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countryclub2022-11-25 07:50 pm
reddosmod) wrote in countryclub2022-11-25 07:50 pm
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NOVEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME!
NOVEMBER 2022 TDM
UNFORTUNATELY ALL TOO STANDARD ARRIVAL
TOO MUCH OF A BAD THING
IT COMES
CODING
Another month, another test drive meme! Our test drive memes are open to anyone interested - regardless of whether or not you join our game!
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Bloody humanoid frame trapped under ice, pounding for freedom]
[Image Two: Sharktopus, because of course this gets worse]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Snow Tunnel]
[Image Two: Furry Snow Spider Monstrous Abomination]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Paw Print in Snow]
[Image Two: Skeletal flaming wolf thing with disjointed form]
All Test Drive Memes are game canon. Players can choose to keep their TDM threads canon or not. TDM threads can be used for AC and can be used as your writing sample for your application.
Our TDMs serve as a way to build into the actual lore and worldbuilding of Deer Country and we strongly encourage everyone to enjoy and participate! Current players are always welcome to pull prompts from the TDM to reference on the Network or bring into logs as well as tag out to new characters top-leveling on the TDM itself.
Characters will always be able to actively die during TDMs as this is an extremely dangerous world. You can still have this be game canon! Check out how character death in Deer Country works here.
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask down below!
Prompt One
[Image One: Bloody humanoid frame trapped under ice, pounding for freedom]
[Image Two: Sharktopus, because of course this gets worse]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Snow Tunnel]
[Image Two: Furry Snow Spider Monstrous Abomination]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Paw Print in Snow]
[Image Two: Skeletal flaming wolf thing with disjointed form]
WHEN: Last Week of November/First Week of December
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk/Trench Streets
CONTENT WARNINGS: Tentacled monster parasite, drowning peril, possible death, freezing peril, being trapped under the ice with horrible tentacled sharks and mackerel as you try to get free and you're just a little squid! Seriously, who wants to arrive at Trench in December?
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk/Trench Streets
CONTENT WARNINGS: Tentacled monster parasite, drowning peril, possible death, freezing peril, being trapped under the ice with horrible tentacled sharks and mackerel as you try to get free and you're just a little squid! Seriously, who wants to arrive at Trench in December?
Washing up on the Farther Shores towards the end of November and the beginning of December isn't the best experience. Normally there are some Sleepers who can show up without a hitch, but as winter nears, the waters begin to freeze and it gets increasingly dangerous to arrive on the Farther Shores. Many Sleepers wind up trapped under ice!!! Wakers must especially be diligent this month to make sure they don't lose valuable Sleepers. Drowning and freezing to death is extremely probable. If you're lucky, you might be able to break through the ice to shriek for help. Let's just hope someone's around to hear you!
Worst of all, not only is the surface ice forming and freezing up throughout the end of the Bone Season, but the waters beneath churn and swim with life that does not appear to be squid-like in nature. The wakers are willing to come out, but they recognize the signs and make warding gestures, murmuring that “The Tide came late this year.” They will not come to the ice without a Hunter present to assist them to break it open for fear of the worst. “The Worst” comes in the form of a parasitic infection that the natives say is seasonal to the bone season and its transition. The tide of it did not rise during the onset of the Bone Season, but as the ice has broken, sometimes waves of infected creatures from the deep pour out and into the city streets, requiring protection from Hunters. More information can be found in Prompt Three (“What They Brought”), and players are more than welcome to make use of it.
These creatures rush out from the ice, surging in waves when they break free. The threat to wakers is only temporary as they are intent on getting to land, but the threat is real. Hunters must protect wakers as they flee or fight back the lesser waves to allow the ice to freeze again, hoping the most unlucky of sleepers get through safely. Some of these waves of tentacled horrors slip by into the city, inevitably, threatening the residents of Trench with their presence and further impeding the rescue of Sleepers.
Some Sleepers are lucky. They might reach the ice between waves. They might find a thin patch and get out on their own. They might be pulled along with the tide of monsters and freed up onto the ice as they go past. Someone might rescue them quickly before the parasites get loose. Others? Not so lucky.
SEASONAL DETAILS ON THE BOARDWALK
Most of the Boardwalk has been converted to save the Sleepers that do make it. Tents have been put up and inside are mattresses stuffed with hay and blankets made from wool and furs. Contained coal and wood fires keep the tents cozy, but it might take a while before you get feeling back into your toes. If you have warmblood or coldblood you will not have nearly as bad of a time with all of this. Some coldblood Sleepers might not even notice the cold! Might be good to put them on the frontlines for helping people out.
Another oddity this month is that most Sleepers seem to arrive at night rather than the typical daytime arrivals. Maybe it's because daytime hours are much shorter in December...But maybe it's something else too. This has led to Wakers making search parties to try and find Sleepers in the pitch-black night. It's a precarious situation and all hands on deck are strongly encouraged.
The Dog Keeper has come out to help the efforts again this year. Many in town say it is normal for him to be active during the Bone Moon because of the cold. His dogs can be seen running frantically around the beach to help find people buried under ice and to help break through the ice to get them to safety. Dogs are available to help Sleepers swim to the Farther Shores, and they are also available to help Sleepers warm up by cuddling up afterward. There isn't much food to offer at this time, but you can still expect to be greeted with some hot soup. It might leave you hungry, but it definitely seems to help warm you up! Dogs may also growl a warning before the ice bursts with monsters and even help pull people to safety.
Worst of all, not only is the surface ice forming and freezing up throughout the end of the Bone Season, but the waters beneath churn and swim with life that does not appear to be squid-like in nature. The wakers are willing to come out, but they recognize the signs and make warding gestures, murmuring that “The Tide came late this year.” They will not come to the ice without a Hunter present to assist them to break it open for fear of the worst. “The Worst” comes in the form of a parasitic infection that the natives say is seasonal to the bone season and its transition. The tide of it did not rise during the onset of the Bone Season, but as the ice has broken, sometimes waves of infected creatures from the deep pour out and into the city streets, requiring protection from Hunters. More information can be found in Prompt Three (“What They Brought”), and players are more than welcome to make use of it.
These creatures rush out from the ice, surging in waves when they break free. The threat to wakers is only temporary as they are intent on getting to land, but the threat is real. Hunters must protect wakers as they flee or fight back the lesser waves to allow the ice to freeze again, hoping the most unlucky of sleepers get through safely. Some of these waves of tentacled horrors slip by into the city, inevitably, threatening the residents of Trench with their presence and further impeding the rescue of Sleepers.
Some Sleepers are lucky. They might reach the ice between waves. They might find a thin patch and get out on their own. They might be pulled along with the tide of monsters and freed up onto the ice as they go past. Someone might rescue them quickly before the parasites get loose. Others? Not so lucky.
Most of the Boardwalk has been converted to save the Sleepers that do make it. Tents have been put up and inside are mattresses stuffed with hay and blankets made from wool and furs. Contained coal and wood fires keep the tents cozy, but it might take a while before you get feeling back into your toes. If you have warmblood or coldblood you will not have nearly as bad of a time with all of this. Some coldblood Sleepers might not even notice the cold! Might be good to put them on the frontlines for helping people out.
Another oddity this month is that most Sleepers seem to arrive at night rather than the typical daytime arrivals. Maybe it's because daytime hours are much shorter in December...But maybe it's something else too. This has led to Wakers making search parties to try and find Sleepers in the pitch-black night. It's a precarious situation and all hands on deck are strongly encouraged.
The Dog Keeper has come out to help the efforts again this year. Many in town say it is normal for him to be active during the Bone Moon because of the cold. His dogs can be seen running frantically around the beach to help find people buried under ice and to help break through the ice to get them to safety. Dogs are available to help Sleepers swim to the Farther Shores, and they are also available to help Sleepers warm up by cuddling up afterward. There isn't much food to offer at this time, but you can still expect to be greeted with some hot soup. It might leave you hungry, but it definitely seems to help warm you up! Dogs may also growl a warning before the ice bursts with monsters and even help pull people to safety.
WHEN: Random times in December
WHERE: Various places in Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Blizzard conditions, Being Covered by Snow, Claustrophobia, Fear of the Dark, Horrible Yeti/Spider Abomination monsters, Earthquake
WHERE: Various places in Trench
CONTENT WARNINGS: Blizzard conditions, Being Covered by Snow, Claustrophobia, Fear of the Dark, Horrible Yeti/Spider Abomination monsters, Earthquake
The people of Trench have been breathing a collective sigh of relief that the worst of the hallucinations seems to be fading. True, warmbloods still seem to be experiencing something wrong with their blood and there's occasional building warpings, but the worst is abating after mushrooms were found last month. Though fears persist, the people initially breathe a sigh of relief that everything is going back to normal. That is, they did, until the Earthquake on the third of the month.
The earthquake isn't really that bad. You barely notice it, but everyone suddenly feels worried. It might have been only a 4 on the richter scale, but it heralds something far worse. Occasional aftershocks come, but there's no sign of there being actual cracks, fissures or real damage until the reason is suspected. It is almost as if the city of Trench is coughing, in the midst of a fever. And like many fevers, someone is running a temperature, a dangerously low one in fact. Blizzards overwhelm parts of the city soon after, striking at random points around town. Where they fall, snow drifts that cover entire buildings quickly fall, threatening to cover the people in the deluge. Afterwards, people may find themselves trapped in the buildings that they were in last, wondering how to escape.
Soon, however, an option presents itself. About an hour after the snow stops falling, there is a scratching sound from the other side of the door. If you look beyond the door, you will find a tunnel carved in the snow. It is barely large enough to admit human-sized people, but terribly cold and claustrophobic and the scratching sounds echo through it ominously. Do you dare to enter? The passageways do lead from building to building, but they are labyrinthine in nature. There is no rhyme or reason to how one gets from one place to another, no road signs, and the scratching always sounds like it is getting closer.
If you can brave the cold, the dead-ends, the frustration and the claustrophobia, you can find your way from place to place. But, if you are unlucky, the scratching sound may suddenly grow dangerously close. Around a corner shuffles a creature out of Trench's worst nightmares. Part Yeti, part spider, with claws that look almost like those of a giant sloth, the thing claws its way through the tunnel, coming to a brief halt. Its baleful, unnatural eyes gaze upon the people before it. A moment passes, and one of three things happens. Perhaps it attacks, forcing them to defend themselves against it in tight corners. Its venom freezes the blood, but it is not invulnerable. Its strength and danger are real, but it can be defeated if one is careful, and its venom even harvested. Perhaps it simply continues to tunnel, moving around them, allowing them to follow if they wish or to flee another direction. Who knows where they will end up. Or perhaps most disturbingly of all, it speaks, in halting, jerky, alien clicks. “Blood?” it says. If they give a portion, a measure of blood, it might just claw its way to where they are going, but how could it possibly know already?
Luckily, these heavy snow drifts only last for a day or two before miraculously melting to more normal heights for a heavy snowfall while people are sleeping. No explanation comes, though every time it seems the moon is shining a little less brightly for an hour or two after before all is normal again.
The earthquake isn't really that bad. You barely notice it, but everyone suddenly feels worried. It might have been only a 4 on the richter scale, but it heralds something far worse. Occasional aftershocks come, but there's no sign of there being actual cracks, fissures or real damage until the reason is suspected. It is almost as if the city of Trench is coughing, in the midst of a fever. And like many fevers, someone is running a temperature, a dangerously low one in fact. Blizzards overwhelm parts of the city soon after, striking at random points around town. Where they fall, snow drifts that cover entire buildings quickly fall, threatening to cover the people in the deluge. Afterwards, people may find themselves trapped in the buildings that they were in last, wondering how to escape.
Soon, however, an option presents itself. About an hour after the snow stops falling, there is a scratching sound from the other side of the door. If you look beyond the door, you will find a tunnel carved in the snow. It is barely large enough to admit human-sized people, but terribly cold and claustrophobic and the scratching sounds echo through it ominously. Do you dare to enter? The passageways do lead from building to building, but they are labyrinthine in nature. There is no rhyme or reason to how one gets from one place to another, no road signs, and the scratching always sounds like it is getting closer.
If you can brave the cold, the dead-ends, the frustration and the claustrophobia, you can find your way from place to place. But, if you are unlucky, the scratching sound may suddenly grow dangerously close. Around a corner shuffles a creature out of Trench's worst nightmares. Part Yeti, part spider, with claws that look almost like those of a giant sloth, the thing claws its way through the tunnel, coming to a brief halt. Its baleful, unnatural eyes gaze upon the people before it. A moment passes, and one of three things happens. Perhaps it attacks, forcing them to defend themselves against it in tight corners. Its venom freezes the blood, but it is not invulnerable. Its strength and danger are real, but it can be defeated if one is careful, and its venom even harvested. Perhaps it simply continues to tunnel, moving around them, allowing them to follow if they wish or to flee another direction. Who knows where they will end up. Or perhaps most disturbingly of all, it speaks, in halting, jerky, alien clicks. “Blood?” it says. If they give a portion, a measure of blood, it might just claw its way to where they are going, but how could it possibly know already?
Luckily, these heavy snow drifts only last for a day or two before miraculously melting to more normal heights for a heavy snowfall while people are sleeping. No explanation comes, though every time it seems the moon is shining a little less brightly for an hour or two after before all is normal again.
WHEN: Any time in December
WHERE: In the wilds between districts
CONTENT WARNINGS: Severe paranoia, the feeling of being hunted, creepy sounds, possible sighting of eldritch horror, violence to animals
WHERE: In the wilds between districts
CONTENT WARNINGS: Severe paranoia, the feeling of being hunted, creepy sounds, possible sighting of eldritch horror, violence to animals
The paw prints of Dorothea aren't the only ones in the snow. If you step outside of Trench, there are occasions where you might come across a paw print that seems anomalous in some mind-perturbing way. There might be a quartet, but the way that they're positioned just doesn't match any anatomical configuration you can imagine on a creature. Perhaps there are two of them, but it's just the ones on the right side. Maybe there's just one. They all have the wrong number of toes, and seem awful in some sense, gnarled and unnatural, but it's hard to take your eyes off of them, at least until you can swear you feel something watching you.
Nothing happens at first. The paranoia strikes, but it passes eventually. At least, until you start investigating. Take a picture, get an impression, bring the evidence to the archives, to the disciples. Nobody has a record of a monster with a claw print quite like that, and any Trenchy you ask seems paranoid somehow. Do they know something? Even a mind reader would swear they don't, but it's almost like the subconscious knows that something very wrong is going on. Whether you investigate or not, the feeling of being watched, of being followed increases over the next week, especially when you are outside of the confines of the districts. At night, you swear that you hear clawing at your door, breathing at your window, but when you look, there is nothing.
Traveling with another helps a little. It eases the fear, but only because it shares it with another. The sensation you are both being stalked gets worse until at some point, you hear the snap of a twig. When you twist, you see something. You can't see it as you look directly. You can't pin-point what it is. It appears only in the very corner of your vision, and as soon as your eyes train towards it, it is gone. You hear a howl, a rending sound. There is a scream of something alive being killed, maimed, and for a split second you may think it's coming for you next.
But it doesn't.
Inextricably you are faced with the reality that something terrifying almost attacked you, and when you go to where the cry of the damned came from, you find a small woodland creature dead, mutilated. Only its heart is eaten, the rest left to rot, crystals forming in it almost immediately. Try as you might to hunt the beast, to track it, it defies you. You still feel the sensation you are being watched, but it is as if it refuses to engage, to target you, or perhaps it is simply because you were never its prey, and your curiosity only made it more curious. Be careful what you wish for, Sleeper. You might just find it.
Nothing happens at first. The paranoia strikes, but it passes eventually. At least, until you start investigating. Take a picture, get an impression, bring the evidence to the archives, to the disciples. Nobody has a record of a monster with a claw print quite like that, and any Trenchy you ask seems paranoid somehow. Do they know something? Even a mind reader would swear they don't, but it's almost like the subconscious knows that something very wrong is going on. Whether you investigate or not, the feeling of being watched, of being followed increases over the next week, especially when you are outside of the confines of the districts. At night, you swear that you hear clawing at your door, breathing at your window, but when you look, there is nothing.
Traveling with another helps a little. It eases the fear, but only because it shares it with another. The sensation you are both being stalked gets worse until at some point, you hear the snap of a twig. When you twist, you see something. You can't see it as you look directly. You can't pin-point what it is. It appears only in the very corner of your vision, and as soon as your eyes train towards it, it is gone. You hear a howl, a rending sound. There is a scream of something alive being killed, maimed, and for a split second you may think it's coming for you next.
But it doesn't.
Inextricably you are faced with the reality that something terrifying almost attacked you, and when you go to where the cry of the damned came from, you find a small woodland creature dead, mutilated. Only its heart is eaten, the rest left to rot, crystals forming in it almost immediately. Try as you might to hunt the beast, to track it, it defies you. You still feel the sensation you are being watched, but it is as if it refuses to engage, to target you, or perhaps it is simply because you were never its prey, and your curiosity only made it more curious. Be careful what you wish for, Sleeper. You might just find it.