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FEBRUARY TDM.
● ● ● T D M . 0 5
… What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?
The words ring in your ears as in the darkness of your dream, an ocean-deep blue glow hovers in front of you. Transfixed, you reach out to it... only to hear a different voice, a distant echo of cruel laughter, and with a sudden certainty you know — whatever you’ve just agreed to has changed everything forever.
It is to this laughter that you wake, and as it fades and your heart slows into something resembling a normal tempo, you notice something you should have noticed immediately: you are not in your bed.
1.0 White walls, clinical yet clean, sparsely-furnished rooms. You may wake in one of three rooms: a room with only one bed, a room with two beds, or a room with four beds. Those waking up in rooms with more than one bed notice that they are very much not alone. Perhaps the other occupants of the room are still sleeping, dreaming the same dream as you just did, or a regular one after returning to the station just barely a week ago … or perhaps you wake to the other person in the room watching you.
What you do is entirely up to you: yell in surprise when you wake to someone staring at you? Or maybe you’ll try to sneak away before anyone notices you...
2.0 Those with life-threatening injuries find themselves awakening in the infirmary, in a regular hospital bed. Most of their injuries have been treated, and any lingering illnesses or conditions will have designated medicine bottles on the table next to the bed.
White curtains surround the bed on both sides, giving an illusion of privacy. But is that a rustling sound you hear? Some footsteps? Perhaps you’re not the only one in need of some medical attention... or you've attracted the attention of those with experience in medical aid, and they rush to your bedside, surprised about this sudden new patient.
It is not just for your injuries that you may want some company, but also for leaving the infirmary — you can’t stay there forever, after all, and will have to make your way through the hallways of the station to the living quarters, and claim a room and a bed there.
Once you’re up, you may notice there’s something in your ear: an earpiece that, when you become aware of it, quickly runs you through the instructions for how to use the network, a recorded message by a female voice that explains exactly why you’re here… and leaves you with a map of the station.
So what else is there to do but to explore? Best get to know what is now your new home.
3.0 When trying to decide where yo go, you may find your way to the armory, where you can try to work the machine there to make yourself a weapon — perhaps to replace one that didn’t come with you to the station… or maybe you want to be prepared for the future. The recently-returned team members will surely recommend having a functional weapon with you.
And speaking of weapons: to put it to good use, head to the training room, where the entire purpose is to provide you with a space to spar and train to your heart’s content!
4.0 After you’ve exhausted yourself training, it’s time to grab a bite. For that, you should head to the kitchen, which is equipped with all the basic appliances you might need, and ingredients for most regular dishes... and large amounts of chocolate. Weird.
5.0 A welcome reprieve to the cold, dark space that surrounds the characters can be found in the sunlight room. A skillful illusion surrounds anyone who steps inside the room: you can hear the trilling of birds, feel a light breeze caress your skin as you walk through a grass field. It seems that the illusion reflects the season — the leaves have fallen, a layer of white covers the ground, and the air is crisp and clean. If you follow the path, it leads to where a bridge rises over a brook that has now iced over — but maybe don't try your luck walking on it, as the ice may crack underneath your feet and you'll find yourself plunging into the freezing water.
Regardless of whether you like the wintery atmosphere, it is easy to forget you are in space at all. Perhaps that gives you comfort, or just makes you miss the real nature all the more.
6.0 If you’d rather choose tinkering over nature, the lab is guaranteed to provide you with some entertainment. Glass vials and jars of chemicals sit on shelves in a surprisingly beautiful display of colour on one side of the room, while the other side of the room contains stacks of boxes containing assorted equipment: cords, bolts, panels, buttons, gears, gadgets, gizmos, and thingamabobs. The downside is that the parts available seem to have no apparent method to their sorting. So get digging, and you may just find exactly what you need to make what you’ve always wanted to make!
7.0 If it’s items you’re lacking, though, some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message.
Indeed, the platform near the personal quarters is still whirring with power, and new items form neat piles on it. There’s clothes, shoes, dishware, skincare, books… even a couple of CDs, and a few cute stuffed animals. So sort through what there is and grab what you want, before someone else does!
Eventually, you’ll find yourself at the doors of the the simulation room — it has been equipped with a new simulation to take you through possible mission-like scenarios so it’s best to prepare yourself and see what it has in store for you.
8.0 The doors slide shut behind you and the room goes dark. Small pinpricks of light will start to build on each other until you’re surrounded by grey skies overhead and grassy green lawns, a row of old stone columns lining your vision. It seems you’re in a courtyard of some kind, but that’s not all. Something tugs at the hem of your sleeve or nudges at your leg, a warm presence that feels comfortable and ultimately very familiar. They look up at you, or maybe they meet your eye-level, a creature that varies in size, shape, colour, and form depending on what reflects you best. This creature, known as a compalion is a physical manifestation of your spirit or soul and will stay by your side on this journey.
You can stay here and get to know your compalion, or you can take your new companion and explore the campus. Because, if you do move forward past the line of columns (a hallway it turns out), you’ll find that the small cluster of buildings forms an academic campus of some kind.
a) They cannot go any further than a few yards away from their person; the further the distance, the more painful the separation will feel.
b) Your compalion will shift into one form throughout this simulation and can be any creature that best mirrors your personality.
c) They can be as small as a flea and as large as a small elephant; get creative!
d) Whether they speak to you in your native tongue is entirely up to you (some speak, some don’t)
e) Basically daemon rules apply.
9.0 While it might seem like fun to spend hours just exploring the old buildings with your compalion and any Orbers like you that you might bump into along the way, it’s important to remember that you have a goal to achieve: follow the clues and retrieve the orb. Your compalion might offer an idea or two for where to go, or it may just be voicing the thoughts in your head, but it’s not a bad thing to follow your heart (or your gut) as it were. You might find that the rooftops of the campus buildings are easily climbable to get a good vantage point of your location. (Just be careful not to slip and fall! The height from here is quite dangerous.) A clocktower stands proud in the distance among a cluster of other campus buildings, marking the time.
Inside, you might be led down dark stone halls and into a series of classrooms: including reading quarters, study rooms with old leather couches and warm carpets covering stone floors; lecture halls with stiff wooden seating and individual desks to match, a chalkboard with indiscernible scribbles half-wiped away; and a laboratory that deals with something a little less modern than you might be used to, or perhaps with its twisty vials and bubbling potions, it suits you perfectly. There is the large library filled from floor to ceiling with books beyond imagining.
If you look out from the tall arch-shaped window from a classroom, or if you’re outside and you tilt your head up to the sky, you might notice that the sky appears to be darkening further, growing heavy with what is inevitably an oncoming rainstorm. If you’re inside, it might be best to stay indoors; if you’re outside, perhaps it’s time to find some shelter. Or if you’re determined to find that orb outside, risk you and your compalion getting wet.
● ● ●
N O T E: Additionally, there are three personal tasks provided to each character as they enter the simulation. In-game, each character will be given one task. For the purposes of the test drive, we’re leaving it to players to pick a task for their character and run with it.
A Team up with another Orber and their compalion to find the orb's location.
B Climb into the clocktower and ring the bell.
C Explain your best theory regarding your compalion’s manifestation to a fellow team member.
F Y I
• This TDM covers the month of February.
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves are currently open!
• Apps open February 24 and will remain open until February 28.
• For any questions regarding TDM, please direct them here. For questions about the game, please refer to the FAQ.
FOR SOME FUN:
Have a clue for your upcoming mission:
no subject
( most knife wounds would have started healing by now, having travelled for the time that she had but the poison that had tainted the blade and now pushed through her prevented that. it wouldn't heal, would only kill her. unless she found a sister )
One that cannot be aided. There isn't a poultice or remedy that will help it.
no subject
[Sabriel's currently dressed in her preferred garb on the station- dark, practical clothes that stand up to rough wear. She doesn't look much like a healer, or any kind of mage.]
Doctor McCoy is skilled at what he does, but I have some practice with magical healing.
no subject
though there's doubt in her. the way the girl speaks is different enough and she's young. she's never met anyone skilled in healing so young, nor able to practice it )
The only cure for this poison is the healing of an Aes Sedai. Anything else only slows it for a time.
no subject
[Sabriel's hand reaches up to her forehead, to brush back her dark hair to show the mark on her forehead- one that glows for a moment, like gold reflecting sunlight.]
I'm a Charter mage, from the Old Kingdom. If you want, I can see what I can do about your wound.
no subject
but that's all she has. the mark the girl shows her is lost on her, as are the words that come from it )
Are all mages taught healing?
( because an unskilled healer or channeler could do more harm than healing )
no subject
[Not always in person- sometimes, simply by bringing over spellbooks for her to study.]
I placed first in magic.
no subject
there's some hesitation before moiraine moves back to the bed she'd woken on, shifting her shirt so that she can see the wound, the wrapping and poultice that she'd already had replied still there )
Your skill works with poisons also, not just the wound?
( gotta be sure before she lets her at it )
no subject
[The words are delivered without any hesitation.]
Can you tell me if the poison is mundane, or magical somehow?
[She can deal with the latter, but it will require more power, and different marks.]
no subject
( not quite magical but mundane with something else in it. when sabriel gets to unwrapping the wound she'll find it blackened, much of the pus drained but forming again )
no subject
[Sabriel has no idea what 'Trollocs' or 'The dark' are, beyond trollocs probably being very different from trollops.
It's easy, to immerse herself in the Charter as she unwraps the wound, examining it, feeling for any trace of something akin to Free magic even as she traced out Charter marks, the glowing symbols hovering around her hands and rearranging themselves in intricate patterns.]
no subject
( even not knowing specifics sabriel had the exact idea about what this was. maybe she would be able to help.
to help avoid the pain, as much as the touch stings being unwrapped, even just around the wound it feeling sharp and strong, moiraine focuses on what sabriel's doing, the way this mage casts and how different it is.
sabriel won't feel magic in the wound, not anything she knows but maybe a hint of that taint within the poison )
no subject
Sabriel adds several more marks, watching as they interlink and arrange themselves in order, a shining chain wrapped around her forearm as she draws more and more marks from the endless flow of the Charter as the mark on her forehead glows brighter and brighter.
Once she's ready, Sabriel speaks the activating mark, and the spell flows into Moiraine's wound- a spell made to purge the poison, cleanse the wound, and close it, in that order.]
no subject
it's where it gets to the wound closing that the magic doesn't fail but doesn't finish. maybe it's from how long it had afflicted her, the taint from the poison or something unknown. but whilst the wound does begin to close, reduces much in size it isn't fully healed.
a bandage will cover it and provided moiraine properly cleans it this time it will heal. especially as she's now free of the poison )
It seems even another source is able to affect it. Thank you.
no subject
[That's always been one of the downsides of Charter magic healing- while it can make things whole, it doesn't always do it instantly.]
I should warn you though- the poison's gone for good, and the spell took care of any infections that might have started, but if you put too much strain on your shoulder, the wound will reopen.
[It's a warning she's had to give repeatedly. And depressingly, not many of the crew have heeded it.]
no subject
( her concern is at least that the poison was gone which meant that she would at least be able to heal even if it took some time. which it would, moiraine was not good at sitting around and even if for now all she did was look around she still might unintentionally overdo it.
but that was tomorrow's problem. even if she was the fool that would simply clean and rebandage it and not seek further help. unless it reopened to something much larger )
Do you know if there are bandages here?
no subject
[Bandages, disinfectant, gauze pads- Sabriel moves with swift, assured motions as she pulls them out of various cupboards, letting Moiraine apply them as she sees fit.]
Is magic common, where you come from?
no subject
( or healed it fully.
she's slower to take anything that sabriel gets out, uncertain by some of the packaging, unknowing as to what a few of the things even are.
eventually she takes one of the gauze pads, using it first to wipe away around the wound, carefully with the pain it still causes her. and difficulty in its location. it's also not going to be the best cleaning and bandaging it could be given what she's used to doing and what different things she has now )
no subject
[If Moiraine allows it, Sabriel will move in to help. She's not a trained doctor, but Sabriel's education at Wyveley had included modern (for Ancelstierre) first aid.]
no subject
( she looks elsewhere as sabriel works, using it to help her focus. if only there was a trick to not feel pain as with her others, though it'd be more dangerous if she had one )
It's known as being able to channel. Using the power from the world.
no subject
[It certainly sounds like another name for magic.]
I think most people here would call that magic.
no subject
( though whilst what sabriel had done had appeared somewhat like channelling she'd seen things that weren't familiar to her )
Are there differences in what can be done, how it's used or sought? We could learn.
no subject
no subject
( and one that moiraine would likely return to once she knew this station better, knew its people better )
But I believe there is much that can be researched.