Wilderlands Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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wildermemes2018-02-23 05:15 pm
wildermods) wrote in wildermemes2018-02-23 05:15 pm
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TEST DRIVE ※ 1
TEST DRIVE ※ 1
The spirit of the Green needs defenders but the game of fate it must play makes it so that its plans are like a garden, always in need of careful pruning. Only certain individuals are capable of living a life of adventure -- and even many who are may not be the heroes the Wilderlands needs.
The only way for the Green to be sure is by providing a test -- and as far as tests go, this one's a doozy, because the situation is real. There are countless conflicts all over the Wilderlands that are in need of intervention, so the Green tosses you head first into one of them with no warning or explanation. During it, you may perhaps run into others like yourself, thrown in over their heads -- or into others that came before you. Either way, your only chance of getting through it is to work together with whatever other unfortunates you find.
Welcome to the wilds, hero. Good luck with that whole 'deadly peril' thing.
Once a force for good, the wizard Saruman has grown a little too big for his britches. Now he wants to be a major player in the Wilderlands and has poised himself against Sauron and the Unfinished Princess. To aid him in his aims of conquering the new world he's built an army of monsters, and through magic and sinister breeding practices he's engineered his orcs into fearsome super orcs known as Uruk-hai. From Saruman's tower fortress of Orthanc, his armies are setting out to conquer the world, plaguing the nearby lands of Gondor, Rohan, and Oz. Among Orthanc's neighbors, it is the Ents of Fangorn Forest, towering tree creatures, who have decided to descend on Orthanc itself to stop the menace once and for all.
This is where you come in. For you see, Saruman has sent out hunting parties to search for those who have been touched by the Green. For some unknown and sinister purpose, he wants you captured and brought to him. Armed with a charm that allows them to detect when they first appear in the Wilderlands, his Uruk-hai warriors are searching high and low for newcomers like yourself brought in by the Green's will. That's how some of you find yourselves captured almost as soon as you appear in the grasslands of nearby Rohan, dragged to Orthanc against your will, arriving there just in time for all hell to break loose.
Meanwhile, some of you avoid orcish capture, and are pulled in mid-battle, thrown head first into the deadly storming of Orthanc itself. Regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in when you arrive, it's certainly a wild entrance.
A. ESCAPE CAPTURE
The orcs capture you not long after you arrive in the grasslands of Rohan, surrounding you as if they were searching specifically for you. Before long your wrists are bound and they start marching you towards the fortress of their master, arguing about you the entire time.B. FIGHT THE URUK-HAI
"There's no time to kill them properly," says one. "No time for play on this trip."
"That can't be helped," says another.
"But why not kill them quick, kill them now? They’re a cursed nuisance, and we're in a hurry. Evening’s coming on, and we ought to get a move on."
"Boss's orders," say a third voice in a deep growl. "If any touched by the cursed Shikliss show up near our hunting parties, they are to be captured and brought back alive as quickly as possible."
They spend a lot of time arguing over whether to torture or kill you now (or later). Lovely. But at least you're not alone. There are other captives, like yourself, and in quiet moments, you may have a chance to talk to one another, comfort one another. And either because of infighting amongst themselves, or the chaos of battle (if you arrive at Orthanc in the middle of it being stormed), you may have a chance to break your bonds and help each other escape, too. There's a battle to be fought -- or you can make a run for the woods of Fangorn. Either way, any choice you make can't make things much worse.
A few of the Ents, glad for potential allies, are willing to briefly stop their fighting and explain the conflict you've found yourself in, one against a wizard and his deadly forces who have brought death and destruction to the nearby forest and surrounding lands.C. BE METAL
"Hrum, hoom, root and twig, very odd timing you have indeed," says Treebeard, leader of the Ents. "Arriving in the middle of a battle you barely have time to understand. Do not be hasty, that is my motto, but you have found yourselves with a hasty decision to make. We would be grateful for your aid, hasty though it may be!"
If you decide to aid them, you'll find yourself facing fearsome Uruk-hai orc warriors, dangerous siege weapons, and orcs riding terrifying, giant, wolf-like wargs. Some of you may find yourselves retaining powers from home. Others may find themselves with new magic or summoning magic weapons for the very first time. Yet others may find themselves still -- or newly -- powerless and will have to pick up what weapons they can find and hope for the best. Either way, you only have two choices: fight against Orthanc
or run for the trees. (And hope that those don't swat you, either.)
You can only see if them after you've seen your first death on the battlefield -- or if you've already seen someone die back home. Though intimidating, these skeletal, flying horses are not evil, but they are beings of death and that means they've flocked here because of the dying. At heart, they're noble creatures, though, willing to help those in need, and can seat two at a time.D. SAVE SPROUTLINGS
If you and one of your new allies needs to try to make a run for it, they'll fly you away from the battlefield. Or if you want to look like you're something straight out of a heavy metal album cover, you and that same ally can ride a thestral and attack your enemies from the air.
Saruman hasn't only been experimenting on orcs. He's kidnapped some very young and innocent spirits of the Green to explore the Green's power through painful experimentation. In the chaos of battle, these sproutlings have managed to escape, but because they're not much more than children, they need help getting free of the battle before they're killed. Characters may find these tree spirits (mostly young leaf spirits known as koroks) running for their lives and struggling to get free of the battlefield. Someone needs to get them to safety in the arms of the Ents; your characters might be their only chance.E. SURVIVE THE FLOOD
The Ents are going all out in this battle, and that means the nearby dam has seen its last days. As water comes rushing into the flat plains around Orthanc, you'll have to find a way to survive the flood. Fortunately, that's a lot easier to do with a new friend. Perhaps you'll find flotsam you can help each other cling to until the water dies down, or maybe you can help each other climb a friendly Ent and chill on its shoulders until the threat has passed. The more unlucky among you may have to help each other fight and climb your way up through the wood and metal walkways of the orcs' many war machines and battlements; only at the top are you guaranteed a way to keep above the deadly currents.F. SMOKE SOME DANK KUSH
It's over. The battle has been won, most of the orcs are dead, and Orthanc has been swamped. The only way to stay dry now is to sit on top of abandoned war machines or buildings. There's a cluster of them around some kind of supply storehouse. Sitting up top on that storehouse are two strange, curly-haired young men - they look fully grown and yet are the size of children, have furry feet, and seem quite content where they are, sitting and eating and smoking their pipes. They're too far to have a conversation with, and those currents are still a little too dangerous for your character to risk trying to get over there, but at the very least, the two are trying to be helpful.G. FREESTYLE
Rather than just keeping everything for themselves, in between eating and smoking their pipes they keep climbing down into the storehouse. Each time they do they come back up with sacks and small barrels, and toss them out to the other people in the buildings around them that are sitting on their various perches. (For such tiny people, they have surprisingly good throwing arms.)
In those sacks and barrels are small supplies of food and beer and wine -- and also small bags of some kind of tobacco and rolling papers. The leaf smells sweet and a little...herbal. Due to some interesting magical interbreeding of flora, Halfling pipeweed isn't just a form of Nicotiana like it once was. They now cultivate entirely new strains of "pipeweed" and mix it in with the old. As a result, if your character partakes they may find themselves, er... mellowing out a little bit. It's not enough to get them high but it is enough to make them relax and feel a little less high strung and a little more like themselves, after all that stress.
It also makes that food look extra appetizing. But hey, it's pretty appetizing on its own after that fight, even if your character decides not to smoke.
There are other things to do during all the chaos. Perhaps when things die down, you tromp through the swamped wreckage, scavenging for things that may help you in this brand new world. Or maybe you decide to fight alongside the dark forces and have to deal with the aftermath of choosing the losing side. The choice is yours!
✦ This TDM is locked to beta round invitees only. The game will be open to everyone in April, but it's undergoing a beta test round with a short plot to test out the power systems. For this first round, the game is invite-only, locked to individuals who've had access to see an invite announcement from the head mod. This is because if the powers system needs tweaks to balance it better, the mods may have to ask players to revise and resubmit powers. So the mods are starting with a group they know will be comfortable with that. After this TDM, future TDMS will be open to everyone.
✦ Potential players can use this as a standard test drive and may use these threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.
✦ Potential players can opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, or start over fresh, based on preference. The magic bringing them to the game universe can fog their memories, if players don't want their character to remember TDM threads when introing into the game.
✦ Apps for beta round invitees open: 3/1/18
Arturia Pendragon (Saber) ♦ Fate/
[ Whatever is happening here and however she's been dragged from the side of her Master and her friends, Arturia is certain of one thing: she has to fight. Whatever magic has brought her to this place has made her a target for this creatures (orcs she thinks someone called them) and she's determined to make a fight of it. Stretching out a hand, the air shimmers with golden motes of light as her weapon consolidates itself in her hand. Excalibur, shining and golden, blade as keen as ice. To her surprise, though, her armor isn't on hand--it won't appears when she wills it, leaving her in rather poor clothing for fighting a battle. But be that as it may, she's not one to shirk from battle. Saber adjusts her grip on her sword and steels herself for the oncoming orcs before glancing at the rough group of strange new allies she's joined up with. ]
Hold together. If they can't separate us it will be harder for them to use their numbers against us! We mustn't turn and run--that will be the death of us!
[ Her voice rings with a determined authority that suggests someone used to giving orders and being obeyed. Or at least used to being in charge of whatever situation she's in. As the Uruk-hai thunder towards them, she raises the word and prepares to strike. ]
E. Waters Rising
[ Arturia has been fighting hard, aware at the edge of her perception that the giant tree-things (Ents, right?) are in the process of doing something to help turn the tide of battle. When she hears the rumble and crash of oncoming water, she takes a moment to glance over her shoulder, then barrels away from the oncoming water, yelling to anyone near her. ]
Get to higher ground! Now! Hurry!
[ As she heads towards a rickety looking stairway that leads up towards the peak of a battlement, she grabs someone who looks a bit too slow by whatever is available (arm, collar, sleeve, whatever) and hauls them with her with surprising strength for someone who looks like a teenage girl and barely breaks five feet. Shoving at them, she urges them on ahead of her. ]
Go! Before we're all drowned!
F. Just say no
[ Arturia finds herself surprisingly hungry after all the strain and exertion that comes with fighting a battle. That's not something she's used to. Even if she enjoys eating back home, she's a Heroic Spirit, a Familiar. She doesn't need to eat, even if it's pleasant. Now, though, she feels positively ravenous. She waves back at her tiny benefactors and opens up the sack to begin rummaging inside. Bread, cheese, some sort of hard sausage, a ramekin of butter sealed with string and wax paper, a small jar of what looks like pickled eggs and another of pickled garlic--all good to make a post battle meal with. There's also a small barrel that when opened disappointingly holds only dried leaves with a sweet, herbal scent.
Arturia sighs and sits back, beginning to make herself a a slab of bread topped with butter, cheese, and sausage. Glancing over at one of her neighbors on her temporary island perch, she nods her head towards the leaf. ]
What do you suppose that is? It's not anything I've encountered before.
[ That said, she takes a big bite of her dinner, then sighs happily. Food! ]
B
[Another woman, roughly the same height, with distressingly pale skin and visible purple veins has a metallic fist to her forehead, the thumb reaching around the side to massage her temple, not that it's going to do her headache any good, but it's a habit by this point.]
Your little shot at morale is nice and all, kid, but you may as well be spitting in the wind with those of us who didn't sign up for this shit. We don't have time for Wartime 101, it's literally do or die.
[She doesn't exactly look enthused to be such a ray of sunshine, and in fact looks like she's seen a lot of shit - and just has a really unfortunate way of imparting what she knows.]
Re: B
If you don't need such instruction, I'm glad to hear it. Others may not know what to do, however.
[ Arturia isn't exactly annoyed. More brusque and matter of fact. ]
And I am not a child.
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[She hauls back an arm, punching the nearest uruk-hai in the stomach with enough force to knock him back into several of his comrades, knocking them prone. Steam vents aggressively from her elbows in response, and she catches incoming weapons in both hands, scowling as she crushes them.]
When you get to be my age, almost everyone's a child by comparison.
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It is better for them to be instructed so it is not their final lesson.
[ That sort of ruthlessness turns her stomach. ]
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In doing so, we would have an extra liability. Possibly twice as many if you get helpers for every poor sucker that's stuck here. Trying to give them training wheels is just going to be a distraction, and then people are going to get emotional when it inevitably backfires.
[She snarls right back at an approaching orc, drawing her hand back, then swinging it hard horizontally to break the blade of the sword he's swinging.]
Better to have them fall back.
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We don't have anywhere for them to--
[ She goes quiet for a moment as she runs through an orc that's trying to get around Black's side. ]
--fall back to. They have to fight. Sometimes that's the way things are. Better to encourage them.
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Don't waste your time covering me, whether you're trying to change my mind or not, you idealistic fool! Worry about your baby recruits!
[With one hand, she grabs the offending orc, and with a grunt, throws it at the nearest incoming enemies with enough force that it bounces up in the air on impact, giving a particularly gruesome display of viscera, given the wounds gained from Arturia's stabbing, and being roughly yanked off the blade.
Gross.]
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F
[Researching plants was more Fishlegs' area of expertise than Hiccup's. Hiccup grabs his own bread and sausage, while Toothless ducks his head into the water, snapping at fish who'd been flushed down into the plains along with the water when the dam broke.]
I'm Hiccup, by the way. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Chief of the Hairy Hooligans tribe of Berk if you want to be formal about it. I don't, but a surprising amount of people do, for some bizarre reason.
[Hiccup knows that the formality was supposed to be a sign of respect, but, possibly due to so long not getting any sort of respect, it seemed a little much too.]
The bottomless pit over there is my best friend Toothless. Don't worry too much about him, he's...not harmless, but he won't hurt you.
[Toothless, too busy trying to fish, doesn't acknowledge either of them. His prey, while not the large sea dwellers the reptile favored, were still too good to pass up.]
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[ Arturia speaks after swallowing her food. She sits poised for a moment, debating whether her hunger outweighs that politeness demands that she speak. Finally, she dips her head a little towards Hiccup in acknowledgement. This isn't a Holy Grail War (or doesn't seem to be) so there's probably no harm in giving her true name... ]
It's good to meet you, Chief Hiccup, though perhaps different circumstances might be more pleasant. I am Arturia Pendragon, the King of Knights.
[ Another bite of her improvised dinner while Hiccup introduces his dragon. ]
I don't fear dragons. And he seems rather small compared to others I've heard of, though perhaps no less fierce.
[ A smile touches her lips as she watches the creature try to fish. Hm. ]
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That's a nice change, really. Most people are, at least at first. Especially Night Furies like Toothless. Vikings do not toss out nicknames like "The unholy offspring of Thor and Hel herself" lightly.
[The dragon, realizing he's being talked about, abandons his fishing for the moment, in favor of licking Hiccup.]
That lasts right up until he does that. Seriously, why? You know it doesn't wash out.
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Vikings? They were troublesome for Britain at one time. I didn't know they had dragons, though.
[ She stifles a snort of laughter as Toothless ruthlessly attack his partner with licks. ]
He's very friendly, at least.
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[It's said fondly and with a bit of a chuckle, as Hiccup scratches Toothless' chin. The dragon purrs at the contact.]
And yeah, they'll do that. In our defense, the Hooligans are settling Vikings, not raiding Vikings. The closest thing to raiding in the past 300 years was to free dragons from poachers.
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You freed dragons? Don't most people slay them?
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F
From what I know it's to... help you relax, and put you more at ease.
I'm not particularly interested. I think it goes a bit overboard in what it's supposed to do.
Re: F
[ Arturia sets the barrel aside to concentrate on her dinner instead. ]
It's not very useful to me then. Do you want something to eat?
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Any more and I might end looking for a place to take a nap
[She was already tired enough for one to begin with.]
Enjoy your meal, by the way!
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[ Arturia clasps her hands together briefly--it's habit from her stay with Shirou and Rin by this point. ]
Itadakimasu.
[ She murmurs the word quietly, then goes back to devouring her after-battle meal. She still feels ravenous. ]
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If you'd like, you can have the rest of my bag.
There's some meat in there, but I don't think anybody told them that I'm a vegetarian.
[Good luck staying that way, but at least for now, she's succeeding.]
It would be no problem at all!
E
Any other time, that split second reaction would've cost him his life. Thankfully, someone grabbed him and pulled him up (with surprising strength), catching him before the water did. ]
T-Thanks... [ He stammered, glancing over at the rushing water. The water level quickly rising, which prompted him to start heading up the stairs, with the occasional glance back to make sure the other person was still with him. ]
Re: E
[ Arturia's tone is brusque, all business as she hurries after Gohan up the rickety stairs. She sets a rather blistering pace, rushing up the stairs as fast as she can The water isn't a concern for her--but it might be for him. ]
Keep going, don't worry about me--!
[ The woman pauses, peering out over the water for a moment, then hurries onwards. It's a dizzying, heart-pounding climb that finally ends at the top of the rampart, the water slowly beginning to stop its rise below them. She takes a few breaths--though she doesn't seem all that tired despite the sweat on her brow. ]
Are you alright?
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Which was why he was panting heavily, leaning against the wall. What would otherwise be an easy climb making his heart pound in his chest. His one hand pressed to his chest, trying to steady the beating, his breathing slowing down. Until finally, he nodded, offering her a grateful smile. ]
Y-Yeah... for the most part. [ He was tired, but not dead, at least. ] How about you?
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I'm fine. Still trying to figure out exactly where we are and what's happening.
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[ He blurted it out without thinking, although he really should've been able to figure it out on his own. Her clothing didn't match the setting, much like his own didn't... so he could only imagine that she woke up here recently, in the middle of nowhere, much like he did. ]
Sorry, I... I've been trying to scatter-brained ever since I woke up here.
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[ Arturia crosses her arms over her chest, brow still furrowed in thought. At Gohan's apology, she shakes her head. ]
No need to be sorry. This is a confusing situation. What's your name?
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