JANUARY TDM/EVENT

[monstertruckers]

code

The storm drives the Convoy to the very summit of the mountains, before hitting a blinding pitch. The wind howls and drives snow in a way that promises to freeze everything… And there’s also a twist of smoke in the air, to further blind everything.

There’s one thing visible through the storm: a massive fortress clinging to the side of the mountain. The Convoy pulls up into the shelter. It seems this will be the best place to wait out the weather, even if the storm lasts for weeks.

It’s a cold welcome for new arrivals. The garage offers scant protection from the elements, and a winter storm rages outside. Snow, lighting, and thunder all blend together and do their best to break the windows and doors of the structure.

The storm itself shows no signs of abating, at least until several days have passed. So it’s up to the new arrivals to figure out how to survive the storm, find better shelter… And weather the strange changes foisted onto them.

01: SUMMONING CIRCLE

New Drifters arrive to a cold and half frozen garage, almost swallowed up by snow drifts. The Convoy is just visible through sheets of snow falling from the skies, and it is parked in the shelter of a nearby fortress. Getting out of the garage and reaching the fortress will take some work, though.

Starting with digging out through the snow. At least there’s a shovel or two inside the garage and the gas station. But digging through the snow is still cold work, and it’s imperative to duck back in the garage and find ways to warm up.

There’s still a small fire burning in the corner of the garage, near the summoning circle. It curiously doesn’t seem to need fuel to keep burning… Though throwing more on it will certainly increase the heat of the flames. Be advised that the fire will also burn clothing and flesh if a Drifter gets too close to it.

02: FORTRESS

The abandoned fortress offers some reprieve from the elements… But the prior battles have found a way to seep into the stones. Ice and Fire both have an effect on the surroundings.
+FIRE Condition: Arcane lava is flowing through the foundations and seeping up through the stones of the building. This is especially clear in the kitchen and dining hall. It may be toasty to the touch, but it also threatens to set things aflame; objects and people alike. Drifters weak to fire will suffer from the increased temperatures.
+ICE Condition: The extremes of the fortress are freezing over in enchanted ice, leaving only the main hall and kitchen with any heat. Drifters who lack ice affinity risk frost bite and hypothermia while exploring the other areas of Bastion. Direct contact with the ice also carries a risk of encasing the limb or the entire Drifter in ice. Might need some help getting chipped out.

In the midst of all this, there are still rooms and beds available for those who want a change of pace from the convoy, or bedrolls for those who want to camp out in the main hall.

03: START UP

After digging out, one can see that there are various cars surrounding the garage. Some of them parked directly outside and sheltered from the worst of the storm. But a few are further out, and will also need to be dug out of the snow.

There’s also a certain connection between different newcomers and cars. Something that suggests a particular vehicle is theirs, backed up by possessing the key to that vehicle. 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 supplies… Now it’s just a matter of finding some extra hands.

04: WILD ELEMENTS

Even when taking shelter in the fortress, the storms from outside have a way of seeping through the bricks. And trying to take root inside any Drifters. Cold mists and winds seep into the castle, along with fire traveling across the floors and lightning crashing against the roof.

Drifters exposed to extreme elements will find those same elements seeping into their blood.

Teeth also grow along portions of the walls in long fangs, ready to snag at any newcomers. Drawing blood on those teeth can result in changes in the new arrivals… As well as pulling a monster out of the hallway to try and draw more blood.

These monsters frequently manifest as:
+Gyuki, a spider and bull demon fusion.
+YinYang, a Frankenstein abomination
+And Malzeno, a strange eldritch dragon.

05: FUEL PUMPS

The fortress also holds a network of pipes leading through the halls and connecting to the gas station. Text from the Convoy asks for at least a few Drifters to follow the pipes to their source, and activate them. Following those pipes leads to a chamber in the base of the fortress, with basins full of liquid.

Glowing and quicksilver liquid, at that. Liquid that looks like it could have been poured straight out of the moon. An inscription on the tanks reads “Moonshard fuel refinement” while a stack of papers details the various attempts to distill moonshards into an energy usable by humans without mutating them. It seems they’ve mostly succeeded with this attempt: once the valves are turned on, the fuel can be pumped into the Convoy and top off almost depleted fuel tanks.

But there is still a risk. Coming into contact with the fuel can instill a sudden, ravenous hunger and push new changes to the front. Prolonged exposure activates all traits at once, and will only revert the person when another monster has been hunted down, and their energy absorbed.

06: IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK

The walls of Bastion reach an impressive 20 feet up and stretch for long distances… And have Husks merged into them, often in the hallways and occasionally in the rooms. The Husks clearly belong to either the Silver Tear or the Steel Wardens, given the insignias on them. Many of them are locked together, frozen in a fight. And their last words and thoughts are written on the walls in gold and silver script.

Most of the words are frantic, about defending the moon shards from heretics or freeing the moon shards from confinement. But if any of the words are read aloud, the Husks react by merging together and spawning a berserk heavy tank/tankceratops. Or a large Burner type monster. OR a dragon dinosaur with exploding, punching fists. Drifters may also get caught up in the monster changes, and fuse their own monster forms together!

07: MONSTER FUSE

An element saturation isn’t the only strange thing in the fortress. Anyone who makes contact with the fortress stones will find themselves building a resonance with a fellow Drifter. This grows stronger the more time they spend in the fortress.

Until finally the bond solidifies on the next change the Drifters go through and hits a fever pitch. The next threat they encounter WILL force a transformation. When that happens, their next change fuses their two monster forms together into something new.

Their fusion form is a combination of two Drifter’s traits. It is also twice the size it would normally be, and is well suited to taking on any giant sized monsters. It can even give Drifters a brief insight into the memories of their partner, as the fusion takes place.

When this happens, both Drifters can switch control over their merged form. Those with greater synchronism will have more control, while those who squabble and fight will find that their monster form becomes more feral and savage. This fusion lasts until the threat abates: when that happens, the fusion breaks apart, and Drifters return to their prior state.

08: STORM CALL

There’s something outside that isn’t just the storm; it calls out in a howl that can make the blood run cold, and also pulls at one’s feet. Until it hits a point where the Bastion doesn’t feel like a restful place. Drifters who hear the storm call need to step outside and find the source; the storm itself isn’t particular on if they search on their own feet, or behind some wheels.

Drifters who travel on their own feet will swiftly be overwhelmed by the storm, and a moon warp hiding in the snow, and forced to transform. It doesn’t help that there’s wild saber-tooth Barioth wyverns prowling the wilds and ready to pounce.

Being inside a vehicle helps to shield them from the worst of the storm and the changes, and also gives Drifters more traversal options:
Tough cars are capable of wading through even the deepest snow without getting bogged down, as well as towing any stricken or stuck vehicles out of the drifts.
Fast vehicles can follow rivers of fire and lava that move through the wilds, without burning up due to prolonged exposure.

Eventually Drifters will find their way towards the summit of the mountain, and the discovery waiting beyond.

09: MONSTER CHANGES

Between the weird fuel, the teeth in the fortress, and hostile elements trying to force changes, new arrivals can quickly find their humanity getting worn away and new monster transformations taking place.
With the cold weather and regal structures, the environment calls out to Undead. As long as the elements rage, all Undead traits are available and also:
+Warm Blood: Undead can easily track living bodies through the wilds and the fortress, sensing the warmth of their blood in contrast to the storm.
+Rivalry: Tends to form rivalry with other Undead monsters, becoming territorial and protective of potential food sources.
+Ice Affinity: Undead find themselves better preserved by the cold and thriving in it, energized and strengthened by the snow, and even taking on glowing blue veins and eyes.
+Fire Fear: The presence of fire inspires aversion, and even terror and need to flee from it. Smaller flames like candles provoke unease, larger flames like a bonfire result in more panic.
+Holy Symbols: Presence of Steel Warden symbols (a sword piercing moon) can cause unease in Undead, and even repel them a location.
+Snow Shift: Exposure to snow forces the Undead into a more bestial form. This could resemble a bat, wolf, or deer/horse/bull.

10: FROZEN HEART

At the summit of the mountains is a collection of freakishly tall and twisted trees. In their branches is a collection of frozen hearts growing like strange fruit. And further up is a massive object that looks like a deer skull with branching antlers. The ice storm flows from its eyes and mouth… And it shows no signs of ceasing without destroying the skull.

The frozen hearts are giving off a cold aura that freezes anything that doesn’t resist ice. Drifters will need to neutralize the hearts to dispel the cold aura. The hearts can be melted by fire, shot down with ranged weapons, magic, etc. When burned, the hearts give off a smoke that causes a terrible hunger and need to hunt in anyone who inhales it. Shattered heart shards also rain down and embed themselves in Drifters, and cause a berserk fury in those they cut.

But with each felled heart the barrier of the skull weakens, as does the storm. When the last of the frozen hearts falls, the storm skull fractures and breaks apart like brittle ice. Drifters can deliver the finishing blows, ending the storm in the process. After that, the way down the mountain becomes clear, and the Convoy may continue down without worry.

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.

Fortress Library: Books and screens seem to have fused together. Assorted data about monsters is on display here; everything from hunting strategy to contradicting praise of their strength. (Read: all lore information from the monster pages is available IC.)

Dining Hall: This time around the gas station and garage are empty of supplies… But there’s plenty of preserved foods in the castle kitchen and dining hall. Though the hot dishes are almost painfully spicy, and the cold served foods can almost freeze a mouth shut.

Snow Fields: Surrounding the fortress are fields of snow, ready to bog down anyone who wanders too far into them. It would be next to impossible for anyone to make it far on two feet without the aid of a vehicle… Or the aid of a monstrous transformation.

Fire Snow: The storm can wildly swing between temperatures, from freezing to burning with how the snowflakes fluctuate. They can suck warmth out of a Drifter’s body on contact, or risk burning any exposed skin.

Armory: The Steel Wardens kept an armory and arena close by for sparring. Various weapons and armor are stored here; some antiquated, some modern and augmented with technology. And everything but the older models are badly damaged by the elements; frozen over and metal crackled, or half melted from fire. They won’t have much use as weapons, but could be used as metal materials.

View from the Peaks: When the storm clears, one can look out from the peaks and see what’s next. A strange, twisted landscape stretches out below the peaks. And beyond that is something on the horizon; a massive city reaching upwards, and the buildings intact and gleaming. Going back to the Convoy reveals a new update in the database: Nirvana is near. And will be reached in an estimated 60 days from now.


NAVIGATION || RESERVES || APPLICATIONS

Comments

[propatriamori]

[Perhaps one of the differences is that when Edward shifted, he went fully wolf. There were no human features left, although the wolf does have the multiple legs of a spider. Rather than being caught halfway between a man and a wolf, Edward dove deeply into the wolf consciousness. And perhaps too, in some dim way no one understands, the spider had played a part as well. It pushed its legs onto the wolf; is it really that farfetched to imagine the spider consciousness also communicated with the wolf, told it that Edward would be cooperative and do wolf things if the wolf didn't try to overwrite his mind?]

[Who knows. But Edward does flush when Danse comments on his ability to remember who he is, and he waves a hand, slightly embarrassed but also pleased by the compliment.]

I keep telling you, it's because I cooperate with the other minds. They don't want to fight me.

[Or maybe it's because there's another consciousness in there that they're all afraid of, and working together means they're not erased by The War that continues to rage in the back of Edward's mind. If that ever breaks its bonds, it has the potential to destroy all of them, to seize control and eliminate everything except its constant, howling desire for destruction.]

[But Edward tries his very hardest to never, ever think about that.]

Of course. One moment.

[Edward lets go of Danse--yes, they've just been standing there with their arms around each other for this whole conversation, it's what happened--and takes a few steps back. He then stoops over his legs and briskly undoes the buckles holding the prosthetic on. Once it's free, he hands it to Danse.]

Will you hold that, please?

[And with that, he takes a deep breath and shifts.]

[Danse has seen the spider transformation before, which is violent and ugly. The wolf transformation is different; a long, snow-white wolf tail seems to appear from nowhere at the back of Edward's spider body, and then it sweeps forward and around him. The tail creates a thick curtain of glittering snow and ice that shrouds Edward's body, but it doesn't hide the sounds of bones cracking and muscles shifting.]

[When the snow clears, there's a seven and a half legged wolf standing in front of Danse. Edward's fur is bright white, tipped with shimmering frost all over. He has the faintest pale blue colouration where a regular wolf's husky-like markings would be, and when his tail moves, it sends glittering snowflakes whirling past. His eyes are balls of bright, shimmering ice in his face.]

[Edward prances forward, his tail wagging furiously, and seizes one of Danse's hands in his mouth. Not to bite, never to bite, but to mouth at it in a very doggy way before swiping his cold blue tongue across the back of it.]

hi Danse hi Danse hiiiiii DANSE DANSE DANSE Edward spider wolf now!

[Sorry, buddy, all proper British articulation goes out the window when faced with canine joy.]

[androidvictoriam]

[ The first time he'd brought the new knight under his mentorship to meet the airship's chief engineer, he'd held his breath with nervousness, unsure how she might react to the power armor frame that now served Ingram for legs after the accident that had claimed them. "I didn't notice," Nora had said, and neither Danse nor Ingram had believed her, because it seemed like an absurd and self-evident lie.

But he hadn't noticed the spider leg's prosthetic, not until it was being pressed into his hands, and the only thing that keeps him from processing or speculating beyond that first awful jolt is the distracting, unexpected beauty of the transformation. It's nothing at all like the spider shift, no, which is familiar in how like his own it is, excruciating to see even if not to feel. Danse hadn't known any transformation could look like this, regardless of how it sounds.

There is no beauty like this in the wasteland, or if there is, he's never seen it. There's just wreckage and deformation and chintzy mass-produced artifacts that the centuries have been unkind to. And whatever bond he might have thought he felt for his brothers and sisters in the Codex, there was no joyful instinct to reach out to them on this mental, spiritual, pack-bonded level. It's what that internal wolf has ached for from the start, coupled with a pang of homesickness for the dog left behind in the Commonwealth as he kneels promptly down at that playful bite to offer the same thorough petting and scritching that he would to Dogmeat.

(He can tell himself that's the comparison he's drawing, that he doesn't know exactly how it feels to want it for himself too, that he's not scratching at exactly the same spot on the ears that he'd given in and allowed Edward to do to his own that one time before. But the way his own tail wags faster belies that. ) ]

Yes, I can certainly see that.

[ He could say this aloud, but without conscious decision, he defaults to speaking it between their minds, the way he'd grown gradually accustomed to doing during the convoy's brief time in that valley where everyone's thoughts had felt communal. He still doesn't realize that there are more people he could do it with as easily and naturally as he's doing now.

But it's utterly second-nature to respond in kind to a fellow wolf when Edward initiates it like that, and the little undercurrent of laughter is even more pronounced in his mind than it would have been in his voice. ]

[propatriamori]

[Edward had made it a point to not bring up his missing leg, and to immediately transform after handing Danse the prosthetic. It's a conversation he knows they'll need to have, but he'd rather push that down the road as long as he can. He doesn't want Danse or Deacon to feel guilty about what happened, but it's probably unavoidable, so he'll delay and distract instead.]

[Edward isn't aware his transformation into the wolf is any different from turning into the spider, which is almost universally agreed upon to be distasteful at best and actively gross at worst. He thinks Danse's reaction is purely based on seeing another wolf, and feeling that shivery feeling in his head that he's begun to associate with being around other wolves. When Danse kneels and scratches his ears in all the right places, Edward pushes his head into his hands, making a soft doggy groan of pleasure. His tail is wagging fiercely, sending plumes of snowflakes everywhere, some of them landing on Danse's hair and shoulders.]

good spot good scratch yes yes yes

[It feels as natural as anything to communicate with Danse through the pack link, which Edward is starting to realise is different from the hive mind. It feels as natural speaking to Danse like this as it does talking to Root with the hive mind, and Edward wonders how far apart they could be and still communicate. He and Root can be all the way across the convoy from each other and still get emotional waves.]

[He also likes hearing Danse laugh, which he doesn't do nearly enough. Edward lifts his head and swipes his tongue across the bottom of Danse's chin.]

Edward Danse PACK now, yes? PACK brothers. Wolves strong together, PACK strong together

[androidvictoriam]

[ At that lick, cold enough to make him shiver even when that icy tongue is just meeting a layer of beard, the laugh becomes an out-loud one too, bright and pleased as the petting grows playfully rough.

He's never experimented with the pack link, never had occasion to test its distance or known who he could try it out with if he wanted to. It's always been a nebulous thing for him. He's assumed that sense of kinship with the other wastelanders here was just because they all know what their inhospitable world is like, and what awful things made it that way, and that had felt like a reasonable enough explanation to keep him from questioning further.

But Edward is the first person he's felt it for to whom none of that applies. They've always had that soldier-bond, an understanding of each others' internal battle scars that transcends centuries because war never changes, but that's a separate thing now from this link that Danse can no longer interpret as anything other than what it is. And with that explanation comes relief, joy, the acquiescence of someone who's wanted this with or without the wolf, but never quite had the words for it. ]

Yes, friend. Pack brothers. How many others are there?

[propatriamori]

[Gasp! Danse wants to roughhouse? Edward yaps in excitement, then rocks back onto his back three legs, his front four coming up to paw at Danse's chest. Like a big excited puppy, Edward is trying to bowl Danse over onto his back, so he can straddle him and lick his face.]

YES PACK brothers!

[As to who else is in the pack, Edward sends forth clear images of who else he considers a pack brother. Their faces, save one, are picked out in the moving, shifting lines of the vibrations: Levi and Serph, then Andrew, whose vibrations sparkle like the sun on ripples of water. Donnie, whose face is actually what he looks like, as though Edward has physically seen him at one point. Then Danse himself, the burnt orange lines of his vibrations, which are much more similar to Serph's than any of the others. In the image Edward sends, Danse is clearly smiling.]

Levi Serph Andrew Donnie Danse Edward
PACK
Serph small dog but still PACK

[Serph is a fox in his dog form, but he helped Edward hunt and kill a banbaro, so he has firmly cemented himself into pack territory.]

Danse know other wolves? other dogs?
make PACK bigger? STRONG PACK?

[androidvictoriam]

[ Danse is not easily bowled over unless he wants to be, especially when he's found himself stronger and sturdier here even when he's not benefiting from the actual height and muscle of the wolf form--but he'll compromise here, letting himself be pushed to sit on the ground and lean back on a hand. It's been too long since he had any reason to play around like this, or anyone to do it with.

Those images are surprisingly clear, fascinatingly so, when he's had only an abstract understanding until now of how the vibrations work, and could never have pictured them like this on his own. This isn't how he pictured them, when he always tried to imagine how this worked for Edward. It's still obvious who each person is (and he'll recognize Andrew now, able to put a vaguely-familiar face from around the convoy to those vibrations and the name.) The similarity of his own vibrations to Serph's isn't lost on him, and he knows instantly why that is, even if Edward doesn't. There's a pang of sorrow and shame, but it fades quickly.

He had not, save for Levi, known that any of this number were fellow wolves. His own mind answers reflexively with an image of its own, television-clear, of the boy with his canine features expertly aiming a rifle--but this is the only point of overlap between Edward's concept of pack, bound perfectly reasonably by that shared canine experience, and Danse's, which even he doesn't really understand the criteria for. He doesn't know other wolves to make them stronger through fur and claws and doglike loyalty.

But he has Deacon, whom his heart reaches out to as mate among packmates, accompanied by the image of him covering Danse protectively with his own body on a mossy forest floor somewhere, brandishing a lighter furiously at trees that seem to be encroaching on them with malevolent vines. The halo of sunlight through the canopy makes his short regrowth of hair glow like campfire and ash, bright silver-streaked red to match the flame he's threatening with on Danse's behalf.

He has Arcade, too, looking righteously vengeful in the convoy's general defense, rising up on his snake coils and spattered with the viscera of the hideous dead brain-creatures surrounding him in piles, wielding a bloody chainsaw in one of his four arms. Len, in his own mysterious way, fitting a handmade scope to his well-maintained gun. Danse's mind flashes even to his newest acquaintances here, because he can't not think of that chivalrous young knight as a brother and a worthier defender than most, can't not admire the vault-dweller who threw herself into a fray to rescue a stranger like him with such good cheer and sharp aim, can't even hold back his grudging appreciation of that ghoul's resourceful gunmanship. They're all pack because they come from home, but they make the entirety of the convoy stronger. ]

Not other wolves, no. Just good people, like you.

[propatriamori]

[Edward will happily accept this level of bowling over. If Danse is supporting himself with one hand, that leaves him less able to defend against having a pair of wolf paws on his shoulders and Edward cheerfully licking his face and hair, in between nuzzling him with a cold, wet dog nose.]

[He catches that negative emotional beat from Danse, and it makes him stop licking for a moment, tilting his head to the side and sending through a clear ? in the pack link. Why would seeing the vibrations of the rest of the pack make Danse sad? And why would Serph's vibrations in particular upset him? Serph and Danse are similar to Andrew, in that their vibrations all have much more of an organic feel to them, while Levi and Donnie are mechanical and machine-like.]

[But then Danse is sharing his memories of his own pack, and Edward soaks up the images. The idea of Deacon as mate washes over him, and there's a distinct sense of approval and understanding from him, as well as a responding glimpse of Andrew's face and a similar sentiment sent back. The image of Arcade makes his tail wag, but there's no surprise reveal there, either of Arcade's face or his snake form. There's a pang of embarrassment and hurt when Len shows up, but even in his dog form, Edward has the sense to bury that as quickly as he can.]

[The newcomers are met with much more curious interest, and Edward responds in words when Danse thinks of them.]

Lucy! And the Burned Man
yes yes Edward knows
Final War world, Danse's world

[And now he knows what they actually look like, since he was able to see them through Danse's eyes.]

maybe wolves!
not changed yet?
wolf PACK, Final War PACK
all PACKS good
TWO PACKS for Danse