TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 13

[avalonmods]

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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.

 

A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival  KERPLUNK, SPLASH!  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.

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B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot

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… I'm not asking you to make lifelong friends or lifelong roommates. Just until we get this situation sorted. If you do end up making lifelong friends? Great! All the better. Anyway, that's all from me. Catch you on Insta.``

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.

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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! The springs are also home to a large training grounds just outside town limits, where there are teachers who will teach basic magic safety and help you discover what kind of magic you have together with other new arrivals. Try target practice, obstacle courses, meditation circles, and other ways to try to figure out just what you can do... if you didn't already have an accidental discovery on the ride there.

 

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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.

 

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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.
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.

 

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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. Everyone is able to have a smooth trip the rest of the day, though are asked to return to camp by dark for safety. After last time, who knows what else may come out at night. Everyone is provided with a thinly-stretched stew and some rustic bread for dinner. It’s after people begin to fall to sleep that things start to get unfortunate again. Most of the wards and traps are impossible to differentiate the details of, so an unwitting party accidentally released a pack of sleep-paralysis demons that had been trapped in the forest long before it became known as the Forest of the Felled.
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
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.)

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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• 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. • This post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads and may start their own logs off-post, but should not top-level comment on this post. • If your application is accepted, you may accept TDM threads as game canon as long as both players consent. Characters may begin threading as soon as their journal is accepted to the communities. •If nothing here tickles your fancy, try one of this month's Quests for your TDM prompt. • The first "Arrival" prompts are usually present on every TDM, but contain seasonal tweaks for flavor. This month's has some changes based on current events, please read carefully. All other prompts will change monthly. • Questions about this TDM's content? Comment here! If you have a question about the game at-large, please head over to the FAQ. • If you have feedback about the layout still, click here to give it! Be constructive, mods are people too and don't appreciate rude comments.

 

Comments

[raveyardpatriarch]

So much math, and absolutely none of it noticed by Wei Wuxian, who is taking all of this pretty much at face value, because after all, Nie Huaisang is just some guy (non derogatory). He too glances back to the window and its inhabitant, but with none of the fear and general squirreliness, just utter casualness and maybe a hint of pride.

"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."

[sulit]

The looks in Klaudia's direction get a waggling wave of her fingers. Is that a greeting? A threat? Could be both. (Probably is.)

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

[sanbuzhi]

["Old friend," Wei Wuxian says, like it's nothing, as though there's no question that their address should be friendly. It's painful, almost, to hear him speak like that, because it would be too easy to simply go along with that--to pretend that they are once again boys in school, playing pranks and drinking and getting into all sorts of trouble, and to lean into that naive comfort of having a friend. Yet, with those memories come the ones that followed: watching his brother and his friends leave for war, calling for Wei Wuxian to be safe, only for him to disappear, leaving people to look for him, and returning changed. Of course he remembers how Wei Wuxian had flinched away from him then, enough to startle Nie Huaisang out of his relief, though he was quickly ushered away before he could probe further. And hadn't things just gone downhill from there? Escalation after escalation until finally Wei Wuxian had been gone for good.

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.]

[sanbuzhi]

[That's all inward speculation, of course. Outwardly, it's a different matter. Nie Huaisang gapes up at Wei Wuxian for another moment before his cheeks puff out and he huffs, a mix of pouting and annoyed, folding his arms over his chest]

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

[sanbuzhi]

[right, he's going to pull himself to his feet now, wrinkling his nose at how much more soaked he's become] As for the water, that is the fault of the other person I am sharing this place with. He sneezed once, and all of this appeared! He continues to sneeze, and so it keeps happening, and then I sneezed, and these lights started. [his voice is starting to take on a whiny tone] It's just awful!

[raveyardpatriarch]

It really isn't just Nie Huaisang who wishes for simpler times; Wei Wuxian is just as plagued with nostalgia at being Wei-xiong again. Not that he has lacked for friends here, by any means, but it's the principle of the thing. Like writing essays about Cloud Recesses over text message, it's...something. He grins in response to being finger-wagged, unrepentant, and waits for the barrage to cease before making his (ironclad, faultless) case.

"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."

[sulit]

Recognition of her efforts seems enough to appease the sand cultivator. Knocking isn't really that hard, and her eye roll says as much; but it's true that neither of them are technically barging. And so long as there's credit where credit is due for the important part (and also her manners), then the ghost is forgiven. His friend is still treading on thin ice, though.

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."

[sanbuzhi]

From the phone? [the thing he hasn't looked at since he got there] The odd thing they gave us when we arrived?

[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.

[raveyardpatriarch]

"It's odd, but very useful, even if there are sometimes curses in it! You can contact people obviously, if you know their contact name, and it also is like a money pouch. And the curse thing was just the once while I've been here." Right, curses are a more pressing matter currently than the many benefits of having an obnoxious contacting device. Wei Wuxian squishes at the carpet with his foot very scientifically and with only a little disgust on his face. There's no way the water came out of someone's face by sneezing, but the association is hard to shake, even for someone who can cheerfully dig up a graveyard and probably would rather.

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?"

[sulit]

The accusation that normal people can't just make a new drain has Klaudia rolling her eyes--not that it's immediately apparent with her lack of pupils and irises, but when has that ever stopped her?

"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...