MARCH EVENT LOG

[monstertruckers]

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


NAVIGATION

Comments

[bufudine]

[There isn't anyone to keep watch while they devour, so Serph can't afford to lose himself to his demon's urges. And so when Jayce moves, so too does Serph abandon the half eaten bull gorgon corpse in favour of flanking the other Drifter, immediately beheading the levikron that charges out from a nearby thicket towards Jayce, its head hitting the ground as Serph forces his hand into its chest before the body can follow suit. Slipping in below the ribcage, he tears out its stomach and rips into it, the last vestiges of his burns ebbing away.

Though they'd had a brief reprieve, enough to regain some strength, now they have another wave of monsters gunning for them. Lips curling back into a hiss, the temperature drops as Serph creates an icy wall that blocks the land monsters' direct path to them. But gurulu soar high above it, diving for Jayce.]

[hexrot]

[ the bright light of blue that shimmer from jayce's eyes are the only things that bounce in the night as he staggers&mdash. he knows that he mustn't blindly travel ahead when serph couldn't stretch himself so thin. with an adjustment of his left leg and anchoring his right, jayce pulls the lever of his hammer to crack open, expose the roaring core of corruption inside, and land a glitching blast that splits the avian creature and leaves it suspended where it dies. another. then, another.

almost there— and still the whispers sing like a perishing siren's song. ]

[bufudine]

[That strange, eerie blast from Jayce's hammer itches in the back of his mind, the wrongness of how it kills the creatures it touches settling beneath his armoured carapace. Physics no longer affects their corpses, as though they now dance to another set of rules, and he can't help but if its made from the same sort of thing that Sera is capable of -- the ability to meld and shape the laws of the world they hold power over.

He can't think of it for too long though, not with monsters snapping at their heels.

The journey back seems to pass quickly, time catalogued in snatches of running between fighting. Brutal efficiency has always been Serph's partner, so for every monster that tries to attack them -- no, it's Jayce, they're fixated on Jayce and only Jayce. Serph is merely an obstacle between them and the other drifter -- it's repelled and dispatched within seconds, the corpse left to fester on the ground.

Blood oozes from Serph's half-healed wounds inflicted by claws, horns and fangs, but he fights as fiercely as when the attack first began. The shields are in sight, and with them, safety... for now.]

[hexrot]

[ jayce wouldn't enter without serph. he'd fend off the monsters on their tails at last, and with safety being lurched for, jayce finally throws himself to the floors of the convoy. it felt like an eternity had passed before they breached thosr shields and monsters snapped for jayce regardless of the wall between them. at least, whenever serph decides to slip into his own safety, the monsters do not follow. he could do so whenever he wanted, and the beasts wouldn't give a damn or even notice.

they want jayce. the voices scream and rattle into his skull enough for jayce to buckle into the earth and pull at his hair, scrape his antlers into the dirt and scream for it to stop. it's only when sunrise violates the darkness and breaks night into twilight. the monsters desintegrate. the voices, finally, cease, and jayce gasps so loudly with disbelieving startle that the hands in his hair and antlers drag down his bloodied cheekbones. ]

I-It stopped— Gods, it stopped—

[ it has not stoped just yet, jolting back with a cry when he hears, harsh and numerous in his ears: NEXT TIME YOU ARE MINE. ]

. . . Shit. Fuck—

[ and he throws himself, back to soil and grass, to breathe out the edges of panic he didn't necessarily need— but how else could he regulate himself? tears stream into his beard as he covers his mouth. overwhelming. god damn overwhelming. ]

[bufudine]

[As soon as Jayce is behind those shields, Serph enters soon after. He doesn't revert immediately, wary of the monsters rattling outside. But once it seems that they're unable to get at Jayce, Serph undoes his transformation and leans against the side of the long vehicle, bruised and bleeding slowly. He lets Jayce do whatever he needs to to cope with the voices in his head -- he remembers Jayce saying they were stronger closer to the Convoy -- while he rests, barely upright.

Damn. He's sure Jack and John will be worried when he hadn't returned to their shared room. But he can't leave Jayce like this.

As dawn comes and the voices seemingly stop and Jayce seems to come back to himself -- albeit overwhelmed -- Serph unfolds himself and crouches by his side, reaching to grasp Jayce's shoulder.]

Hey. It's alright. I'm here. You're not alone.

[hexrot]

[ so wound up tight, jayce flinches to the touch before quickly melting under it. gods, that was harrowing. he wants to burrow beneath the hands in his hair and only come out when he's changed skins. so much has happened that he's still catching up, going through every move and every memory with the gift of clarity and peace of mind (although he hardly feels at peace). his mouth and beard still a gory, splattered mess of blood and pieces of stray sinew still caught in the wires of his facial hair. he wanted to scrub at it in the tub until he was raw. he hated, again, the chaotic turmoil of enjoying the consumption that were at odds with what he should be feeling: disgust and fear. he doesn't feel it. the lack is distressing. ]

—I heard another voice.

[bufudine]

[Serph has already had plenty of time to come to terms with enjoying the sensation of devouring. Even though he acknowledges the feelings of disgust towards devouring that people like Argilla have, the reality is that he does feel satisfaction at the sensation of teeth sinking into soft flesh and tearing into fat and muscle.

He keeps his hand on Jayce; it seems like he needs it. If Jayce will allow it, half of Serph's wings blanket over his back in a feathery kind of hug.]

What did it say?

[hexrot]

[ jayce shivers, feels the crevices of his mind close off to touch in the way only the ravine could have destroyed in him, after once being a man of such tactile language, he would've so easily rushed to open his heart and press chests in his anguish. it's so much harder now, feeling the blubbering wetness of his eyes pelting his beard in his quiet unease— ]

"Next time— you're mine". [ but harder does not make it less wanted. jayce is touch starved, and he is needing it, twisting sideways and shooting for a grip around serph's back. ]

[bufudine]

[Serph doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Jayce in a hug, heedless of the blood and gore spattered across Jayce. Wings wrapping around Jayce like a blanket, Serph's long, serpentine tail loosely coils around them protectively.]

I won't let them take you.

[hexrot]

[ oh, he has not . . . allowed himself this for some time, now. only viktor had seen jayce's embrace after his altering journey from the depths of hell to the crevices of purgatory. jayce had been more readily inclined, throughout his life. to hug his mother, mel, viktor— people who meant something to him, and people he was comfortable extending his heart to. there were a few moments of cracking, lingering hesitation, where his hand falters in the air and a stutter spasms in his throat— until jayce too, finally gives in, in full. the bandages keeping his chest cavity blanketed bends to the push under his shirt. luckily, after just feeding, his frame isn't so cruelly frigid, anymore.

it is nice to have, when one had been so alone for so much time. jayce's sturdy, focused facet fractures into pieces; in a friend's arms he is who has been harmed enough to hide: an emotional thing with a lot of care needed, a lot of care to give. ]

And you didn't.

[ his voice cracks. quietly, the heightened peak of his frenzy comes crashing. he cries. ]

[bufudine]

[Having someone cry in his arms... this is familiar.

Serph's expression softens as he wraps his wings a little tighter around Jayce, hugging the other man with a grip that's not too tight, not too loose, but just right. The cold doesn't bother him, his own scales cool to touch despite skin running warm. He's most accustomed to being someone who was always slightly tense, coiled to react to the smallest sign of danger. The only forms of communication he'd known before was that of violence. But ever since he gained his demon, somehow, somehow, he knows this expression of comfort, as though he'd been created with that in mind as much as he'd been created to kill.

He lets Jayce have all the time he needs.]