

I like to think I'm fairly strange even by human standards. Anything to drink?
superstylishsquid: (Huh?)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Don't suppose you've got any...uh...hot chocolate? If not, just about any kind of soda's fine.
founderinglight: ([beep])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
I am always prepared.

[He practically sparkles and... yep, there's a mug with a red stripe, and it's full of hot chocolate. Still steaming, even.]

Also, be wary about that soda remark, as apparently my tastes in the matter have been known to terrify lesser mortals.

[Time to crack a Dr Jalapeno.]
superstylishsquid: (Would you look at that.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
Good thing I'm neither lesser nor mortal. Granted, my own tastes do run on the sweet side of things.

[Food and drink make for a much less grumpy demon, though.]

I'll see about paying you back for this later. I'm sure I can come up with some sort of minor favor to offer.
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-07 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Probably not for you, then. I like spicy things - possibly more than is sane if you ask a few of the others.

[Astolfo still seems to cry a little watching him down the soda he's drinking like there's nothing unusual about it at all.]

And don't concern yourself over it.
superstylishsquid: (I don't know what to make of it.)

[personal profile] superstylishsquid 2018-03-07 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
I don't really mind spicy, it's just not my favorite. You don't get very far in the underworld by being picky about your food, you know.
founderinglight: ([hold])

[personal profile] founderinglight 2018-03-08 09:01 am (UTC)(link)
Or anywhere else in life, really. I have some relatives who could stand to learn the lesson.

[But there's not minding spicy food and then there's... Izunia pulling out a handful of small dried peppers and popping them straight into his mouth in between bites of his sandwich.]