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

I guess he is a little weird. [What with all the booby traps and such] But I hope once trees start growing again, he'll leave his Lurkim and we can meet!

Who knows, but he might wake up here? Woke up here not long ago and found the person who means the most to me in all of time and space was here, waiting for me, like he got called here and he was waiting for me to catch up. [Says this with deep, warm fondness.]

[He'll eye the bag of marshmallows, and takes up one of the bamboo sticks propped against a nearby log.]

Mind if I take a few of those and make us some s'mores?

That's great you had someone already here!

[He grins and offers the bag] Sure! Go for it!

Made it feel like home. Hope you get a similar break here!

[Skewers two marshmallows onto the stick and holds it out to the flames.]

I'm Captain Jack Harkness. And who might you be, young fella?

I'm Ted Wiggins. [He draws himself up a little straighter] And I speak for the trees.

[Which doesn't seem as big of a deal around here, but he's still taking the responsibility seriously]

Nice to meet you, Ted! [He glances in the general direction of the town.] Wish we had you speaking for the trees in town a few weeks. A bunch of 'em got wrecked by some really mean people in masks. The trees are starting to grow back, slowly. Maybe you can help 'em.

I'll do my best! I've never taken care of a tree before, so I hope I do okay.

I bet yah will. You seem like you have a good heart. Good place to start from. All it takes is finding a good purpose and sticking to it. Sometimes the results are different from what you expected, but what matters is you made the effort to make a difference.

[As he's talking, the marshmallows catch fire, burning away merrily.]

Whoops! Speaking of unexpected results.. [He pulls the stick out of the fire. Off in the trees, someone might laugh, a down-in-the-throat, mocking chuckle.]

Well, trees are a thing that everyone needs. The Once-ler taught me that.

[He chuckles, munching on his own toasty marshmallow] You're gonna make some woodland creature really happy. Just be careful they don't break into your house later.

[That is a thing that happened, according to the Once-ler]

That we do: not only are they beautiful to look at, they also keep the air clean and fresh. [This with a respectful grin toward the firs at the edge of the clearing where the bonfire burns.]

Ahhh, I don't mind some woodland critter coming to call. I share my home with a pterodactyl. Something small and furry would be a cinch to have around.

[From his casual tone, he's not kidding about the pterodactyl. He's just as casual about peeling the now charred marshmallows off the end of the stick and tossing them into the trees.]

Edited 2020-08-04 02:58 (UTC)

Yeah, exactly. A lot of people don't know that where I'm from.

[Jack's other comment goes over his head] What's a pterodactyl?

A lot of people don't think about that where I'm from. neither, but they're starting to learn, slowly but surely.

[He pops more marshmallows onto the stick and holds it out to the fire more carefully now.]

Guess they don't have those where you come from. A pterodactyl's like a huge lizard with wings for it's front legs. They used to be common where I'm from, till they went extinct. Well, except for this one. She flew in from the past through a rift in time and space. Couldn't send her back, so me and a friend of mine caught her and gave her a home to fly around in. You'll never guess what we used to tempt her in. [Said with a grin and a glance to the s'mores making fixings]

[A lot of that explanation went over his head]

I don't really know what a lizard is, either. We don't have any animals where I'm from.

[A concerned look now.] No animals, really? Odd but I suppose some places are bound to be like that. Most worlds I've visited got some kind of non-sentient critters that populate the woods and fields and deserts and mountains and, well, every nook and cranny where humans aren't. Though a lot live side by side with humans just fine, too.

[Ted tries to imagine it: places full of animals. It's a little hard to do, but it's a nice image]

Well, that's why I gotta plant the tree. So the animals can come back.

Good to hear! Maybe we've got some trees here that could help you reforest your world. [He glances up at the firs.] Sure got plenty of fir trees, and the owls and hawks like to roost in them. We got lots of deer around that like to hide among 'em, too.

I could try! The truffula is the most important, but those other seeds sound good too.

Yah know, if you ask the deer in town nicely, yah might be able to get any kind of tree seeds you need and start some seedlings here, have 'em all ready to plant when-if you find a way home. They have ways of getting folks what they need, though I'm not entirely sure how that works.

[Pulling the marshmallows onto a slab of chocolate, laid out on a graham cracker]