𝔄 𝔐𝔦𝔡𝔴𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔑𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱'𝔰 𝔇𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤 𑁍 [WINTER TDM]

[gorelord]

Welcome to the Test Drive!

The TDM is welcome to current players and anyone who wants to play in the setting and is encouraged to be used by prospective players. If you are interested in joining the game, you will need to obtain invite from the mod or through an existing member.

For information on the game premise, setting etc, please utilize the navigation pages below. Questions specific to the TDM prompts or the setting can go to the comment thread. Anything else relating to game mechanics can go in the FAQ.

Events in this TDM are considered game canon and occurs immediately after the Chapter II eclipse event between chapters II and III. Any threads in TDM are considered canon as long as both parties agree.

Please make sure to identify in your top levels as either current or new player/characters.

GAME PAGES

premise
setting
faq
rules
glossary

i.
rise:
A Dream's Beginning

(cw:nsfwl; ritual sex, mood altering substances )

It begins with a nightmare, the details of which have slipped through your fingers. Only the curling echo of its dread lingers in your chest. Something has snapped you out of a catatonic state: a gust of icy wind whistling through the crack of a window, the soft beating of drums under the melody of strings, the cold kiss of fat snowflakes catching on your eyelashes, the smell of spiced wine and evergreen.

A few things become clear: You are not where you were, and you are not alone.

Feast for Saints

Tonight is a night of celebration for the Lonely Fortress. The horrors have been set aside, replaced with the warm mirth and grace of being alive. Whether this is your first night in the Crucible or your fortieth, all are welcome to partake in this renewing fete under the silver light of a full buttery moon. Snow dances like flower petals in a lazy array, leaving a shallow blanket of white. The fire roars in the hearth of the Great Hall, spreading its warmth throughout its adjacent parlors. Despite murmurings of a recent catastrophic eclipse cleaving the castle twain, its halls and buildings show no sign of decay. The Egregore has been cleansed, balance has been restored. Spirits are high, people are at ease.

If you choose to partake, there are a few select locations where people have gathered to celebrate:

𑁍The Great Hall is open for feasting and dancing. The fortress stores have provided a wintertime feast of roasted meats & vegetables, pies, fresh and aged cheeses, dried fruits, candied nuts, and seeded cakes. The hall smells of spiced honey wine and mulled cider, both packed with a warm and buzzing inebriation that creeps on unexpectedly. A makeshift band of strings and drums plays lively music for people to dance to.

𑁍The Velvet Parlor is a smaller hall branched off of the main festivities for those looking for softer and more intimate comforts under the candlelight. Tonight, its guests pay tribute to celebrate the passion of life and to beckon the sun to rise in a ritualistic tangling of bodies. Here is the place to become a true eater of sin. All furniture has been nudged to line the walls, making way for a sea of cushions and pillows for celebrants to laze upon as they imbibe in strong, distilled spirits, as the air above them swirls with a sweet, toasty incense imbuing a mellow calm and stirs carnal appetites. A masked man plucks away a sultry tune on his lute in a corner as the night gradually gives way to passionate bodies tangled among the pillows.

𑁍The Courtyard brings a breath of fresh, brisk air as snow falls playfully overhead. Large braziers line the yard offer meager warmth from their roaring fires as exiles partake in snow fights and release wishing lanterns bearing your inner most desires into the sky. Steam rolls off the yard's central fountain, which has been fitted to disperse heated water to provide a makeshift heated pool, a perfect place to thaw chilly hands or feet (or just go all in if ye be bold enough.)

A Colder Path

If instead you choose to abstain, it becomes apparent every dream has its limits.

The castle beyond the festivities is cold, dim, and abandoned. Behind every door, a drab and empty room (if the handle isn't locked or broken). The keep's gates are closed, the sunken village beyond a frozen wasteland. The further one strays from the warmth and merriment, the colder and darker it becomes.

Isolation breeds madness, too much time spent away from others may lead to paranoia. Figures shift in the dark, a breath tickles the nape of your neck. You may see familiar faces, hear familiar voices, beckoning you to stray further from your path towards uncertain doom: a crooked nail sticking out of the floorboards, a hurried shove off the top of the stairs, a door that opens over the edge of a rocky cliff.

As determined as you may be, the only way out of this dream is through.

ii.
revel:
Trials of Merciful Holly

(cw:potential for dubcon/noncon, mood-altering.)

As the midwinter evening persists, a visitor long awaited comes knocking at the Great Hall's doors. A tall man emerges with a body molded out of braided wood, bearing thorn-tarnished armor and a tattered crimson cloak. With every step forward, thorned vines that stitch across the walls and floors, blooming with plum purple leaves and small budding flowers.

"The Briar Lord," one exile gasps. "Gregor's returned," another praises tearfully. With a bow, he treats the celebrants of the Lonely Fortress with the innocence of a festive game.

"O' eaters of sin, indulge me in this friendly Midwinter game. Ye have survived a harrowing and for that ye shall be rewarded for purging of thy wickedness. I ask thee this final offering to purge this winter and beget a new spring. Give me thy blood and affection with honor and I shall see this cold vanquished. What I am given, I will return what was given me. Then, in trust and friendship, we shall part."

Bats and Lashes

The Lord's game is a simple marital task held out in the frost covered garden: a duel of branches. Each competitor will be given handful of briar as their weapon. The aim of the game is to whip each other until the thorns of the briar's branches draw blood. The first to draw blood from the opponent is the victor and the blood price paid.

Yet, not all these branches are created equal. A fortunate competitor may be given a Bewitching Branch. Those whipped by this branch will become utterly obsessed and infatuated to whom they've been struck by for a short period of time after, beholden to their branch master until the sting of thorns wane.

Tithe of the Mistle

If you choose not to partake in the Lord's game, the Lord warns that his winter's briar will collect a tithing of affection. The vines that bloomed with his arrival grow rampant behind seeing eyes. Buds turn into flowers, petals shed as they mature into plump white mistle berries that release the sweetest scent to draw you in.

Either you have accidentally stumbled upon the mistle, or it has decidedly grown itself above you without your noticing, but you become bewitched by its scent. As the tricksy bramble coils around your ankles, giving the gentlest of biting from its thorns, it becomes clear that you will be consumed if you do not pay the mistle its tithing. For some, it only takes a kiss, for others, the mistle will demand more. Give it something meaningful. Give it something real, and you will be released.

iii.
respite:
Midwinter Mourning

All good dreams must come to an end. The following morning paints a different picture of the Lonely Fortress witnessed in the night's collective dreaming. The Crucible sits under a thick blanket of snow, the waters surrounding the keep have frozen solid. None of the warmth of the night remains; it feels as though the world has died. The whole of the Crucible feels cold, quiet, abandoned.

Every hearth has burned out, every brazier snuffed under the snow, every candle smothered. It's quiet, empty, dark. Daylight may have come, but a thick layer of storm clouds casts a foreboding shadow. If the desire remains to leave, it quickly becomes apparent there is nowhere else to go.

Warm Winter's Kiss

With luck, you have woken in a bed under a pile of old furs to keep some semblance of warmth with you. With even better luck, you've woken next to company to keep each other warm throughout a cruel cold morning. Without proper protection, the cold is biting against exposed skin. Joints and limbs become stiff and numb, making it difficult to move around without constant tending if one lacks gloves.

While hearths can be re-lit and heated baths can be drawn, the true comfort from freezing can only be found in the close company of other living creatures. Exiles on this cruel morning keep each other warm through sharing heated breaths and pressing bodies. Expressions of passion and compassion help the warmth to linger just a bit longer for those who cultivate it together, granting brief autonomy of movement before finding another's heat is needed again.

Breakfast is served, but it's nothing remotely glamorous to the feasting offered by the Midwinter dream: simple porridge that leaves a stale taste that coats the tongue, nuts and fruits that are half rancid, boiled wine that's been watered down to detract from how far along it's turned into vinegar. Its only promise is to fill an empty stomach until more food can be found.

Outside, the snow begins to fall again. An omen that this winter is here to stay. Welcome to the real Martyr's Crucible.

Comments

[mountreal]

[ This time he really doesn't need to be told twice. She weighs next to nothing, all still to fit in the suit, he assumes, so it's no effort at all for Shane to lock one arm under her butt and carry her a safe distance from the vines. The awkward lip-to-lip press ends as he aims another kiss at the corner of her mouth and then her cheek so he can turn and look back the way they've come.

Safe, it seems. For now. Shane still takes an extra few seconds to look around at the ground - no vines - before setting Rose back on her feet. After another pause of bewildered disbelief, Rose gets the most breathless laugh and confused smile from him. ]

What the hell? [ And then he hugs her, earnest and genuine and so glad to see her, despite (or maybe even more so because of?) everything that has just happened. He usually doesn't swear in front of her, being a gentleman and all, but he can't exactly help it. ] I don't know how you're here, but I'm so fucking glad to see you.

[xsquad]

[ sir, you are an extremely fit professional athlete. you could effortlessly pick her up and carry her around regardless of whether or not she was on a strict diet for the sake of fitting into that custom-made, miserable skintight blue suit.

when he hugs her, the dam holding back her tears finally bursts as the adrenaline bleeds out and rose buries her face in his shoulder. her legs are cut up, but she's otherwise fine and didn't fall victim to the rabid vines. one of her best friends is here and he saved her and she knows now for certain that this isn't some fucked up arthouse film set and for a moment, it's all too much. ]

Sorry, [ she apologizes, not so much for breaking down but for leaving a noticeable wet spot on his shirt from her tears, drawing back enough to be able to peer up at his face. ] Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad to see you, [ she wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand, ] but what the hell is this place? What the fuck is going on?

[ times like these are appropriate swearing times. rose approves of the profanity, hollander. ]

[mountreal]

[ He feels dumb for not expecting the tears but they still scare Shane for a second, like he should be in charge of making them stop somehow. He holds her tightly and lets her cry, scrambling to think of what he should do while still watching back over her slight shoulders in the direction of the vines. So far, so good. No pursuers.

Then she stops crying and Shane lets out a breath of relief even as he shakes his head to reassure her. ]

No, don't apologize. It's crazy. It's all crazy, right? I'm not just the one that's gone totally insane?

[ It feels so good to have the sanest person he knows here to bounce the reality of the situation off of. If Rose thinks it's just as fucked as he does, then it has to be this and not him. Even if that is no comfort on its own, either. ]

I have no idea. None. I thought it was a dream for the longest time. But... [ He steps back a little to look down at her bloodied legs, horrified. ] I guess it's really not. We've got to... Rose, we've got to deal with that. Come on.

[xsquad]

[ rose looks down. her legs are... pretty cut up and bloody, leaving her shoes splotched with blood in a way that looks like purposefully placed fake blood done by a special effects team. like she just ran through a scene reminiscent of a nineties slasher film instead of voracious vines covered in sharp thorns who only freed her once she kissed her gay ex-boyfriend.

more the plot of a syfy original movie than a slasher film worthy of a theatrical release.

she laughs at herself then, at the absurdity of it all, swiping at the remaining tears clinging to her lashes with the tips of her fingers and muttering something about how splotchy she must be and how "pretty crying" is all waterproof foundation and carefully placed blush. ]

I do my own stunts? [ a bad joke, but her if she doesn't laugh she might cry again. ] No, no— You're right. Do you think there's a first aid kit anywhere?

[mountreal]

[ He waits for her to collect herself, nothing if not patient. One of his hands rubs reassuring circles on the back of her shoulder until she's finished wiping her tears away, but then Shane has to grimace a little and shake his head. If only they could get that lucky, he thinks. ]

By the looks of this place? No. But, come on. I know how to clean a cut.

[ He offers her his arm, pretty sure the damage is superficial enough that she should be able to walk on her own, but Shane wouldn't hesitate to turn and offer her a piggyback if he thought she needed it. If she stumbles even once on their way to finding boiling water and rags, he will. ]

/end scene?

[xsquad]

[ rose nods, holding steadfast to his arm as she lets him lead her off to find whatever the medieval equivalent of a first aid supplies are. ]