MAY TDM

[monstertruckers]

code

Things are a little stranger than usual at the gas station and garage. Namely that gravity just isn't working as it should. Objects float, pieces of the floor float... Even unlucky new arrivals can also find themselves floating! It's going to be a challenge to get around without any scrapes or scratches... Though at least there's what looks like a hospital nearby? Granted, it's an upside down hospital, but it's better than nothing.

01: SUMMONING CIRCLE

Drifters come to with an odd floating sensation hooked into their stomachs, and instead of laying on the concrete find themselves drifting a foot or two above the floor. An unfortunate few may be stuck on the ceiling. Whether they crash down hard into the floor (and the various vials, daggers, and broken glass scattered about) or remain floating in the air is a coin toss.

Still, it might be best to lend a hand with pulling them back to the ground, and hoping gravity will work as normal in another breath or two.

Once they make their way out, they can see a gas station and garage located in the midst of strange, floating rocks… And an upside down hospital close by, for those who had a rougher landing.

02: START UP

New arrivals will have a similar experience to before; a Convoy waiting for them, and a collection of vehicles, one of which feels like it belongs to them. The key to the vehicle may already be in the ignition, on the dashboard… It may have even been on their person, ever since they woke up in that garage. Either way, Drifters have the keys to the vehicle now.

…But there’s a few rough edges on these vehicles. Flat tires, cracked windows and mirrors, maybe some stuck doors and locks; all of them the sort of thing that requires two pairs of hands and supplies. The garage can take care of the (sometimes floating) supplies… Now it’s just a matter of finding some extra hands.

And hopefully no one's vehicle has decided to float. But one can never be sure in a place like this.

03: HUSKS AND HAUNTS

The inverted hospital seems to have trouble deciding the exact formation of its hallways, whether the new arrivals should be walking on the ceiling, floors, or walls. But one thing that is certain: this place isn’t entirely deserted. Warnings of “Beware the Husks” have been spray painted on the walls. Metallic bodies line those same halls, some of them broken open. A wet trail leads from the broken Husks to the rafters… Where several odd monsters wait to drop down. Some look like they’ve merged with the hospital equipment, while others look like they’ve been cobbled together from different body parts. And all of them look ready to turn the newcomers into a corpse, or part of a specimen collection.

Strange, malformed chimeric creatures that are Unknown stalk the hallways. Unknowns come in three different colors, red aligned with fire, green with poison, and purple with lightning.

Adding to that are the various screens flickering on, and diagnose new arrivals as infected. The screens declare the infection seems to be contained, but requires further study… And if the monsters aren't enough to worry about, there’s also the restraint systems trying to activate and tie the new arrivals down.

04: TESTING (CW: Needles)

The deeper someone plunges into the hospital, the more the building reacts to them. More defenses are deployed, treating them as thieves or intruders. Traps and monsters alike wait for them, with syringes melded into the forms of attackers, or lining places where someone might step or reach for. The syringes make a quick bite on skin… But it’s only a few minutes later where the effects become clear. Something in those syringes is now in the blood and forcing monster transformations. There might be an antidote amongst the supplies… Or the newcomers might need to rely on each other, in order to stay anchored.

The needles can also force temporary Swarm traits, along with:
+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 hunt and share their prey with others.
+Gravity Affinity: If possessing wings or the ability to wall climb, may freely hunt/traverse corrupted gravity areas.

05: LONG WAY DOWN

A portion of the gas station breaks away with groan and a rumble. And it is slowly pulled up and up, taking a portion of new comers with it! They (and anyone watching) will need to act fast, as gravity starts to go weird the further they rise. They’ll need to find a way back down, taking any supplies from the now-floating garage that they can grab.

What’s more, they are drifting closer to the broken moon, and that seems to be having a strange effect on those stranded on the new floating ruin. They may start to feel their control fray, and their forms shift, the higher they rise.

In terms of getting back down, there’s a handful of tow lines in the ruin that might work as ropes. There’s also a few pieces of rock that are floating up more slowly, and could work as stairs back down… Or there’s just jumping and falling fifty feet and hoping for the best.

06: PSYCHIC ECHOES

There's one last quirk to this area; a few scattered bits of odd plantlife, and the odd dead brain monster. While these things aren't a threat on their own (beyond being unnerving) they still pack a psychic punch; mainly in the form of temporary psychic abilities.

It's possible that after coming in contact with either plants or corpses, newcomers will find themselves gifted with either empathy (projecting or receiving emotions) telepathy, OR the ability to share their dreams with others, and having their dreams influenced by others in turn. This effect fades in just a day or so, but is still capable of causing mishaps.

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.

Broadcast: The garage contains a few burnt out monitors. But a handful of them are playing a message over and over again on loop, filled with static. It’s a recording of important looking people in lab coats advising people to remain indoors and avoiding all objects falling from the sky. Especially “moon shards.” They insist that they are working to contain and cure the infection, but the safest action is to remain inside.

Warped Air: As seen in Long Way Down, the air overhead has strange warped pockets in it. There seem to be slightly different shards hanging suspended in the air, looking more silvery than the surrounding rocks. Almost like it could have fallen from the broken moon overhead.

Medical supplies: Most of the medical supplies found in the hospital seem to consist of healing salves and potions, a handful of healing herbs, and a few antidotes for poison or sickness. As for reverting transformations… It’s advised that new comers be careful of taking any experimental medicine. It may revert a change. It may also leave them hallucinating nightmares and fears, and they’ll be wanting someone close by to help administer the drug.

NAVIGATION || RESERVES || APPLICATIONS

Comments

[iron_stomach]

Heat doesn't need new monstrous instincts to know what to do about fleeing prey. He'd never fought Agni's compulsions before and wasn't about to start now, lurching after John with a horrendous sound that's half roar and half laughter.

So much for the rise of Mick's replacement. "Don't run! Why die tired?!" Agni's abilities lay in strength and endurance, not raw speed, so John does have a chance of outrunning him, but for how long?

[thetatters]

There's a thrilling, terrifying freedom to fleeing monsters in a mortal body all his own. Before Revan, John had been only a hand and a foot: every mad dash had been a chaos of attempted coordination, trying to pivot in sync, shouting orders. Now he can seize on scraps of instinct and just run.

He bolts down the hallway and throws himself headlong into the place where gravity shifts. It's a clumsy, stumbled landing onto the wall that behaves like solid floor, but he manages to keep his feet. The localized physics of this place make no less sense than those in the Dreamlands. He doesn't miss more than a step before he's scrambling around the next corner.

There. A patient room: a room with an ensuite. John flings open the door and hopes for a working shower.

[iron_stomach]

There's no more yelling and taunts now, but Agni is still easy to hear in his pursuit, heavy and deliberate, perfectly willing to run John to exhaustion the way they had countless others. He had plenty of endurance to spare, and sprinters rarely had a hope of outlasting him.

Stalking it is.

It gives John time to scramble into a place of strange gravity and chase potential sources of water as Heat uses his sharply curved claws like grappling hooks to swing from what had been one 'floor' to the wall now taking that place, everything briefly wrenching uncomfortably sideways. He doesn't know what John's goal is here, he only knows that the man has run himself into a room with only one exit.

He can take his time now. There's nowhere to run.

[thetatters]

When Heat prowls into the room, the shower is running. Gravity here seems even less decisive: water flows out from under the shower curtain and rains a crooked waterfall across the room. It puddles against one wall, seeping through old cracks in the plaster to whatever lies next door.

Something moves behind the shower curtain. There is a ripple of motion, a strange shadow that coils at its edges. There's a flicker of golden light.

Heat's prey is silent until he has crossed the band of water in the room. Then a coil of yellow something whips out under the shower curtain to seize his ankle and yank him flat.

John bursts out into that squall of steaming rain. He's all white carapace and black-to-yellow bioluminescence, tendrils coiling across the floor. The distortion in his voice has pitched deeper, echoing.

"Fuck off."

[iron_stomach]

The strange gravity was surely going to be an issue sooner or later, and it's kept in the back of his mind as a potential problem or useful thing. More importantly, his target's run out of places to escape to, which meant --

Yep. There he is.

Given he does not in fact fuck off (hard to do when grabbed by a tentacle) and instead immediately retaliates in a wide sweep of both sets of long claws, more than willing to allow the loops of tentacle if it means he can get closer to his target, he's fine with this. He's not quite close enough to put teeth to work but for all that Agni has no lips, there's the sense the red demon is grinning. No fear. No hesitation. Catching Heat isn't necessarily a good thing. He's got a lot of power he can put behind those slashes, and he wants to see what color this demon bleeds.