TEST DRIVE 004

[phantasmods]

Hello and welcome to the fourth 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 takes place in Keystone Reef, a water-influenced Fissure to the northeast of the station. It is home to numerous fish and coral species, as well as a very interesting magical effect...

OPTION ONE: FINNY FUN

Under the water is where you woke up, and under the water is where you might be stuck for a while. The magic is lodged in you and has changed your form -- maybe a little, maybe a lot. Perhaps you only have gills, but you may also have a full set of changes, fins and no feet to speak of. Don't panic, you'll surely be fine if you just keep swimming...

Aside from the strange changes, it's a pretty cool place to be. If you've ever dreamed about scuba diving on a coral reef, the place that you've found yourself is perfect for that (minus the needing to scuba part). Curious fish swim up and then dart away into rock crevices, coral growths, and even down to bury themselves in the layer of sand at the bottom. The water is also fairly shallow, allowing you to surface if you so desire.

Even the sharks are friendly and just want to have as much a look at you as you want to look at them. Don't harass the glowing eels tucked into cracks between the rocks, though, they bite and don't particularly let go.

OPTION TWO: WORLD'S SMALLEST JUNGLE

This must certainly be an oceanside jungle - in spite of the humidity, the smell of salt on the air is strong. Brilliant greens and the occasional bright flowers, accompanied by island birdsong... It could be a nice place to spend an afternoon. There's not even that many bugs that want to drink your blood (though bugs in general are, well, quite plentiful).

Eventually, though, however far you go, you'll reach the beach and be met with the expanse of the ocean - blue, uncaring, and real big. While one side of the little island thankfully has land visible in the distance, the outer side just overlooks a near-endless expanse of blue. If you're a very good swimmer, you could probably make your way to land past the rocks of the reef itself... Otherwise, though, you might be just a bit stuck on your jungle island paradise.

At least until someone brings a boat.

OPTION THREE: SHIPWRECK

Both above and below the waterline are the remains of ships crashed upon the rocks, just waiting to be explored. Even though it has clearly been an incredibly long time, the chunks of wood and metal are still in fairly good condition, and the chance of finding something nice tucked in with them among the rocks is surely tempting to anyone with an adventurous spirit.

The wrecks beneath the waves also grow coral and seaweed, and provide havens for larger fish, dragon eels, and sharks. Those along the rocks above the waterline, on the other hand, provide a home for seabirds of all varieties. Most notable is the hulking shell of a shipping craft in the distance, looking very much modern if ruined by some centuries of exposure...

For right now, though, you'd best contend with the flotsam a bit closer to you, and the wildlife that might not take too kindly to your exploring. Below the waterline, the dragon eels found in a few places don't take kindly to being disturbed; above, you might run afoul of some overprotective seabirds protecting their nests. Maybe even an invisible seagull (normal sized) - how ridiculous would that be?

Comments

Freyja Stormlight | Original Character

[freedomofmovement]

1 - shipwreck

[Shipwrecks are a fairly common sight along the Blasted Strand - the vicious winter winds have driven many a craft ashore - but none of them look like this. Cautious but interested, Freyja picks her way around, using a well-worn quarterstaff to probe the ground in front of her.

There's a muffled tnk sound, and she crouches down to look, brushing away sand from something.]

Huh. And what are you...?

[So distracted by her find, she doesn't notice the annoyed seabirds wheeling above her. Maybe someone should warn her, before she gets divebombed.]

2 - make me a home among the palm trees

[Walking the length and breadth of the island hadn't been hard - but something wasn't quite right about it. Freyja couldn't quite figure out what, and so instead busied herself with making a campsite above the high tide mark. A canvas tarp stretches between two tree, anchored with rocks to make a sun shelter, and a small fire crackles brightly.]

[Freyja herself is sitting crosslegged under the tarp, well-worn pack beside her and a dagger in her hands. She's running it across a whetstone, occasionally picking it up to examine the edge before taking another few passes over the stone. She's talking to herself.]

The sealife is familiar enough, but there's something in the water. Not a curse, I don't think... but I can feel the pull.

3 - take the plunge

[Like any druid worth her salt (hah), Freyja wanted to find the source of this weird magic emanating from the sea. Turning into a mermaid was not actually something she anticipated. Still, she explores the coral crags, poking her nose into everything and -- talking to the glowing eels? What?]

[And when they snap at her, she swims back fast, adjusting the drape of her floating tunic, making sure the dagger she tucked in earlier is still there.]

You're a rude one, aren't you? Makes two of us, I guess.

2

[dubiouslychthonic]

Afternoon. Mind if I join you?

[Jetshard pauses a bit outside the bounds of Freya's camp, not wanting to approach much closer without acknowledgement; newcomers can be jumpy, as can the sort of person who sits around performing maintenance on their weapons in uncertain situations. And though she's not overtly threatening by the standards of her own species, Jetshard's occasionally found that her appearance - grey skin, forked orange horns, eyes that are not quite the color of human eyes behind the tinted lenses of her glasses - is startling to humans. Better safe than sorry.]

[freedomofmovement]

[Freyja frowns a little at Jetshard's appearance - she's never seen a tiefling with gray skin before, but there's a first time for everything. Probably.]

Sure. Pull up... some sand, I guess.

[She wipes the dagger clean, and re-sheathes it. She seems quite calm, if watchful.]

It's a small island. Seems daft to refuse hospitality.

[dubiouslychthonic]

Thanks. [Her smile is tight-lipped over dentition that's a bit more fang-like than the human norm, and when she takes a seat, it's far enough to be out of easy grabbing distance for either of them. Other than that caution, though, she seems comfortable enough with Freyja's company.] I haven't seen you back at the station - you've just arrived, haven't you?

[freedomofmovement]

[Yeah, whatever her new companion is - they're something new.]

There's a station? Guess it's well camouflaged.

[no freyja]

[dubiouslychthonic]

[She shrugs.] Not particularly, but it's far enough distant from here to be mostly out of sight. It's an old research outpost we've been using as a base since people started getting stranded here a few months ago.

To give you the short version of the newbie orientation lecture - reality's unstable around here in a way that sometimes lets things "fall through," as it were, from other worlds. We don't know how to reverse the connection and get back, but we can at least locally stabilize the worst of the magical hazards that accompany the reality-fissures, and in the process stop the influx.

[freedomofmovement]

[Freyja blinks, frowns, and then looks down at her hands. The silence stretches out, before she speaks again:]

I really wish I'd learned planar transportation spells. [She turns, rummaging through her backpack for something.] So, anyone can fall through? From anywhere? From anywhen?

[She's still not facing Jetshard, but she definitely doesn't sound confused.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

So far as we've been able to tell. We've got a couple of groups of people from the same times and places, but I'm not sure the sample size is big enough to be able to say that's more than just coincidence. And some of us seem to be from much further afield - at least, most of the worlds people come from seem to be populated mostly or entirely by humans, and, well... [She gestures at her horns, for which she's clearly had to cut holes in the broad-brimmed sun hat she's wearing.]

It's still a couple of days before we finish on this fissure and make our rendezvous with transport back to the station. Are you alright with camping out here for that long? I've got extra food and potable water I can share if you need it.

[freedomofmovement]

[Freyja sits back up, and pulls out a small, very battered looking book. Perhaps palm-sized, bound in very scaly leather. She distractedly leafs through it.]

Whatever you are doesn't bother me. [She scowls, and snaps the book closed.] I'm good on food and I can purify seawater - it's just...

[She huffs.] It's dumb.

[dubiouslychthonic]

[A brief tilt of the head; not quite a shrug, but something like it.] I'm certainly not going to argue with that. If I had an easy way home to offer, I would.

I'm Sawbones Jetshard, by the way. I'm on the station medical team, such as it is.

[freedomofmovement]

Freyja Stormlight. [The book gets tucked away again.] If you're part of the station, where exactly are we? This place feels... off, somehow.

[dubiouslychthonic]

Like I said, reality's unstable. Something to do with the ambient magic going haywire. Usually it's fairly consistent within a particular fissure, but if you're at all sensitive to magic I'm not surprised it's bothering you. I can only sense the overt effects, the world I came from has very little if any magic.

[She sighs, looks briefly off to the west.] This one we've been calling Keystone Reef - we're... probably a couple of miles offshore here? Distance can be a little hard to determine inside fissures. The shoreline and cliffs were the first area we stabilized.

[freedomofmovement]

My... connection to magic comes from nature. [quietly thinking through this]

The way you're describing it - it sounds like the Elemental Chaos, or maybe the Astral Sea. [Those are definitely capital letters.] If you can stabilise things by being there... Where's Tarquin when you need them, they know more about this than me.

2

[fistsofchange]

I dunno what's in the water, but it turns you into a fish person.

[Said the fish person who had just marched out of the sea.]

[freedomofmovement]

[W E L L]

[please forgive freyja, fish people walking out of the ocean is generally not a good thing where she's from. She tightens her grip on her dagger and stares with squinted eyes.]

And you weren't... like this before?

[fistsofchange]

[Lin held her hands up in a peaceful gesture.]

Normally just as human as you are! I swear!

[And then, because it's been a weird month or two since she got here...]

...You ARE human, right?

[freedomofmovement]

As far as I know. [She looks a little less concerned now, and is now curious.]

...is it okay for you to be out of the water when you look like that?

[fistsofchange]

Eventually I'll have to go back, but I'm fine for now. Some people actually got their legs replaced with a fish tail, though, so be careful.

[Lin flashed her a friendly grin full of razor sharp looking shark teeth as she sat down on the beach outside her tarp tent.]

I'm Bai Lin, by the way. Hi.

[freedomofmovement]

Got it. [Freyja nods in return.] Freyja. Where are we?

[fistsofchange]

We're...somewhere. I don't really entirely get it myself, honestly, but it's not somewhere we can get home from. Not yet, anyways.

[freedomofmovement]

[grumblegrumble]

Of course. Because why should things ever be easy?

[fistsofchange]

That's a pretty negative way at looking at things but I can't argue with it, unfortunately. It's very annoying to be stuck out here.

[freedomofmovement]

No - it's just... [Freyja pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on them.]

I thought I was done with adventuring. For a while, anyway.

[fistsofchange]

Yeah, it sucks you back in sometimes, doesn't it? I fought a wannabe god once, and then two weeks later I was beating up gangsters in New Hong Kong.

[freedomofmovement]

[Eyebrow raiiiise.]

What is it with people and trying to become gods? It never ends well.