TEST DRIVE 001

[phantasmods]

Hello, and welcome to the first 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.

(In the future, characters who are in-game can also earn themselves an extra item of loot for tagging in to top levels on the test drive, to be distributed with the rest of their loot upon dungeon completion.)

This first test drive is based in the Fissure nearest to the Station, and comes with three potential options, all with a distinctly watery bent -

OPTION 1: MAROONED

Hey, uh... What's that maroon film distorting your vision? And how did you get on this beach, anyway?
So long as the sun is shining, there doesn't seem to be a problem out here on the beach, aside from the strange maroon tint to everything. But when clouds pass over, the tint grows darker, and darker, and the water grows redder, and redder...

That... can't be blood, can it?

Characters who remain beneath the patchy cloud cover will find themselves filled with increasing anxiety that the ocean is made of blood, until either the cloud passes or they check the water for themselves. The bad news is, that while it isn't actually an ocean of blood, contact with the red water will drain characters of energy very rapidly, causing sudden fits of exhaustion as though they were suffering from anemia. By itself, this isn't particularly dangerous...

...Except that the return of the sun doesn't mean the return of that lost energy, and if you've waded out too far, the shifting sand and pull of the waves underfoot can easily pull you down and under.

OPTION 2: LANDSHARK

You really hope that isn't a shark fin moving through the sand. That's just not possible, right?

(Yes, yes it is.)

Landsharks are amphibious, predatory creatures just as at home in the sand as below the waves, and always hungry. They track their prey via disturbances in the sand or water, but fortunately, you can track them the same way - they're large enough to be easily visible in the relatively clear waters near the beach, and their bulk causes a patch of shifting sand above them as they roam for more terrestrial prey.

As a result, they're most dangerous near the waterline, where the shifting sand is hard to see due to the motion of the waves (though they can, of course, pop up further up the beach). Fortunately, they're not large enough to swallow a person whole. Unfortunately, they're still between nine and twelve feet long depending on the individual and easily large enough to take a good chunk out of you.

Like any other shark, they're vulnerable to being sliced open with something sharp, kicked in the gills, or punched in the snout to establish dominance. On the magical end, they have a particular weakness to electricity.

On the bright side, if you're hungry enough, the landsharks are very edible once cooked (or, you know, if you like sushi). For some reason, the meat tastes faintly of chocolate...?

Drops: Meat, shark teeth, candygrams.

OPTION 3: JUST IN TIDE

A bit further down from the beach, the water comes up to the base of the rocky cliffs, leaving numerous nooks and crannies to climb over and explore. In fact, they're practically begging for it.

What might you find? Well, there's the usual beach refuse, for a start - sand, seaweed, shells and fragments of shells, and big barnacles and mussels tucked into the cracks. However, other debris finds its way into the cracks, ocean-going refuse from a thousand worlds... There's also a number of pointy blue-green crystals that tingle to the touch and remain wet no matter how characters attempt to dry them.

And finally, there's a bunch of bottle crabs - overlarge hermit crabs that look more at home in half-broken beer bottles or soda cans at their size than they do in shells (though they'll live in anything that seems protective enough - the largest seem prone to making their homes in rusty helmets). The crabs are not aggressive unless you harass them first, but they can give a nasty pinch if provoked.

...Did you lose track of time out there among the rocks, or did time lose track of you?

Either way, you're now stuck out as the tide comes in. If you can swim, good for you! You probably won't have too much of a problem, at least once you're far enough from the rocks that you aren't at risk of getting thrown against them and having some important swimming limb broken...

On second thought, maybe it's better to stay here and wait it out, whether you can swim or not. Hope you're ready for a couple hours stuck on a rock with some weird-looking, too-big hermit crabs and...

Who is this other person, anyway?

Comments

and yet more option 3

[founderinglight]

[Goro probably noticed this guy a while ago, actually - he rather sticks out against the rocks, black on dark grey stone, and he's also been clambering over the rocks with maybe too much relish. And surprising amounts of agility, for a tall skinny guy in at least his mid-thirties.

Of course, now the tide's coming in, and even if there's something seriously off with the vibe the guy seems to exist at.

He waves back, fairly cheerfully, from the next rock over.]

I'm quite well, thank you! Do you have any idea where we are?

[foolishjustice]

[Well, he'd notice that more if he wasn't trying to ignore vibes in general due to the splitting headache the existential static is giving him.

He had noticed the other guy climbing over the rocks, but hadn't realized he'd joined him at first, distracted as he was. It's a bad habit of his, getting lost in whatever he's thinking about and not paying as much attention to what's around him as he should.]

No...I know something isn't quite right about wherever this is, but it's definitely outside the range of my GPS.

[founderinglight]

[Yeah that's probably not great, is it?

Izunia only has the vaguest idea what a GPS is but he does, you know, get the idea that that's not good.]

Not anywhere I'd recognize either. It's a bit concerning.

[He bends to pick up a crystal and tosses in his hand idly as he makes his way in the direction of not having to yell Goro's rock. There's about a three foot gap in between.]

[foolishjustice]

More than it seems at first, too...

[The frequency issue is Very Concerning.]

We probably aren't even in the same universe we started in.

[founderinglight]

[A hum of agreement.]

That's... incredibly likely. I shouldn't...

[Have a thirty-five year old body. Have a body at all. Be able to interact with people other than those donning the Ring of the Lucii. Exist anymore, now that the ring's power has burned out as Noctis took the Scourge with it.

Take your pick.]

[foolishjustice]

[Luckily, he's not Scanning right now, so he doesn't pick up any of those thoughts.]

This entire place...shouldn't. It's not something I can really explain, but something is very wrong here.

[founderinglight]

[Very luckily, as it would probably give him even more of a headache. Izunia is no Composer but he is a bit more than your average human.]

No... Agreed. The more I examine it, the more it shouldn't be.

[He glances off towards the horizon - not quite looking into the sun, but near enough.]

At least we have the daylight going for us, I suppose.

[foolishjustice]

Mm...for now.

[The bottle crab in his hand has apparently gotten bored, since it's decided to try to climb up his arm.]

I'm a little worried about the tides...we could be stuck here for a while, if we just wait them out.

[founderinglight]

Oh, that's no problem.

[There's a flash of blue light and - Goro can probably see the thrown dagger, sticking in the air, before the rest of Izunia catches up with it, effortlessly crossing the gap between their two islands and leaving a trail of blue light behind.

Yeah, definitely not a mundane human, this.]

I should be able to bring along a passenger of your size without too much trouble, even as rusty as I am.

[foolishjustice]

There's no need for that.

[His back lights up brilliantly white, and a pair of angelic looking wings spreads out behind him. They don't flap, but his feet still lift up off the ground.]

I could actually carry a passenger of my own, if necessary.

[founderinglight]

[...Huh.]

That does remove the need to hitch a ride, yes.

[So neither of them is actually trapped out here on the rocks and they're just too lazy to go back to shore. How about that.]

[foolishjustice]

[...Yeah, pretty much. Though he also didn't want to show off his powers to someone he didn't know had magic of his own.]

Generally. It's a little flashy, but it's starting to seem like keeping supernatural abilities a secret isn't going to be very important here.

[founderinglight]

[The thought doesn't even seem to have occurred to Izunia.]

Ah - is that common where you're from? There's no real point in my case.

[foolishjustice]

I'm not sure it's so much common as it is that access to the supernatural is very uncommon in its own right and everyone I know with powers has reason to keep quiet about what they're capable of, but it is what I'm used to.

[founderinglight]

I mean, magic is hardly common in Eos, either, but my family being one of the bloodlines to possess it is a matter of public record.

[foolishjustice]

Magical bloodlines? That's very different from how it works in my own universe. I wonder if the gene for it is dominant or recessive...or perhaps a collection of otherwise ordinary genes that create magical potential in certain combinations? It would make it more likely to be passed down if single genetic markers varying between parent and child wasn't enough to completely destroy magical potential...

[His wings are flapping idly, the way one might tap a foot while thinking. After a moment, though, he blinks and rubs the back of his head.]

Ah, my apologies. I didn't mean to ramble.

[founderinglight]

Ours at least isn't strictly genetic in that sense - rather it's based upon proximity of relation to the crown. The branch families lose the ability after two or three generations.

['Proximity to the crown' yes he's also royalty, just casually throwing that in there like it isn't a big thing at all.]

The Lucian magic is technically derived from the divine crystal that acknowledges the line of kings, so it doesn't spread too far beyond us. I have no idea of the manifestation of the Oracle powers in the Nox Fleuret line is similar.

[foolishjustice]

[Yes, well, when your social circle includes an angel and you yourself have become a death god...unusual pedigrees become less of a shock.]

Ah, so it's not actually a genetic component, but rather a gift given to people based on their heritage? That is much simpler, though I wonder at the wisdom of it. Parents and children can be very different from one another, so one being deserving doesn't necessarily mean the other will be.

[founderinglight]

Which is where the judgement of the ring and the approval of one's ancestors comes in, though we fortunately haven't actually had to immolate anyone who was actually of the line.

[It's not a terrible system with that little bit of gatekeeping between heirs and the crown.]

[foolishjustice]

Immolate? That sounds...quite unpleasant.

[And he thought being ripped apart by Noise hurt.]

But so long as the ring and ancestors in question have reasonable standards, it does sound like a...highly effective way of discouraging abuse of power.

[founderinglight]

Yes, it's quite successful at making people take the whole thing seriously.

[He's not at all disturbed by it.]

There's been some small handful of people who were found worthy of the ring's power and were not of the bloodline, but for the most part the ring, rather than the crown, was the actual proof of one's status as king.

[foolishjustice]

I guess it's about the same as the threat of Erasure, though I'd...personally choose a less painful method of execution, in most cases.

A sentient artifact sounds quite interesting, though. I've encountered a self-aware robot recently, but not an object with the level of awareness you're implying.

[founderinglight]

The ring itself isn't sentient so much as it contains numerous spirits of dead kings. ... The jury is still out on the crystal itself, however.

[Is the giant prince-eating geode alive or not? Who knows, his canon's a mess.]

...And what's the point if you can't make the judgement of the unworthy dramatic?

[Do you have no sense of style, Akechi-kun?]

[foolishjustice]

Ah, spirits of the dead are something I'm more familiar with.

[His wings flap again.]

But, there are a number of ways to make judgment dramatic without causing unnecessary suffering. I'm not particularly fond of agonizing methods of death, except in cases where the judged is especially vile.

[founderinglight]

Considering that there's been all of... once, in two thousand years, that the unworthy one wasn't simply seeking that power for their own personal gain...

[He shrugs.]

Him, we just took an arm. The replacement he got was rather attractive, actually, matched his eyes.