APRIL EVENT LOG

[monstertruckers]

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The grassland gives way to rougher terrain, green fading to cracked red earth with scraggly sharp-edged plants dotting the landscape. With no trees, the sky overhead feels massive, and almost oppressive with how the sun and moon shine down. It’s entirely at odds with the biting wind that often whips across the flatlands. The ground occasionally breaks open into crevasses or rolls along in arid hills, but it remains stark thorn brush for as far as the eye can see… Save for one strange, ominous tower on the horizon.

01:TOWER OF TRANSFORMATION

The tower looks like a giant fang, trying to bite the sky. A strange pressure emits from it and rests on the skin. Drifters can get closer to the tower, but the terrain is covered with puncturing spikes and sharp thorn brush. It will take a TOUGH vehicle to get close without getting cut. Anyone who bleeds within sight of the tower discovers their cuts are transformed; a monster’s form waits under their skin, and transforms them one injury at a time.

It takes several days to get close to the tower via Convoy, with how the road snakes and winds towards it. Drifters won’t be able to reach it without offroad vehicles until April 15th. Getting close to the tower reveals that it is formed out of a strange metal much like the Husks… And that numerous creatures have been melded into the tower’s surface. A strange red ichor seeps out from these forms. Coming into contact with it heals wounds and can revert one transformation.

Drifters can take some of the fluid with them, if they have means to carry it… But only one extra dose; any more makes the fluid unstable and neutralizes the effect entirely.

01-A: TWISTED MONSTERS

The land here is still littered with Husks, ready to break open to fight… But these monsters are more twisted than usual, and seem to be composed of multiple organisms. Prowling cat-centaur esque brutes called panthera protectors, ungainly catoblepas, reptile energy draining bloodhound dogs, and flying lion-bird anzu are all ready to attack with tooth and claw, to make Drifters all the more like them.

Given the influence of the tower, Drifters can feel their forms twisting, the more wounds they take, and the more the moon begins to form into something almost whole. By April 15th the wounds and moon are almost impossible to resist without either vials or message mementos. And those wounds are determined to drag a change out of Drifters. (Of note, Drifters who took on Harpy or Naga traits last month will find those changes can come back to them unnervingly easily, and blend with other creature changes to become a true chimera.)

These changes grow worse until the moon glow and shards reach their absolute peak on April 20th. At this point Twisted Land occurs.

02: ROAD ATTACK

A week into the thorn brush, chaos starts at sunset. The first warning is a metallic howl echoing down from the hills, followed by a rumble that could almost be thunder… If not for the fact that the sunset stained sky is completely clear. A swarm of metal sweeps over the hills, heading straight at the Convoy.

Running at the lead are more of those canine robots. The Convoy database again identifies them as ‘chromehounds’ and these are clearly in better repair; their fangs and claws are all razor sharp, and they are swiftly closing the distance. Close behind the hounds is a scattered assortment of scrap metal vehicles. The creatures driving aren’t quite human but also aren’t quite monsters; instead they are mechanical forms with just a few remnants of flesh on them. Robot riders and raiders, determined to harry the Convoy.

The goal of the raiders is to crash their vehicles into the Convoy, to slow or halt them. Drifters will need to either fight at a distance… Or hope that their monster side is tough enough for close and bloody combat!

02-A: ATTACK AND AFTERMATH

The attack patterns of the raiders depends on who they are targeting and how transformed the Drifters are. More monstrous Drifters earn full fury, and the vehicles blare with static and a patchy message: “…Purge… Corruption… By steel.” The raiders are determined to kill monsters, even at the cost of their own lives.

By contrast, less transformed Drifters may be overlooked, or only looked at suspicion. But if examined long enough, the raiders will eventually conclude less changed Drifters as still corrupt and attack them, especially if they are associated with the more monstrous!

Afterwards, mechanical salvage can be found to bolster the Convoy vehicles. The machines display a moon stabbed by a sword. It is the same as the symbols on the trap cars from February. Several raiders also carry odd talismans that resemble a rosary formed of tiny computer screens. Many of the screens are broken, but a few carry flickering text: “Your charge: To hunt the Warped. To purify the broken land, purge all sickness that twists us. Only then can Nirvana be opened, and the world reborn without corruption.”

03: OASIS

Just off the road are scattered oases, shining like blue gems in a red wasteland. The waters run surprisingly deep, with monstrous statues submerged in the depths. These statues resemble all 13 types of monsters, some of them even coloring the water depths into shades of green, purple, and red.

The oasis waters can’t fix or restore physical transformations. But it can cure any heat exhaustion with just a few sips, and restore lost strength. Red water can heal wounds, green restores magic fatigue, and purple can stabilize mental exhaustion and strain.

The statues also create a strange resonance on Drifters’ Sigil marks, particularly when Drifters submerge in the water. The statue resonance can’t completely revert transformations but they CAN spread out the transformation between two Drifters and lessen the potency.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, CHIMERA

Peculiar flowers bloom along some of the thorn brush. Drifters who bleed from the thorns will find that their cuts turn into Traits belonging to either Chimera or Unicorns. Chimeras typically appear from red flowered plants, and become increasingly tougher as they gain more traits. The following is also available:
+Tower focus: if growing extra eyes or heads, vision becomes disorienting. Focusing on the tower will help sharpen vision and provide clarity.
+Thermal flight on new wings, as the hot air coming off the ground helps them soar.
+Territorial hunter vs other fully shifted monsters/enemies.
+Blood taste/frenzy: becomes more savage as blood is shed, whether that is their own or others. If it is their own or an enemy, more aggressive; if it is an ally, more protective.
+An increasingly carnivorous and voracious appetite. Plus a craving for raw meat, and a drive to go hunt it personally; the fresher, the better.
+Tough hide. As 3 or more Chimera traits become active, the skin becomes increasingly tougher and harder for cuts and new transformations to occur.
+A sudden roar that cuts into words, easy for conversations to turn into a shouting match.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, UNICORN

As with Chimera, getting cut and bled by flower bearing thorns will impart unicorn traits on Drifters. This typically comes from thorn plants with white flowers. Unicorns have a knack for stabilizing the more violent changes… And perhaps even stopping transformations from bleeding. The following is also available:
+Horn Resonance, a ringing in the horn or forehead the closer one gets to the tower. Can result in either disorientation, or a boost in healing.
+Shift Healing: At the cost of taking on another unicorn/current monster trait, may heal another Drifter of one active trait. This can only be used once per character.
+An increasingly vegetarian diet, including the flowers off various thorn bushes.
+Increased pain or disorientation in the forehead as horn grows in. May also experience pain in feet (hooves) or back (wings or tail) though healing magic can alleviate pain.
+A compulsion to heal the injured or protect those who can. Similarly, a compulsion to protect the virtuous and aid them.
+Fight or Flight response: more likely to bolt at the sign of trouble with increased speed. If fleeing is not possible (or others are in danger) ready to fight to the death in desperate frenzy.
+Urge to run and be outdoors, gains an almost euphoric sensation when running at full speed.

05: TWISTED LAND

Finally the Convoy draws close to the tower and the moon glows balefully overhead, signaling an imminent Moon Warp. Shards of the tower fall away, exposing something encased in the surface. A chimera monster is pierced and pinned to the tower by swords. Elemental blood streams down, glowing in reaction to the Drifters, and causing the blades to glow in turn.

If Drifters make contact with the swords, they explode in a hail of shards, causing more wounds and damaging the tower. The shed blood twists the landscape. Deserts, forests, and swamps all shift together. With them come the hazards of those environments; quicksand, falling trees or strangling vines, terrible draining heat, all blending and switching without pattern. Such twisting weakens the tower. Further fragments break off and turn into monsters, aggressive and ready to fight. The Convoy braces against the twisting, but warning screens say that the shields are low on power. The shields occasionally waver, letting in the Moon Warp and monsters.

With the damage Drifters inflict in their battles, the environment twisting, and the sword shards, the tower crumbles away. It emits a burst of energy that disperses the land twisting, and ends the bloodshed transformations.

06: SALVE

In the aftermath of the warp, the tower has cracked and broken. A column of wavering light takes its place, reaching thin tendrils up towards the moon.

The red ichor leaks out of the tower in rivers, and any Husk it comes in contact with breaks open without transforming into a monster, instead releasing another glowing shard that travels upwards. Drifters can still harness this ichor to undo one change, though the limits still apply. Submerging in the ichor does not undo more than one change… Though it will stain Drifters with red.

The ichor can also heal wounds, and repair those quite thoroughly, acting as a good salve to mend Drifters from past battles.

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.

Twisted Creatures: Local fauna (flying rabbits, jackalopes, gorgons wandering in from the grasslands, etc) gets caught in the thorn bushes and begins bleeding, and turning into a monster. The process is slow and painful, giving Drifters enough time to get away from the scrub brush and the monster if they wish; or enough time to try and dispatch the creature.

Thorn brush: Clumps of thorn brush line the road. A time or two they even grow over the road and need to be hacked through, in order for the Convoy to proceed. The brush is almost like razor wire, with how sharp the thorns are, and how ready they are to slice up skin.

Watering Hole: Rarely, one can find a small oasis in the bleached land. Unfortunately, many of the twisted creatures want a drink from this place as well; it’s a task to grab water and avoid getting on their bad side.

NAVIGATION

Comments

Oasis

[bufudine]

[Serph has never seen a creature quite like this drifter -- he's certain they're another person travelling with them thanks to the lack of aggression and the nearby vehicle -- but he doesn't hesitate to help. Serph himself would look human, save for the six wings sprouting from his back and the blue feathers covering swathes of his torso.

He hadn't been doing much aside from intending to examine the oasis, so he nods and approaches the kobold, lifting one of the jugs with ease. It's obvious where it needs to go, so instead he asks-]

What happened to your vehicle?

[The hood looks... damaged.]

[hatethereaper]

[He gratefully hands off the jug and takes a moment to rest. He can't sweat, and he isn't cold-blooded, so he pants like a dog to cool himself off.

When he first sees Serph, in the blinding light of the desert and his exhaustion from the heat, he assumes that he's some kind of bird person or winged elf, and it's only after a few more seconds that he sees the six wings and thinks "angel." In that moment his heart begins to race with terror, he stops panting, and his wings raise.

It takes a few more seconds before he realizes there is a possibility that this is simply a transforming Drifter, and calms down just a bit. Still, if this is an angel, he assumes he will know if Echo lies, so he simply tells a vague truth.]

I don't want to discuss it.

[bufudine]

[Hm. Is there something about his appearance that has startled this new drifter? Serph doesn't see much reason to enquire about it if it's not causing long term problems, though he silently notes down the reaction. And having no reason to browbeat an answer about the damaged vehicle, Serph puts aside what is apparently an uncomfortable topic.

Instead, as he hefts the first of the jugs into the car he asks-]

What are you?

[His question is straightforward and blunt, but given how slowly transformations seem to take in this world, he guesses that the inhuman appearance of this drifter is normal.]

[hatethereaper]

[His knee-jerk reaction to the question is to be offended. It's an attitude he expects of homonids, and he already distrusts this one for looking angelic.] My name is Professor Naivallon. I am an alchemist.

[Moments after his very distant introduction, though, he does see some hypocrisy in his own attitude. After all, he started off afraid of this person just because he thought they might be an angel. Of course, if he really is an angel, if he really owes direct allegiance to a god, than he deserves Echo's complete contempt, as far as Echo is concerned. But as it stands, this could just be a human with wings, and if he's merely curious, that isn't something Echo should rebuke.]

If you're curious about my species, I am a brass dragonwrought kobold.

[Echo takes one of the empty jugs in the trunk to travel to the oasis once again.] My thanks. Might I return your question?

[bufudine]

[It sounds like he's annoyed Professor Naivallon... at least initially. Serph pays it no mind; there are worse things than mildly irritating someone. As they talk, Serph continues to work at loading the car with the jugs of water.

Serph files away the term alchemist as something to ask about later.

As for Professor Naivallon's question... He's many things, but the simplest answer that doesn't involve explaining the nature of his original world is-]

I'm a human and a demon.

[hatethereaper]

[Echo doesn't know what to make of that answer, except simply to be surprised.] Come again?

[Flustered, he adds,] I... I meant to ask who are you as well.

[bufudine]

[O-oh... It isn't the first time he's made a social fumble (and it won't be the last), but he does keep a straighter expression through his internal fluster.]

Serph.

[Just Serph.]

What's an alchemist?

[hatethereaper]

[Given that Serph does not elaborate on the fact that he is a demon, and that he does not immediately become obviously dangerous, he assumes it's not a matter of immediate concern. Still, the claim is bizarre, that he is a demon that looks like an angel but is also a human.]

An-an alchemist is a scientist that studies alchemy. The study of the material construction of the universe, particularly in regard to the magic of transmutation.

[He resumes moving the container to the oasis and filling it, the shock of Serph's statement of what he is having caused him to briefly stop.]

May I in turn ask what you mean by demon, Serph?

[bufudine]

[That... is a sequence of words in a combination that really doesn't make much sense to him. He does at least understand that Professor -- his initial thought is that Professor is his name, but a subconscious part of him whispers that it's a title -- is some form of researcher whose area of focus is the building blocks of the world. He wonders if it's the same sort of research Angel and her other associated scientists were doing.]

I can change into a stronger monstrous form. That is my demon. I've had it before my arrival here.

[The brand on his face pulses with a blue glow once. Despite appearances, it's not the same as the sigil marking drifters. He offers-]

I can show you.

[hatethereaper]

If you would like to. [He's not sure what it would entail, nor whether finding out would be good or bad for him. It's not something he would ask to see on his own, unless he had some clear use for doing so, so he will leave it to what Serph wants.]