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

[purplexing]

I. Emotional Output..?

Cautious as he knows he should be around the strange flora of this world, Donnie can't help but also be curious. He loves studying and cultivating plants back home, and the opportunity to study new ones is a novelty he'd never really thought to entertain.

The glowing underbrush is fascinating. Some kind of bioluminescence? The orange and blue make him think of his brothers, but the readings he gets from his goggles effectively make him back off from his up-close studies, although only after coming into contact with the two. But he doesn't notice anything particularly off..? And his goggle readouts don't really specify what sort of strange mystical nonsense any given thing might have, unfortunately.

"Huh..." he frowns, rubbing his finger and thumb together, but it doesn't seem like the glow's stuck. "I mean...they look pretty?" he shrugs, glancing at whoever's come to have a look at the tumbleweeds.


II. Is it Really a Battle Ground When They're in the Air
So gravity is actually broken.

Donnie was not particularly thrilled to acknowledge this point, but nor could he deny it when there were literally things floating in the air, the very ground pried up as though by invisible hands meaning to flip the earth over.

Even more unsettling is the remnants of another gigantic creature, permanently entwined with long-dead cyborgs. Did they die before or after gravity failed? He frowns, curiosity the only thing spurring him to brave the lack of functional physics for a closer look. Picking apart more bodies isn't something he's too interested in when he's gotten a fair bit of salvage from the previous encounters, but he wonders if anything of their memory might be intact enough to extract data.

...and maybe having a physical firearm as a backup might not be such a bad idea. Having something to shift into another bō won't hurt either, at least until he can put together something more collapsible from the scrap he's found.

"Any thoughts as to why these guys look like they've been grafted into this thing?" he idly asks whoever he sees poking about nearby, considering a better place for a handhold.


III. How Did I Get Here
Okay, so maybe it wasn't allergies that the glowing plants had imparted. Donnie still can't quite put his finger on what exactly happened, but he's started to feel strangely overwhelmed being around any number of people, and eventually he's taken to use the excuse of having a quick flight to patrol the area as a temporary escape. Perhaps that's just it, the not being able to fly very high, not with the gravity questionable as it is. But eventually, he's landed, finding whatever strange unsettledness within him to be sufficiently quelled, out here.

It might be a little strange, worrying, perhaps? to see the purple-clad turtle teen standing there out in the fields not far from where the Convoy's set up camp. He looks a bit unsteady, swaying a bit as he shakes his head, just barely managing to keep his feet under him.


IV. Braaaains
Mobile brains are the last thing Donnie had ever wanted to see again. At first he's unsure if he's even seeing correctly, and even when the masses of pink are right their outside of the shield, it's hard for him to really process. They aren't the Kraang, about the only reason he isn't completely freaking out, but it's still too close of a thing that the only thing he can think of is finding Leo.

And then the Devourers break through, and every intangible thing only explodes, staggering him as he's overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught. He stands frozen, eyes wide and unseeing of the things pouring into the camp, caught up in his own mind and the worst of his fears, twisted and ever so real.

It's the Kraang again, but they'd never really beaten them the first time around, and now two of his brothers aren't here and Leo- he won't, he can't let Leo face them alone again! Reality blends with the hallucinations, desperation drives him to move. Somewhere in this sea of pink he thinks he sees Leo, a deeper, wilder instinct pushing him to act, to rend with claw and tooth, to drive back with the winds, to take the skies. He lashes out at brain-things and Drifters alike, ignoring the by now familiar ache of his fingertips as claws push forth. His eyes glow, feral and bright as he tries to break away from the Intellect Devourers and whoever else might be there trying to help.


V. Wildcard!
((OOC: Got anything else you wanna do? Drop a prompt or ping me on plork@trilobite_punch))

II

[solitarysoul]

"It looks...almost like they melted into it." The dog eared, dog nosed and moth winged boy with the rifle and satchel near by says, looking to Don.

"Maybe something like the tower we just passed? Though I don't think that melted into things..."

[purplexing]

"Yeah...not by choice either, probably. I mean, makes it harder to kill a thing when you're part of it..."

Donnie glances over, brow arching, but he supposes a partially mutated dog boy with moth wings isn't the weirdest thing to see around here. And he is a soft-shelled turtle with bird wings now, so yeah, probably should stop being surprised at stuff.

"Huh... Yeah, that looked more intentional. I'm not sure what to make of this. Like...did they all die at the same time and was that before or after gravity got all weird?"

[solitarysoul]

"Or maybe after they all died...I'm not sure how long any of these things have been here. The cars a ways back all looked like they'd been there for a long time... I-i dunno, maybe something happened that killed them at smushed them together like that at the same time?"

[purplexing]

Time is probably the most elusive factor here. Clearly a lot has passed, but it's difficult to really say how long. This creature is clearly decayed, but the one that had been on the tower had still been mostly intact, hadn't it?

Donnie frowns, shaking his head. "More questions with answers I'm not sure I want to know," he mutters, settling onto a rocky perch within reach of one of the cyborgs as he inspects their gear. He eyes the sword they have, not necessarily something he'd use, but he can melt it down for the metal.

"The prospect of a third power at play is unsettling, but I feel like we don't really have enough information to rule that o-" He cuts off with an abrupt gasp, seeming to freeze as his eyes go out of focus once his hand closes around the hilt.

[solitarysoul]

"We don't really know how many...uh...y-you okay?" Levi moves a bit closer, in case he needs to...something.

[purplexing]

It isn't really long that he stays that way, but it's still fairly strange. The turtle's expression shifts between confusion and wide-eyed horror before he seems to come back to himself, shaking his head as he pulls his hand away from the sword.

"Wh...what was that?" He runs a hand over his face before he looks at Levi, startling just a bit when he sees that the boy's moved closer. "Y-you didn't see something happen just now, did you?"

I

[guidemyway]

Ruby sees the tumbleweeds and she's quick to pick up the pace to come check them out.

"Hey- You're right. They're super pretty" But there's a moment when she blinks and looks a touch more disappointed then she did a moment ago. "Sucks that they don't come in red though."

"We could probably use them to make our cars look awesome at night though."

[purplexing]

"Yeah, would've been nice." Then there'd be color representation for each of the turtle brothers. "Probably won't be very visible any farther than maybe twenty feet and that's being generous. -that aside, I picked up something...I hesitate to say 'mystical', but it's definitely a supernatural sort of energy that borderlines as such."

Donnie flips his goggles down again, mouth twisting in thoughtful uncertainty before he shrugs. "Unfortunately, I have no idea what that might pertain. It's not the same sort of readings from the statues in the colored water, so either the effects, if any, are different, or it's just what's making these glow."

[guidemyway]

"Guess we can't have everything, huh?"

She listens as he explains what he's been able to figure out about the plants so far. She doesn't exactly much magical knowledge herself, her world had been mostly magic free ever since the incident.

So she gives the slightest of shrugs. "I mean- Glowing magic is still pretty cool, right? And magical. It would be cooler if it exploded or something but I'll take cool."

[purplexing]

"Explosive plants would be pretty cool, but unfortunately the energy readings from them don't suggest anything potentially unstable nor compacted," Donnie muses as he shoves his goggles up.

"But yeah, I guess magical glow is neat. Unnecessary when natural chemical reactions can cause such but what's natural about this place anymore, right?"

[guidemyway]

"Well that's a shame. Maybe we'll get lucky with the next batch of plants we run into."

She taps her chin in thought as she considers that.

"Good point. I mean I guess once you start considering all the changes we've been going through here. I don't think normal or natural is really on the menu anymore."

[purplexing]

"That'd be nice, plants that work in our favor instead of having secret designs to try making us suffer more. Or eat us." He'd heard what happened to Leo with that tree.

He sighs heavily at that though. "Yeah... This whole world is pretty warped, and as much as I wonder how it happened, I also have to wonder if we'll like what we find out."

I (for now?)

[faceguy]

"Ah yeah, glowing weeds. Real pretty."

Leo folds his arms over his cloaked chest, watching the tumbleweeds roll by. A green one brushed past him earlier, and it at least didn't hurt him, that he can tell, so it's probably fine that Donnie is touching them.

"I'm guessing they don't normally do that, right?"

👍

[purplexing]

Well of course one of them wouldn't enjoy the plants as much. Then again, Leo had nearly gotten eaten by one or something. Still, Donnie gives him a flat look as he straightens up from studying them.

"If things used to be normal as they were back where we're from, then no, not normal. I'm sure you've seen those videos where literally hundreds of them would pile up in places after being blown around. But as to normal here? I have no idea. Could be, or it could be some weird mutation brought on by radioactive moon rays."

He's mostly kidding with the latter but it's still valid considering all the other moon-related madness that seems to be happening around here.

[faceguy]

That's right, and he's holding a permanent grudge against plants from now on!

"Man, that figures. Just once I'd like to see something around here that isn't trying to ruin our whole night."

He steps to the side as another tumbleweed rolls by, not letting it touch him this time.

"At least they seem harmless... so far."

He doesn't feel too certain about that, though.

[purplexing]

"Same," Donnie sighs. "First those trees, then the thorns- I'll be really annoyed if every plant around here is out to get us in some way," he mutters.

His brow furrows as he watches the things roll along, and despite his earlier scans, he can't help but feel an echo of that same uncertainty. There's just too much they don't know for sure about...anything.

"Maybe...we should stay inside. Or higher ground at least," he suggests.

[faceguy]

"Aww." Leo pats Donnie's shoulder sympathetically. "Is it breaking your botany loving heart?"

Though at Donnie's suggestion, Leo feels confusion. It lasts only a few seconds, before he catches site of Donnie's wings, which seem like a permanent change now.

"What's with you and high places lately?" he asks, even though he thinks he knows.

[purplexing]

His expression sours briefly at that, but even if Leo might be teasing, it makes it no less true. Donnie sighs. "Yes. It's terrible." Even if he sounds like he usually does, it's still upsetting!

He finds himself frowning even before Leo says anything, the confusion sticking, blending with his own.

"Huh, what do you mean? It only makes sense, the things are on the ground, easier avoided if we're not on it, right?"

II

[wasteland_101]

"No clue," she said as she looked around. The voice was familiar. The driver of the old firetruck. "I'm used to radiation doing a lot of things, but there hasn't been a peep out of the Geiger counter unless I'm around people from the wasteland I'm used to."

She had a decent number of pouches tied to her belt and a pistol strapped to her thigh. "There's a lot of guns and ammunition here. Enough to use for scrap parts for repairs and plenty of things to trade."

She actually seemed rather excited about it. Look, guns and ammo were hard to get and repair back home, even more so here.

[purplexing]

"Huh." Donnie glanced over briefly before he considered the thing they were climbing on. Did he really want to find out just how potentially radioactive this area was?

"Well, no one's skin's falling off so that seems to be a good sign at least..."

Never mind that he could whip up something with his mystic-tech to check things out, but sometimes, you didn't really want to know some answers.

"Yeah, not like they're using it," he agreed, deciding to focus on other things.

[wasteland_101]

"With all the radiation I've delt with, I've never actually had my skin start to melt and I purposefully got radsick for a friend," She said absently.

She got back to focusing on being a scrounger. "Anything you really want?" She asked as she motioned to the area and all of the weapons and ammo. "I don't mind going and getting things."

[purplexing]

"...Yeah that does not inspire me with any reassurance."

Really. Was that supposed to make him feel better?

Donnie looks at the the strange jungle gym they've found themselves, frowning thoughtfully.

"Their heads," he says after a moment. "Or rather the memory cores. I can extract it myself, just keep an eye out for any that look intact."

[wasteland_101]

Look, she's done a lot of dumb things. She shrugs again and nods. She was thinking weapons and ammunition, but she could probably grab a couple of heads while she was out there.

"I can get you a head or two. Anything inside, you'll have to pull yourself. This stuff is way more advanced than what we have back home," she said. She could hack terminals back home and fight all kinds of robots, but anything advanced like this and she's lost.

[purplexing]

"That was the plan. I can handle that much." He knows his way around tech, so picking apart robots is hardly an issue for him.

Weapons-wise, Donnie has no use for the ones available here, save to melt down for metal, but he's not taking any if people are able and willing to use them as-is.