Test Drive Meme 2

[labyrinthian_mods]

☙ Test Drive Meme

☙Gladsheim

You wake up in what looks like a cryogenic pod. There are other pods around you, some of them still sealed shut and others open with people stepping out of them like you did. There’s some technology around you but all of it is overgrown with plants. There are some panels but touching them only causes a sad whirring sound before...nothing happens.

After a moment there’s a pinging sound before a blue panel, like the one that brought you here, that pops up.

New Quest!! Make it out of Gladsheim alive! Fight your way to safety!

Then the door leaving out of this area opens up, draw your weapons and prepare to fight!

Most of the monsters seem to be some kind of small woodland creature but bigger. Be careful! In Gladsheim there are a lot of blocked corridors, locked doors and dead ends...try not to get cornered alone!

Though unlike the previous arrivals, you’re in luck, because as the door keeping the monsters out open, everyone who were brought before suddenly get a ping as a blue menu opens:

New Quest!! Rescue those lost in Gladsheim!

Anyone going into Gladsheim and successfully rescuing a new arrival gains:
1000 gold
ITEM: 10 beeswax candles. Heals status ailment BLINDNESS when lit. Each candle is one use only.
ITEM: 1 potato. HP+5 when eaten.

New arrivals...get nothing! Unless one counts the pinging sound before a blue panel pops up again. Congratulations on making it out of Gladsheim!

...following that is an unskippable tutorial teaching you how to open the menu, access your inventory, read messages and see your status! There is a grayed out selection that says ‘Guildmates’.

☙ More Merchant Caravans Arriving in Etria:

There sure have been a lot of caravans coming through Etria lately, each more well-stocked and colorful than the next, some clearly from countries wealthy enough to edge even their own flags in gold thread. At least it has been livelier and it gives you some variation in terms of NPC dialogue. (Even if these merchant NPCs only ever seem to be complaining about the weather, about how long it takes to get here and about some guy named Alian.)

A. Merchants Giving Out Weird Samples
Come one and come all to look through the wares from far and wide.
Hey you! Yes, you! Can I interest you in this lovely spider's silk robe (DEF+8, BURN RESIST+1)? Guaranteed not to burn until at least the third wear!
How about some hardtack (TP+10, HP-5), dear adventurer? At least a year old but still tasting like it was baked only two months ago!
No, no, come look at these rare golden statues (sells for 10 gold), inscribed with ancient symbols that shift in ways that could drive any sentient being mad! In a good way!

B. Inn
Maybe you haven’t yet found a guild so you’ve been staying at the Lady of the Lake. But today when you return from a hard day of adventuring, Vivian tells you all the rooms are full. There are so many merchants! It’s making so much more work for her!

She complains for a little bit before getting to the point: there is no room for you tonight. To compensate you, she offers to let you pick a piece of yellow candy from a jar as compensation. None of them are labelled but this is what’s in there:

Lemon Candy (LIGHTNING DEFENSE+2)
Banana Candy (LIGHTNING ATTACK+2)

☙ A Suspicious Spring:

A long hot day of adventuring later, the sound of running water is probably music to your ears. Or maybe you've been here long enough to never trust anything, not even the water.

The sight you come upon seems to be a bit too good to be true: a forest grotto with a waterfall splashing into a shallow pool of clean cold water, the shadows deep green and the light dappled as it filters through the trees.

What do you do?

A. Drink!
One sip and you'll feel your armor getting heavy, large and you can see the growing horror in your guildmates eyes as you shrink down to be no larger than a hand.

EFFECTS:
EVASION +10
SPEED -10
ATTACK -10
DEFENSE -10
Of course, a quiet sit of about two hours and you'll begin to grow back but you don't know that yet.

B. Bathe!
Just because you don't see monsters doesn't mean they don't like to congregate near water!

Except when you come out, dripping and trying to dry off? Nothing even remotely dangerous shows up. When it does for some reason, you always manage a critical hit. When you eat suspicious berries? You survive. You trip over something and it's a treasure chest that has actual money in it. If you try to steal from a monster, you always get something good. What gives?!

EFFECTS:
LUCK +100
This effect also only lasts for two hours so take advantage of it while it’s there! Just make sure it doesn’t wear off somewhere dangerous...

☙Building Traps and Nets:

Everyone is abuzz with talk about how they’ve found shed skins of Star Fireflies in the labyrinth! These rare monsters are said to be able to grant wishes once they pupate! No chrysalis have been found on Floor 1 but everyone is beginning to prepare by making nets and traps.

A. Collection Materials
Shortly after the discovery, Napier’s Firm posted a list of required materials so she can make the tools needed. All these materials can be easily found on Floor 1 of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Here are the lists:

Star Net:
Spider Silk
Mandrake Branch

Star Container:
Giant Insect Eye
Sticky Sap

These items can be found as monster drops from Mandrakes and Spiders which suddenly started appearing in Floor 1. The Giant Insect Eye and Sticky Sap are rare drops. So the question now is...how lucky are you feeling?

B. Trapping the Trapper
As time goes on, someone mentions that in a far corner of Floor 1 there is a nest of Golden Spiders that leave behind rare drops more often! Those who haven’t had much luck getting Giant Insect Eyes may want to try their luck there. But beware...these Spiders are much more aggressive and if you get stuck in their web it’s impossible to escape! According to Ceft, the unique chemical properties of the thread means it can only be dissolved with human tears. Even just a drop will do! Maybe you should consider bringing an onion when you go after these creatures. (Fontayne and Vivian both will offer to sell you some onions if asked about them…but at a very inflated price.)

☙ Extra
Got something in mind? Want to play with the setting more? The sky's the limit, so feel free and make up your own prompts to play with!

Welcome to Labyrinthian’s August Test Drive Meme! Please check out the FAQ and rules as you test your characters out. The setting is yours to play with, so be creative and have a good time with it! The TDM will double as the intro log and threads in this TDM can be considered game canon after apping if you wish!

Existing players can make their own logs using TDM prompts!

A important dated to remember are August 1, 2020, 9pm EST when Reserves open and August 8, 2020, 9pm EST when Applications open.

If you have any questions about the TDM, feel free to ask us here. If there are any other questions, you can catch us via PM, the FAQ or the contact page. Thank you for your interest in Labyrinthian!

Comments

1

[mithrarin]

She didn't have long to wait -- or investigate -- before the sound of fighting drew closer. Well, one-sided fighting, anyway, as a sword and the occasional kick cleared a path through the cranky wildlife littering Gladsheim.

Then Dust came around the corner, and at last found one of those newcomers he'd been sent to help.

"You all right?"

1

[mithrarin]

Help was on the way, in a whirlwind of violence. Dust had little patience for the monsters that blocked his way, vaulting over or around half of them and cutting through the rest.

"Can anyone hear me?" he said, as he hit an intersection. Not precisely loud, but carrying.

Re: 2

[chronull]

The tired, almost gloomy expression on his face didn't change as she started to speak. The sound of her voice did draw his attention, though, and he looked to her as she spoke. She looked about the same age as some of the soldiers from the war when it ended, he silently mused. Where they excelled, she was adequate. Reliable, certainly. He considered her words for a moment, lazily glancing back in the way the spiders had been coming from.

"I believe our levels are sufficient. Even if we are a little low, we make a solid team. We have been making good progress." He looked back to her, a smirk forming on his face as he took a few steps in the direction they needed to go to find the golden spiders. "We won't need to run if we just kill them all, right?" A bit confident for a gunner with only one arm, though his voice was still just as level as it ever was.

Twenty two seconds tested-

[levelthreehooligan]

Pinya's had enough training with the Skysteel firearms that she knows that this man knows his weapon. It tells her two things, at least; that he's used to using it, and that he takes good care of it.

Hmn.

She saunters over and joins him sitting down a few feet away, hugging a knee to her chest as Fenrir pads over and flumps downward, evidently happy to just sunbathe. Pinya just grins.

Silly boy.

His response is to hang his pink tongue out the side of his mouth and grin, before ignoring her some more.

"I hated those tanks," she grouses. "Not a whole load of good association with those." His tone irked something in her, but she supposed that she was a stranger after all, and he was concentrating on his gun.

"Nothing even remotely. Not yet, at least. Everything here feels. I don't know. Off?"

Re: 1.

[levelthreehooligan]

Damn straight, Pinya thinks as she grins, loosing another shot at an approaching... giant squirrel? Interesting.

"Fen!" She calls, pointing at another trying to take advantage of the ruckus to slip underneath Neriene's defence. A black blur whooshes by and there's a bark, a crunch, and a dull thud as another squirrel hits the wall at the side, unmoving.

Scout ahead, show us where to go, Fen, She thinks at him before realizing that there's no network here-

She's about to repeat it out loud, but then Fen turns, nods, and races off ahead. Huh, seems like at least that stuck.

"Follow the Wolf, my friend! He'll lead us out."

[levelthreehooligan]

"I woke up with clothes this time, so I'll take that as a win?" She quips, glad to just see anyone else, and then she straightens and looses and arrow almost immediately into a fast-approaching butterfly.

"Well, escaping now, intros later?"

Re: 1

[metalbendr]

And, stopping in her tracks, Toph pressed her feet once again against the ground, sending vibrations all over the unfamiliar room. Aside from the monsters, a person she hadn't noticed before had shown up.

Alarmed, Toph called back. "Who's there?"

2

[metalbendr]

Toph didn't like it, but in the end, there wasn't much she could do - not with her being stuck in a foreign land and none of her friends to work with. She could handle herself and could stand her ground, sure, but having her friends around made it easier

"... Nah," She admitted at last. "There are better ways of getting money."

And by better, Toph actually meant easier. Much easier, and neither of them needed to make such an effort to get a miserable amount out all of it. She had promised it to not do it before, and had promised herself to avoid thinking about it. But. Well. Desperate times, desperate measures and everything that came with it.

That sorta stuff.

"You'd be able to afford more than an inn room," And if this wasn't tempting, then Toph didn't know what it was.

[mithrarin]

"The name's Dust." He might be behind her, but she can doubtless hear his amusement anyway. "The way out isn't difficult, but it's a bit crowded. Once we start moving forward, I can move ahead while you stay at range."

[mithrarin]

A voice. Good. "The name's Dust," he said, loping into the room quickly. There was some giant rabbit after him. "I'm here to help you get out."

And that day, Dust finally met someone who would neither notice nor care about his resolute no-eye-contact thing.

[levelthreehooligan]

"Pinya," She replies, glad that at least them some level of levity. These enemies look like small fry, but without her usual equipment...

"Crowded is fine. I have more than a few arrows," She moves forward to pull out the one she just loosed from a sticky carapace, flicking off the sickly green blood with not so much as a grimace.

"Worst comes to worst I just use these arrows as melee weapons. Wouldn't be the first time."

[reborn_fang]

...is she in a maze? It felt like she was in a maze! Though to be fair she was only focusing on getting away from the enemy rather than where she needs to go.

Until the girl she was pulling along stopped.

"What?" They were...that was entirely possible, actually, when she thought about it. She also had to catch her breath and she couldn't help but feel annoyed with herself.

If this were back then, if she were still a squire of Zerestria, she wouldn't be out of breath just from this.

She looks around and, truly, she wouldn't be able to tell at all where they were with how similar everything looked. Finally, she turns back to the little girl she was dragging around. "How can you tell?"

[reborn_fang]

She idly wondered if Glen and this man would have gotten along. She couldn't help but think that the answer might have been 'no'. But he wasn't wrong. They did work pretty well together so far and maybe that's what mattered in the end.

So she followed him with a shrug and a smile.

"Guess we'll have to see, won't we?" She's hardly going to question his confidence given that he's held his own just fine thus far. Besides, does she have any room to talk about appearances when, apart from the black robes she'd arrived in because of her class, she look basically like a regular highschool girl?

"I'm not very good at crying on demand, though." So don't get stuck is what's implied here.

[mithrarin]

"...If you can. Let's not test it."

When he couldn't equip his own actual sword due to 'class restrictions', who could say what the rules were?

As she freed her arrow, Dust moved around her with no more than a brush of cloak and tail against her. "We went through this not long ago ourselves. Waking up under attack like this."

[fightcreamsundae]

1. what's a gladsheim
Honestly? Siobahn had no clue what this thing was, but she knew she wanted OUT. She didn't like it. It wasn't home and it wasn't her bed and she wanted OUT RIGHT THIS SECOND. So she punched. And again. And again. And... Oh, it was open. Heh, whoops. That last punch would take her stumbling out of the chamber. She didn't lose her footing, but the moment she straightened her tail started to lash about wildly as she looked around. She already hated it, and that Twelves-damned prompt was up and before she could even finish reading it suddenly monsters were banging the door down.

By habit she went through he motions for her fists of fire stance - the place any monk starts - but... Nothing happened. She tried again, quickly, hurriedly... Panicked, she tried fists of wind, fists of earth... Both to no avail. A giant squirrel was on her and in a fright she reached out and swiped with her claws, backing up and into a wall as the thing recoiled in surprise at the cat swipe. With nothing but her claws and her hands she at least knew she could keep throwing punches. She set her jaw and took a deep breath and started to punch that squirrel into tomorrow.

She moved just as fast as she did at home, but without her fists of wind. That was... interesting and exhilarating. She grinned and ran into the labyrinth, happily punching away at anything that stepped before her fists.

2. owo such shinies
In a classic sign of both cat-dhd and teenager-dhd, Siobahn is way in over her head at the market. She seems to be swooned by just about any seller that calls out to her, taking time to run her hand over fine silks and robes, smell the foods at this stall, watch a 3 minute long sales pitch with a deep, mired, interest at that stall. Her tail is moving with delight as her ears dart this way and that listening to all the pitches to be thrown.

One might mistake her curiosity as wanton spending and decide her an easy target for a con, or may wish to warn her of local scams....

3. i'm so... thirsty....
The forest grotto was such a welcome sight for sore eyes. She entered the shade and took a moment to splash her hands in the water, splash some water on her face. Her ears were twitching at the sound of all of the movements around her, listening for danger. Once she was sure there were no enemies around, she cupped her hands and took a drink of the water, and then another, and another. She started to splash a little water on her ears when she notced that everything was becoming bigger... Oh no.

She cupped small hands around a small mouth and called out. "Is anyone nearby? Hello?" Her tail was lashing wildly from distress as they would find a hand-sized Siobahn, upset at her latest predicament.

aslkdjasdfj i lub u <3

[chronull]

He continued what he was doing as he heard her footsteps against the roof, the fwump of the wolf as he plopped down to soak in the sun's rays. He still didn't look to her as she took a place beside him, but - if she was perceptive - she would notice that his movement faltered for a moment, a brief second, when she mentioned the tanks. If she tried to look at his expression it was the same tired, methodical gloom, but the falter gave away his true feeling. He didn't comment on them after she finished speaking. He finished putting his gun back together as he spoke, carefully setting it to rest next to him, within reach.

"The people don't talk enough, or they talk too much. They always say the same thing." His gaze shifted to examine her face. He noticed the pointed ears, but made sure not to stare at them. If she didn't return his gaze he would look out towards the other buildings.

"Unless you mean something else." It was a question, but it sounded like a statement the way he said it.

[metalbendr]

At last, both of them stopped. In the distance, Toph could hear them, but her seismic sense barely caught on, and, well, if anything, at least both of them had ran enough to lose them.

And at her question, Toph smirked.

"I can tell because--," Puffing her chest, she placed her fists on her waist, before continuing, "-- I'm the best earthbender in the world!"

[reborn_fang]

Following that statement is the befuddled silence of someone who has no idea what earthbending is.

She said, "Ah." And then Hiroki reaches out to pat her on the head. "That's amazing." She said without an iota of being impressed because Hiroki can't help but tease. "But what's earthbending? And how does it help you know we're lost?"

Also, now that they're not running for their lives she's noticing something...what's wrong with this girl's eyes?

[metalbendr]

... And if he thought he had impressed her by loping into the room in a matter of seconds, he hadn't. Turning to his general direction, Toph stood her ground, arms crossed and a frown on her face.

"I can handle myself," She didn't understand why people wanted to take care of her all the time.

[levelthreehooligan]

"What does that mean, if I can?" She asks.

Another bug flies towards them, too close for her to shoot properly- thank the Fury she's used to being this tall for once and grabs one of its wings, swinging it into a wall.

"Let me guess, some unknown power is gathering adventurers from all over?"

[metalbendr]

... Well. That was disappointing. Toph had just told her she was the best earthbender in the world and all she got was crickets?

Where's the love? She missed the love that came with being a child soldier travelling with Aang.

Opening her mouth to speak up, Toph was rudely interrupted by her touch.

"Hey! Listen here, lady," Pushing her hand off her, Toph pointed her finger at her general direction. "I don't need you to--"

And it wasn't until then that it sank in.

"-- Wait. You don't know what earthbending is?" She asked. "Do you live under a rock?"

Toph was shocked! And she was an earthbender! Where was she, after all?

[mithrarin]

No impressing necessary. Dust just loped everywhere as a matter of course.

"I didn't say you couldn't," he responded, mildly. "I'm here to help anyway."

[mithrarin]

"I'm not certain all of us qualify." Considering at least one of them from the first group to awaken here was a little girl... "But there's certainly a gathering going on."

For the most part, Dust seemed very disinclined to let things close to melee with his new companion, blade cutting through air and flesh alike as he swept forward through the hall.

*TikTok Dancing meme* FRAGMENTS IN ONE DIRECTION

[levelthreehooligan]

She caught the flinch, it's hard not to when the man only seemed to make only the most necessary of movements. Seem's she's not the only one with a not great memory associated with those.

She wonders if the... Those gods... She scowls as she can't remember their names, are still in charge here, plucking more broken people from their worlds.

"I've met Allegan Autonomous nodes with more personality," she sighs, watching the townsfolk going about their business. "It's not just their speech, either. There's nothing behind their eyes. They aren't..." Real? Can she even explain that she can't feel their Aether here? She can sense her own, and Fenrir's, and even the man next to her even though it's frustratingly hard to do so. She wonders just who the fuck could cut her senses off like that.

She wants a strong word.

"They don't know that they're repeating the same thing," She wonders, fleetingly, if she can change that.

She figures it's probably a bit too early for that kind of talk for now.

[levelthreehooligan]

Pinya's alright with that. She lets Dust keep talking while she moves steadily behind him, methodically shooting down, reloading, shooting, picking arrows out from corpses where she could.

While there's a lull in the amount of monsters approaching she manages to squeeze out a question.

"Do you know who's brought us here?"