TDM #1: WELCOME VISITORS

[calderamods]

TDM #1

It happens in an instant. A heavy weight in your gut, a trembling of your limbs, the world spins and you barely have time to register that you're falling before you lose consciousness. And when you awaken, it's not where you were last. Dark, unadorned oak walls surround you in a tiny room, the only furniture the bed you are currently resting upon, and the bedside table with a folded piece of parchment resting atop it that simply reads:

“The Tavernkeeper is awaiting your arrival downstairs.”

As you exit you find others like yourself emerging from the surrounding rooms. You are indeed in a tavern, but there is no hustle and bustle one might think to hear in such a place. The only person down on the main floor is a humanoid figure wiping down the bar, who smiles when they see you. They're familiar, but not, and you can't quite place their face. For some reason, however, their presence is comforting and warm.

“Welcome, Visitor. I'm sure you have a lot of questions.”

And you most certainly do.

SIT, STAY A WHILE

The Tavernkeeper offers more than just answers. This is a tavern after all, and what is a tavern without drinks?

"I know just what you need." They say, giving you little time to reply before some manner of drink (alcoholic or not) is set before you.

DRINK MENU

PEOPLE SKILLS: A deceptively simple looking cocktail that when imbibed makes one feel very social. Time to make friends and influence people!

A SPOT OF COURAGE: a tasty concoction so nice on the tongue it loosens it up. You suddenly want to reveal something about yourself!

SKY HIGH: a fizzy blue drink billowing with white smoke and served with a lemon slice as a garnish. It has been known to make the drinker giggly and sometimes even float a few feet off the ground.

CRYING FROG: a swirling bright green drink that makes you want to cry - or is it something else about this place that just makes you want to tear up…

SHARING IS CARING: a large, delicious frozen concoction that comes with two straws. You can't finish it alone! (No, like, you quite literally can't finish it alone.)

52 PICKUP: It's just whiskey. But for some reason it really puts you in the mood for cards, or a game of mahjong, maybe a couple rounds of checkers

QUICKSAND: The thickest chocolate milkshake you've ever had. The flavour is rich and delicious, but it moves like concrete. Sucking it up the straw takes effort. Makes the drinker mellow and lethargic. It's all good, man. Don't worry, be happy.

BEER: Beer? I thought you said bear! (animal transformation)

SEX ON THE BEACH: literally just sex on the beach, but also an aphrodisiac. Have fun! (The rooms upstairs are still open, for the record…)

CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY

As the effects of your drink wear off, the Tavernkeeper speaks once more:

”It is time, my friends, for you to find your new homes.”

You are compelled to walk through the only door leading out of the tavern, finding yourself not outside, but in a deep black, seemingly endless room with five portals arranged in a circle. As the last of you leave and the door closes behind you, gone when you look back again and replaced with nothing but that black void, three of the portals illuminate:

The first portal is surrounded by an almost blinding light, prismatic rainbows shining brightly in the dewy air outside of the tavern. A soft breeze may gently caress you, pulling you toward it. The portal seems to lead to a city in the clouds, airships and winged beings of all sorts soaring through the skies. Of the little bits of visible land, much of it boasts giant waterfalls that look like clouds melting into the land below. The portal calls to those who crave independence and freedom; and especially to anyone that wishes to find the strong bond of a family not forged in blood.

The second portal is encircled by a fairy ring of spotted white capped mushrooms, the faint scent of damp stone and rich earth wafting from within the faint green glow. Peering inside, one can see a sprawling harbor city of gray hewn stone, a melting pot of humanoid beings going about their day, and beyond, rolling green farmland and cottages clustered in small villages. This portal is destined for those who crave stability and solid ground beneath their feet. A simple life, an adventurous one, and everything in between can be found within.

The last portal is adorned with shells and seaweed, the glow of blue around it catching on droplets cascading down the circular opening. Beyond it you see a city housed inside a massive bubble deep under the ocean, spiraling towers encrusted with coral, and a variety of different creatures mingling about the streets. Outside of that bubble, merfolk swim, a massive squid engulfs the view from the portal as it smoothly glides through the water, and schools of fish disperse as it passes. A sanctuary in the sea that calls to those with a hunger for knowledge and a desire to aid those in need. Or perhaps it is the mystery that beckons you - the lure of the unknown in the depths that bids you explore it.

A NEW NORMAL

Upon following the pull of the breeze through the first portal, you are thrust into the beauty of a lively city that goes by the name of Heaven's Bow. Much of this main city feels exactly as you would expect on a city below, but there are clouds surrounding every direction you look. The walls of buildings are made with light-colored limestone, and buildings are generally built up to heights made even more grandiose by their position in the sky.

The Skyfall Docks are the first thing you notice, boasting hundreds of airships sailing in and out across the clouds with shouts that accompany a typical port city. Just outside is a fantastic market with goods not only from the other regions of Caldera, but from what some shopkeepers claim are other worlds--items sold or left behind by Visitors. Almost anything can be found in the markets if one is willing to look hard enough. Transport to other locations throughout the sky and even to the land or sea can be found here.

If the docks are too lively for you, you may instead find yourself roaming the underbelly of Heaven's Bow and finding brothels and gambling parlors filled with the promise of pleasure and fortune. The guild house for the Sylphs can be found here as well, giving out quests and training to prospective adventurers and guards alike--though none of them seem concerned with the illicit activities that surround them. Perhaps the freedom the Sylphs boast of extends to what others may deem an undesirable activity.

But most curious of all, you find a shimmering opal gemstone in your hand. When placed anywhere on the body, it will transform into a piece of jewelry with the gemstone set in the center.

---

If it was the second portal that called to you, you will find yourself in the busy city of Grey Ward, with its cobblestone streets and sturdy grey stone buildings. You are in the heart of the city, the Glass Market, so named for the colorful stained glass windows of the surrounding buildings. The scent of cooking food and the sound of barkers fills the air; watchful guards keep an eye out for pickpockets and thieves, and citizens go about their day. From here, one can investigate the rest of the city: the Sundown Docks, where both sea and sky faring skips transport people and goods. The Soot Spire, home of inventors and engineers. The Hearthstill, the main residential area. The Downs, a smaller residential area for those with less means.

Outside the city walls, one can explore acres of farmlands to the east and west, or follow Terra’s Pass to the less settled areas, but take care. Past the Skyward Range, out in the smaller burrows and villages, the influence of the city guard diminishes quickly, and you’ll have to keep your wits about you. Bandits along the road are always a risk, and the wildlife are less controlled by regimented hunting.

In your hand is a gemstone, a brilliantly green emerald that, when placed anywhere on the body, will transform into a piece of jewelry with the gemstone set in the center.

---

If the last portal beckoned you through it, you find yourself within that bubble covered city beneath the sea, the city of Salt Spire. Your ears pop with the change in pressure, and the smell of the salty sea fills your nostrils. All around you buildings made of dark stone encrusted with coral and seagrass tower high above your head, the backdrop outside the dome a deep blue, seemingly endless sea filled with fish and merfolk and all other manner of creature swimming through the water. You stand in the heart of it all, surrounded by people with gils on their necks and scales upon their vibrantly colored skin, all of whom seem intrigued by your arrival. You have many options of where to visit in the city under the sea, but where oh where will you go first?

The Salt Spire Library is right before you, an impossibly large building housing thousands upon thousands of books of all genres. Fiction, non-fiction, romance and mystery and all between. You may even find books from your world and others! Oddly enough though, no Calderan history books are to be found, and if you ask for them, the librarians and locals all choose to ignore your questions.

If scholarly pursuits aren't to your interest currently, perhaps a trip to Bluetide Market would be more your style? The marketplace is host to every manner of shop one might ever need: artisans of all varieties, apothecaries and healers in the Shimmer Quarter, the most in fashion undersea clothing shops, food stalls, and all between can be found in Bluetide. There are also the Tideshore and Fogbottom docks on either end of the city. The former allows transport to the surface via large, magical bubbles for those that cannot hold their breath or make the swim themselves yet. The latter allows people to venture further into the sea. Those without their underwater abilities are offered rebreathers for travel that last for four hours before needing to be replaced.

In your hand is a gemstone, a shining sapphire that, when placed anywhere on the body, will transform into a piece of jewelry with the gemstone set in the center.

---

Visitors in all starter cities are offered a standard home with basic necessities provided (your choice in design, etc.) that can house 1-4 people if they so choose. Home upgrades can be purchased via rewards.

THE QUESTBOARD

Settled in? Good. It's time to make your way to the Questboard located in every city in numerous, easy to access locations. That is, if you want to make any kind of impact on the world or just get some Bones for anything you might wish to purchase. Visitors are given a very small stipend in which to survive every month, but all it does is keep you fed and housed. These quests will assure you greater wealth, and they're the main reason you're here: each finished quest helps the Calderans fix their shattering world.

Quests can be accepted at the questboard via magically signed parchment upon the board. Just sign your name to accept and the paper will be whisked away... somewhere. You're not actually sure. Probably nothing to concern yourself with.

Once quests are completed, earned Bones will be dropped off at the character's residence by Bonita, the mysterious artisan who has supposedly handcrafted every Bone circulating in Caldera. Please do not speak to her, she startles easily.

OOC

Welcome to Caldera's first TDM! All characters awaken in a strange tavern with nothing save the clothes on their backs, all of their powers stripped, and a piece of parchment directing them downstairs to the Tavernkeeper. There is a thread of all questions answered by the Tavernkeeper here, and if you have more, feel free to ask there for what would be offered ICly. For OOC questions, please direct them here.

All locations are available to be explored! Please mind that it is an active work in progress and will hopefully be finalized by June 8th.

We are looking at an opening date of July 1st with reserves opening on June 28th and and applications on opening day.

The TDM is game canon and all completed quests can be carried over once accepted into the game.

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Comments

the children yearn for the mines

[roblet]

Winslow doesn't usually have much of a soft spot for children. Perhaps it's because he was never allowed to be a child himself, but he's awkward and unfamiliar with them. He doesn't dislike them, however, and he has in the past gone out of his way to retrieve a lost child with a successful outcome, so he listens to the stories of the parents, eyes flicking from face to face and memorizing features so that if he sees children with combinations of them later, he knows with whom they belong.

a woman is pressing a religious token into his hands (he feels sick to look at it, closes his eyes, breathes, then takes it and puts it in his pocket) when he's spoken to, and the elf looks over to appraise the tiefling with a nod. "I am," he confirms, giving the frightened mother's hands a final squeeze before fully turning away.

"We'll likely do better working together. I haven't truly worked alone in a long time now, and the company would be welcome."

[veritygyr]

"I didn't consider working alone, if you were here to do the same," he answers. Verity doesn't seen the point in competition in a matter like this and he finds himself grateful that the person he's talking to seems to feel the same.

Though Verity wears his cowl up, it's clear enough he isn't human: it doesn't fully obscure the shape of his horns beneath and there's no hiding his tail or gargoyle-like feet. His appearance doesn't seem to have upset the villagers too much, thankfully. Considering that, he pulls the cowl back and lets it fall around his neck.

"I'm Verity. How are you at tracking?"

[roblet]

"It makes sense to team up." Winslow has always been competitive but in recent years he's gotten better at working with a team, and it's true that there's no point in competing when the prize is finding lost children.

"Winslow." An odd name for an elf to be sure, but he doesn't seem to be lying.

He also doesn't so much as blink over the concept of working with a tiefling, not even giving him a cursory once over, just considering his question before he crosses his arms over his chest and sighs.

"I'm a city elf," he admits, "or, well, have been for decades. I'm not much for nature tracking, but it can't be harder than tracking an invisible preteen through a city. How's yours?"

[veritygyr]

"Not bad," he answers with a wry smile. "It could be better."

He's done enough hunting to know how to track animals, at least, which is as good a start as any. Winslow is sort of an odd name for an elf, but then again Verity chose his name. Maybe the one he was given at birth would be considered strange. And besides, even if Winslow is something the elf chose just this second, Verity sees no reason to challenge it.

"I have a good eye, though. I'm pretty good at... spotting things, catching differences. Maybe that'll help."

Verity gives a little nod to the path out of town and he occasionally scans their surroundings as they walk.

"I grew up in a city, too. At least until I was... I don't know, twelve? Thirteen?"

[roblet]

"Couldn't any skill always be better?" It's wry but friendly enough, and he keeps an eye out as they start to move, looking for any particular signs that stand out from the rest. "I try to have a keen eye for things as well, but they are usually just that. Things."

He nods to acknowledge what Verity's said, then does some elf age mental math. "I lived in the forest, and I mean middle of nowhere forest, until about... Eighty-five? Then I left and went to the big city." With an expressive finger wiggle as though he's saying oooh, fancy.

"I've lived there ever since, though for the past couple of years I've taken up traveling. Where'd you end up once you left the city?"

[veritygyr]

"Middle of nowhere was the temple for me, but I loved it," he admits. "That's where I went. I met some followers of Ilmater in the city and I decided I wanted to be like them. So when they left, I left. That's been my life ever since."

Verity looks down at the road as they follow it, taking notice of different tracks but there's nothing unusual yet.

"Why did you go to the city?"

[roblet]

Ilmater, Ilmater... Winslow racks his brain, digging into every bit of religious information he knows, but comes up blank. His head tilts slightly. "I'm afraid I have to admit I'm unfamiliar with Ilmater. My own religious experiences are pretty singular, so perhaps I simply never learned."

As they walk, he ends up crouching by some brush to pick through the branches after seeing something brightly colored in the brambles. Plucking out a tattered doll once he reaches it, he answers.

"I left my home because I no longer wished to be a part of the Undying Court and I'd never been to the city," he finally settles on, which is both true and untrue. He left his religion and it's an offshoot of the undying court, but it's not the actual thing by any stretch.

Close enough. An actual explanation would take hours they don't have and emotional wherewithal Winslow doesn't want to expend.

[veritygyr]

"I imagine I'll run into a lot of people who aren't," he says with a wan look. "In the same way that I'm not sure I've ever head of the Undying Court."

It sounds like an elf thing, but it could also be a Feywild thing, and he knows little about either. Before long their meandering investigation takes them off the main road, but it sounds like that's something most of the stories he heard had in common.

Verity still isn't prepared when they find a little shoe, all by itself, off to the side of the path. He makes himself crouch down to try to see if there's any markings around it, or worse, blood.

[roblet]

"Most people don't pay too much attention to religions not their own," he says, briefly considering how much he knew about the monk he had traveled with's beliefs. Not enough, he thinks.

Winslow hasn't seen any blood around, thankfully, but he's also not optimistic about their chances at this point. He notes the shoe when Verity approaches it, jaw tightening once before he forces it to relax and starts to scan the area in front of where they've stopped to see if there's anything in his current eye line to guide them forward.

"It's so strange. Movement, items, no indication of destination or purpose. If the children were bound their items wouldn't have fallen everywhere, but there aren't enough signs of struggle for them to have been trying to free themselves. Were they just too afraid, or was there something internal urging them forward?"

[veritygyr]

"No one mentioned that they heard screaming, did they?" Despite talking to half the village, Verity is suddenly drawing a blank now that he's faced with possible evidence of disappearance. When he's sure that he won't disturb anything else, he picks up the shoe and stands.

It looks like it slipped off - it isn't ripped or otherwise damaged as far as he can tell. The worst part is that it very easily fits in his palm. Verity brushes his thumb along the edge of the sole and looks over at Winslow.

"The little tracks here don't indicate that whoever lost this was running or struggling, you're right," he says with a small frown. "I'd say it was left as a sign but I don't know if someone who's young enough to fit this would think of that."

He certainly wouldn't have.

[roblet]

"I didn't hear anything about screaming, no. More so how quiet things are now, though there wasn't an indication that they meant at the time of abduction as well." He sighs, looking over his shoulder back at him.

"I'm inclined to agree, though I do still think it looks planted. Just not by the child. I just can't figure out why whoever took these kids would be purposely leaving things behind." He probably shouldn't say it, but he's going to anyway: "unless they're being used as bait."

He genuinely can't tell if that seems far-fetched or not in this situation. Perhaps nothing is far-fetched anymore.

[veritygyr]

"Someone must have heard or seen something... nothing just disappears. Even if there's some... trace of a portal or teleportation circle--" Verity feels like he's grasping at straws.

He takes a breath.

"Let's keep heading this way. See if there's anything else between here and the mountains."

[roblet]

"There's always something." Even if it's just a trace, as Verity said. Winslow wishes, honestly, that he had any of his abilities. If he could just sense the dead as he normally can, he'd at least be able to know if he could bring the parents any comfort at all because he'd be able to tell if there were lives recently lost in the area.

But he functioned for many years without those talents so he just has to get over it until he can earn them back. So he nods instead, inclining his head in invitation before starting along their previous path again.

"I hate the thought of not having anything to take back to them if we don't find something." Not even information.

[veritygyr]

"That may be what we have to do," he concedes.

Verity doesn't like the reality of it, but he would rather tell the parents that they found no sign of blood or struggle, either, and while that is not necessarily encouraging, perhaps it might suggest their children aren't hurt. Or they weren't when they disappeared.

"We'll go to the edge of the mountains and turn back if we must. We will know we have to search further, we will have a direction."

[roblet]

"Agreed, let's go as far as we can before we head back. I'd rather not leave any option unchecked before telling them what we have or haven't found."

But the trail seems to be petering off the closer they get: there are still tiny 'landmarks' of clues, but they become fewer and more far-between with each passing moment.

"What did you make of the tavernmaster, when you met him?" It may seem an odd question and out of the blue, and he's not making any accusations, but... "I couldn't sense anything, but he came across fae to me. Doubly so for how those drinks affected people. I've heard others mention the same."

The children disappearing could be a fae problem, in the end. He'd rather not deal with fae, especially not like this, but a thought is a thought, though it wouldn't be a substantial lead in any way to just speculate.

[veritygyr]

"They strike me as something fey. I don't think malicious, but disconcerting none the less if I think about it for too long," he admits. "Someone I met at the tavern pointed it out to me before I noticed."

He'd been muddled upon arriving and hadn't been overly suspicious. The drink he had didn't particularly help. Verity doesn't like that he was affected by something like that, usually he has a better tolerance, but then if it was magic rather than some ingredient, how could he have?

"They seem to want people to be comfortable... I guess we can't rule out something fey at work here, but I don't know that the Tavernkeeper would be connected. They might be able to say one way or the other if there are others like them here, though."

[roblet]

"I regret not being more careful with my attention to what I was drinking, but thankfully the results have seemed temporary."

Winslow isn't personally much of a drinker, but all the same, he hadn't taken more than a sip of his drink before feeling affected by it which, even for him, is absurd. Certainly something to keep in mind when accepting food and drink here.

"Oh, I apologize, I didn't mean the tavernkeeper could be connected to this in particular, I was trying to gauge if my thoughts on the presence of fae at work in the area at all were reasonable. The tavernkeeper seemed fine, generally speaking. That's true about asking, though. It could be worth a try." A beat passes before he continues. "Can we even get back to that tavern? I haven't tried."

[veritygyr]

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," he admits. Verity feels warmth in his cheeks - he probably should have thought of it. "We can ask around just to see if it's possible. And if it's not, well. There's our answer."

He doesn't like that it might be a dead end from the start, but he won't give up on that idea quite yet.

"I'm never one to say I could use a drink, but hells... I think I could, actually, after this."