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countryclub2023-02-22 12:53 pm
reddosmod) wrote in countryclub2023-02-22 12:53 pm
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FEBRUARY TEST DRIVE!
FEBRUARY 2023 TDM
Definitely Not Your Typical Arrival
Visions
Wild Growth
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!
SPECIAL NOTE FOR MARCH: The Moss King is the Agent of Change, chance, games and gamblings, and the Pthumerian loves variety. NO event from a prior March ever repeats in subsequent marches. This will also be mentioned in this month's Newsletter.
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Octopus in a Barrel]
[Image Two: Piranha up Close and Personal]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Desolate Cityscape in Ruins]
[Image Two: Kosh, a Tentacled Ghost in a Suit]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Fantasy Plant Expelling Gas]
[Image Two: Venus Flytraps up Close]
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!
SPECIAL NOTE FOR MARCH: The Moss King is the Agent of Change, chance, games and gamblings, and the Pthumerian loves variety. NO event from a prior March ever repeats in subsequent marches. This will also be mentioned in this month's Newsletter.
Prompt One
[Image One: Octopus in a Barrel]
[Image Two: Piranha up Close and Personal]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Desolate Cityscape in Ruins]
[Image Two: Kosh, a Tentacled Ghost in a Suit]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Fantasy Plant Expelling Gas]
[Image Two: Venus Flytraps up Close]
WHEN: First Week of March
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Being Trapped as a Squid temporarily, Themes of Dehumanization, Gambling on Human Life, Piranha attacks, Possible Blood/Gore, Possible Death
WHERE: The Farther Shores/The Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body Horror, Being Trapped as a Squid temporarily, Themes of Dehumanization, Gambling on Human Life, Piranha attacks, Possible Blood/Gore, Possible Death
When you arrive, nothing is right. A freak snowstorm blows across the coastline and Boardwalk on the first day of the month, just as the latest sleepers would arrive. It is obviously unnatural in nature, as the snow falls nowhere but the coastline. Fishermen grumble in irritation at the difficulties of doing their job and the Lighthouse keepers take the night off. When the snowstorm blows over a few hours later, the beach is blanketed in snow, and a sheet of ice as far out as the edges of the reef can be seen. Temperatures return to relative normal, but the thick ice refuses to be broken through by any means, magical or mundane!
Greeters are initially frantic because the sleepers who are trapped beneath the ice cannot escape to the shore. As you arrive, you will experience this, as a solid sheet of ice blocks any access to Trench, though almost as soon as the horror sets upon you, you feel yourself being scooped up by some unseen hand, or perhaps net, and in the next moment you find yourself in what seems like a very large barrel of warm, comfortable water, one complete with a wide assortment of floating balls that mostly obscure the light coming down from above. You're not even alone down here, as there are other squidlings, all of whom seem to be trying to escape and find their way to the surface. Unfortunately there are other guests down here. Who else is swimming beneath the water, you ask?
Piranha!
That's right, you're now swimming frantically to keep free of the snapping jaws of a few hungry but thankfully somewhat slow and apparently salt-water piranha who have been scooped up into the barrel. You have to get out of this barrel somehow, but the walls are too high and slick to climb up, so you're going to need some help. That's where other sleepers, and the ever so helpful Moss King are coming to your aid. The Moss King, who has very graciously scooped all of the potential sleepers from within the ocean into a massive barrel has offered other sleepers and greeters the chance to scoop their friends and future neighbors out as part of a game of chance. After all, isn't it always a bit of a game of chance whether or not you safely reach shore? Now, thanks to a few “accidental” piranha being added into the mix, it's quite literal. But never fear. He's slowed those pesky beasts down to give sleepers a fair chance.
Massive nets on poles are offered to sleepers by helpful and eager members of the local Disciples. They pontificate that participating in this game is an act of veneration of the Moss King, and hint that there may be a reward for playing along. The Moss King can be seen occasionally, chortling and enjoying the scene, though he seems ill disposed to answering any questions about how this all came to be, and if you argue too roughly with him, you might just find yourself as a squid again in the barrel! Once netted out, it is a simple matter for any squids who escape to return to their natural form, and should a person die within the barrel, they will find themselves awakening on the beach the next day, perhaps with a few bite marks to remember the harrowing experience. Once a person is rescued or re-appears after a harrowing experience, Greeters will meet them normally with clothes and their possessions.
Welcome to Trench!
F.A.Q.
Greeters are initially frantic because the sleepers who are trapped beneath the ice cannot escape to the shore. As you arrive, you will experience this, as a solid sheet of ice blocks any access to Trench, though almost as soon as the horror sets upon you, you feel yourself being scooped up by some unseen hand, or perhaps net, and in the next moment you find yourself in what seems like a very large barrel of warm, comfortable water, one complete with a wide assortment of floating balls that mostly obscure the light coming down from above. You're not even alone down here, as there are other squidlings, all of whom seem to be trying to escape and find their way to the surface. Unfortunately there are other guests down here. Who else is swimming beneath the water, you ask?
Piranha!
That's right, you're now swimming frantically to keep free of the snapping jaws of a few hungry but thankfully somewhat slow and apparently salt-water piranha who have been scooped up into the barrel. You have to get out of this barrel somehow, but the walls are too high and slick to climb up, so you're going to need some help. That's where other sleepers, and the ever so helpful Moss King are coming to your aid. The Moss King, who has very graciously scooped all of the potential sleepers from within the ocean into a massive barrel has offered other sleepers and greeters the chance to scoop their friends and future neighbors out as part of a game of chance. After all, isn't it always a bit of a game of chance whether or not you safely reach shore? Now, thanks to a few “accidental” piranha being added into the mix, it's quite literal. But never fear. He's slowed those pesky beasts down to give sleepers a fair chance.
Massive nets on poles are offered to sleepers by helpful and eager members of the local Disciples. They pontificate that participating in this game is an act of veneration of the Moss King, and hint that there may be a reward for playing along. The Moss King can be seen occasionally, chortling and enjoying the scene, though he seems ill disposed to answering any questions about how this all came to be, and if you argue too roughly with him, you might just find yourself as a squid again in the barrel! Once netted out, it is a simple matter for any squids who escape to return to their natural form, and should a person die within the barrel, they will find themselves awakening on the beach the next day, perhaps with a few bite marks to remember the harrowing experience. Once a person is rescued or re-appears after a harrowing experience, Greeters will meet them normally with clothes and their possessions.
Welcome to Trench!
F.A.Q.
- This arrival is avoidable and can be opted out from, though it is unlikely to do so. The ice refuses to break, but it is remotely possible for a sleeper to be fished out of the water at the very edge of the ice flows. The Moss King would look upon this unfavorably, however, and might just give a curse exceptionally good luck upon the offending party or parties. Everything, initially, seems to go their way and fortune smiles on them, until people around them begin accusing them of cheating, or of stealing, or somehow gaining whatever benefits they have experienced through ill means. No Trenchy (and even some sleepers perhaps) will treat them well while everything seems to go their way in this fashion, as if they had a giant, invisible sign on them saying “Cheater” that everyone but them could see. This “good luck” will not result in a lethal confrontation and fades in a few days.
- Yes, the Moss King is absolutely responsible for the unseasonable ice flow and the piranha are there on purpose. He likes his games, and he's a jerk. No, he will never admit it and no Disciple will ever acknowledge that this was actually his plan all along. Even contacting other Pthumerians will get nothing more than a knowing smirk or stony silence, should you have the means to do so. Inquiring with the wastes may result in someone being told it's probably his doing, but that there is nothing to do about it, and to just get through this.
- Rescuing sleeper squids is just like fishing a goldfish out of a bowl. Yes, it is possible to accidentally fish a Piranha out and get bit for your troubles before it leaps back into the water. Jumping into the barrel will cause a sleeper to revert to squid form and need to be rescued. Piranha can be avoided, as they do not move as fast naturally, but they are dangerous and can attack and even kill a sleeper.
- If a sleeper willingly participates in the Moss King's twisted game, they will find in their home the next morning a voucher good for credits at his gambling hall and a complementary cocktail, usable only during the following month.
- No, the Moss King isn't sorry. Not One Bit.
WHEN: Anytime in March
WHERE: All over Trench.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Post-Apocalyptic Scenario, Starvation, Extreme Loneliness & Depression.
WHERE: All over Trench.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Post-Apocalyptic Scenario, Starvation, Extreme Loneliness & Depression.
One aspect of the Wild Moon and the Moss King not widely discussed is that the greatest gambler and risk taker in Trench is also the master of all possibilities and probabilities, not to mention prophecies. One night, while you are asleep (even if you are a being that normally never sleeps, you find yourself drowsy and dozing off if afflicted by this event), you have a dream and a vision, one that is shared by one or more others.
You awake to find yourself in Trench. However, as you step out of your home, you find that the Trench you know has become little more than a desolate wasteland. The river running through town is brackish and reeks of pollution, but a more natural variety than the blood that often can be seen throughout the community. There is no moon in the sky, and in fact you see and feel none of the blood effects that you are used to being so ever present. The world is lonely and bare, but it is pure and free of the corruption that has plagued it. It almost seems a paradise. Almost.
The creeping sensation gets worse as time goes that something is wrong. For one, while there are absolutely no monsters to speak of, there are also no people. You search, and search, and you find nobody, and even all of the plant and animal life that you see is dead, long rotted and decayed. The air has a cloying stench of ash to it the longer that you travel and you can feel yourself becoming ever more ravenous as you and your companions search for someone, anyone in the midst of this, or a means to wake up, but you just can't. At first.
You are not entirely alone. It takes a very long time, but eventually you find one single soul who lurks and haunts their home. Kosh. The spectral being that guards what was once a flourishing orphanage remains, wailing and screaming to anyone who will listen to him, begging them to find the children quickly before it is too late. It may take a while to do, but he can be calmed, at least enough to speak one salient sentence. “This is what you wanted to happen, isn't it? You have to be careful what you wish for!” When he shrieks this, he flees the sleepers, and is unable to be found again.
Escaping this nightmare is not easy. There are only two ways to leave this dream: Gradual, slow exposure to starvation and the elements. Thankfully, the effects of this wasting do not take literal months, as a sort of gnawing, existential hunger builds the longer that one is in this world, as if something is hideously and horrendously missing from reality. Within a day, they will succumb and waste away in the agony of starvation. The other option is to swim out into the sea, as if one were attempting to return home. Doing so will result in a person turning back into a squid and losing any memory of how they got back, other than the nagging feeling that they never were able to find their home, that there was no home to return to.
You awake to find yourself in Trench. However, as you step out of your home, you find that the Trench you know has become little more than a desolate wasteland. The river running through town is brackish and reeks of pollution, but a more natural variety than the blood that often can be seen throughout the community. There is no moon in the sky, and in fact you see and feel none of the blood effects that you are used to being so ever present. The world is lonely and bare, but it is pure and free of the corruption that has plagued it. It almost seems a paradise. Almost.
The creeping sensation gets worse as time goes that something is wrong. For one, while there are absolutely no monsters to speak of, there are also no people. You search, and search, and you find nobody, and even all of the plant and animal life that you see is dead, long rotted and decayed. The air has a cloying stench of ash to it the longer that you travel and you can feel yourself becoming ever more ravenous as you and your companions search for someone, anyone in the midst of this, or a means to wake up, but you just can't. At first.
You are not entirely alone. It takes a very long time, but eventually you find one single soul who lurks and haunts their home. Kosh. The spectral being that guards what was once a flourishing orphanage remains, wailing and screaming to anyone who will listen to him, begging them to find the children quickly before it is too late. It may take a while to do, but he can be calmed, at least enough to speak one salient sentence. “This is what you wanted to happen, isn't it? You have to be careful what you wish for!” When he shrieks this, he flees the sleepers, and is unable to be found again.
Escaping this nightmare is not easy. There are only two ways to leave this dream: Gradual, slow exposure to starvation and the elements. Thankfully, the effects of this wasting do not take literal months, as a sort of gnawing, existential hunger builds the longer that one is in this world, as if something is hideously and horrendously missing from reality. Within a day, they will succumb and waste away in the agony of starvation. The other option is to swim out into the sea, as if one were attempting to return home. Doing so will result in a person turning back into a squid and losing any memory of how they got back, other than the nagging feeling that they never were able to find their home, that there was no home to return to.
WHEN: Anytime in March
WHERE: All around Trench and surrounding regions, except the Beach and Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Carnivorous Plants, Violent fantasy plants, Environmental Hazards, Attempted entrapment by plant-life, general flora as monster horror
WHERE: All around Trench and surrounding regions, except the Beach and Boardwalk
CONTENT WARNINGS: Carnivorous Plants, Violent fantasy plants, Environmental Hazards, Attempted entrapment by plant-life, general flora as monster horror
With the Moss King pre-occupied with his games on the coast, springtime has come unfettered to the city of Trench. Plantlife practically erupts like a volcanic explosion of verdant beauty as far as the eye can see. Beautiful flowers are visible everywhere, glorious spreads of vegetables grow throughout the city, and vines and moss creepers can be seen all over the place. At first, it might seem like a net positive. After all, a close inspection of the vegetables and fruits found on these plants is that many of them are entirely healthy, without corruption and eating them (or preserving them for the future) comes with no ill effects. It's quite the bonanza for those who wish to stock up for the coming months.
Since when has it ever been that easy in Trench? Within a day or two, the verdant blossoms are clearly becoming too much to bear. It's the sort of thing that is almost painfully predictable even if it is at least a little different from last year. As the strawberry harvest becomes something out of the local farmer's market's dreams, every other type of plant imaginable comes to life, growing to epic and as a result perilous proportions.
Giant Venus flytraps, sundews and other sundry threats are among those that start to emerge throughout the city, but they are hardly the only possibilities. Not all of these plants are interested in gobbling someone up, but they can be potentially quite violent and dangerous! A series of far more exotic creatures now lurk in alleyways and far too close to doorways. Hanging blossoms with scythe like claws lash out at anyone that comes too near to them. bulbous mawed plants filled with toxic gas open up to spread their poisonous fumes if someone is too close. Strange clawed strangler vines with pincers will lash out and try to snare the unwary, attempting to strangle them and suck them dry of their bodily fluids!
These various and unpleasant plants can be beaten down, and fire certainly works just fine on them, as does freezing them. They are potentially lethal, but they are in the end just plants. It is also possible to sneak up on them and stun them, if one is so inclined, making it much easier to dispose of these threats when they are encountered. But, if one is unwary, they can be incredibly dangerous.
F.A.Q.This event can be opted out of simply by not encountering violent plants. However, there is still a lot of plant growth in the city.
Since when has it ever been that easy in Trench? Within a day or two, the verdant blossoms are clearly becoming too much to bear. It's the sort of thing that is almost painfully predictable even if it is at least a little different from last year. As the strawberry harvest becomes something out of the local farmer's market's dreams, every other type of plant imaginable comes to life, growing to epic and as a result perilous proportions.
Giant Venus flytraps, sundews and other sundry threats are among those that start to emerge throughout the city, but they are hardly the only possibilities. Not all of these plants are interested in gobbling someone up, but they can be potentially quite violent and dangerous! A series of far more exotic creatures now lurk in alleyways and far too close to doorways. Hanging blossoms with scythe like claws lash out at anyone that comes too near to them. bulbous mawed plants filled with toxic gas open up to spread their poisonous fumes if someone is too close. Strange clawed strangler vines with pincers will lash out and try to snare the unwary, attempting to strangle them and suck them dry of their bodily fluids!
These various and unpleasant plants can be beaten down, and fire certainly works just fine on them, as does freezing them. They are potentially lethal, but they are in the end just plants. It is also possible to sneak up on them and stun them, if one is so inclined, making it much easier to dispose of these threats when they are encountered. But, if one is unwary, they can be incredibly dangerous.
F.A.Q.
- Enchanted plants of most any setting can be drawn upon. These exotic examples are simply options that are likely to make appearances. Feel free to use your imagination, though they should be personal scale threats, rather than city block or building sized ones.
- It is possible to die at the hands of these plants normally.
- Though parts of the plants can be harvested, they do not have any magical properties to them. Some may be edible, but most are not. They simply have unique biologies and have grown to dangerous sizes.
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