AUGUST 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to August's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CRYPTID HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Violent animals, ghosts, hallucinations
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

Everyone loves s'mores, right? Of course you do. If you've never had them, you're gonna love them, and if for some reason you hate them, well, as it usually goes in Deerington, something inside of you will nag at you about how maybe you ought to give them another chance. There's a variety of different kinds of s'more flavors to try and plenty of perfect campfires to roast your marshmallows over. There's promise of wholesome and innocent fun to be had! Surely that won't be a lie this time.

Everyone who gathers around the fire for some tasty treats will find themselves in the mood to share creepy stories from their home worlds. Maybe they make one up on the spot or maybe it's an ancient legend that was passed down through the ages. Regardless, there's gonna be a whole variety of spooky stories, and the flavor s'more you're eating seems to dictate the theme that you'll end up leaning towards.

🔥 Traditional S'Mores will have people wanting to tell classic ghost stories. Maybe it's a haunted house you ended up in or a spirit who possessed the friend of the brother of this guy from your town once. The main theme here will be ghosts of all varieties.

🔥 Peanut Butter & Chocolate S'Mores will have people wanting to tell slasher stories. A famous serial killer from home, maybe, or the story about a group of kids who went up into a cabin in the mountains where there was once said to be a creepy caretaker and they were never heard from again...

🔥 Chocolate Chip Cookie S'Mores will have people wanting to tell monster stories. Local legends, maybe, or the classic stories about werewolves, vampires, and Bigfoot. Any kind of monsters will do.

🔥 Salted Caramel S'Mores will inspire people to tell revenge stories. These could be legendary warnings that exemplify why vengeance always leads to digging two graves. Or maybe it's your own story of revenge from home— or the fantasy revenge you'd like to get someday.

🔥 Nutella S'Mores will have people wanting to tell personal horror stories. These stories are ones that hit extremely close to home. The scariest, most bone-chilling memory you have, no matter how silly or serious it may be in comparison to those around you. Hopefully most people aren't fans of chocolate hazelnut?

Regardless of which story you hear, anyone gathered around the campfire will listen intently to all words spoken, and they will find themselves believing every word. On your walk home, you'll be filled with a sense of paranoia and dread, seeing things move out of the corner of your eye that may or may not be there. Is that a man with a hook for a hand or is your imagination just playing tricks on you? It's certainly hard to tell.

These can stay as harmless hallucinations, but for those who end up stuck in the paranoia for too long without being talked down, they will slowly start to become real. Eventually, they can become solid enough for other people to start seeing them, and the creatures from your mind may even start to attack. They can be defeated with normal weaponry or by the power of positive thinking! Wish your attacker away with enough conviction, and poof! They'll be gone.

Let's hope you can do it before you end up the victim for the next slasher story someone tells.

AHHH! REAL MONSTERS

It seems that the monsters from these stories aren't the only ones popping up in Deerington, though. There's talk from locals of multiple sightings of classic Maine legends all over town. They're easy to ignore as the townsfolk just being easily spooked for a while. But when enough stories start to line up, you might start to think maybe there's some truth to them. Or maybe you'll even end up seeing one of the monsters for yourself.

Down in Lake Tomoei, the legendary Cassie can sometimes be spotted peaking up from the water, or trying to attack anyone who even tries to go near the lakes shores. She's a nasty beast with one hell of a temper and she's quite possessive of the lake she's found herself in. 100 feet long with a skinny neck and a fish like tale, she definitely seems like a force to be reckoned with. Cassie is easily injured by ordinary weapons, but her skin is thick, so it will take a while to draw blood. Most likely, she'll disappear into the depths of the lake before she can be killed.

Up in the mountains, there's talk of the ancient evil Pamola. Penobscot legend describes him as half-man, half-eagle, with the head of a moose and a temper to match one. Pamola can't stand people visiting his mountain, even for a casual hike, and will often try to deter people away with random and unpredictable storms; thunder, snow, and powerful winds will beat down on whoever goes looking for Pamola. If you manage to find him, he will show no mercy when he attacks. Most who have tried to find him have been killed and eaten by the evil spirit. Because he's an ancient spirit, he will be particularly hard to defeat if you manage to find him; he can not be killed, but you can offer a sacrifice to quell his anger. If you have magical powers that can hurt deities, these will still be effective in weakening him until he retreats.

The final creature that seems to be wandering about is the Specter Moose (pictured above). This moose is thirteen feet tall, with thirteen foot wide antlers, and is a blinding white color. The moose can be found wandering in the park, usually, but sometimes it comes out to look around town. He may seem harmless, even cute, but don't get to close; moose are dangerous and locals fear them for a reason. They can charge at the drop of a hat and not even large vehicles tend to survive an encounter with a creature that big. The Specter Moose also seems to be incapable of being injured by normal weapons; solid objects mostly go right through it, unless it's purposefully aiming for them. You'll either have to get a shot in while he's slamming into something (or someone) or just run. Anyone who has magic or weapons that can hurt spiritual beings will be able to fight the Specter Moose as they normally would.

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[This is your life now, Jon, make peace with your eldritch gods. Angel crosses his ankles in midair, one hand under his chin, another fishing around in a bag of marshmallows and a third walking fingers up to Jon's knee.

Both his eyebrows go waaaay up at the anti-cuddle declaration, and he "tsk"s, the sound skittering a bit too close to a hiss.] Well gee, mister, I usually expect a fella ta buy me dinner first if we're gonna skip all the foreplay, but if ya insist...

[ The spider walks fingers up to his knee. While its other arms and horribly long legs... move, all of them, oddly-jointed and horrible. He twitches away, and the hiss makes him actually shiver in horror, even as he goes spectacularly red and furious at the word foreplay. ]

No! I— I am not insisting, I, I am not interested. You can't—

[ Touch him? Devour him? Keep leering? He's lost track of what terrifying fate awaits him here, but they are all equally horrible. Jon just hisses out a little frustrated breath. ]

I'd thank you to stop touching me.

[ Or almost-touching. Or looking with intent to touch. ]

Edited 2020-07-28 05:55 (UTC)

[Angel holds up his hands -- well, three of them, the third's still propping his chin up -- with a wide-eyed look of mock innocence.] Who's touchin'? I ain't touchin'. Nobody's touchin' nothin', Specs.

[We've entered the terrible nickname part of the conversation, Jon, no turning back now. The spider demon huffs out a pout, rolling to sprawl on his back on the log with strange, multi-limbed grace, looking at Jon upside-down.] Jeez, you're pricklier'n a porcupine in a pillowcase. Campfire's are s'posed to be fun, sweetcheeks.

[ Specs? He actually mouths it, silently, in stunned horror. In sheer offense. Sweetcheeks just destroys him, again. He rears back from Angel, appalled. ]

I- I take it you're having fun.

[ The way it moves— sorry, Angel, you're still an it for the foreseeable future— continues to just ping every kind of no in Jon's head. (Or at least, one very deep-set one, anyway.) Why is Deerington like this. Why is his life like this. ]

[Angel blinks a couple times -- just the two biggest eyes, fortunately -- absently waving his booted feet in the air. Then he laughs, the sound more if a scoff.]

Uhhh, yeah, a'course I am. Kinda the whole point, toots. Ain't doin' nothin' that ain't fun, ya dig?

[He grins again, all teeth and fluff.] I'm only a masochist for cash, babe, an' you don't seem like you're buyin'.

I didn't realize fun was a possibility in Deerington.

[ Of course it would be for spider monsters! Of course it would be.

Still, masochist for cash has him going an interesting new shade of red. ]

Excellent deduction. [ Stiffly. His shoulders are practically up around his ears, he's bristling so hard. ]

Fun's a possibility everywhere, punkin. [And the affectionate nicknames just keep coming. It's like he has a neverending supply of them.] Ya just gotta have the right attitude!

...which, y'know, you definitely don't, but at least you're aware'a that, right? [Then, like he didn't just call Jon uptight in all but words, one limb is suddenly untangled and offered, gloved fingers wiggling.]

Angel. Pleased ta meetcha.