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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Learning his lesson from trying to multitask and fight while driving, Donnie's pulled his stupidly huge vehicle over so he could actually focus on helping dispatch of the threats.

There's the metallic clang of something large impacting one of the chromehounds, sending it flying in a sparking heap. The turtle swings around his bō, which at the moment glows a bright magenta and has the outline of a massive hammerhead fitted over one end. It vanishes in pixelated light as he moves to take on one of the raiders, his staff strikes sharp and precise.]

Ugh, you guys give cyborgs a bad name! You don't even look cool, what is this?!

[V glances over; their repeated exposure to their more monstrous-than-animal form means they are more coherent when fighting - but they cannot speak, not without changing to a different form first.

Still, their look is quite imposing, and they nod as if in agreement before dealing a spin-kick into the nearest unwanted raider.]

[Donnie at least doesn't seem terribly bothered by fighting alongside a humanoid creature. V may as well be a mutant of some sort, or a yōkai, and it's hard to tell whether or not they're naturally as they are or if it's the whole monster gig. He hasn't been here nearly long enough to figure out if there are any patterns to that whole business.

Anyway, this guy's beating up the same things that the turtle is, so clearly they're on the same side.]

Ooh, nice one!

[He bounces on the pads of his feet, a bit hyper despite the pain lingering from his earlier injuries. His grin's a bit sharper because of it as he grits his teeth, twirling his staff to ram the end into another Raider's chest. It's met with a clang, making Donnie wince as he pulls back. Ugh, just how much of this guy is metal then?

Before he can retract his weapon completely, the raider grabs a hold of it, tugging it and him forward again to throw him off balance, spouting something that sounds suspiciously like some ancient modem start-up buzz as he rams a knee into the turtle kid's gut.]

[V tilts their head, felling one monster with another as weapons discharge.

Speaking of discharge, one of the raiders is sparking now - and that's a weapon of its own. Grasping hard, V seizes the raider and runs them over to Donatello's location.

Kind of an upgrade from a taser, or so V hopes.]

Edited 2025-04-12 14:12 (UTC)

[Donnie's a bit preoccupied with getting the air knocked out of him. He's doubled over, coughing as he tries to keep track of the raider.

Said raider's let him go, swinging his blade back with full intent to use it on the turtle, at least until V's timely arrival with the other raider. The electricity surges between the two raiders upon contact, the first seizing up mid-swing.]

[V growls in grim satisfaction, pressing the two raiders together until something gives in the one they're holding.

The Drifters will have to pull out all the stops to make something of this salvage, but no matter.

V surges forth, making sure the second raider is down, and that there's a clear space between them and the rest of the monsters.

Their next growl is aimed at Donnie; less aggressive, more concerned.]

[The turtle leans on his bō, catching his breath as V sees to the raiders. That could have gone badly otherwise, and he knows it, especially as he looks at that big sword beside the fallen raiders.

He glances at V, giving him a nod.]

Thanks...

[V straightens up, stretching a little to ease some soreness, and tilts their head at Donnie.

Then they gesture open-pawdly at the sword, a questioning look on their face.

They don't need a sword, and don't have training besides. What about him?]

[It's like playing charades, but somehow this is easier than whatever Raph attempts to pantomime.]

Not really my wheelhouse, but maybe I can melt it down into something more useful unless someone else needs a big, unwieldy looking sword.

[V nods, already getting in the mind to go shift back - but, no, they can still hear raiders coming.

So instead, V hefts up one of the nonfunctional raiders, and makes a show of unsheathing their claws and placing them along what's probably a welding line.

Time to harvest pieces while they can?]

[At least Donnie seems on the alert as well, frowning as he glances over his shoulder, trying not to make a face as it just means he has another glimpse of the feathers there.

He looks back at V thoughtfully before nodding.]

Well, they're not going to be using any of this so...

[He might feel a bit worse if they weren't more robotic than they were person. Then again, these guys did just try to kill them.

Donnie holds up a hand, glowing lines of magenta tracing in the air to form...is that a plasma cutter? The parts piece together from the inside out, like looking at schematics being animated to fit together on a computer. There seems little need to form the power pack it operates from but Donnie's still somewhat practical in his mystic-tech thinking and can't help himself for such details.

He gives the cutter a test tap before nodding again.]

All right, time to operate.

[V doesn't look particularly shaken by the magic plasma cutter - even if Leo hadn't explained about ninpo, the technology isn't actually alien to them.

Neat, and rare, but not alien.

V lets Donnie make most of the cuts, holding the raider in place so it isn't a total mess. And also keeps track of the resulting pile.]

Edited 2025-04-13 18:29 (UTC)

[Here's a boy who clearly knows his way around salvaging parts, tossing aside things that seem useless or get too damaged as he separates things. He's amazed at just how much actually is machine over man.]

Wow, these guys are a real piece of work huh...

[It's kind of nice to have someone helping him. A lot of the time he'd handle this sort of business solo unless his little brother decided to tag along.]

Think we have time for one more or should we get this packed up?

[Were they built like this? Did they modify themselves? These and other questions, V can't ask at the moment, but they are able to consider them.

But their ears swivel around, alert even as Donnie asks his question, and their answer comes in the form of a growl.

It's a pity there aren't any trees... but slices of the leftover metal will do nicely for an additional improvised weapon. Taking some to hand, V points in a direction, just as the noise becomes more audible.

Back to the grind, seems like.]

[Donnie rolls his eyes at the sound because of course they can't just salvage in peace.

He lets his mystic-tech tool decompile into pixelated motes of light, tipping up his goggles as he kicks up his staff from the ground, although not without a wince. His feet have been a bit sore and he can see the appeal of making some actual footwear, but that'll have to wait.

Rolling his shoulders, he turns, ignoring the twinge in his shoulder blades as he settles into a defensive stance.]

[V leaps into action again, slicing and running.

They don't have enough cover to shift - the pain is distracting, and they can't afford that right now - but they shunt that emotion into sheer fighting energy instead.

The output is... considerable.]

[It's pretty impressive! V's clearing things out really well on their own. Donnie doesn't run into things, opting to let their foes come to him.

It's a little harder fighting against enemies that aren't specifically coordinated but not impossible to counter with a well-placed jab or a back-swing of his staff. The length of it helps to keep things from getting too close at times, but things will get a bit hairy if anyone takes advantage of range.]

[V is starting to miss trees; a branch is far easier to break up and throw than any of these monsters.

Still, some of the scrap can be reused as weapons - well, more easily reused as weapons. In any case, V's throwing range is sufficient to disarm at least one monster that tries to press in on Donnie.

They roar a warning, as well. As if that's necessary.]

[Unfortunately the most abundant of the plantlife around seems to be those terrible thorns, and Donnie's only glad that most of them in the area had been broken off either from a vehicle's passing or the fighting itself. It still doesn't make for the safest place to be walking when you don't wear shoes, and when you're being overrun by monsters, watching out for that stuff in general kind of falls to the wayside.

The turtle jerks his head up at the sound, just in time to see the potential problem. He flashes V a thumbs-up before whipping around to knock back something else upside the face.

Bright lines of magenta trace in the air to form a rocket of sorts just over his shoulder, and it hurtles off once the final panels slot into place, exploding against the offender before they can get any closer.]

[A few minutes later, the next wave seems to have abated. It's even properly quiet, this time.

Snarling, V retreats to be closer to Donnie's side - still allowing for personal space, but close enough to signify protection.

They hold up another raider, either for Donnie to slice open again or as potential ammo. Whatever happens first.]

[Just as well, since Donnie's still trying to work his stamina back up to normal range and the fights he's been having to deal with here have been the first he's been subjected to since the Kraang invaded New York.

He leans heavily against his staff as he tries to catch his breath, grateful to know someone's around to keep an eye out.]

Ugh, I hope that's the last of them.

[The turtle straightens, rolling back his shoulders with a wince. He looks at the raider that's offered, a twisted sort of smirk tugging at his face. Maybe he'll just stick to looting this one's pockets. All his mystic-tech slinging on top of everything else has been extremely draining.]

Thanks again for watching my back by the way. Name's Donnie.

[In this area? ... Okay, at this point, probably. None of them have been drawing any of the local runes, which is the only thing V knows of which could make their circumstances worse.

Though the quiet does have one advantage - one painful advantage, but still. In lieu of an answer, V focuses on their original Synth form and shifts, managing barely to refrain from screaming as they compact back to their usual dimensions.

... It is some moments before they remember to actually reply:]

My name is V. You handled that quite well, Donnie. I am glad to have made your acquaintance.

[They're just... still staggering a little, coming down from the adrenaline rush and all.]

[Sorry if he's caught staring just then. It's only in afterthought that he reaches out to make sure the other doesn't just fall over, once he sees them sway.]

Er, likewise. Sooo was that a you-thing or a this-place-thing, just now?

The latter.

[That, at least, is easy to answer.]

This is the form I was... made with, for lack of a better term. Everything else is additional, thanks to this world.

[Their hand naturally goes to the sigil on the side of their neck - which is thankfully quiescent at the moment.]

[That's certainly a specific way of putting it.

That the other form is thanks to this world does not make Donnie feel any better about things. He seems to curl around his bō a little more at that. So far he's found himself with claws again and feathers that he's still trying his hardest to pretend aren't there.

The turtle can't help but steal a brief glance at his left shoulder as he sees V finger that strange sigil there. The normal purple block marking that graced there had been twisted into something different, something with more points and curves than should have ever been there.]

...I hate this place.

APRIL EVENT LOG

2 Fight

Re: 2 Fight

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Wrapping here sound good?

thumbsup!

APRIL EVENT LOG

2 Fight

Re: 2 Fight

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Wrapping here sound good?

*thumbsup!*

thumbsup!