phantasmods: (Default)
Phantasmal Rift Mods ([personal profile] phantasmods) wrote in [community profile] phantasmemes2018-07-12 11:56 pm
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TEST DRIVE 005

Hello and welcome to the fifth 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 time, the Test Drive takes place in Incendia - a less-ruined-than-expected city that has been abandoned for over a century, due to the magical effects of the Fissure (unstable reality region) that have made it impossible to live in. What effects are these, you ask?

Well...

BY DAY

By day, the city is lovely, if oddly empty. The sun shines down, and magical lights along the sidewalk - the equivalent of power lines - flow energy throughout the city. It's possible to think that the little sparks you sometimes see at the corner of your vision are related. After all, there's a great deal of magic in the air...

But in spite of this, the city lies abandoned, for no immediately apparent reason. You might have found yourself in a wide-open shipping yard, where large metal containers levitate about, moving without any help or oversight from human hands. Be careful; these containers changing positions make it easy to get lost for quite a long time, since few of them have much in the way of identifying traits over than color. Didn't you already pass that arrangement of two red ones on top of a blue one before...?

Or perhaps you're in the massive park in the center of town, with its blatantly magical fountain (a half-dome of water just hanging in the air) and the tents of an abandoned festival. Two stages and a long line of street food booths stand empty - surely no one will mind if you use them for something, right?

Or perhaps you're just suddenly on the streets, among stalled-out taxis and cars that go nowhere and lack the familiar smell of gasoline. There's apartments and shops all around, with little gardens spilling out over balconies... Maybe if you go knock on some doors, you'll find people.

Wherever it is you are, surely there's got to be someone around who can tell you what's going on, right...?

BY DUSK

As night falls, rather than dropping the way you might expect, the temperature begins to rise. And then the sparks in the edges of your vision are very much more than simply at the edges of your vision. They catch first on the plants, the papers stuck to the now-lit magical streetlights, the trash cans... And then, increasingly so, on the buildings proper, the shops, the skyscrapers, the cars in the street.

Within half an hour, an inferno is starting to build, and it's clear that there's not going to be anywhere above ground safe from it. But fortunately, there's safety beneath the level of the streets - if you can make your way fast enough to an underground station.

BY NIGHT

In the remains of these subway tunnels, lit mostly by the dim glow of magical energy lines, you're at least safe from the inferno above. Unlike the aboveground parts of the city, however, the tunnels are in an obvious state of disrepair, with broken concrete, rot, and mildew. The stations might have once been clean, but they quite transparently are not now, and the tunnels themselves are as bad or worse.

Thankfully, no trains run anymore, so you're not at risk of being run down on the broken tracks. There's also not any full-on collapses blocking the way, and the tunnels seem well-enough made that there's probably not risk of a cave-in.

Less pleasantly, you aren't the only thing taking shelter in the tunnels from the firestorm above. And the magic of that flame has touched the feral dogs that rove the tunnels, turning them into barking, howling creatures of as much flame as flesh themselves. And then there's the occasional patch of mold, mildew, and slime in the darkest parts of the tunnels, where even the magical circuits have gone out, that moves to douse any light that comes near it...
have_hat_will_travel: (Quiet)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-07-26 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
First, I don't sleep. Another advantage of the Outsider creature type.

Second, it's not just me you'd need to convince to try and convert the station. We don't particularly have leaders besides the native androids, but we've got a boatload of people. If you want to try and take charge, go for it.
shipoutofluck: (001)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
...Right. [He did have a feeling about her.] Daemon, then?

[That's what this feels like, at least.]

I'm not too concerned about convincing anyone. I'll figure things out.
have_hat_will_travel: (Curious)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-03 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
No, Daemons are Neutral Evil and tend to be eternally unhappy. Er, at least where I'm from.

I'm a Demon. Chaotic Evil and I can actually have something resembling a healthy overall emotional state.
shipoutofluck: (009)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[??????]

Those both sound like daemons to me.
have_hat_will_travel: (Bothered)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-03 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Remember what I said earlier about different worlds? This is that in action.

Where you're from, there may not be such a separation. Where I'm from, not knowing the difference between a demon, a daemon, and a devil is a very, very fast way to die horribly.
shipoutofluck: (008)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
...Is it that important? They're all dangerous. Not letting your guard down near any of them seems wise to me.

Present company included, of course.

[No offense.]
have_hat_will_travel: (Tired)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-03 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
None taken, though I'm doing what I can to be good while I'm here.

And there's a few different reasons it's rather important. Devils and Demons you can make deals with, for example, but under different rules; Daemons not so much.
shipoutofluck: (001)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-03 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Making a deal with any of those seems like a recipe for disaster. You'd have to be a fool to try that.
have_hat_will_travel: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-04 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Well, it's part of why Succubi like me exist so...
have_hat_will_travel: (Confident)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-04 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[Aaaand this is Pidonus spinning into a fancy pose. She seems WAY too happy to be doing this introduction.]

I'm a Succubus, the demonic incarnation of mortal desires gone wrong! With my sensuous body and superior understanding of mortal emotions compared to most of demonkind, I am a seductress designed to guide mortals to ruin or to deals that ultimately serve myself or my masters!

... Or I can just use my supernatural powers of influence to guide people into useful directions against my enemies. Mostly I've done that one.
shipoutofluck: (048)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-05 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[He doesn't even blink at the pose. That sort of attitude is familiar.

Honestly, the whole spiel...]


...Did you practice that?
have_hat_will_travel: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-06 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe. A few hundred times.
have_hat_will_travel: (Au)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-06 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait, you're used to judging introductory expositions like that?!
shipoutofluck: (042)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-06 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I know some strange people.

You could stand to make it flashier.
have_hat_will_travel: (Huhwhat?)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-06 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess I could do some tricks with dancing lights or prestidigitation or something, but how much is too much?

Slightly less overstated might be better for getting the point across, especially when I'd rather save my big numbers for my bardic performance abilities...
shipoutofluck: (047)

[personal profile] shipoutofluck 2018-08-07 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
...You have a concept of restraint. That's refreshing. Then I'll change it to four stars.
have_hat_will_travel: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] have_hat_will_travel 2018-08-08 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
I guess? I mostly just feel like saving my best for storytelling is more appropriate for my class, is all...