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where we're going--
✖ EVENT HORIZON
Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
There has always been some confusion as to whether or not the ferry cuts through sea or sky, but this month as you glide along you will find yourself more and more convinced that it is the latter. It is nigh impossible to see where you are headed, the way forward shrouded in darkness.
At first you think the lights ahead are stars.
The ferry docks inside of a metallic bay of some kind. It’s an extension of what must be the island, although this one does not resemble any earthly land mass. It appears to be a deliberately constructed structure, contained on all sides. Maybe you’re familiar enough with technology or science fiction enough that you realise it resembles a space station more than an island.
Once you’ve disembarked from the ferry, you will find that you cannot go outside of the structure.
Inside, there are seemingly endless corridors for you to explore. The halls on the upper deck are rounded, metallic, with lights set at regular intervals. Here there are chambers roughly the length and width of a single bed, with sufficient height for a person to crawl in and sit up on the bed. There is a television screen set in the wall at the foot of the bed by the door, and sockets for electronics. That is all.
Also on this floor is a mess hall where you can get beige, mostly tasteless nutritional sludge dispensed from machines. Water and coffee are also available, likewise dispensed from machines. (There is a cookbook hidden on a shelf written by one Serak the Preparer, but no ingredients anywhere.) There are private showers and bathrooms, a small gym, and rooms clearly meant as places for people to sit and talk. There is a medical bay, although there is no staff. In fact, the whole place seems empty.
There are some rooms that are locked - these look like offices. The doors to these rooms are extremely difficult to break down, but if you have superhuman strength you could manage it. Or maybe you’re clever enough to work the electronic panels beside the doors.
Inside you will find round monitors on the walls and square tablet-like devices on desks. Attempt to work any of these and a soft, pleasant but emotionless voice will inform you that you do not have access. You can try to speak to the AI - called MUTHER - but it is supremely uncooperative. Someone very good with technology could use the tablet the old fashioned way, perhaps, to access files. You might want to be careful, though - MUTHER might decide to retaliate. Harshly.
There doesn’t seem to be a temple anywhere readily apparent.
Ⅱ. CONSCIENCE
CW: psychological trauma, threat of death.
It’s easy to get lost; nearly identical corridors branch off from one another. As you walk along you gradually become convinced that someone is following you. Periodically you’ll hear footsteps, a sigh, a rustle of cloth. But every time you turn around you see nothing… unless it’s one of your fellow Travelers. Or maybe you run into them because you’re so busy looking over your shoulder.
Regardless, as you walk along the lights in the corridor flicker, and when they turn back on you will find someone you know standing directly in your path. Someone who you know absolutely cannot be there.
Maybe they died. Maybe you haven’t spoken in years. Whoever they are, the feeling they inspire within you is one of intense guilt. You did something to this person, something for which you think you can never be forgiven.
The apparition might speak, or it might just watch you with silently accusing eyes. You begin to wither under its gaze, feeling weaker and weaker until you can barely stand. You just want to lay on the floor and close your eyes… maybe forever.
Your fate rests in the hands of whoever is with you or finds you. All they have to do is introduce a smidgen of doubt into your mind, a recognition that maybe it isn’t all your fault. Of course, that means you might have to tell them what you did.
Oh, dear.
Ⅲ. STOWAWAY
CW: monstrous creatures.
The lower decks of the station are darker, more utilitarian looking. These are corridors that lead to rooms full of computers and machinery that keep the station running so it’s probably best to keep out of there.
There are also storage bays filled with both prosaic wooden crates and large metallic pods. Most of these are locked up tight. But not all. Investigate some of the pods and you’ll find that the floor around them is wet with some sort of milky, slimy substance that sure seems like it came from a living organism.
Maybe you should get out of here.
Before you can get good and gone to the upper decks, however, you find exactly what you probably didn’t want to unless you have a very exciting Tinder profile: an alien.
At least eight feet tall, with pale almost translucent skin, the creature has an elongated skull and a mouth that hosts two sets of jaws like a moray eel. It has a whiplike tail and spiky protrusions along its upper back. It is bipedal, and very, VERY fast.
Better hope you’ve got something to fight with! Your chances of survival are definitely greater if you work with a partner.
And you better hope there’s just the one.
Ⅳ. TEMPLE
CW: potential insanity, violence.
If you wander the dark lower decks long enough, you will find yourself moving ever inward toward the very center of the station. There is a door there that is supposed to be locked, but often isn’t. It’s waiting for you, beyond that door and down a dark corridor: the station’s heart.
The room the solitary corridor opens into is round, walls sloping gently up to a domed ceiling. In the middle of the room is a machine of some kind: a series of concentric thick metal rings rotate in different directions around a sphere. The only noise it makes is the gentle swooshing of the circles as they spin out, up, around.
The air feels heavy and charged. It’s not pleasant.
Before you can leave, all of the rings line up so that they appear to radiate out from the sphere in the center. Light flares, and then in the space where the sphere once was you can see it:
Home.
It’s your homeworld, perhaps exactly as you left it, or perhaps earlier or later along in the timeline. It may be pleasant, or it may be awful, but it is undeniably the place from which you came. The place where you belong.
Stare into this portal home long enough and the compulsion to return will slip over you. You just need to jump into the glowing, trembling center of that dimensional gate.
Whoever is with you, however, realises that leaping headfirst into an unknown dimension might not be the smartest idea you’ve ever had, especially considering how ominous the whole place feels. They might be able to talk you down. Hopefully they can talk you down, because the longer you stare at the portal the more convinced you become that you MUST leap into it, and the only way to do so is to kill whoever is trying to get in your way.
If instead you turn away from the dimensional gate, the lights will flare once more before the rings resume their movement. That brief glimpse of home is gone. In its place is the sound of soft voices; people you have left behind, calling out to you with accusations of things left undone, begging to be told why you won’t come home...
These voices will follow you throughout the ship. They are not constant, but they never leave you alone for very long. They won’t be silent until you give them an answer to the question of why you have chosen to remain.
Is anybody out there listening?
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
There has always been some confusion as to whether or not the ferry cuts through sea or sky, but this month as you glide along you will find yourself more and more convinced that it is the latter. It is nigh impossible to see where you are headed, the way forward shrouded in darkness.
At first you think the lights ahead are stars.
The ferry docks inside of a metallic bay of some kind. It’s an extension of what must be the island, although this one does not resemble any earthly land mass. It appears to be a deliberately constructed structure, contained on all sides. Maybe you’re familiar enough with technology or science fiction enough that you realise it resembles a space station more than an island.
Once you’ve disembarked from the ferry, you will find that you cannot go outside of the structure.
Inside, there are seemingly endless corridors for you to explore. The halls on the upper deck are rounded, metallic, with lights set at regular intervals. Here there are chambers roughly the length and width of a single bed, with sufficient height for a person to crawl in and sit up on the bed. There is a television screen set in the wall at the foot of the bed by the door, and sockets for electronics. That is all.
Also on this floor is a mess hall where you can get beige, mostly tasteless nutritional sludge dispensed from machines. Water and coffee are also available, likewise dispensed from machines. (There is a cookbook hidden on a shelf written by one Serak the Preparer, but no ingredients anywhere.) There are private showers and bathrooms, a small gym, and rooms clearly meant as places for people to sit and talk. There is a medical bay, although there is no staff. In fact, the whole place seems empty.
There are some rooms that are locked - these look like offices. The doors to these rooms are extremely difficult to break down, but if you have superhuman strength you could manage it. Or maybe you’re clever enough to work the electronic panels beside the doors.
Inside you will find round monitors on the walls and square tablet-like devices on desks. Attempt to work any of these and a soft, pleasant but emotionless voice will inform you that you do not have access. You can try to speak to the AI - called MUTHER - but it is supremely uncooperative. Someone very good with technology could use the tablet the old fashioned way, perhaps, to access files. You might want to be careful, though - MUTHER might decide to retaliate. Harshly.
There doesn’t seem to be a temple anywhere readily apparent.
Notes:
1. The High Temple and anything characters may have stored there is only accessible to those who are experiencing their first island outside of the TDM via a marked door. Everyone else must make do with what is available.
2. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.
3. The televisions play mostly game shows. You can also find a set of controllers for it and play Pong. Just Pong.
4. MUTHER will not deliberately kill any people on the station - her programming forbids it. She is not above releasing hallucinogenic gas into the air vents, though.
5. Have fun!
Ⅱ. CONSCIENCE
CW: psychological trauma, threat of death.
It’s easy to get lost; nearly identical corridors branch off from one another. As you walk along you gradually become convinced that someone is following you. Periodically you’ll hear footsteps, a sigh, a rustle of cloth. But every time you turn around you see nothing… unless it’s one of your fellow Travelers. Or maybe you run into them because you’re so busy looking over your shoulder.
Regardless, as you walk along the lights in the corridor flicker, and when they turn back on you will find someone you know standing directly in your path. Someone who you know absolutely cannot be there.Maybe they died. Maybe you haven’t spoken in years. Whoever they are, the feeling they inspire within you is one of intense guilt. You did something to this person, something for which you think you can never be forgiven.
The apparition might speak, or it might just watch you with silently accusing eyes. You begin to wither under its gaze, feeling weaker and weaker until you can barely stand. You just want to lay on the floor and close your eyes… maybe forever.
Your fate rests in the hands of whoever is with you or finds you. All they have to do is introduce a smidgen of doubt into your mind, a recognition that maybe it isn’t all your fault. Of course, that means you might have to tell them what you did.
Oh, dear.
Notes:
1. The severity of the offense is of course up to the player - this can be deadly serious, or played for laughs. No matter how it is played the only way to save a character from sleeping on the floor until they die from dehydration is to convince them of even the possibility that they might not be guilty. They do not have to feel completely absolved.
Ⅲ. STOWAWAY
CW: monstrous creatures.
The lower decks of the station are darker, more utilitarian looking. These are corridors that lead to rooms full of computers and machinery that keep the station running so it’s probably best to keep out of there.
There are also storage bays filled with both prosaic wooden crates and large metallic pods. Most of these are locked up tight. But not all. Investigate some of the pods and you’ll find that the floor around them is wet with some sort of milky, slimy substance that sure seems like it came from a living organism.
Maybe you should get out of here.
Before you can get good and gone to the upper decks, however, you find exactly what you probably didn’t want to unless you have a very exciting Tinder profile: an alien.
At least eight feet tall, with pale almost translucent skin, the creature has an elongated skull and a mouth that hosts two sets of jaws like a moray eel. It has a whiplike tail and spiky protrusions along its upper back. It is bipedal, and very, VERY fast.Better hope you’ve got something to fight with! Your chances of survival are definitely greater if you work with a partner.
And you better hope there’s just the one.
Notes:
1. The aliens are extremely dangerous, but they CAN be killed. Their blood is thick and yellow but is not acidic or poison.
Ⅳ. TEMPLE
CW: potential insanity, violence.
If you wander the dark lower decks long enough, you will find yourself moving ever inward toward the very center of the station. There is a door there that is supposed to be locked, but often isn’t. It’s waiting for you, beyond that door and down a dark corridor: the station’s heart.
The room the solitary corridor opens into is round, walls sloping gently up to a domed ceiling. In the middle of the room is a machine of some kind: a series of concentric thick metal rings rotate in different directions around a sphere. The only noise it makes is the gentle swooshing of the circles as they spin out, up, around.
The air feels heavy and charged. It’s not pleasant.
Before you can leave, all of the rings line up so that they appear to radiate out from the sphere in the center. Light flares, and then in the space where the sphere once was you can see it:
Home.
It’s your homeworld, perhaps exactly as you left it, or perhaps earlier or later along in the timeline. It may be pleasant, or it may be awful, but it is undeniably the place from which you came. The place where you belong.
Stare into this portal home long enough and the compulsion to return will slip over you. You just need to jump into the glowing, trembling center of that dimensional gate.
Whoever is with you, however, realises that leaping headfirst into an unknown dimension might not be the smartest idea you’ve ever had, especially considering how ominous the whole place feels. They might be able to talk you down. Hopefully they can talk you down, because the longer you stare at the portal the more convinced you become that you MUST leap into it, and the only way to do so is to kill whoever is trying to get in your way.
If instead you turn away from the dimensional gate, the lights will flare once more before the rings resume their movement. That brief glimpse of home is gone. In its place is the sound of soft voices; people you have left behind, calling out to you with accusations of things left undone, begging to be told why you won’t come home...
These voices will follow you throughout the ship. They are not constant, but they never leave you alone for very long. They won’t be silent until you give them an answer to the question of why you have chosen to remain.
Notes:
1. If characters DO jump into the gate… They can pass through and emerge on the opposite side gravely injured or completely out of their minds. Or you may use this as a very dramatic exit from the game.
Daenerys Targaryen | Game of Thrones
[Everything else about this world had been confusing and infuriating for Dany. It wasn't as if she expected better treatment, but all of this was so far removed from home, she felt hostile to everything about it and upset at the unfamiliarity. Finding the Temple apparently was a blessing. Where at first, she thought it would be much like the rest, the moment the sphere or whatever aligned in such a way, an image appeared that she had been longing for.
It wasn't Dragonstone that was home to her, but her quarters on her ship, the one that had been sailing for the North. Everything looked as she left it, only missing one other person that had been present. Candles were lit, but dying, the sky was starting to turn pink at the rising sun. There was a goblet of wine untouched and bed covers kicked onto the floor. All of it was there and, she imagined, her remaining dragons weren't flying far away.
It all looked so real, so homey and inviting. She almost believed she could step through, as if she was passing under a waterfall. One step and this nightmare would be over, everything would be returned as it should be and she could move forward instead of looking at the past.
These thoughts occupied her so much that she didn't even realize she was stepping closer until a hand grabbed her arm, tugging her back.]
What are you doing?
Stowaway
[The way the creature moved was dizzying for Dany. Only a moment ago, she had been exploring the various crates, hoping to find something that might come to her advantage down the line, like food or a weapon or more clothes. Resources were valuable the more they moved.
The milky substance leaking from the bottom of a broken pod (was that the name someone said before) was disgusting, almost as if someone had gotten sick. That thought could barely be processed before something was moving quickly across the floor and over the walls. When finally it stopped, its face was mere inches from Dany's, leaving her paralyzed.
There were no eyes she could see, only an elongated head, a looming form and a serpent like tail whipping around. Its mouth opened wide, revealing the sharp teeth so similar to a dragon's. There was no flame, only a ravenous maw that seemed eager to tear at her flesh.
She stared at what could be her death, struggling to make her mind work and her body roar to life. Instead, she was frozen, waiting almost instinctively for help that might not come. It wouldn't be in the form of a dragon, but hopefully someone more aware of this peril than she was...and how to defeat it.]
Wildcard
[Feel free to choose your own adventure. If you want to spitball ideas or come up with something specific, add me at
stowaway
From his vantage, half hidden behind a stack of crates, he lobs a weird little metal canteen (at least he thinks that's what it is) that he's dug out of one of the crates. The sound it makes as it clatters across the metal grating just beyond them is loud enough to draw the monster's attention, its head snapping to the side with a hiss, and when it does, Joel steps out of cover and lifts the bow already in his hands. ]
Move! [ While it's distracted, there's a chance she can slip out of there - especially when an arrow strikes it in the back of its warped skull, splattering thick yellow blood on impact as the creature shrieks. ]
no subject
No weapons around, save for a broken pipe in the wall. Dany kicked at it, doing her best to dislodge it until it fell on the floor. Steam was released and filled the air. It was a probably important piece, but it was her weapon now.
At the same time, the arrow landed true on the alien, splattering his blood across the floor.]
What is it?
no subject
Joel lowers his bow, though he doesn't drop his arrow, listening hard for the clatter of the metal grates underfoot, not trusting that it's gone, just yet. ]
No idea. But it ain't the first one I've seen down here. [ Quiet, almost a whisper. He's used to being hunted by things without eyes, though, and sound's usually the first tip off. ]
no subject
Then there was quiet, as though he pulled himself together. Dany didn't trust that it was gone yet, likely lurking in the shadows. She held the pipe tight, backing closer to Joel while never taking her eyes off the area it had disappeared.]
There are more on the ship? Do you have any idea how to kill them?
no subject
[ He shrugs a shoulder, one that's already tightly bandaged around the upper arm, and nods back the way he came - come on. The narrow aisle between crates is not exactly a comforting place to be, but at least it also narrows down the directions from which that thing could circle around and come at them again. ]
Took one down already, and this'll make two more I've seen. Lucky for us, they don't seem to like the upper decks much, so all we need to do is get you back up there.
no subject
[Dragons. That was what she wanted more than anything, her dragons. They weren't so easy to kill and were powerful enough now to wipe out massive armies. They would be able to easily kill this thing.
But she was pulled here without anything to her name, save for her clothes.
So now she had to rely on a pipe and bashing the thing enough that it would die.
She's impressed though to know he killed one already. Without complaint, she followed him, keeping her body sideways so that she could watch behind them. He guarded the front, she the back, as they made their way through.]
Why is that? There are more people there. You would think they would want to travel up there.
no subject
[ He was lucky, that's all - to walk away from one of those things with only a few new scars, with so little to fight back with. A gun and a few rounds probably would've made quicker work of it, but maybe it's a good thing they don't have anything like that on board. The thought brings to mind old sci fi movies and hull breaches and all sorts of shit that might be totally made up, but hell if he'd like to be the one to find out how it plays out in the real world.
Even careful as he is not to rattle the metal grating as he crosses another gap in the smooth, steel floor, there's still an echo of sound. A skittering of claws - or whatever that creature has - follows, as it circles around them. No question it's coming back, but maybe they can make it to the door before it finds a blind spot to strike at them from. ]
I'd think a lot of things, but I'm guessin' that'd be pretty pointless seeing as I have no idea what the hell these things are or what they're after.
[ He lets go of his bow to hold up a hand, glancing back past her warily as that skittering echoes overhead again. ]
no subject
[Which might be basic, but it made sense for a predator like this. How it came on the ship, she wish she knew. Nobody else seemed to be here but them. Which might mean they were planted here, they were here before, or they were a new means of torturer by the ones holding them here.
She moved as carefully as she could, mimicking his steps as she held tight to the pipe. There seemed to be something moving from the corner of her eye, but each time she looked in that direction, there would be nothing there.
Dany looked up, hearing that skittering as well, her heart racing.]
Should we sacrifice stealth for speed and run?
stowaway
Sometimes Daenerys wants to talk to Jon. Other times, she turns away, holds herself apart, looks pained. For his part, he is only trying to know her better, trying to see if she is a woman he could come to care for. He hasn’t seen anything that tells him that she isn’t, but he is not a man in love, only a man who likes her, a man who can see her beauty. A man who doesn’t wish to see her hurt.
Just now, it looks as if she’s about to be hurt — and all he has is a knife. He darts up to her.]
Get behind me.
no subject
His movement is quick, helping push her away, breaking the roots that bound her in place. As soon as she jumped back, the creature shrieked, opening it's mouth wider. Drool slipped from the tips of its teeth and splattered on the floor.
There was no weapon, nothing she could use, but Ghost and Jon were here. Still, she needed to do something. Grabbing one of the crates, she struggled to lift it high and threw it at the alien, managing to hit its mid section. It only seemed to annoy it, giving another shriek.]
no subject
He has killed a White Walker… but he had done it with Longclaw. The knife doesn’t have nearly the reach, and it’s not Valyrian steel. And the creature looms over him, almost half his height again.
Whatever it is that Daenerys threw at the creature, it flings aside; the box nearly hits Jon, but he dodges it. He can’t afford to look away from their foe, not with its teeth like — gods, like some kind of fish — and its lashing tail.]
Behind me,
[he insists, tense. But there is a growl, and a great white flash, and in a moment, the creature is on the floor with Ghost atop it, locked in a struggle. Jon begins to move in with his knife.]
no subject
Clenching her teeth, she ducked behind Jon, watching as Ghost charged at the alien. Weirdly colored blood splattered the moment his teeth locked around its flesh. It took her a moment to realize Jon was moving in for the attack. Her heart dropped, seeing how he was at a disadvantage.]
Jon!
[She shouldn't yell for him or distract him, but her fear took control.]
no subject
Ghost is more than its match, but not immortal. The creature’s tail whips around and slaps against the direwolf’s side. Before Jon can lend any aid, there is a strange noise, and a cracking, and Ghost’s fangs are in the thing’s throat, and the tail goes limp.
When Ghost looks up at Jon, the white fur around his mouth is slicked with yellow blood.]
Seven hells. [Panting and troubled, he looks back at Daenerys.] You all right?
no subject
He seems all right. [As though that was the question asked. She scratched his ears, smiling with gratitude at the wolf.] I have never seen him attack before. He's remarkable.
[Not a dragon, but magic in his own way. Able to stand against something so much bigger than him. Little wonder that the Starks valued their direwolves so greatly.
Finally it registered in her mind that Jon had asked her something. She tilted her head up, meeting his eyes briefly.] I'm fine. You pulled me back before he could attack me.