TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 6

[avalonmods]

Check out the OOC intro meme for this month to say hi to new players/characters!

{ QUICK NAV } Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary ⚔️️ Top-Levels Only ⚔️️ A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival KERPLUNK, SPLASH! Regardless of what you were in the middle of, you and your familiar have been magically pulled into the world of Avalon just above the Bay's waters. After a brief plunge into the Bay, the rush of water filling your ears and soaking up into every creak and crevice of your body, you may need to cough to clear your airways when you rise above the surface. It's still chilly, but not enough that you can't manage on your own. The Lady of the Lake is swimming around under the water, but seems to be focusing on coordinating a band of mossatees to help rescue any wayward new arrivals. Mossatees are a special Avalonian manatee that is green in color and has what appears to be a patches of grass or other short plant life growing on its back. While some are fully green, many sport blooming flowers or fairy circles of mushrooms. If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. Those with animal magic may get their info from the manatees, though may notice that they're really overly friendly and have zero concept of personal boundaries. Everyone may notice they have no concept of personal space, as they will happily run right into someone's belly for a snoot squishing. The shores themselves are littered with new arrivals complaining their way up a staircase carved into the walls of the White Cliffs. There is no railing, so be careful, but if you do fall, be prepared for a mysterious sand hand to 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. *Reminder: Your character's familiar may or may not be with your character in their initial plunge. If the familiar isn't partial to water, it may meet your character on the beach or sit atop their head while they swim. Or if they are, they might splash about and swim alongside your character. Familiars have different personalities and body specs and we leave those up to the players. B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot Once everyone is wrangled up to the top of the White Cliffs, the handsome owner of the Rent-a-Ride, Archimedes, will distribute smart phones, a pair of earbuds, and animal-themed ponchos and tell them to "Check the Shit Box." The "Shit Box" refers to wardrobe more formally known as the Wardrobe of Finding, a hammerspace-like wardrobe that opens to each person's items and pets when the person touches the handle. It was recently enchanted by Merlin to prevent people from having to fish their waterlogged possessions and pets out of the water with them. From there, Archimedes directs everyone to settle in groups into modernized carriages pulled by horses and gives them a basic explanation of why and how they've been brought to Avalon: The rest of the universe is frozen in time and your character has been brought here by a familiar that was able to bond with them. They'll have to learn magic to help save their own world from destruction, but first they've got to get them to Camelot. It is here that you have the first opportunity to decide who they will be in their new home. You'll have about an hour to wander around here, meet and greet, and pet the horses before it's time to go. These carriages use fae technology that combats weight, so your character will be able to get in regardless of whether they're light as a feather or weigh two tons. The carts have air conditioning when it's hot, heating when it's cold, and a mystical shield to protect from bugs. There is also a mini-bar that pops out of the console with nip bottles. Characters can use their smartphones to connect to Camelot's internet service, avalononline (AOL), to chat with other characters, watch dumb videos, learn about the world, contact Camelot Support (they'll answer any questions they can for you, from how to use a smart phone to where to find quests and resources to learn more about your magic). Be careful if you decide to use your phones while in the caravan-- if you don't use those earbuds and start forcing everyone to listen to your nonsense, Archimedes may make you walk. Which given the fact that it's pouring down rain in April? Not ideal. You were only given ponchos, not rain boots. 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. Because of the volume of new arrivals and vacationers, inn rooms are assigned two-to-a-room. The rooms have two twin beds, a bathroom, a mini-fridge and microwave, and a TV equipped with a couple of entertaining video games and a few free movies. Unfortunately, due to a bee infestation and massive amounts of rain, the hot springs of the Red Springs are not available this month! Instead, an underground salt cave is offered as a way to relax and unwind. Gather around in the rejuvenating, dimly lit caves and breathe in the relaxing effects of salt crystals. Feel the sand between your toes, or if you don't like sand, try one of the many pools with tiny garra rufa for a fish pedicure. Or, lie down in a recliner and stare up at the "stars"-- magic sparkles in the ceiling that move to spell out single-word concepts you may be experiencing. (Maybe you're relaxed? You might get something like "Chill." Find your relaxation buddy hot? Just be careful to look away before the stars spell "Thirsty" to the whole room.) 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. As it turns out, a mythical land that's been around for a few centuries has a few things in common with many modern worlds. It's got the internet, and games have evolved a little bit past hoop trundling and draughts. April, being the traditional month of mirth and games and lots of rain making it hard to have fun outdoors, is the time for Camelot City Gaming Convention, affectionately shortened to CameCon. Come into the large convention center located in the south part of town, get dry, and check out some of the awesome things to do. A ⦿ Couchless Co-Op Without the massive audiences required to really run MMORPGs, Avalon is much more a fan of couch co-op style gaming. Though most games are available on mobile devices throughout Avalon when they are released, there's nothing quite like coming to CameCon to utilize the gaming stages for everyone's favorite fighting games. Multiple players at a time can plug in their phones and connect their accounts to a light magic-based illusion stage (powered by multiple light mages at a time, once a year only!) roughly the size of a basketball court. Fighting games can be played tournament-style on the phone next to your opponent for some awesome trash talk during your battle. Race through space with this year's popular NASTAR Racing Game (National Association for Space Travel Auto Racing) game and fight off space pirates in an epic Mario Kart-esque racing and item battle adventure with your choice of star ship. Or plug your phone into the stage podium and get away from the humdrum fantasy life by joining in a live-movement game that combines synchronous kinetic and light magic. Move your body in the vortex illusion of your favorite rhythm dance game with a buddy! Or maybe you're more into the free-style gaming of Grand Theft Automation with both friends and strangers-- step onto the illusionary stage itself to explore crawling cityscapes and live the life of crime you always dreamed of... at least the cops won't really arrest you if you do it here. Just make sure if you use magic you remember you're on a stage and don't accidentally send some flying off at a poor convention go-er just past the illusion stage. B ⦿ Arthurian RP in your Arthurian RP None can forget one of the most important of game types: the roleplaying game. There's a huge historical set game going on right now where characters can LARP as their favorite Knight of the Round Table. There may be a couple of arguments if two Lancelots end up in the same game, but don't worry, there's a fair way of determining who gets the part for this game if you don't want to wait for the next storyline: rock-paper-scissors-magic. Instead of the traditional version of RPS, you shake your fists and open up to whatever hand-held spell you can make with your particular brand of magic. If it's something that can overcome the other kind in less than three seconds, you're the winner. (And yes, even healers can play-- some protective magic to block a dark magic pain curse is definitely going to win out, for example!) Either way, once your role is decided, put your acting skills to the test! ...and if you don't have any, well, they have costumes that will help you get into the mood with a little dress-up and props that will magically give you sword skills... though only while using the dull-edged plastic props. Or you can just sit on the sidelines and have a picnic on the concrete floor of the center with a potential new pal and watch other people play-- there's a lovely little buffet table with pastries, coffee, and juice in the corner. C ⦿ It Figures... A convention isn't a convention without a little shopping. Come check out what cool games are upcoming in the exhibit hall, buy figurines of your favorite game characters (or.. new ones you've never heard of since this is a new world, but are still cute and/or kick-ass), and most importantly, check out the cool magic you can apply to them. A spell available for purchase in the convention hall that's popular this year is Recipe: Figure Anima, which makes your figures move in place and say popular lines as if they're an actual, miniature version of the character. It's recommended you practice while you're in the convention hall though so figure experts can help if things go.. awry. People have been known to have their own emotions influence the spell, and sometimes toys have started taking on the attitude of the caster. There's nothing quite as tragic as your favorite angelic game character telling you they're gonna kick your ass because you were in a fighting mood. So OOC. Maybe you can find someone who's a little better at magic to fix the problem? Of course, when the rain breaks through and floods the exhibition room, there's a lot of mass hysteria as people scream and climb up onto tables, trying to protect their merch above all else. Hurry, help someone else up onto your table before their ent dakimakura they just purchased gets wet! Only you can save the gamers from water! ..Or that's what you thought, until a second later the electricity goes out and you're left in a total electricity blackout in the convention hall. It may be a good idea to use some magic to try to light the way and find a way out of the flooded hall... A ⦿ Keep Your Vines to Yourselves With magic blossoming left and right because of the bountiful spring equinox rituals, things have been getting a little stranger around the Broceliande. Though it's always been known for being a little odd, there is an overgrowth of prehensile, very friendly vines populating the forest now. The vines seem to have minds of their own, sometimes grabbing people, pulling them up into trees, or generally wrapping around them as if trying to get a warm hug. Ultimately, they seem relatively harmless.. except when you can't get down from them. Hopefully, you've got some kind of destructive magic that can help you fight off the overly friendly vines as you head into the forest to investigate the strange reports citizens have been making of their friends and family disappearing in the generally friendly, if odd forest when they've gone to fetch herbs or other supplies, gone on walks, or who knows what else from the forest. It seems like the best way to get the vines to let go without magic is to tickle the person the vines have captured, so you really better hope you're ticklish... and there's someone willing to really go in on it. It takes a lot of laughter to get these vines to leave you alone! B ⦿ Selfies with Selkies Those who continue on with their investigation after avoiding or escaping the vines will find a very, very large flower that seems to have taken route in a sink hole in the middle of the forest. Hundreds of vines seem to be coming from it, and it seems like this flower may be the source of all of the vines throughout the forest. It won't attack unless you attack it first and it seems to almost immediately regrow any vines that are destroyed. If the flower itself is attacked, it will rise up and attempt to eat your character with thousands of tiny shark-like teeth that lie where the pollen of its flower should be. Those who try to fight will find it seems virtually unkillable and immovable. It is neither plant nor animal and seems to have a thousand minds and souls held within it that somehow feel incomplete, so it's largely incommunicable even with cognitive or death magic. It's definitely a strange find, and it could be easy enough to assume the missing people tried aggression as their first tactic and got gobbled up... Take a trip up to the Archivist will lead them to find a book that includes information on the species: The Cereus de Anima. This giant flower rapidly grows when a seed from the Land of Rot transfers via someone's clothing to an appropriate forest environment and is known to absorb a piece of a person's essence from anyone it touches with its vines. People often seem to go missing for a short period of time when one of these appears, then come back behaving a little differently but ultimately don't seem to be in distress. No one is quite sure what the cause of this is. There doesn't seem to be any record of there being lasting damage, however questionable the plant is... The Archivist, upon seeing you researching the plant, says that he's heard some of the lake's residents just off of the Silent Shore have some experience with one. He hands you a couple baskets of some specially anti-rust enchanted parts and tells you he was supposed to deliver them to a Selkie man living in the lake for a project he's working on. You and a partner can make the delivery and ask your questions from him. The Selkie isn't going to be particularly friendly to fellow men, not trusting human men farther than he can throw them, but will decidedly try to seduce women as Selkie men are known to be extremely handsome and flirtatious with human women. Non-humans he will be neutral toward. It's best to go in pairs so you don't end up on a whirlwind candlelit beach picnic with a shirtless selkie in exchange for information about how to uproot a Cereus de Anima. (At the very least, the selkie will want you to take a selfie with him before you leave so that you have something to remember him by, and you'll always be welcome back if you change your mind.) Regardless of how much of a challenge it is for you to get to that point, as long as he gets the delivery from the Archivist, he'll eventually tell you and your traveling partner about how he heard that there used to be a village at the edge of the Dusklight Woods that was overrun with one of them, and that there's only one survivor who moved to in a cottage on the other side of the Pure of Heart Bridge.. Those familiar, yes, it is the old man that Morganna tried to kill and save in a quest a couple of months ago! Time to travel all the way back to the Pure of Heart bridge and make your way over to the cottage and talk to the man and it sure seems like this quest is long and tedious and you may be wondering if someone will have noticed you're gone... C ⦿ The Answer is No Back in Camelot City, it seems that anyone who's been touched by the vines has been replaced by a doppelganger in their lives. They're just barely off from the original- they have all the memories, but may be slightly more skilled at things they didn't used to be, or may seem to make less ethical choices than they might otherwise. There's just something slightly off. But when people start using AOL to contact their friends and let them know they've been gone.. well, it may seem like the jig is up, or at least in question. Those who find out they've been replaced may want to return to Camelot quickly to try to reclaim their lives. Doppelgangers will attempt to kill their original if they come into contact with them when they aren't around other people, so you may need to flee for your life if you haven't gotten good enough at magic to defend yourself yet. Around other people, the doppelgangers will do their best to try to prove themselves the real person and since they were made from the original, will have the same memories as the original character so asking questions that "only ___ would know" may not work. Eventually it will come out that the doppelgangers have occasionally wriggling vines instead of spines underneath their clothing, if you're willing to check that to see who's real, but that won't be common knowledge. What can be found out from the old man at the Pure of Heart bridge if you choose to leave your doppelganger alone is that Cereus de anima doppelgangers can only live for a month without killing their original and absorbing the rest of their essence. However, if the original plant isn't taken care of with a special venom you can only obtain from certain creatures in the Forest of the Fisher King, the problem will just keep happening over and over until the city is overrun and becomes nothing but a breeding ground for the flower and its replicas. MOD NOTES: • All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, but this post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads, 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. • You can have any animal-style poncho you want! They are themed, not made from actual animals. No animals have been harmed in the making of these ponchos!! • TIMELINE: The resolution to the third prompt will be in April's event! The first two prompt sets will be during the first week of the month. The doppelganger problem and obnoxious traveling and research will be occurring for the second and third weeks of the month. • People with green magic may be able to fill something off about the doppelgangers, but may not be able to identify what it is right away. Blood mages will be able to feel that their blood feels the same as the original as they are essentially copies. Cognitive people will be able to use their magic normally except for hypnotic suggestion- the doppelgangers are immune to it, so while you may be able to find other ways to out them, hypnotizing people to tell the truth won't work this time. Doppelgangers are made from the essence of the person, so they will be able to access their phones and accounts. Note that the Cereus de Anima and doppelgangers are not fairies and cannot be contracted with. If a Death Mage attempts to possess a doppelganger, it will technically come in contact with the doppelganger's vine and may end up with more than one doppelganger depending on how many times they try it. Siphon magic can be used to destroy a doppelganger easily, however, the essence that was stolen from the original's soul may be destroyed in the process so it is not recommended as the original may start to feel as though they are no longer a whole person. • If nothing here tickles your fancy, try one of this month's Quests for your TDM prompt. • The first "Arrival" prompts are present on every TDM, but contain seasonal tweaks for flavor. All other prompts will change monthly. Make sure to read the Red Spring section on this month's even if you're normally familiar-- the springs are closed this month, check out the alternate prompts! • Questions about this TDM's content? Comment here! If you have a question about the game at-large, please head over to the FAQ.

Comments

Walk

[raven_sage]

Eivor likewise decided to eject herself from the carriage after she began to find the ride unbearably dull. It doesn't take her long to catch up with Geralt. Unlike him, she's made no real effort to hide her weapons; a pair of bearded hand axes hang off her belt, and she balances her long-handled Dane axe over her shoulder. Her round reinforced wooden shield is strapped across her back. She watches him limp for a moment before.

"You look halfway to Helheim already, friend. Perhaps you should rest a moment before you collapse."

[gynvael]

It's unnerving to look at someone and not catch their distinct scent or the precise beat of their heart. He's been trying to ignore it, mostly because there's nothing he can do about it until he deals with everything else first—but he doesn't like it.

His gaze roams over the woman. Her look is foreign, but he can tell her weapons are finely crafted. She certainly looks like she knows how to use them.

"Halfway anywhere might be nice." He's been walking awhile and has no idea how much further there's to go. (He misses his horse.) Still, he's not interested in falling flat on his face. He sits on a nearby boulder, stretching his leg out. It's been wrapped around the thigh, covering a bite beneath.

He tightens the knot on the bandage. He didn't expect to see someone else walking out here. Guess he wasn't the only one. "They give you shit on the ride, too?"

[raven_sage]

Eivor watches him sit, planting the head of her Dane axe into the ground, swinging the weapon off her shoulder in one smooth, practiced motion. She sees the cloth around his leg. "Been blooded recently, aye?" She asks. And then dropped into the icy waters off the cliffs. This has probably not been a good day for him.

"I disembarked myself. The ride was dull, and I prefer the wind in my face." Normally that's either on horseback or hanging off the aft of the Drakkar, but deprived of those things here, she'll walk a bit. Plenty of sun left in the day.

"I would offer you some clean linens for that bite, but I'm afraid I have none to give." Instead she flips open a pouch on her belt and pulls out a small bottle of brandy. The mini-bar had been inviting and she'd been happy to pillage it before she stepped off. "But this might dull the ache a bit." She offers the bottle to Geralt.

[gynvael]

Despite his otherwise lack of a reaction, Geralt's gaze tracks the path of her axe until it plants steadily onto the ground. Under the overcast sky, his irises shine with an unnatural yellow.

"I tripped," he replies, deadpan as ever. "Fell onto some teeth."

It hasn't been a good decade, in truth, but at least wherever he is? It's got fresh air. It's not been set ablaze. No ghouls trying to chew him apart. There are a few points in its favor. (Only a few.)

When he finds a little glass bottle in his face, there's a pause. Hmm. Can't say it's not a welcome offer. He considers the wisdom of knocking back small liquor bottles from a stranger when he can't exactly trust his sense of smell right now. Tempting, to say fuck it—but he waves it off, getting back to his feet.

"Keep it. Something tells me you'll need it sooner rather than later." Seems they're all here for awhile. He shoulders his bag to carry on. "You have a name?"

[raven_sage]

Eivor laughs heartily. "I know the feeling." She says easily. One doesn't go a-viking or brave the wilds of England and not accumulate their own collection of scars. She scratches her chin thoughtfully. "It's always the itching I find most annoying to deal with."

"Suit yourself." She shrugs off his dismissal of the brand by popping it open and downing it herself, letting the bottle fall once she's emptied it of its contents. She has plenty to spare, after all. Camelot, they said is their destination. This place isn't England, at least not as she knows it, but the similarities are close enough she's hoping they'll have heard of mead. "I am Eivor, of the Raven Clan. And you, warrior?"

[gynvael]

Geralt watches her knock back the bottle immediately. Sooner it is, then.

He tests the weight on his leg, giving a hum of agreement. It's not great, but it's doable. He wants to find shelter before nightfall, whether that's at an inn somewhere or ducked under an overhanging cliff.

"Geralt." There's no clan that he offers, though the medallion he wears isn't subtle: round and silver, shaped like a wolf's head, hanging off a chain around his neck.

He's not quick to make friends with strangers. But perhaps it speaks to the unfamiliarity of this sphere that he finds her the most familiar thing here since he was dumped in that damn lake.

"Take it you don't know where the nearest inn is, either."

[raven_sage]

Another wolf, hm? She can tell he's wary (he'd be a fool not to be, given the circumstances), but she likes this Geralt already.

She brings the Dane axe back up onto her shoulder as Geralt tests the leg, apparently deciding to be back to it. She shakes her head. "Not exactly, but I heard talk about some sort of spring. I assume they have lodgings set up there." And since they were headed this way down the road, she sees no reason not to continue that way. Time was, Sýnin would be useful there; Eivor's ability to see what her raven sees would have been useful in identifying the location of this spring. But while the raven has been circling the sky overhead this whole time, Eivor hasn't been able to connect with her the way she was once able to.

"Come, we find the spring, we find rest. And maybe someone to look at that leg of yours. Be a shame for you to lose it." Don't want to risk that bite turning sour, after all.

[gynvael]

The downpour makes for shit visibility. Geralt peers through it to gather what might be up ahead, but he can't see much beyond the cliffs they came from.

It does, however, mean the mud leaves tracks behind from the carriages and horses. Might as well follow that for now. He walks a little more carefully, making sure nothing sends him slipping.

"I am fond of this particular leg," he says dryly. "It's been with me awhile."

[raven_sage]

Eivor walks just a few steps behind Geralt. The man looks like he has his strength back, but who knows how far they'll have to go? And if he does collapse, she won't miss it. In this downpour, noise can be muffled, and he doesn't seem the most talkative sort. All in all, just best to keep him in her sight for now.

She laughs. "A sense of humour! I think this journey will be a good one." The rain hasn't seemed to dampen her spirits any, despite how thoroughly soaked she is. Spending time on a longship has a way of toughening you up where exposure to the elements are concerned, after all.

She also keeps scanning the countryside, or at least what she can make out of it through the downpour; this place is unnervingly similar enough to England that a wolf or bear attack isn't out of the question for two travelers on the road like this. Wouldn't want Geralt to get anymore gnawed-on than he already is, after all.

[gynvael]

Her casually high spirits bring a huff of amusement out of Geralt. He's not as enthused about the journey as she is, but he'll trudge through it. 

He's silent for a portion of their walk, though she'll get a grunt of acknowledgement out of him here and there if she fills the quiet. He's slower as time goes on—his leg obviously bothers him. It's a combination of stubbornness and simple unawareness that he is not, in fact, as sturdy as he'd be were he back home that has him push onward.

Though it's starting to catch up to him.

"Could really use a fucking horse."

[raven_sage]

"We cannot be far now." Eivor says that, but as the time passes she can see Geralt faltering, and peering up at what she can make out of the sky through the pouring rain and clouds overhead...difficult to say, but the day is getting old. At this rate they'll be trapped outside in the dark without shelter and who knows how far from civilization. On her own, she'd likely be fine, but with her companion's injury...

Leave him. the voice only she can hear whispers at her ear. His wound will claim him long before you reach any possible help. You know this. He is not of your clan. He is not your responsibility. It is of no concern to you what becomes of him. She can feel the phantom presence of the Allfather just behind her shoulder, the piercing gaze of his one eye upon her. So, the visions did follow her here. She wondered. And just like that, the presence fades.

Just in time for the sound of hoofbeats coming up the road. "Fortune favours us, it seems. Helheim will have to wait a little longer to claim you." She steps out onto the road, taking her axe in both hands. A rider emerges from the rain on a grey and white spotted horse, but the second he sees the heavily armed woman in mail standing in his path, the horse rears up in alarm, skidding to a stop only a few feet from her.

"Good god! What is this?"

Eivor steps around to his side, looking up. "Apologies, but my friend is injured. Have you traveled far?"

"What?" The man looks up towards Geralt, seeing him for the first time. "Oh, uh no, not at all. Only twenty minutes or so since I left the Red Springs up the road. Wait, are you two-Augh!" He's given her all the information she needs. Eivor reaches up and pulls the man down off his horse without a second's hesitation. "Your horse will be waiting for you at the inn." She tells him bluntly as he sputters in indignation on the ground. Walk will do him some good, anyway. Not sparing him a second glance she looks up at Geralt and nods towards the horse, holding it by the reins. "Climb up. Should be able to take us both."

[gynvael]

The rhythm of hooves also catches his attention, though for different reasons at first: his eyes are narrowed, studying the figure emerging in the rain to identify it as a threat or not. Though maybe it's not the stranger he should be concerned about. Eivor has her axe in hand before Geralt can say a word.

That's. Mm. Actually not that unexpected, given who he's traveling with.

Fuck it. If he had the coin, he might've considered dropping a few to the poor bastard for the inconvenience, but he doesn't and his morals don't extend as far as giving up his leg to help someone avoid a walk in the rain. The man will manage.

"Thanks." Is that directed towards the unwilling stranger or Eivor, for her robbery? Hard to say. Ambiguous at best, as with most of Geralt's comments. (He appreciates the crime committed on his behalf. As long as it doesn't bite them in the ass later.)

Red Springs. A location's name is better than nothing. He mounts the horse, with more effort than usual, settling on with a wince. The weight off his leg is a relief. He waits for Eivor to join him, eyeing the now horse-less man in case he has any ideas of trying to take his horse back.