test drive — autumn

[villagemod]

test drive — autumn
nav | logs | ooc | faq

Welcome to the test drive and thank you for your interest in The Village. This test drive is not game canon but will allow players the opportunity to experiment with game mechanics, the setting, and the flexibility of choice allowed by this game. The following prompts are examples of typical situations characters might face in the game. At least one thread from the TDM is required as part of the game's application process.

Since not all setting details have been made available yet, you are welcome to invent your own general locations for this test drive. There are no living souls in Mathias Township beyond the player characters. In fact, there are no signs of life at all... We hope you enjoy your visit.

( Recommended listening: ♫ )



— the fog —

It moves in quickly and without warning, not from the waterfront but the forest, cascading through every street in a thick wave of white. The fog is not a soft blanket enveloping the town, but a heavy weight pressing down, threatening to suffocate the sky is blotted out and you can see no further than your outstretched hand.

Those outside when it rolls in are left wandering blind, stumbling toward shelter as you're unable to even see your feet beneath you, let alone any obstacles in your path. Perhaps you call out for help, hoping for another voice to guide you toward shelter or simply another living soul. Or perhaps you were lucky enough to already be inside when the fog descended, quickly closing doors and windows to keep it from creeping in. Can you hear those voices crying out? You recognize some, but the others... Are they really there at all, or are you alone here and simply beginning to finally lose your mind?

And perhaps the most important question: Do you answer?



— portents —

You wake up with an ache in your head and a cloudiness to your thoughts, your body sprawled on the ground in a location you don't remember going to. As you sit up, the world spins and start to clutch your head — to realize there's something on your hand. A symbol, a word, a streak of wet paint or ink. You don't recognize it or have any memory of how it got there...

Or how the much larger depiction came to be on the wall or the floor around them. You can see it shining wet in the glow of whatever light source is nearest, but something instinctual urges you not to touch it. If you defy that urge, it burns, a searing pain that radiates from the matching mark on your hand.

Did you do this? Or was it done to you? The person approaching may have answers — or accusations.



— past deeds —

The Town Hall stands at the center of Mathias Township, a modest two-story building that would be welcoming if not for the faded sign, chipped paint, and deafening silence. It's a typical government building, with a reception desk at the front and rows of identical offices within, the names half faded from each door. But what catches your attention is a large bulletin board on the main wall, once meant to hold flyers or announcements for the community.

What it holds now is decidedly different. Tacked onto the board is a torn scrap of paper with words scrawled almost illegibly in dark red ink.

why did this happen

Upon close examination, a keen eye will realize that the ink is actually blood, though whether it is human is unknown. And beside that scrap, a symbol has been drawn in dark black marker — it resembles a feather or a branch, but you've never seen anything like it before. It scares you even as you know it is perhaps the most important thing you have ever seen in your life.

On the floor below the bulletin board are more scraps of paper scattered amongst grime and dust, most blank but some with other strange symbols scrawled in a variety of inks, perhaps matching the pens and markers scattered near the baseboard. Some are small enough that they might have once been part of the same page, creating something larger. And to the far side, a pristine stack of crisp white copy paper and an unopened box of ballpoint pens.

What do you do?



code bases by tricklet

Comments

[hammer_helsing]

"As did I," he said, his frame seeming suddenly less tense. She didn't reel back from the crucifix - an important test. Many people thought it was the object itself, which was false. It was faith, true belief, that gave symbols their power. His had always been strong enough to drive back the undead.

Besides which, she had not the manner. Her humor wasn't sadistic, for a start. And she hadn't the body language - like that of a coiled snake.

"Where we have been transported, I know not - but this is certainly not a natural place. I believe we are in a supernatural realm."

[chuju]

The way he seems to relax a bit is a relief — she's really not in the mood to fight someone who might be insisting that she's some sort of thing. She's had more than enough of that to last a lifetime, thanks very much. But despite that relief, there's something about the way he speaks...

He's serious. There's an intelligence to him that is completely at odds with what she would assume from a cursory glance and that's more unnerving than just about anything else she's seen here so far. She stares at him through the slight haze of fog and then lets out a heavy sigh and looks away. "God, I hope not."

Weren't time-traveling alien robots enough? Did the universe really have to throw this into the mix too?

[hammer_helsing]

He listened to her, but sighed.

"Madam, I fear God had nothing whatsoever to do with it. The sounds, the voices - they are, I fear, lures. We were lucky not to be found by whatever being or force is making them."

[chuju]

"Yeah, I didn't really mean—" She starts to explain but then just shakes her head. It's not worth it. Better to focus on the problem at hand, especially since he seems to have more of an idea of what's going on than she does.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she asks, "You have any theories on what that might be?"

[hammer_helsing]

His face, at her question, is probably not the one she'll want to see.

"Yes. Some. None of them ones I think you'll be eager to hear. However, even in such dire straits..."

Politeness comes first.

"Professor Abraham Van Helsing, scholar and opponent of the occult and the dark forces."

[chuju]

None that she'll want to hear? Any theory is better than no theory; at least they'll have a place to start. But sure, they can get introductions out of the way before he gives her the bad news.

"Daisy Johnson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Though she's pretty sure that's going to mean absolutely nothing to him because that's just how her day has been going.

[hammer_helsing]

Not terribly much, but the word 'agent' is reassuring. So is the acronym. In his line of work, you have to take a certain amount on faith. Speaking of...

"If you have any symbols of faith, keep them with you. This may be the work of the undead."