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











refusefate: (pic#17640714)

It is better!

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-12 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Stay behind me just in case. We move as a unit. [His calm shifts subtly, he is in professional hunter mode.

He glides forward, keeping his pace to one Donnie can match. He pulls his saber from the charger but doesn’t activate it. He turns his head to scan around. An open doorway on their left is propped open by another broken open husk.

He listens. In a low voice for Donnie alone.]
I hear something. It could be machinery. It could be a problem.

[Whatever is in there is faint, almost too low to pick out. It could be another alarm wailing because the intruders are infected.]
purplexing: (i cannot be hearing this right)

yay!

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-12 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[Donnie nods. For an organic he still moves pretty fast, and he definitely knows how to be quiet. It's clear that being quick and sneaky is pretty natural to him.

He takes his cues from Zero, pausing to listen as well before he nudges his goggles down to scan what he can of things beyond them.
]

Not getting anything much different from before... Wait.

[Was that movement? Or his imagination kicking into gear? The turtle frowns.]

Hard to say. Power seems to be fluctuating so I'm not sure if I saw something move or if it was just the flickering lighting. Of course, power compromise also means the security systems won't be as functional if there is something actually in there...
refusefate: (pic#17640715)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-13 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
And possibly another problem if it comes to a fight.

[The shifting is to their left. He moves carefully, easing the door open. A group of three monsters about the size of dogs are trying in vain to feed on a broken husk. They look made of tentacles and more eye than anything else.

Zero positions himself near the doorway, considers it and puts the beam saber away. His hand becomes a cannon. He breathes in, and hand signals with his other hand.

In the same low voice.]
I’ll shoot first. Dash in to the right. It’s likely they will focus on me. Giving you a window to strike from the left. We go in three when you’re ready. Sound good?
purplexing: (shredder down)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-13 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a gasp from behind Zero as Donnie catches a glimpse of the monsters. At least there's only three of them...

He looks at Zero, nodding as he adjusts his grip on his impromptu naginata.
]

Got it. Ready when you are.
refusefate: (pic#17640707)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-14 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Three, two, one. Go. [He surges out from behind cover and puts three shots into the monsters. He dashes in on the right, drawing his sword. He cuts to the right, further directing their focus.

Leaving their backs exposed to Donnie.]
purplexing: (spin-it)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-14 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Donnie waits a beat, watching as Zero moves in. The turtle darts in shortly after, cutting to the left.

His weapon looks like a huge glowing disc as he spins the ninpō staff around before bringing it down to slice at one. He's quick to redirect, keeping himself and bladed staff moving, another spin and a horizontal slash to the second. By the time the third is turning towards him he meets it with a thrust of his blade to one of its eyes.
]
refusefate: (pic#17640715)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-17 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[They move in tandem. He makes use of the openings Donnie gives him with his strikes. The creatures are caught between them and fall fast to their ambush. As the last one falls, Zero nods to him.]

Guess we can expect stranglers taking advantage of the gaps in the defenses. I wonder how long ago all of this started?
purplexing: (it's not a nerd thing)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-17 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[The turtle lets out a breath, not quite lowering his guard, but he does so his stance as he eyes the bodies.]

Guess so. Hopefully they haven't messed things up too much. I was hoping to find some supplies around here.

[He frowns as he takes the moment to have a better look around the rest of the room.]

Hard to say.
refusefate: (pic#17640714)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-23 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
It is. I could have guessed it before but, gravity distortions…all we’ve seen so far. That makes it harder.

[He straightens and does an internal run down of his systems. His scans flag a welded shut drawer. He blinks and turns,] Hang on.

[He grabs the drawer and uses his strength. There is a tearing sound then a row of healing potions and tightly well packed herbs greets them.] Looks like they didn’t mess up everything. Are these safe?
purplexing: (Hmm)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-23 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[Donnie frowns, but his brows lift as he watches Zero pry away the drawer. Impressive.

He lowers his goggles for his own scans, if mostly to check that there aren't any weird magical properties to them that they should know about.
]

I'm not sure how safe anything is here, honestly? But these look promising. And if they were sealed in, hopefully useful.

[He picks up a bottle, studying it before he looks at the herbs. They don't look like anything he's familiar with, but they seem intact enough to study, so he gathers everything he can, tucking them into his bag.]