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avalaughs2021-10-31 09:14 pm
TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 13
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⚔️️ View Top-Levels Only ⚔️️ | |
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*Mod note: I know this graphic is super ugly, but I ran out of time to make it pretty so it’s pretty much just for function right now. Don’t @ me about it, I know. | |
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A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival You and your familiar have been magically pulled into the world of Avalon just above the Bay's waters. After plunging into the Bay, the rush of water fills your ears and soaks into every crevice of your body. You may find it hard to find a clear spot on the surface, as surrounding you are hundreds of fairy vallela, floating like tiny sailboats on the top of the water. These vallela will surround you and begin to push up underneath, then slowly float you about three feet above the surface of the lake and carry you gently to shore... unless you thrash around or move too much, that is. Then they’ll drop you right back in the water, so be careful! | |
The Lady of the Lake seems busy this time around, having cast the spell to draw in the new arrivals and bailed, but the Rent-a-Ride at the top of the cliffs seems to be the only place around to go. The shores themselves are littered with new arrivals complaining their way up a staircase carved into the walls of the White Cliffs or getting acquainted with their new familiars. There’s no railing, be careful! Should you fall, a mysterious sand hand will reach out of the side of the cliffs to catch you. The hand will pat you atop the head twice before retreating back into the wall. This is the Cliff Beast; despite the name, he is quite friendly. | |
B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot
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Once everyone is wrangled atop the White Cliffs, the handsome owner of the Rent-a-Ride, Archimedes, will distribute smart phones and a pair of ear buds and tell them to "Check the Shit Box,” referring to a hammerspace-like wardrobe that opens to each person's inventory. It’s enchanted by Merlin to recover possessions and pets from the lake before they become waterlogged. Before Archimedes can give his usual spiel, a special voice message is sent to everyone’s brand new phones.
``Merlin here. Welcome to Avalon! I usually don't greet newcomers like this, but I wanted to make you aware of the situation we have here in Camelot.
Refugees from places called Celliwig and Lestari are currently living in Camelot, so we're a bit tight on space. It would be great if you could find yourself roommates when you get to Camelot. The Caravan ride is a great place to get to know to people. Built-in mini bars to break the ice and all… |
The man leading the caravan rolls his eyes and just expresses “There you have it,” before getting everyone going in modernized carriages pulled by horses. These carriages use fae technology that combats weight, so your character will be able to get in regardless. The carts have a smart thermostat, the promised mini-bar, and a mystical shield to protect from bugs. Characters can use their smartphones to connect to Camelot's internet service, @avalononline (AOL), to chat with others, learn about the world, contact Camelot Support (they'll answer any questions they can for you, including how to use the phone). Just be careful-- if you don't use those earbuds and start forcing everyone to listen to your nonsense, Archimedes may make you walk. | |
C ⦿ The Red Spring | |
The journey from the White Cliffs to the City of Camelot is a long one, and the first evening you arrive you'll end up spending at the Red Spring, a booming resort town. Newcomers get free inn rooms for their one night stay on the way to Camelot, containing two twin beds, a bathroom, a mini-fridge and microwave, and a TV equipped with a couple of entertaining video games and movies. Don't want to relax in the room? Take a dip in the communal hot spring. The waters have restorative properties that help horses and travelers recover quickly. It is known to relieve stress, improve energy levels, and mildly accelerate healing. It may be a little chilly when you get out though, so make sure you don't slip rushing back indoors when you get out! |
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King Arthur and the Queen of the Fairies have come to an agreement- if Camelot and the otherworlders cleanse the Forest of the Felled, removing all traps and wards that were placed up by humans of the past, they will be permitted safe passage into Elphame and invited to their Winter Solstice celebrations. The path to success in this task isn’t a smooth one. |
A ⦿ Not Seeing is Believing | |
| After the initial failed venture into the Forest of the Felled due to the Fachan destroying resources, a new expedition was planned. All those willing to help are welcome to come along with the party, led by King Arthur and Glewlwyd.. but the party itself isn’t quite as welcome after the tricks pulled on the naiads last time. The naiads have summoned a basilisk that is slithering up and down the river, guarding it from passers.
Thankfully, Avalon basilisks are more along the lines of Medusa snakes than instant-death. If you catch their eye, you’ll find yourself instantly paralyzed. |
It’s probably a good thing that there are many people around that it’s leaving people frozen where they are instead of eating right away… but in case you haven’t charged ahead out of orders, the party will be distributing blindfolds. The snake won’t try to eat the unparalyzed but crossing a river without your vision is no easy feat—it’s recommended you find at least one or two people to hold hands with, or perhaps travel up to the Pure of Heart Bridge if you think you can make it across. There’s always the option of fighting it, but a single bite from this creature would be fatal even if you manage not to give it a glance. | |
B ⦿ A Cure on Cloud Nine | |
As with any mission, there are casualties. Those who survived their encounter with the basilisk far outnumber those who don’t, but there are plenty who unfortunately fell to its paralysis. It’s up to those who didn’t to save them. Thankfully, Arthur has the greatest wizard of all time on speed dial and is able to call up a consult about what they need to make a cure for the basilisk’s paralysis. In a stroke of luck, the flower necessary to make the medicine does grow in the Forest of the Felled last he checked. It hasn’t been seen in years since the forest has been virtually inaccessible, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t still be growing there. |
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The flower is called a Nimbus flower. It’s short, but the petals are wide and seem to flow out like gray clouds that end in a silvery blue lining at the tip. Au natural, they are known to cause euphoria and hallucinations when touched with bare skin, so gloves are handed out to pick them to any who don’t have them already. The effects fade away when heated, so cooked and mashed into a paste is the easiest way to administer them. However, that means finding and retrieving them first… a difficult task, as it seems that the various booby traps within the forest are blocking the way. Find your way through nets, log traps, snare traps, magical rope and vine binding traps, and just about any kind of booby trap you can think of (feel free to get creative) for both magical and regular creatures and you might be able to make your way to the flower field they grow in! Only then can you return and save your allies from becoming one of the forest’s felled. | |
C ⦿ Paralysis, Paralysis, and Paralysis Again | |
| With the basilisk episode behind everyone, everyone is set into small groups or pairs and given a sector to patrol and clean up. For the most part it goes smoothly, save for a few curious fae who followed the party in causing mischief here and there. Ultimately, they understand that everyone is here to benefit Avalon, so they don’t cause too much harm. |
This demon sits on a sleeping person’s chest and enters their mind, filling them with inescapable nightmares as the demon feeds off of their positive thoughts and emotions, slowly sucking out all feelings of love, happiness, and self-worth. Even if they wake up, they’ll find they are unable to move. Insomniacs and cognitive mages are going to be the best weapon against these creatures—insomniacs can attack the demons from the outside and guard cognitive mages who can dreamwalk into the sleeping victim’s dreams and convince them they’re only dreaming and to wake up. Some of the NPC insomniacs get together to perform a ritual to allow cognitive mages to cast others into dreams as well, so go quickly and help those trapped in nightmares of their own design! | |
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If you're not the type to wander off into the forest and want other ways to help, no worries! There are plenty of tasks to be done back in Camelot and the nearby areas that are much safer. Ish! |
A ⦿ The Floor is Lava | |
With the city of Camelot being overcrowded still, but many things having at least been stabilized and worked out temporarily, attentions have turned to building projects to get the people of Celliwig and Lestari their own space back. Nobles have been tasked with governing townships of these refugees and creating new homes.. but to that end, people need to help create those homes first!
Various building sites near but just outside Camelot or the Celliwig ruins have been set up, but the best tactic seems to be to have crews work on them one at a time, so most people |
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are at the same initial one, just outside of Camelot. Unfortunately, some idiot saw all the construction potential as a platforming opportunity and cast what can only be described as a “The Floor is Lava” spell, after the children’s game.. but much more realistic. It doesn’t seem to affect the buildings or furniture, but it’s hot as hell and people are trapped on half-built foundations because no one’s quite sure what it’ll do if you fall into it. Each building seems to have a set-up candle circle to keep the game going though, so hop from platform to platform, using furniture, beams, ropes, or anything else you can manage to get across to get to these locations, break the circle, and free buildings from the lava. And DON’T fall! (Though if you do, don’t worry- though it looks like you explode in a fiery twister to those around you, it just teleports you outside of the play area.) | |
B ⦿ Hungry for More | |
| With only Camelot’s farms left in tact, there’s not quite enough food left to go around with Celliwig and Lestari refugees having mouths to feed through the winter as well. This has lead to another type of project that people have really been working toward in Camelot… creating more food.
In fact, there are a number of spells and potion recipes going around on TikTok based on experimental cloning magic.
One of the most viral videos has resulted in a potion based on the Cereus de Anima flower that uses an extract you can order online to make your own potions and “dopplegang” your food. |
As with many popular TikTok trends, it’s not the best idea and has landed some people in dire need of help. #DoppleDinner is the tag to use if you’ve run into unexpected trouble using the potion:
· accidentally creating a temporary clone of yourself · accidentally creating endlessly replicating food that fills up the entire room until you can’t manage to get out of the door · food that seems to animate and turns around and try to eat the caster
Those seem to be some of the biggest problems this potion has created… or if you’re not caught up in the trend, you might be one of the rescuers going around to help people get out of their own doppledanger. | |
C ⦿ Magical Flu Season | |
| Unfortunately, flu season happens just as much in the magic realm as it does in the regular realm. People are starting to get sick all around Camelot, especially with the more condensed population making it easier and easier to spread disease.
One such disease is the magical flu—a variation of the flu that has a rather alarming change of symptoms from the original. Headaches, chills, sweating, sniffles, and coughs? Sure. The magical flu passes up the grosser excretions though, and instead many mages find themselves excreting magic unexpectedly. |
Uncontrollable, accident casting is running rampant with those infected, and it’s causing a lot of problems. The only cure is a good healer, so you’d better hope you can hold in that sneeze on the way to see a doctor… or else you might end up casting whatever magic you’ve landed with on anyone around you. | |
• All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, as the events within are considered game canon. |
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He groans, quietly, before turning his head to look towards the door. After a moment, he pushes himself to sitting, then standing, and starts shuffling towards the door. You know. The place a normal person would assume a knock was coming from.
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"I don't think he's fake OR dead, but there is something wrong with him," he opines to Klaudia as an aside, before cupping his hands around his mouth to yell some more. "Nie Huaisang!"
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Her companion is already banging on the window to add to her knocking, but just in case the man inside is having trouble hearing, Klaudia manifests a little Light magic of her own. On the door that Nie Huaisang is heading for (in true horror movie fashion) Klaudia writes an illusory "Behind You" in colors that flash contrary the strobe effect already going on. As someone desensitized to the horror genre in general, she's confident that this will be a very helpful directive.
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Once he's got stable footing (though his heart is still pounding a mile a minute,) his head jerks over towards the banging and the noise, finding two faces peering at him from the window. He doesn't exactly recall whether a window was there before or not, but any mild concern over it is well and truly forgotten in favor of the two faces on the other side.
This time, instead of staring at Klaudia, he's staring at her companion and a very familiar face. Sorry, don't mind him, he's kind of frozen for the moment, wide-eyed.
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And besides, as he pointed out already, there is clearly more wrong with Nie Huaisang than usual. Probably? He supposes he's not an expert. "The sand cultivator was right as usual, he's not worth the scared cat pictures," he says, with a little twist to his mouth like they're maybe discussing a crop that he bets isn't going to thrive. "Is he going to let us in, or what? So inhospitable."
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It's gratifying to hear the admission that she's right, and Klaudia lifts her chin smugly back at him. See? As if she would steer him wrong. No sabers! No illusions! Just a sad little man in a damp room with a strobe light on too bright.
"He's too busy staring, so I'm sure he's just forgotten where he put his manners again. We can probably just let ourselves in." At which point, Klaudia draws another chalk circle on the wall of the building. This one she details with the alchemic symbol for glass--and a few short moments later, the whole window pane is drawn into a glass cube that falls into her waiting hands. That gets tucked under her arm, and with a silly mock bow (or as much of one that can be managed on this ledge), she gestures into the room. "After you~"
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He doesn't even have to pretend to be surprised to see Wei Wuxian, accompanied by Klaudia. Of course. If Lan Wangji is here, naturally Wei Wuxian would be with him if at all possible. He's not entirely sure how to greet him though, if at all, so in order to give himself more time to consider his options, Nie Huaisang is just going to let his eyes roll back and his knees buckle and he's going to fall into what looks like a very convincing faint.
This way, the greeting will be up to Wei Wuxian, and it will be much better to judge his position from that.
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Nie Huaisang doesn't seem to agree, or maybe a more generous interpretation all around is that it was in fact so cool he fainted. Incredible to think he hasn't grown out of that in so many years. Could the appearance of a very alive Yiling Laozu have contributed? Doesn't seem as likely as the window thing, but if he's wrong, Nie Huaisang probably won't like this next part either. But who else is going to revive him? And not even from the dead! Klaudia certainly isn't, she's done her glass cube duty and must be treated carefully, she's a hero. And honestly, isn't Nie Huaisang luckier this way?
A few squishy steps and Wei Wuxian is there to crouch down and sort of plap at his face encouragingly with the back of his hand. Visiting the newly arrived Nie Huaisang sure is an involved process, it turns out. A lesser person might have just left with the intent to come back at a better time, but a lesser person would not have already invested so much building scaling in this endeavor. "How are you still like this? How is your skull not in pieces by now? Wake up or I'm going to splash you with floor water."
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She allows Wei Wuxian to climb into the room, but her own entry is a little slower. By all means, she is (as always) here to help whatever silly endeavor this has become. Except when helping involves stepping onto a soggy carpet. Being accustomed to water is one thing, but this is just the most unpleasant living conditions... As such, she sits down on the windowsill and dangles her legs above the sloshy floor. Her new glass cube friend gets tucked beside her.
"Does this happen a lot? He tumbled over backwards at the cliffs, but he didn't pass out like this--not even with Lan Wangji making his scary faces at him. If he's really this delicate, then you'd think that would be the moment to faint."
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But for now, that's neither here nor there. He'll let himself startle a little, before he jerks upright again, rolling over and scrambling into a sitting position, looking up at Wei Wuxian with wide eyes and a shocked expression]
You-- [he glances over, then, at Klaudia in the windowsill, then back at Wei Wuxian again. He's still not 100% certain what form of address he should go with, though Wei Wuxian is being rather familiar. But for now, until he's addressed first, he'll just sputter]
--there wasn't a window there before! [which sounds incredibly inane considering the circumstances, which is intentional, but also a really valid point]
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"Are you sure that's the problem? Why's there so much water, anyway? Did you like the bay so much you brought it home? And what's with this greeting? 'Clan Leader Nie' is too good for old friends?" So that's how it is, querulous and frankly needlessly judgmental interrogation, and general impropriety to boot. Condolences are probably in order, but that's awkward and Wei Wuxian is still fielding the relief of not encountering Nie Mingjue, they'd come off insincere. "Not that I expected tea, so soon after getting here, but visiting you is such hard work."
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She's mostly not involved in whatever strange reunion this is, though she is keeping an eye on "Clan Leader Nie", just in case he tries anything fast and shady. She's not opposed to dropping a blinding light in front of his face if he moves too quickly for a weapon. But Wei Wuxian seems to be handling all of the pertinent questions of the moment, so she can resolve to let him take her Questions Predator mantle from her momentarily. She doesn't want to overwhelm their prey into fainting again. Maybe he's scared of questions, too. That wouldn't get them anywhere at all.
Still--when her friend complains about it being such hard work to visit this guy, Klaudia does make a scoff from her window seat. "Who did all the work? All you had to do was climb some handholds!" Absolutely unbelievable! The nerve of this ghost!
1/3
Well. Not exactly for good. But "Clan Leader Nie" isn't supposed to know that.
So, no, they can't be friends, no matter how Nie Huaisang might wish it. At the end of the day, a friend is someone you can laugh and have fun with, yes, but you don't use your friends as pawns the way that Nie Huaisang still needs to use Wei Wuxian for his own ends. Even now, even here, he cannot let his guard down. One false move and it could all be for naught, after all.]
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Wei Xiong! [he lifts a finger, shaking it up at him once, to distract himself from the pang he feels at saying that name again after so long. There's no space for that sort of thing now.] You are the one that came barging in here, so you do not get to complain about the lack of tea!
3/3
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"Technically, I didn't barge, I knocked. That was part of the hard work," an aside parry for Klaudia's benefit. He is a very useful ghost, thank you. "And Klaudia did the window cultivation, but hasn't barged a bit."
That clarified, he gives the lights and general dampness a split second's further consideration. Nie Huaisang has an impressive number of woes for so soon in his settling; Wei Wuxian is scholastically intrigued. "That seems like an annoying curse, or curses. There were curses in phone messages, awhile back, sometimes it happens."
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The curse thing also sounds plausible. There was a lot of things that curses could do if the cursemaker was create enough. Disappointing that no one thought to allow her dark magic so that she could try a few out herself... That said, it also seems silly to just lay on the couch and live with curses. "Have you tried emptying the water out of the room? Or installing a drain?" is her helpful suggestion. "Or are you intending on just living in a damp room forever? They'll probably kick you out if you keep flooding the room below, you know."
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[he's glancing over at Klaudia, then, expression going a bit mulish and just this side of pouty] I've tried emptying the water, but it just comes back when my roommate sneezes. There's no where for a drain to go, and I wouldn't know where else I could live, even if I wanted to.
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And lights? Weird sneeze curse, but that has to be someone's hobby, in all the wide world. "Probably didn't come from the phone though, if you haven't really started using it yet. And not everyone can just put in new drains, Klaudia. Nie-xiong, did you touch or see anything else unusual?"
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"It's a good thing that I'm not everyone, then, isn't it?" They're free to talk about phone curses--or other curses of some kind. She's going to hike her skirt up a little and gingerly step down into the damp room, turning to look at the wall. Who is even designing these rooms? If you're going to put water mages into them, they should at least have a drain. Where else does the water go if they accidentally make it? (Not to say anything about if they accidentally make fire or earth. That's their burden to suffer through.)
With her chalk, she makes a small circle and proceeds to alchemize a drain for the water--a small one. It'll at least let it leak out of the room instead of pooling in the floor. Maybe she can devise some grooves in the floorboards to help it drain faster...