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allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive!
TEST DRIVE MEME
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
Seifer Almasy | Final Fantasy VIII
The young man who came through this particular rift looks like he’s gone from one fight to another, still up on his feet as the demons follow but it’s not steady. To those familiar with it, it’s obvious that it’s only training and stubbornness that have Seifer raising his blade and squaring up with a lanky fear demon.
“Could use a hand, unless you’re on their side.” He says, noticing whatever Riftwarden forces have arrived.
Gallows - Research
Having been told in no uncertain terms by a rather intimidating healer that if he tried picking up any kind of weapon to practice or train that he would find himself sat upon by an angry warnug (whatever that was), Seifer had decided that digging in to whatever information was available about this world beyond the basics he’d been given was a better spending of his time.
He was, however, less interested in the mess of politics and more in the way magic worked here and the myths and legends of Thedas. He’d figured out very quickly that he was never telling a local how his magic worked unless they were really understanding about a lot of things very quickly. Guardian Forces were a lot like demonic possession it seemed.
Seifer’s taken up temporary residence in the library, and has taken up one of the tables to plow his way through… a treatise on the uses of ice spells in fabric dying. There’s more of the same on his table, though all it seems have something to do with ice magic. Hopefully nobody’s looking for these…
Crystal
Who do I talk to about maintenance on mechanical parts? I can do the basics but there’s fiddly bits that someone who knows what they’re doing with metalwork might be better at.
research!
(She has not created a tornado in the dungeon; that's just the sound of the sea breaking against the Gallows' island. Obviously.)
Unfortunately for the man currently in possession of this collection, that rival someone is Wysteria de Foncé. By all accounts, the young lady is something of a force of nature with or without arcane assistance; and indeed there is something distinctly hurricane like in the figure she cuts as she hustles along library's main aisle, peering down each stack as she passes and thrusting her head into quiet niches. Her skirts flap. Her hard soled boots click. When she spots the likely object of her hunt, she approaches at velocity.
"You!" is not the timbre typically reserved for places of study, but rather a shrill indictment. She's slightly red in the face from running all over. "I need this book."
She slaps her right hand down on one of the thicker tomes and makes to draw it from his assembled collection. On her motionless left hand, she is wearing a glove—no, she isn't. Up close, even from this chaotic perspective, it's clear that the left hand is the end of a metal-smithed prosthetic.
no subject
“Ever heard of the word ‘please’ or ‘hello’, Your Majesty?” He says all sarcasm, reaching to make sure she doesn’t topple the pile of books. “What in Hyne’s name do you need… “Ferelden Frost Flowers: A Study of Crystal Patterns In Snowflakes And Frost Coverings Both Conjured and Natural” so bad for? It’s got shit illustrations compared to the one out of Orlais who’s using them for embroidery patterns twenty years ago.”
no subject
"As a matter of fact,"—she draws herself all the way up—"The illustrations are of no interest to me. I am primarily concerned with Vilari's observations on the sustaining power of the mage conjured snowflakes versus the naturally occurring ones. But thank you for your concern."
Is that 'thank you' emphasized for petty effect? Maybe a little.
no subject
He grins a little, teasing now because it's familiar among everything else that's happened in the past months. "What're you doing snowflakes for, Your Majesty?"
no subject
(Welcome to Riftwatch, Seifer. You have found the young lady most susceptible to teasing.)
"If you know so much about the topic, then I hardly see why you've surrounded yourself with every book in the Gallows library." Here, she does successfully snatch the book off the table. She shoves it into the crook of her prosthetic elbow, stubbornly spurning the second slimmer volume he's offered.
no subject
(Sorry ma'am, he's going to never stop. It'll just change in tone. He's Just Like This.)
He sighs, streaching with a wince. "What else're you looking for? I've gotten a decent layout of where subjects are."
crystal.
Provost Stark is your best bet; if it isn't him, and it probably is, it's going to be someone under him. The research division. Mechanical parts of what?
( it doesn't change her answer, she's just curious. )
no subject
Provost Stark. I'll track him down.
It's a weapon from home, I'm good with a sword too but... well they're not exactly the same.
no subject
( whether this is lucky or not is actually debatable, but gwenaëlle thinks provost stark is neat. previous holders of the position were less keen on giving her experimental weapons or let her talk mages into just trying things that might be diplomatically problematic.
nearly an afterthought, )
His office is in the central tower, with the other division heads. Top floor.
no subject
Guessing Provost's a title not his name. Can't say I'm fond of going to Head Offices of anyone...
no subject
( none of them are subtle, but that one's really not subtle. )
It's a small organisation, you can probably trip him on the stairs if you'd rather.
no subject
[Really not subtle at all.]
Eh, learned not to trip the people who can assign you to scrubbing toilets a long time ago.
no subject
But Stark is good at what he does. I think he only took the job so he could approve his own projects.
( and he cares, etc. )
no subject
What about you? What do they have you doing around here?
(no subject)
crystal;
What manner of mechanical parts?
Re: crystal;
no subject
[—sounds exactly like he's pulled his head back, a little jerk of chin to neck.]
no subject
They don't use ammunition, thank Hyne, the trigger and mechanisms cause the blade to vibrate.
no subject
[Could he direct this guy to someone who can help?
Yes. Yes he could.
He does not.]
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
I'm so sorry he's a dickhead on layer 1 ;_;
we love those here
he'll throw hands with god to defend people he's a jerk tho though so there's that
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Arrival!
Well, first order of business: Nina's powers have no effect on demons, so she can't help him take down the nasty-looking creature he's squaring off against. But a human? Absolutely. She reaches into herself, and draws on her power to put strength in his limbs and energize waning muscles.
"Really," she says as she does, "do I look I'd be friends with something that hideous?"
no subject
"...how long that trick gonna last?" he added, moving to be between her and the demon. "And how many more are gonna pop outta there?"
no subject
"It'll last as long as I do," she says, "so don't dawdle. And they'll keep coming until we seal it up. Take care of this one and I'll show you how."