inaugural tdm of unspecified duration.

[vestigemods]

VESTIGE TEST DRIVE MEME

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a test drive meme for Vestige is a musebox-game successor to The Box (yeah, the one that died like five years ago). It's invite-only with no activity check and almost no application to speak of.

This is a horror jamjar based on Cabin In The Woods, in which characters are pulled into this containment zone run by the Technicians working from a lab underground with the goal of creating Good Quality Suffering™️ to appease the elder gods who hover on the verge of creating a worldwide apocalypse. But of course, suffering is pointless if everyone is too numb to properly suffer, so there are plenty of morale boosts provided in between bouts of fear and misery.

This TDM is ongoing and will fill the gap between now and when I get around to setting up the comms. There is no official start date and currently literally nothing but this TDM available for perusal, but I'll update this section of the blurb as that changes. Threads in this TDM are welcome to be game canon once this shit opens because fuck it. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the top-level below or just wing it tbh, we'll be doing a lot of winging it up in this shit.

Characters arrive with all powers intact and carrying all items that they had with them on their canonpoint.

Also, feel free to hit up the Intro + Friending meme to network with your future peers in this suffering endeavor. (EDIT 5/20: We also now have a DISCORD SERVER! So hop on into that if you'd like.)

PROMPT 1 ► just your ordinary cabin in the woods

⬛ARRIVAL + GENERAL PROMPT

Whenever you're from or wherever you were, you awaken now with the mildest of headaches in a medium-sized wooden cabin. Maybe you wake in a bed, barely padded and covered in dust (so are you now, congrats!). Maybe you wake on the floor, arguably softer than the bed in spots thanks to some handy dandy water damage. Either way, you certainly aren't where you were before, and you have no recollection whatsoever of arriving.

The cabin is modest but multi-roomed and fully kitted with a kitchen and cozy living room. Nice, dry wood sits stacked by the fireplace, and if you check the various switches, the lights turn on with only the faintest protesting static. The cabinets are surprisingly well-stocked, as is the fridge, with perishables and non-perishables alike. As if someone has been here recently... but how, when everything else seems so thoroughly abandoned?

Should you choose to ignore the cabin's supposed hospitality and try to leave, you'll find that both the front and back doors are securely locked, in a way that no amount of fumbling with the locking mechanism seems to remedy.

That's when a sloooooow creak draws your attention to a door nearby, one you may not have noticed before... but it's open now. Was it before? Better yet, should you check out what lies beyond?

PROMPT 2 ► who's up for some fighty-fight, kids??

⬛MONSTER HORROR.

The basement is musty and dim, though a pull-string at the curve of the creaky stairs seems to turn on a sparse row of lightbulbs dangling precariously from the ceiling along the center of the room. This little bit of light illuminates a room absolutely packed with items, furniture and boxes and various knick-knacks of unknown and questionable origin. Spiderwebs litter nooks and crannies, many with actual spiders still nesting inside, and a layer of dust coats most every surface in sight.

It doesn't seem like there's anyone down here, nor is there any sign of an exit at the basement's far end. There is, however, something that catches your eye. An item, one that your feet seem to carry you toward without your mind quite telling them to do so. Perhaps it's familiar somehow. Perhaps it's so foreign to you that you can't help but get a closer look. One way or another, you somehow end up reaching out to touch it. But what harm can that do, a single touch?

Oh, sweet summer child. Haven't you seen this movie?




---




Whatever else your characters might touch, to activate this prompt they'll also touch one of the following five items:


• A child's drawing, of what appears to be... shit, what even is that? Is it a bat? Is it some kind of... reptile? We just don't know. (result! warnings for gore/violence.)
  
  
• A light-blue paper face mask, the sort used in hospitals for patients who have a cold. Maybe you guys should've brought masks too. It sure would keep all this dust the hell out of your nose... ( result! warning for body horror! )
  
  
• A buzzsaw blade, dusty but intact. ( result! warnings for gore/violence. )
  
  
• A music box, covered in faded yellow flowers. I wonder what music it plays? ( result! warnings for gore/violence and Alarming Children. )
  
  
• A funeral urn. But... It seems that someone glued it shut around the edges? I guess that's one way to make sure nobody spills grandma. ( result! )

These enemies can and will follow characters outside, should they try to flee. It might actually be a good idea to face these foes outdoors where it's less confined, provided they don't stray too far from the cabin (see prompt #4).

The blurbs are just guidelines, feel free to scale up or down how strong/weak the monsters are, how many there are, etc. in order to better fit your characters' level of capability. The Technicians know your characters' strengths and weaknesses, so they'd know how to send enough to make this challenging but not insurmountable.

PROMPT 3 ► congratulations, you fucked up

⬛SURVIVAL HORROR.

Perhaps you didn't touch anything in the basement. Hell, maybe you didn't even set foot through that ominous basement door. But hey, we get it. Not everyone likes to party. You're not getting off easy, but at least you can say that you didn't fall into the trap.

If, by the time an hour has passed since the creaking open of the basement door, no object has been touched and no baddie has been summoned, you'll find your nose assaulted by the prevailing smell of smoke. One glance out any window tells you why: The cabin has been surrounded in it, an oblong ring of fire six feet thick burning tight along the exterior cabin walls. You're safe inside for the moment, but how long will that last?

Now, you have no choice but to try to escape the blaze. It overtakes the cabin quickly, creeping up over the rooftop, shattering windows and burning a path inside. No matter which way you try to run, you're almost certain to get burned... But that's certainly better than burning to death in here.

PROMPT 4 ► "escape"? never heard of her.

⬛PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR.

For some, staying in this creepy cabin with its stupid locked door was never an option. Maybe you break one of the windows and crawl through that, or maybe you're angry and OP and punched a man-sized hole in the wall itself. Hey, we're not judging. You got yourself outside, and that's what counts.

The outside of the cabin is... actually pretty nice. Picturesque woods, birds singing, perhaps a couple of deer bounding through the trees not far off. This place might actually be relaxing, if it weren't so alarming and kidnap-y. But it is, so it's time to get the fuck out of Dodge.

Or to try to, anyway. Just a few short meters into the trees, you find yourself entering a deep and all-encompassing fog. You can barely see your hand out in front of your face, let alone your path through the forest ahead. If you're not alone in this venture, you'd best keep a hand on your companion lest you lose track of them, as well. And is it just you, or is there a slight chemical taste to the fog that you're breathing in?

(Yes. The answer is definitely yes.)

Before long, you find yourself turned around, stepping back out of the fog with the cabin in front of you. Little do you realize that simply turning you around is the most merciful fate that this fog has to offer.

---

This is easier to break down without narrative, so!

• The first time your character ventures into the fog, they're just turned around and sent back to the cabin.
  
  
• The second time, they hallucinate things that they don't want to hear. Something they fear, something that hurts them, something that stresses them the fuck out. Maybe a character's worst fear is wildcats and they hear one growling just out of sight in the mist. Maybe instead they hear a loved one crying for help back in the direction from which they've come, drawing them back to the cabin. Or maybe they hear the voice of someone they admire berating their cowardice or stupidity or something, for running away from the cabin in the first place. The goal is to psych them out and send them running back to the place where the action is happening.
  
  
• The third time, it's the same but full-blown visual or even physical hallucinations. Basically anything that might lure, scare, emotionally wound, etc. them into going back to the vicinity of the cabin.

Characters are welcome to start off venturing into the mist together, or to discover one another while they're already in the mist. If it's the latter, look out - it may be harder to tell friend from foe when you can't quite trust your own mind.

THE LOOP ► a note on replayability

Regardless of which prompt your character faces, they'll be left unbothered after the creature is defeated or the problem is overcome until sunrise the following morning. Though the fog still keeps characters from straying from the area, they're welcome to recover and lick their wounds in the immediate cabin vicinity. An unburnt cabin leaves them food and resting facilities, while a burnt cabin... Well, at least the fire never spread from that self-contained ring, so they have some nice unburnt grass to sleep on.

Come sunrise, all characters still awake will fall unconscious. At this point, many of them will reawaken in a perfectly undamaged cabin back in Prompt #1 to begin the loop anew. They may have the same comrades in this loop, or perhaps they have different ones. Maybe their new companions have done this before as well. Maybe they're brand new and have no idea what they're up against. R.I.P., you poor unsuspecting fucks.

This is, in effect, a series of trial runs by the current batch of Technicians to see if they're able to run this containment zone scenario long-term. When Vestige opens properly, characters will awaken free of the loop and will have quite a bit more continuity and recovery time between horrors. The 'loop' mechanic is specifically in place to give this TDM some shelf life and let y'all entertain yourselves while I work on the actual pages and such, rather than the one-and-done feeling of the usual TDM.

CODE BY TESSISAMESS (patreon)

Comments

[deferences]

Asgard? [an unfamiliar name, definitely nothing he recognizes in his native language either, but it doesn't lessen his curiosity.] I've never heard of such a place.

[sizhui isn't one to judge. while he's never experienced world-hopping like this himself, it doesn't mean there aren't people out there who can do that sort of thing; a marvelous feat, actually, bouncing between places without so much as a thought. and having it return someone who was once lost is just an added bonus, to be honest.]

Wait, you're friends are here as well? [meaning there's a chance his own could show up, too! oh, what a wonderful thought.

he laughs quietly at reynir's remark, shaking his head first.] I suppose not, though one can never be too careful where I come from. [then he dips forward into a bow, restraightens after the greeting and smiles in kind.] How rude of me, I should've introduced myself sooner! My name is Lan Sizhui.

[skittering]

( at the very least, lalli handles the lute with some quantity of care - in much the same way one holds a baby for the first time, with no idea what to do with it but also the distinct notion that dropping it would break it.

it's given back about as quickly as the man will take it, brow flickering into an echo of a scowl as the man seems to soothe it from having been in his presence. but now the guy is talking, mostly about things lalli couldn't possibly care less about and he's sorely considering just turning to leave until suddenly his name is asked. )

Lalli, ( he says. ) Don't know what a bard is. Or an elf. But I'm not your savior. ( and he turns to head off toward the woods now, though not at a pace that this 'jaskier' can't tail along. )

[mannerless]

( oh, is he-... is he alright? the boy's just kind of staring off into space now. he might be broken. wei wuxian opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again, brow knitting. a glance off across the basement, and he's about to open his mouth definitively to say something but that's when the boy seems to snap out of whatever state he was in. he looks wei wuxian over now and asks if he can fight, and honestly? wei wuxian can respect that coming from this lanky boy who doesn't look like he could punch his way through an empty box.

but can wei wuxian fight against something like that? ) Yes and no, ( the words come on the back of a bracing sigh. ) I can fend it off for a bit, simple enough - or I could fight it properly and make a mess of everything. Cabin might come down too. Hard to say, really. ( any preferences on which route the ginger boy would rather go with? )

[theprezident]

There's food, thank god. I'm not very good at the hunting and butchering thing.

[ SHUDDER. ]

Mostly canned stuff, I think. Hungry?

[ He's not really, but. ]

[channellings]

[what's the saying? “if you're good at something, never do it for free.” not too awful a motto to live by, depending on what you can do, but music and – ahem – other services aren't the worst things to be good at.

but please, jaskier, don't die just because of pet names. klaus would be rather disappointed if that's all it'd take!]

Nah, it's far more comfortable on the bed rather than under it. Dust is something you wouldn't want to get into certain...places... [he scrunches his nose, purses his lips in an almost thoughtful manner then shakes his head.] Yeah, no, definitely not.

[klaus looks around as well, considers their surroundings, what's there and what isn't, most of which doesn't seem like ‘the finer things in life,’ so that's unfortunate.] Sorry to burst your bubble, it looks like we might be slumming it in a cabin in the middle of nowhere at the moment.

[soups]

❰ you can take the girl out of ancient fantasy china, but you can't take ancient fantasy china out of the girl. it's also not every day someone offers to help her with something, especially someone male who she doesn't know. it doesn't necessarily take her aback...it's more like a pleasant surprise. ❱

I would be delighted, if you'd truly like to. But I also don't mind preparing everything if you'd rather.

❰ there's another introductory bow, as is customary when she officially announces herself, ❱ I'm Jiang Yanli. What might your name be...you aren't from a clan, are you?

❰ based on appearance, it's so unlikely, but politeness and tradition reign. ❱

[channellings]

Oh good, because I'm in the same boat. We'd probably starve before catching anything.

[he wrinkles his nose, considering, lifts his shoulders in a halfhearted shrug.]

Any Chef Boyardee? [pause] Er, shit like raviolis? Or spaghetti-o's?

[theprezident]

Wait, you guys have that stuff where you're from?

[W h a t. Has it survived 800 years? Wild.

He squints a little, and pulls out a can. ]

Yeah, they've got some different flavours. Soup too. And like ... crackers.

[channellings]

Of course we do! There have been many days where I've survived off ravioli straight outta the can.

[it's good shit, man. don't ask him how it's survived as long as it has though, because he'll have no idea. (preservatives is probably why.)]

Just give me some plain spaghetti-o's, [klaus starts, hmmming thoughtfully a moment before adding,] and a sleeve of crackers. Might as well eat a little then we should finish up in here, try getting outside.

[theprezident]

Mm. Then I guess we should bring some food and water with us, in case we have to walk for a long time.

[ He pushes a few cans aside until he finds a couple of plain spaghtetti-o's and takes one for both him and Klaus, then grabs crackers before he turns around to put it all on the kitchen table. ]

[channellings]

We'll have to see if we can find some extra bottles and something to carry shit in.

[once rhys has everything spread out on the table, crackers are what he chooses rather than one of the cans. those won't get smashed inside a bag with other things and a few handfuls of saltines ought to be enough at the moment.]

[theprezident]

Yeah. And some kind of bag.

[ Saltines do sound good, though. He'll have a few too. ]

[channellings]

[holding the package steady so rhys can take some as well, he crams a couple into his mouth, mostly wanting to hurry up though he is pretty hungry when he considers it. another two or three get plucked out then he offers the package again.]

Should we split up to check the rooms? I'll look for bottles and you can find a bag.

[theprezident]

And if something bad happens, we scream really loud?

[viscountbuttercup]

Oh well I certainly do try at the very least. Though some days people seem hard pressed to acknowledge my efforts as such.

[ it cannot be worse poetry than valdo's, jaskier would be delighted to read it.

in any case, identifying himself as a professor only manages to win jaskier over a bit himself. man of the world he may be, but he still regularly visits oxenfurt when he can make the time and there's something charming about academia even in it's naivete.

well... mostly. ] Quin, then. Please do let me know if you ever have any desire to give one of your lectures here, of course, I would be delighted to attend.

[ rather than recoil of hedge himself from the strange limbs, jaskier instead leans in closer to get a better look, even reaching out a hand of his own to meet it. ] How exciting! However did you come by them? Oh, unless you were born with them, of course.

[viscountbuttercup]

[ look at the man that jaskier spends a good deal of time with on the road, alright. sure jaskier isn't exactly hurting for positive attention on any given day, but he's hardly going to begrudge it either. and nobles can be so coy with their love language, besides.

frankness has a beauty all it's own. ]

You're welcome to burst my bubble and more, beautiful. The decor might need a bit of work but I can hardly begrudge the view nonetheless.

[viscountbuttercup]

[ the care lalli gives the lute might be mostly inborn from wary unfamiliarity, but it still does a good job of winning jaskier over regardless.

not that lalli had been having any difficulty with that in the first place, of course. ]

Nonsense, Lalli! I may be skilled in a good many things, but breaking windows is only sometimes one of them. We have your peerless problem solving skills to thank for escaping that dim and dusty dungeon in a timely manner, and that makes you my savior.

[ jaskier is getting used to meeting people who don't know what a bard is at this point, as unbelievable as life in a world like that may be to him, so lalli's dismissal doesn't give him much pause, nor does his sudden mobility.

with nowhere else really to be at the moment, jaskier settles with steadily dogging the scout's heels instead, blathering all the while. ]

Rest assured that you are in wonderful company, however! I am not one to take another's generosity lightly and will be sure to write you a song so wonderful that your name will soon be spilling from the lips of all that hear it.

[draumstafir]

No, no, I'd love to help-- I like helping! [ he's maybe being a little excitable about it at this point, but the very idea is starting to give him actual anxiety now.

especially since he wasn't even that interested in tea (though, something warm would probably help settle his undeniably high-strung nerves, at least a little...)

there's also an awful lot of bowing that reynir doesn't know what to do about, so he does his own best approximation of it and introduces himself and just hopes it's enough. ]

Clan? Like my family name? I don't think so, or... hm. I'm Reynir Þór Árnason. And, uh, probably not, no. I'm from Iceland?

[draumstafir]

[ this is most assuredly not reynir's strong point, the strategizing. being able to help at all is still so new for him, and even outside of being trusted to help his own efforts are usually pretty... self-contained.

sure he loves the idea of teamwork as a concept, but putting it into effect is another matter entirely. ]

I might be able to get us outside if you'd like more room? Or... I don't think I have any staves meant specifically to reinforce the building but I might be able to push a few together and get something to work.

[draumstafir]

I'm not surprised. [ reynir tells him with an easy sort of humor that he had quickly learned to develop back on asgard itself. ] Asgard is the home of my Gods. Even in my own world there are probably plenty of people that haven't heard of it.

[ he nods his head happily. ] Yeah! I think all of them made it over here with me, isn't that crazy? Some of them weren't even from my original world, either.

I'm Reynir Þór Árnason. Most monsters are pretty bad at sounding human, where I'm from. Maybe some of the ghosts... but even then it's usually pretty easy to tell. Things must be tough where you're from.

[ earnest sympathy. he has it. ]

[draumstafir]

[ reynir is hardly going to complain about such focused attention being directed his way, particularly when namine appears to be taking what he says seriously.

her question after is a good one, even if reynir regretfully only has so much to offer her in response. ]

Choosing is important, for some reason. I don't know why, though. I don't think anything can happen until we choose. Aside from that... [ he shrugs, expression clearly apologetic. ]

[draumstafir]

[ there is visible, instant relief that settles over reynir's shoulders the moment that klaus closes the door to the basement. sure, stumbling across klaus in this place had managed to do a number for reynir's nerves from the start, but he can definitely appreciate a solid barrier between them and below.

reynir even, after a moment of serious thought, flips his own bird at the closed door before trailing after klaus, smiling with all sorts of nervous energy now.

he wastes no time getting himself over to the front door, where he crouches down and immediately starts drawing out the lines of a stave he'd only honestly learned as a joke, originally. ]

My dream never left the basement, so I don't know how much help any of it will be once we're out. [ he warns klaus, just in case. the basement might be cruel, but no part of the place seems nice. ]

[soups]

❰ for as much of her composure as she tries to keep, yanli can't help but look slightly puzzled at that name. she...has no idea how to turn that into something respectful, and to say whatever the middle part of it was is certainly puzzling. and that there is a land of ice is certainly news to her, but! she's also learning so many things. ❱

It's nice to meet you, Reynir-gongzi. ❰ she's only used to last names being used first, so as far as she's aware that's not being rude...if this strangely-coloured young man even happens to care. it's important to her. ❱ I'll show you what I know of downstairs. Maybe you'll know what some of the other things are.

❰ like that big black box that is in the living room she's perhaps poked more than a few times. ❱

[lethechained]

Choosing...

[ It sounds strange - unless of course there's magic involved, which Naminé would not discount. But she really does take his words seriously, for she hasn't any reason to disbelieve them when the logic does seem to fit with her experiences. ]

So... the best decision is not to choose at all?

[ The girl turns this over in her mind one more moment before shaking her head slightly, then saying in a tone that suggests she doesn't doubt it, but, ]

It seems almost too easy. Does no one get punished for staying out of the basement?

[channellings]

Yes, we scream as loud as we can!