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

[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."

[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."

[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?"

[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.

[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?"

[mithrarin]

Dust slowed down, not looking back at her. "No. I don't know why we're here... only that we must be here for some sort of purpose." Otherwise he wouldn't be here.

[levelthreehooligan]

"Figures," she mutters, still keeping a sharp eye out for enemies.

It's always something.

Oh Pinya, become the warrior of Light and Save Hydaelyn!
Oh Pinya, become Chariot's pawn and win them Synodiporia!
Oh Pinya, also go to like three other worlds and become their saviour too!

She's so tired.

She sighs, following Dust and hoping that the entrance is at least close by.

[mithrarin]

Check back in with him when you were created for the sole purpose.

"Better than not having a point in being here, right? I'd take purpose over arbitrary appearance any day."

Sorry i'm late!

[levelthreehooligan]

"Sometimes there's not a 'point' to anything and honestly, the freedom is usually easier to work with," she sighs.

[mithrarin]

Having never exactly had any such freedom, Dust wasn't sure how to answer that.

"If the Labyrinth we have to enter is a danger to others, then it needs to be dealt with," he said at last.

[levelthreehooligan]

She sighs. She wonders how many times that'll happen in the first hour that she's here.

"Sure, but right now we just need to leave. We can deal with the rest of this mess once I have a decent bow."

[mithrarin]

"I hope you can find one. I... haven't been impressed, with what I've seen."
Including the sword he holds.

[levelthreehooligan]

"Ha! Then perhaps I should find a way to craft my own. I have a decent amount of carpentry experience, but so sure on the blacksmithing side but I can try," She smirks.

She wonders if there are places like Naldiq's and Vilemmi's here, or if she'll just have to harass a blacksmith in the closest point of civilization.

[mithrarin]

That caught Dust's attention, and he turned slightly in what for a normal person would be a glance over his shoulder. "A blacksmith... I had the help of one back in Falana."

[levelthreehooligan]

"Then they probably aren't a much rarer occurrence here. I might need to get Fen some armor too, since it looks like the isn't capable of Adversary Magic right now," she sighs.

Fen grumbles, clearly put out at the idea as he pads by her side, ears alert.

"Yeah I know honey, but until you can do what you used to I'm not risking your hide being pierced," she placates him with a pat to the head.

[mithrarin]

Whatever the specifics were, Dust got the general idea well enough. "There seem to be a lot of limitations and weaknesses, here. A lot worse than what I remember."

[levelthreehooligan]

"Than you remember?" She perks up curiously?

"I've had to go through something similar before," and it sucked, but she's done it and survived. It's a matter of figuring out exactly what she can and can't do here.

[mithrarin]

"I'm definitely a lot weaker than I was. I'm sure of that." In the end he can't be sure of much more, in a strange place with strange people, where he can't even use his own sword. "Maybe worse than when I woke up back in Falana."

[levelthreehooligan]

"Hmn. Then- Tch!" She winces as a sharp pain spears her skull and she loses her train of thought.

What was she talking about? She thinks she was about to say something about it feeling familiar but-

"Fuck."

That's something for later. Thankfully, the two of them have managed to come up to something that could be the exit.

"Hey, is that our ticket out?"

[mithrarin]

That -- didn't sound like a good noise from her, but Dust didn't pursue it. Instead, he nodded slightly, the gesture much magnified by his hat. "Yeah, that's the way to town. It's safe there."

[levelthreehooligan]

"I feel like anywhere not here is probably safe," she sighs, still trying to shake off the last of the pain.

"You know this town, right? First place you have to show me is the tavern."

[mithrarin]

"Priorities, huh?" Dust could appreciate that, though, so the tease came with a smile. "No problem."

[levelthreehooligan]

"I know what I want," she smirks.

"I hope they have a good mead there," she wonders aloud as they come up to what looks like it would be the exit from the dreadful place she'd woken up in.

[mithrarin]

"Can't answer you that, I'm not much of a drinker." An eater, heck yes, but Dust wasn't one for alcohol. Not when he wasn't used to a safe space where it could be consumed.

[levelthreehooligan]

"To each their own," she laughs. The sun on the other side of this weird place seems brighter somehow, as if even it acknowledges what Gladsheim is.

"Hmmmn~ I can smell baking, I think." She's got a grin on her face. As long as there's booze and food, this woman is happy.