spellgrinders | ( TDM

Entry tags:

!tdm,
npc: brie

( TDM | #1 )

TDMs can be used for anyone interested in the game and/or testing out a new muse.

Test Drive samples are encouraged to be used for your application sample, though they are NOT a requirement.

Feel free to use one prompt, multiple prompts or make up your own!

These threads can be considered game canon upon game opening if you so choose.

Telepathy and magic can be used at any point in time on the TDM, from Prompt A to your wildcard prompt. A specific prompt exists, however, that makes sure all characters have an equal chance to use this mechanic within the TDM. You're encouraged to have characters use telepathy and their magic accidentally or even purposefully on any TDM prompt.

If you aren't set on your character's power yet or want to try out a few, you're still able to use the test drive. Maybe your character is a late bloomer and hasn't fully unlocked their intuitive drive yet. In the case of multiple powers, only prompts that contain the power you choose for your application will count as potential game canon threads.

While only one character can be apped or reserved during a cycle, feel free to post with more than one character if you like! This is for those who are uncertain of their first choice or who would like to try out different characters within the setting.

You blink and that's all it takes. At first the picture doesn't come in clear, like you're waiting for a screen to fully load -- more aptly, it's like you're waiting for a camera to focus so you can find image clarity. Before you happened to rapidly close your eyes and open them, your life was normal...well, normal for you, anyway. Fighting an alien, making a quesadilla, dying. And then that blurry picture suddenly takes over.

Depending on your situation and ability to acclimate, you may not fully understand what's happening. A dream, a hallucination. But when you feel the trunk of the trees surrounding you, it's oddly...real. The smell is real. The moisture on the ground is real. The small grass snake you find slithering close to your feet seems very real as well.

There are a few other sensations that also begin to feel a little more like reality with every passing second. Like the fact that your intuition is trying to tell you something that doesn't seem plausible. One is more obvious -- you now have a new piece of jewelry inserted snuggly between your collarbones.

Maybe that's when you realize it is real. When you realize that there's no delusion here -- you aren't where you once were. But if that's the case...where are you?

here

its own perils.

After an hour or so of trekking through the forest, you finally come upon a break in the tree line that reveals to you an area that appears to be inhabitable. Your first stop is the large mansion that sits in the valley of the opening...if anyone is here or there's a way to get out of here, the house makes the most sense, right?

There are a variety of rooms in this mansion, and you're free to explore them. You also spy a lot of crates sitting in the middle of the floor in one of the main rooms...are you curious enough to open them?

At this point you notice that you aren't alone -- there are other people in the same boat as you! When they're around you, that signet you feel in your chest tingles slightly. The sensation isn't unpleasant, but instead like a warm tingle is spreading from their neck outward. You instinctively attempt to talk to your fellow kidnapping victims, and that works just fine...but what are all these voices you hear in your head now? Are you crazier than you thought you were?

C ▢ Here's where you can play around with the telepathy mechanic. It's likely your character won't be used to it which can lead to accidental broadcasting. If they happen to tap the signet purposefully or try to pull it out, everyone within a radius of 100 feet will feel a throbbing pain in their head. But your character won't know that, will they?

For those more inclined to adventure, there's also another building to investigate. From the outside, it looks very circular and unidentifiable, but upon entering you'll discover that it's a fully-functioning bath house.

D ▢ Despite containing steamy water and luxury bathing accommodations, the bathhouse is currently being overrun with crabs. The not-so-smart members of this species have fallen into the extremely hot water, flash boiling themselves after being unable to get back out. Others are a little more intelligent but equally aggressive. Characters: watch your toes and be cautious if you really want to take a much-needed bath! They may also want to check twice before using the restroom, otherwise the experience might be more painful than they're used to.

Exploring the mansion and the bathhouse was fun and all, but aside from the crates they didn't prove to be very useful. When you came into the clearing, you also saw a row of very colorful buildings down near the beach. It makes sense that this area may be more beneficial to any escape plans you have, and taking a dip in the ocean might be nice!

It's not until you reach the beach huts that you realize that murky blue color you spied wasn't the ocean. It's outter space. There goes any hopes you had of swimming to safety.

Claim your hut, please!

Even though it turns out the ocean was a lie and you're precariously close to falling off the edge of the world, the area around the huts is decidedly beachy. Sitting on the beach is a lobster trap, though about 10 times the size of any you might have seen before. Inside are more felt sacks, though larger. The weirdest part is that peering through the bars, you notice each has a nametag attached. The reason you know this to be true is because you just spied your own name written on one of the labels.

There's also something else underneath it. The descriptor may not mean much to you yet, but it will soon: it's the title of their newfound magic.

In each felt sack is a sort of starter kit: a set of dated and drapey plainclothes, a bag of dried boar jerky, a leather flask filled with water and a small tube of sunblock (the writing is in a bizarre pictograph language, but the giant picture of the sun on the tube should explain the purpose). There's also a rolled up paper tied with a string that reads as follows: "Welcome. Things will be explained in due time. For now, understand that you have been blessed with a gift of magic. Look into your brain and feel the instinct for both. Practice makes perfect."

F ▢ Here's the official prompt for playing with newfound magic (and telepathy if you want more practice). It's likely characters have already accidentally broadcast their thoughts, utilized the C prompt or used their magic inadvertently, but maybe this new information and small explanation has motivated them to try and see what they're truly capable of. Don't worry. If they're lucky enough to stick around, all will be explained.

...What if you're a wildcard, though? Someone who doesn't play by the rules and follows a different path, no matter what direction the world may be guiding you in? This island is large and contains many areas of interest, from crystal streams to hidden locations. Maybe you want to do something different...so break the mold and explore!

G ▢ Wildcard prompt. Go nuts and utilize your own creativity within the setting. This can mean striking out on your own or utilizing a certain location in a different way. The world is your oyster!

GAME NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It was like Hansel and Gretel with slinkies and granola bars."

A trail of bread crumbs, yet it? But Dirk glances around with level calm.

"At this point, I have no thoughts on how this place works. There is just not enough data to put down any kind of bullshit probability to a hypothesis, even if you were an obnoxious overclocked supercomputer."

There is an internal sigh of relief at the mention of Hansel and Gretel. The thought hadn't occurred to only Waver. Thank something or other.

"The gameroom didn't help any," Waver says, his own tone clipped and unhappy. He knew he should be curious about this situation, but not understanding anything was pushing him to annoyed instead. "I was hoping the library might at least have some kind of underlying theme or themes in it to give a hint about who gathered these books and why."

There isn't a magic way to divine that kind of intent. Logic has to be used instead.

Dirk likes the theory, but it might be hard to tell without a more thorough familiarity with the books in question. Still, it's worth a try.

"Did you notice the surveillance cameras on our way up?"

Dirk sure did. He didn't like them.

"No-o," Waver says slowly, lips thinning. His eyes then leave Dirk, casting a glance around the room as if expecting to see these things magically come into focus. When they don't, he turns back to Dirk.

"Where were they mounted?"

"They were hidden in different places around the compound. They're small and easy to miss. If they're hooked up to power, though, then someone somewhere is watchin' us."

In fact, he catches something out of the corner of his eye: the camera in this room. He walks over to it, set up in a corner, and points.

Waver nearly asks how small, but the question squeaks out a second too late. Dirk is pointing at one now, and Waver wastes little time walking over to it and taking it all in.

It is more subtle than a painting with the eyeholes cut out, but also creepier. Those paintings require someone be right there. Cameras like this can be used remotely.

"How very reassuring about this entire situation," he manages with a sort of flat, unimpressed tone that could just as easily be delivered with hot anger and dripping venom.

"Calmin' as fuck," he agrees in his own monotone. "Might as well explore for the source."

"Assuming that any kind of room that is attached to these cameras is within the house."

Someone being this sneaky about cameras could, by all logic, be sneaky about where they were hooked up to. A remote viewing room seemed like a pretty good bet in Waver's opinion.

"And I am not going into the forest again."

"Why not?"

It didn't seem that bad, to Dirk, who is still holding a sword in hand because he has nowhere to put it.

"I don't feel like encountering wild boars again," Waver says simply, like this should be an obvious and known fact. He folds his arms across his chest, frowning at the thought. He won't be faster than them, that much Wave is sure of.

"Also that place isn't well marked and who is to say when the sun is going to set? It'd be safer to wait out the night then leave in the morning."

It is not an unreasonable point to make, and Dirk can agree to it.

"Then we might as well check out the mansion before tryin' anywhere else."

Waver is relieved that he does not have to argue against heading into the boar infested wilderness.

"Where have you been so far then? Those are rooms to not bother with."

"I've looked into the kitchen and the dining hall."

So not too many so far. He is newly arrived.

"I stuck my head into the game room. There wasn't anything there that seemed strange, but I also wasn't looking."

Actually.

"Did the kitchen have food in it?"

"It seemed decently looted." So he's pretty sure not.

"Great. We've probably got a few people here and zero food."

Waver sighed.

"You can eat boar, right?"

"Yeah, they were a pretty traditional feast food. We can easily hunt and roast them."

That, at least, Dirk is certain about. He grew up surviving in the ocean, not in a forest, but the basic principle is the same. Hunt, cook, make use of the remains.

At least that is basic survival taken care of. Waver sighs, knowing that the two have gotten off topic and that they should return to the matter of the mansion.

"Do you want to explore this place solo and meet back here then, or--?"

Waver himself isn't sure if he wants to be alone right now or with a stranger to process all of this.

"I'm fine either way." It's neutral but relatively sincere. He's awkward and he doesn't know how to operate on his own, but he'd never abandon someone who might need protection.

Waver is too proud and much too stubborn to admit that he can't protect himself very well aside from being angry and yelling at something. Besides, what kind of first impression does it make to come off as someone that weak and pathetic who needs assistance just walking around a house?

"Then I vote we meet back here in an hour."

What could go wrong in a house anyway?

So many things, Waver. But Dirk has no reason to believe this stranger is in fact being stubborn. So he just trusts he's okay.

"See you then."

"Right. Uh, do you want to take the upstairs or something and I'll see if there's a basement or--?"

Damnit, did he just offer to take the basement?! Idiot!

"I'll do the basement."

Waver does not appear to be holding a sword, but Dirk is, so he has no problems offering to go where serial killers hide.

Or like, piles of gross worms that feed off of magical life force.

Waver offers up a silent thanks that Dirk is willing to take that. He doesn't dare voice it though, mostly because it will make him seem far too pathetic.

"I guess I should get going, huh?" Waver says with a slightly forced smile, his eyes glancing around the room. There should be a clock in here, right?

"You wouldn't also happen to have the time, would you?"

"No, sorry." He's about to say 'time isn't my aspect' before remembering his aspect isn't even working. "There are probably clocks around."

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