MAY EVENT LOG

[monstertruckers]

code

Out of the thorn brush, the land still looks twisted and broken. And it turns a lot more jagged as rocks burst up and out of the ground like teeth… And keep reaching upwards, in defiance of all the gravity that should be pulling them down. The further up the rock spires reach, the more they splinter until the stones are free floating. The same happens to the threadbare trees, their branches and leaves breaking off and hovering in empty air. The nature of this place becomes clear: reach too high, and eventually gravity gives up.

01: BATTLE GROUND

The ground grows rougher, pockmarked with craters and rents, like the landscape is scarred. A little further up the road is the source of those wounds. Curious Drifters will find a tangle of rock and metal reaching high up to the sky. It’s a snarl of wrecked vehicles, rock spires… And bodies.

Robotic hunters are half melted into the bones of a giant monster, and the lights have long since gone out of their lens eyes. Many of them still clutch weapons; swords, guns, and bullets by the bag-full. The hunters and weapons remain locked with the corpse of a horn crowned monster with arm length teeth, and it’s clear this tangle is the only thing that keeps the hunters or their weapons from floating off. Drifters can potentially loot the weapons… They just have to be careful about not floating off while they salvage equipment. The footing here is uneven, and the ground looks ready to break with a wrong step.

These hunters also carry prayer screen beads, but the data on them is horribly scrambled. Any attempts to tamper with them cause them to repeat a single message: “I STILL LIVE” before shorting out and shutting down.

02: HEALTH INVERSION

A building grows out of the valley; a hospital that has been turned upside down, and its foundations reach for the sky like weird tree branches. The hallways inside are all sorts of twisted up, and the building can’t seem to decide if Drifters should walk on the ceiling or the floors.

Twisted as the building is, ruins gutted by time and overgrown with vegetation… There is salvage available. Medical supplies, healing potions, healing herbs, all of it is bountiful in the hospital. The hospital is also rife with Husks, but all of them are inert… Or have already been broken apart long ago.

Then there’s the matter of the hospital screens flickering on in the wake of the Drifters. Warning lights try to flicker on, as old electronics try to scan the Drifters. The machines give up flickers of data, declaring Drifters to be “infected.” The old restraining systems of the hospital are still active, as manacles and straps alike shoot out, trying to restrain Drifters. The bonds keep them inert until they can be sedated and enclosed in what look like holding pens for violent patients. Best hope there’s someone around to help break a Drifter out.

03: SHARED THOUGHTS

The valley is overgrown with strange plants that glow with eerie light. Sometimes in camp stray glowing tumbleweeds roll through… And any contact has interesting side effects. Drifters will find they’re more aware and capable of picking up on unsaid things. These powers can the month. Each glow confers different abilities:

Blue Glow: Makes Drifters more empathetic in a psychic sense. They can register the emotions of those nearby, and may start to feel those same emotions.
Green Glow: Makes Drifters capable of projecting their emotions to other people.
Purple Glow: Gives Drifters telepathy, to hear and send thoughts to others.
Orange Glow: Grants Drifters limited psychometry. (Object reading.) Using it in the hospital or the battleground will yield unique visions and messages. Please comment to the mod/NPC thread below if your character wishes to do so!

Drifters can stack these effects, but this can overload their minds and force transformations. Those with Swarm traits will find it easier to handle psionic abilities. Additionally, ALL DRIFTERS who experience psionics will find themselves susceptible to Events 4 and 5.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, HIVE-MIND

Worryingly, extra contact with the glowing plants can not only stack mind abilities, but also force Swarm traits. The more a Drifter is overwhelmed by psionics, the more likely this is. Drifters will have access to all Swarm traits for this event, and the following:
+Psi Hunger. A need to eat psychic energy in the form of dreams, psi-infused objects (like sage brush) or even psychic minds.
+Psi Senses: luckily, Drifters can glimpse heavy psychic energy in the brush through enhanced senses, and pick out strange brain monsters. These are good eating for Swarm monsters… And there’s an unnervingly high number of them.
+Group Mind: compelled to link thoughts with other Drifters, to share emotions, memories, and achieve cohesion.
+An increasing reliance on telepathy/empathy/etc in place of speech.
+Increasing collectivist mindset. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few; this becomes more evident during high stress situations.
+Compelled to spend more time in the wilds, absorbing power from plants and hunting prey in wilderness. May also be compelled to share this prey with others.
+Gravity Affinity: If possessing wings or the ability to wall climb, may freely hunt/traverse corrupted gravity areas.

05: WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

On several nights the wind picks up, and sage brush is uprooted and sent tumbling into camp. The plants trade their prior glow to something more baleful and crimson. With the wind whipping through the camp, it’s almost impossible to avoid unless a Drifter is already secure in the Convoy.

The effects aren’t immediately obvious, until the Convoy sleeps for the night… And that sleep is different. Namely the sleep is connected, showing both memories and dreams from other Drifters.

Memories from their pasts can blend together to form a strange dreamscape, that connected Drifters can travel through. But those dreams can easily turn into nightmares. Those who were exposed to the fear toxin in February will trend towards nightmares and may have their old fears make a reappearance.
If those nightmares are vivid and unsettling enough, they can force a transformation. (This may be either current monster traits, or a Swarm monster!) And then…

06: BRAIN ATTACK

It happens just before dawn, during the blue hour… Or perhaps it might be more apt to call it the red hour, with how the sky is stained crimson. It’s just bright enough to distinguish something moving in the hills. Drifters can pick out a rustling in the brush; something that isn’t wind. There’s something moving, crawling on claw tipped legs… And looking less like sage brush and more like a brain.

The Intellect Devourers numbers in the hundreds. Their claws scour the ground as they race towards the Convoy and smash into the shield. Numbers start to overwhelm the generator, along with the chaos the brain brush has sown with their psychic echoes.

The psychic echoes increase as they swarm the campsite, trying to drive Drifters into a frenzy with nightmares, fears, and strange visions. The brains are also ready to use those long sharp claws to tear anyone disoriented enough into ribbons, and start feasting on them.

06-A: BRAIN BRAWL

Hallucinations: The Intellect Devourers try to whip up more terrifying visions. Anything to disorient the entire Convoy, or drive the Drifters into a madness that leaves them transformed and too wild to easily counterattack. These hallucinations may be past trauma, or something a Drifter fears happening; the ultimate goal is to leave Drifters panicking, changed, and vulnerable.

Rally: Still, there’s one thing the Devourers didn’t anticipate: and that is how sharing a mental link has given the Drifters an anchor with each other. With all the psychic echoes spreading through the camp, any and all mental links from before can easily flare back up. Drifters who have shared dreams or some form of mental connection may still transform, but their mental link can keep their minds stable and coherent instead of growing feral.

Scars: Whether through brute force battles or mental link resistance, eventually the Convoy is able to shrug off the attack… But there is still some damage done. The shield generator has shorted out, and the Convoy itself has taken a few gashes and gouges. Not to mention any transformed Drifters will still need to be talked down. Luckily the mental links are still in place to help with that, and there’s a truck full of medical supplies to help with patching up any hurts.

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.

Disorientation: When wandering through the brush, Drifters may experience a swarm of disorientation: their thoughts suddenly scramble, they forget where they were going or what they were doing. They may also come to with a set of gashes along their legs, and a sense that they may have seen something in the sage brush move… Or maybe it was just the wind.

Float: Occasionally, parts of the road just give up their hold on the ground and go drifting skywards. Hopefully those chunks of road don’t take Drifters and their vehicles with them. Tough vehicles can likely survive the drop, while Fast vehicles can speed away before they float too far upwards. Drifters caught outside their vehicles will have to hope they have fast reflexes… Or are either good fliers or good jumpers for the leap back down.

Raining Down: On occasion, gravity will flicker and warp oddly… And that means that other odd things can fall where they used to float; rocks, plants, not to mention the odd bit of hardware and buildings. Watch for falling objects of various shapes and sizes!


NAVIGATION

Comments

[hexrot]

[ jayce fires. and fires. and fires— in a fit of frenzy he fires at every flickering shadow, at every corner and sound and crack in the night that he could not see. he fires until the ravine tremors, until the rocks begin to crack and fall away from the impact craters and suspended, corrupted rubble.

the entire cave is falling apart with them still inside. ]

[taediosum]

Well you do, now. [ For the nickname, definitely.

Though— Arcade's sarcastic slip of a smile fades, as he starts to feel something essential fall out of place, himself. ]

...What do you mean?

[taediosum]

[ There are just so many questions that explanation (which really doesn't explain anything, unfortunately) gives rise to - but pretty much all of them leave him in the airy laugh that answers that chuckle. ]

Well, I've never heard anyone call him that...

[undyingcrow]

Would you rather be filthy, or dead?

[More gunshots fire, this time at incoming brains. At least it's decent target practice.]

[undyingcrow]

He seemed incredibly proficient, and his movements were rather swift. Moreover, he had significant range, even when I took to the air, and was strikingly resilient, even under the might of my most powerful attacks.

[He brushes one hand against his neck.]

My feathers offered so me protection, but if Vash-san hadn't intervened, I may have died.

[becomerobot]

He would not call himself that. You must actually know him. [as in more personally than just by reputation alone. Many people know Jayce without really knowing him. He's a personable type, far more than Viktor could ever manage.

Viktor finally straightens himself up fully again, using his crutch to help leverage that act. Even in a dream, his body feels heavy despite how twiggy he is. He offers a hand to Arcade shake-]

I haven't introduced myself. It's Viktor. How do you know Jayce?

[taediosum]

[ Arcade isn't sure he'd claim anything more than a passing acquaintanceship, himself, but perhaps that isn't fair. He does what he can to keep most people at arm's length, though, and it feels just as unfair to call it any more than that.

So he settles for the usual, noncommittal, half-joking reply, as he shakes Viktor's hand. ]

When you come as close to nearly being wrist-deep in someone else's torso, it does tend to create a certain bond. I... helped him out once or twice, that's all.

[androidvictoriam]

[ Danse backs away a step at that rattle, equally instinctive, because no matter how dangerous a thing he might be right now--now or always, and usually proud of it, too--he wouldn't be a match for Arcade if the other man actually wanted to fight him now. Not like this, with no resistance to any of the weapons currently at Arcade's disposal. It's a damn good thing they finally are on the same side. ]

You're going to get nowhere trying to fight them off individually! Neither of us can.

[ Already, the devourers are beginning to prove his point, trying to rush his feet again in a group. He lets out a snarl of frustration at them that sounds far too bestial for his own comfort now that he can actually hear himself think, flinging three away at once with a sweep of his arm and coming away with another bleeding gash for the trouble. ]

I know this may sound counterproductive, but get out of that defensive position. Stretch your body out. Make it a more obvious target.

cw: bones cracking and moving sorry

[hexrot]

[ jayce loses his patience; he's cold, painful, starving, and this might as well just be a halucination yelling at him to do something— ]

I have to, damn it! [ and that he does; he hovers his hand over the extrusion before snapping the weight of his palm down on it in one single press. crack, and with that— he fucking srceams. screams high, at the top of his longs and bites into his lips, tosses back and cries through his cold sweat. he could . . . pass out. his face is swimming, but his dream won't give him that luxury.

no one would hear them. only the occasional, curious doll breaking out from radiation husk. ]

[hexrot]

[ silence befalls jayce to the point of torture. it grows and grows and grows until the only thing beaming out of him, word after word, is shame that could kill him if he weren't already dead. he gets caught in a loop of overanalyzing— was he really so loud? could he have been quieter? maybe here, and here, and maybe the walls weren't as thick as he thought they were and— the flash of viktor's worried expression as he fled from a bed dashed in his blood pains his very core. the last thing he saw before his body split open and now, on top of brutally put to stage, he's guilty for harming him in his own sleep.

after too long, it almost seems as if jayce would no longer speak. not after that! but he does, finally, a whisp of the word: sorry, radiating an awful amount of embarrassment and sprinkled sadness that could quite possibly get the geiger counter to go off in its own right. ]

[hexrot]

[ jayce cannot see it; only hear the crunch of pebbles and grass under feet as jack nears him. he wouldn't know who would want to touch . . . this, but jayce is a tactile person at heart. touch was a language he was well versed in, and as frightened as he would, he'd allow it if there were no signs of danger.

he'll give it a shot.

two legs, a painful gait. my right might as well hurt as much as the left. hooves don't help my balance . . . and i might need a cane, he ends that thought with a huff. his bracehadn't been made with comfort in mind. just efficiency in getting its job done. any chafing and bruising were dulled. funny how he's already including hooves. i miss feet.]

[thetatters]

John nods with a new certainty. He cannot confess that he doesn't dream, not usually; he is the sort of entity that inhabits dreams, and that is how he knows they can be just as real as anything else. This must be part of one such realm, out beyond the wall of sleep.

"Then it's a place beyond your world, and beyond the world of the Convoy. If you still dream of it just as vividly, then perhaps it's still out there."

He stands quiet for another long moment, simply watching the movement of the waves.

"I'm glad I get to see it."

[bufudine]

Serph nods, quietly watching the waves with John in comfortable silence despite how awkward things had been between them since the moon warp. Yes.... Nirvana must exist somewhere. This place, the fact it is in his memory when so much else is missing means it must exist.

Before the silence can stretch for too long, Serph turns his gaze towards John.

"You're not human." It's said calmly without a hint of accusation in his voice, a simple statement of fact. "What are you?"

[thetatters]

John goes very still.

He does not dare to meet Serph's eyes. Instead he holds himself taut, silent, gaze fixed out on the dream's horizon. Is it a trap? Did Serph bring him here intentionally, to a familiar domain, so that John has no escape from questioning? It's what John himself would have done, in an earlier life. It's what the King did to Arthur.

His throat works in silence for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is very level.

"I'm not... just human." It's what Serph said to him, out under the moon, with gore slicked all down his chin. In the moments before they hit the water. "I used to be something else. But I've been changing." He hesitates a moment, then presses, more softly: "I am trying to change."

[hexrot]

[ the skittering of mutated piximanders, the gutteral coughing getting just so much closer has jayce speed up his attempts. he's afraid to look into the dark and see what, exactly, is crawling for him, some twisted form of viktor from the explosion, the attack on the council— dead and soundlessly pleading to leave him be and he knows he can't stand it, he can't. and yet he wishes to see him in a way he could coil his arms around him so tight and not have a lifeless body dangling in them.

a spark of flame erupts from ash and bone, and quickly does jayce bend his front to blow into the fire and fan it. just as quickly, jayce snaps his torso to confront the figure haunting him, a gasp surging his lungs and eyes so wide they could fall from his skull. and then the man crumbles at what the dim light shows him. at who the pale, milky skin tarnished with filth and fresh blood was. eyes intact, no deep, endless sockets of blackness. no horrors pouring from his mouth and damning jayce for what he has done. ]

V-viktor, [ a breathless plea that felt like a prayer whispered within these walls, one that the gods have heard. jayce cannot get up; he only drags himself with the flats of his arms and his singular good leg to meet him, ] don't, don't move, I can make it—

[ he doesn't question how viktor is here— he only registers that he is, and his fever makes him believe it. ]

[hexrot]

[ jayce dips his head sideways; fair, even if he tried to simplify it already, so . . . delude it more. before loading the conversation with that, jayce answers the question as he dislocates from one from to another. ]

Engineering. [ he was going to say "arcane" but that's hardly applicable in every single version of runeterra. ] And what I meant before [ he gestures with his hammer, ] was "lasers".

[becomerobot]

[The darkness is almost a comfort, a shield to the sight of the two of them. Another mask. They're such messes, it is comically sad in a way. Each with a broken side, crawling through the muck to reach one another. Viktor wants to scream and gnash his teeth, feels like he should, but instead just smirks. Chuckles... softly in the dark. This is a cruel farce. Dignity, suffering, what does any of it matter?

He only wants to reach for Jayce. He doesn't care what he needs to go through to make it to his partner, so long as they make it, that's all that matters.]

How about... meeting me half way? [Bargaining at a time like this also feels funny, like flirting while bombs go off around them. Viktor will meet the man where he's at, nobody and nothing can stop him crawling forward, reaching out for Jayce,]

[solitarysoul]

Levi blinks and cants his head. "I don't know what that means."

[solitarysoul]

[Levi jumps, dashes and dodge rolls away from the blasts, but with all the attention he has to put on doing that he's not able to do anything to fight back. His ears twitch, though, when he hears the falling rocks.]

Stop! It's coming down!

[firstsoldier]

The position Sephiroth takes as Serph passes is just enough room to put Masamune to work if necessary without risk of hitting the other silver-haired man. It also gives him opportunity to observe, and wonder what happened to the changes he'd seen at a distance, now entirely absent.

Nothing lurks immediately below, but that didn't mean something wouldn't be out there; he remains listening and watching for signs of something hiding in the dark. "It is a story passed on to instruct against unchecked curiosity, disobedience to orders and its lethal consequences. The short version is a woman was given a box that somehow contained all the harm in the world, and told never to open it. She, being curious, opened it anyway and unleashed death, war, pestilence and so on. The very last thing to escape the box was hope. ... As the box is described as holding all evil, not all evil and one good thing, one must infer from the tale that hope too, is an evil."

Although Sephiroth's voice stays quiet, in both stairwell and storage beyond he's not hard to hear, echoes working in his favor. "Pandora and her box are fictional, but the symbolism slips in regardless."

If he takes a minute to investigate the furniture it might be forgiven. It all looked modern enough.

[firstsoldier]

Was Remnant a world, a continent? Something smaller yet? Enough to fit four countries on it, but what did that mean, really?

This isn't something Sephiroth can unravel. Was it a dream or a memory, as she asked? He was almost sure if the identity of the poor dead man were known, the answer might be more obvious. "I'm not sure," he begins cautiously, "If it's possible to remember something that happened long before your birth. If it relies on magic, then that spell is unknown to me."

As much as he doesn't want to intrude the SOLDIER steps closer, perhaps out of some impulse to be a warding presence should the violence in the distance turn this way, perhaps something else. "...I had a locket like that once." Maybe she'd pick it up, encouraged, however gently. "I lost it when I was younger. It was all I had of my mother. Perhaps it was the same for him." Incredibly important, worth holding onto.. but who would hold onto it now?

[hexrot]

Why?

[ jayce scoffs, saliva spits past his teeth, hungry as the irritation bubbles on an empty stomach. his anger is not for serph— it is because, this thing, this very thing that destroyed him destroyed other lives beforehand. jayce doesn't seem ready to talk about it, not directly, but he sees that child nearly every night. sees the ire in his mother coming to rip him apart for what he did. ]

Hextech was supposed to help lives, not— destroy them. Viktor was right.

[hexrot]

[ hah hah, jayce adds, but it falls a little flat now that he's feeling the weight of regrets on his big broad jock shoulders. ]

We had an arguement, and— [ well,what was it about? jayce attempts to recall it himself, but something just isn't clicking. he shakes his head and continues in an anyway gesture, ] it's just isn't sitting right with me.

[hexrot]

[ jayce hears him. he yells, and it's the one thing he shouldn't have done. blind, jayce cannot see, but my sound, the creature snaps his head and sinngles in on the area with his ears, the echo bouncing off the walls.

he bugles and unleashes a final blast to where levi calls for him— and it's that final blast that brings the ravine down upon them. stone, debris, metals, boulders, they all come crashing.

the dream ends there. and jayce, for one, wakes inn startle. ]

[taediosum]

Oh, that.

[ What was that, exactly? He almost thinks he knows, but it swims out of his grasp, just as he starts to put a name to it. He knows it was bad, though. It feels bad.

Half-turned away, Arcade shakes his head, dismissive. Not quite neutral. ]

Forget about it. There's no point in dwelling. I know that isn't who you are.