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route666rp2025-03-06 05:39 pm
monstertruckers) wrote in route666rp2025-03-06 05:39 pm
Entry tags:
MARCH EVENT LOG
After weeks in the forest, the trees begin to fade out in favor of grass; miles of it with every shade of green you’ve ever seen, covering rolling hills. The weather tends to be mild, with scattered clouds blown on gentle winds… But the nights somehow seem just as ominous as those in the forest, with the moon uncovered and glaring down balefully like a broken eye. And wide open as they are, the grasslands have their own share of danger and weirdness.
01: MESSAGES
The grasslands are dotted with abandoned electrical poles and power pylons. Ruined electric cables hand off these towers… But along with that are kites and balloons tied to the structures. If a Drifter gets close enough to grab one, they can find a message tied to the tail end. It’s printed with a memory or a phrase that is distinctly from their home, and their past.
If a Drifter holds onto the message, it might just remind them of home and help them resist any changes. Or even pull them back out of a monster transformation! Or it might just haunt their senses instead, and almost make them visualize and hear where they heard that phrase for the first time. Try not to get lost in those visions. Drifters can potentially carry one other message for another character, if need be; especially if they need to revert someone else from a painful transformation. Be advised that doing so will result in haunted senses.
Drifters are advised not to grip the old electric wires too tightly. They might get voices from the past of this world, all crowding their mind; old talk shows, sports games, and news reports on the moon. It’s enough to leave them with a serious headache if you hang on for too long, if not knocking them out completely.
If a Drifter holds onto the message, it might just remind them of home and help them resist any changes. Or even pull them back out of a monster transformation! Or it might just haunt their senses instead, and almost make them visualize and hear where they heard that phrase for the first time. Try not to get lost in those visions. Drifters can potentially carry one other message for another character, if need be; especially if they need to revert someone else from a painful transformation. Be advised that doing so will result in haunted senses.
Drifters are advised not to grip the old electric wires too tightly. They might get voices from the past of this world, all crowding their mind; old talk shows, sports games, and news reports on the moon. It’s enough to leave them with a serious headache if you hang on for too long, if not knocking them out completely.
02: TRANSMITTER
Out on the road, Drifters glimpse buildings, which are unnervingly empty. Equally unnerving are strange forms lining the roads, the closer the Convoy gets to the broken buildings. All of them look vaguely humanoid, but half melted and coated in something metallic. Clearly the Husks weren’t limited to the forest, with how many litter the landscape. Some Husks become violent, breaking open as strange ostritch-bird and reptilian monsters claw their way out. Such creatures can be easily dispatched, but still harry Drifters.
Other, inert Husks give off an odd metallic hum. Getting close enough to touch the Husks makes the hum louder, and can trigger behavior changes in Drifters. While the inert Husks can’t force transformations, they leave Drifters restless, on edge, and activating psychological monster traits.
When the Convoy makes camp, it is inevitably near Husk clusters. The metallic hum only increases as the sun goes down. But the Convoy has a counter for that. A haunting melody starts to play on the Convoy speakers, and from any phones; taking the sound closer to the Husks causes ghostly forms to rise up and towards the moon. It puts a stop to the odd humming… At least until the next camp.
Other, inert Husks give off an odd metallic hum. Getting close enough to touch the Husks makes the hum louder, and can trigger behavior changes in Drifters. While the inert Husks can’t force transformations, they leave Drifters restless, on edge, and activating psychological monster traits.
When the Convoy makes camp, it is inevitably near Husk clusters. The metallic hum only increases as the sun goes down. But the Convoy has a counter for that. A haunting melody starts to play on the Convoy speakers, and from any phones; taking the sound closer to the Husks causes ghostly forms to rise up and towards the moon. It puts a stop to the odd humming… At least until the next camp.
03: ROUND 'EM UP
Those with sharp eyes will notice something different one morning, on a nearby hill. It appears to be a flock of cattle… Which might well be a welcome sight for those wanting beef for dinner. As the Convoy rolls closer, it swiftly becomes clear these aren’t normal cattle. Their skin is shiny, scale-like and metallic, and their eyes glow. Those hooves also look sharp enough to punch right through a car door.
These are bull gorgons, the guidance computer helpfully notes. And they are capable of exhaling a petrifying mist; one deep breath is enough to make a person slow, two freezes them in place, and three turns them to stone. Luckily the blood of a gorgon bull can also cure the effect. Drifters won’t be able to capture such dangerous beasts for livestock, but they can still try and wrangle them and harvest them for meat! The skin and horns are both tough enough to be turned into tools, as needed.
Tough cars can easily square off with a gorgon bull and come away victorious. Other cars are advised to try lassoing from a distance, and wearing the animals down before moving in for the kill.
These are bull gorgons, the guidance computer helpfully notes. And they are capable of exhaling a petrifying mist; one deep breath is enough to make a person slow, two freezes them in place, and three turns them to stone. Luckily the blood of a gorgon bull can also cure the effect. Drifters won’t be able to capture such dangerous beasts for livestock, but they can still try and wrangle them and harvest them for meat! The skin and horns are both tough enough to be turned into tools, as needed.
Tough cars can easily square off with a gorgon bull and come away victorious. Other cars are advised to try lassoing from a distance, and wearing the animals down before moving in for the kill.
04: BUILDING THUNDER
There’s dark clouds boiling up in the sky. Those who shelter in the Convoy will be spared the worst of the storm… Though the winds have a way of screaming, trying to call Drifters out into the storm. And flecks of metal and glowing moonshard stone have a way of replacing rain and intensifying the storm.
If exposed to the storm outside the forcefield, Drifters experience the following:
Gale Force: Drifters are swept up by the winds and tossed about, and even thrown skyward. Drifters damaged by the wind will find themselves inflicted with temporary Harpy traits. These traits become more intense as Drifters experience hunger or violence.
Deluge: Drifters exposed to rain are at risk of almost drowning, along with shards of Husk metal and moon shards slicing down. Drifters damaged from rain will find themselves inflicted with temporary Naga traits. These traits grow worse as Drifters lie, omit truths, or tell falsehoods.
These traits last as long as the weather remains stormy; the symptoms ease as the skies clear, only to flare back up as storms return, and will remain that way as long as the Convoy remains in the grasslands.
If exposed to the storm outside the forcefield, Drifters experience the following:
Gale Force: Drifters are swept up by the winds and tossed about, and even thrown skyward. Drifters damaged by the wind will find themselves inflicted with temporary Harpy traits. These traits become more intense as Drifters experience hunger or violence.
Deluge: Drifters exposed to rain are at risk of almost drowning, along with shards of Husk metal and moon shards slicing down. Drifters damaged from rain will find themselves inflicted with temporary Naga traits. These traits grow worse as Drifters lie, omit truths, or tell falsehoods.
These traits last as long as the weather remains stormy; the symptoms ease as the skies clear, only to flare back up as storms return, and will remain that way as long as the Convoy remains in the grasslands.
04: MONSTER SHIFT, NAGA
This month, Drifters will have access to the serpentine Naga. On top of all Naga species traits being available, the following occurs:
+Cold Blooded: the rain and storms can potentially make Naga slow and sluggish, or inclined to sleep or seek out other heat sources to gain energy; this includes basking in body heat from others!
+Water Divert: With their water shaping, Naga can divert falling rain and even ground saturation to make the area or other Drifters more dry. They can also concentrate water into different areas, and can also change water into mist or ice.
+Blue shift: the scales of Naga become more vibrantly blue, or a strange mottled combination of blue and stormy gray, the more intense the rains become. These scale colors can also reflect their moods.
+Extra arms that are painful and disorienting to grow, and can result in coordination issues.
+Scale Pains: Pain and discomfort when scales grow in, as well as fangs or talons!
+Water glide: during floods from the rains, Naga find they can easily traverse deep water as though they were simply walking (or slithering) across it.
+Thermal vision, making it easy to track others in the middle of storms. Vision may also become disorienting, and eyes become slitted.
+Cold Blooded: the rain and storms can potentially make Naga slow and sluggish, or inclined to sleep or seek out other heat sources to gain energy; this includes basking in body heat from others!
+Water Divert: With their water shaping, Naga can divert falling rain and even ground saturation to make the area or other Drifters more dry. They can also concentrate water into different areas, and can also change water into mist or ice.
+Blue shift: the scales of Naga become more vibrantly blue, or a strange mottled combination of blue and stormy gray, the more intense the rains become. These scale colors can also reflect their moods.
+Extra arms that are painful and disorienting to grow, and can result in coordination issues.
+Scale Pains: Pain and discomfort when scales grow in, as well as fangs or talons!
+Water glide: during floods from the rains, Naga find they can easily traverse deep water as though they were simply walking (or slithering) across it.
+Thermal vision, making it easy to track others in the middle of storms. Vision may also become disorienting, and eyes become slitted.
04: MONSTER SHIFT, HARPY
The storm will bring a second monster this month, in the form of Harpy. On top of all Harpy species traits being active, the following occurs:
+Storm Rider: high agility and capable of flying through the storm winds without hindrance. Even tornadoes can be mastered!
+Feather pains: itching, or full pain when growing feathers or wings. Talons may also be painful when growing from fingers or from feet.
+Wind Affinity: able to shape wind, including diverting the worst of the storm winds, or summon and focus wind into razors.
+Warbling Voice: words may waver and slip into something more songlike, or even a damaging sonic scream if emotions are heightened.
+Height Call: a need to get higher into the air, whether through perching on buildings or the convoy, or through flight. A sense of euphoria as they go higher.
+Nest Building: a compulsion to create a nest out of spare and soft objects, and feeling more safe inside that space.
+Heightened vision like a bird of prey, able to pick out details even at great distance. This may be disorienting at first, as vision becomes telescopic.
+Storm Rider: high agility and capable of flying through the storm winds without hindrance. Even tornadoes can be mastered!
+Feather pains: itching, or full pain when growing feathers or wings. Talons may also be painful when growing from fingers or from feet.
+Wind Affinity: able to shape wind, including diverting the worst of the storm winds, or summon and focus wind into razors.
+Warbling Voice: words may waver and slip into something more songlike, or even a damaging sonic scream if emotions are heightened.
+Height Call: a need to get higher into the air, whether through perching on buildings or the convoy, or through flight. A sense of euphoria as they go higher.
+Nest Building: a compulsion to create a nest out of spare and soft objects, and feeling more safe inside that space.
+Heightened vision like a bird of prey, able to pick out details even at great distance. This may be disorienting at first, as vision becomes telescopic.
05: ZOLOM HUNT
As the Convoy travels into marshy points in the grasslands, it becomes clear something is following. Something is hunting the Convoy, disturbing the boggy ground in waves and humps as it travels. It’s hard to say what exactly the monster is, just that it’s BIG and feeling out the Convoy, seeing if it can find prey.
Drifters who try attacking as it hunts will see the shape sink into marshy ground and shrink away, before returning. After about an hour of building tension, it finally strikes. The ground erupts in a spray of water, as a thirty foot serpent called a Zolom rises out of the ground.
Going by the hissing surrounding the Convoy, it’s clear there isn’t just one. The Zoloms go for any who attacked them while hunting, identifying those as the biggest threat, followed by whatever looks like the best prey.
In the aftermath, Zoloms can be harvested. Their fangs are sharp, their scales are tough and can make good leather, and their blood, while corrosive, can still be contained in vials for poisons or anti-venom study by the more medically inclined. And the meat may taste a bit gamey and oddly spicey, but it’s still edible. But first, Drifters need to survive the onslaught.
Drifters who try attacking as it hunts will see the shape sink into marshy ground and shrink away, before returning. After about an hour of building tension, it finally strikes. The ground erupts in a spray of water, as a thirty foot serpent called a Zolom rises out of the ground.
Going by the hissing surrounding the Convoy, it’s clear there isn’t just one. The Zoloms go for any who attacked them while hunting, identifying those as the biggest threat, followed by whatever looks like the best prey.
In the aftermath, Zoloms can be harvested. Their fangs are sharp, their scales are tough and can make good leather, and their blood, while corrosive, can still be contained in vials for poisons or anti-venom study by the more medically inclined. And the meat may taste a bit gamey and oddly spicey, but it’s still edible. But first, Drifters need to survive the onslaught.
05-A: ZOLOM ATTACK
Constrictor: The lead Zolom constricts the Convoy trailers to try and crack them open and spill any Drifters out. Other Zoloms target vehicles, trying to get at the Drifters driving them. Tough cars can stand up to the coils and ram into the Zoloms enough to disorient them. Fast cars can easily outpace the Zolom, and if needed lead serpents away from the Convoy before doubling back.
Beta and Venom: There's more danger after Zoloms take wounds. Their blood steams as it hits the ground, burning grass and earth and steaming the water. Zolom blood is laced with venom that either burns Drifters bodies… Or burns their thoughts, inflicting them with a berserk frenzy. The Zoloms also super heat the air in a circle and spit out venom as fire. Cars can protect from the firestorm, though only the Toughest of the bunch will be able to drive away without serious damage.
Death Rattle: With enough tenacity, Drifters are capable of defeating the Zoloms or driving them away. (Spiking them on the top of a nearby tree is optional.) At the end of combat, the Zoloms have a parting gift as they lash, writhe, and snap.
MICRO ENCOUNTERS:
PLEASE NOTE! These are small bits of set dressing for players to include in threads if they wish, rather than full fledged prompts or events. You may handwave your exploration of these areas, or thread them out.
Ruined Buildings: Grow more numerous, encountering one or two a day. Usually in the form of residences, or farms. Many of them have been gutted from both time, elements, and moon warps. But a handful still hold basic supplies; medical kits, canned food, etc. They also hold hastily scrawled maps that show the surrounding area… And a parched looking area surrounding the grasslands. It looks as though the Convoy is heading right towards it.
Farmlands: Occasionally interrupt the rolling grasslands. They look scraggly and overgrown, with sparse crops available. The handful of food in such areas is edible with no ill affects, but the taste profile is confused: apples taste like watermelons, corn tastes like avocados, etc.
Wind Turbines: A few lonely wind turbines still dot the landscape, spinning even without anyone to maintain them. They give a lonely whistle as they turn, perhaps even sounding a little like a whisper… And one trying to mimic the message Drifters may have received on the power lines.
ii-ish/wildcard scavenging for team research
So he jumps at the chance to unburden himself of the rusty hunk of military surplus he's stuck driving around, and get a little fresh air. He's been feeling better since leaving the forest behind, all of this open space still far too green to be familiar but closer to it, definitely. A lot of sun and wind, at least, and even if the latter does have a sort of ominous quality to it (between the fast-moving clouds, and those decaying electric towers with their sun-faded dress of kites and balloons and suspicious notes all rattling and battering about) it's still a stark improvement.
Maybe it's catching, too, because Jayce looks significantly improved, himself. ...Not that that's saying much, considering Arcade's prior impressions of him. Both of which are likely why he hesitates, still, looking up at the precariously balanced ruins they're pulled off alongside, as he joins Jayce by his truck. ]
You sure you're feeling up to this? It doesn't look like it's going to be easy getting in there.
[ Between avoiding the husks and more than a bit of rubble to navigate, anyway. ]
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Won't be my first expedition . . . [ jayce gives a wry smile; that was a nostalgic little jump into his past, that time he ventured into the sandy dunes of shurima for a mineral worth all of his research. ] I'm just glad it isn't a desert.
[ the heat. the grains in places where you'd swear you didn't touch enough sand to actually be there. a bit of rubble and not coming in too close proximity with any dangling husks, and they should be fine. besides that—
he has a huge fucking hammer. it shoots lasers. he won't leave arcade unprotected. ]
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[ Honestly, not in that mirthless, sarcastic way he so often relies on. A faint, somewhat distant smile flashes briefly across his face, as he starts to pick his way around the building's crumbling exterior. ]
I think I'd find it oddly comforting, if it was.
[ Though he isn't any more a fan of sand's magical propensity for getting everywhere, or the sun, or the heat— There's something to be said for the familiar, even when it's the worst kind. ]
I guess the Mojave was an acquired taste, after all.
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Didn't imagine your tastes being to broil yourself.
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[ Or something like that. Arcade shrugs, half-turning back briefly before he veers closer to the building's outer wall. It looks like a cross between an old, concrete warehouse and some sort of silo, but he doubts if it was either. Time and weather have worn away any kind of informative detail, along with covering all the intended entrances in new growth and debris, but they've also opened up an alternative or two. ]
I wouldn't say I prefer the sunburns and sandstorms, but at least it'd feel like home.
[ There's a crack in the wall, crumbling and dislodged grey brick fallen away to leave a wide gap into the dimness beyond. Should be big enough to slide through, if they're careful. Arcade is, as he starts to sidle his way through, hand on a bent and broken length of rebar as he levers himself over another chunk of rubble.
A perfectly casual venture, as he calls back, ]
Don't tell me you prefer the cold?
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Hardly, [ it makes the state of his chilled corpse perpetually insufferable. ] I got caught in a snowstorm as a kid; 've hated the cold ever since.
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I don't think I've ever seen an actual snowstorm. A few radioactive flurries, maybe, but we don't get a lot more than the occasional rain, back west.
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What caused the radiation?
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[ A distinction without meaning, really, but the idea of someone (at least someone who hasn't spent their entire life up to now in a Vault) not thinking of radioactive precipitation as the bog standard is still novel to him.
Arcade makes his way in the other direction - spying a half-collapsed space that might've been storage or perhaps a bathroom: the most likely of places to find medical supplies, in his experience. ]
Either way, I guess the answer is technically 'a whole lot of nuclear bombs.'
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he hated himself for ever even thinking of making weapons out of them, even if it was out of fear. he hated that his world was driven to a rotting oblivion because of it, but he could never bring himself to hate creating it in the first place. he wouldn't have lived some of the best years of his life, and would have never met viktor if he did. ]
Those are two words I wouldn't want to hear in the same sentence.
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[ That's a joke. Or it should be, has the ring of one, but Arcade realizes pretty quickly that he could probably ask that question in earnest, here, and still get a surprising answer.
He still isn't sure where he's landed on there actually being such a thing as - what? Parallel worlds? Alternate dimensions? Distant planets conveniently populated by other humans? But nuclear bombs not ringing a bell is shockingly strong evidence for this all not just being some elaborate series of wild, orchestrated misconceptions. ]
...You're serious.
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The closest to that kind generated destructive power I've seen produced is by . . . [ jayce's hand smooths through his beard, ] Hextech. Technology powered by the Arcane.
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[ Confusion and a total lack of familiarity - though he knows the word, Arcade struggles to connect it to any kind of practical definition, here. (Maybe it's a brand name?) ]
That's a new one on me.
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[ it was ambitious, impossible, taboo— and a complicated boostrap paradox that jayce doesn't exactly regret because he wouldn't have the only thing that mattered to him in the world now, if it weren't for it. it simply is. he is the cause, they are the effect, and he is the end. ]
And my greatest misstep.
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[ Not that he doubts Jayce's intelligence, but - that's quite a claim, still. ]
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My partner and I. [ he'd never done it alone; the mage brought magic to him. he perpetuated the idea with obsession. viktor then helped him put the missing pieces into motion. then finances involved, interest, politics. then . . . one man didn't want to die, the other pushed by fear and then. hextech had lost its purpose. ] All we wanted was to use it to help people. Save lives.
By the time it got enough funding— it was made to fill pockets, [ there is a hesitant beat here, but only because he had become part of the problem, ] or worse.
[ jayce was a standing aberration. the magic stone in his wrist, the source of his corrupt, alien infection and new scars, were, quite literally, plain on his face. it twisted his handsome square jaws, his pretty hazel-gold eyes— into magic stained touches that matched the perversed hammer he carried.
and here he was, messing with it again. ]
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[ Many times over, in fact. But isn't that how these things always tend to go? Someone with good intentions (or too much intellect for their own good - or both) discovers something powerful, and it immediately becomes an avenue to profit. And destruction.
Arcade isn't sure how to feel about that not-so-little revelation, but he does know that he believes in the good intentions bit of it, when it comes to Jayce, at least.
This doesn't feel like the best time to get too mired in moral and ethical quandaries (or too-fresh regrets), though, so he tries to shift gears, gesturing toward the jammed door just beyond him. ]
You think you can help me get this open? It looks like there might be something worthwhile behind it.
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so, that leaves his uncanny hammer, a grip going tight around its assymetrical dips and spiraled hilt. ]
Stay back. [ he doesn't need to swing so much as he does strategically use the sharp edges to catch onto hinges, stick the ends into the ground and wedge it tightly against the door itself, applying smart pressure and a simple amount of physics to get the door to crack open. after that, they could help themselves— perhaps to a blast of dust and debris, something welcomed, or something not— ]
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He's more than willing to stay back, instead, taking that request seriously as he gets himself as out of the way as he can, with consideration for the uneven, potentially unstable floor underfoot.
When the door gives with a dull crack, Arcade lifts an arm to shield his face, as that cloud of old, disturbed dust roils out of the narrow, dark room beyond. Before he can step forward again to look inside, though, there's another crack, louder than before. The ceiling above the room shifts drastically, collapsing downward to drop more debris on the pile - and who knows what else, toward them. ]
Look out-!
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only smaller chunks of debris pelt him on the way down, enough to scrape or bruise the arms he holds up to shield his face already riddled in old scars and stress wrinkles. something big sinks down with the caving cieling and adds to the weight of impact— jayce could only tell, in the rise of soot clouds and a dull, ugly humming, that his core agitates. something wrong.
that wrongness is clear at the glowing light of two husks tangled within cieling, stone and each other, in a deadly embrace that cracks open like an egg. ]
—Shit. Go, go!
[ they should both run, but jayce can't run. it's half why he's wedged himself between the imminent danger and arcade. ]
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[ His voice is only a little muffled by the sleeve he's using to protect himself from inhaling a lungful of possibly ancient dust, as another, lighter shower of debris crumbles down around their feet. The husks are the problem, now, though, something skeletal and bird-like already breaking its way out of that shattered shell.
Arcade reaches for Jayce's arm, meaning to at least try to help him along as fast as they can go (that lightning-quick initial reaction aside - whatever it was). ]
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there's so much staggering they could do before the sounds behind them get too dangerous, too close for comfort, and jayce forcefully shoves arcade ahead of him. ]
I'm right behind you.
[ it's just two. two monsters. he can take them. all he needs is aim. ]
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Jayce— [ But he doesn't have time to correct course and pick himself up, narrowly avoiding a fall as he catches himself on a broken edge of fallen wall. He reaches for the pistol on his hip, but there's no clear view, either. ]
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he wishes he could say the same thing for the second creature, taking advantage of the opening left. jayce swings the mercury hammer at a wide arch, too wide but the only one he could make with the given proximity. claws dig into his side and sink into brittle flesh like butter. what spills out is more alarming than the actual feeling of it— thick, dead blood and infected gore, laaced with prismatic webbing and an iridescent sheen.
at least, as jayce throws his hold from the hammer's handle to the monster's skull to keep its jaws at bay, there's a clean shot. ]
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But Arcade has his pistol out by the time the second creature swings in low. He can't prevent that nasty strike, the sound of sickly flesh and rotten blood splattering across concrete, but he can stop the next. A burst of glowing plasma strikes the creature in its side, melting through that bony ribcage and making it lopsided, throwing it off-balance. Another one strikes it in the leg, a second after, burning it and sending it reeling. ]
cw: gore of the zombie type
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