TDM 010

[etrayamods]

❬ Arrival ❭

Arrival goes normally! Hooray! Characters awaken in a sterile hospital bed in a clean, white room to the hum of machines under the unnatural lighting common to well-kept institutions.

The door to the room swings open, revealing a hallway that stretches out ahead of them adorned with framed photographs of Jack-o-Lanterns. There’s noise from outside and the enticing scent of autumn coming from the lobby. Today the welcome buffet has mulled cider in a hot drink dispenser and mini-loaves of pumpkin bread.

❬ Shake it, Shake it. ❭

Outside the hospital, a weird fog is clearing. For those who have just arrived, this doesn’t meant much. But for everyone else, this is the hard-earned success after two weeks of blindly groping about in the spooky fog. The pollution is steadily clearing as it is being cycled out of the air. The people of Etraya should be getting back to normal physically, though surely the lingering feelings are no fun. For newcomers, there is just a weird energy in the air. Perhaps an activity as diversion would help?

As everyone tries to gain their bearings, Aurora asks everyone through their earpiece, new and old, to survey their surroundings for odd goings-ons.

It is a little unclear if this is something Aurora needs done dressed up as an activity, or if this is an activity dressed up with enough mystery and urgency to warrant involving all the people of Etraya. Either way, there is a task to complete.

So what sort of odd things are occurring? Just look around! Everything from homes suddenly subject to mundane, harmless poltergeisting to full blown bizarre weather phenomena and creature sightings. It seems that although the fog is leaving, it left some souvenirs behind, and Aurora needs help cataloging what's happening around Etraya for the bots to address.

Maybe you just think you’re really unlucky today and stuck in an episode of the X-Files. Maybe you catch sight of a bizarre creature that shuffles off into the woods. It might be raining upside down from the lakes, or the electricity in your home just won’t work for whatever reason.

Or maybe you’re particularly personally unfortunate, and your powers are working again, but not as expected.

In any case, you had better capture it on film. At your feet will be a regular old polaroid camera, a stack of film, and a sharpie to explain the photo and note the location.

Go to each of the islands and survey your surroundings. If anything seems strange, snap a picture! Though it seems some things about the geography have changed, so you might want to check with the HUD map to gain your bearings first.

❬ Bingo was his Name-o ❭

To encourage the people of Etraya to go out a little further than they ordinarily might -- and maybe to help ease them out of the terrible fog -- Aurora has presented this task in a light-hearted format: bingo-based raffle prizes! Available in your HUD is a bingo board! Listed are the 21 islands to explore as well as 4 main anomalous areas to look at.

If you open the HUD, it looks like so:


It seems someone tried, but not very hard, to make it fun.

✨RULES✨

• Each square is completed with a thread taking place on that island that includes 5 or more comments from your character. In character, it's completed by them documenting an anomaly on that island.


• For every completed bingo line, the character gets one ticket entry for the raffle prizes, up to a maximum of 5 for a full card.


• Each bingo card can only win one prize, and we will draw in order from grand prize down sometime after apps are processed this round.


• Teaming up is allowed, but if you share a card you have to share the prize!

✨PRIZES✨

• Grand Prize (1): Place and name a new trolley stop!


• Runners Up (6): Notes related to the meta plot like the ones seen here. Each is unique.


• Consolation Prize (3): A small item that will assist with the next mission.

❬ Tra la la ❭

Whether it’s coming to a new land suddenly or trying to reattach a sense of reality to your surroundings, exploring as buddies or a group is highly encouraged. After all, you might need a hand out there. Depending on who you are, getting all around might be tricky. However, this should be doable over a couple weeks, especially as a team.

Apart from the islands themselves, four bingo squares are for the big anomalous areas that just appeared:

The Farway Craters: It looks like meteors struck the land here. Narrowly missing the bounce castle, a new lake has formed in its place. Each of the craters does something different. One might be highly magnetic, making a miserable time for a robot or someone wearing armor. Another might be full of alien sea life. The largest crater hosts a little hurricane whipping about, throwing objects that may have mysteriously gone missing as of late.

Nevergrey and Ochreward: Where two lands were once separated, they now meet in a steep hill. Should you climb one side to go down the other, a powerful gust will blow you back the way you came with echoing laughter.

Alcyone’s Sandening: Heading south from the hospital, past the forest and the campgrounds, it seems the peninsula has gone missing. Or that Seasands has gained a new island. It seems both can be true. The space where some land once was is now engulfed in a thunderstorm, roughly 30 feet wide and 50 feet long.

Uketon: Heading south in Dewpoint, someone familiar may notice the abrupt break in the island. Should you wish to cross this way, you will have to content with large rocks floating up from below the water’s surface, rising high until they’re out of sight.

❬ NOTES ❭

📌 — The above prompts are just there to get you started. Feel free to play with the setting and concept beyond what we've suggested here! In particular, we encourage everyone to add to the new world-building threads on the location page for each region as they explore!

📌 — Turn in your bingo cards here and edit the comment with thread links as you complete them. Bingo prizes are available for current characters. We will wait to draw prizes until after apps have been processed, so new characters on the TDM can also participate if accepted.

📌 — For all questions relating to the TDM specifically, please use the mod queries comment below. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

🔵FULL NAVIGATION🔵

Comments

[ukan]

[Lark nods and readies himself to get up, get off at their stop. Already he can smell the trees.]

Well I'd still run with you.

[will_chase_balls]

Good, because I'd love to have someone to run with.

[He gets off the trolly. Normally he'd suggest they go for a run now, but since they're supposed to be investigating and only one of them would still have hands, that might not be the best suggestion.]

Maybe you can join me on hunts, too. There's a vampire here I've been hunting with because I don't have a pack here, but hunts are always more fun with more company.

[ukan]

I've never met a vampire before. I assume they have no issue with lycanthropes if they're friends with you?

[Another myth he's glad to have debunked.]

[will_chase_balls]

No, but it was never an issue back home. Why? Is there some sort of feud between vampires and lycanthropes where you're from?

[Sure, this guy may have never met one, but Dwayne isn't sure why he'd be expecting it to be a problem, either.]

[ukan]

Not where I'm from--there are no vampires where I'm from--but in stories and movies they're always rivals.

[will_chase_balls]

Huh. I wonder why. Where I'm from, both don't tend to get along with paladins of the Silver Flame, so I don't see any reason why fighting would be needed.

[He nods up ahead.]

The woods start just a little bit further that way.

[ukan]

[He starts off in that direction]

Why do the Paladins have a problem with you?

[will_chase_balls]

Well, they don't like vampires because they don't like undead in general, and they were the ones who did the whole 'silver crusade' thing. That's over, and they don't actively hunt down werewolves anymore, but there's still a lot of tension there.

[ukan]

At least they aren't an immediate threat to you.

[They step into the woods and Lark takes a deep breath in, enjoying the rare scents]

But you're probably glad they aren't here all the same, hm?

[will_chase_balls]

I am, yeah.

[He takes a moment to listen to the birds in the trees, and the deep earthy scents of the trees and the dirt and the various creatures that had passed by here. Now that they're in the woods, the urge to shift is strong.]

I know we're supposed to be documenting weird stuff, but it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal if we stashed our stuff and shifted for a quick run.

[ukan]

[He looks around them. Weighs the options.]

I'm more likely to notice something strange in my other form. And then we can go back and document it.

[will_chase_balls]

Exactly!

[Sure, he just wanted an excuse to run around in his shifted form, but the fact that it would actually have benefits was a bonus. He's already kicking off his boots.]

[ukan]

[he really lucked out, finding another lycanthrope out here. He grins as he strips down quick and transforms in a flurry of boiling skin and snapping bones, but he stands up on four legs and shakes off the pain.

He nips at Dwayne's ankles, just because they're there.]

[will_chase_balls]

[Dwayne laughs at the quick nip at his ankles, and he very much wants to accept what he's taking an invitation to play and chase and run, but he has shifting to do first. He sets his camera down by his boots and the change begins. It starts with those ankles sliding up, as the shape of Dwayne's legs go from plantigrade to digitigrade. Claws grow, fur spreads, and he takes on a form that's not unlike a wolfman in a movie.

The process is much easier and nowhere near as painful as Lark's due to the change not being as extreme, and soon he begins to move, running through the trees, his gait bouncy and playful as he glances back hoping his new friend is giving chase.]

[ukan]

[Dwayne is like nothing he's seen outside of movies, which makes this more exhilarating. He chases after him, racing ahead and falling behind and surging onward to nip at him again.

They have a job to do and he's mindful of it, but he doesn't mind doing this first.]

[will_chase_balls]

[Dwayne, at the same time, playfully runs away, though occasionally turning to chase Lark for a bit before darting away again.

As they play, they work their way deeper into the woods, and out of the corner of Dwayne's eye he sees another wolf approaching them to play and yet...when he turns to look at it directly, there's nothing there. Huh.]

[ukan]

[Lark draws up short when he senses the change in Dwayne's focus. Something odd? Their cameras are back a mile away but they can reach them easily enough.

He grunt-growls a question at him; do they need to turn back?]

[will_chase_balls]

[Dwayne nods and starts leading the way back. As he goes, he sees the other wolf again, but every time he tries to look directly at it, the animal disappears.]

[ukan]

[Lark can tell when Dwayne sees something, but he never catches sight of it himself, and he can't smell anything unusual either, which worries him.

They make it back to their clothes and their cameras and he shifts back.]

What is it?

[will_chase_balls]

[Dwayne shifts back as well before grabbing his boots and camera and putting them back on.]

I'm not sure. I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like another wolf running with us, but whenever I turned to look, it was gone.

[ukan]

[He looks out into the woods. He breathes in the air, smelling.]

A wolf like me or a wolf like you?

[will_chase_balls]

A wolf like you.

[ukan]

[That's not good. He looks out again into the woods.]

There's a pack who want me dead. I don't know if they're here or not. But they'd try to kill you for being with me if they are.

[will_chase_balls]

Do they vanish whenever you look at them directly, but reappear when you look at them from the corner of your eye? Because if not, I don't think this is them.

[ukan]

No... That sounds more like a hallucination.

[He's half hoping that's the case.]

Try to get a picture. We'll see if they show up on film.