June 2025 Test Drive Meme

[singmod]

JUNE 2025 TDM

PROMPT ONE — ARRIVAL: METHUSELAH'S FEAST: A new group of arrivals find themselves lost in the frozen wilds and vulnerable to the dangers of nature. With luck, they make it to the town of Milton, and to a friendly face offering food, warmth and shelter — and the current inhabitants, their fellow survivors.

PROMPT TWO — WHAT LIES BENEATH: New fissures caused by seismic activity within the Northern Territories physiologically alters the Interlopers who check them out.

PROMPT THREE — SUFFOCATION RISK: Interlopers find it hard to breathe, and need a helping hand to catch a breather.

ARRIVAL: METHUSELAH'S FEAST

WHEN: Mid-month.
WHERE: Milton, Milton Outskirts.
CONTENT WARNINGS: potential animal attacks, potential injuries, potential cold injuries/hyperthermia risk.

'You are the Interloper. You are not part of nature’s design.'

It’s the last thing you hear. A dark, deep voice. Impossibly ancient. You feel afraid. Maybe you’re dreaming, maybe you’re wide awake. You saw the lights, and then your world went dark. But you hear it in the blackness, you won’t forget those words.

These are the words of the Darkwalker, you’ll soon come to find.

You awaken. You are not where you were before. It’s different for everyone, there doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern in where you find yourself. You may open your eyes to find yourself in a cold, dim and dank cabin. The air is stale, dust hangs in the rays of weak sunlight that shine through the tiny windows. Someone lived here once, but they aren’t to be found. This place has been ransacked, abandoned long ago. It is quiet. The wood creaks around you.

Or perhaps you may awaken to find yourself shivering in the yawning maw of a cave, the freezing stone below you. Or maybe you’re unfortunate enough to sit up to find yourself lying in the snow, in the middle of the wilderness. Snow lies thick around you. It’s freezing out. You haven’t felt a cold like this before in your entire life. Cruel and biting. You have no idea where you are, and what’s worse — you are completely alone.

The sun is bright, enclosed in light fog. It is a strange kind of twilight.

You may feel different, too. Any powers or magics you may have feel... absent. Disconnected. Things that may not have affected you previously now do. Something in you has changed.

You know you can’t stay where you are. You’ll need to move, try to work out where you are and how you came to be here. So you walk, head out into the unknown, in hope of finding a trail or a road. You’ll find one soon enough. It’s here you may find someone else in the same boat as yourself, equally freezing and confused. You’ll both need to keep going. It won’t be easy. You hear howls of wolves around you, and the terrain is difficult: slips and falls are likely. You’re completely vulnerable out here in the open.

Or it’s possible you may come across someone else here. Someone who looks far better prepared to deal with the freezing cold and frozen landscape, out hunting or gathering. They’ll likely offer help and get you into town. However, for the unlucky ones who don’t come across anyone, you’ll carry on until you see it: the lazy trail of smoke rising in the air. Fire. Not just one, but several. Civilization...?

Follow it, and soon enough the way you’ve taken will certainly become a path or road. Unfolding before you in the mountainous forests, you’ll see the most welcome of sights: a small mining town tucked up in the valley. Battered, rusted road signs will direct to “MILTON, POP. 947”. You’re almost there, you keep going, and it looks like other people have had the same idea as you. In fact, you’ll hear the muffled sounds of life. People! In the town!

As you head into the outskirts and then further into town, you’ll find it’s a little easier to walk but the cold has gripped you hard. You’ll find the buildings, both shops and homes, some are dark and lifeless, some of them are boarded up, some of them are occupied. People are going about their business, or stood watching from their tiny porches of their small, timber homes. For a town this big, there doesn’t seem to be many people. Several dozen at most, but no more.

Towards the center of town, you’ll find the building from which the biggest of the smoke trail rises: a school-house of sorts, or some kind of community hall. Perhaps both. You’ll find more and more people all drawn to this place, each and every one of them in the same position as yourself (and your companion, if you’ve found one). Some are in worse states than others: some are bloodied, nursing bite wounds or cuts; others might have some other kind of injury sustained in the journey here from falls. Others may look as if they could faint from the cold at any second.

The door opens, and you’re greeted by the gnarled, wizened face of an elderly man, dressed in thick furs. He has a kind face. He smiles warmly, and with pity, ushering you in with haste.

“Ah. Once more, you poor souls come.” he nods gravely. No, this is not the first time that this has happened. “I am Methuselah. I welcome you, Newcomer, although I’m sorry for how you’ve come to find yourself here. You are not the only one, the lights are changing things. Come. Mother Nature has not been kind to you, but there are plenty here to help.”

The room is dim, lit only by natural daylight through the windows. A roaring fire sits at one end of the huge hall. It crackles, bright and cheerful... and warm. Even as big as this place is, the room is pleasantly warm. You’ll also find basic cots set up down one side of the hall, and while it seems there's a few people already living here, there's enough space for those in need of them. There's places to rest for a moment and get your bearings, or just trying to recover from the cold. Down the other side are tables and chairs, and long tables laden with food, drinks and bottled water similar to one might find at a soup kitchen. Once again, Methuselah offers a feast, aided by some of the other Interlopers.

There are canisters with hot herbal teas, mostly. But some coffee can be found. There’s also soup and stew and trays of charred deer and rabbit meats, plus some grilled fish. It’s very basic, but it’s hot and filling. A feast for those who have battled the cold to come here.

Methuselah will continue to busy himself, still; there is plenty to do. He will fetch blankets, tend to wounds, serve food and drinks — aided by a handful of others in the Hall. Your fellow survivors, but those who have been here for some time now. He does not have much time to talk. More and more people seem to be coming in from the cold. He will not stop to sit and rest until everyone is seen to, taking up a place by the fire to gaze silently into its flames.

He will encourage newcomers to get warm and eat, and when they are ready to — they can explore the town and find one of the many empty homes to call their own. He will not speak much, but gesture to your fellow survivors. They will have better answers than him.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

WHEN: The month of June.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural ailments; mental manipulation; altered physiological states; potential character injuries; potential dangerous situations; potential cold injuries.

The world has gone quiet since last month’s quake that caused a considerable amount of damage around the Milton and Lakeside regions. Newer Interlopers have been met with a town still in the process of being repaired and rebuilt, and some properties have been abandoned all together, used only for spares and repairs of homes that are actually occupied. Milton was home to some thousand people in its hey-day, now it remains a shell of itself. Some hundred or so people making this place a home in a harsh and unforgiving world.

But the world is not completely quiet: tremors and minor quakes can still be felt as time goes on. These tremors don’t have the same impact as earlier quakes, but they’re enough to give someone pause — keeping Interlopers on their toes.

What’s more is the damage caused by this ongoing seismic activity is dotted all over the landscape: scars are beginning to show in the earth itself, or rather — open wounds.

The fissures are small and unassuming, but can easily snag someone’s attention. Even more curious about them is the occasional strange vapours that seem to curl and lazily rise from these fissures. The vapours are a faint green in colour, almost sickly, and there’s plenty enough in you to make you feel like you should keep well away from these rising fogs. But there’s something about curiosity and cats, after all.

The vapours won’t kill you, no. They certainly won’t do you any physical harm, either. No instant burning of the strange, caustic fog that plagued Interlopers last year, nor the sickness that Glimmerfog brought.

But getting close enough to the vapours to examine them will cause a change in you. It’s more of an insidious thing: gradual and slow, changes in your behaviour over the course of a week. Feeling a little more anxious than normal; snapping at people you interact with; avoidance of others; the feeling of being watched and a growing paranoia. You feel like the animal that has known the feel of the snare, or seen the barrel of the gun. Hunted and small.

Soon enough, this slow chipping away at your mind is enough to cause you to snap: fight or flight.

Fighters are lost into states of pure rage. They are combative, blind to anger in a desperate bid to survive — seeking out their dangers to face them head on. They are volatile, difficult to reason with. They will cause damage to anything around them, or anyone. They will cause damage to buildings, objects — smashing their way through whatever stands in their way. They will fight with those around them — their fellow Interlopers — lost in perceived threats.

Flighters are lost into states of pure fear. They’ll break down in crying fits, hysteria and abandon all logic — avoiding their dangers. They will try to escape from wherever they may be — wanting to run out into the wilds, putting them in potentially more dangerous situations. They could end up getting lost in the wilds, or encountering dangerous wildlife like moose, wolves or bears. Or perhaps even onto thin ice on bodies of water. They will hide whenever they can: under beds, in caves, anywhere their minds might tell them are places of safety.

To those around them, it’s finding a way to try and bring the affected Interloper back to their senses. It’s a little stumbling in the dark: wrangling flighters back to the safety of town, like trying to calm a spooked horse and give them a sense of safety and care and connection might be enough to bring them back to their sense. Fighters can arguably be dealt with the same way, but some might need restraining or fighting back in order to knock some sense into them. Perhaps even literally. Drawing blood in a fight with Fighters will also… strangely calm the affected Interloper down.

Affected Interlopers will be a little shaky afterwards. But a stiff drink or a hot meal and some rest will end up soothing them. Hopefully they won’t go poking around those fissures again.

SUFFOCATION RISK

WHEN: The month of June.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural afflictions; themes of suffocation; themes of co-dependency/unhealthy codependency; potential character death/near-death experience; medical emergencies.

You think that maybe it’s the weather. The Northern Territories have been known for unsettled and sometimes ferocious climate — this is the world of endless winter, after all. But June marks a period of calm as the midsummer draws near. Occasional biting winds are the only disturbances to that calm. Other than that, it’s just damn freezing. Even with the midsummer upon the world and the still weather — the world is frigid.

The cold often bites at one’s lungs, and maybe that’s all you think it is at first. Each breath is like ice, hard to catch, and you feel like you’re suffocating sometimes. Overexertion seems to make it worse, whether you’re hiking up a particularly difficult piece of terrain or carrying a heavy load.

Interlopers will need to stop to rest often, and even then it feels like you still can’t quite get your breath back. This breathlessness will slowly get worse over time, until it’s almost unbearable.

Until it ends up nosediving into something more horrifying. One day, it’s the worst it’s ever been. It feels like you’re drowning. Your breaths are shallow and quick. Your vision blurs and warps, a shimmer of dull prismatic at the corners of your eyes. The world grows smaller around you, your hearing growing dim and distorted. You cough and splutter, gasping for air that you cannot seem to breathe in.

Panic sets in. You are suffocating, and if something isn’t done quickly enough, you will die.

But there’s a strange pull in you, too. A need. A person. You get a sensation of them, something about them. Their hair colour, their voice, their smile. Maybe it’s someone you know, maybe it’s a complete stranger, but something in you pulls you towards them.

As the world closes in on you, everything zeros in on that person. They can help. Hopefully you have enough time to reach them, hopefully you can find them. Maybe they’re searching for you too, in the exact same predicament — unable to breathe and trying to find that person to help.

Reaching that person and touching them will finally allow you to breathe. Like the air is clear, and breaths are painless again. It’s like an instant balm, and slowly the world grows back again — vision and hearing restored. You don’t know why, but this person, whoever they are — has given you your breath back.

You’re spared from the affliction, for a short time. Soon enough, it will return, and you’ll need to find that person again. Or just keep them close for a little while.

FAQs

ARRIVAL: METHUSELAH'S FEAST

1. Arrival threads can be treated as game canon.

2. Items characters have brought from home can be found either strewn around them when they awaken, or in the community hall — as if someone left them out for them to collect. Methuselah will not know how they got there, and will be quite bemused by the happenings.

3. Reminder that all characters are now depowered upon arrival. They can choose not to notice it at first, or can immediately sense something is different about them.

4. If asked any personal questions, Methuselah will smile and say "Oh, you don't want to know about an old man like me. But I have lived all over in these parts for all my life." He will be more concerned with trying to help Newcomers, and is genuinely concerned for them and their well-being. Other Interlopers will say much of the same — there's little to know about him.

5. More information about Milton can be found here.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

1. Characters can be affected multiple times by the vapours.

SUFFOCATION RISK

1. The length of time Interlopers are 'stuck' together to combat the Suffocation Risk affliction is player choice. It could be a couple of days or even weeks — with the affliction itself ending by the end of the month.

2. Both Interlopers can be suffering from Suffocation Risk, or just one.

3. Interlopers who do not reach the person in time will die. They could potentially be revived through CPR, however — provided they are found quick enough.

TALES FROM THE NORTHERN TERRITORIES NEWSLETTER

Comments

[shewhograspsthesky]

[She only hums an answer. Before smiling warmly at the sleeping dog, crouching to say hello, she waits to see if he'll awaken if she stays close for a little bit.]

His name's Ulfrun? Has he always been with you here? [She asks, glancing up just long enough to the woman before her attention is taken again by the sleepy pooch.]

[meadqueen]

[It makes her smile a little. The young dog has always had this effect on people. The girl is lucky that she's sleeping so she can't attempt to scam treats from her.]

She has been with me for most of my time here. I am not certain whether you've met him, but Constable Fraser’s wolf Diefenbaker took an interest in a local man’s dog and Ulfrùn and her siblings were the result.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[She looks up with some surprise.]

A wolf?

[She smiles at the sleepy dog. Wolf-dog. She'll hold out a hand ready to pet him before she remembers herself.]

Can I..?

[meadqueen]

Of course. She is not working at the moment.

[Ulfrùn’s fur is so soft, too, a mixture of wolf and husky giving her a luxurious coat.]

I've assisted in training wolves at home, so she learned to help me fairly quickly.

[She just won’t mention how opposed she had been to keeping the first wolf her sister-in-law had decided to train.]

[shewhograspsthesky]

[She'll happily give Ulfrun all the scritches and scratches with the permission given. For all the tenseness and worries she showed before, they seem to be completely gone for now.]

What does Ulfrun help you with?

[meadqueen]

[Ulfrùn blinks sleepily, then leans into the scratching. When she hits the right spot she even thumps her leg a little, like a rabbit.]

It can be challenging for me in new places because I can't see low-lying obstacles on my right side. I used a walking stick for some time, but now Ulfrùn alerts me if there is something that I need to watch for.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[Her smile drops a little, the only indication she heard what was said. But it doesn't delay any scratches for the well-deserved dog, in fact it just encourages her to spoil Ulfrun more.]

[meadqueen]

[Randvi notes that expression. Ulfrùn, still wriggling in delight, does not.]

Would you mind if I ask you a similar question?

[shewhograspsthesky]

[The scritches come to a halt. She does mind, but she knows it's probably unfair to ask and not expect to be asked. She doesn't wait for the question to come, she knows what it will probably be already.]

There was a fire.

[And she'll give more scratches and pets.]

[meadqueen]

[Randvi nods. Burn scars aren’t unfamiliar - her friend with the rough voice has them on her neck, though nothing quite so severe - and she knows well enough by now how dangerous fire can be.]

I meant to ask if it was recent.

[Randvi has lived with her injury for over a year now, and can do so much that she had imagined then would be forever out of her reach.]

[shewhograspsthesky]

Oh.. yeah. It's- It's Recent.

[Recent enough that she still has nightmares, still hasn't left the house, let alone her room, and her family is still in mourning. This is basically the first time she's spoken since it happened. She can't speak back home, her throat barely works.]

[meadqueen]

I am certain that this is not what you want to hear right now, but things will get easier. For a long time after my injury, I was unable to live alone. I thought that I would never leave Milton again, and yet I've just returned from an expedition to the coast.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[She's heard it before: from Verso, from Papa... she's yet to see anything become 'easier'. The grief, the pain, it just feels unending. An abyss that lingers threatening to swallow her whole with just one misstep, one lost thought.

But before she rolls her eye at the woman's words she hears the rest of what she has to say.]

An expedition to the coast?

[meadqueen]

Perhaps not as organized as the term makes it sound. We have been able to access Lakeside, a nearby town, for some time now, but had been unable to proceed further. Recently there have been some very strong tremors, and a way opened up so that we could access the road to Silverpoint, a coastal village.

A loose group, including Ulfrùn and myself, travelled to the coast to investigate. There is a small group of local survivors living out there.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[It's nice that not all expeditions have to be so life and death. It's just exploring.

If she weren't so weak, she would immediately ask to go on the next one. But as it stands, she's in no shape and she knows it. It's ... depressing. She'll shove those thoughts out, happy to just spoil Ulfrun instead with idle chatter.]

I guess finding other survivors isn't very normal.

[meadqueen]

It is unfortunately fairly rare. We have encountered Methuselah, of course. [This is a bit sour - Randvi doesn't like him.] Young Bill, who owned Ulfrùn’s mother, used to live in Lakeside, but he was killed recently by another bear. There are a few survivors who were once a part of a Darkwalker-worship group in Lakeside who now live among us.

Silverpoint is another thing altogether: a group of local survivors almost as large as our current population in Milton! [Randvi’s eye practically shines talking about it, it had been so exciting.]

I am attempting to start a regular trade route between our two villages, so if you would ever like to see Lakeside, or travel even farther, let me know and you can accompany me.

[Yes she's injured now, but so was Randvi once. And it isn't as if everyone on the original expedition had been the sort of ideal person who might have been chosen in better circumstances.]

[shewhograspsthesky]

[In Lumiere she trained to join the Expedition. It's all she could think of doing or wanted to do. Anything to leave. But she wasn't in this shell in Lumiere. She was whole.

There's some hope in her eye before she hangs her head down and shakes it slowly.]

I'd just slow your expedition down.

[There's no light at the end of the tunnel for her. She can't see it yet.]

[meadqueen]

You and I have the same injury, so I doubt that.

Every day I get stronger, and it will be the same for you. I return regularly with goods, so if you change your mind my offer stands.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[It's not her eye that troubles her. It's her throat. Breathing hurts, running or fighting? It feels impossible. Like she'll never catch her breath, like smoke is still in her lungs. Everything just feels raw.

But she can hear Clea scolding her, calling her weak. She can imagine Gustave warning her that she's being cocky.]

Thanks. [It's a small smile on her face, where her warped cheeks aren't pulled too far.] Maybe.. I can try to go some of the way. And if I'm slowing you down, I can turn around.

[meadqueen]

Some of our people live in Lakeside, the first village along the route. It takes between two and three days to reach the road to Silverpoint from here, so if you felt too tired then, you could rest safely with another interloper.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[Two or three days sounds like nothing. Their Expedition took nearly a year. And to think she can't even manage a day or two as she is? It's difficult for her to swallow her reality. She misses the canvas. It was easier.]

How far is Lakeside?

[meadqueen]

It takes around half a day to get from Milton to Lakeside. Perhaps a bit longer since I would take the newer route. Our old route passes through an abandoned mine and crosses a broken bridge, and with the way the earth has trembled lately I do not trust it.

Lakeside was a resort at one time, if that is something you're familiar with.

[shewhograspsthesky]

[She nods, it is familiar. Her family's enjoyed them before, but that was a different time.]

So where does the new route go?

[meadqueen]

The newer route goes through a more recently opened mountain pass and brings us in on the far side of the lake. It is a bit of a circuitous route if you intend to go into the community that has formed there, but it is a straight road to the route through the hydro dam to Lakeside.

[shewhograspsthesky]

I guess that is safer than a mine.

When is your group planning to go again?