monstertruckers: (Default)
monstertruckers ([personal profile] monstertruckers) wrote in [community profile] route666rp2025-05-06 05:39 pm

MAY EVENT LOG




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











taediosum: (pic#17385379)

vault 101

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-07 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ If it weren't for that blaring alarm and the overwhelming sense of unease and confusion the dream seems to emanate, the scene would be fascinating. Not that Arcade has never been inside a Vault, before - it's just that, in his experience, they're either defunct and decaying relics or a kitschy tourist trap reno job like 21. This place, from what he can gather, still seems to be up and running. ...For the moment, anyway.

Between the alarm and those gunshots, things don't appear to be going great. Nor do the voices he can hear up ahead bode particularly well, though he keeps moving toward them, anyway. It doesn't seem like he can help it, actually, as he rounds another corner and nearly runs right into the only other person he's seen so far, in these empty halls.

The body on the ground not too far behind her definitely does not bode well. Arcade steps back, putting up his hands. ]


Hey, don't mind me. I think I just took a wrong turn somewhere.
wasteland_101: (Default)

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-14 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
You chose the worst time to find a way into the vault.

[She looked a bit younger than she had when they first met outside of the Vault, in the strange broken world. Her eyes were a bit too wide for someone that was supposed to be used to the Wasteland. She was still dressed in her vault suit as well.]

Did you see an older man? Short dark hair, greying beard...? Goes by the name of James?

[She doubted that he had seen her father, but it didn't hurt to ask. She had no clue what was going on but she was going to find out.]
taediosum: (pic#15693868)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-16 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't exactly choose to...

[ He just sort of wound up here! Somehow! ...He's not entirely clear on the details, really, and the longer he looks at her, the more there's a nagging sense of having met, before. (But the vault suit? The younger face, without that haunted Wasteland air? It's throwing him off. ...Along with the alarm, at any rate.) ]

You're the first person I've run into, so far. No one back that way.
wasteland_101: (Not another sidequest)

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-18 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
Everyone's likely back in their rooms. Trying to stay away from the radroaches and our batshit insane Overseer.

[The sarcasm is mostly the same as when she is older. She sighs before motioning for him to follow.]

Come on. Follow me. I know a way out of this place. We gotta pass by the Overseer's office though.
taediosum: (pic#17385324)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-19 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
...Well, one of those things sound manageable.

[ It's the radroaches. Fortunately, Arcade is so used to wearing a weapon around on his belt that he hasn't dreamt himself here without one - his hand moves surreptitiously to touch the pistol, as he looks around the empty hall. And, given the lack of alternatives, falls into step beside her. ]

Of course we do. Exactly how 'batshit insane' would you say he is?
wasteland_101: (Battle Hardened)

CW: Implied torture

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-21 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, he's always been an asshole, even when he gave me my Pip-boy when I turned 10. Today I learned that he had my father's assistant killed because he thought he helped my father escape.

[She moves through the Vault like she knows what she's doing. She does, mostly. They wind through the halls and stairways until she freezes. They've just made it through the main systems room when she hears another female voice.]

I don't know anything!

Be reasonable Amata. Officer Mack may enjoy this, but I don't. Just tell us where to find your friend so that we can talk to her.

Amata....fuck. Sorry you're going to end up being a part of this. I can't leave her behind.

[She's pissed, young and stupid. She doesn't even slow down before continuing down the hall. In the window two men can be seen with another girl, about Angel's age in a chair, looking worse for wear.]

That bastard. That's his own daughter.

[She's not thinking straight and hearing her only friend being hurt has really pushed her. She doesn't bother with being subtle. She slams her fist on the button to open the nearby door and opens fire.]
taediosum: (Default)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-23 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ Okay, so she wasn't exaggerating. Not that Arcade really had reason to doubt her - he's well aware of the sort of things that have unfolded in Vaults like this. For every peacefully disbanded 21, there are fifty failed experiments. Maybe this time it's only the fault of one corrupt leader mismanaging things, but it'd still track.

Arcade grabs his pistol at the same time she slams the button, the door's automatic opening giving him just enough time to duck behind the frame. Ordinarily, he'd balk at jumping right into a fight - but this doesn't seem like a situation anybody is getting out of peacefully. And maybe he doesn't feel such a wealth of sympathy for a man willing to torture his own daughter for information. Nor the officer purportedly enjoying it.

He isn't sure which one it is he hits, because he's just aiming away from the girl, but the plasma makes a mess of things immediately, reducing the man to a puddle of glowing green slime. ]
wasteland_101: (After Battle)

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-26 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
Angel? What did you do? That was my father!

[Angel hadn't hesitated when she pulled the trigger. She glanced down at where the body of the overseer lay dead. Officer Mack was a pile of goo.]

I'm sorry. I just...I couldn't let him hurt anyone else. Especially not you. Not after what happened with Jonas and everyone else.

And who's that?

[Amata motioned to where Arcade was.]

It doesn't matter. Just go. I can't talk with you right now.

I'm sorry....I really am.

[She motioned for Arcade to follow her as she moved through the office and to a computer. It didn't take much for her to hack the terminal and open up the secret tunnel to the door.]
taediosum: (pic#12456997)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-29 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Arcade may not have the fuller context for what's going on here, exactly, but he can recognize this - and he stays out of it, awkwardly directing his attention elsewhere until Angel directs him to follow. It's not until they're out of earshot that he speaks up. ]

I'm sorry about your - friend. She didn't deserve that. Regardless of whatever's going on here.
wasteland_101: (After Battle)

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-31 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
Amata and I grew up together. Dealt with a lot of shit together. Her dad was always an asshole and never did seem to like me.

[She leads them through the Overseer's office and to his terminal. She types for a few seconds and the desk starts to move. Opening up to a door that leads to the tunnel out.]

Let's go.