route666rp | APRIL EVENT LOG

APRIL EVENT LOG

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

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Jolie gives a little shriek of surprise, leaping back, albeit not before her hands wind up spattered with rabbit blood. She's seen dead things before, they wash up on the beach or wind up on the highway all the time, but she's never seen anything get shot before.

"Oh my god! Why did you do that! Why didn't you warn me!" she exclaims, easily clocking who did it and clearly unleashing her anger about it on him, though she doesn't approach yet. He has a gun. That's not safe.

It's probably not safe to yell at him, either, but Jolie has never really been able to contain her temper.

He doesn't appear to mind. In fact Vincent would be surprised if he hadn't been yelled at. The gun is holstered and, as she turns around and spots him settling back, he raises his now empty hand and invites her to move closer with a gesture.

Her choice on whether to take him up on that. He does, after all, have a gun.

"Calculated risk," he explains. It's true. There's no guarantee that the oasis here has healing water. Or a convenient unicorn. And a scratch from the thorns is better than a bite from an animal when it comes to first aid. But at the end of the day, absolutely no remorse. "You would have been bit." He closes his eyes as though settling in further. Though not without saying one more thing.

"...Monsters won't understand your pity."

"It was just a rabbit... thing," Jolie protests. She doesn't approach just yet, though him having his gun put away helps. "Not a monster. And I've freed rabbits from tumbleweeds before. I know how to not get bitten."

No, she doesn't know yet that the thorns here transform animals into monsters. She only knows about the people-type transformations here so far.

"Rabbits have wings where you come from?" Vincent asks. His eyes are open again, head turned just enough to be considered looking in her direction. The man is virtually covered head to toe and not at all like they're in a deserty oasis. But ruby eyes gleam as they sight her over the high collar of the cloak.

"My bad. Do as you wish." If she wants to get bitten by a monster that size, she can learn the hard way apparently. Well... no. Vincent will probably bail her out if she happens to find another one in his range. But that's a matter of one possible future. Vincent almost goes back to 'not caring' at that point. That is to say, falling silence. But then there's a sigh expressed mostly by the rise and lowering of his shoulders rather than the fact that his head, which turned away, actually looks back.

"...But the thorns are dangerous. You bleed here... you might change. Your little friend was probably a victim of that."

Is that proof it'll affect them? No. Is it worth risking? No.

"That's why I called it a rabbit thing, duh," Jolie says. "I figured it was some kind of native wildlife to this world. Maybe their rabbits have wings, you don't know. You're not any less new than me." She saw him in the arrival group, same as her. " ... And what do you mean change?"

That last comes with less teenage superiority and a little more uncertainty. Because the thorns have indeed kind of been talking about blood. Which is creepy and she'd been hoping she'd imagined it. She's still not a hundred percent sure she's hearing plants talk or if she's just going crazy.

Ah yes, the teenage 'duh'. For maybe a brief second, though distance is still a factor here, Vincent's features might be glimpsed as his head tilts to regard Jolie again. There seems to be some bemusement. Or amusement.

"My bad. Consider it supper then." If it's an animal, it's better than the gruel and porridge those kitchens default to. No sense in letting meat go to waste by letting it run free in a desert like this.

He won't express such humor when he addresses the matter of dangers though. Vincent closes his eyes momentarily before releasing a heavy sigh. He steps away from whatever trunk of tree or outcrop of stone had been his go-to leaning spot in the shade. His right hand reaches down to grip the side of his cloak and a practiced, dramatic gesture sends it folded back to reveal his side in profile.

And the long, purplish tail that had been all but hidden under the length of the cloak until he offered the view. It had only taken a small scratch of the thorns on a cheek. A careless motion and even the leather, cloak and general outfit that nearly covered him was not enough.

Sure, it is definitely going to prevent Vincent from getting egregiously transformed by the thorns by the end of this part of the journey, but it goes a long way to suggest no one's safe.

At least Jolie could kind of guess where this was going, especially after meeting two people who could turn into whole other things, so she's not surprised exactly. Instead, she stares hard at the tail, as if trying to make it go away just by glaring at it, then ask, "The plants did that?"

It makes a horrible kind of sense. They talk about blood and change and survival, and then they change things when they bleed. It's the kind of sense she doesn't like. At all.

"The thorn bushes. Yes."

He can't hear the plants, but knowing that would only further cement his belief that it was a matter of causation, rather than correlation. He doesn't hold the cloak open for long. It is swiftly brought back to fall around him; almost as if he is slightly ~~uncomfortable~~ annoyed by the abject staring.

"Well, if you don't believe me you can always see for yourself." Plenty of brambles to cut herself on. Vincent offers the statement as though he wouldn't care what she chooses to do now, foolish or not.

Clearly he's done his duty in warning her and that should be enough.

"I'd rather not, thanks," Jolie says, eying him, and then the bushes, then him again. "I don't want to start-- changing." Even if she's been told it's inevitable, that everyone does, she still wants to-- put it off.

She looks back at the head-exploded rabbit-thing. "Can we really eat these?" She wouldn't know the first thing about how to skin and butcher it, but she can cook a little bit, at least. If there's a stove somewhere.

"Hm. Good question."

No that isn't sarcasm. There is a cant that suggests he approves of the caution Jolie just showed even if it was unintended. He begins to move over though slowly. Vincent doesn't want to startle Jolie and cause something ironic to happen such as stepping back into the thorns they're both trying to avoid.

He reaches out with his left hand. Even with leather gloves protecting both the metal is just another layer against the vicious plants. One might consider given how obviously covered in layers of leather and thick fabric he is that he had fallen victim to the singsongy bushes. Or just take him as a walking precautionary tale that no one is safe.

Better him than Jolie. He frees the corpse without coming into contact with the thorns, cleans away any that have snapped off because of the struggles and then turns to head back in the direction of the convoy without a word to the girl.

Oh. Except...

"Coming?"

Come to think of it there was a kitchen of sorts back in the trailers.

She doesn't startle, and she seems to have a very clear knowledge of where the plants are. They're still murmuring, after all. She sidles out of his way, and considers him thoughtfully for a moment before deciding to follow him. Maybe she'll learn something. Maybe she'll get to eat something that's not porridge.

"I know how to cook," she informs him, "just not how to turn an animal into meat you can do that with."

Meat. It'll be a welcome change if it pans out well.

"Want to learn?" Jolie seemed to handle the gore of the dead animal well enough. "Could be a useful skill here."

He isn't going all the way to the kitchen just yet or even the convoy. There is the matter of... well, the specifics of dressing the rabbit. He doesn't want to be too close to worry about drawing scavengers. And really it's sometimes best to do some things with this task outdoors.

There's plenty of flat rocks and some shade that'll do the trick. And Vincent has a knife on him. Once he finds a spot, he'll be pausing to settle in. What happens next will depend on Jolie's answer.

Jolie is pretty sure it will be gross, but she's also seen, touched, and done a lot of gross things in her life, so she can handle one more, especially if it means food at the end. So she says, "Okay," and trots after him, dropping to a crouch when he finds his likely rock, ready to watch.

"Normally," Vincent remarks while he's inspecting the winged rabbit. "You'd drain the blood. But..."

Well his gun was a bit overpowered for the beast and it did hang in the bushes for a while. A rabbit is a small thing at the end of the day. The gunman pauses, eyes narrowed with thought before he takes the knife he pulled out and chooses to sever one at the joint closest to the back.

"Hrmph. Not a normal step. But when you need to sever a limb, you look for the joints."

But there's another wing. This is because he's offering the knife handle first to Jolie and gives her an expectant look. Yeah this is definitely going to be audience participation.

Jolie hesitates, looking up at his face for a searching moment, but then takes the knife with a determined expression. Of course she has to do it. She's learning. Ugh. Her hands are immediately bloody, holding the rabbit-bird with one hand and the knife with the other.

She's not weak, but most of her strength is in arms and legs and core, for swimming, not wrists for cutting, so it takes her a minute of sawing to get through. "Are we keeping the wings? There's probably meat on them, too."

Vincent will lean in as Jolie starts trying to saw through. Though he doesn't move to touch her...

"Wait."

He lifts the wing he severed before and shows her the end, touching the still mostly intact knob of the joint.

"Look for the joint. It's the weakest point. Instead of cutting through, push down between the bones."

Otherwise he leaves her to the effort. As for the wings?

"I'm not sure. We'll set them aside for now."

They still aren't sure if the rabbit in general is safe enough to eat.

"I suppose we should try to save the fur too."

Tedious, but it'll probably be useful to someone as long as they manage to keep it intact.

If you cook it long enough, most toxins will be neutralized, at least... Jolie hopes this is the case here. She finds the joint proper, and is surprised when it does a little POP and then she can just cut through the meat.

"Huh."

They work together through the rabbit-thing, until they have a bloody pile of parts and a very small bit of fur. "Does anyone here know to cure a hide like this? Because you can't use it if it's not cured, it'll just rot." She's very well-read, even if she doesn't know the practical aspects of things, and she definitely read a book once that talked about having to tan skins before making them into leather.

The fur was probably the most tedious bit, just to get it off whole. But overall the task doesn't take long even considering the instruction.

"No idea. You'll have to use the communicator to find out." There's a pause. "...Never had to go that far. Heard brains and urine are used after getting the flesh off the skin."

Could he learn it? Figure it out? Sure. Just wasn't something he'd trouble about on those odd times he'd had to snare a rabbit or something for food. Been a while on that too. But, moving on! He'll address all the cleanup of the knife and their hands; it does seem he's got a canteen of water on him to do enough simple stuff on the spot. Inedible stuff, including the liver, will be buried.

Never safe to eat a liver when you don't know anything about what it processes. But! That leaves the edible stuff to get carried somewhere.

"Mm. Not bad. People generally roast the meat whole. Or cut it up for stew. What are you planning?"

"Well, I am not learning how to do that." Blood and guts are bad enough, she's not going to pee on a tiny scrap of fur that she honestly didn't even get off as cleanly as she'd have liked. "I think saving this tiny bit of fur really isn't going to help anybody. It might make, I don't know, one glove. And that's only if curing it doesn't make it shrink or something."

She washes her hands with whatever water he'll allow her, but they're going to have to pick the pieces up so she's just going to get bloody again. "If we have vegetables and broth, or even just potatoes, a stew will last longer and feed more people," she says. "We'll have to see what's in the kitchen."

The wash was mostly about the fur that invariably sheds off in the process anyway. Nothing like trying to pick all that fur out of the meat bits later. Let's save them that.

"Could help someone learn on. That isn't you."

Because Jolie has definitely made it clear she won't. ....Vincent was maybe bringing up the random tidbits as a form of amusement. Ordinarily he does agree with her and wants nothing to do with the tanning process.

Whatever the case he will follow her to the kitchen to see what she finds. He'll bring the wings and the fur so she doesn't have to worry about re-shedding all over the meat itself.

"Up to you," Jolie shrugs. She stares at the convoy trailer doors when they reach it, and then her still kind of bloody hands, half-full of rabbit meat bits. "Okay which of us has cleaner hands?"

For a split second, the corners of Vincent's mouth curve up. Just a bit. He reaches over with his left hand, letting the metal claw tips catch the handle and manipulate the latch. But it shouldn't be a surprise he could do something this basic; he'd proven he was very dexterous with the gauntlet in his actions leading up to now.

"After you."

The small flecks that might transfer can be washed off later. Maybe a bowl should be grabbed next time, come to think.

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APRIL EVENT LOG

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Noooo lost the whole tag aaah

aaaaah I hate when that happens

cw: references to field dressing animal/hunting terms

Re: cw: references to field dressing animal/hunting terms

Oh sweet summer child... cw: references to field dressing animal/hunting terms

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cw: just a tiiiiiiny bit more gorey talk

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