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

i.

[sobloodyinspired]

This isn't the first time that Newt had woken up in an unfamiliar place, confused as to how he got there, and at least this time he still remembers more than just his name. It's a step up, yeah? He assumes it's WICKED. What else could it be, really? Made the most sense, given everything they'd just learned. He's calm, ish. Definitely more than the bloke fussing with the door. Newt had already tried earlier, and had yet to find a way out, so he'd just sort of.... settled. Something will happen, or the right combination of things will come to pass, and a way out will be more obvious. "You all right, there, mate?" He asks, voice plainly accented, pushing himself to his feet, brushing dust off his pants and moving toward the older bloke.

[riskanalyst]

"Holy shit!" Eddie barks out on the heels of a gasp of surprise when the kid breaks the silence in the room that had otherwise only been punctuated by Eddie's quiet nope-ing and the hopeful incantation that whatever is going on isn't real. No dice, evidently. "Jesus fucking Christ, kid, you trying to give a guy a heart attack?!" he breathes, a hand going to his heart because, seriously, what the fuck? Where'd that kid come from, anyway?

His heart races under his hand and Eddie takes another deep breath, willing himself to calm. the. fuck. down so that he can focus. Clearly this is real; there's no reason for Pennywise to have manifested some random European kid, right? So, there's something else happening here and that means he needs to focus up.

"I'm fine," he finally answers terribly belatedly. "I'm fine. Who are you?"

[sobloodyinspired]

Newt's eyes widen at the exclamation from the older man and he lifts his hands up in surrender. "Didn't mean to freak you out more, mate. Sorry." And he does at least sound sincere in that apology. He decides not to make any other movements until the bloke can see he isn't a threat. He wants to ask if he's sure he's already, but that feels like pushing it, so he doesn't. "I'm Newt. I just woke up in place and haven't been able to find a way out."

[riskanalyst]

Frowning, Eddie shakes his head and waves a dismissive hand. "It's fine, you're fine. Sorry, bud," he says apologetically. Now he's probably the one freaking out the kid, which is no good.

The kid introduces himself and Eddie nods. "Newt? I'm Eddie. I can't find a way out, either. Looks like we're going to have to improvise," he adds. "If there's a way in, there's a way out."

Theoretically, at least.

[sobloodyinspired]

"Don't mention it." No, really. Don't. He's actually not freaked out at all, at this point. But Newt realizes Eddie might just be trying to make himself feel better about the whole situation in his own, weird way, and that's just fine with Newt. He nods his agreement with his statement, "Yeah, agreed. There's a way, even if it's not obvious." He glances around first and makes his way over to where a pile of random junk sits, and he finds what looks like it might have been a piece of fencing once, and picks it up. Any weapon is better than none, far as he's concerned. "C'mon," he jerks his head toward the door that leads to the kitchen. If the front door won't open, there's bound to be a back way out, right?

[riskanalyst]

Since Eddie's kind of exhausted his own ideas, he's happy to follow Newt when the boy seems to have an idea. "I have a really weird question for you. It's going to sound crazy, but..."

Eddie pauses as they move to a junk pile and the kid picks up a piece of what looks like broken fence—

Here. It kills monsters.

Really?

Sure. If you believe it does.

—and Eddie looks through the pile for something that he can wield as well, preferably that won't give him tetnus if he doesn't grab it just right to get it out of the pile. He ends up with a dented aluminum baseball bat—

You punched me, made me walk through shitty water, dragged me through a crackhouse... and now I'm gonna have to kill this fucking clown.

—which doesn't sound like much, but Eddie's seen a baseball bat do some decent damage. It'll do.

He follows the younger man through the cabin and toward the kitchen where, wonder of wonders, there's a door. How had looking for that slipped his mind? In his panic, he supposes, he wasn't really thinking very clearly. "Please let that be as easy as it looks..."

Eddie raises the bat like he's going to swing it and moves so that he can cover the kid without having to cower behind him. "You open it, I'll whack anything that might be on the other side?" he offers.

[sobloodyinspired]

"Weird is, like, my entire life, mate." All of it that he can remember, at any rate. And not being able to remember personal memories is pretty weird in and of itself, isn't it? "Ask away." He waits for the older guy to grab his own weapon and nods a bit in something like approval at his choice. Can't go wrong with a bat, really. He glances around the kitchen for any obvious signs of movement or other occupants, but upon finding nothing, he approaches the door. "Yeah, sounds good--" he nods once and reaches for the door. It isn't locked, so that's a step up already, innit? He pulls on the door to open it, but it doesn't budge. Newt frowns and tugs a little harder. "It's stuck," he mutters, pulling on it a little harder. The doorknob is so loose in its place that he's worried he'll pull the thing right off if he yanks too hard.